Canada and USA Trip 2011 - Part 4, Days 11 to 15

Day 11 - June 7, 2011

Having reduced our stay in Washington DC to just a day in order to accommodate an extra day in New York, we needed to both make an early start, and stay focussed on the must sees. From Radhika and my perspective, the key objective in Washington DC was to show Avinash parts of the Smithsonian museums, especially the Natural History Museum and the Air & Space Museum. Given the location of these Museums on either side of the National Mall, we concluded that we would also be able to take in the key sites in DC while visiting these museums.

We succeeded in our first objective by making an early start. We walked down from our hotel to the Natural History Museum, catching a quick glimpse of the White House and the Capitol on our way. However, the great weather we had experienced in NYC had vanished, and it was extremely hot, which made the walk to the museum extremely strenuous. The heat plus the stress of all the travelling so far took it's toll on Amma, who was in no position to enjoy the Natural History Museum, and hence she chose to spend most of our time in the Museum resting at the cafeteria.

The Natural History museum had several stunning exhibits, including a Right Whale suspended over one of the Halls (as an aside, the exhibit explained the origin of the name - Right Whale, it was because whale hunters found this slow, easy to get, oil rich whale, the "right" whale to hunt), a massive stuffed elephant in the Central Rotunda, and a fabulous section on dinosaurs. Avi was of course thrilled to see all of this, and also showed a surprisingly high degree of interest in both the exhibits on mammals (Simba has been his great favourite on this trip), and in a section which showed how palaeontologists excavated fossils.

We then walked across the Washington Mall, and took Taj Mahal style photos of us with our hands over the the Washington Monument (an Egyptian Obelisk), and the Capitol building. While there, Avi's Eagle Eyes spotted a Carousel, and shortly thereafter, he and Radhika were on it. After the ride, we went across to the restaurant at the main building of the Smithsonian (which is shaped like a Castle) for lunch. After lunch, Renuka accompanied Amma back to the hotel, while the rest of us went to the Air and Space museum, which once again was superlative. All of us were enthralled by the sight of some of the greatest flying machines ever built. There were also superbly designed exhibits which explained the principles behind powered flight, and I was impressed by the opportunities that kids with an interest in science have in the US.

We attended a small workshop at the museum that explained how things fly. The presenter was asking questions to the audience and one of them was who made the first plane.. We were amazed that the little master hit a shot in the air to claim it was Wright Brothers. Further, she asked if the audience has seen it, our guy very confidently says " Yes" and all of us were surprised how could he have seen it! Then he says "he has seen it on the I-Pad.. We wewre quite impressed...

After looking at the Apollo Mission Command module, the Wright Flyer, and the cockpit of a Boeing 747, we headed for the IMAX theatre at the museum to watch a fabulous 3D film on the Hubble Space telescope.

By this time, it had cooled down, and hence we decided to walk to the Washington Monument, where we were joined by Renu and Amma, who seemed refreshed after a bit of rest.

A very cute incident occurred while we were returning from the monument.. Avi has been quite impressed with the water taps kept at various places to quench the thirst.. He would love to go play with them.. On one such occasion, an elderly lady was trying unsuccessfully to operate a neighbouring tap. Our guy tells her "Turn the wheel right and left like a steering wheel and press it hard like a horn" She does it and lo! Water comes.. (Proud mother writing this:)

After spending some time there, we decided to walk towards the White House. To our disappointment, we found our way blocked by security barriers a good distance from the building, and we had to use Radhika's high zoom lens to get even half way decent pictures of the structure. We then ended the day with dinner at yet another Indian restaurant (albeit one with terrible service.)

Day 12 - June 8, 2011

The next morning, we rose early and headed for Washington's Reagan National Airport. Our flight to Orlando was on time, and the process of collecting the hired car was smooth. As we walked towards the car parking, I set the new Garmin GPS with the address of our villa, and then handed it over to Radhika. We managed to get all the luggage, car seat and the 6 passengers into the Dodge Grand Caravan without too much difficulty (very impressive). I adjusted the mirrors and seat to a comfortable pension, ensured that the volume on the Garmin was at a audible level, and then started my first stint of driving on the "wrong" side of the road. I promptly managed to miss one of the turns suggested by the physical directions the villa owner gave us, and a right turn that the Garmin asked me to take. But the Garmin swiftly recalculated our route and started guiding us through relatively built up parts of Orlando. It then took us to a major highway, the Interstate 4, and asked us to drive in an easterly direction for 19 miles. This did seem very long relative to what had been indicated  in the directions our landlord had given, but I did not dwell on that and kept following the directions given.

Gradually, I got used to driving the heavy car, which seemed to sway like a boat as it took the curves. However, once we completed this stretch, the Garmin asked us to drive for a further 32 miles east, and it was then that Radhika and I both realised that something was amiss. I realized that the villa was to the South West of Orlando, and not to the North East as we had been going. At Radhika's urging, I pulled out of the road at the next exit, and into a nearby Petrol Pump to ask for directions. A quick conversation with the shop attendant, and also resetting the GPS revealed that we had indeed been going in the direction opposite to our villa.

It was almost 3 by now, and we were all very hungry. Fortunately, Radhika had packed some pasta and pizza at the airport, and we wolfed this down hungrily. After that, we were on our way, and needed to travel 32  miles down the I 4 West to reach the exit on Vineland Road, which led to the Ira Johnson highway, and then to our villa.

