Canada and USA Trip 2011 - Part 6 - Days 19 to 22

Day 19 - June 15, 2011

We had been completely drained by all the travel, and the overall length of the previous day, and also by the length of the trip. Consequently, despite Jagan Peripa and Syamala Perima's desire that we make an early start and get a chance to see Morgantown and its surroundings, we were extremely slow off the blocks.

I was the first (amongst our group) to wake up - perhaps because I had a conference call that morning (one disadvantage of writing a chronicle more than 3 months after the event is that one does not remember the details). At any rate by the time I got down from the bedroom, Perima was up and about, and busy in the kitchen. (Poor Perima spent more than a fair share of our Morgantown trip in the kitchen).

Jagan Peripa's house is beautiful - its located on a small, curved street, with lots of trees. While we were driving back to his house the previous night, I saw an animal run across the road - I thought it was a dog, but on a closer look, realized that it was a deer. The house is built with three levels, basement, ground and first. The existence of the basement is not obvious at first glance - its massive, and in typical Coonoor family style, filled with odds and ends. The house is surrounded by a nice garden, with loads of large trees, and Jagan Peripa's prized vegetable patch at the rear.

By the time the Appa, Amma, Appu and Renu arrived and finished breakfast, it was well past 1030 am. We (viz everybody except poor Syamala perima) then set out for West Virginia University, to look at the place where Peripa had worked for over 35 years. The campus is huge. Amazingly for America, Morgantown has a public transport system - a personal light rail, which was the brainchild of a WVU professor. It connects most large buildings in the Campus, the Football (yeah, American football, not the real thing) stadium and downtown Morgantown. After parking our cars near the medical center building, we took the light rail to downtown Morgantown. By this time, Avi was hungry. I also think he was still feeling a bit under the weather, since he was certainly not at his best behavior.  Fortunately, we managed to find some muffins in a store nearby, and he was slightly better after that.

After lazing around and chatting post lunch (and deciding to skip a drive to some other destination that Perima had planned for us), some of us (Peripa, me, Appa, Appu and Renu) headed for a mall, where my prime objective was to buy a pair of formal shoes (since I had a business dinner in NYC the next day). Renu took ill while we were there, and after buying my shoes, we headed back to Peripa's place. Radhika, Avinash and I decided to stay put at Peripa's place for another day, but made a booking at the hotel for the next night, since Ram, Amrita and Sloka were to arrive on the following day.

Day 20 - June 16, 2011

From my perspective, the vacation in the US was over. I had a business dinner scheduled in New York City for the evening of the 16th, and an all day meeting in NYC on the 17th. Our original plan had been for all of us to take a flight from Pittsburgh to Newark on the 17th afternoon, and then connect onto flight to Bombay (on Lufthansa for the 5 of us, via Frankfurt, and on Continental for Amma and Appa direct to Bombay). However, since this meeting got scheduled, I had re-booked to fly a day earlier. I need to leave Morgantown by about 1230 to make my flight.

Ram, Amrita and Sloka had set off the previous night from Phoenix, AZ, and were to arrive in Morgantown after a difficult all night journey. Fortunately, their flight was on time, and they arrived at Peripa's place by about 11am - hence I got to spend an hour with them. At 1230, I set off in our hired Camry for Pittsburgh. The drive to Pittsburgh was beautiful - I got to take in the beautiful scenery that we had missed on the way in. The roads were fantastic - the only challenge was sticking to the speed limit of 65 mph once I entered Pennsylvania. There were times when without noticing (and following the other traffic), I was doing over 80 mph, which I did not want to do for fear of being ticketed in an alien land.

My flight to Newark had no hiccups, and I was able to get a cab to my hotel very easily. As we approached the Holland tunnel into Manhattan, there was a massive traffic jam, which my driver bypassed by going the wrong way down one way streets. -:)

I will ask Radhika to add to this and describe what the rest of them did - it involved going to a riverfront park, as can be seen from the pictures that I have added.

