Day-21:Around LA

The moment we entered LA we realized that there were a lot of places in LA to see and that we were never going to be able to see all of them in just 24 hours...EVER.

After short-listing the ones that we could fir in 1 day we drove to our first destination:THE WALK OF FAME.

LA means everything starry,glitzy,glamourous and Hollywood.

The walk of fame was basically a footpath with stars emblazoned on the tiles with names of the greatest hollywood celebrities and sports people on them.

We saw and walked on them all...be it Donald Duck or Jackie Chan or Mohommad Ali,John Travolta or even Godzilla...

The walk of Fame eventually led to the KODAK THEATRE.

The entire street was an exiting place to be with two Michael Jacksons,a Scooby Doo,the Incredibles,Batman,Spiderman,Superman,and even Marilyn Monroes' livening up the streets,clicking pictures and posing in varied styles for the tourists.

We never realized as the morning turned in evening and it was time for us to proceed to our next destination:The Griffith Observatory.Well the name does sound boring.. (You don't need to be ashamed guys....when I first came to know that we had to go there..my first reaction was: "Wasn't this supposed to be my vacation??")

But the place turned out to be so much more interesting than just a boring Geography Class.

It is one thing knowing all the various theories about the earth and another seeing the proof of all that you ever studied about the earth being proven in front of your eyes.

We also saw a great show at the planeterium...(We did catch dad sleeping a few times in the show...but I still liked it.)

It was freezing cold when we stepped out of the observatory and we couldn't wait to return to the warmth of the car.

Day-20:LA Calling!!!

"Trrrrriinnngggggggggg!!"

We were all so sleepy we could only hear a faint noise instead of the startling sound that we usually wake up to.

We woke up after sometime gazing lazily at the clock....

"Oh God!! We are late....we slept for 2 more hours...we need to rush..HURRY!!"

As soon as the realization dawned us..everything was fast forwarded..

brushing,having a bath,packing the remaining stuff, and in flat 1 hour all three of us were on our way to LA.

The road trip to LA takes about 6-7 hours from bhaiya's house..depending on the traffic.

We had a great time driving through the highways and enjoying the view and chatting away.

It was not until we entered LA that we came to know that all the talks and warnings about LA traffic were under-rated...It is worse than anything you have ever seen.

After 2 hours in LA we finally reached Shailesh Uncle's house and "Surprise Surprise".

Gotu bhaiya was waiting for us there.

We had an amazing lunch at "Chipotle" after which we headed to the jain derasar in the city.

It was amazing...and I had never seen soo many gujaratis gather at any one place in US.

It was a huge place with beautiful statues and lots of greenery.

We then went to a mall only to find Ultra-stylish, Super-glam,uber cool clothes...with the largest price tags.

Nevertheless its always fun even if you get to window shop in LA's posh areas.

We were soon hungry and after grabbing some dinner we returned to the hotel.

Day-18,19:Home Alone

"Is all the packing done???"

"Bye Aneri,See you in two days.."

I woke up with a start...was someone talking to me??

I looked around and found no one.

I went downstairs to see Bhaiya and Utsavididi all set to leave for work.

I was about to ask them about mom and dad when I suddenly remembered that they had to catch a flight to LA today.

They left for office and I was alone for two days..

But i worked on my plan..

I watched movies,cleaned my plates,and watched more movies and slept...

These were the two most leisurely days I had since a long time..

Bhaiya came back from his office and we changed into our tracks and went running...

The weather was great which is the case for most days and we had a lot of fun...

We came back home picking up Utsavididi on the way.

Utsavididi prepared the worlds most amazing sandwiches and at the end of dinner we were all so full we could barely stand up.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the time that I had with them...

We packed everything for our road trip to LA:water bottles,food,chocolates,soft drinks,napkins,clothes,shoes...and the camera.

Super-exited as I was for tommorow ,It still wasnt long before I had difficulty in keeping my eyes open and I dozed off to sleep.

Day-16,17:Catching up on shopping

Today was "MY DAY"!!!

We were going shopping...yay!!

We made a trip to some malls and bought a few things...

(Actually everyone bought a few things except me....I bought a lot of things..!)

All the malls we went to were great complete with lots of good cothes and very HUGE.

But the best store in my opinion was none other than KOHLS.

(This was because the cashier gave us an extra 15% discount on all our purchases because we were the last customers to leave the store....lol)

All in all we went on a major shopping spree....and that too with dad right there...

That is really something to remember...ALWAYS!!!