 

I had been somewhat apprehensive about renting a villa on the Internet, but the passcode I had been provided worked, and the villa proved to be larger, and better than I had imagined based on the photos I had seen. The hall was beautifully done, there were 5 bed rooms including a kids one done up in a Winnie the Pooh theme and equipped with several Disney toys. Avi was delighted with his room, and promptly climbed to the upper deck of the bunk bed (though he did not know how to get down). The pool was quite large and the kitchen too was well equipped.

After sometime settling down at the villa, Radhika, Renuka and I decided to go to the Wal-mart that lay at the junction of the Ira Johnson Highway, and the road leading towards our villa layout. After a brief attempt at navigating without a GPS, I asked the Garmin to take me to Wal-mart. It showed 4 stores, one of which (surprisingly not the nearest) was on the Ira Johnson Highway. I chose that one, and was led to a Sam's Club warehouse on the other side of the Highway. I then searched again, and picked the second closest Wal-mart, which was on Vineland Road. To my surprise, I found myself going further from the villa. The Wal-mart was very well equipped, with a large supply of Garlic Naan, Kitchens of India food, and other essentials. We spent a large time shopping there, before heading home. We also purchased three day Disney passes for all of us over there. As we found out later, my picking the "wrong" Wal-mart was a blessing in disguise, as the one closer to our house was not as well stocked with Indian stuff. At 10 at night, Radhika the chief cook of the day started preparing food - pulav.. She later said she thought she made it for the following day as well but we were so hungry that, nothing was left over for the next day.

Day 13 - June 9, 2011

The next morning, we headed for Magic Kingdom. This time there were no hiccups in the directions, and we pulled into the Magic Kingdom lot fairly quickly. The size of the lot was amazing, and there is a road train service to take people from the parking lot to the gates of Magic Kingdom. From the gates, there were two options to get to the main park, a monorail ride, or a boat ride across a lake. I would have picked the monorail for speed, but it was down and hence we got into the queue for the boat ride. 

In the distance, we could see the magical sight of the Cinderella Castle rising in the distance. We soon reached the main park, grabbed a map, and started planning which rides we should focus on. We had not even reached the first ride when Avi spotted Winnie and Tigger signing autographs. It took some effort to stop him from heading directly for them and to fall into line (or at least let Radhika and Others stand in line while Avi explored a model of Winnie's house).

Disney has a system called Fastpass, which is a free electronic queueing system that they deploy on select rides. Renu and Appu were aware of this thanks to their Euro Disney visit last year, and hence we were quick to exploit it. The system worked quite well, letting us enjoy the less crowded rides such as Dumbo the Flying elephant, while waiting for more popular rides such as some of the fancy roller coasters, or the Winnie the Pooh ride. Avi enjoyed all of them, and even went for his first large roller coaster ride (which I skipped). Apart from the rides, Magic Kingdom has a number of parades Including the Follow Your  Dreams parade in the afternoon and the Disney Electric parade in the night.

The overall experience was truly magical, with the only dampeners being the searing heat whenever the sun was out, and the lack of vegetarian food. Fortunately for us, the sun was mostly behind clouds and the heat was therefore manageable. We had been warned that Disney is not the best place in the world for vegetarians, and hence had packed food for Amma, Appa and Avi from home. However, most of the outlets had absolutely no veg food (even veg sandwiches were out of stock), and we had to survive on pastries, muffins and ice cream and a couple of veggie burgers that we found at one place. The day ended with a dazzling fireworks display at 10pm. It had been a wonderful day, but we were dead tired by the end of it and hence we decided to take the next day off, and go to Animal Kingdom on June 11.

Day 14 - June 10, 2011

We spent the morning at home in the villa, and had a good time in the swimming pool and the villa's spa. After a great lunch, we headed out for an Outlet Mall, where luxury brands are sold at discounted prices. We spent almost 4 hours at the mall, with Radhika buying up almost all of the Ann Taylor shop.

Day 15 - June 11, 2011

The next day, we headed for Animal Kingdom. This time we were well prepared, having carried enough food for both lunch and dinner. We started by going for a walk through a forest like environment, where we got to see a variety of birds, Fish, hippos under water, gorillas et al.  While the animals themselves were not very different from those in a good zoo like that in Singapore, they had taken great care to make the entire place look like it was out of Africa.

We then went for a "safari" in a jeep, with the driver providing a true out of Africa running commentary. After lunch, we walked across to a section based on the Indian forests, and saw a bird show, very similar to the One at Jurong in Singapore. We then saw a broadway style show based on Finding Nemo, which was very enjoyable.

Next we went for a water ride called Kali River rapids, which ended with all of us getting soaked. Giving the searing heat, we were relieved with that, and decided to go for another round. As we were walking back to the entrance of the ride, we saw some kids soaking themselves in a fountain, and Avi promptly went to join them, unfortunately without removing his shoes. with Avi completely soaked, we went for a second round of the Kali River ride, getting wet again.

After this, we got Avi changed into fresh clothes, and headed for a short production based on songs from the Lion King. The grand finale was the opportunity for Avi and everybody else to meet and be photographed with the entire Disney gang - Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Donald et al. We had yet another great day, but this time, it had been even hotter than on the Thursday when we went to Magic Kingdom. It was only when we reached the car once again, that we realised that Avi's shoes were still soaked. We quickly got rid of the shoes, and dried his feet, but he had been wet for several hours, which was to have its consequences on the next day.

Canada and USA Trip 2011 - Part 3, Days 7 to 10

Day 7 - June 3, 2011

Having spent an entire week away from home, all of us were firmly settled into the US time zone and hence woke up at a leisurely 8am. Mytili and Heather were to come down from Philadelphia to meet us, and we had barely started getting ready when Mytili's call came, saying that their bus would reach Downtown NYC by about 930am. The main item on our agenda was to visit the Empire State Building, and we had kept the rest of the day quite flexible.

