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..