Memoirs of a TrailBlazer

2006-07-09T00:19:00.000-05:00

Happiest place on Earth, Shamu's land and Land of Blocks!!

Back to California. On a warm friday evening at 7:00 PM I boarded the flight which was bound to SFO. I reached SFO at around 9:40 PM. I was picked at the airport by S, P, A1 and A2. We drove back from SFO to S's house at Cupertino. By the time we reached our home A2 fell asleep and A1 was made to go to bed immediately after reaching home. Once they slept S, P and I started packing our bags for our trip to LA and San Deigo. After sleeping we went to bed dreaming about the happiest place on earth.
Next day we woke up at around 4:30 AM and started getting ready for our road trip. At around 8 AM we left our house singing "Itzy bitzy spider went up the sprout...". But never did I realise that I was going to hear this song for the next full week. After going some distance we realised that wee forgot to take the route print outs from home. So we went back home and collected the route print out and headed towards south of California.
Soon we joined I-5 south to go towards LA. We went on I-5 for nearly 8 hours with a stop at a Indian restaurant near Bakersfield. We were surprised to see an Indian restaurant on an exit. Usually one always sees either a McDonalds or a Burger King in an exit. After having some delicious Saag Panner and roti's we continued to head south on I-5. At around 5:30 PM we reached Anaheim.
We had our hotel accomodation booked at a Comfort Inn at Anaheim. We were not sure if we should take that hotel as it was looking a bit shady. Another disaster that happend was while booking we did not mention non-smoking room. Hence by default we got a smoking room. We had a strong smell of cigarette when we checked in to our room. After some time, I am not sure if the smell went or we got used to the smell, We were'nt so sensitive to it anymore. On reaching the room A1 crashed in to bed after a tiresome gruelling 8 hrs drive. A2 was all fresh on reaching the hotel room. He had his share of sleep in the car itself. He utilized his idle time in car perfectly. A2 was busy with the Phone and chest of drawers that were present in the room. After having dinner we went to bed at 7 PM itself.
Next day we got up early and left the room by 8 AM. On reachng our destination we remembered that we forgot our tickets in the hotel room itself. So we went back again and picked up the tickets and headed back to our destination. This time we went to the happiest place on earth, Disney Land. Every child's dream place. On reaching Disney land, we parked our car and took the tram that takes us to the theme park from the parking lot. Inside Disney land we went to Fantasy land. After going on a few rides such as Peter Pan flight, Casey Junior circus train, Story book land canal boats, we got to see some awesome vintage cars parade that were built in the early 20th century. After enjoying the how we went to a ride called "It's a small world". This ride was very colourful and very nice ride. The people are made to sit in a boat and boat goes through dolls from different places on the world. The whole trip has the same song and song's language changes according to the place that the doll represents. This ride is a sure must see at Disneyland, Anaheim. Later we took a joy ride in the train and after lunch we went for the Snow white and 7 dwarf's stage show.
The snow white and the 7 dwarf's stage performance is surely one of the best performances that I have seen until now in my life. There was so much planning the show which amazed me. The show was for almost 30 mins. After the show we went for a few more rides and later we near a pond to find ourselves place to watch the fireworks and laser show. The show started once it became dark. The light show was teriffic. A story was being depicted and a few scene's were projected on a fountain. The show was really breath taking. Once the show was over there was mind blowing display of fire works. After the show we went back to hotel and immediately crashed into our beds to charge ourselves back for another day of enjoyment.
The next day we woke up early and vacated the hotel by 8:30 AM. After vacating we headed toward California Adventures which is a part of Disney land amusement park. Went took fast pass and completed a couple of rides fast, after lunch we went to "It's a bug's life" section of the park. The first show that we went was a 4D show of insects and bugs. This show too good. You get to see the insect in 3D and also feel the insects and smell them too. Then we went on a few more rides and started heading towards San Diego.
We reached San Deigo in the evening, meanwhile A1 missed our hotel room in Anaheim. On checking in at Quality Inn, A1 changed his mind and started to enjoy his new hotel room by jumping on the bed and encouraging his brother, A2 to also jump. After a long jumping session both A1 and A2 were tired, later we had our dinner at Benihana which was present right next to our hotel. After dinner we went to bed as we knew that it was going to be a long day.
The next day we woke up early again and left the room by 8:00 AM and headed to see Shamu and his fishy friends. We reached Sea World, San Deigo on time and went straight to check the show timings of Shamu the whale. We found that we had to wait for the first show of the day, so tried to go to the sea lion show but on the way we got distracted by the dolphins and missed the sea lion show in a whisker. Later we saw the sea lions which were in a seperate tank. We even fed the sea lions with fish which was sold there. Later we went to Shamu's arena as it was time for the show. We found some awesome seats in the 5 row in the soak zone. At the end of Shamu's show, Shamu splashed water on people, I am sure what vengence it had on us, it stoped in front of us and splashed water with its tail fin for almost 5-6 times and made sure we were all drenched head to toe. Meanwhile A2 and A1 got scared because of the amount of water that was splashed at them, so P had to take them up and enjoyed the remainder of the show. Later we went to the circus, Sea lion show and Dolphin show. In between these shows we had a chance to touch Star fishes and see Sharks, beluga Whales, Walrus and many more fishys. After a tiring day at Seaworld we left back to the hotel.
On the next day, we were a bit relaxed. We left the htel by 9:00 AM and reached Lego Land by 10 AM. Lego land was a the favourite of A1. There were a lot of animals that were made using the Lego blocks. Most of the rides are well suited for kids of ages 5 yr and around. We went on a lot of rides and the best onee I liked was being fire men. We had to pump our fire engine to go to a house on fire and then spray water at the fire until it goes off and return back pumping the fire engine again. It was great fun to do it.
Later we went around the park to see various cities such as Manhattan of NYC(Pic), SFO, New Orleans, Washington D.C, Daytona Speedway, Kenedy Space Center, Melbourne Opera house, Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower etc., that were made out of Lego blocks. Some of the formations were jaw dropping. Later we went to a build and test stall where we were given four wheels and we should come up with our one car using the Lego blocks present there and race our car with the other cars built by others. S, A1 and myself came up with some wacky designs for our cars and raced our cars with other contenders. It was a fun excercise. Later we went for couple more rides and headed back to our room.
On returning ack to the room we watched TV for some time and then went to sleep. Next day we woke up and vacated the room and headed back towards Cupertino on I -5. This time also we found the same Indian restaurant on our way back and had our lunch at the Indian restaurant at Bakersfield. By the time we reached Cupertino, it was 6 PM.
The next 3 days I spent my time in S's house and headed back to Chicago on a hot Sunday after noon. On the flight back, I got some awesom aerial view of Golden gater bride and Lake Tahoe.