We managed to get out of the hotel at close to 930, and agreed to meet them at the Empire State Building directly. But the relatively short journey to the ESB (it should not be more than a 15 minute walk at a brisk pace), ended up taking over an hour, as our troop dispersed in different directions to pick up coffee etc. Mytili had reached the building a lot before us, and was smart enough to pick up tickets for everybody before we reached. Consequently, we were able to directly proceed to the security check queue and the queue to go up to the higher floors, without having to wait for tickets.


The Empire State Building has two observation decks, on the 86th and 102nd floors. We chose to stick to the 86th floor, since my previous experience on the 102nd floor had been decidedly underwhelming. It was yet another beautiful day in NYC (I must say that NYC reserved it's best weather for us), and while the top was somewhat windy, it was not excessively cold. The only dampener was that the 86th floor observation deck was extremely crowded, and that made both taking in the views, and taking photos very difficult.

After spending some time at the building, we decided to head for Saravana Bhavan, New York, which is located about 15 minutes from the ESB, for a South Indian lunch. (one week represented the limit that we could survive without Indian food!!!). The restaurant was extremely crowded when we arrived, and the 9 of us had to squeeze into a table that was meant for only 6. The service was not as efficient as Bombay Udipi restaurants, and prices were of course high by Indian standards. But the food was very tasty, albeit spicy, and all of us ended up having a very satisfying meal. (Mytili and Heather were at least too polite to say otherwise).

After lunch, we headed for Macy's, which is truly enormous, stretching between 2 NY avenues, and having at least 8 floors. Radhika et al focused on the ladies section, while Appa, Mytili and I entertained Avi. After what seemed like a eternity (but was probably less than 2 hours), Radhika concluded that this was not good value, and decided to exit the store having purchased very few items.

Next, all of us grabbed two cabs, and headed for the Highline, which is a park that has been built on the site of an old, elevated, freight railway line, running along the Hudson through what's called the Meatpacking district of New York. For Bombayites, this would be akin to elevated sections of the harbor-line along the Dockyard area being converted into a park, with the warehouses on either side being converted into housing while retaining the outer shell. Avi, in particular had a lot of fun, especially while splashing about in some flowing water in one part of the park. We spent about an hour strolling through this park, before heading back to the hotel. By this time, it was almost 730 pm, and it was time to bid goodbye to Mytili and Heather, who were taking a bus back to Philadelphia.


Later that evening, we met up with Vijay, a childhood friend of Radhika (whom she had not met for almost 20 years, since they were in 5th grade), who drove down from Connecticut to see us. Avi, Radhika and me went out for dinner with Vijay at a Turkish restaurant close to our hotel. The food was really good, and it was nice catching up.

Day 8 - June 4, 2011

We had planned to spend June 4 at Central Park along with Shrikant Subramaniam and his family. Shrikant lives at Naugatuck, Connecticut, about 2 hours by train from New York. His mom, Nirmala aunty, had come down the previous evening from India after finishing a tour of Israel and Jordan. On Saturday evening, we got a call from Anand, my cousin. I knew that he lived in the North East of the US but had been under the impression that he was somewhere in New Hampshire, close to Boston. That had been true when I visited the US in 2005, but it turned out that he now lived in NYC, at Flushing, and at he too would be coming to Central Park to spend the day there.

We agreed to meet Shrikant, Jaya and family outside the Apple Store on 5th Avenue, which is at the SE corner of Central Park. We were late getting there, but fortunately for us, Shrikant and team were late too. We first headed in to the Apple Store, where Avi and Sid, Shrikant's son, had a great time, sitting on large screen iMacs and fooling around. It took some effort to get them out of the store. We were hungry by now, and decided to head to Sapphire, an Indian restaurant close to Columbus Circle (viz on the SW corner of Central Park). Anand told us that his family was already at that end of the park, but since they had packed a picnic lunch, we decided to catch up with them later. Lunch was a North Indian buffet with Pao Bhaji thrown in, and was great.


After that we headed for the Park, and caught up with Anand, Jyoti and Vivek. Jyoti's parents were also with them. Our somewhat unwieldy party of 16 then headed into the Park, and took in the sites. We were barely yards into the Park, when we spotted a kids play area.

All three kids (and also Appu) had a nice time playing on the swings. Then Avi and Sid spotted a play area which included a small water body for kids to splash around in. Despite my reluctance, everybody else ganged up and allowed the kids into the water. Shrikant however assuaged my feelings by agreeing to come with me to the Columbus Circle shopping centre to buy a towel. Around this time, Anand who had managed to keep Vivek out of the water, decided to set out to see some specific parts of Central Park. So we bade good bye to him, and then set out to buy the towel.

After spending less than a couple of hours in the park, we set out towards Times Square. On the way, we dropped in at Mars, a theme restaurant which is designed like an Aliens film set, with waiters dressed like Aliens. Avi was thrilled to be able to meet and talk to Aliens. However, we decided not to eat there, and continued towards Times Square, where Jaya led the ladies on a shopping expedition, while Shrikant, Appa and I took the kids to Toys R Us. After a brief time at Toys R Us, I led our group of guys back to the hotel.

