November 7, 2007 by Shree Khare
As I was searching the internet for articles on our upcoming trip(s) (more to come on that), I came across this fun article originally published by the BBC. It lists their top 50 places to visit before you die. Interestingly enough, not a single item is in the UK!
I am up to 13 with just 37 to go. How many do you have?
- The Grand Canyon
- Great Barrier Reef
- Florida
- South Island
- Cape Town
- Golden Temple
- Las Vegas
- Sydney
- New York
- Taj Mahal
- Canadian Rockies
- Uluru
- Chichen Itza — Mexico
- Machu Picchu — Peru
- Niagara Falls
- Petra — Jordan
- The Pyramids — Egypt
- Venice
- Maldives
- Great Wall of China
- Victoria Falls — Zimbabwe
- Hong Kong
- Yosemite National Park
- Hawaii
- Auckland — New Zealand
- Iguassu Falls
- Paris
- Alaska
- Angkor Wat — Cambodia
- Himalayas — Nepal
- Rio de Janeiro — Brazil
- Masai Mara — Kenya
- Galapagos Islands — Ecuador
- Luxor — Egypt
- Rome
- San Francisco
- Barcelona
- Dubai
- Singapore
- La Digue — Seychelles
- Sri Lanka
- Bangkok
- Barbados
- Iceland
- Terracotta Army — China
- Zermatt — Switzerland
- Angel Falls — Venezuela
- Abu Simbel — Egypt
- Bali
- French Polynesia
Continue Reading »
Posted in Trips | Tagged Life, Travel, Trips, Vacation | 5 Comments »
November 4, 2007 by Shree Khare
Today was the 5K Dino Dash in Tustin. Nikhil and I both ran. No good pictures since we were both running and I couldn’t stop for pics.
We both ran hard and Nikhil finished at 26:39 minutes and I finished at 27:19 minutes. This is his second 5K and looks like it is about a 30 secon improvement in time since the Chapman 5K. Nikhil was 25th in his age group and I was 45th in my age group! I would add that we were slow to start by at least 30 seconds at the starting line because of the throngs of people in front of us and having to dodge some very slow people. There were 2244 people running in this 5K. The official results are posted on the website.
Posted in Cross Country | Tagged 5K, Cross Country, Dinosaur Dash, Tustin | 3 Comments »
November 4, 2007 by Shree Khare
This past Wednesday night was Halloween, a time for trick or treating and getting as much candy from the neighbors as possible. The kids did not disappoint!
First, the costumes. Nikhil and Vikram dressed up as characters from their favorite Nintendo game, the Legend of Zelda.
See if you can find the resemblance. This is Nikhil at one of the more creative neighborhood displays.
This next one is Vikram
Here is one with them and the neighborhood kids.
And finally, here is Annika as a Spider Princess with her friend.
Here they are back home after collecting 14.3 pounds of candy (displayed is just a small sample of the take)! Their favorites are Skittles, Smarties and Snickers – seems like the same favorites from when we were kids!
The special prize goes to Anjali for making the boys costumes. They looked really good in their outfits.
Posted in Kids | Tagged Candy, Halloween, Link, Nintendo, Zelda | 1 Comment »
October 27, 2007 by Shree Khare
I spent this afternoon washing down the front yard and driveway and collected a bucket of ashes and muck that has fallen out of the sky.
The kids have been limited to indoor activities because of the poor air quality. So no running, no cross country and no practices. They have been continuing their karate. Nikhil had his Red Belt test and passed it with flying colors.
Here is Nikhil breaking a board!
This is his instructor Ray (the big guy with the 4th degree black belt!)
Posted in Karate, Kids | Tagged jiu jitsu, Karate, Life, red belt | Leave a Comment »
October 27, 2007 by Shree Khare
I came across this satellite image from Nasa that shows the extent of the fires and smoke we have been dealing with. I’m not positive, but I think ours is the single dot above the two large clumps of fires just north of the border.
It has now been 6 days since the fires started. The air quality today has been especially poor. As you can see from the image below, there is actually an offshore flow which is reverse of normal.
