A break from work and travel was not so much fun!

There is so much to write that I don’t know where to begin from. I would have blogged more frequently if I weren’t on my feet all the time for the past few days.

There has been a lot of travel. Went to NYC and DC this weekend.

NYC :

New York City was good. The layout of the streets is logical - the vertical ones are called Avenues and the horizontal ones are called “Streets”. Once I had that figured out and the layout in general of where Bronx (North), Brooklyn (South), Queens (East), Manhattan (West), East river and Hudson River was, it was much easier. The transit system in every city is different that it takes time to figure it out. After seeing the Metro system at NYC, I’m all for CTA. CTA is amazing. Ofcourse the magnitude in terms of size and the numbers that travel by NY metro and CTA cannot be compared. We stayed at Jersey City which is much less crazier than NYC. After lunch at Jersey City we took off to Manhattan through the Holland Tunnel which took a whooping 2 hours to cross. The cousins who drove us said it was exceptionally high traffic that afternoon. Our first stop was at the World Trade Center. I have only seen pictures of the World Trade Center. It really must have been shocking to see those giant buildings that occupied so much space sometime to have fallen the way they did. The names of the thousands that disappeared in the attack are inscribed there. Standing there, nothing seems to justify that act of terrorism.

Out next stop was at Wall Street which is not so far from Ground zero. Being a Saturday afternoon, Wall street was really quiet. after taking a couple of pictures there, we headed to the Empire state Building. The Emipre state building built during the Great Depression took just a lil over 13 months to build. The observatory is situated on the 86th floor. Unlike Sears Tower at Chicago, the observatory is not in a enclosed area atop the Empire State building. One can step outside and feel the air and look at the mazing view down..it really feels like you are at the top of the world. However that evening it was very cold. It was 8:00 p.m. by the time we came down from the ESB. Our next adventure was to find a Indian Place to eat. This was exciting. Considering the fact that good eating places were probably just 4 blocks away (which we didn’t know at the time) from where we were (5th avenue and 33rd Street), we kept going down on Park Avenue until we hit 1st Street. It was then that I told Lex is parallel to Park avenue and we traced all the way back. We went round and round for 4 times until we got 30th street and Lex. The only good part was that the place we chose to eat at was really nice. The cousin who drove us was very patient despite driving in the crazy NYC traffic for 6 hours at a stretch.

After a good dinner, we stopped at Times Square and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning, we took the ferry to see the legendary Statue of Liberty. It is nothing like seeing in the pictures. For some strange reason, I had always pictured it in grey color. Seeing it in green and standing tall was a breathtaking view.

Sunday evening we drove to D.C. D.C is so much in contrast to NYC. NYC stands tall with all the high rises. Whereas D.C reminds one of Roman architecture with those huge, not more than 10 storey tall federal buildings.

..to be continued…

Rockies

Correction: Harper says, “The Rockies are just 30-40 miles from Denver though they seem far”. so I stand corrected on my earlier post. Since he is from Colorado, I’ll go with him

Orlando - City of fun, food and fashion

This city of theme parks had much more to offer than we had ever imagined. The 4-day trip to this Florida city was full of roller-coaster fun along with the heat and sweat of a tropical climate. Here I reminisce the memorable trip day by day.

Day 1 @ Sea World

The airlines that fly within America are no good. No food offered. Its a pathetic service. No wonder the airlines are queuing up for bankruptcy. The first thought that came to our minds - we must take these guys for a ride on Sahara and they would remember us for the rest of their lives.

Reached Orlando at 3:00 in the afternoon. Dumping our bags at the hotel, we set out figuring what to do that night. Mentally prepared to goto Sea World, we weren’t sure if 5 hours would be enough for an evening with the sea beasts. “Public transport” was something that the biggy @ hotel front desk had never heard of. There are sign boards for I-Ride stops all over the town. So i wonder whether he flew inside the town Never mind we figured it out and were waiting for those green and red buses to pass by. One red bus did pass by but didn’t stop - as always. So we thought perhaps this side of the road (south bound) wasn’t all that lucky and we crossed over to the other side ( we figured out later during the night that where we had stood first was right ). Now standing on North bound stops, a green bus stopped. We thanked our stars not knowing what was in store. As we were mounting, the driver said Sea World is just a 5 min walk, so we set out on one of our Gandhian walks. That 5 min walk became a never ending 30 min walk draining our energy. No water, no food thr the day. Seeing “Sea World” at a distance, Vivek ruled out that we would ever make it alive there. Finally followed the service entrance to the main gate - an adventurous way of reaching an adventure park. Lunched at the Park at 5:00 p.m.