Shrikant and I left the kids with Appa, and set out for a nearby laundry intending to collect the 32 pounds of clothes we had given the previous day for washing. As we walked to the shop, I explained to Shrikant how we needed to pick the clothes before 7 pm, since we intended to make an early morning departure for New Jersey the next day, and to head for Washington DC thereafter. I had barely finished saying this, when we reached the shop, and to my horror found it shut, even though it was just 615pm. I looked at the board, and found to my horror that the laundry closed at 7pm on weekdays but at 6 pm on Saturdays. The laundry assistant who collected our clothes and told us to come after 5pm to collect them had not deigned to mention this to us. A helpful parking attendant told us that the shop assistants had just left, and we would likely have passed them on our way to the shop. We rushed back the way we came, stopping every Chinese looking person we saw to ask if they worked at the laundry. But it was of no use. For a while, I did not know what to do. But fortunately for us, we were going to DC by train from Penn Station, and I realised that all we needed to do was for one of us to come in early on Monday with a suitcase, and to collect the laundry before leaving for DC.

We then headed back to the hotel, and decided to go to Utsav, a highly recommended Indian restaurant for dinner. Before doing that, I decided to go to Walgreens to try and pick a store credit card to pay for an AT&T 3G connection for my iPad, after which I was to go directly to the restaurant. (Shockingly, AT&T does not allow one to purchase prepaid connections for iPads at their stores, or to pay for connections through a non US credit card.) While I was there, I got a call from the hotel, saying that Radhika had taken ill. Both Radhika and I had been suffering from cold for a few days, and that morning, we had picked up some OTC cold pills. We took a morning dose and it gave us some relief. But Radhika had the evening dose without having eaten anything since lunch at around 1 pm. That led to a reaction, and she started shivering significantly. I rushed back to the hotel, and we abandoned plans to go out for dinner.

I instead ordered a take out from the same place, but Shrikant and family decided to head back to Naugatuck. Fortunately, some rest and food did the trick for Radhika, and she was fine thereafter.

Day 9 - June 5, 2011

Before we knew it, the NYC leg of our holiday was over, and it was time for us to head to Nana's place in Jersey City, and then to Jayashri's place at Randolph, NJ. We got our stuff out of the hotel before 10am, but could not resist taking a last tour of Times Square before leaving. We were then ready to set out, and asked to Bell Captain at the Westin to arrange two taxis for us to go to Nana's place. The guy who was handling our luggage told us that he had arranged for two mini vans. Fortunately, we had read our tourist guides, and asked the cab drivers how much they wanted for the trip before setting out. (Since this was a trip to NJ, which is out of NYC, taxi fares are not regulated). They said they wanted USD 67 + tolls. This came as a shock to us, since Nana had mentioned that it should cost around USD 40, though we were not clear whether tolls were included in that. We checked with Nana who confirmed that the max we should pay is USD 50. When we told this to the drivers, they asked us to take alternate cabs. What was most shocking was that Renu heard them talking to the Bell Captain about refunding a cut they had given him.

Fortunately for us, two other cabbies turned up, who offered to do the trip for USD 40 + tolls of USD 8. We of course did not tip the Bell Captain, under the circumstances. Talking of tips, perhaps the most irritating thing on this holiday has been the ridiculous North American culture of demanding tips as a matter of right, and that too at an atrociously high 15-20% level. In several hotels as well as on tours, this normal level of tipping was actually posted, with the added information that the service provider's employees depend on tips for most of their income. In most restaurants, a 15% tip was added to our bills automatically, since we were in a group of more than 5 people. The idea that someone who is charging me for services can say that they underpay their employees, and hence I should pay for those employees services' directly seems completely dumb, and is something that galls me. (but being a conformist, I did end up tipping people a lot more than the rest of our group thought was reasonable.)


After a brief drive, we reached Nana's place in Jersey City. His flat is beautiful, on the 33rd floor, by the Hudson, and with fabulous views of mid town Manhattan. And while his apartment block is an all rental one, similar flats were available in a neighboring condominium for a lower per square foot rate than at even Sewri today. This certainly has reinforced my view that US real estate is on a relative basis grossly under-valued! More importantly, all of us, especially Avi, were glad to meet baby Kriti, Nana's 3 week old daughter. She seemed tiny, and for me and Radhika, it was amazing to think that Avi had been that small not very long ago. I for one did not have the confidence to even pick her up. It was great to meet and converse with Nana, Divya, and Divya's mom. Divya and her mom had whipped up a fabulous meal of Bisibele Bhaat and Thair Saadam, while Nana had purchased some very nice desserts from a nearby 150 year old cake shop. We were sorely tempted to take up his offer of taking a walk along the water-front, and about town, but reluctantly decided against it to ensure that we reach Randolph at a decent hour.

Shortly after lunch, we were in cabs on our way to Randolph. The initial section of our journey was on an old dilapidated expressway, and it did seem as if the breast-beating in the NY Times about the woeful state of US infrastructure has some basis. But this stretch lasted only a few miles, and the rest of the highway was of a world class standard. The journey took less time than I had feared (all the comments about bad NJ traffic were clearly not borne out by fact, at least on a Sunday afternoon), and we pulled into Arrowgate Drive soon.

Randolph is a small town of about 45,000, set in a thickly forested area, and to my mind at least seemed to epitomize ex-urban America. It is clearly only in America that you would find massive multinational companies being run out of a seemingly rural setting. It offered a complete contrast to the frenetic pace of Manhattan in general and Times Square, in particular. Jayashri and Sundar have a beautiful, three story, semi detached house, which is done up tastefully, and has been painted by Jayashri herself. Their kids, Soumya and Sagar, were very affectionate, and Avi quickly bonded with them. Avi had a great time running up and down the stairs. Sagar seemed somewhat amused to find that he was expected to play big brother to Avi, instead of being the baby of the family.


