Aug 21, 2008 Thursday..
Today I planned to finish of my work soon and go to Apple store. I've booked for an appointment with genius bar at Apple store. The appointment is at 4:20PM...
So in the morning,went soon to office and continued with my routine work there....Working till 11am, playing, lunch etc...
Today is my brother's birthday by IDC time... I called him 30minutes before... and wished him... Happenend to finish my work bit early..
Went to Apple store by public transport.. I reached there by 4:30pm.. It was 10minutes late.. My name was first in the waiting list... The guys over the store are trained for customer handling..
Seems there were no specialist for Ipod Nano at that time and it took about 45min before I got attended.. Meanwhile the guy over there professionally told about the situations and asked me to wait..
I explained the apple person about replacing my battery as the play back time has been reduced to 1 hr from 12 hrs. The ipod nano is out of warranty and I checked about the cost. It was 59$ and seems they don't have stock as of now... They raised a request for the same and told there is no obligation in buying the same..
I also told my headphones are gone and don't play good as of now.. she tested for the same and she is generous enough to replace my headphones with a new one.. It is worth 30$.. She told that they made us waited for a long time and it s a small gift for the same..
Atleast my visit to Apple store paid off. Reached hotel by 7:30 and called up my colleagues to check for dinner.
They asked me to come to Amici's directly. This time me, Jiri Klouda , Ravi and Venkat went to the Amici's.. I had garlic bread and Ordinary pizza with black olives and mushroom topings.. This time I'd mini pizza it was 7inch.. I managed to finish the same...
Came back to room at 10pm and watched olympics for a while.. The Jamaican's are ruling the 100,200 meters men and women events in olympics.. Men's 100 and 200 meter was tremendous... Boltin won the gold medal with world records.. Amazing run by him... Jamaican's are really ruling the running..
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Day 20.... Wednesday... Meeting day
Aug 20, 2008 Wednesday..
I reached office today bit early around 9:30 itself(Yep.. I see you all laughing that I'm telling 30minutes is early for me.. Anyway early is early).. First thought meeting is at 11am and seems it is postponed to 2pm in the afternoon.
Work is going on as usual..with hectic work schedules.. Good thing is, I'm able to fix the bugs bit soon.. So things are ok.. So nothing more to write today...
At hotel, my goods started arriving one by one.. So everything is fine as of now...
Today we went to Mango bay for our dinner..We are becoming regular customer for them.. The guy now seems to recognize us and we don't need to see the menu any more...
So days are going good at SFO...
I reached office today bit early around 9:30 itself(Yep.. I see you all laughing that I'm telling 30minutes is early for me.. Anyway early is early).. First thought meeting is at 11am and seems it is postponed to 2pm in the afternoon.
Work is going on as usual..with hectic work schedules.. Good thing is, I'm able to fix the bugs bit soon.. So things are ok.. So nothing more to write today...
At hotel, my goods started arriving one by one.. So everything is fine as of now...
Today we went to Mango bay for our dinner..We are becoming regular customer for them.. The guy now seems to recognize us and we don't need to see the menu any more...
So days are going good at SFO...
Day 19... Shopping...
Aug 19,2008... Tuesday..
As usual reached the office at 10AM in the morning.. Got some hot bugs to fix. Started fixing the bug and went to play at 11am. Today Purush joined us too.. It was a pretty good play..
As soon as I reached office, we went for lunch again... Came to my seat at 1:45PM again..
Started working on the bug and submitted the fix for testing.. The things are going on fine.. Ravi called me for apple store, since he found some hairline crack in the headphones..
So we started by 3:30pm from office. We went to San Carlos cal train station. From there we took a bus to Palo Alto caltrain station. We reached the apple store located at University Avenue, Palo Alto at 4:30PM. I accompanied him to check with the battery replacement for my first generation Nano.. Ravi told the problem to the Apple store guy and he is very generous enough to give a new pair of headphones immediately..
It was gud.. Walked to bus stop again and we went to target... Did some shopping.. The store was big enough.. If you are going to stay a little bit longer, you will end up spending a lot..
Finally reached San Carlos at 8 and from there we went to Hotel by walk. The public transportation is available only at specific timing and not round the clock... After reaching hotel, we ordered for pizza again.. It is becoming our routine... Having pizza in the night and sleeping.. Me gaining weight pretty fast...
As usual reached the office at 10AM in the morning.. Got some hot bugs to fix. Started fixing the bug and went to play at 11am. Today Purush joined us too.. It was a pretty good play..
As soon as I reached office, we went for lunch again... Came to my seat at 1:45PM again..