2006-05-31T20:30:00.000-05:00

Smokin' Smokey and Smiling Faces Beautiful Places

On a warm Friday evening I started my trip to Smokey Mountains and Charleston. I reached the airport on time and waited for R to join me at the airport. Once R came we went to our gate after the security check. We boarded the flight to Detroit, which happens to be our stop over city. When it was about time for the flight to take off the ground there was an announcement from the flight captain, saying that there is some mechanical glitch and we will be delayed by a few minutes. By the time the flight was ready for take off it was already 1 hour late. I was a bit worried as there was only 1 more hour for the connecting flight from Detroit to Charlotte, NC.
We reached Detroit at 9PM and our next flight was at 9:10PM. Since I was in the last seat I had to wait until everyone got off the flight. Meanwhile R had enquired about the gate number of our next flight. The flight from Chicago to Detroit was at A6 and we had to go to A76 for the next flight. We came to know that we had to catch a train to go to that gate. We went running and missed the train station. But soon R realised that we came past the station so we did a about turn and went rushing to the station but we just missed a train and had to wait for the next train. After about 5 minutes the next train came and we boarded it. Once we got down from the train we went running towards the gate. We just managed to catch the flight while they were closing the gate door. Once on the flight, we were happy that we made it to the flight, else our whole plan would have been spoilt.
On reaching Charlotte, A was waiting at the airport to receive us. Once we reached Charlotte, we went in search of a good place to eat where we can get vegeterian also. We searched for so long that it was 12:30AM. Finally we went to a Mc Donald's drive through, where we got some hopeless food to eat and drove towards Smokies.
By the time we reached our camp site it was 4:30AM on Saturday. After we reached the camp site, we immediately started putting up our tent as we wanted to have a quick nap and get ready for the next day's activities. One of the tent was easier to put up. The other tent was A's friends tent. So none of us had an idea on how to put the tent. We strugled for quite sometime learning from our mistakes we finally put the tent at 5:30AM. Soon we filled the air beds and crashed into our beds.
Morning at around 9:30AM we woke up and got out of our tent to see everyone else enjoying their camping by ride bikes, skates, scooters etc. Soon we freshened ourselves and had corn flakes for our breakfast. A prepared some amazing coffee for us with his camp site stove. After the breakfast we got ready to go to a place called Cades Cove in Smokey Mountains.
On reaching Cades Cove after about a hours drive we started to drive through a trail which had some real scenic places through out the trail. There were similar houses at many places on the trail, we walked to one such house and had a qucik photo session. After the photo session we ventured into the woods in the name of hiking. Later we came out a field which was green and pleasing to the eyes. Later we took our car and went around the trail. On the way we spotted a deer busy eating. Later we found that we were running short of time for our next activity which we had reserved, so we rushed through the roads to make it on time for our next activity.
At 5:00PM we reached at the banks of Pigeon forge river for our next activity, which none other than White Water Rafting. We made a quick change of costume and went running to the already started safety briefing session given by one of the guides at the Appalachian Outdoors. We were given a life jacket, a helmet and a paddle. After the session we boarded a old school bus which took us to the river. While going on the bus the guides played pranks on each other and made us all laugh and enjoy the otherwise boring ride.
After reaching the river near the North Carolina Hydro Powerplant we lifted our rafts through the ramp to the river. Once into the water we had a teriffic 2 hours of rafting.
After rafting we headed towards the city of Gatlinburg driving through some scenic view points on the Foothill parkway. By the time we reached Gatlinburg it was 9:30 PM. We walked through the busy road in Gatlinburg looking at each and every shop on that road. Later we had our dinner at a Italian place. A was astonished by the delivery speed of all the dishes that we had ordered. After dinner we headed towards our camping site wishing for someone to put up our tent before we reach there. We know that our wish cant come true as the tents were in the car with us.
On reaching the camping site, we started to put up the tent and to our surprise we finished putting up our tent in 25 mins, which took us about 1 hour the previous day.
The next day, we got ready and went for horse riding. After a wait of about 40 mins we got our turn to go for the horse ride. I sat on a brown horse called Copper Head. While going on the house we saw a small water falls. Looks like my horse was very hungry, whenever it saw some green leaves it stopped and started to eat. I was last person in that horse ride and at one place Copper Head got so tempted by the leaves that it stopped going any further irrespective of what I told or did to it. It didnt even give a heed to me. Later suddenly it heard the voice of the next batch guide, immediatly it started running, I was jumping all around as I am not used to a running horse. I some how managed to stay on the horse back. Thank god.
After the horse ride we stopped for a hike to Laurel Falls. We saw a lot of Indians on the way to Laurel falls. Seemed every Indian in US was in Smokey Mountains that time. After a hike of 30mins we reached the falls. We tooks some quick pictures and then headed back to the car and started our journey towards Charleston.
We reached Charleston at around 8:30PM and went for dinner and went to bed.The next day we went to Fort Sumter, which is a Island. Fort Sumter was a strategic point during the Civil war in 1860. The Fort is surrounded by Charleston, James Island and Morris Island. The Fort was occupied by Union's during 1860 which was captured by the Confedrates in 1861 and again captured by Unions by 1865.
After Fort Sumter we went on the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge to the Patriots point to take a tour of a World War II aircraft carrier.
Later in the evening we went to the Santee state park where we had a river side cabin booked for us. We enjoyed chatting and watching the sun set at the river side. Later in the evening we played a few games of cards and watched some tamil movies before going to bed.
Next day morning we found that we could rent kayaks at Fish Eagle Tours, which was on the bank of Lake Marion. At about 9:00AM we rented a tandem boat and a Kayak. We went on the Kayak till we reached an island called "Persanti island". On the island we took some rest and photographs and headed back to Santee state park. On the way back we saw a vulture's nest. Lake Marion is a scenic place with a few tree's submerged under the water. There are many small islands which we can Kayak to. After reaching our cabin we got ready to leave to Charlotte. We reached Charlotte at 3:40PM and we boarded our flight back to Chicago at 4:45PM bringing the curtain down on a activity packed trip.