After grabbing some coffee, we set off for a nearby farm, which allows tourists to pluck strawberries for a fee. Given our large group of twelve, two cars were not enough, and we had to seat Soumya and Aparna in the boot of Jayashri's Jeep. We drove through beautiful country roads, and shortly reached the Strawberry farm, which is located in a nearby town called Chester.
For just USD 3 per head (completely offsettable against the price of any strawberries we pluck and buy), we could set out into the fields, and pluck strawberries. Avi was delighted (as were the rest of us), though I quickly stopped plucking strawberries and turned to the camera keeping in view my back. Avi of course ignored the admonitions against eating strawberries before paying for them, and attacked them with a vengeance.

This was followed by a trip around the farm on the back of a tractor trailer, and then a chance to look at the farm animals up close, including the amazing sight (a first for me, at least since Mysore zoo when I was a kid) of a Peacock dancing. After the farm, we set out for a nearby rural trail, which is accompanied by warnings about bears prowling nearby. It was approaching darkness (at about 830 pm), and so we spent very little time there. The fact that America allows people to live in a fashion that is so connected to nature while having the best jobs and infrastructure in the world is clearly one of the greatest strengths of this country. (A friend of mine, whom I spoke to after 15 years, and has worked in private equity, lives nearby).

We then headed for Jayashri's place, where we attacked a fabulous Thai dinner that she had kept ready for us.

Day 10 - June 6, 2011

The next morning, Sundar took Avi, Sagar, Appa, his (viz Sundar's) mom and me to another nearby nature reserve. Avi got a chance to ford a stream (guided by Sundar), and walk briefly through a wooded trail. There was a wooden kids play area, and Avi and Sagar had a great time playing on the Jungle Gym. The improvement in Avi's dexterity over the last twelve months has certainly been impressive.

Jayashri had taken everybody else for shopping that morning, and we were to meet at Qdoba, a Mexican restaurant for lunch. We headed for an early lunch, since I needed to take the 1 pm NJ Transit train to NYC to collect our laundry. We ordered some Tacos, Nachos and a soup. Avi actually enjoyed the Tacos, and insisted on copying Sagar by eating on his own. We had finished our lunch by the time the rest of the gang arrived, and it was time for me to head to NYC. I had our largest suitcase with me to fill with our laundry. The train was exactly on time, and I was able to walk down to the laundry. This time it was open, and the only challenge was getting all the clothes stuffed into the suitcase. Then I took a taxi (and had the taxi man load and unload the bag) back to Penn Station and waited for the others.

The train to Washington DC passed through Newark, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. I had done the journey to Philly before, and the only notable event during our journey was the sights we saw while passing through Baltimore. Baltimore, despite being famous as one of the oldest cities in the US and the site of several top Universities, has been a byword for urban blight, at least for readers of The Economist. And what we saw bore this out completely, as the buildings along the Railway line were truly dilapidated, and would not have looked out of place in Reay Road.

Union Station at Washington DC was much grander than I had imagined it would be, and we ended spending some time taking pictures and admiring the building before heading for our hotel. The cab system in Washington DC is unique, as there are extra fares charged for each passenger and piece of luggage. The first cab we got into ended up adding USD 9 extra for this, and when asked for a reconciliation, refused to ply. Fortunately, we got another cab, and the extras came to just USD 6 in this case. While the difference may not seem like much, I had no desire to give my custom to someone who tried to cheat me. It may sound racist but the fact is that our best experiences with cabbies so far have been with Indian and Bangladeshi drivers. Our hotel was located very close to the White House and the Washington Mall (not a shopping complex but the area between the Capitol, or US parliament building, and the Lincoln memorial). We initially thought of going for dinner to an Indian restaurant, but settled for a closer Subway instead, before crashing, in preparation for a long day at DC ahead of us.

Canada and USA Trip 2011 - Part 2 Days 4 to 6

Day 4 - May 31, 2011

Our train to Niagara Falls was scheduled to leave at 820 am, and hence we rose by 515 am, and were out of the hotel by 715. The station was less than 5 minutes from the hotel, but with all our luggage, we decided to keep a buffer in hand. When it rolled in, the train turned out to be an Amtrak rake, bound for New York. Amma met a Tamil speaking couple, who had been based in Canada for 10 years, and were visiting their son who was doing medicine in the States. Thanks to Avi, we were granted priority boarding. The train started exactly on time, but proceeded at a decidedly leisurely pace, losing one hour on a scheduled travel time of just two hours. We then boarded taxis to the Embassy Suites. The road to the hotel afforded spectacular views of the Falls, but I could not take them in since Avi was vehemently protesting the fact that Radhika was in the other taxi.

Our suite was on the 22nd floor, and the view of the falls simply took our breath away. We ended up spending over an hour trying to take pictures of the falls from our room, and it was 130pm by the time we headed down for lunch. On the way to lunch, I stopped at the hotel's tours desk, and was told about a special 4 hour private tour that would show us everything there is to see in just 4 hours, and that the last departure of that tour would be at 145 pm. The only hitch was that this cost CAD 130 pp + taxes!!!! In the meantime, everybody else joined me, and seemed enthused by the idea, and I left my sensible (or perhaps stingy) self behind and signed up for the tour. The only other group that had signed up for the tour was a Filipino family of 4. The tour bus took us several miles away along the ravine to a spot where the falls had originated, which was now almost half way down to the point where the Niagara river meets Lake Ontario. It then took us to see several other sites including the Whirlpool rapids (which is a spot where the river makes a more than 90 degree turn through a whirlpool), a floral clock, a butterfly park (IMHO better than the Singapore one), and a gift shop where we finally managed to grab lunch.

