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.