Leg 4 - LA to Las Vegas, the city that never sleeps

We spent a lovely morning at Shanker/Shobana's place. They live in a condo right on the Marina in Marina del Ray. It reminded us a bit of our condo on Alki. We chatted all morning and Raga and Mamaiyya went for a walk along the waterfront later. Then after a delicious lunch, we set out for Las Vegas around 2.30 pm. I stopped briefly at the Starbucks store i helped design on Lincoln and Fiji, about a half mile from their place.
We stopped for our usual coffee break around 4.30pm and got into Las Vegas at 8.15pm or after driving for almost 3 hours across the Mohave desert.I was doing 80mph and at one point a cop car pulled up along our car and signalled to me to slow down and then he sped off...weird! Must have had something more compelling to do...Las Vegas is really quite spectacular....glitzy and ornate but in a tasteful way. We have a room on the 17th floor in Sahara and it has a balcony looking right onto the strip. R and I checked in and then had dinner at a Mexican restaurant downstairs. Then we walked a couple of miles along the strip mentally making notes of things to do tomorrow.

Updated Travel itinerary

TRAVEL ITINERARY


After reviewing our itinerary, we have decided to make a few changes and take advsntage of this road trip to check out a few national landmarks...so as of today, this is it!

5/22 – LA to Las Vegas – 273 miles, next 2 nights in Las Vegas

5/24 – Las Vegas to Moab via Bryce Canyon – night at Moab

5/25 – Moab to Salt Lake City via Arches National Park

26th and 27th of May – stay in SLC

5/28 – SLC to Cody via Yellowstone – night at Cody, Wyoming

5/29 – Cody to Rapid City via Mt.Rushmore – night in Rapid City, South Dakota

5/30 – Rapid City to Sioux Falls – night at S.Falls, South Dakota

5/31 – Sioux Falls to Duluth, Minnesota

1st of June to 3rd of June – stay in Duluth

6/4 – Duluth to Chicago – 475 miles, night in Chicago

6/5 – Chicago to Buffalo, via Niagara Falls – 532 miles, night in Buffalo

6/6 – Buffalo to Princeton – 409 miles

7th of June to 9th of June – stay in Princeton

6/9 – train to DC – mooch off the kid for a couple of days

6/10 and 6/11 – stay in DC

6/11 evening – fly to Orlando

12th of June - 15th of June –stay in Orlando


6/15 – fly to Dallas

15th of June to 18th of June – stay in Dallas

6/18 – fly back to New Jersey

18th of June – 27th of June – stay in Princeton with a side trip to Connecticut

27th of June – leave for Hyderabad, arriving Hyd at 9am on the 29th morning

Leg 3 - San Jose to Los Angeles

Yesterday we left Los Altos about 2 hours behind schedule for Los Angeles. Our plan was to leave at noon but due to all kinds of unforseen delays, we didn't really head out till about 2pm. The weather was against us from the start. It was pouring rain and in some parts it was torrential, not unlike the monsoons in India. I took a little break from navigating and closed my eyes for a few minutes....woke up a few minutes later to find R had missed an exit to I-152 east to I-5 south! So we had to backtrack about 15 miles, not a great distance but due to the wretched rain it was almost a half hour delay. But part of the fun of doing a road trip like this is not having a real time deadline and getting to our destination as and when we do.

We drove thru some pretty large open spaces and land....everything in California is big...distances between cities is huge. My biggest gripe is that from Los Banos to Bakersfield on I-5, there is not a SINGLE Starbucks in sight!!!! There are 2000 Sbux stores in the state of California, you would think they would be all over the place!!! (I have to e mail my ex boss and tell him that particular stretch of the freeway is a gold mine waiting to happen).....and then by the time you see the sign for the one in Bakersfield, you have passed the exit - something else they have to fix!!! But the alu parathas that Sheena had packed for us more than compensated for the lack of coffee....thanks Sheena, they were yum!

The rain continued to torment us vascillating between an annoying drizzle and a blinding downpour. But we finally made our way into LA about 7.30pm and encountered the legendary LA traffic nightmare. We crawled our way to Marina del Ray and arrived at Shanker and Shobana's place about 8.30pm. For those who don't know, Shanker is R's cousin. To our pleasant surprise Kami and Sanjay were there too (Kami is Shanker's cousin on his mom's side).

Crashed into bed by 11pm....today we head on to glitzy Las Vegas for a couple of nights.