Posted in Life | Tagged Irvine Fire, NASA, Pictures, Santiago Fire | Leave a Comment »
October 22, 2007 by Shree Khare
Yesterday the Irvine fire in Santiago Canyon came dangerously close to our house. The Fire Department was doing mandatory evacuations and we had to leave at about 10pm.
The fire jumped over the 261 Freeway and came down the hill to Jamboree Road. This is less than 100 yards from our house.
This first picture is in the late afternoon before it jumped the 261 Freeway. You can see the reddish flames in the background.
This next picture is from our back yard at about 9:30pm. The wind was blowing left to right (in the picture) and there were very large embers blowing across our yard.
We went to Binny’s house and the kids and Anjali spent the night there. I returned back at about 1AM as the raging fire was over. By morning, the fire had died down and we were able to return to our house. The kids were a little scared but everyone is doing well.
Posted in Events, Science | Tagged Arson, Fire, Irvine, Jamboree, Portola Hills, Santiago Fire, Toll Road, Tustin | 3 Comments »
October 21, 2007 by Shree Khare
I thought I’d provide an update on our Sony 52 XBR4 TV after having it now for a couple of months.
First, on the CNBC ticker problem I mentioned: I believe this to be a problem with CNBC and not the TV. Last week, DirecTV added CNBC-HD to their lineup and the ticker now scrolls just fine. In fact, the picture quality is amazing. However, CNBC is still broadcasting their motion video in SD over the HD channel (kind of like cheating). Their video covers a smaller area on the screen so it appears better.
Also, in the last month, DirecTV has added several other HD channels including Sci-Fi, HGTV, Food, USA and others to where their selection now tops both Cable and Dish network. The quality difference between the 1080i output of DirecTV and their usual “SD” format is like night and day. The choices being broadcast in HD are sufficient enough and the SD quality poor enough to where I do not want to watch SD broadcasts and tend to flip over to something (or anything) on HD.
We have watched several DVD’s and the pictures are very nice. I have yet to purchase either the Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player as I am hoping that the market will sort out a winner soon. I did note that Costco is carrying a $250 HD-DVD from Toshiba while the Sony is at $450. This is a significant price differential with the only difference that I can see being that the Toshiba is 1080i while the Sony is 1080p. Can anyone tell the difference?? I am hoping that by Christmas time, the market will provide a better indication. Right now it is wait and see for me.
We have also hooked the Nintendo Wii to the TV and the picture is pretty good but not stunning. I believe that the best the Wii is capable of is 480P and it shows!
Anyway, if you are in the market for the 52XBR from Sony it is a very good TV that I expect will last for many years to come.
Posted in Commentary, Entertainment | Tagged 52XBR4, DirecTV, hdtv, sony, XBR4 | 1 Comment »
October 21, 2007 by Shree Khare
We just got back from a 1 night camping trip with me and the boys and pack 541. We camped out in Tonner Canyon about 30 miles from here. The campsite is owned by the BSA (Firestone Camp).
There were about 20 kids in the pack and several hundred that were part of the Camperall.
Here are the boys at 6:15 when the bugler woke up the boy scouts.
Here is Vikram entertaining himself riding on a dirtboard.
Here are the boys with their pack.
They participated in group sessions that included rope tying, first aid safety, fire building, knife and axe safety, compass training, backpacking and a bunch of other stuff.
Posted in Boy Scouts | Tagged Boy Scouts, Brea, Camperall, Camping, Webelos | Leave a Comment »
October 21, 2007 by Shree Khare
I got back from Moab and wanted to post some pictures. There were 13 of us that met from Seattle, Texas and So. Cal as part of our annual trip.
The first day was a new trail called the Sovereign trail. It was an 11 mile ride with just 1000 feet of climbing in the back country. It was a good warm up day for the tougher rides to follow.
The second day of riding was at the wold famous Slickrock. This is the second time I have ridden it. The first time was 3 years ago and I was just starting riding. This time was a lot more fun as I was able to make it up all of the challenging hills.
We started on the practice loop and then went clockwise around the slickrock trail for a total of 11.1 miles and 2300 feet of climbing although it was all in short bursts of steep (and very steep) hills.
Here is me and Terry at the top overlooking the Colorado river.
