Following the tradition ( 2006, 2007 , 2008, 2009 , 2010 , 2011 & 2012), here are my 2013 highlights.
Achievements this Year: Our biggest accomplishment in 2013 was losing weight. Between us we lost a combined weight of around 100lbs. What I feel most proud of is that we haven’t done this by embarking on any crazy diets, unsustainable exercise regimens or weight loss supplements. We have not given up on any of our favorite foods and we still eat out atleast twice a week. On the flip side, we have had to shell out $$ to purchase a whole new wardrobe…..
Travels this Year: The big trip of the year was our two week vacation to Amsterdam, Paris, French Riviera and Iceland. My mom and my sister (with family) met us there and so it was a family vacation. Apart from that we had a short weekend in New York City where we ate our way through Greenwich! And end of the year trip  to the Jamestown area for a weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge & Water-park. It was intended as a birthday trip for Annika and she spent an entire day and half in the kiddie pools going up and down the water slides and had a wonderful time.  On our way back we stopped to see the historic Jamestown settlement – one the earliest settlements in the United States. As usual I also had some work trips planned to Indianapolis, North Carolina, Atlanta and San Antonio. During the last mentioned trip I also managed to spend a couple of days in Austin to visit family and see my niece and nephew! Continued…
For Annika’s second birthday, we decided to treat her (and ourselves) to a small getaway trip. I wanted to take Annika to a water park because she enjoys being in the water. I had two criteria for a water-park: it had to be indoors because it was November and it had to have special area or rides that are suitable  for toddlers.  I had almost given up hope on finding such a place when a colleague mentioned the Great Wolf Lodge.  The 
a tad bit closer. We left work a little early on Friday to make the three hour drive to Williamsburg and reached the lodge at around 6pm. After the check in formalities , we spent some time exploring the resort and the water-park.  We were given a wrist tag with RF ID embedded : this way we could move throughout the lodge and the water-park area without needing a room-key or any money. Any purchases could be billed directly to the room using the tag.  The lodge was quite large : our rooms were near one end of the lodge so it was quite a trek to get to the main lobby and the park. The rooms were quite standard with a microwave and refrigerator. Clearly we were not meant to spend a lot of time in the room itself. The Lodge has a lot of other activities for children : it had a play area where children could be dropped off, an arcade, a kiddie spa, a couple of eating spots and of course the park itself.  The decor at the lodge was quite interesting:  you are greeted at the entrance of the lobby by a humongous stone sculpture of  a wolf. You enter into a huge and welcoming lobby with multiple fireplaces — the whole place has a log cabin like  feel to it with rustic log  furniture.  There is a grand clock-tower at the center of the lobby — we were told that each evening there is story time for kids near the clock tower along with sightings of Wiley the Wolf and Violet the Vixen. There were several life sized statues of wolves placed here and there , I counted about 15 of them.  We decided not to go into the water that day but instead went out to dinner  buffet at 
Americans tend to be excessively politically correct. They shy away from using words that may have even the slightest hint of a negative connotation. For example people are not fired from work—the company is merely rightsizing. Stocks don’t crash – they underperform.  There are no beggars—they are panhandlers. There are no poor countries/areas – these are low resource settings. Janitors are now called custodians, secretaries are administrative assistants and so on and so forth. The need to put a positive spin on everything is somewhat amusing in normal conversation but it takes on ridiculous proportions when it comes to children. 
There is not much I can say about Paris and its tourist attractions that hasn’t been said before. In fact I wrote about it myself when we were here in 2004. So instead of providing a daily report of what we did and saw, let me write about what was new this time.
from the grocery store, young parents with modified baby carriers attached to their bike, professionals with crisp blazers and blackberrys, teenagers, school children and of course wide-eyed tourists.  And the locals know that this is an attraction in itself. In fact the bicycle parking station at Amsterdam’s Central station was one of the highlights  pointed out to us by the tour-guide when we took a canal cruise that evening. Thousands and thousands of bikes in a four storey parking lot! What was strange to me is that these cycles were not spanking new sports bikes with several gears and fancy features and multiple cup-holders that is the usual bike in the US but infact quite shabby and run-down basic models.  Kind of strange to see a guy in the latest three piece suit with a smartphone clipped to this ear drive a cycle similar to the doodhwala. 