Day-15:Bhaiya's Friends

After lots of planning and cancelling of dates to meet bhaiya's friends' we finally decided to meet up today...

All the calls were made and we decided to meet at 8...

Our plan had just one flaw...we forgot to decide the venue...

(We were actually debating about two places but we did not finalise..but in the end we chose the place closest to home.)

At 8 sharp,we met bhaiya's friends at an Indian Restaurant in San Jose-Sakoon.

The ambience of the restaurant was great...and the food..even BETTER.

We had a gala time there...eating,chatting and..EATING..a lot.

After dinner we went to see the appartment where bhaiya used to live during college.

It was a lot cleaner than I had expected...(a result of the massive cleaning action that might have taken place over the weekend...I am sure.. )

We sat around for a little chat and before we knew it was time for us to leave.

(Actually we did not have any time to leave,but if our massive yawns were any indication we would all be asleep before we even reached home..)

So with "Good Night"s and "See You In India"s we left for home.

Day-14:San Francisco

May 9 was here...Mothers' Day!!!
We almost forgot about it until yesterday night when Utsavididi had a brain wave of sorts.
We rushed of to Walgreens on pretext of buying milk and bought a card for mom..)
As soon as we woke up, we wished mom and...she was soo happy..!!
We had a nice time clicking pictures and enjoyed ourselves.
Bollywood Hip hop dance style....well basically I have never tried anything like it ...EVER.
But thats what I was going to see today in Utsavi didi's dance show.
Utsavi didi had to go early.( When its your show,you need to catch up on the steps....)
We dropped her to the venue,then picked up some groceries(we suddenly realized we were out of stock....) and finished lunch.
Gotu Bhaiya left immediately after lunch because he had to be there in L.A. on time. :(
We got a little late when we reached the show.(Luckily,we did not miss Utsavi didi's show...it was a little late.. )
The show was great and we had a gala time watching it.
We left for San Francisco after the show.
Before you move on to check my older posts,I'll tell you that we are going there for the second time....you would too..the city is soo good.
(Well actually San Francisco is toooo big a city to finish seeing in just one go....so we had to again)
This time around we went round the other..a little less posh area of the city :Fisherman's Wharf.
It was a very lively street..(I could easily say that because believe it or not this was the first time I was seeing soo many people on the street...)
We had fun walking along the streets, waching street plays, a few musicians and even some painters..(These painters would make souvenier paintings for you in less than 5 mins!!!)
Next we went to "Ghirardelli ".We tasted the most amazing chocolates there (for free...so they tasted even better..hahaha).
After a brief session of desserts there,we drove on....
We did not bother too much about the weather until we reached Treasure Island.It was then that we were actually sweeped off our fee...it was sooo windy.
(For all those who dont know,Treasure Island is a place just outside San Francisco which offers a breath-taking view of the whole city skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge..)
Despite the view being soo amazing and so perfect we could not stay there too long as we were freezing.
So,we took some pictures very quickly and rushed back home.

Day-13:Carmel Beach

With Gotu bhaiya here,we had sooo many options for places to go.
(People usually say having many options is good..I am completely against it...and it turned out I was right ...we were all confused)
Finally,we decided to go to "CARMEL Beach ".
We packed up all our picnic stuff,forced it into the trunk and set off.
After a brief ride in winding streets with European backgrounds and fairy-tale buildings,we reached our destination.
We removed our shoes and socks and stepped in the ice cold water which had a refreshing effect on all of us.
We enjoyed the astounding view of the sea and the sky till sunset.
After a wallk around the streets, we could all hear our tummies rumbling.
We went to a nearby restaurant "Demetri Cafe".
We tried different types of food there including Greek and Italian.
(Well, actually there were many others but the names are soo complicated I didn't bother to mention...)
We came back with the smell of the sea and feel of the breeze still fresh in our minds.

Day-12:Gotu bhaiya is here!!!

Everyone was super-exited today...gotu bhaiya was going to come..yay!!
So the morning mostly dragged on...(quite literally actually....no one wanted to even stand up and go for a bath..!!)
Gotu bhaiya came around 12:30 :Perfect time for lunch which was actually great as we had a surprise ready for him:"ras"
He loved it....I could say so because I could see him relishing each and every drop of it...
After lunch,gotu bhaiya took us to a mall....and insisted that we must shop..
We really enjoyed in the mall, and had a really HUGE cup of coffee.
(which we ended up carrying in the whole mall..all the time we were shopping ..because it was tooo huge to just finish in one go..)
All in all,we had a great time,we shopped a lot (to tell u the truth,particularly I shopped a lot..!!)
and returned back home after 4 whole hours.
(I seriously think tht Gotu bhaiya can do miracles....Believe me,keeping dad for 4 hrs in a mall is no less...)
And this time when we reached home bhaiya was waiting for us...(A change in the usual schedule..!!)
We had a dinner,and then slept off.

