Reliving Childhood !!

I was on my way back home from my Daughter's Preschool, when I noticed a group of children sitting out in their yard in a circular fashion, under the warm sun, playing something that looked like passing on the message. What I was reminded of.. was my own time with cousins and friends at Nani's place, the summer vacations.!

Brilliant mornings, waking up later than eight for a while, troubles with milk..chores of the mothers in getting us ready, cooking-cleaning-washing and what not, fathers at breakfast table ready to leave for work.. and us, well.. just waiting for them to leave so that we can decide the plan of action for yet another fun-filled day. Horking down the breakfast, gulping down the milk, futile attempts to like it with flavors of chocolate, strawberry..sometimes even tea !! But the battle was always won, sometimes by mothers, sometimes by us :)

The gang of eight in a big house, believe it or not, started our day with a notepad and list of games. There was always a leader , some followers, some premature, some neutrals and a rebel ! But we all fit exactly right in all games and activities we did through a day. The first three hours before lunch were pretend-play of Doctors and Teachers fondly terming doctor-doctor and teacher-teacher. A little smart act of Nani by suggesting us to do our holiday homework while playing pretend-Teacher. The wisest of us got to be the teacher and the rebel would suck the life out of her by being the worst student.. the teacher finally giving up her job and taking up a new role of the monitor of the class.. :) But the role-reversal you see, makes the masses haphazardous..lots of questions, 10 math problems, but no answers.. so as expected the rebel quits and is happy being the monitor and the teacher is back again with full control and restoring order..!! I recall and imagine, relive and replay.. what fun it was!

The lunch was a tug-of-war too. Eating with favorite cousin, most popular friend which were actually favorite for more than one of us! All one could hear was "I dont want Daal or salad", " only one roti and no rice, mom". Securing the best ripe mango even before starting to have lunch was real fun ! The second three hours from 2 to 5 were outdoors in sun, playing catch, kho-kho, races, cycling.. did we ever sleep ?? No we didn't.. we just pretended :) 

Moms tucking us in for quick 2 hours nap, and all of us quietly moving into the living room, one by one to try out our already planned dramatics. Picking up a random movie illustration, sometimes comedy sometimes horror.. I remember, there were large Antelope-head wall pieces in our living room, they were real-life size and had big horns .. and once we drew the curtains of that huge room, it became really scary in there. The effect of our dramatics was exponential because we could see those heads in dim light, and dust particles in air added to the remoteness..! There were screams by youngsters, shouts and laughter by boys, giggles and hushes.. so that the moms don't wake up and we played on and on. Fights on who gets to play the lead and who gets to be the wretched ill-faced ghost. The evening was delicious with Nana getting fresh jalebi and samosas, I always saved some jalebi for soaking in milk to have it the next day !! yumm..

An evening stroll to the chaat-stand, a plan to see the famous U.P "Numaish" and teasing each other on getting on to scary rides. Dinner while watching TV, fighting yet again. Boy, it was funny and ridiculous at the same time.. Setting up sleeping space in living room, on the ground, displaying on paper "only kids allowed" , chatting and talking till midnight, pulling legs of the most innocent ones, telling "the right thing to do" to the miscreant, enacting our funny school teachers .. all getting up for a midnight snack, giggles and hushes in the kitchen all the time!! 

If I try to quantify, we had much more fun all day than the kids of this age. May be their definition of having fun has changed now.The simple playtime has become occasions of classy pre-planned play-dates, the notepads and holiday homework replaced by i-pads, singing, orating or reciting is replaced by phone and pods, the quality of playtime has improved, evolved and has become smarter, average intelligence has increased at a very young age, street smartness in the palm of a child's hand... but playing once in a while in sun like that, planning an eventful day with all sort of games is worth every minute. One can never recall an account of playtime this diversely if they were spending half their day on an e-device!!



Dedicated to my "Mad Family" !! I love you all guys! and I miss you too ..

The Perfect Getaway : Fire Island, New York

Abundant in raw natural beauty, ocean front views, beautiful and clean beaches the "Fire Island" located in the state of New York, gives a totally city-secluded experience or as I would like to call it " The Perfect Getaway". The island is situated adjacent to the south shore of Long Island(New York). Its around 50 miles in length and just half a mile in width, so its like a strip of land in the middle of the vast stretch of The Atlantic Ocean. The place is crowded most of the summers till the labor day, with people engaging in water sports, biking around the island and baking themselves under the sun !!

Since the beginning of the trip planning, I was curious about the typical nomenclature of this Island. Read about a few reasons , few assumptions about its peculiar christening.. because there is no conclusive detail about it. By the end of the tour I was able to pick the correct reason.. which I would gladly illuminate after I finish describing the beauty and peace of this place.