2006-04-29T21:26:00.000-05:00

Niagara Falls, Nature's Wonder

In my previous post I said that we had booked our car 1 month ahead, but this trip is complete opposite to that, We decided to go to Niagara Falls at 4 PM on the 21st of April 2006. Suddenly K calls me and asks if we can go to Niagara as he is a bit free that weekend. Immediately I called A and asked if he is fine with it. A was fine so immediately I went and picked up A and went to Enterprise and rented a Suzuki Grand Vitara. N and K came home and later A reached home. I had some work to finish, so I finished it and reached home at 6:30 PM. We packed our stuff and started by around 8 PM. Going here and there, by the time we left from Chicago it was 10 PM. We took I-90 E towards Indiana, Ohio and Newyork state.
On the way in Ohio all of a sudden a cop car stopped us, A got a correction saying our tail light was not working and he needs to fix it as soon as possible and then only drive. So we pulled on to a near by gas station and found that we did'nt switch on the light hence the tail light was not burning. In Ohio we had a lot of fog and the visibility was very bad. Due to this we missed the exit where I-90 splits from I-80 and hence we went on I-80 instead of I-90. We kept driving and never realised. I was expecting some time I-90 should get split but it never happened. At around 8 AM we entered Pensylvania state. Once we entered Pensylvania I had a strong doubt if we were on he right track. So we stopped over at the welcome center, K and I looked at the map that was for display. We found that we had missed I-90, so we looked at the map and found that I-79 goes and joins I-90 which we are supposed to take. After this there was small argument between K and A regarding who is going to drive, finally A started driving. We went on I-80 a little further and then took I-79 and then later I-90 and reached Buffalo, NY at 10:30AM. We had booked a room online at BestWestern in Buffalo, NY. So we reached the Hotel and was amazed to know that we can checkin to room only after 3PM and not before that. So we took permission of the receptionist to use their common rest room to freshen up and started heading towards the Niagara Falls.
We reached Niagara falls at 12 noon. The place was so scenic that we turned every possible direction and took photos. We then bought the tickets for Maid of the mist and boarded the boat. While boarding the boat we given the Maid of the mist Pocha's. We wore the pocha given to us and then waited for the boat to leave. The boat started going towards the American falls. The boat goes really close to the falls. By the time we came away from the American falls we were totally drenched, but it was really enjoyable. I felt like all those kids who like to get wet in the rain. From there the boat went towards the Horse shoe falls (Canadian Falls) and this time we could not even open our eyes to see the falls, the water was just hitting us from all sides.
After going on the Maid of the mist we walked along the river and then went to the Goat Island to have the awesome view of the falls from a close proximity. There are two view points one next to the American Falls and the other next to the Canadian Falls. The sight of so much water flowing down the falls was real treat to the eyes.
Later we had a some awesome lunch at a Punjabi place near by and then waited in the car for the light show. After a long wait of about 2.5 Hrs wait we were all set at a great spot to have a nice view of the light show. But to our dismay the light show was really childish. Just some coloured lights being flashed at the falls. We watched it patietly for about 30 mins and then we lost patients and left to checkin at the hotel. We went to our rooms and dozed off disappointed after the Chicago Bulls loss to Miami Heats in the playoffs.
The next day we started early at 8:00AM to Rochester, NY. One of my friend P lives there. So we thought we will go visit him. By the time we reached his place it was almost 10:00 AM. From P's house we left for Letchworth State Park. We reached park as planned and we were driving towards the upper falls and A got his first Ticket in US for speeding. A was going at 40Mph at 25Mph region. Later K took over and we saw the upper and middle falls. We were the only ones wandering around in the rain in the park. Later we drove back to rochester had lunch and dropped P back in his house and started to drive back to Chicago at about 3:00 PM. We reached Chicago at around 12 midnight. We dropped N and was returning home and when we were about 1.5 miles from our house I got a speeding ticket for going at 46Mph at a 30Mph road. I felt really sick of my luck and went to bed as soon as we reached home. Alas! finished my trip to Niagara.

