Khare Family Adventures

European Adventure – Bilbao

October 4, 2013 by Shree Khare

After a few days in Barcelona, we rented a car and drove about 6 hours to the northern part of Spain to Bilbao. Bilbao is famous for the Guggenheim Museum. Here is the entrance to the museum. Right away, you can tell it is going to be a very different experience.

Here are the boys on the bridge to the museum.

Here is the outside of the museum… couldn’t really take pictures inside as they were prohibited.

This is the giant spider protecting the museum!

During the week we went, there was a festival in Bilbao. There was quite the part atmosphere every night.

Here is Annika enjoying one of the funky stores!

Posted in Vacation | Tagged Bilbao, Guggenheim | Leave a Comment »

European Vacation – Barcelona Adventure

August 30, 2013 by Shree Khare

We just got back from two weeks in Spain and France. Our adventure started in Barcelona amongst all the fantastic architecture and museums. From there, we went to Bilboa in the northern part of Spain. We visited the Guggenheim museum in Bilboa. Next stop was Bordeaux. Only two days there but had a chance opportunity for private tasting and tour of Le Chatelet winery. Next stop was Toulouse where my roommate from Harvey Mudd College lives with his family. Then back to Barcelona and the long journey home. A total of about 1200 miles of driving and a lot of Tolls!

Here are some pictures from Barcelona. I’ll post the other sights separately.

This is the family on the tour bus the first day in Barcelona. This is a great way to see the all the major sights in the city.

Barcelona Tour Bus

Barcelona has the most amazing blend of both new and old architecture throughout the city.

Here is a picture of the “bullet” building or the Torre Agbar designed by french architect Jean Nouvel. The outside lights up in different colors at night.

One of the most impressive is the Sagrada Familia church designed by Antoni Gaudi with construction going on since 1882.

The interior is much more impressive than the exterior.

Gaudi has influenced much of Barcelona architecture. Here is a local park called Parc Guell. The views are amazing.

The crowds were even more so!

Of course, no trip to Barcelona is complete without the Tapas. We found our favorite vegetarian friendly Tapas Restaurant called La Ciutat Comtal near Plaza Catalunya. This was a very short walk from our apartment in the Gracia district. We tried several different ones but kept going back to La Ciutat.

Try the bravas, cabreados, padron peppers and their sangrias (both the white and red)!

Fried Egg over Fries – Cabreados

Padron Peppers

Posted in Dinner, Family, Vacation | Tagged Barcelona, Vacation | 2 Comments »

Goodbye Porsche, Hello ???

August 17, 2013 by Shree Khare

I sold my 911 today. So sad to see it go after 12 great years.

Posted in Random | Tagged Porsche | 4 Comments »

Waterpolo Summer

July 27, 2013 by Shree Khare

Vikram has been playing water polo all summer long with his team. Here are some pictures from one of his matches this summer.

Posted in Kids, Water Polo | Leave a Comment »

Back in Our House

July 27, 2013 by Shree Khare

Well after almost two months of remediation work by Sunny Hills and IRWD, we are back in our house again.

The original promise was 3 weeks and that seemed to get delayed week by week. The repairs progressed very slowly and we still have a bunch more to go.

Drawers are still not aligned, oven is installed incorrectly, faucet doesn’t work right and on and on. Our backyard plants and lawn need a lot of work after being buried in mud and water.

To top it all off, we have to play stupid games with their arrogant insurance adjuster to get about $15,000 in living expenses that are owed to us.

Has anyone dealt with a situation like this before? Any advice?

Posted in Life | Leave a Comment »

Rebuild has Started

May 23, 2013 by Shree Khare

We spent the first day arguing with AAA and about their lack of response.

We fired the first incompetent contractor provided by AAA. At the end of the first day, he left the carpets soaking wet and put 2 dehumidifiers in the whole house and stated he had to wait until Monday to get authorization from AAA to do anything more! This is what we get from AAA after being loyal customers for 23 years.

We decided to call another contractor provided by IRWD. They came Sunday night and pulled out the entire first floor carpet and have been on it since. They have been fantastic so far.

Here’s our kitchen now.

Study…etc. You get the picture.

They have basically removed 2-3 feet of wallboard from the entire first floor.

They are moving fast but it is still going to take about a month.

In the meantime, I keep getting lame excuses from AAA about their response and why they didn’t approve a large claim.