However, what we experienced inside made us forget the hunger and tiredness of the day.

Shamu, the killer whale, is a show by itself. Those 35 minutes action packed show in the indoor stadium to the 500 odd audience is worth experiencing. Such a huge creature coming out of its restricted area to the front bay casually , splashing water soaking the audience sitting between 1-14 steps, going promptly back to Bryan to get its quota of fish after every round of its antics is something i can’t describe in words here. It was incredible!

Kraken - the 4 minute roller coaster ride at Sea World left me speechless - not because i was awed but because i was so terrified after the flight that i couldn’t get myself in shape. didn’t dare to do any more rides that evening. My lil advice for those wishing a Kraken ride in the future - DON’T sit in one of those corner or front seats.

Some of the other interesting attractions @ Sea World were:

Pufferfishes - a Japanese delicacy that is highly poisonous. Called puffer because its body bloats when it consumes food and water.
Barracudas - a dangerous prey with a unique single lined body structure that one cannot see it until its very close

Sharks - stay away

Dolphins - a very likable smart creature unlike its deadly sibling killer whales
Manatees- these obese species on its way to extinction didn’t impress me much

Day 2 @ Universal Studios

Day 2 took off to a lazy start. After a good nights sleep, we set out around 9 to Universal Studios. The walk across the bridge that lead to Universal turned out to be rather tiring. Maybe Orlandonian’s ( my way of addressing residents of Orlando) are so used to walking that a few miles doesn’t count much. Universal studios comprises of “Universal studios”, “Islands of Adventure” and “City walk”.

Confused whether to take the 1 day 2 park ticket or the 1 day 1 park tickets we settled in for a 1 day 1 park ticket to the Universla Studios. As Islands of Adventure was primarily rides, we weren’t too keen. And we are glad we went to Universal.

The rides that i ENJOYED were :

Twister : A real exprience of what a F-5 tornado could do to a neighbourhood. Phew..it came and it went and there was nothing left. Amazing experience.

My rating : 5

Earthquake : Another natural disaster. We are put into a train, that rode to a station and earth rocks. Earth rocks, we rock, water gushes out form broken pipelines, buildings collpase like a deck of cards, gasoline fumes, trees fell..oh yea you get to hear the police sirens too - welcome to HELL. Amazing job to create an earthquake shot on screen.

My rating : 4

Graveyard Revue : Live rock band of Comical ghosts appearing at their will in funny costumes that didn’t scare even the children

My rating :2

Jaws: Boat Ride. “ORCA” - the boat in Jaws movie on display during the ride. Shark attacking in midwaters, the captain shooting, gasoline fumes, shark attacking again when least expected, the cpatain getting his target right this time. It was fun and scary too. I know it was just a model shark but when such a big bleeding object appears all of a sudden when you leats expect it can be scary

My rating :4

Men in Black : I don’t want to write about it. The loooooooooooooong queues were miserable. Vivek scored more than me in that stupid video game thing where you have to shoot at the aliens. It definitely wasn’t worth the wait.

My rating :1 ( not because i scored less)

Back to the future : This was my personal favourite. The roller coaster ride in the car that takes you through the past is nerve racking. Dinosaurs, erupting volcanoes, flying by white house , just when i thought i had risen from the volcanic lava did i find myself falling again from a waterfall - huh, this was the best of all. Its a roller coaster ride with a screen in front of you perhaps with such fierce violent scenes and colors that make it further dreadful.

Terminator 2 - 3D - Didn’t know what to expect when i went in. As a kid i remember watching the movie kuttichattan, wherein they give you this tiny plastic black colored glass before you enter the cinema hall. I could never comprehend then which where the 3-D scenes and which weren’t. So if you are thinking what am thinking, then you would be in for a big surprise when you see Terminator on 3-D. Robot models rising from all the corners of the auditorium followed by the 3-D images is something one shouldn’t miss. John firing and the artillery pieces seem as they are gonna hit your eyes any moment, the bad robots punch makes you touch your nose (just to chk if its in shape). Believe me so many times during that 20 min show , i actually lifted my hand to see if my face was ok and there wa snothing in front of it - you gotta see it to believe it.