2005-12-11T22:52:00.000-06:00

New York City, "I ♥ NY"

The plan for this trip started some time during a weekend in the mid of October. R, H and myself were just asking each other if we had any plans for the Thanksgiving weekend. Since none of us had any plans we thought of making a plan soon to get good deals. The final outcome of the discussion we decided to book a rental car at Enterprise. Two weeks past by and none of us booked a car, H thinking R will book, R thinking I will book and I was thinking H will book. Finally I decided to take the extra step to book the car online. Yo! we got a car ready for Thanksgiving holidays.
Days just past away thinking where we can go worth for 5 days and which is drivable. At the crisis time, when we had just 2 weeks for the thanksgiving weekend. After a lot of brain-stroming we decided upon going to Newyork city. When we had just about 3 days for the holidays we sat all night to find a good deal for the hotel and finally booked the hotel at about 4:30 AM and then went to sleep.
On 22rd November evening R, H and myself conferenced to decide if we really wanted to go with our plan of driving to Newyork because R felt that it was not a good idea as the weather forecast was not good for our route to NYC and NYC.After a lotof discusion we decided to go. The nest day in the afternoon at about 1 PM H came to my office and we both went to Enterprise and we rented the car. We got a Buick Le Sabre. Once we got the car I went back to office and H went to his house. At 5:30 PM I left from office and went home and packed my stuff for the trip and by then H came to my house. Then we went to Walmart and got some stuff to munch on the way. Later we went to O'hare airport to pick G, who was coming from Oklahoma. His flight was bit delayed due to the bad weather. Later we picked up G and drove to Chicago downtown to pick R and M. By the time we started from R's house it became 11:45 PM.
We started to head toward NYC exactly at about 12 midnight and we started our journey to NYC on I-90 E and later on I-80 E. In between we lost our track and went on the wrong route later we joined the correct route and continued our journey.
When we were near Toledo it was snowing really heavy. It was told that it snowed about 7 inches that day in Toledo. It was real adventure to drive in that. All you can see is white track, I had absolutely no idea which lane I was driving as the whole road was covered a thick layer of snow. At one point I could hardly see anything in front of me so I put on the hazzard lights and started to go at a speed of 30Mph. Every car in front of me also did the same. That day I envied all the trucks that went past us. The trucks had no problem driving through the snow. H and I drove the whole distance until 24th afternoon 3:30 PM and finally reached our hotel that we booked in Jersey city.
It was surprising to see that the hotel that we booked was own by desi's. We checked in and all of us freshened up. R and H called their friends in NYC to find the places to see and also to find the best way to reach those places. After all the phone calls we decided that we will go to the Madame Tussaud's museum that evening and we decided to take the bus as it would be safe us a lot of time on parking and finding the route etc.
At about 5:30 PM we took a bus to NYC downtown and we went straight to the Madame Tussaud's museum. Once we entered the museum we were really to see the wax models of all the stars. We spent about 3 hrs posing with each star wax model. It was a nice experience to take pictures with Robie Williams, Julia Robert, J Lo, Donald Trump, John Travolta, Brad Pitt, Woody Allen, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Beatles, Michael Jordon, Pele, Charlie Chaplin, our very own Mahatma Gandhi, Princess Diana to name a few(the list goes very long). Even though we spent more than 3 hrs we never felt like stopping from taking any pictures, the museum staffs were waiting patiently with a smile on their face as it was nearing their closing time...But nothing stopped us, we kept running all over the place to take a picture with whom ever we wanted to.
Once out of the museum we walked in the cold streets of NYC to the Time square. It was a great feeling to stand in front of NASDAQ . They say if we stand at the time square long enough we can meet every kind of people in this world. But I found so many indians that I felt like being in India as the place was crowded and dirty just like how it is in India. Then we went in search of Joe's Pizza as we heard its a famous in NYC like how Giordano's is for Chicago. We asked quite a few people on the road but none of them answered us properly, most of them did'nt even bother to answer to us. After a long search we never found the pizza so we gave up and went which ever pizza place we saw opposite to the Toys r us store at time square. By the time we finished our dinner it was 11:15 PM we went rushing to the bus station to catch the bus back to our hotel. To our bad luck the last bus for the day had left just 5 mins before we went there. We thought we will take a cab and go back to our hotel but to my surprise the cab in NYC was very similar to that of the Autorickshaw's in Chennai. The most scary part was when we were talking to one of the cab driver 5 other cab driver round us up and argue why we can pay so much. After a long wait of 1 hour in the siverely cold NY winds we decided to take 2 cabs and go to hotel as it was 1 AM by then. Finall we reached the hotel and immediately fell on the bed with absolutely no more energy.

Next day we planned to leave for Statue of liberty by 7.00AM because we heard only a limited number of people are allowed to go on to the platform where the statue is placed, but by the time we got ready it was 8.00AM. We then took a subway to the WTC station and took some quick pictures at Ground Zero. We then went fast in search of the place where we can board the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. There was a long queue for the ferry. We waited in the queue for about 45 mins and by then we got our turn to board the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. We sat on the top of the ferry though it was bitter cold. We thought that the ferry will go just near the island and turn back, so H, G and I took some quick pictures of the statue and We with the statue as the back ground but later we found that ferry dropped us there. We were so happy to find that we will be going right under the statue, which never expected to happen. I went around the statue biting my Hotdog that I got from the Mc Donalds that was present in the Statue of Liberty island. We took pictures from different angles of the statue. The statue is awesome from which ever angle you see it. Later we took the ferry to go back to NYC but the ferry dropped us at the Ellis Island. So we went around the Ellis Island and to our surprise we found photograph of some immigrant in early 19's who look very similar to that of M. We made fun of M saying one of her ancester has come to US in the early 19 century. We made M stand next to the picture and took a photograph of both of them together. Later we took the ferry to NYC.
It was 4:00PM by the time we reached NYC, so we quickly took a look at the Battery Park, Art Museum building and Wall Street. On Wall street we bumped into one of our college batch mate, it was nice to see her there. Later we went to Ground Zero and read all the board which described the timeline of happenings of the 9/11 tragedy of WTC.
Later we took the subway to reach the 42nd street from where we were going to the Central Park. We went around the Central Park for some distance but we were too tired to take walk for long so we turned back and headed towards the Empire state building. There was a lot of crowd at the Empire state building also, When we were in the queue we were told that we can go to the observatory soon if we got a combo ticket of Observatory and 4-D show. So we bought the combo ticket and headed towards the 4-D show. it was a nice show we enjoyed thoroughly. The show was a simulation of how it would be to be on a helicopter in NYC. After show we took the elevator to the 86th floor which has the observatory and gift store. We went around in the observatory trying to identify each building NYC which we knew. Later came down and has our dinner at sbarro and went back to our hotel without any problem this time.
The nest day we started relaxed after vacating the hotel. We put all our stuff in the car and left the car in a subway station and went to the Grand Central train station. The station was a great treat for the eyes. We later headed towards the UN buiding. We took the tour of the UN building. It was a nice tour, the tour was very informative, we felt very happy to see all the halls which we have seen on TV and learnt in our Civic subject. We were happy to see the hall where our former Prime Minister Mr.Atal B Vajpayee had give a speech in the recent past. Treat to the eyes were the gifts that different countries had given to UN. Each gift spoke so much about the culture of the country and it was so unique.
Later we took a CTA bus to the Rockfeller center. There Macy's had a light show which was really good. Later we went around the Rockfellar center and went back to the subway station where we left our car.
We took our car and went to the Brooklyn bridge. On the way to the Broklyn bridge we took the wrong route and so we got the chance to see the China town and the Italian place. Later we saw the Broklyn bridge and bid adieu to NYC and started our journey towards Pittsburg Balaji temple. At about 8:00 AM on the 27th of November we had reached the Pittsburgh temple after a long search. Pittsburg temple is special, because this was the first temple to be built in US. The temple was very much like the ones in India. We had our Darshan and later had some food at the temple and started towards Chicago. We reached Chicago by 10:30 PM and so we took G around the downtown showing him the important places of Chicago. Later we returned back home and brought a curtain down on our most successful Thanksgiving trip to NYC.