Day 21 - June 17, 2011

The next afternoon, while I was in my meetings, there was a brief thunder storm over Manhattan. Sheets of rain poured down, and the lightning reminded me of Bombay at the beginning or end of the monsoons. Within 30 minutes, the storm had passed, and I did not pay it much heed at that time. At about 3 PM, I was on the dais, participating in a panel discussion. Suddenly, my phone rang - it was Radhika. I disconnected the call, but Radhika tried again, and then sent me an sms asking to call urgently. I stepped out from the panel (fortunately, it was an internal meeting), and called her. She told me that their flight from Pittsburgh had been delayed due to the thunderstorm over New York, and that they would likely miss their connection to Frankfurt. As it happened, I was booked on a later flight than the others to Frankfurt, and I thought they could be rebooked onto my flight. As soon as my meeting was over, I set off for Newark. As we headed towards the entrance to the Holland tunnel, my taxi driver turned on the radio, and heard that it was taking approximately 90 minutes to cross the tunnel - traffic was backed up due to that brief storm. I quickly had him divert to Penn station, and took the train across to Newark. Radhika and the others had boarded their flight, but it had still not left the gate. I got into a queue to rebook their tickets at about 730 pm - there were about 8 people ahead of me, but only two agents, and each person was taking an exceptionally long period of time.


Very quickly, I realized that Radhika and others would not be able to make my flight either, and decided to change my booking as well. Fortunately, this could be done by my travel agent from Bombay. The wait in the queue was interminable, and I still had one passenger ahead of me at 9 pm when Radhika messaged to say that her flight was taking off. Then it was my turn. Lufthansa informed me that all flights via Frankfurt to Bombay on the next day were overbooked - but managed to get seats for Radhika, Renuka, Aparna and Avinash on an Air India flight from JFK to Bombay via Delhi. While issuing the tickets, the agent however warned me to reach JFK before 130 PM the next day even though the flight was only at 5 PM, as the flight too could get overbooked. She then went about trying to issue the tickets, and by the time she finished, it was 1030 PM, and Radhika et al had landed in Newark. In the meantime, I spoke to my travel agent in Bombay to rebook me on a Lufthansa flight from JFK to Bombay (I could not shift to Air India as I had cancelled my  flight, and the cost of changing airlines was prohibitive).

I had presumed that like in India, Continental Airlines (Lufthansa's code share partner), which had caused the delay, would have made hotel arrangements for them. However, when I caught up with the others, I realized that not only had they made no hotel arrangements, but they had not even rebooked Amma and Appa onto an alternate Continental flight to Bombay. In the entire airport, which is Continental's major hub, there were only 2 counters (served by 4 agents) to handle over 300 odd Continental passengers waiting to be rebooked. We stood in a queue for a while, but at 1130 PM, the agents announced that their duty period was over, and that we would need to return the next morning. On pressing, the agent informed us that one of the counters opened at 3 AM, while the other would open at 5 AM.

We then set about trying to retrieve the luggage that had been checked in at Pittsburgh. We were told to hand in a form, and then wait near a carousel to see if the luggage could be retrieved. Avinash was asleep in his stroller (that certainly was the best buy of our trip). We tried to see if some nearby hotel was available, but all hotels in the Newark area were booked. We then tried to reach both Nana and Jayashri - we were unable to get Nana, but Jayashri and family were at home, and we therefore decided that Appa, Amma, Radhika and Avinash would go to their place by cab once the luggage arrived. While we were waiting for the luggage, Renuka decided that she would go across to the Continental counter (which was to open at 3 AM), and camp there for the night. She was the first one to have this idea, and very quickly, a large queue formed behind her. At around 1230 AM, Renuka, Aparna and Appa / Amma's luggage arrived, and the foursome set out for Randolph.

Day 22 - June 18, 2011

The luggage service at Newark Airport shut down at 1 AM, without any sign of Radhika's luggage. Aparna and I therefore went across to the Continental counter and waited there with Renu. At 3 am, we were the first to be served. We found that there were about 200 people in the queue by then. There were no tickets to Bombay on Continental's flight leaving on Sunday, June 18, and hence we booked Appa and Amma on the next day's flight. By this time it was 4 am. I was concerned that Radhika's luggage may end up coming out on the carousel when it reopened at around 530 AM, and decided that I would wait for the luggage, while Renu and Appu headed for Randolph. I waited till 630 AM but there was no sign of the luggage. I went back to the counter, and was told that I should wait till 8 AM, since they were very busy, with 2 people handling 1000s of pieces of lost baggage. At 8AM, I was back at the counter. I was told that their system showed that Radhika's bags were checked in on the Continental flight to Bombay (the one which Amma and Appa did not get tickets on), but they were not able to locate the bags in the mess - and that we should take our chances at Bombay airport. Fortunately, this Continental flight was scheduled to arrive around the same time as Radhika's Air India, and I decided that waiting further would serve no purpose and headed for Randolph as well. The terrible service the moment something went wrong brought home the downside of the airline industry's push for cost efficiencies - there is absolutely no buffer left in the system. Of course, that was the reason why we were paying barely 20% more in Indian Rupees for our tickets too and from North America than Lali Athai had paid when she flew to the US in 1992  (despite oil prices having risen 8 fold, and INR inflation averaging 10% p.a. in this period)