Day-11:Socializing

We had a goal in the kitchen to achieve today.
We had guests today:Rinal Bhaiya,Samkit Bhaiya and his wife Deepali.
We had to organize and entire dinner (that too..without converting the kitchen into a mess)
We planned a grand feast:puri,bataka nu shaak,chuti daal,bataka vadaa,bhaat,kadhi and above all..
Shrikhand..Yummy.
Well I dont know how to make any of these but I had my own share of work:Cleaning the utensils.
And even though I sometimes have backlogs in my blog...any back log in the cleaning is a punishable crime.(After all, I am the associate member of the cleaning staff as bhaiya puts it..)
So all in all,we had an awesome time at dinner..and we chatted a lot before and after it.
As soon as we re-entered the kitchen all we could see was loads and loads of dishes that needed cleaning.
I along with Bhaiya cleaned the utensils and mom and utavididi cleaned the platforms.
Looking at my sincerity bhaiya promoted me as a "Senior Member of the cleaning staff".
(Btw..he himself got demoted from his position because he almost dropped a glass utensil..haha)
P.S.Just in case u don't see a lot of utensils in the sink...we clean and wash everything Batchwise..)

Day-10:Mini Golf

"Ohh shit! Its 9 already....Bhaiya and bhabhi must have already left home to go to work..!!"
These thoughts were racing in my mind even as i rushed down the stairs to check.
I heaved a sigh of relief as I saw them on the dining table...still having breakfast.
(Apparently,it was my lucky day as bhabhi was going to board the train which was 15 mins late than the usual one...)
I sat with them for some time(still half asleep).After wishing them good-bye,I lazily brushed my teeth and finished breakfast.
The day dragged on in the normal routine until evening.
(Of course we watched a different movie today...)
Bhaiya and Bhabhi came back and we hurriedly got ready to make it in time before the Indian Restaurant:Milan that we had chosen to dine closed for the day.
(All stores in America close early i.e.by 9,but this place was the limit..it closed own at 8.)
With our stomachs jam-packed(we had two sizzlers jumbo size..what do u expect??),
we drove to a derasar in Milpitas.
The derasar was really huge.After we finished worshiping,we drove to a mini-golf course in Milpitas.
As soon as we stepped out of the car, we could feel the chilly wind blowing.
It was an 18 hole golf course (Oh no...we were going to be Eskimos by the time we'd finish the game..!!).
The golf course was more like an amusement park with castles and forts and huge trees and even dragons...We had tons of fun there..(Yes we really did..cause once we started playing we did not feel cold..!!)
We stopped the game even though we wanted to play more (There are only 18 holes...how much could we play?)
We came back home thanking we hadn't chosen a mall instead of this place..
(Malls aren't all this fun any way..rite?)

Day-9:Santana Row

We sort of repeated the schedule exactly like yesterday but with 3 differences.
1)Utsavi didi was at home..yay!!
2)We watched "Chance Pe Dance"today
3)Bhabhi dropped us to a nearby lake which had a walking track around it..it was 2 miles(3kms..and i ran on the entire track..the speed was a little wavering though.)
We called up bhaiya in the evening and decided to meet up at a mall near Santana Row.
Santana Row is a street but it is in "European Style".
When I entered the street it was like a whole new world.
In the center there was a continuous lines of theme restaurants,street view dining areas,ice-cream shops,and...A Human Size Chess Board.
We posed for a few pictures near the chess-board(yes...we were really surprised).
At the very end of the row,there was a bakery called "Cheese-Cake Factory".
True to its name,the world's most delicious cheese-cakes in the world.
We chose "The Brownie Cheese-Cake" based only on the way it looked..it was mouth-watering.
(We later realized that it was the highest calorie cake served in the bakery..thank god i ran 3 kms in the morning.)
We returned home relishing every bit of the high calorie cheese cake.
After dinner(which was a little difficult.. I accept, after that cake),we played cards (again,I told u the routine was set..)and then slept off.