2005-10-29T23:50:00.000-05:00

Salem,OR not Salem,TN

Around mid of October I planned for a trip to Oregon to meet one of my friend at Salem. Not many people travel to Oregon. But I found it a very scenic place...Oh let me start from the first...My flight to Portland, OR was at 6:55 PM. So I left from home at about 4:00 PM. I thought that 3hrs should be enough to go 30 miles, park the car and reach the airport on time. But it wasnt my day that day, there was too much traffic on 294 and the traffic was moving at an avereage speed of 15 miles. Due to this I reached the airport at 7:20 PM. Yes, I missed my flight. This was first time that I fell short...If you ask my friends they will tell you that I always make it on time...not before not late...I thought, some thing new lets see how it feels...so I went to the southwest airlines counter and told them about my problem, She searched for a long time and then after about 10 mins told me all the flight to portland are full and she told me that she will put me on give me a ticket but none of the flights will be a confirmed seat, so if someone does'nt come then I can board the flight in their place...I was praying that atleast my luck works out for this...So I asked her which place will be my stop over...for that she told "Your itenerary will be Midway(MDW)- Kansas City - Las Vegas - Portland." I was like "Can you repeat again?"...I never thought there would be so many stopover to travel with in US. I felt I was some Airport authority inspecting some airports. But I had no other option, so I took it up...By this itenerary I will be reaching Portland at 11 AM the next day. I thought I will still have almost 2 days.
So I waited till 9:30 PM and I was lucky to board the flight...I used to go and ask the person at the gate if I can board every 5 mins...She got fed up and told me that she will call me when I can board the flight...saying that she looked at my name and looked confused :-)...She was like "Your name is so long, I cant call this name, so you stand here only"...I thot to myself "That's what I was doing, I know how easy my name is."...Later board the flight to Kansas City....
Reached Kansas City at just about 12 midnight...I searched for a suitable seat and made myself comfortable there as my next flight was at 7AM only. There were a few people who were seated there...so I thot that there were many people like me who were gonna spend their rest of the night at the airport...But as time went all those people who were seated there moved away and finally I was the only guy there...I did'nt even find any security person in that airport after 2 AM. I found that I was the only guy in the airport when I went around the airport...I was like "What a sick airport, even the airport in India will have some one at this time..." You might think why on earth was I roaming and not sleeping...Well I tried my hand on that too but the chairs were too small for me to fit in...Any way I tried my head was hanging out...I was chiding myself "Why on earth am I so tall"...Later when it was about 4:30 AM...One person came and sat in the same area where I was sitting...later he got bored and he came next to me and started talking...so time went bit easily for some time...later as soon as a shop opened I grabbed a coffee and a muffin as I was developing a headache due to lack of sleep...Soon it became 6:30 and the Southwest airlines counter opened and I was gived ticket for my Kansas City - Las Vegas and Las Vegas - Portland as both the flights had lots of free seats...I was very much releaved and boarded my next flight to Las Vegas. At some time in between during the flight to Las Vegas, the aeroplane flew over Grand Canyon...It was an amazing site at the time with the sun rising on one side...The Grand Canyon was a real treat to my eyes...I was happy that I missed my flight at Midway, had I not missed I would not have got this amazing view...I reached Las Vegas and out of the gate and I saw a lot of slot machines...true to its name...I had a quick munch and was all set for the next leg...I boarded the flight to Portland.
I reached Portland atlast at 11AM as scheduled (or rescheduled)...My friend P and Mrs.P had come to pick me at the airport...Once I got to their SUV I came to know that we were heading straight to a place called Mt.St.Helen inorder to catch up on our actual plan...So I had some home made delicious dosa's for breakfast in the car itself...it was long drive and inbetween we had a stop for lunch...again some delicious home made food...After the break we started immediately towards Mt. St.Helen. On th way we some scenic misty places after about a total drive of about 4.5 hrs we reached the view point form where we can see a active valcano called Mt St. Helen. It is told that this Volcano throws ashes once in a while to show that she is alive. But my misfortune continued on the next day too...We could hardly see any thing past 10 meters. So we could not see anything other than beautiful white mist, nothing more than...We were the only people in that place...Later we started back to Salem without getting dejected...It was a hard drive for P as the roads were covered by mist and we could not see anything...the roads had a lot of hair pin bends with no fence on the turnings...Finally we reached home by 11 PM that day...soon we went to sleep, as we had a long drive even the next day...
Gathering all the zeal we packed our bags and food to a place in the South of Oregon called Crater Lake...This was another 5 hours drive which had some scenic roads on the way...the roads were all the more beautiful as the leaves have turned different shades of yellow, orange, red for Fall. On the way to crater lake I got to see the first snow clad mountain in my life...I was so excited to see it...I didnt want to take my eyes off that mountain...but we had to...
We reached Crater Lake around 3 PM in the afternoon...I got to see, touch and feel my first snow...I felt thrilled...now only thing remaining is seeing the snow fall...which I can see during winter...as if seeing the snow was not enough we walked a few steps and was totally amazed a very scenic place, The Crater Lake...it was a marvellous site...can never forget that...Take a look at it for yourself...