On top of that, they wanted to put us up in one room at the Holiday Inn in Santa Ana. Imagine that (5 people in one room)! The only Inn I’m staying at is the Westin! It isn’t even that AAA will need to pay off any claim since IRWD has already accepted full responsibility.

AAA hasn’t done anything right so far despite having two different adjusters on site. I hope someone from AAA reads this. Whatever happened to “we’re on your side” or you’re in good hands”?

Posted in Random | Tagged AAA, AAA Sucks, AASC, AASC Sucks, Westin | 1 Comment »

From Irvine Lake to Our House

May 19, 2013 by Shree Khare

Late last night, a city water main busted causing a flood thru our neighborhood. The City of Irvine, Police and Fire were all on hand to witness the destruction. The 54″ Main was a feed straight from Irvine Lake to a diverter about 100 yards up the hill. The water flowed for about 4 hours while the City of Irvine fumbled with shutting the main value off.

Here are some pics.

This is the main flow in our front yard.

This is a picture of our back yard. It was submerged in as much as 8-12 inches of water in some places.

Unfortunately, after about two hours of flowing water, the water started to seep into the house. First the kitchen and then the family room, study and living room.

Now we are left with the long task of cleanup and rebuild.

Posted in Random | Tagged Flood; Irvine Lake | Leave a Comment »

Grand Canyon

May 3, 2013 by Shree Khare

We went to the Grand Canyon over Spring Break.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Grand Canyon | 1 Comment »

Legal Eagle

May 3, 2013 by Shree Khare

Nikhil had a mock trial at school with a real judge. Here he is dressed for the part.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Nikhil; Trial | Leave a Comment »

New Track Season

March 22, 2013 by Shree Khare

Annika started the 2013 Track season with a couple of events. The first was the Timberwolf 5K in Irvine. Here she is with her running buddy Natalie before the race.

Here she is running with the big boys!

She got a 21 something for her first 5K race of the season.

Last weekend we went to Chino Hills for a race and she got a 5:54 in her first 1500m this season. Only about 10 seconds off her pace from last season.

Posted in Running, Trips | Tagged 1500m race, 5K | 1 Comment »

Supershopee in Pune India

March 22, 2013 by Shree Khare

This department store in Pune India decided to ilegally copy a photo from our blog. Anjali’s cousin Parag just happened to be shopping there and came across this picture. Such shameless copyright infringement. It kind of freaked us out but there is nothing we can do about it!

Be careful out there!

Posted in Random | Tagged Copyright Infringement, family photo, Random | 2 Comments »

Santa Visit

December 22, 2012 by Shree Khare

Santa came to our neighborhood last night. Annika and Harsheta got to pose with him.

Why in the world does Santa have tinted glasses on?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Christmas, Santa | Leave a Comment »

Bay Area Thanksgiving

December 7, 2012 by Shree Khare

We went up to the Bay Area over Thanksgiving holiday.

Here are some pictures from my sister’s house. In front is Vikram and then in the back from from left to right: Kiran, Nikhil, Annika, Maya, Saurabh. Saurabh is my nephew visiting from India.

Here is Kiran literally sitting on Nikhil’s head.

The next day, we went to Abhijit’s house. Here are the boys, all jacked up after 4 desserts!

One day we went into San Francisco and hung out at Crissy Field. It was a rare sunny and warm winter day.

Alcatraz Island appears to be a very short swim from where we were standing!

Here are the lovely ladies.

And I actually got a good one of Vikram without a frown or a pose!

Nikhil contemplating driving soon.

And finally, a parting shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Posted in Family | Tagged alcatraz island, crissy field, golden gate bridge, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »

Vegetarian Thai Cooking

September 21, 2012 by Shree Khare

I was in Bangkok for business last week and was looking for something to do over the weekend (rather than the usual temples and sightseeing) and came across a Vegetarian Thai Cooking class a short cab ride from the Sheraton Grande.

The class was about 5 hours long and we covered all the basics including spices, soy sauce, tom yum paste, and sauces.

There were six students, all from different parts of the world (Switzerland, Germany and the US). We started out with a short trip to the local farmers market. The lady in front is the teacher May Kaidee.Most of the prep was already done by May’s assistants. All we had to do was the wok cooking.

Thai cooking is pretty easy. Fresh, wholesome ingredients and just 5-10 minutes of cooking time.

