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!!