After flatened by some the mind blowing landscapes...we returned home thinking today was great day which compensentated for the previous day...By the time we reached home it was late.
The next day early morning I caught my flight back to Chicago with no adventures this time, bringing the official end to this trip.

2005-09-15T22:08:00.000-05:00

San Jose, IT works!!

Welcome to California!!! The land of Gold rush now the land of IT rush...I landed at San Jose (SJC) airport at 1.00 PM. The airport looked so small after seeing airport like O'hare...My BIL had come to pick me up at the airport..we reached home and after some chatting and playing we got ready to go to the Mystery Spot To our surprise we found a huge rush at Mystery Spot, we were told that it would take about 2 hours to go insite the Mystery Spot...We thought it was long time to wait we headed towards Santa Cruz beach our backup plan...We reached Santa Cruz beach and I was so amazed to see a beach with a carnival atmosphere, every kid there including me enjoyed watching the rides...We thought before we head for any rides we thot we will wet our feet in the pacific ocean...Boy!!! the water was really chill it was almost like getting your legs freezed...This was my first painful experiece at beach...but I loved watching the children enjoying in the water...Infact my nephew Adhav enjoyed the water so much that he didnt want to come out of the water. We had to distract him to bring him out of the water...After a cold experience we will chill ourselves by having an icecream and with the energy gained from the icecream my BIL and myself started trying our hands in the game stalls that were present...the first game was shooting tennis balls at various targets at about 160-180 MPH speed. I never managed to hit any target but my BIL did hit once...Kudos to him...
Then my Sister spotted a basketball game..thinking that she has a Basket ball player in her armour she thought its a safe bet to make me play the game and win a soft toy. But to her disappointment I never scored a single basket :-)...Later we saw breaking the pyramid which created nostalgia for my BIL and me. So we thought we will try our hand and My BIL won a Dog soft toy, Hurray!!!!
Then we found the game that cost us a lot...The idea behind the game was throw the base balls at the clown's teeth and break his teeth. The clown had six teeth, they had a attractive Batman toy which attracted my nephew A...and Since he wanted the toy my BIL, myself and my sister tried our hand with vain and ended up paying about $24 when each try costed $3...after so many tries we never won the Batman that my nephew wanted...
The next day we headed towards SFO (San Francisco)...It was nice city to see...it was so different from that of any other city in US... The city was so live and you could hear music where ever you go...
On the way we drove past the golden bridge..It is surely a engineering marvel...awesome construction....One of the biggest suspension bridge that I have ever seen....I have seen some programs on the construction of this bridge...Many lives were lost during the construction of this bridge....
We went straight to the Fisherman's warf...Man!! see any direction you see only Crab and Lobster everywhere...If you are a sea food person they you would surely love this place...We had some yummy crab and Clam chowder soup in a bread bowl..
At fisher man's warf we can take tour of the war ship and a submarine used during the first world...It was real treat to the eyes...It seems the piston pumping movement shown in the Oscar winning movie Titanic was taken here...You should see the size of those pistons and cylinders....I could'nt imagine the power those engines pumped out...Being from the mechanical background it was seeing a dream....The most amazing thing was my 4 year old newphew knew exactly how those engines worked and he knew what each part of that engine did...Man!!! Today's Kids are surely smart...I wonder if I knew anything called engine when I was 4 yr old....On the way back we drove past the crooked street...The streat is amazing...the amount of gradient it has, it will be difficut to walk...we would be rather running due to the pull from earth....it was amazing to see the house constructed in that street...another must see in SFO....Hey! forgot to tell you...dont forget to get some choclates from Giradeli....BTW dont forget to take a ride in the tram...it feels great to ride up and down the streets of SFO...sure a life time experience...After experiencing SFO we headed back home and the next day headed back to Chicago...

2005-08-22T23:29:00.000-05:00

St.Louis, Beerland

This time I am going to take you to St.Louis. I am sure you are wondering of all places in U.S why on earth did I go there??? to see the anheuser busch?? Neah....
It all started on a cold friday 19th August 2005 three guys were talking rubbish and from no where Mt.Rushmore came into the topic...Neil said "Hey lets drive to Mt.Rushmore, its just 5 hours drive from our place..." So all three of us decided that we'll go to Mt.Rushmore...so we searched google for the route and found that Mt.Rushmore was about 16 hours drive...having thought of going to some place during the weekend we didnt want to drop the idea...so we googled more to find if there was any interesting place in and around Illinois....an alas we found there was world famous Meramec caverns. We planned to meet the next day at around 9 AM and start heading towards St.Louis...
By the time we started it was 12 noon...we proved that we are typical indians who follow IST(Indian Streachable Time). We went to O'hare exchanged our car to a Cherokee Jeep and started towards I-355 which later becomes I-55. St.Louis her we come..On the way we grabbed some burger to munch on the way.
When we were near St.Louis downtown we were able to see the grandeur arch...amazed at the size of the arch we turned our wheels toward the arch...finding direction to the arch was not that difficult as we could see the arch from any street in the downtown...We went to arch sat there facing the river that flows next to the arch and chatted for about 1.5 hours...soon we realised that we were getting delayed and we need to find a place to stay over night. On the way we found a Days Inn and so we rested over night at that Days Inn...We closed our eyes and opened it was 8AM the next day...
Soon all 3 of us got ready and packed our bags for Meramac Caverns...We reached the caverns at around 11 AM.Going around the caverns with not much of enthu, we finished the tour of the caverns and started back home at around 1 PM...after long drive with a break at St.Louis for lunch we reached Chicago back at 10 PM.
Though not a very interesting tour of caverns we enjoyed every bit of the unplanned trip of St.Louis...The trip was full of suspense as we dont where we were heading next...Hoping to have many more trips like this one...