Pets galore....free spirits...and yet another farewell dinner

There are 44,874,121 dog owners in the United States, who own a total of 62,965,745 million dogs, and there are 76,688,522 million cats for a total of 139,654,267 pets. I saw proof of this today if the Los Altos Pet Parade is anything to go by. R and I tagged along with Sheena and the kids and Cyber - the cutest dog in the world - to the annual Pet Parade in their neighborhood. I have never seen so many animals, mostly dogs, at one place at a time. Along with dogs (50% of them were golden retreivers), there were cats, snakes, mice, hamsters, ferrets, roosters, chickens, parakeets, seahorses and fish in glass tanks, goats and horses. The pets took part in the parade and were walked by their kid owners who were divided based on the local school they went to - Covington, Egan, Almond etc. Parents and friends walked with them. I walked along pretending that Cyber was my dog. Most of the animals all got along well while walking in such close proximity, but every now and then a feisty dachshund would bark at a poor golden, or two dogs would growl at each other. But for the most part it was very peaceful. The cutest thing was the Dachshund delegation - about 20-30 of them all together. A costume contest was part of the event so there were some dogs in starnge and cute costumes. Poor Cyber - I think he had sensory overload today cos he crashed as soon as he came home. After that we walked thru the Art in the Park show where local artists display their art - paintings, sculptures, clothing, pottery, jewelry etc. Very boutiqey arty stuff....
In the afternoon we went to Berkeley Univ. with my brother to help his daughter Nalini vacate her apartment since she is moving into another one before fall. Then we all strolled thru a section of downtown Berkeley amidst Hare Rama Hare Krishna singing devotees, tie dye T shirts, incense shops and other typical free spirited sights...
This evening we go to Shyamala's place for yet another farewell dinner for R and I. Tomorrow we leave for Los Angeles :-(
Had a fabulous time at Shyamala's place. The food as usual was superb! After dinner we all got together for a few rousing rounds of a card game called "Bust"! Our family tends to be very loud and boisterous at get togethers....throw in a card game and you have some serious noise decibel levels!!!! When it was time to leave, once again like we did in Seattle, we had to say our final goodbyes to the Bay area crowd...LA here we come!

Sausalito

By and large a fairly relaxed day....took care of our hotel accomodation in Las Vegas in the morning and then headed to Sausalito in the afternoon. SS is a charming little waterfront town, not unlike Carmel and Monterey, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The weather was perfect...sunny and cool with a light breeze. Nimmu C and Vaithy C and Raga and I sauntered along the waterfront shops and bought some knick knacky things. The town has a very laid back Mediterranean feel to it. Really quaint place and perfect for a weekend getaway. Then we headed to Sujata and Supratik's place for dinner, yummo pasta, wine, bread and cheese followed by a dessert of profiteroles with ice cream and chocolate sauce, an appropriate end to our Mediterranean day! Their kid Aditya is super cute and was really in his element playing with all of us and chuckling with laughter at all the funny things Vaithy C was doing!

A's 7 M's 2

Iecha, Pedro, Frank....these are our new friends now at Lenscrafters which has become our home away from home! You guessed it - the eye glasses story goes on. We went back to Lenscrafters to pick up our stylish glasses....fortunately mine turned out fine and i am now able to see much more clearly! Raga had problems.....his reading/computer glasses were fine but his powered long distance sunglasses made things fuzzier! Thats NOT whats supposed to happen when you get new glasses, its supposed to make things clearer. So we had to wait for him to get his eyes examined again because something had gone haywire. So of course we had to wait till a doc had free time.....then he finally went in and guess what - his power had changed since the day before! Go figure! So now his sunglasses had been given back to fix that....he goes back tomorrow AGAIN!!!
After a day of running around - Post office, bank, AAA, Lenscrafters - in the evening we indulged in the all American pastime, a baseball game! And to make things more fun it was the Oakland Athletics against the Seattle Mariners, or in other words Kyle and Mallika against me! The game was a really good one, the stadium is smaller than Seattle's baseball stadium and has a more homely feel and they have some die hard fans. Plus we had the usual sandwiches and beer and pop and garlic fries...baseball games are really all about the food! In the end the M's got trounced (something i had anticipated given their lousy playing last year and this season) but both R and I cheered them on loudly during the game annoying some A's fans in front of us. Since we have officially left Seattle, maybe i can become and A's fan without feeling too guilty!
Tomorrow should be fairly relaxed....driving to Sausalito and SF in the afternoon and then having dinner at Suja's place.

Circles and floating objects.....