After that, it took us to the main attractions, the Maid of the Mist boat ride, the Fury 4d movie on the origin of the falls, and what was perhaps the highlight of the trip, the Journey behind the Falls. The Maid of the Mist boat ride was great, but feeling the spray from the falls from the observation deck was even better. We then went to the visitor's centre and spent almost an hour taking close range photos of the falls. I was rather surprised to find that only a relatively low fence separated visitors from the rapidly flowing river upstream of the falls. The trip had been wonderful, with the only sore note arising from the fact that a ticket for the three main attractions was priced at just CAD 45, implying we had spent CAD 600 on the bus ride along the ravine and the other attractions. (I obviously threw a tantrum about that, blaming everybody other than myself -:))

Day 5- June 1, 2011

I had developed a rather severe cold the previous day, and did not sleep very well. Hence after breakfast, I headed back to the room for a nap, while the three girls and Avi went down to the Falls, for one more photo session. I was still fast asleep at about 1115 when they returned to the room. We quickly packed some lunch for Avi and Amma, and by 1215, were on our way in two taxis for Buffalo Airport. While planning our itinerary, I had decided to fly from Buffalo to NYC at a time when we planned to visit the US side of Niagara Falls. Somehow, I didn't think of changing this even when we decided to visit the Canadian side. We had a 405 flight to NYC, and the actual driving time was only about 1 hour. But we had been warned that the border crossing could take some time, and hence left with almost 4 hours to spare.

We made swift progress till the Peace bridge, which we were to cross to get into the United States. But traffic was backed up on the bridge, and we lost close to half an hour crossing it. At the other end, we were told to get down from our cabs, and wait at the US border station. When we entered, there were only a few people waiting, and we hoped to be swiftly on our way. But for some reason, we ended up waiting for well over an hour before our turn came up, in which time the border station waiting area had filled up almost completely. Fortunately, once our turn came, the process was swift but we ended up reaching the airport with only one hour to go for our flight.

Check in was smooth, but our flight boarding was delayed by almost 45 minutes (which gave us time to grab lunch), and the actual take off was over an hour behind schedule. When we reached NYC, it was murky and hot, but the excitement of the city lifted everyone's spirits. Our rooms at the Westin Times Square were fabulous, extremely spacious by any standard, and with the added benefit of a connecting door between the rooms.

Despite the nice rooms, we did not dilly dally, and headed out to grab a quick dinner, and then set out for Times Square. The bright lights and glitz of Times Square were truly amazing, even for someone like me who had seen it before. After taking what seemed like hundreds of photos, we went into the huge Toys-R-Us store, and then to the Disney Store which remains open till mid-night. It was close to midnight by the time we headed back to the hotel.


Day 6- June 2, 2011

After our late night, we woke at only around 730 am on June 2nd. We found that it had cleared up overnight, and the temperature was a very pleasant 20 degrees C. We had made reservations for visiting the Statue of Liberty by a 2pm ferry from Battery Park, which is located in downtown (viz the southern tip of) Manhattan. Hence we decided to tour downtown Manhattan including the WTC site and the Financial District before heading for the Ferry. We started by heading for Toys R Us, where Avi got a chance to ride the Ferris Wheel (with Amma and myself tagging along for the ride), before we picked up a super light weight umbrella stroller for just USD 20. We then took the metro down to Chambers Street and headed for the WTC site. The redevelopment of the site is now in full swing, with the Freedom Tower more than 50% complete. We then decided to head for the World Financial Centre (the former site of the ML office), with the intention of having a quick dekko before heading for Wall Street and Battery Park. On our way, some of the pedestrian crossings were closed due to WTC site construction, and we needed to use a bridge across the road. This being America, there was an escalator to climb the bridge, but poor Amma missed that and ended up climbing well over 40 steps. We finally reached the WFC, which is located by the Hudson River. Close to the WFC, we chanced upon a pretty memorial to the victims of the Irish Famine, and spent some time there, before deciding to pack lunch at one of the restaurants in the WFC mall.

By the time our order was delivered, it was past 115, and we realised that we needed to rush to get to our Statue Ferry on time. We stepped out of the WFC, and found that the direct footpath to Battery Park was closed, and that we would have to detour around the WTC site to get there. We spent another 5 minutes looking fruitlessly for an alternate path, before taking someone's advice and flagging cabs to go there. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since the distance to the ferry point was much more than I had anticipated, and we would likely have been late if we had walked.

The Ferry to the Statue was very crowded. We were indeed lucky to have booked Pedestal tickets (and thankful to Nana for that), as only a small number of people were permitted there, and there were no spot tickets available for love or money. The Pedestal ticket allowed us to go through a museum that described how the Statue was built (I was surprised to find that it is a Copper structure supported by a steel truss inside), and then go up to the Pedestal, which did not afford great views of the Statue itself, but provided a fantastic vantage point to view NYC and New Jersey. There were not many people up there, and the pedestal gave both Radhika and me plenty of opportunities to experiment with the new EOS camera. We had planned to leave by the 415 ferry, but by the time we came down from the Statue, and grabbed some Ice Cream, we were only able to take the 515.

On our return to Battery Park, we headed for the Financial District, saw the Wall Street Bull and the NYSE, and then headed back to the hotel. Avinash slept on the train, while we were headed back to Times Square.

We were left with just enough time to change and rush towards 51st street and Broadway, where the Winter Garden theatre is located. Mamma Mia exceeded our expectations. While all of us had loved the movie, we had been a little apprehensive about watching it as a play, and chose it primarily because we did not want to see The Lion King without Avinash (and because we were not adventurous enough to see something very different like The Phantom of the Opera). Our seats were located in the front row, and we had to crane our necks a bit in order to see the play.