2005-07-06T22:33:00.000-05:00

Miami & Orlando, Party time!!!

Back again with travelogue of my trip to Florida...It was bright sunny day, myself and my roomie started from office at 4PM thinking we can catch the 6.45 PM flight to Miami with no issues...but it so happened that we got stuck in a traffic jam and we reached the airport with 45 mins to spare for the flight to depart from Chicago...we were joined by Kiran at the airport...once we went throught the security check we came to know that our flight was delayed by an hour. We had some chit chat and then reached Miami at about half past nine...Once we reached Miami we had a tough time to find the platform where the car from the hotel had come to pick us up. We came to know that spanish more widely spoken in Miami than english...once we reached the hotel we went to sleep hoping to have a fun filled long weekend...Pretty early in the morning we woke up and got ready and had french toast for our breakfast and waited for our other two friends to join us from Ft.Meyers. After about an hour long wait our friends we started towards Miami airport to rent car. From there we went to South beach to have a taste of Florida. Later we went to a restaurant called Mangoes which gave us the feel of Florida with all the slasa tune and dances that were happening around us...after spending about just more than 3 hours there enjoying salsa... we crossed the road and we landed at the famous South Beach of Florida...We wet our feet at the beach and chatted for some time and then thinking how we will go about our remaning plan...later we decided that we will drive to Ft. Meyers overnight and take rest for some time at Suresh's house and then again start for Orlando at about 3.30AM. We kept as per our plan and started to Orlando at 3.30AM and with a small break at a gas station for a munch and coffee at 7.20AM on the way we reached SeaWorld at about quarter past eight. At the gates of Sea world there was a long queue waiting for the gate to open, meanwhile I thought I will take break from sitting in the car, so I got down from the car and heard a hissing sound...to all our surprise our car's front wheel has been pierced by something sharp and the air was going out from the tyre. Immediately Suresh and myself tried our hand to change the stepny wheel but our hard luck the car jack was not working. Meanwhile Neeru called the road side support of our car rental but we were turned down by the poor customer support, luckily a Sea World person saw us and offered us help to change to our backup wheel...Once we entered Sea world we split into two groups and went around Sea world all day. We had a perfect day close with the independence day special fire works display by Sea World. Once the fireworks came to an end we checked into a hotel. After a good sleep we got ready for Universal studios. The whole day we spent in Universal Studios going around the different rides that was present. At about 5:30 PM EST we bid bye to N and S who were going back to Ft. Meyers. K, A and myself went to Kiran's to one of his cousins house, who lives in the University of Central Florida campus.
The next day we were planning to go to the Kenedy Space Center but later due to the time constraint we dropped that plan and went for a nice lunch to an Indian restaurant and later we went to a place called Gator Land.
This is one old place filled with Aligators and Crocodiles. We had a nice time watching various shows. They made the aligators jump from water and get a chicken that was hanging in air. By the time we finished going around Gator Land it was time for our flight. We had a rush a bit back to home take our stuffs and leave for the airport. Once we reached the airport we came to know that the flight was delayed by 2 hours. So we relaxed for 2 hours in Orlando airport and later boarded the flight to Chicago and reached Chicago at around 12 midnight...Back home after an exciting long weekend.

2005-06-23T21:30:00.000-05:00

Indianapolis, Racing capital of the world

Hi again, Well my next trip was to Indianapolis...guess for what....For the Formula one race!!! Yeah I went to the US Grand Prix '05 on the 19th day of June of 2005.
It was 5AM all of a sudden I hears some one ringing the door bell, the next second I heard my roomate banging on the wall...after about 5 mins my roomate comes and wakes me up saying the V and K(the guys who came with us the F1 race) are waiting outside...We then realised that the alarm didnt go off when we needed it...quickly we got dressed up and then grabbed on to whatever food we cud and jumped into the car where V, K and S were waiting for us...When the car started to roll out of Sheldrake drive the clock showed the longer arm at 3 and shorter arm at 5...We headed towards Indianapolis with all the excitement and joy to watch Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikonen...Well we didnt have much to argue on who is the best driver as all five of us were the fans of Schumi...except for me...I am a schumi and Alonso fan...Once we caught the Interstate highway the racer(V) in our car was racing Mercury to touch 110 - 120 Mph...Luckily there were no cops around else we would have a ticket additional to the F1 tickets that we already possesed. With a small break at a burger king on the way, we reached the Indianapolis at around 8...
Once we reached Indianapolis we started feeling the excitement and vibration present in the air of Indianapolis...felt like joining all the Tifosi's and paint our faces red...Luckily V had booked for parking online so we did not have much trouble finding a place to park our car...