Started working on the bug and submitted the fix for testing.. The things are going on fine.. Ravi called me for apple store, since he found some hairline crack in the headphones..
So we started by 3:30pm from office. We went to San Carlos cal train station. From there we took a bus to Palo Alto caltrain station. We reached the apple store located at University Avenue, Palo Alto at 4:30PM. I accompanied him to check with the battery replacement for my first generation Nano.. Ravi told the problem to the Apple store guy and he is very generous enough to give a new pair of headphones immediately..
It was gud.. Walked to bus stop again and we went to target... Did some shopping.. The store was big enough.. If you are going to stay a little bit longer, you will end up spending a lot..
Finally reached San Carlos at 8 and from there we went to Hotel by walk. The public transportation is available only at specific timing and not round the clock... After reaching hotel, we ordered for pizza again.. It is becoming our routine... Having pizza in the night and sleeping.. Me gaining weight pretty fast...
Day 18... Monday Again
Aug 18,2008
It is monday again.. We have to get back to work and normal life..
Got up at 8am and had the same menu for the breakfast.. A Bagel, Corn Flakes with milk, banana..
Reached office at 10:15AM and realized that I didn't bring my sports shoes to play.. It is really bad..
Rahul my US Manager has came back from vacation and got some sweets and snacks from India. I went to his place and grabbed the same.. The day has been pretty much loaded...
In the afternoon, had lunch at 100 building itself. I'd the Vegetarian wrap with potato fry. It was good. Afternoon at 4pm, I slept due to my tiredNight as usual Vladmir dropped us at Hotel. After reaching hotel, we ordered pizza.. It seems that we are getting settled down a usual menu.
Today we ordered the Greek Isle Pizza, Garlic Breadsticks and coke.. By the time we finished our dinner it was already 10pm.. The olympics is getting pretty much intersting now.. After the Michael Phelps 8 gold medals at Swimming now other competitions are going on. I was watching the Gymnastics.. This is pretty interesting.. Everyone was doing pretty good and I don't know how the judges come with epoints and conclusions..
One more day ended....
It is monday again.. We have to get back to work and normal life..
Got up at 8am and had the same menu for the breakfast.. A Bagel, Corn Flakes with milk, banana..
Reached office at 10:15AM and realized that I didn't bring my sports shoes to play.. It is really bad..
Rahul my US Manager has came back from vacation and got some sweets and snacks from India. I went to his place and grabbed the same.. The day has been pretty much loaded...
In the afternoon, had lunch at 100 building itself. I'd the Vegetarian wrap with potato fry. It was good. Afternoon at 4pm, I slept due to my tiredNight as usual Vladmir dropped us at Hotel. After reaching hotel, we ordered pizza.. It seems that we are getting settled down a usual menu.
Today we ordered the Greek Isle Pizza, Garlic Breadsticks and coke.. By the time we finished our dinner it was already 10pm.. The olympics is getting pretty much intersting now.. After the Michael Phelps 8 gold medals at Swimming now other competitions are going on. I was watching the Gymnastics.. This is pretty interesting.. Everyone was doing pretty good and I don't know how the judges come with epoints and conclusions..
One more day ended....
Aug 17 2008, Pittsburght to SFO
Aug 17,2008 Sunday... Day 17 at US....
This is the first sunday I need to wake up so early to catch a flight... I was waken up by 4am alarm. We got ready and started to airport by 4:25AM. From venky's home it is a 25min drive. Reached the airport exactly at 4:55AM.
Went directly to check-in place. Since I didn't have any baggage to check-in, got the boarding pass through Easy Check-in Kiosk of United Airlines. They told, they will be allocating my seat near the Gate. Now have to go through the security check. Seems I've to rush to the place now. The security check queue was pretty long. Waited for another 15min to clear that. Meanwhile Venky came till security check and he left.. Kudos and Many thanks to Venky who spent with me during whole trip in Pittsburgh taking me to Niagara Falls, Temple, Sand Castle and Laser Storm..
Next I've to catch a train to go to the boarding gates... Finally reached the gate exactly on time.
I was so much tired due to continuous travel for past 3 days.. So got in the Chicago flight and luckily I got the exit seat. I slept all the way to chicago and 1:30 hrs journey... The flight landed at Chicago at 6:15Am (it is in another time zone, central time zone)... My next flight to chicago is at 7am and luckily this time the gate was just opposite to the gate from where I came out. The chicago - SFO flight was a big flight and it has 2 - 4 - 2 seats.. Luckily they have upgraded my tickets to Economy plus and the seats are bit wider... Here also I hardly did any thing.. I slept, slept, slept till it reached SFO. I was waken up the announcement that it reaches in another 15minutes and this time the flight was ahead of the schedule.