From the very first scene, the play took our breath away. The production values and quality of acoustics were astounding. The play had two acts, and lasted till about 1030. When we stepped out of the Winter Garden, it had become extremely cold. We headed back to the hotel, to grab some sweaters, and planned to spend a late night out at Times Square. We headed to the Hard Rock Cafe at Times Square for dinner. Our food took almost 25 minutes to arrive, and as we were tucking into it, a call came from Amma saying that Avi had woken up and was looking for Radhika. Hence our plans for a night out were abandoned, and we rushed back to the Hotel.

Canada and USA Trip 2011 - Part 1, Days 1 to 3

It all started back in February 2011, when Radhika and I started planning our next holiday. Amma and Appa had obtained their passports the previous year, but were unwilling to travel abroad on their own. Further, the rest of us had already covered the usual touristy destinations such as SE Asia, and Europe. Hence, we decided that our next vacation would be in the United States, and that we would take Amma and Appa with us. On hearing of the idea of a US trip, Renuka and Aparna also arranged to make themselves available, and thus our US trip turned into a family vacation, with 7 of us (including Avinash) traveling together.

Having decided that we need to go to the US, we also needed to decide where to go. We had friends and family distributed throughout the US, from New York and New Jersey, through West Virginia, Arizona and Southern California. Fortunately, our decision was made relatively easy since it turned out that Anand and Bashi (who live in San Diego) would be in India through late May and early June - and hence we decided to stick to the East Coast. Conversations with people who had been to the States quickly revealed that if we wished to see Niagara Falls, we should do so from the Canadian side - and since we needed to get a Canada visa in any case, we decided to visit Toronto as well.

A holiday with 7 people traveling together is certainly difficult to organise. To add to that, my back had been giving me a problem for a few weeks prior to our trip, and everybody (especially Radhika and Daddy) had been paranoid about that. Fortunately, everything went smoothly on our trip

Day 1 - May 28, 2011

Amma and Appa had decided to spend some extra time with Jayashree and family in New Jersey before the rest of us started our vacation. They set out on May 24th, and reached Newark comfortably.

The rest of us started our vacation on the evening of Friday, May 27. Unlike our last holiday abroad, our trip to the Bombay airport was rather uneventful, we managed to get all our stuff into our car and were dropped at the airport by Ramesh without much ado. Check-in was relatively smooth, but Lufthansa and Air Canada had conspired to give Radhika, Avinash and me three separate seats for our Frankfurt to Toronto leg. While the check in attendant was not able to call up the Air Canada seat map to change our seat allocation, he assured us that this would be taken care of, either at the gate or in Frankfurt.

As we were on our way to immigration, I happened to mention that the Bombay airport operator was now providing strollers for families traveling with children. Avinash happened to hear this, and promptly insisted that we find a stroller for him. Fortunately, when we reached the stroller station, there was one stroller available, chained by an old bicycle lock to a post. We called the number mentioned there, and after about 10 minutes, someone turned up with a key, gave us the stroller, and noted our details down as security for the stroller on his own palm. The stroller itself was about 500 years old, and Avi was virtually scraping the ground when he sat in it. But he insisted on sitting in it.



Immigration was fairly swift, and thanks to Avi and the stroller, we were allowed to bypass the security queue and take the lift down to an alternate security post where there were no other passengers. Despite this, the security checks took a while - as neither us nor the security guards had any clue about how the stroller could be folded to fit into the Xray machine. Finally, we made it to the gate, and also managed to get Radhika's seat on the FRA - YYZ leg changed to be next to Avinash.

On boarding the Lufthansa flight, Avinash had the shock of his life.... There were no individual TV screens for each seat, only an old 20 inch monitor for about 10 or 15 rows. Avinash refused to believe that a plane could be so primitive, and a brief tantrum started, but the air hostess was nice enough to pacify Avinash by giving him a bunch of puzzles. From my perspective, the bigger issue was that leg-room was non existent, and the guys in front of me reclined their seats fully, leaving me with no space at all. The flight left on time, but the lack of space combined with a bit of hypochondria about my back meant that I slept less than 2 hours on the flight. With typical German efficiency, we landed in Frankfurt about 5 minutes ahead of schedule.

Security at Frankfurt was typically efficient (which is why it is my favourite transit airport), and despite only a 2 hour connection, we had enough time to freshen up and grab some coffee and muffins. The Air Canada aircraft was far superior to the LH one (and was similar in configuration to the Jet Airways planes), and there was both adequate leg room and video screens for Avinash. After a rather uneventful flight, we reached Toronto. Immigration was fairly quick despite the long line, and as we approached the baggage reclaim area, Amma and Appa, who had flown in from New Jersey, were waiting for us. I was relieved to note that my back had held up fairly well. The only taxi waiting in the rank was a Dodge minivan with an Indian driver, who agreed to fit all of us and our luggage in for CAD 20 extra. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of our stuff fitted into the boot even with 7 seats in place, and the rest could be easily accommodated between the seats.

After checking into our rooms, we stopped for a late lunch at a food court across the street from our hotel, and then decided to head to the harborfront area having promised Avi a boat ride. On our way, we diverted to a supermarket to stock up for the next 2 days, and hence it was almost 7 pm by the time we reached the harborfront. To out disappointment, we found that most of the harbour cruises ended around 5 pm. Further, it was bitterly cold, and hence we quickly retreated to the comfort of our hotel. Having succeeded in my objective of getting everyone to stay awake till c 830 pm (barring Avi who slept at a little after 7), I was quite happy with dour first day out.