The eye exam saga continues....(this might be boring for some to read, but i feel i have to give vent to my frustrations) OK, so we go back for our respective eye appts. In spite of having gone thru all the insurance details, there was lots of paperwork to fill out and by the time we were actually done with our exams which included blowing strong puffs of air into each eye and dilating the pupils, it was past 1pm. Then each of us had to pick out our eye glasses and our powered sunglasses....here's where the problem occurs. If there was only, say, 5 or 6 choices, it would be an easy job, but there are literally thousands of styles to pick from. So not only do we have to pick a style that the sales person feels complements our facial structure, we have to decide if we want the lenses to be progressive or line, transitional or plain, bi focals or single vision, protective or anti glare or scratch resistant coating, and then all of us have to agree its the perfect match!! And to add to the dilemna, since our pupils were dilated everything looked out of focus!!! So not surprisingly it was past 1pm by the time that was done. Then we had to get our pupils examined to make sure we didn't have cholesterol deposits in the back (!!!!!). Fortunately we both have clean pupils..yay!
In the process i discovered that not only is my left pupil bigger than my right(a fact i have known since i was a kid), it is elongated and neither of my pupils constrict when exposed to light. Apparently that is a reflex action of the pupils which helps protect the eyes in harsh light, so now i know why i have always insisted on wearing my sunglasses even on the cloudiest rainiest Seattle day! Then we had to have retinal photographs taken by shining a really bright light into each eye and taking pics....it was all really cool but when we finally got out into the bright California sunshine, after 3 hours and 10 minutes....it was horrible!
Anyway, we go back tomorrow to pick up our glasses...in the meantime all we have been seeing since we left that place is circles and funny objects floating in front of our eyes!

Murphy's law still works!

Today was one of those days....everything that could go wrong, went wrong. R and I left home at 8.30 to take the train from Palo Alto into SFO to visit the Indian Embassy to pick up our Indian citizenship papers which supposedly have arrived. We got into the city at 10am and paid a cabbie $15 to take us 6 miles from the Caltrain station to the Consulate so we get there well before their noon closing time. We got there only to be told that our passports need to be mailed in to them and not brought in, in person. You'd think that since we were there they'd take them....???? But no, they insist we have to mail them in, so that was that!! Arrrggghhhh!!!Anyway, I refused to pay $15 to a cab driver to take us back to the Caltrain station and since we had decided to take the 1.37 pm train back to Palo Alto, we decided to walk back to the station. It ended up being a looong walk thru the slightly seedy shady part of town...finally we ended up on Market Street, i guess that would be the Park Avenue of SFO!! I took some pics of the strange sights of SFO...but its really a fun city. i would love to stay here for a few months sometime.
Then we came back to Palo Alto to make it in time for our 3 pm eye exams....(we both need new eye glasses) only to be told by the optical place that they would not accept our insurance cards (even tho they had told us the previous day on the phone that they do). So after some back and forth discussions between Lenscrafters and the insurance company and us, we cancelled and came home in disgust! Then again after much phone calling to the insurance company, we found out LC had made a mistake and could accept our cards...so we go back tomorrow! So all in all it was a total waste of a day....all R and I got was leg cramps from walking about 7 miles on the up and down roads of SFO !!!

Another farewell bash

Yesterday we celebrated Mothers Day by going to Hobees for brunch with my brother Ranjit, his wife Lakshmi and my 17 year old niece Mallika - see pic to the left. As anticipated it was a long wait for a table, but we finally got in and it was worth the wait. Yum food! Later in the afternoon, Sheena hosted a farewell bash for us....all our relatives in the Bay Area were invited and considering they total something close to 25-30, thats no small number. It was a warm afternoon and we were all outside enjoying the fabulous backyard and garden. There were lots of cute little kids who were all enchanted by Cyber who patiently put up with all their tormenting and tail pulling like the gentle dog that he is - another pic attached.

Happy Mothers Day to all moms out there, but especially to mine....

MOTHER

From seeds
You watered us.

As we sprouted
You helped us grow
With the warmth
Of your radiant love.

Along the way
You trimmed us
To keep us safe
From Harm.

When we grew out of
Our little pods,
You replanted us,
Where you gave us hope
And showed us faith
That we may be able
To do for others
As you did for us.

Literary jaunt

Sheena, Vijay's wife, invited us to an event at ICC to hear Shashi Tharoor being interviewed. It was fascinating. Not only a great and brilliant writer, he is an eloquent speaker. It was a real treat. I recorded a couple of sound clips from his interview and have posted them below....parts of it are hard to understand. I have almost all his books, so now i'll have to make it a point to read them as soon as time permits. I got a copy of his latest book "Bookless in Baghdad" and had it signed by him, thought Gautam would like it. We also got to see the community center that Sheena has been working so hard on the past 2-3 years. It is an amazing place for the Indian community here in the Bay area to come together at. R and I were amazed at how many people were there taking advantage of the programs and events it had to offer. Nice job Sheena!
11.30 pm - Afternoon we dropped by Geetha's place and hung out there for a while. Saiesh is all grown up now....yet another sign that i am a year older too :-( The rest of the evening was spent at Nimmu C's place. We got back to Los Altos around 9.30 and played a couple of rounds of Clue with Trisha and Kyle. That was lots of fun. The last time we played Clue was probably about ten or twelve years ago with Gautam...