The distant view of SFO was in the horizon.. When the flight started descending down from 30K feet, passing through the clouds was pretty much amazing.. The whole SFO was covered with clouds and above it was sunny. Once crossed the clouds, it was pretty cloudy... Just in minutes the whole environment changed...
Not having much words to explain the experiences... I got down and searched for a vending machine which gives change for $bills. Finally after half an hour hunt I found one near the baggage claim area. This time I made a stupid mistake of inserting the bill in the upper slot and it didn't work a quite a time.. I found one more machine and found the same.. Finally I found how stupid I was. Then I got the quarters.. Called up Venky and informed him about my safe trip to SFO..
Tried reaching Lohit and he was not reachable. Next I took KX sam trans bus to san carlos and it is a local service costing $1.50 . From San carlos to my hotel I walked down. It was a 20min walk.. Reached finally hotel at 11AM..
In the afternoon, at hotel ordered pizza at Amici's... I had the pizza at Venkat's Room and slept there in the Sofa for around 5 hrs.. I woke up at 8 only.. I was damn tired due to the hectic schedule..
I was not much hungry and in the evening went to Burger king to have dinner. I had a chocolate Shake and French fries... In the night I called home, some of my friends.. It was one more day at SFO....
This is the first sunday I need to wake up so early to catch a flight... I was waken up by 4am alarm. We got ready and started to airport by 4:25AM. From venky's home it is a 25min drive. Reached the airport exactly at 4:55AM.
Went directly to check-in place. Since I didn't have any baggage to check-in, got the boarding pass through Easy Check-in Kiosk of United Airlines. They told, they will be allocating my seat near the Gate. Now have to go through the security check. Seems I've to rush to the place now. The security check queue was pretty long. Waited for another 15min to clear that. Meanwhile Venky came till security check and he left.. Kudos and Many thanks to Venky who spent with me during whole trip in Pittsburgh taking me to Niagara Falls, Temple, Sand Castle and Laser Storm..
Next I've to catch a train to go to the boarding gates... Finally reached the gate exactly on time.
I was so much tired due to continuous travel for past 3 days.. So got in the Chicago flight and luckily I got the exit seat. I slept all the way to chicago and 1:30 hrs journey... The flight landed at Chicago at 6:15Am (it is in another time zone, central time zone)... My next flight to chicago is at 7am and luckily this time the gate was just opposite to the gate from where I came out. The chicago - SFO flight was a big flight and it has 2 - 4 - 2 seats.. Luckily they have upgraded my tickets to Economy plus and the seats are bit wider... Here also I hardly did any thing.. I slept, slept, slept till it reached SFO. I was waken up the announcement that it reaches in another 15minutes and this time the flight was ahead of the schedule.
The distant view of SFO was in the horizon.. When the flight started descending down from 30K feet, passing through the clouds was pretty much amazing.. The whole SFO was covered with clouds and above it was sunny. Once crossed the clouds, it was pretty cloudy... Just in minutes the whole environment changed...
Not having much words to explain the experiences... I got down and searched for a vending machine which gives change for $bills. Finally after half an hour hunt I found one near the baggage claim area. This time I made a stupid mistake of inserting the bill in the upper slot and it didn't work a quite a time.. I found one more machine and found the same.. Finally I found how stupid I was. Then I got the quarters.. Called up Venky and informed him about my safe trip to SFO..
Tried reaching Lohit and he was not reachable. Next I took KX sam trans bus to san carlos and it is a local service costing $1.50 . From San carlos to my hotel I walked down. It was a 20min walk.. Reached finally hotel at 11AM..
In the afternoon, at hotel ordered pizza at Amici's... I had the pizza at Venkat's Room and slept there in the Sofa for around 5 hrs.. I woke up at 8 only.. I was damn tired due to the hectic schedule..
I was not much hungry and in the evening went to Burger king to have dinner. I had a chocolate Shake and French fries... In the night I called home, some of my friends.. It was one more day at SFO....
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Fun at East.. Part 2 ( SV temple and Sand Castle)
Aug 16, 2008
After yesterday's long trip, we were so tired and me got waken up by Venky at 10AM (I think)... Seems Few more friends of Venky also come there.. Everyone is from Infy... Except me... I met most of my friend's friend.. They are really good.. Few to name are Brijesh, Vick, Prashanth, Phany, Suresh, Raj and Keerthi, Viji, Aparna, Aruna.. If I missed out any one sorry 4 that.. Poor memory...