Here is our entire group. Guys from Seattle, Texas, Colorado and So Cal.
The last day was the best. We planned on a shuttle leaving Poison Spider Cycles at 8:30 and went to Hazard County at 9000 feet of elevation. It was snowing up there so we dropped down to 7250 feet where there was some rain but the single track was still ridable. The first part was wet, muddy and cold but we dropped altitude quickly enough that by the end of it we were at 4000 feet after covering 14.2 miles of downhill singletrack (and some doubletrack).
Here we are at 7000 feet on the LPS trail.
The LPS turns into the Porcupine Rim Trail where there are some sheer drop offs and amazing views.
I would highly recommend this shuttle trail. Next time I hope we are able to start in Hazard.
Quite a successful trip as there were no major injuries (unlike the last two trips where we had a broken arm and a broken finger) not counting the bloody knees and arms!
Posted in Mountain Bike | Tagged Moab, Mountain Biking, Porcupine Rim, Slickrock, Sovereign | 1 Comment »
October 21, 2007 by Shree Khare
Nikhil ran in the Mt. Sac 2K billed as the world’s largest Cross Country Meet. More about Mt. Sac.
There were 24 races ranging from 0.8 mile for the 3rd graders to about 4 miles for the high schoolers. There were over 20,000 kids for the set of races from all over Southern California. He ran in a group of 5th graders and got a time of 11:40 (1 mile pace of 9:43) and place 64th out of 126. The course was pretty short but made challenging by a long climb up a hill that must have been 200 feet high.
Posted in Cross Country | Tagged Cross Country | Leave a Comment »
October 11, 2007 by Shree Khare
This weekend, Vikram tested for his karate black belt.
It was about a 2 hour test where they tested all of the moves he has learned. Vikram has been practicing for weeks. In addition, he had to write an essay about what it means to be a black belt. There was board breaking section and a strength section. In the strength section, he had to do 150 push ups and 500 situps.
Posted in Karate | Tagged Karate, Sports | Leave a Comment »
October 11, 2007 by Shree Khare
Nikhil ran his first 5K this weekend. He has been training with the Equalizers for about 5-6 weeks now and he participated in the Chapman University Toyota of Orange 5K Run.
He had a time of 27:09 and got 231st place out of 525 finishers – pretty good for a 10 year old. He beat two of our adult neighbors in the race!
There is another race this weekend that is a 2K at Mt. Sac.
Posted in Cross Country | Tagged Cross Country | 1 Comment »
October 3, 2007 by Shree Khare
Today was International Walk to School Day (IWALK)! I have the day off as I’m driving to Moab this afternoon so I walked the kids to school. It is about a mile each way.
Posted in Kids, School | Tagged Kids, School, Walking | Leave a Comment »
October 1, 2007 by Shree Khare
Yesterday was my last ride before my Moab trip on Wednesday so I did an extra long ride of 23.5 miles climbing 3400 feet of elevation in about 4 hours. This will be typical of the 3 days of Moab riding although the pace will be a lot slower and the terrain a lot more technical. Nonetheless, this was my first time doing this entire loop and I felt pretty good at the end of it.
Here are some pretty cool pictures from the trail, starting at Whiting Ranch continuing up the Santiago grade, to Old Camp, down the Luge, along the Cactus Trail and back to the trail head.
This is the start of the trail at Mustard Road. Mustard Hill is a 9% grade for about 1 mile. Much of the rest of the trail averages about 4%-5% though there are some very steep sections as well.
This is my bike at Four Corners at the top of Mustard Road.
This is the cool Cactus Trail. One wrong turn will leave you with an arm full of stickers or a flat tire!
Posted in Mountain Bike | Leave a Comment »
September 23, 2007 by Shree Khare
Today I went for a long bike ride up the Santiago Trail to Old Camp (8 miles) back down the Luge, past Four Corners and back to the main gate for a total ride of 18 miles round trip. I haven’t done this in several months but felt pretty good. Total elevation gain is 2600 feet in about 3 hours.
I have two more weeks to put in some long distance miles before our annual trip to Moab.