My rating :5

Well that was Day 2 for us. The day ended with a pepperoni touch For those of you who don’t know, pepperoni is beef or pork unlike i had imagined it to be

Day 3- Pointe Orlando

Broke all my records by sleeping continously for 12 hours. Woke up at 11 in the morning.

After a stale pizza brunch and a quick shower, sat wondering what to do. Not sure of the destination, set out to take a ride on the I-Ride. After a good 20 minute wait, the ever-green i-ride turned up. I wasn’t sure where i was going. The big mickey mouse was tempting at Pointe Orlando. So i got down with 2 other ladies.

Its a BIG DEAL after all to dismount a us at Orlando. They have got this weird concept of pulling a string by the seat-side to request a stop. You miss it and you are dead.

There i was in front of Pointe Orlando - a place that is so-so for shopping and good for taking pics.

FAO was the place to be for kids. Toys, Barbies, games, XBOX - name it and it was there. Here i explored the mysetery of finding the denim size that would fit my waists at “the house of denims”. “Express” was very much affordable in this part of the country.

However, they didn’t have a size that fit me At the “sound stage” was an amazing 24-karat gold plaated record of the jimi hendrix tracks. Costed a good $250 - wish one day Vivek will be able to get it. Swarovski and Lladro(recommened by Dr. Phil, the psychologist) porcelain gifts just made me dumbstruck. Truly amazing pieces that i have never seen before.

With a refreshing “Vanilla Latte” from starbucks i started walking north following the I-Ride and Lynx trail — didn’t want to lose my way in this city.

I know i know there is lil chance for one to lose way - for its the straight intl drive that runs all thr the city.

Enroute Hard Rock Vault, i stopped at these places for taking pics:

1. Magic world

2.Race Rock

3.Pirates cove

4.Castle Hotel

And finally at the hard rock vault. Am sure Vivek would have loved it.

Captured images of the carvings on the pavement that reminisced important persons and events.

Tired by the 2 mile walk along the Intl drive i settled in for a chocolate muffin at the Mercedo.

Took the I-rdie south back to the hotel

Day 4 - Ripley’s believe it or not

You got to see the following to BELIEVE it

the ball rolling upwards in a Billiards table,

black hole,

walk over the birdge,

the silver-ghost Rolls royce made of matchsticks

Believe it or not!

Sometimes I wonder if monsoons follow our trail or we follow monsoon’s path. Rains reach before we reach - be it Sri Lanka or Orlando. Well well it was fun anyways. Worth the hundreds of dollars spent on tickets No regrets. You live once and you get to see these places just once in your life. So enjoy it.

Sweet Weekend Memories

The Boston image is still fresh in my mind. Commonly known as the “Walking city”, it did test our walking ability. It had its share of highs and lows and excitement and disappointment!

Here are a few snapshots:

Fun moments:
Location : South station

A 20-something gal clad in a white t-shirt had these words “Today is my bday. Give me a hug.” clipped to the back of her shoulder

Tiring moments: The 2 mile walk along the “Freedom Trail” . Covering over 9 historic moments over a span of 3 hours, we were amazed at how much hype is cretaed about so little. Felt like a fool paying $10 to go inside the Old south Meeting house. This is where the Boston tea Party began. All that one can see inside is a couple of benches with torn covers and the history of what happenned when. We wondered at what a rich culture India has and what little is being done to preserve them.

Wild moments: Red Sox fans disembarking at Yawkey Way all geared up to cheer for the Saturday match.

Serene moment:

Location: Harvard Square

Vivek enjoying the street performers play some overwhleming numbers.

Speechless. I sat in silence gazing at him. We knew what we were thinking as memories of the past flashed back. His promise fulfilled of getting me to this place one day! 1 line- “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” and 2 characters (Ollie and Jen) changed our lives 3 years back.

Silent places:

Location: MASSACHVSETTS INSTITVTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Intelligent look. Deserted. Kids skateblading or rollerskating all over. Beautiful trees lining the streets. Nice view of the Charles river along the Memorial drive. Breathtaking medieval architecture with buildings christened “Aristotle”, “Darwin”, “Newton”. Boston and Cambridge - stark opposites.

The “T” moment:

Transportation made easy in Boston with the “T - the subway. I’m a big fan of the “T” now bccos of its frequency.

My favourite : RED line because it goes to the Harvard Square and MIT.

Day’s worrk : Second round of Design review

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