I called up my ex-roommate in India Saravanarajan who travelled (drove) all way from New jersey to Pittsburgh to see me( appadi dhan solluran).. So we plan to meet at Sri Venkateswara(SV) temple at Pittsburgh at 1PM.. Before that Venky has to return the rented Liberty Jeep. He went out and came back at 10:30 AM.. By the time he came it as 12 and when we started to temple it was almost 1pm from home... Called up Saravanarajan and asked him to start... We both reached exactly at the same time... Perfect coordination.....This temple is the oldest temple in America. It was surrounded by hills... It was pretty good..
Yes of course.. I went especially to have puliyotharai, thayir sadham... It was pretty good.. Each dish costed 2$. Pretty cheap though.. After that we clicked some photographs...
It was pretty good to meet my roommates, collegemates who are good friends at a very good place.. Going back in time, it is almost a decade we met for the first time... How many years, months, weeks, days passed.. Seems it all happened very near and it is a long period...
Next we planned to go to Sand Castle Theme park .
This is a water theme park.. Covering theme parks one by one.. Previous one was Six Flags at Vallejo,CA.. Since we reached that place around 3pm, half day pricing came into effect. We paid around 19$ per head and inside 2$ for a locker.. As soon as we got inside, me and venky where really odd with full pants and t-shirts.. So we quickly turned to shorts and got ready for the slides..
There were two opinions.. One Go for big ones first so that you can cover before the park closes. Second, if you cover big at first place, you will loose interest in smaller ones.
The second point got much vote and we went ahead with that plan. Covered almost all rides..The rush was not that much, so the waiting time was less and in almost 2 hrs we are able to cover most of them.
Among them my favorites are diving into 12 feet water and lightning express. Lightning express is amazing.. There were two rides in this. One you will be falling near vertical from a height of 40ft and another one from a height of 80ft.. It was really thrilling and amazing..
Ofcourse, I closed my eyes when I was falling from 80ft height.. You are light and doing a free fall.. Pretty much interesting.. After this we went to 12 feet water diving 2 more times and directly went to the wave pool.
At exactly 6:10 the waves started and went on for 10minutes. I've to learn swimming more.. As of now I'm able to go and come out of water. Need to learn various styles... Adding this to my TODO list.
By 6:30 we planned to leave for the day.. I went ahead and clicked some pictures. The park slides closes by 6:30 and it was pretty empty now. You have advantage taking the photographs when no one is there. You don't need to wait for people crossing and don't need to break there privacy...
At the end of the day we had some Haldirams snacks and after that some ice cream too. It is pretty good day finally and a gr8 finish... At 7:30 we started to each our home...
Me and venky planned to go to Toysurs a Toy store. Went there and found the Wall-e toys pretty interesting and couple of cars... I'm in dilemma to buy the RC controlled toys, since I didn't find any better deals there..
After that we planned for the dinner and found that Venky's friends are going to Laser Tag (Laser Storm) a game... So we directly headed there.. We went there a group of 11... We played nearly 3 games totally. It was 13$ per head for whole night.. We played the laser game till 12 midnight.. It was good experience...
Finally we reached home at night 1am.. Oh.. this is a very long day for me.. In another 3 hrs I've to start to airport for my next trip.. At night 1am we had dinner.. Samabar came from another home, venky put rice in Microwave oven.. It was pretty good. I had rice with sambar and Karvipillai podi which I got from India. It was pretty good.. Today most of the food are Indian... Am I really missing Indian food? Time has to tell me the answer..
By the time, when I slept it was almost 3 in the morning.. Didn't forget to put the alarm on.. See you in next day experience..
After yesterday's long trip, we were so tired and me got waken up by Venky at 10AM (I think)... Seems Few more friends of Venky also come there.. Everyone is from Infy... Except me... I met most of my friend's friend.. They are really good.. Few to name are Brijesh, Vick, Prashanth, Phany, Suresh, Raj and Keerthi, Viji, Aparna, Aruna.. If I missed out any one sorry 4 that.. Poor memory...
I called up my ex-roommate in India Saravanarajan who travelled (drove) all way from New jersey to Pittsburgh to see me( appadi dhan solluran).. So we plan to meet at Sri Venkateswara(SV) temple at Pittsburgh at 1PM.. Before that Venky has to return the rented Liberty Jeep. He went out and came back at 10:30 AM.. By the time he came it as 12 and when we started to temple it was almost 1pm from home... Called up Saravanarajan and asked him to start... We both reached exactly at the same time... Perfect coordination.....This temple is the oldest temple in America. It was surrounded by hills... It was pretty good..