Day-8

After Sunday,its always difficult to get up on Mondays and go to work.
It was a Monday and both bhaiya and bhabhi had to go to work.
Also, I was too tired to even wake up.
After lunch,we were all bored in the afternoon so we decided to watch a movie.
We started Rocket Singh and before we realized it was 5 in the evening.
We had our regular chai-time and as soon as we finished we heard the garage open.
"Behold!!They were back already..."
As soon as we finished preparation for dinner,we went for shopping at a nearby store:"ROSS".
We didn't realize and soon it was time for the mall to shut down.
(America's great..but the one really bad thing I find about the place is that the malls close down as early as 9..and u barely get time to shop...funny I'm saying this despite spending 2 and a 1/2 hours in the mall already..haha)
We finally did come back from the mall and finished dinner after which all of us played cards.
We didn't stop until all of us were yawning and had to be dragged to bed.(We were playing on my bed so that was not the case with me..Lucky me!!)

Day 7:Napa Valley

It had become a week ...one whole week since we came to bhaiya's house..to U.S.A. and we never realized it...
We were all tired after our expedition to Lake Tahoe the other day so we decided to rest.
We woke up late in the morning and then decided to go to Napa Valley.
For all those who don't know(this group includes me until recently..haha) ,
Napa Valley is the place where the wine is made.The best wine in the bay area is made there.
Napa Valley is an hour and a half drive from bhaiya's house so we left at abt 1:30 and reached the valley by 3.
After a little bit of a photo session beside the Harley Davidson parked next to our car,we went in and bought tickets for the trip around the winery.
Everybody who wanted to taste wine was given glasses for the same.
We were 5 people but we took only 3 glasses (mom was reluctant even after we took her glass).
Bhabhi had already tasted earlier and she didn't like it and ...well I was underage.(I'm only 17 still...remember?)
The tour guide there explained the entire process :Starting from the choosing of grapes to the crushing(they don't do it with feet as many might have guessed...practically its impossible as they make 75000 gallons..) to the final testing.
After that we went to the place where different types of cheese are made.
(Yes..there is no mistake there are more than 25 types of cheese).
They say cheese is like wine: The older it gets ,the better it tastes.
And it goes without saying that I had an awesome time there.
We came back home with the taste of cheese still lingering in our mouths..

Day-6:Lake Tahoe

We prepared to leave early in the morning today as we had a 4-hour drive ahead of us before we could reach our destination:Lake Tahoe.
The journey was scenic and i did not sleep even for a second as i was afraid i would really miss out on something.
After we reached the lake ,we took a Cable Car Ride to the top of the snow-capped mountains.
When we reached the top, all we could see around us was snow.
We started playing in the snow ,throwing snow balls on one another and enjoying the chilly weather.
We were surprised to see coffee shops and even restaurants on top of the mountains.
After having a glass of hot chocolate in the snow, we took a cable car back down from the mountains.
After our tour across the mountains,we went to SubWay for lunch.
After lunch,we went to the "Common's Beach".We removed our shoes and socks and dipped our feet in the ice cold water.
One more hour later,we proceeded to return home.
On our way back,we paused at a local ice-cream place in Secramento called Leatherby's.
The ice-cream served there was something between ice-cream and gelato.
We returned home tired and exhausted.
We slept early after having dinner.

Day-5:Relaxation Time

After yesterday's tiring journey,we decided that we could do with a little rest today.
Bhaiya and Bhabhi both went to office today and we sat relaxing at home.
After a lazy and sleepy afternoon we got a call from bhaiya after which we got ready to visit a nearby mall: "The Great Mall".
We went to all the cool stores :Old Navy,Love Culture,Levis,Gap,Sports Authority,H&M,Neiman Marcus,Bath And Body Works,Tommy Hilfiger,Nautica,U.S.Polo among many more.
We also tried out a new kind of bread:Jalapeno Cheese Bread.It was good too.
After our brief stint at the mall ,we came back and had dinner.
After a small chat session at night we slept off.