We each made Tom Yum, Tom Kha, Pad Thai, Green Curry, Massaman Curry, Green and Red Chili Paste, Peanut Sauce and Green Papaya Salad.

The best part was eating everything and knowing there was no fish sauce or shrimp paste in the food! It was all vegetarian and tasted yummy.

I would recommend May Kaidee’s Cooking class if you are ever in the Bangkok area.

Posted in Dinner, Random | Tagged Cooking, May Kaidee, Thai Cooking | 1 Comment »

Labor Day Weekend Race

September 1, 2012 by Shree Khare

This weekend, Annika and I ran in the LB Poly Bun Run. This is a three-mile race in Long Beach.

Here is Annika near the finish line.

Here are me and Annika after the race. I too ran (but she beat me).

Mom and Dad came down for Labor Day weekend.

Posted in Cross Country | Tagged Bun Run, Cross Country, Labor Day, Long Beach Poly, Running | 1 Comment »

Cross Country Race Season

September 1, 2012 by Shree Khare

The new cross country season has started. Annika had a couple of warmup races the last two weekends.

The first was the USATF Road Mile, held at the former El Toro Air Force Base. This is a 1 mile straight and flat race. Very interesting course on an old abandoned runway. No turns whatsoever.

Here are the girls goofing off during their warm ups.

Once she got started, it was all business. Here she is en route to a 6:15 mile. A little off her pace from the end of track last season but a good start for her first race.

Posted in Cross Country | Tagged Running | Leave a Comment »

Slice of Paradise in Costa Rica

July 15, 2012 by Shree Khare

We just got back from our summer vacation in Santa Teresa Beach on the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica. Once again we rented a beautiful beach house. The trip to the house was a little more involved. Two flights from Los Angeles to San Jose. A two hour car ride to the Ferry terminal. A two hour ferry ride and then a 2 hour car drive!

Here’s the gang on the ferry ride to Santa Teresa.

The first of many beautiful sunsets.

Here’s a picture of the iguana in our back yard, affectionately know as Mr. Fluffy Pants. (don’t ask me why!)

Here is a picture of a parrot in our back yard.

On our second day, we all took surfing lessons. Getting up on the board was not too difficult for the kids.

For me though… not so easy. Its harder than it looks!

After a hard day of surfing or swimming in 80 degree water.. we would usually go out to eat at one of the many wonderful restaurants in Santa Teresa.

On one of the days, we took a short hike to one of the many waterfalls in the Mal Pais area.

This one took about an hour of pretty strenuous climbing and navigating rocks but was definitely worth the hike.

This is a picture of the swing at our house. Many an hour was passed staring at the ocean!

Here is Annika enjoying the water and the sunset behind our house.

On one of the days, we went for a hike into the local rainforest.

We saw many capuchin monkeys, parrots, woodpeckers and many other creatures.

The beach on our last day in Santa Teresa.

A very relaxing vacation. We are already planning our next trip to (stay tuned).

Posted in Swimming, Vacation | Tagged Costa Rica, Santa Teresa Beach, Vacation | 1 Comment »

Annika’s Promotion

June 15, 2012 by Shree Khare

Annika just completed her 5th grade promotion and will be starting Middle School in September.

Here are some pictures from today.

Posted in School | Tagged grade promotion, Graduation, School | Leave a Comment »

New iPhone5 Available Now

June 8, 2012 by Shree Khare

I went to the Apple store in Guangzhou and they had an early release of the new iPhone 5!

I picked one up along with a couple of new Rolex’s!

Posted in Commentary, Random | Tagged Apple, iphone 5, Random | 1 Comment »

Transit of Venus from Harvey Mudd College

June 5, 2012 by Shree Khare

Today we went to my alma mater – Harvey Mudd College to check out the Transit of Venus. HMC was holding a special event for alumni. The Transit of Venus is a once every 100+ year event where Venus crosses between the Earth and the Sun. The next one will be 2117.

Check out my cool photo! I shot this on my Canon 7D at f/16, ISO100, 1/80 at 135mm (with a tripod and a solar filter).

Everyone also got some cool solar viewing glasses.

Here we are outside of Galileo hall.

We then went on a mini-tour of the campus. The girls decided to pretend lecture at Galileo Hall.

Posted in Random, Science | Tagged Astronomy, canon 7d, Harvey Mudd College, photography, Science, Transit of Venus, venus | 3 Comments »

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