Yes of course.. I went especially to have puliyotharai, thayir sadham... It was pretty good.. Each dish costed 2$. Pretty cheap though.. After that we clicked some photographs...
It was pretty good to meet my roommates, collegemates who are good friends at a very good place.. Going back in time, it is almost a decade we met for the first time... How many years, months, weeks, days passed.. Seems it all happened very near and it is a long period...
Next we planned to go to Sand Castle Theme park .
This is a water theme park.. Covering theme parks one by one.. Previous one was Six Flags at Vallejo,CA.. Since we reached that place around 3pm, half day pricing came into effect. We paid around 19$ per head and inside 2$ for a locker.. As soon as we got inside, me and venky where really odd with full pants and t-shirts.. So we quickly turned to shorts and got ready for the slides..
There were two opinions.. One Go for big ones first so that you can cover before the park closes. Second, if you cover big at first place, you will loose interest in smaller ones.
The second point got much vote and we went ahead with that plan. Covered almost all rides..The rush was not that much, so the waiting time was less and in almost 2 hrs we are able to cover most of them.
Among them my favorites are diving into 12 feet water and lightning express. Lightning express is amazing.. There were two rides in this. One you will be falling near vertical from a height of 40ft and another one from a height of 80ft.. It was really thrilling and amazing..
Ofcourse, I closed my eyes when I was falling from 80ft height.. You are light and doing a free fall.. Pretty much interesting.. After this we went to 12 feet water diving 2 more times and directly went to the wave pool.
At exactly 6:10 the waves started and went on for 10minutes. I've to learn swimming more.. As of now I'm able to go and come out of water. Need to learn various styles... Adding this to my TODO list.
By 6:30 we planned to leave for the day.. I went ahead and clicked some pictures. The park slides closes by 6:30 and it was pretty empty now. You have advantage taking the photographs when no one is there. You don't need to wait for people crossing and don't need to break there privacy...
At the end of the day we had some Haldirams snacks and after that some ice cream too. It is pretty good day finally and a gr8 finish... At 7:30 we started to each our home...
Me and venky planned to go to Toysurs a Toy store. Went there and found the Wall-e toys pretty interesting and couple of cars... I'm in dilemma to buy the RC controlled toys, since I didn't find any better deals there..
After that we planned for the dinner and found that Venky's friends are going to Laser Tag (Laser Storm) a game... So we directly headed there.. We went there a group of 11... We played nearly 3 games totally. It was 13$ per head for whole night.. We played the laser game till 12 midnight.. It was good experience...
Finally we reached home at night 1am.. Oh.. this is a very long day for me.. In another 3 hrs I've to start to airport for my next trip.. At night 1am we had dinner.. Samabar came from another home, venky put rice in Microwave oven.. It was pretty good. I had rice with sambar and Karvipillai podi which I got from India. It was pretty good.. Today most of the food are Indian... Am I really missing Indian food? Time has to tell me the answer..
By the time, when I slept it was almost 3 in the morning.. Didn't forget to put the alarm on.. See you in next day experience..
Monday, August 18, 2008
Fun at East... Part 1...
Aug 15, Friday 2008...
First of all I will start with little bit of history... How writing blogs started...
All happened after I came to my second US trip to SFO. I was bit bored and started writing mails about my daily experience here... EMail served me a easier way through which I can update Dad, Brother and other friends easily about my daily activities and experience here. Most of friends asked me to start writing blog.... Thanks a lot for all support (edhukkunnu theriyala.. Hope to be good only)..
On Aug 12 I finally booked tickets to Pittsburgh where one of my friend Venky's lives... The deal was good and I got it for 400$.. I was first in dilemma whether to go or not and finally decided to go ahead in meeting him.. So the itenary was.
Aug 14th 2008, 2:23PM SFO to Pittsburgh (One stop flight. Changeover at Denver)
Aug 17th 2008, 5:55AM Pittsburgh to SFO ( One stop flight. Changeover at Chicago)
On Aug 14th, I started my day very early.. Woke up at 5:30AM and good that I finished my work at 12 noon. Started from office at 12:35PM.. Since it is personal trip, I planned to go by public transportation instead of taxi.. Took bus from Ralston Avenue near Belmont Caltrain station at 1:12PM and reached Airport by 1:35PM... Got the boarding pass and exactly reached the gate on time at 2:05PM.. My friend Venky came and picked me up at Pittsburgh airport at night 12:30AM... Reached his home by 1:00AM.. Finished my pending works by 5AM morning and slept..