Any sort of automobile cannot reach the island, nor are they allowed for the people living on it. The only automobiles on the island are for maintenance and security purposes. It can be reached by boats, seaplanes or ferries. A ferry service runs 3 ferries a day(to and fro) to bring and escort back the tourists visiting the island. There are numerous hotels and lodges for staying purposes, and that too, ranging from a three starer to a regular. But don't elevate your expectations about the luxury of stay. The three starers are pretty basic on average standards and the regulars are just decent. The prices of almost everything will be well above normal because of the fact that its an Island and nothing is being cultivated commercially there. All necessary supplies like food, water medicines etc. are brought to the island by ferries. So that explains the high price factor.

The places of stay offer complimentary riding bikes to all their guests. They are the most used means of transportation/commute by tourists as well as residents.. so, just as I imagined, there were bike parking rails outside every house, diner and hotel.. instead of garages or car parking :) There is a main street running in the center of the island and it has most of the diners, shops, hotels , even the police station, school and hospital. All of these are somehow sufficient for 300 residents and thousands of visitors every year. A wooden docking yard is constructed on one side of the island for about half a mile on a long stretch of land form and a sleek but beautiful 50 mile beach runs on the other side. The sand is almost white and very fine.The waters although are rough in the high tide season.

Our stay was at Cleggs hotel which is located right in front of the ferry docking yard. Decent rooms, decent breakfast and the Manager was a very cheerful and helping fellow. He was managing everything along with his family. Most tourists spend the evenings watching sunset at the docking yard or walking riding bikes along the main street. There are play-yards for children with sand boxes and few rides.Some benches line across the docking yard, one can sit and gaze at the full moon and its reflection in the ocean. It is a perfect picture for love-birds :) Since I am more of an early morning person, my ventures into capturing the sunrise are worth reciting. Half a mile ride to the beach, send my pulses racing and increased my anxiety to see something absolutely gorgeous, probably because it was my first sunrise at a beach. When you can see till the horizon, knowing that there is nothing beyond this beach but a vast stretch of ocean, when you can hear the rushing waves as if everything else was absolutely silent and when you can see the sun waking up.. yawning ..coming through the clouds, all that comes to memory are the best times of your life. No wonder I am being poetic in describing what I have seen, If I wasn't I would not have done justice to the beauty of that morning. Not that I have done complete justice even now, the beauty is worth more than my words.

I walked along the empty beach, crossed paths with a bird who probably was on her way finding food. The only other person on the beach that early in the morning was a photographer with his tripod almost half a mile away, waiting for the sun to shine completely. He probably was also looking for a capture of sun's reflection on the beach just as I was, gazing at the horizon. I hope he got lucky as well.

After spending some quality time at the beach at the sunrise, I set out to reach a lighthouse, which is also a historic attraction. Its an eight mile hike and not all on bike, so a little treacherous. The lighthouse gives a panoramic view of the island. I probably spent the whole day riding a bike, was totally exhausted but had the most beautiful views in mind from the morning.. permanently registered in my memory.

I went again for the sunrise , the next day and sat on the beach for couple of hours, enjoying the serenity of the place. Its ironical though.. with such a rough beach(it was high tide) the place still seemed serene :)

Later in the afternoon, we boarded the ferry back to Long Island.

I am sure the pictures are speaking more than my words. I seriously recommend this place to all of those who love such kind of "Getaways" and places of natural beauty.The best time to go would be around the labor day weekend. May be a day after that weekend, so that you can have the beach all for yourself :)

Lastly, about the peculiar nomenclature : Some reasons are :

1. Misinterpretation of a Dutch word "vijf" meaning "five" misheard as "fire"

2. The island derived its name from fires built on the sea's edge by Native Americans or by pirates to lure unsuspecting ships into the sandbars.

3. Sometimes portions of the island look to be on fire from sea in autumn. 

4. It comes from the rash caused by poison ivy on the island.

The last one holds true for me, I got a serious poison ivy rash while parking my bike at different locations. So be extremely careful. Carry some calamine lotion with you if you plan a trip here. 

I am going there again for "The Perfect Getaway" !!!

I watch as she grows up.

It feels like yesterday when the nurse cleaned her and dressed her in a small white full sleeve cotton shirt, wrapped her in a white and pink cotton drape and placed a small blue-pink striped circular cap over her little head with a few fringes of her soft hair decorating her forehead. She had her eyes closed and was wearing a peculiar smile on her face. Looked like she dreamed while sleeping. I had the goddess in my hands. Something so beautiful could only be divine. Yes, she is divine. I could never adore her enough, as I fed her. She slept all that time, and I have never ever seen such a serene face. One look at her face, and all my pain vanished.

