Thanksgiving (2005) weekend trip to LA and San Diego
Well the dream at last came true where I meet my best friend in US of A as we promised each other in the immature age of 19! Well it took a hell long time to get to here but the juice was worth the squeeze. Travel plans were made at least 2 months back and it was a surprise for me. I could not wait to reach the real American city with the comfort of having a car to move around, the best company ever and also well planned itinerary made by my Navin (My best friend) and his wife Kanika.
Day # 1:
I headed in the morning to Phoenix airport with my bag packed and swollen eyes resultant of the sleepless night I had due to all the excitement. Finding flights, boarding the plane is never a hassle in US of A all credit goes to the well organized place. I was a bit lucky to get my digital camera just a day before I flew the flight to LA which made me happy with the online dell shopping network a lot. So the flight was small or because of excitement I could not realize the duration. I was sitting besides a young Chinese couple the guy was a eye surgeon and had a great apple laptop on which he was preparing a paper for some eye surgery. I reached LA 15 min before the time and was waiting for Golu (Navin’s nick name) and his charming wife (who was already my great friend). There they were to receive me in a couple of minutes, then hug and shake hands and off we went on the freeway to the “killer” San Diego. Well was a long ride though took us 2 hours in the first traffic jam on a USA freeway. Plan was to go to Pacific ocean beach and kayak (small boat with double sided rows) in the visibly calm sea but was sure wild. I started off well, the couples were not doing good earlier on the boat, then with a bit tips from the kayak trainer they were off with me in the sea. I was a bit easy as I thought it was easy till I was on the boat. A small wave (seemed to be to me but was real massive when it turned me over with the kayak…) came to the right side of my kayak and I was toppled in the salted waters of the pacific. Woooh… I was under the chilling water and kayak upside down. I could see the tension on my company’s faces but I was up to making a move up the kayak but after around 10-15 tries I could not make it. Golu and co-kayak Kaniks went off to the beach for help and the kayak trainer/owner saw us and called for life guards. I was in the cold water with the fear of not drowning but the creatures (small fishes, weeds and corals) under the water freaked me more. I hardly managed to reach the beach pulling my kayak with me and with a guilt of spoiling everything, but Golu and Kaniks were cool about it and cooling me off with some laughs. Ohhh… It was a bit scary though in the sea. Let me not talk about it any more. Then we went to the favorite inn of Americans where Navin had booked the room for us “Holiday Inn”. It was a nice place and we had showers there before we could move out to our dinner in a Indian restaurant. We went to Island named Coronado and there was this beautiful bridge connecting San Diego to the island. It was great there with the high rises across the sea and a nice little place. The dinner that day was in a Indian restaurant which was not that great but for a start Indian food was great to my stomach.
Lots of chattering and talking about good ol’ times made me nostalgic and glad. I was really enjoying the time. Waiting for the next day we went to sleep cause we had a big day ahead.
Day # 2:
Started the day with the Danish butter cookies (in the big colorful tin box Golu had bought) and wht Sev Parmal I had bought from India. We rushed ourselves back to LA to get to the amazing Universal studio theme park. We reached there and got mad started running here and there snapping pictures so that we can save and share the memories. Great place we had all the amazing rides and shows most of which were thrilling and 4D shows the 4th D being the water and vibrations (rather wild movements) in the seats we sat in for the shows. I saw a huge crowd (mostly Americans and Indians – Desies) and most were in the queue waiting for the rides but as we had the front of line passes we just took the gate A and just went brazing besides the longest queues of USA, proudly showing off our front of line neck tags! Rides were awesome and I wished the day would never end but it did very quick even before I could realize and we had to take off from that wonderful place fearing delay. Most rides were based on movies like terminator 2, Shrek, Back to the future, The Mummy, Jurassic park – the lost world, and also shows like Animal Planet live and Fear Factor live. After we left eye struck from the small city walk filled with lighted street shops, we went to the place I have dreamed to be in long back the Hollywood “Walk of Fame”. It was amazing and magical, a long lost dream come true. There were these stars on the footpath with all the Hollywood starts names engraved in a metal star right between the street all way to the end. Then staying there for a hour or so we had to rush off again to have our dinner, keeping in account that we had no lunch because we were busy with Universal, we all were hungry. We had maps to everyplace in the area it seemed, thanks to Golzy and Kaniks for the same. We headed to the Indian restaurant street in Artesia but all were closed luckily! We then headed to the all American food place, Denny’s, which are open 24x7. There I had one of the most amazing food I have ever had, pancakes with maple syrup and egg omelet topped with mushroom, cheese and sided with seasoned fries. The food was awesome, best were the hot pan cakes with the maples syrup. I loved the place, food and Golu n Kaniks to take me there.
Day # 3:
This day started a bit late as we had to sleep and relax a bit after the big day we had. According to the nicely planed trips’ itinerary we had to head to San Diego Sea World. The place was filled of, as the name suggests, sea animals. We saw Shamu the whale’s show, which was the biggest attraction, then dolphins and Sea Lion’s shows. The day was a bit slow (after the fun filled day at Universal studio) it was a bit dull but some shows were good and so was the water ride. We headed out soon from there to the Balboa park to visit a science museum. It was a great place with many experiments to be done and facts to be known with the do yourself exhibits in different section of the building. Ending the visit with a nice movie “Mystery of the Nile” in the I-Max was great. Hungry by now we rushed to the Downtown to hit the Bombay cuisine Indian restaurant and had a great dinner there. To wind up the day we had a chatting till we were dozing off in the bed at the Holiday Inn.
Day # 4:
Day started with a bit sorrow saddening feeling in my mind or rather heart that this will end soon. Great country and company of my dearest friend wish this never ends! Thanks a lot Golu and Kaniks for the best time of my life in US of A. USA is a great place and after looking the 2 most amazing cities here I want to make my dream of living in USA come true. I want to stay here and enjoy my life, fulfill my dream, for at least 10 fun filled years of my life. Well we packed stuff. Kaniks packed me 2 stuffed boxes of the amazing Danish butter cookies and making sure that I get all the stacks of my favorite types of cookies from the big tin box. So nice of her, Golu sure is lucky to have her as his wife! Well the last lunch of the trip was at the already experimented with place named “Baja (pronounced Baha) Fresh” with the best Mexican Burrito I had ever, with the nachos which tasted nachos (not like those in India – they are really the Indian version of Nachos).
These guys then dropped me to air port. We parted with hug, hand shakes and promises to meet again! They were not bored of me or what? Well that was a joke for sure! boarded an early flight to Phoenix and reached Home on a blue shared van and it sure was very cold in the evening. Work on Monday was going to be tough this very first weekend of my life!
:)
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Niranjan Bendre
www.niranjanbendre.8m.com