Venky woke me up at 9AM in the morning and we planned to go to Niagara falls. We rented a car for this trip. Finally found that we have to take Jeep Liberty for the trip... We started the trip at 11:30 AM.. Trip is nearly 4:30 hrs from his place.. We have to head North...
We have to pass through Pittsburgh Downtown.. This is where Venky is working here..It is really nice to put some photos side by side and increase the visual experience on the whole..
The drive was really really nice.. Full of green trees. It is different compared to west. Most of the places are marked as Deer Crossing.. Good to see these lush green land.. The sky is blue.. White clouds at the horizon... Cool air... At 1PM we stopped to fill the gas ( Yes... It is petrol only... ) and grabbed 6" burger at Subway.. After 15-20 min, we are back in track towards Niagara Falls..
This is Venky's Fifth trip to Niagara.... and my first ever trip to US East and trip to Niagara...
We were having great time... Sharing our experiences, information about our friends.. It was pretty nice.. After about 100miles the climate started getting cooler.. There is moisture in the air.. There were road work going at different stretches of the highway... We had to pay around 3.85$ as toll during the trip..
Finally we reached the place Niagara falls by 3:30PM... We were damn hungry... Went to Niagara Information center.. Grabbed some Greek food.. It is Pete Falafal with hummus sauce.. It was pretty good..
We planned the sight seeing activities.. First to see is Maid of the Mist raid. This will take us near the Falls in a boat.. The falls next to the Maid of the Mist tower is the American falls and it is wonderful feeling to experience both the roaring water and falls...
First we went to the tower had a look at the Niagara falls.. Mani is finally here at one of the wonderful places in the world. We have to get inside the watch tower and have to take elevator to reach the bank of the river. As soon as we got down, we noticed our boat was ready and especially waiting for us.. We ran into the boat.. They gave rain coat so that we don't get drenched up in the mist.
We both wanted to experience the mist.. So we used those covers to cover our bags and camera... I don't remember when the boat started and all. Boat first took us near the American Falls... This itself was amazing... White Water falling from the top.. All the places are misty... Yep they named this correctly... Commentary from the boat about various stuffs.. Next they took us near the main Horse Shoe shaped falls.. We took some special photos and it is time to cover the camera..
As soon as we went in it was something you are in a dense fog.. Above the sky there is no clouds.. It is clear... Still you drenched.. The mist was reaching the clouds... It was amazing... The ride cost was 12.50$ and it priceless... Felt like we should be there in boat for some more time.
We returned to the starting point... We clicked some snaps for our Memories... Then we went up in Elevator and took some photos of the nature... Next we wanted to go the Cave of Winds.. In between we clicked some more snaps... Water proof packing of clothes, purses and very importantly snaps....
We rushed up to the Cave of winds front office. Wow it was open... They gave a pair of slippers also.. So packed my shoes, sandals and we down the elevator to the bank again. The Elevator was inside a mountain. They excavated the rocks some 75Yrs back.. Went down.. Again we were the River.. The experience was amazing... You get wet by the mist itself. So much water flows..In peak summer, seems it carries 285000 Liters of water per second... In the canadian side, the sun was setting down. The view of the sun, orange sky, mist created by falls the feeling was amazing..
We clicked some photos.. Since Venky has almost visited this place now and then he knew what to do next. So as per plan, we covered our bags, kept our cameras safe and placed all our stuffs in the lower deck where the water and mist is low. Then we went to the Thunder rock place where you can directly experience the flow of water.
Even though the quantity of water which falls on u is small, it was really superb.. The water is clear, when you take bath it was like some one massaging you... Under the falls you were like in heaven... Thundering sounds of water.... Amazing sun set etc... we took bath for almost an hour.. We didnt feel the chill when we were in water. Once out.. our body started shaking, hands trembling in cold, teeth are typewriting.. Our next target is to find a rest room and change our clothes... We have to to upper deck... Once we are in new warm clothes, we were missing Onion Bajji and samosa... enna dhan US la irundhalam in this weather nothing beats it.
We went to the place between American falls and took snaps... Now the plan is to watch the Niagara at night and fireworks at night... We spend time in clicking the photos and by the time when we reached the Main falls, the sun is almost set and moon is in the sky...
So we are unable to see the full view of the falls in the day light.. From the Canadian side, the lights are on and falls are appearing in spectacular colors.. Pink, Green, Blue, White.... It was pretty good to see them.. Appreciate the way the tourists are attracted with various themes...
We were waiting for the fireworks to start at 9.. Eventually it didn't start. Checked up friends and came to know that it is at 10PM every friday and sunday.. Luckily I was there on friday.. So we dont want miss the same.