After parking the car we had a glance at the Ferari's that were kept for display and did window shopping of all the stalls that were kept there...Later we entered the gate which said "The racing capital of the world". It was great feeling to see that board. It was like a dream come true for me. This has been a thing which I wanted to do since I started following F1. Going around all over the place with excitement we landed at the official stores of different teams...with no second thought in our mind all 5 of us entered the Ferari stall. While the other 4 shopped various merchandises ranging from Cap, T-Shirt to a Ferrai bag I was confused whether I should buy a Ferrari stuff or a Renault stuff...later after taking a look at the price of Renault merchandise I realised I better go for a Ferrari Cap. By this time the other 4 had finished a big shopping from the Ferrari stall for their near and dear ones...Once out of the shop everyone changed to whatever Ferrari merchandise that they had purchased...Then we went running to the gate where the F1 drivers entered...with lot of struggled managed to see Jenson Button at a very close range...We then went to pur benches...the excitement increased even more after going there...Guess what we were just opposite to the podium and pit stop. We all had our fingers crossed thinking if Schumi will be on the podium that day...
By then it was time for the inaugaration ceremony of the race...the national flags of all the driver arranged in the order of the pole position was carried followed by a huge US flag and then massive Checked Flag this was continued by a parade of all the drivers seated in open top cars.
I waved at Alonso and Schumi...Later each car zoomed from the pit stop and got aligned at the start line...After some time the cars went for a warm up lap and atlast only six cars returned and when we were waiting for the other cars to return to the start line but the race started...everyone in the crowd were booing....later we came to know that all the cars that used Michellelin did not take part in the grand prix...I was completely disappointed...Later brought the enthu back in me cheering for Schumi and Narain Karthikeyan...After about 3 hours of racing the race came to an end and Schumi stood on the #1 platform of the podium with Barichello at #2...The party came to an end without even a victory champagne fiz...we retrned back to Chicago worrying about the flop show...at around 8:30 PM we reached an Indian Restaurant munched nicely and returned back home thinking about the the tiresome day that we had...

2005-06-22T23:49:00.000-05:00

Crossing the sea's

Atlast I put my foot on Uncle Sam's land. After a long wait of about 4 years...After running around CCD, HR and other divisions in Blore DC and after some resposible work by Mangalore HRD I started with a bang by missing my flight from Bangalore to Chennai. My petition papers did not reach Bangalore on time and I had to miss my flight. later I rebooked a ticket for Chennai in the night flight. Slowly the petition papers reached the kec block after I sent back the Taxi that I had booked for going to the airport. Collected the petition papers and got the remaining documents from HR went back to the room and enjoyed the last few hours in room #107 of staff hostel after a long stint of stay for nearly 2 months.Then the time had come when the same taxi came back to drop me at the airport. Estimating that there is a large posibility of traffic jam in blore I left Infosys campus at 7.00 PM itself for a flight at 10.30 PM. But to my surprise I was not caught anywhere on the way to the airport. Waited patiently with a capucino in my hand which costed thrice that of in Mangala food court CCD outlet and calling everyone whom I thought I missed out sending a mail.When the clock struck 22:17 I boarded my maiden flight. I boarded the flight with a special kind of hapiness and excitement inside myself. i was welcomed with a warm smile from the air hostess. I then went and and sat in my seat next to a window. To my suprise I was next to the right wing of Jet Airways. But I was not happy with the amount of leg room in the flight. Later when the flight started it was great to watch the things moved in the wing, reminded me of the Gas Dynamics and Jet propultion that I studied during my graduation. It was a great sight with the wings close by at the same size and the back ground becoming small slowly. Wish I could take some snaps. Then I was served some veg snack which was nothing other than a croissant and they served butter milk. Had my dinner slowly and I finished munching and I heard an announcement that we have reached Chennai, never thought I was so close to home that it just takes a meal's time to reach home. Reached home at 00:00 hours and had dinner again and went to bed.Woke the next day early expecting it to be a hectic day. Started to unpack the luggage that I had carried from Bangalore and started to pack my bags with quite a lot of expert suggestions from my dad and sister. Once that reached some shape, started to go around for shoping, which went on till 19:30 and then got ready for leaving.At 21:30 when i was about to leave for the airport, it started to rain in Chennai, yeah you didnt read it wrong, it did rain in chennai. The general belief is if some rare event thing happens it rains and so it did!Reached the airport, checked in my luggages and came back to my parents who had come to send me off. Then when it became 23:30 I had to say bye to my parents and proceed to the customs check and security check. After a long wait, boarded the flight bound to Frankfurt. I got the 3rd seat from last but a window seat again. The flight was mostly filled with old parents going to US and other counties to meet their kith and kins. Since I did missed my sleep for many days I was really tired and I slept for a long time. Thus I did not feel the journey that boring. When I woke up it was morning around 06:30 Frankfurt time. When I was given an option of Asian Veg and Omlet, I chose Omlet. Later I realised that Asian veg had pongal sambar, boy! I missed a chance to eat pongal...My omlet roll filled with chicken satisfied me. Later they played Ayutha yezhuthu(Yuva) so was watching that and soon after that came to an end we reached Frankfurt airport. Then walked a long strech to reach gate 65 from where I had to board my second leg flight to Chicago.After about an hour and half I boarded the flight to Chicago and I was sandwiched between an Indian and a American lady. The man next to me was gulping white wine one after another...Then shortly after the flight was started the lunch was served, I opted for some thing just because I heard Turkey in the name. Taste wise it was good but looking at the man and woman next to me I felt very uncomfortable with the way I was handling the fork and knife. Then they played Hitch watched the movie and slept in between. Then later played A good company, saw that one as it was bugging in the flight. Later they served another meal again, this time againt they said some turkey and veg pizza, I was not intrested in turkey this time so took veg pizza which was very good.Later reached O'hare Chicago. Went throught US Immigration. After that got releaved and went and collected my luggages from the carousal. Thinking I have to manage the Custom guys, I went towards the customs, but was just told to go straight down where I went to the place where people were waiting to receive people. I was doubtful if i was supposed to come out or not. Then i searched for bhargav and called his mobile and he came along with his wife to recive me. Later we searched for his car for about 30 mins in the parking lot and then reached home.
Alas!!!
Later in the evening went to wal mart and sam's club. Next day went to office and got introduced to many people and passed my time there till evening. Today there were a lot of garage sale so we went for some of them and got some important stuffs that we need for the house.