Day 2 - May 29, 2011

As seems to be usual for our trips abroad (at least those to the West), Avi woke by 3am. He had skipped dinner, and was hungry. Fortunately, we had picked up bread and jam the previous night, and Radhika was able to fix sandwiches for all of us. After that, Radhika and I went back to sleep, but Avi stayed up, occasionally shaking us to ask if it was morning yet. By 630, all of us were up. Nevertheless, it was almost 10 am by the time we got out of the hotel, looking for someplace to have breakfast. There was a Starbucks a few doors from our hotel, and we went there for coffee and snacks.

Just outside, there was an open top tour bus, and after a brief conversation, we signed up for the tour (which also included a 1 hour boat ride). We were told that the tour bus would get us to the harborfront in time to catch the 1130 harbour cruise. As we started the tour, I noticed a number of people marching with Canadian and Israeli flags.... It turned out that there was a march in support of Israel that day. Banners from both the Liberal and Conservative parties, which were vying with each other to claim to be friends of Israel brought out the strength of the Israeli lobby in Canada. The crowd kept building as we approached the harborfront, and the tour guide was forced to announce that the bus would need to skip the harborfront stop due to traffic diversions. We decided to continue on with the tour, and took in the various sites of Toronto including the CN Tower, the Rogers Centre stadium, the RBC building which has gold plated windows, and the Royal York Hotel, which is shaped like a throne, which is where Queen Elizabeth stays when she is in town. The roads were still full of people, and there were a number of other diversions we made, before getting out of the downtown area.

After an interminable crawl, we approached a large shopping mall called Eaton Centre, and decided to hop off the bus there. We spent some time going thru a Sears store, and then grabbed lunch at an Italian restaurant there. We then resumed the tour, going through quaint neighbourhoods, and looking at some Toronto landmarks such as the Royal Ontario gallery, the Bata show museum and the Casa Lova (which was a completely over the top home built by a hydro electricity pioneer, which also had palatial stables with each horse's name engraved in gold). Unlike in the previous open top tour we had done in Paris, noone seemed to get off the bus. Overall, Toronto is a pretty city but with nothing exceptional - as my Torontonian friend Prashant put it a little later, it's a great city to live in but with nothing (other than the CN tower) to wow tourists.

The sun started peeping out of the clouds while we were on our tour - and we were able to shed a few layers of sweaters. Seeing the locals dressed in T-shirts and shorts while we were shivering had hammered home how cold this city could be. After completing a full round of the city, we reached the harbour front once again, in time for the 430 cruise. It had become cloudy once again by now, and was also much colder. While waiting for the cruise to start, we could see the planes taking off from the Toronto island airport, which is located on one of the islands in the Toronto harbor. During the cruise, we ended up spending some time on the upper deck taking in the Toronto skyline, (with Radhika making full use of her new Canon DSLR, experimenting with various types of snaps), but then retereated down to the deck below, unable to take the cold on a pleasantly "warm" Toronto day.

After the cruise, we headed back to the hotel. Radhika, Avi and I were scheduled to go to Prashant's house that day. But Avi was hit by the jet lag, his early start to the day and the cold, and was fast asleep by 6pm. Reluctantly, Radhika and I decided to let him sleep through in the hotel, and went to Prashant's place without him. As we stepped out of the hotel wearing two sweaters each, we found Prashant waiting for us outside his Ford Flex (a really nice car, I must say) dressed in a T shirt and shorts. We had a great time at Prashant's, being entertained by Rohan and Ranbir, his twin sons, and having a great meal that Rachana and her mom had put together.

Day 3 - May 30, 2011

Despite having slept at 6pm, Avi woke up only at 5 am (which as you can imagine was a relief for both of us). After breakfast in the room, and coffee at Starbucks, we headed for the CN Tower. The CN Tower, as you may be aware, was the world's tallest freestanding structure, until it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Despite it being less than 5 minutes away from our hotel, we took almost an hour getting there - with multiple stops to take different kinds of photos. We booked our tickets to go up to the main Observation Area, and also to the top deck of the tower. We were whisked to the observation area (over 115 stories high) by a swift elevator. While the sun was out, it was still relatively murky, and the views did not compare to the distant vistas we had previously seen at the London Eye and the Eiffel Tower. After spending almost an hour there, we set out for the top, but to our disappointment, found that access had been stopped due to high winds. We then went down one level to the Glass Floor level. This level literally has a double glazed Glass Floor running around the tower, with a view to the ground over 500 metres below. However, most of the floor is covered with a carpet, with only limited areas exposed to the ground.

This clearly brought out how human psychology works - even though all of us knew there is no difference between the floors in the carpeted and uncarpeted areas, we were fine in the carpeted area, but scared while walking across the glass surface. The only person who was unfazed by the sight of the drop was Avi.

We then went to an Indian restaurant, Dhabha, located on King Street W, and had a great buffet lunch. Clearly, all of us were missing Indian food just 2 days into our trip. After that, since I had a head-ache and Amma was tired, we headed back to the hotel, while the others set out for more mall hopping. I crashed as soon as I reached my room, and woke up almost 2 hours later, still feeling very groggy. It was then that I realised that the Jet Lag had finally caught up with me. I never have any difficulty adjusting to the new time zone on my typical one or two day business trips. But my system seemed to be saying that my two days of sleeping at odd hours were done, and it was time for me to revert to India time.

We turned in relatively early that day, given the need to make an early start for Niagara Falls.