The weather today was perfect and the views were the best I’ve seen in a long time. We had about 1/2 inch of rain yesterday so the trail was firm and dry with a temperature in the mid 60’s – perfect for riding this trail.
Here’s some pictures from today:
Posted in Mountain Bike | Tagged Mountain Bike, Old Camp, Orange County, Santiago Trail | Leave a Comment »
September 22, 2007 by Shree Khare
Yesterday we went to practice at Foothill high school. The miles are getting easier. The kids did 1 mile of warm up laps and then we either go out running for an additional 3-4 or work on running techniques.
The coach timed all the kids on a straight flat dirt trail. Nikhil did a 3:14 half mile which is a huge improvement from when we started just 4 or so weeks ago! A few more weeks and he should be in the 2’s.
Here is the team – lots of younger kids! Nikhil is the third boy from the left. Coach Jerry is on the far right facing the kids.
Posted in Cross Country, Running | Tagged Cross Country, Kids, Running | Leave a Comment »
September 16, 2007 by Shree Khare
Vikram has started playing AYSO soccer this season. They have practice twice a week and games on Saturday.
This is his first year so he is learning quickly. Anjali is volunteering as the Team Mom – so she gets to coordinate all of the practice announcements, banner, collect funds and coordinate all of the communication to the soccer parents on the team.
Their team is named the Blue Tsunami’s.
Posted in Kids, Soccer | Tagged Kids, Soccer | Leave a Comment »
September 7, 2007 by Shree Khare
Tonight we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill. This was Vikram’s selection today since he loves to eat pasta.
Posted in Dinner | Tagged Dinner, restaurants | 1 Comment »
September 7, 2007 by Shree Khare
The kids started school this week. Nikhil and Vikram are in 5th grade and Annika is in 1st grade.
They are happy with their new teachers and have their friends in their class.
Here is Annika with her friends.
Posted in School | Tagged Kids, School | Leave a Comment »
September 3, 2007 by Shree Khare
Two weeks ago Nikhil started a cross country running program. He joined the Equalizer Track Club. They started off with some 1-2 mile runs two weeks ago. Last week it was 2 mile runs 3 times. Then on Saturday morning we went on a 4 mile run. Here is Nikhil after the run on Saturday. In order to keep him going, his dad (Shree) also had to run with him – I was thoroughly wiped out after that run. I do hope it gets easier!
Posted in Cross Country | Leave a Comment »
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Khare Family Adventures 
Sony 52XBR4 Update
October 21, 2007 by Shree Khare
I thought I’d provide an update on our Sony 52 XBR4 TV after having it now for a couple of months.
First, on the CNBC ticker problem I mentioned: I believe this to be a problem with CNBC and not the TV. Last week, DirecTV added CNBC-HD to their lineup and the ticker now scrolls just fine. In fact, the picture quality is amazing. However, CNBC is still broadcasting their motion video in SD over the HD channel (kind of like cheating). Their video covers a smaller area on the screen so it appears better.
Also, in the last month, DirecTV has added several other HD channels including Sci-Fi, HGTV, Food, USA and others to where their selection now tops both Cable and Dish network. The quality difference between the 1080i output of DirecTV and their usual “SD” format is like night and day. The choices being broadcast in HD are sufficient enough and the SD quality poor enough to where I do not want to watch SD broadcasts and tend to flip over to something (or anything) on HD.
We have watched several DVD’s and the pictures are very nice. I have yet to purchase either the Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player as I am hoping that the market will sort out a winner soon. I did note that Costco is carrying a $250 HD-DVD from Toshiba while the Sony is at $450. This is a significant price differential with the only difference that I can see being that the Toshiba is 1080i while the Sony is 1080p. Can anyone tell the difference?? I am hoping that by Christmas time, the market will provide a better indication. Right now it is wait and see for me.
We have also hooked the Nintendo Wii to the TV and the picture is pretty good but not stunning. I believe that the best the Wii is capable of is 480P and it shows!
Anyway, if you are in the market for the 52XBR from Sony it is a very good TV that I expect will last for many years to come.
Posted in Commentary, Entertainment | Tagged 52XBR4, DirecTV, hdtv, sony, XBR4 | 1 Comment »