I had intended to take a nap on reaching Randolph but it was almost 1030 by the time I got there, and we needed to leave for JFK by 12 noon. A quick shower, a coffee, and some breakfast, plus all the adrenaline from the need to get Radhika et al onto the Air India flight, meant that I did not really feel drained despite not having slept for almost 30 hours. Sunder decided to drop us at JFK. We made good time till we were close to Manhattan, but then got stuck in a jam at the George Washington Bridge (despite it being a Sunday afternoon with fine weather). Clearly, the infrastructure for getting in and out of Manhattan by car needs drastic improvement! Fortunately, the jam ended as soon as we crossed the bridge, and we were able to make fairly good time to JFK. Nevertheless it was 2 PM when we reached the Air India check in counter.

As the Lufthansa agent had anticipated, the Air India flight was overbooked. We were holding confirmed tickets, but they had been issued by Lufthansa. And to our dismay, the Air India check in counter agent told us that the flight was overbooked even while counting people holding tickets issued by Air India itself, and that it would be only after 4 PM, when check in was scheduled to close, that they would let us know if Radhika et al could board the flight. Fortunately, there were only 2 people holding LH tickets who had reached before us - within another 30 minutes, there were another 20 people in the same boat. While Radhika et al waited near the Air India counter, I went across to the Lufthansa terminal (frankly, JFK is far, far superior to Newark as an airport), and was able to get a standby booking on a Newark - Frankfurt - Bombay flight the next day for Radhika and team. The next hour seemed interminably long - but finally we were called forward, and fortunately, all four made it onto the flight. In a sense it was good that Radhika and team had not got a Lufthansa ticket - they were going to reach Bombay earlier than I would, and also benefit from better food and the inflight entertainment system on the flight (including Chotta Bhim for Avinash).

After dropping the others at the Air India counter, I headed for the Lufthansa lounge, where I typed out Part 4 of this blog during the 3 hour wait for my flight. I boarded my flight to Frankfurt at 815 PM, and was fast asleep within seconds of hitting my seat. All I remember of the JFK Frankfurt flight is briefly waking up to put the bed down, and then being woken up when it was time to land in Frankfurt. I usually try to adjust to my arrival time zone during long flights, but it was clearly not possible on this occasion.

On arriving at Bombay, I was relieved to find that Radhika et al had reached home without a hitch, and that they had managed to retrieve Radhika's bags which had arrived on the Continental flight.

There was to be just one more adventure on this trip. Amma and Appa were of course still in New York. They reached Newark airport without a hitch, and check in for their non stop flight to Bombay was smooth. After boarding, the plane started taxiing on time, but had to return to the gate due to some malfunction. Fortunately, this was resolved before the FDTL of the crew expired, and they were able to head out to Bombay, arriving about 3 hours later than scheduled.

Our marathon trip to the US and Canada was done and dusted, and fortunately, we had no issues except on our return journey. It certainly would not have been possible, or as much fun without the advice, hospitality and company of all our friends and relatives - Jayashri, Sundar,  Nana, Divya, Jagan Peripa, Syamala Perima, Mytili, Heather, Ram, Amrita, Anand, Jyoti, Prashant, Rachna, Shrikant, Jaya, Vijay  et al. I am sure that Appa's prayers also played some role in ensuring that this complicated exercise in un-packaged tourism went off smoothly.

We returned carrying fond memories and having learnt at least one lesson - never trust the transport infrastructure - viz. airlines, trains or airports to ensure that you make your connections - always stay over for a day at your final stop before taking a direct flight home. Radhika and I should have known this - we had almost missed our flight from Milan to Bombay (viz Zurich) in 2006 due to a train strike in Italy, and had ended up missing our connection this time.

Until next time...

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.