The time is flying... When we reached near the maid of mist tower it is almost 9:45 and we wanted to settle down at some place near the garden instead of going to tower . I see lot of Desis visiting the place.. The river is lighted well. It was good.. We were getting hungry and wanted to sip a hot chocolate in the cold evening..
The fire works started 10PM exactly.. I started clicking some snaps.. and my bad luck the memory card got full... So deleted some unnecessary photos and in the mean time missed some interesting fireworks... Even though I captured some snaps and a video..
The fireworks went on for 15minutes. We headed to the gates ASAP to avoid the crowd and directly went to a store to buy some T-Shirts as memory.. I called up my Dad and updated my experience.. Then we too headed to an Indian Restaurant. The buffet dinner was 11$ and had 5 veg dishes and 1 non-veg dishes with unlimited roti's and rice. Pretty good deal. I had alu sabji, Panner Tikka, Some Palak with Roti.. By the time we started back to Pittsburgh it is almost 11:30PM..
The day ended pretty cool... We drove back to Pittsburgh and reached home at 3:30AM. It is almost 16 hrs.. Among them 9 hrs went in driving and 9 hrs at Niagara... The Jeep liberty which we rented drank gas like anything.. So we ended up paying around 90$ for Gas alone. The only bad part of the day is while returning back, found a deer was hit and run in the road. Long day for me...
The next day in next post...
Hope I didn't bore you all with a very big blog.. Keep njoying.. Comments are welcome.. Guys who wanted to comment after I start writing blogs are most welcome..
First of all I will start with little bit of history... How writing blogs started...
All happened after I came to my second US trip to SFO. I was bit bored and started writing mails about my daily experience here... EMail served me a easier way through which I can update Dad, Brother and other friends easily about my daily activities and experience here. Most of friends asked me to start writing blog.... Thanks a lot for all support (edhukkunnu theriyala.. Hope to be good only)..
On Aug 12 I finally booked tickets to Pittsburgh where one of my friend Venky's lives... The deal was good and I got it for 400$.. I was first in dilemma whether to go or not and finally decided to go ahead in meeting him.. So the itenary was.
Aug 14th 2008, 2:23PM SFO to Pittsburgh (One stop flight. Changeover at Denver)
Aug 17th 2008, 5:55AM Pittsburgh to SFO ( One stop flight. Changeover at Chicago)
On Aug 14th, I started my day very early.. Woke up at 5:30AM and good that I finished my work at 12 noon. Started from office at 12:35PM.. Since it is personal trip, I planned to go by public transportation instead of taxi.. Took bus from Ralston Avenue near Belmont Caltrain station at 1:12PM and reached Airport by 1:35PM... Got the boarding pass and exactly reached the gate on time at 2:05PM.. My friend Venky came and picked me up at Pittsburgh airport at night 12:30AM... Reached his home by 1:00AM.. Finished my pending works by 5AM morning and slept..
Venky woke me up at 9AM in the morning and we planned to go to Niagara falls. We rented a car for this trip. Finally found that we have to take Jeep Liberty for the trip... We started the trip at 11:30 AM.. Trip is nearly 4:30 hrs from his place.. We have to head North...
We have to pass through Pittsburgh Downtown.. This is where Venky is working here..It is really nice to put some photos side by side and increase the visual experience on the whole..
The drive was really really nice.. Full of green trees. It is different compared to west. Most of the places are marked as Deer Crossing.. Good to see these lush green land.. The sky is blue.. White clouds at the horizon... Cool air... At 1PM we stopped to fill the gas ( Yes... It is petrol only... ) and grabbed 6" burger at Subway.. After 15-20 min, we are back in track towards Niagara Falls..
This is Venky's Fifth trip to Niagara.... and my first ever trip to US East and trip to Niagara...
We were having great time... Sharing our experiences, information about our friends.. It was pretty nice.. After about 100miles the climate started getting cooler.. There is moisture in the air.. There were road work going at different stretches of the highway... We had to pay around 3.85$ as toll during the trip..
Finally we reached the place Niagara falls by 3:30PM... We were damn hungry... Went to Niagara Information center.. Grabbed some Greek food.. It is Pete Falafal with hummus sauce.. It was pretty good..
We planned the sight seeing activities.. First to see is Maid of the Mist raid. This will take us near the Falls in a boat.. The falls next to the Maid of the Mist tower is the American falls and it is wonderful feeling to experience both the roaring water and falls...
