U.S Trip - Part 2

Third weekend (July 4, 5 and 6, 2008)

It was a long weekend and I was scheduled to fly to Detroit, where my brother and his wife live. Two of my other cousins, Sridhar (anna) and Praveen were expected to join us for the fun. I flew into Detroit from Sanfrancisco with a flight change at Las vegas.

I landed in Detroit on Friday morning at about 6 a.m. Sridhar anna received me at the Airport as he was staying very close. Amar, Vadina and Praveen were there by the time I got ready. The four of us (excluding Sridhar anna) started on our first trip for the weekend, ‘Niagara falls’. We started off at around 9.30 a.m. playing the song ‘Beedeelu taagandi babulu’ from the Telugu movie ‘Top hero’. Amar and Praveen shared the driving responsibilities. It was a very scenic journey along the banks of the lake ‘Eerie’ and the greens of ‘Ohio’. We reached ‘Niagara’ at around 3 p.m. ‘Niagara’ is bordered by U.S on one side and Canada on the other. The Canadians are lucky as they get a front-end view of all the falls.

It was crowded and it took us close to two hours to actually get into the boat for the ‘Mist of the Maid’ trip. The close to twenty minute trip offered a front-end view of the ‘American falls’ and the Horse – shoe falls. The boat went really close to the Horse – shoe falls and we got drenched. We were running out of time for snaps. It was an amazing trip. Our next destination was the ‘Bridal veil’ falls (a part of the American falls). We had to wait for a couple of hours in the line. By the time we reached the falls, it time for some fireworks (July 4^th). We spent a lot of time standing under the falls (this time totally getting drenched), enjoying the fireworks right in front of us. It would be among the best moments of my life.

By the time we wrapped things up at ‘Niagara’, it was close to mid-night. Amar and Praveen deserve a lot of credit for driving (all the night) us back to Detroit. We reached Amar and Vadina’s house early in the morning. I could find some time to get a quick nap before I got ready for the Chicago trip.

We started for Chicago by noon after a brief halt at Vadina’s maternal uncle’s house. This time we had Sridhar anna, another driver with us. We drove through Amar’s university (Umich, Annarbor). We played a few card games on the way and that was when the ‘madatestha’ phrase gained importance. We reached Chicago by 4 p.m.

Firstly, we went to the ‘Navypier’. We met Sasidhar and his family. We spent some time with them. We then took an architectural tour of the Chicago buildings on a boat. It was great to see huge buildings in the twilight. I found it really amazing to see high speed road and railway lines cut across sky scrapers. We finished the day with a walk to the ‘Millennium Park’ from ‘Navy Pier’. It was getting cold and we could get a snap in front of the ‘Vivekananda way’ in Chicago. We found a decent place to spend the night.

The next morning, we drove back to the downtown. We called Sarath and Sravanthi vadina on our way. We started the day with the ‘Hancock’ tower. We had to choose between the ‘Hancock’ and the ‘Sears towers’ (the tallest building in U.S). We went by Amar and Praveen’s words and chose the Hancock tower. From the 94^th floor, we had a great view of the scrapers and the Lake Michigan. We had some fun singing Frank Sinatra’s “What’s new?” which was playing in the background. After revisiting the Millennium Park, we had a quick lunch at a restaurant in the Devon Street (mainly dominated by ‘Indian’ and ‘Indo-Pakistani’ restaurants) on our way to the Airport. Praveen missed his flight and got a place on the next flight. We spent some time at the Airport. I spent some time with my friend, Praveen who stays at Chicago. I took my flight back to SFO and my friend, Uday received me at the Airport.

Fourth weekend (July 12 and 13, 2008)

I had to change from the Apartment to the ‘Comfort-inn’ hotel in Sunnvale, CA. I was surprised to see many Indian restaurants near the Hotel. It was like 10 minutes walk from Usha and Satish’s place. After lunch, we (Satish, Usha and me) went on shopping to ‘Walmart’ and ‘Best buy’ in Milpitas.

The next day, we went to SFO. We saw the magnificent ‘Golden gate’ bridge. We walked half the bridge stopping at regular intervals to take snaps. We then went to the ‘Golden gate park’ and it was difficult for us to actually locate the park. We spent some time in the Tea and the Rose gardens inside the park. We started in the late evening and returned to Synnuvale. That’s how the weekend ended

The trip that gave me a lot of ‘firsts’ is ending today. It was good, but I guess, it would have been better had I been here with my wife!!

U.S Trip - Part 1

The month long U.S trip is about to finish. At the business end, I would like to remember it as a trip that gave me a lot of “firsts”. It was the first time a chip that had my design started working (It was the first time a chip had something I designed)!! It was the first time I landed in the U.S. It was the first time I visited my brother’s place. Finally, it is going to be the first time I will be flying back to India from the U.S.J J. On the flip side, it was my first trip alone after marriage.

I had a great time and here is the first part of the summary of events (partitioned on weekends).

First weekend (June 21 and 22, 2008)

I was busy working at the office. We had the chip coming back from the fabrication plant. Though I came to U.S for other reasons, I couldn’t hold myself back from knowing the progress on how the chip was being brought up. It was the first chip that had something I designed. After a few initial hiccups, a systems engineer shouted aloud, “The chip is alive!!”. That was the first milestone and that was where the day ended.

The second day was even more exciting. It was planned to bring up some paths on the Chip which predominantly had my designs. I was eagerly waiting to hear the results with my fingers crossed. The morning session was bad as not much progress was made. It all started sometime in the afternoon when the first real bring-up test got through the Chip. People started clapping!! It paved a way and as many as 20 tests went through in the next few minutes. The week ended on a happy note. I reached the apartment late in the evening and with Satish and Usha, I found some time to visit the Stanford University.

The week that followed proved the chip to be working reasonably well. The people were able to port the application also. It made me really happy and I silently patted my back, especially when a senior guy asked something like, “Who designed this block?”. It was a “first” for me and I treasure the entire experience.

I soon started working on things for which I came to the U.S.

Second weekend (June 28 and 29, 2008)

It was the weekend when the fun really began. Amar booked the bus tickets for my trip to Los Angles. Usha (my cousin) and Satish (her husband) were gracious enough to drop me at the Sanjose Greyhound bus station. I took the bus on Friday night (at around 11 p.m.) and reached North Hollywood by 5 a.m. Sudhir (my friend) picked me up and we went straight to his house. After a brief nap, we got ready and went to the Universal studios.

At the studios, we had enough time for all the stuff. We started with the Studio tour. The tour took us through earthquakes, floods and some sets of all-time great Hollywood movies. Later on, we went to various rides like ‘Mummy’, ‘Jurassic park’, ‘Simpsons’, etc. We also had a lot of time for exciting shows like ‘Water world’, ‘Terminator -2’, ‘SFX’, ‘Shrek – 4D’, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, particularly the ‘Simpsons’ ride and the ‘Shrek – 4D’ show. We were really tired and went to sleep quite early that night.

The next day, Sudhir took me on a trip into the City. We went to places like Mailibu (A Hindu temple and a Beach), Santa Monica (Beach), Rodeo Street (shopping place), Beverly hills, Kodak theatre, etc. He dropped me at the bus station for my late night bus back to Sanjose. Usha and Satish were there to pick me up and drop me at the Apartment. It was a great weekend!

I will be back with the second part of the trip.