That unexplained feeling of childlike joy of touching the first snow shower with bare hands and  flushed face facing the freezing winds reminded me of the tingling feeling of First Love.I remember it is snow that always had me excited from time immemorial.And happily I live in a place - that comes with plenty of it and I am looking forward to more.This was the first snow in Milwaukee for this season and that had me going all around the place and experiencing snow up close.


                          It almost felt like blessings from the universe bestowing upon us.

Milwaukee transformed itself into the gorgeous white this weekend by the winter storm Bella.The temperatures drastically dipped down to -9 degrees on Saturday night with ranging from -2 to -6 throughout the whole day.



 I love Milwaukee(Midwest) for the raw feel.There’s no rush here and people are so passionate that even if the winds were rage,there were many who braved the cold weather and came to the LCS5 Ship commissioning by the lakeside including me.

It’s been 3 days already and even though most of the snow is gone,there’s still a lot that remains on the grounds.December’s - January’s going to be an adventure with temperatures touching -30.I am still looking forward to that feeling of almost feeling like being inside the freezer of a refrigerator in those months.If you are from Milwaukee or around,guys this is my first winter in Milwaukee and would love to know if there are events during winters I must catch and places I must go to!

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I guess,there’s untapped beauty in snow - the beauty everyone loves to feel and enjoy as long as it lasts.Lets take you to a quick photo essay:








Day 1 had snowfall starting friday night which continued till the late afternoon on Saturday post which the snow was accumulated at most places.Even though there wasn't snowfall after Saturday..the below shots are proof that whiteness takes time to fade but gradually the thick layer goes to thin before it vanishes completely.The layer at these places is thin than Day 1 yet very much there.

So the gleaming million Tukkals shall dominate the dark skies and the happiness over sorrows prevail.So the colorful kites fly high in the sky and brings in hope and love.So the darkness shall celebrate the light - the joyous festival of Uttarayan.




Living in Gujarat can be a blessing.The people here truly know how to celebrate every festival.In fact,mom says she hasn't ever celebrated Navratri anywhere with such zest.She was been practicing Garba dance steps with the ladies for 10 continuous days starting at 10 o'clock in the night till 2.Similarly,when I stayed in Gujarat for a month,I had a chance to be part of this major festival in Gujarat called Uttarayan or Makar Sankranti.



Gujarat lights up during that time with kites in the daytime and tukkals(Sky lanterns) during night.While the rest of the country celebrates Makar Sankranti with Dahi Chuda,Gujarat takes it to one step ahead.






With the high spirited Gujarati Music playing loud on the roads and threads of bright,pink and yellow that rolled into colorful Manjas,the city was already in the holiday mood.Kites of different shapes and sizes were hanging in both the small and big shops in the city.




Kite Flying @ Uttarayan : When we Bought Kites






In spite of not knowing how to fly kites,I along with my mom and my brother bought a set of smallest kites the shop had.With an amateurish smile I asked the shopkeeper 'Is that easy?Will I be able to fly?'  He gave a return smile and said "Everyone in Gujarat knows how to fly a kite" The Kite Set contained mask,cars,Manja and the set of 10 kites.There were big themed kites which I was tempted to buy,but my brother stopped me saying ‘Lets at least see if we can fly small ones first’.When initially didn't know how to tie kite knots,then a neighbor taught us and then we were cutting kites mid air.It was fun!


What we struggled at Initially - How to Tie Kite Knots!

The Bikers And Birds:Manja

Manjas are cotton thread colored and glass-coated.

The downside of the festival is that the Manjas hang over trees,TV wires,electric poles and everywhere and that stays for many many days.It is also debatable on how it impacts the birds in the sky on that day.

For the same reason that it's dangerous,many bikers during the festival attaches the wire on the bike to prevent entanglement of Manjha over the bikers neck.Initially when I wasn’t aware of why,I was surprised as to why many of the bikers had the wires attached in front as it wasn’t adding on to any glamour factor and rather looked ugly.Only when I got to know about certain past incidents,it made sense.

                                      Image Source:https://entangledmovie.wordpress.com/blog/

But during Uttarayan,everyone flies kites in Gujarat.It’s huge.The city light up,brings lot of cheer and a happy atmosphere.

India International Kite Festival: Disappointing 

 What was disappointing though was the overly advertised ‘International Kite Festival’.The festival felt like a huge food court.What saved us was the choice of bollywood music played at the venue.There was a huge screen which was repeatedly telecasting a long chain of kite which might have been flown in the morning hours.There were the usual stalls selling Gujarati local artifacts and the decoratives.All in all we felt we should have skipped it.

At one glance I had the same question you might be having 'Who made these?'.Cairns are used as trail markers in many parts of the world or sometimes even for spiritual beliefs(prayer stone stacks) and here in Door County they are built by people in warm weather months only to be destroyed each winter when ice pushes against the shore.Cave Point County Park is where the edges of rocks of Lake Michigan creates an eye worthy shot!As we explored the trails on both the side from the entrance,we were overwhelmed by the different type of rock formations along the shoreline.









 After we had spent a bit of time at Cave Point,we proceeded towards Whitefish Dunes State Park,which was just 5 minute drive from Cave Point.In fact we had a feeling if we walked all the way on the trails of Cave Point,we could have reached there in 15-20 minutes.Many have praised Whitefish Dunes Park for the shore with the dunes,but I found it out to be very average.



 So we drove towards Baileys Harbour for Cana Island Light House.The light house is situated on a very small island separated by a small patch of land with Lake Michigan on three sides.


The entry to the island inclusive of Light House charges is $12.Back in 1869 when it was constructed,the Light House was the tallest brick structure in Door County.To reach the deck you have to climb 97 stairs and a narrow hatchway but the views are great from the top and is a bit windy




.Just above the watch deck is the third order Fresnel lens. Prior to Fresnel's creation, lighthouses would burn sperm whale oil in lamps in their light towers. This system proved expensive and also inefficient, as the light generated by this method lost 97% of its generated light, since it would be dispersed in all directions and not necessarily focused in the direction pointing out to sea. As a slight improvement to this method, small mirror-like reflectors were installed behind the burning lamps to redirect the useless light escaping through the back of the tower. The reflectors redirected the back-escaping beam to the front of the tower, where it could then be used as part of the light signal to vessels on the water. These lamps consisted of variations called Argand lamps and then later Lewis lamps. Even with this improvement, using this method still lost about 40% of the dispersed light.



Fresnel's invention, known today as the Fresnel lens, created a way where only 17% of a light source would be lost. By creating a lens that completely surrounded the light source with concentric rings of glass prisms, Fresnel designed a way to take a dispersed light source heading in multiple directions and redirect it through collected prisms by bending and redirecting the light beams. This "bending" of the beams through a Fresnel lens pointed all of the light source in the same direction to create a very intense, focused and unified light beam that could be seen more than 20 miles out to sea using just a 1,000-watt light bulb!The tower closes at 4:30pm for visitors and is closed during winter months.For more information: Cana Island Lighthouse FB Page





 And last but not the least,we thought of joining the fun at Sister Bay Fall Fest at Sister Bay.The Fall Fest had art and craft and music and games and clothes to shop.Just then,I caught the lady who was selling Minion caps.I told her the whole story of how we got to know about her from Fish Creek and she happily smiled and said 'I made these and you are chasing me lady :) '.All in all Door county was a quick vacation and I had good time.It indeed is the hill station of Wisconsin and just as a second thought I had a feeling I must visit this place more often.






Other Blogs on Wisconsin: http://wisconsin-explorer.blogspot.com/2015/01/cave-point-door-county-park.html