First we went to the tower had a look at the Niagara falls.. Mani is finally here at one of the wonderful places in the world. We have to get inside the watch tower and have to take elevator to reach the bank of the river. As soon as we got down, we noticed our boat was ready and especially waiting for us.. We ran into the boat.. They gave rain coat so that we don't get drenched up in the mist.
We both wanted to experience the mist.. So we used those covers to cover our bags and camera... I don't remember when the boat started and all. Boat first took us near the American Falls... This itself was amazing... White Water falling from the top.. All the places are misty... Yep they named this correctly... Commentary from the boat about various stuffs.. Next they took us near the main Horse Shoe shaped falls.. We took some special photos and it is time to cover the camera..
As soon as we went in it was something you are in a dense fog.. Above the sky there is no clouds.. It is clear... Still you drenched.. The mist was reaching the clouds... It was amazing... The ride cost was 12.50$ and it priceless... Felt like we should be there in boat for some more time.
We returned to the starting point... We clicked some snaps for our Memories... Then we went up in Elevator and took some photos of the nature... Next we wanted to go the Cave of Winds.. In between we clicked some more snaps... Water proof packing of clothes, purses and very importantly snaps....
We rushed up to the Cave of winds front office. Wow it was open... They gave a pair of slippers also.. So packed my shoes, sandals and we down the elevator to the bank again. The Elevator was inside a mountain. They excavated the rocks some 75Yrs back.. Went down.. Again we were the River.. The experience was amazing... You get wet by the mist itself. So much water flows..In peak summer, seems it carries 285000 Liters of water per second... In the canadian side, the sun was setting down. The view of the sun, orange sky, mist created by falls the feeling was amazing..
We clicked some photos.. Since Venky has almost visited this place now and then he knew what to do next. So as per plan, we covered our bags, kept our cameras safe and placed all our stuffs in the lower deck where the water and mist is low. Then we went to the Thunder rock place where you can directly experience the flow of water.
Even though the quantity of water which falls on u is small, it was really superb.. The water is clear, when you take bath it was like some one massaging you... Under the falls you were like in heaven... Thundering sounds of water.... Amazing sun set etc... we took bath for almost an hour.. We didnt feel the chill when we were in water. Once out.. our body started shaking, hands trembling in cold, teeth are typewriting.. Our next target is to find a rest room and change our clothes... We have to to upper deck... Once we are in new warm clothes, we were missing Onion Bajji and samosa... enna dhan US la irundhalam in this weather nothing beats it.
We went to the place between American falls and took snaps... Now the plan is to watch the Niagara at night and fireworks at night... We spend time in clicking the photos and by the time when we reached the Main falls, the sun is almost set and moon is in the sky...
So we are unable to see the full view of the falls in the day light.. From the Canadian side, the lights are on and falls are appearing in spectacular colors.. Pink, Green, Blue, White.... It was pretty good to see them.. Appreciate the way the tourists are attracted with various themes...
We were waiting for the fireworks to start at 9.. Eventually it didn't start. Checked up friends and came to know that it is at 10PM every friday and sunday.. Luckily I was there on friday.. So we dont want miss the same.
The time is flying... When we reached near the maid of mist tower it is almost 9:45 and we wanted to settle down at some place near the garden instead of going to tower . I see lot of Desis visiting the place.. The river is lighted well. It was good.. We were getting hungry and wanted to sip a hot chocolate in the cold evening..
The fire works started 10PM exactly.. I started clicking some snaps.. and my bad luck the memory card got full... So deleted some unnecessary photos and in the mean time missed some interesting fireworks... Even though I captured some snaps and a video..
The fireworks went on for 15minutes. We headed to the gates ASAP to avoid the crowd and directly went to a store to buy some T-Shirts as memory.. I called up my Dad and updated my experience.. Then we too headed to an Indian Restaurant. The buffet dinner was 11$ and had 5 veg dishes and 1 non-veg dishes with unlimited roti's and rice. Pretty good deal. I had alu sabji, Panner Tikka, Some Palak with Roti.. By the time we started back to Pittsburgh it is almost 11:30PM..
The day ended pretty cool... We drove back to Pittsburgh and reached home at 3:30AM. It is almost 16 hrs.. Among them 9 hrs went in driving and 9 hrs at Niagara... The Jeep liberty which we rented drank gas like anything.. So we ended up paying around 90$ for Gas alone. The only bad part of the day is while returning back, found a deer was hit and run in the road. Long day for me...
The next day in next post...
Hope I didn't bore you all with a very big blog.. Keep njoying.. Comments are welcome.. Guys who wanted to comment after I start writing blogs are most welcome..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)