Day-4:San Jose

As soon as we woke up in the morning we made our plan for the day.
We had to visit two places today.
1)San Jose State University
2)Mystery Spot
We proceeded to finish our Agenda-1 on the list.
We took an hour and a half drive from Fremont to San Jose.
I was super exited to visit the university where bhaiya had studied.
We took an overview of the campus as we strolled and enjoyed the scenic view.
We saw everything on campus starting from small yellow boxes containing the "Spartan Daily"(the university newspaper) to the large Engineering Buiding to the Fountains and Memorials.
We next went to "Pizza Chicago".It was voted as the best pizza place in Santa Cruz and it has gained my vote tooo.
Mystery Spot is everything that the name suggests and probably much more.
For reasons unknown to us,there is some problem in the gravitational force around small circle in the middle of nowhere.
The history goes somewhat like this.
A man wanted to buy a land below the hills where the mystery spot is now located.
But the dealers refused to give him only the low area so he decided to buy the sloping portion of the hill as well.
When he tried to build his vacation house on top of the hill his house slid down and settled on the slope and stayed there.
Even after hiring a team of trained experts no one has been able to find out the reason for this particular phenomenon.
In that circumference one cannot even stand straight and seems to be tilted at an angle of 45 degrees.
On a tilted plank a ball moves towards the upper side instead of the lower in that region.
A person who is tall appears to be short and vice versa.
We had an exciting time there and then on our way back home we decided to stop at an Indian Store for mom's benefit.
To our utter amazement, in the store we found stuff that was available in any local indian grocery store and also some that we don't usually find in India.
Personally, I was most surprised to see a "pani-puri khomcha"outside the store.
We really tired and slept off early.

Day-3:Palo Alto

We went to visit Palo Alto the following morning where we visited bhaiya's office:TIBCO
After picking bhaiya from his office ,we went to a furniture store called IKEA.
After an hour of shopping,we went ahead to visit Stanford University.
We were rushing to take pictures as the climate was windy and we were suffering with a shortage of warm clothes.
We returned to TIBCO for a brief tour.The office infrastructure was amazing.Ater a brief photo session at Tibco we proceeded for dinner.
We went to a local Mexican Restaurant :Palo Alto Sol.
The food was delicious and we also had a bonus.We saw Mark Zukerberg.
(For those who dont know,he is the man who created facebook.)
We drove back home at night thus finishing our tour for the day.

Day-2 : San Francisco !!

After a good night's sleep, we woke up fresh in the morning ready and geared up for a new day...
We had an early breakfast after which we moved on to drop bhabhi to her office.
On our way back,bhaiya showed us an overview of a few places in Freemont around where we lived.
We went to Elizabeth Lake in Central Freemont Park where we saw a variety of birds.There was also a jogging track around the lake where we walked for a while enjoying the fresh morning breeze.
We came back after a while and lazily went by to have a wash and then finished lunch.
After a relaxing afternoon at home we went to San Francisco where we found a whole new world awaiting us.
As a complete contrast to Freemont, we saw people rushing on the streets and side walks in SFO going from one place to another all in a rush..
We visited the Ferry Building where we saw an astounding view of the bay.
Then we went on to visit The Golden Gate.
It was a windy evening and we were all freezing as we walked along the bridge enjoying the scenery..
Everyone else walked back to the parking lot as I alongwith bhaiya experienced the absolute thrill of running on the golden gate bridge as the evening progressed.
According to my personal opinion, I think anyone who has not tried that is seriously missing out on something..
We went to dine at a local thai restaurant "Osha Thai" which served amazing food along with an appreciable ambience .
We drove back home and retired for the day.

Day 1 - US Trip

I had a great experience when two feelings excitement and nervousness decided to visit me at the same time as I boarded my flight from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.It was the first time I was boarding an aircraft and the feeling was amazing..
Also I was taking my first step towards reaching San Francisco where I was to see bhaiya and bhabhi after a long time...
We reached the Mumbai Domestic Airport with just one thing in mind ... we had to make it to the International Airport in time for our flight to Amsterdam.
We took an internal bus ride from the domestic airport to the international airport which came as a boon because it helped us avoid the Mumbai heat and traffic.
We reached the Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport well before time and checked in for our flight with Delta Airlines to Amsterdam.
I dont remember much about the flight because I mostly slept during the entire flight but the one thing I can surely say is that the food in the flight was fantastic.
We reached the Amsterdam Airport :Schipol where we had a halt for 3 hours where we had to change our flight.
Unfortunately there was a delay in the flight and we had to stay at the Airport for 7 hours.
(On the positive side though we got free call and food coupons which helped us stay calm as we waited for the flight)
We completed the last leg of our journey as we boarded our flight from Amsterdam to San Francisco.
It was an 11 hour flight and I can say that I remember every minute of it because I could not sleep and with every passing minute I turned all the more desperate to reach SFO and meet bhaiya and bhabhi.
Finally after clearing the Customs and Immigration we walked out of the Airport and joined bhaiya and bhabhi in the car for our ride from SFO to Freemont.
The view in the car was scenic and held us all absolutely spell bound.
As we reached the house, we were struck by the beauty despite the simplicity of the house.
We had this huge get together where all of us were super-excited and super-happy.
The smiles didn't stop even as we retired for the day.
Morning came real soon even as the excitement continued ....