With every passing day, she looks even more adorable, her features taking prettier shape, skin starting to tighten up and glow in shades of baby pink and golden. Eyes more wide open than before, that's when I notice, she has my eyes. Big and in a shade of brown, although she gives a reflection of her father now. Those five days in the hospital were the days when I learned everything I needed to start nourishing her. I adored her every minute, specially after I fed her, she used to cuddle up inside and doze off while I fed her. She looked so beautiful when she slept like that, absolutely adorable with those hair strands on her forehead, they made her look divine, its not that she isn't .! So, engrossed in her beauty I forgot to burp her after feeding her the first time. She started crying a few hours later and I couldn't understand why.. That's when the mother inside me started to come more into picture. I was nervous, anxious wondering if I had done something wrong or forgot something important, shattering at the thought of being the reason to something troubling her. Still not well myself, I started panicking, which I never really do, I am known for being calm and composed.. but I panicked... which made me realize my love for her.

The nurse told me never to forget to burp her after feeding because babies cannot do that by themselves and they ingest a lot of air while drinking milk. She took her from me, to the nursery and burped her, calming her down and calming me down as well. She offered me to take her to the nursery for a while so that I can get some sleep and rest, but i was not sure. Many mothers did that to get some rest, they gave their babies away to the nursery to be there in all by themselves, but I couldn't do it. I felt it was a little selfish, I have my baby and I am going to work hard for her right from day one. I have pledged to protect her, be with her till the time she needs me, and when its time for me to let her do things on her own and be by herself, I will. I'll just stand by and watch in case she needs me. But today and now, she deserves to spend her time in my lap, in my arms with my warmth and not in a crib located in a large cold room. I promised myself that I'll take some extra sleep after a few days when I take her home. I had her place set in my room long before and she blended right in. Seemed like she has been there already and she really was.

Since that day, till today .. I have been learning continuously just as she is. I can see the brightness in her eyes when she sees something new. I might have seen that before but it feels new to me. The world is so big and she hasn't seen it all, she is excited most of the times in anticipation of seeing and learning something new everyday. First there were actions and small gestures, then came along voices and words. New way of playing with same toys. The same place where she wakes up everyday doesn't look old to her. She looks at the place in a different way everyday. At 9 months she started walking confidently, and then the world was a single marathon. She wanted to defeat everyone, briskly swaying with tiny steps, running in such an adorable way, a little hopper.. hopping around briskly. No adult can do it even if they tried to. So she hopped and I hopped along with her, we both hopped on sunny afternoons, walked on beaches, played in the water, ate mac and cheese.. 

I watch as she grows up. I think I am growing with her. She still smiles when she dreams and I love to see her doing that. She understands and explains, resents a few things here and then. I see a time coming ahead, when I will share my principles with her, for her to choose to acquire. A righteous path that I thrive to follow will be hers to take upon. I will even let her judge me if it seems right to her. It is extremely futuristic thinking right now, but such a time will come for sure. and I will try my best to help her become a better person than myself.

The Road Trip Continues ..

LOS ANGELES : 4th may - 7th may

LA is very aptly called the Fashion Capital. You can sense the difference as soon as you enter the city. And that said, the glamour or more correctly the attitude totally shows in the behaviour at road. The traffic is one of the worst I have seen in the US, probably next to New York city. I thought Boston has a very bad traffic sense but driving in LA totally whacked me out of my mind! Everyone starts honking if you make a delay of a few seconds to move on a green light. As for the traffic, I personally found Bay area the best. 

So, the first day at LA was quite happening. We drove to the city from our motel which was in nearby city called Lynwood. , mostly dominated by spanish/hispanic/latino community. Historically American victory in the Mexican-American  war led to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded Alta California to the United States. Western areas of Alta California became the state of California, which was admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850. Not going deeper into this history, what I actually want to state is that most of California once was a part of Mexico and was given up to US. That pretty much explains the dominance of Spanish community and even cities and streets/roads have Spanish names.

We drove up to the "Hollywood Walk of fame" and continued walking thereafter. Well, LA is the first place in US where I found a $5 hourly rate of parking even on a weekday!! If it had been Boston, one could easily loose $30 on that. Its a very good decision to take a city tour for getting briefly acquainted with the city. Starline tours are the best in this regard. Do not, please do not take any other tour in LA. They are all fake. I am telling this, because we took one managed by somebody sitting in that parking lot itself :) Wasted 60$ and 2 hours and couldn't even get a good look at anything. The Driver-cum-tour guide drove recklessly and kept on speaking about attractions which none of the passengers could make out. I personally feel that the fellow passengers were fake too and were paid to sit in the bus. Well, The only thing which he made sure we see was the famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign. 

After that tour we took on to the "Walk on fame" on foot. It must have been great deal of work to dedicate all that path to so many TV/movie celebrities. Some I knew of and some were a talk of history. The whole walk is quite a sight because of a lot of hustle and small shops etc. Its been a very favorite places of movie directors to present picturesqueness of a common day life in LA. I learned that this "walk of fame" had been a part of some very beautiful movies like "Pretty Woman" . It was here where Julia Roberts picked up Richard Gere in his Lotus car and went shopping on Rhodeo Drive later. Charlize Theron and Will Smith fought here in "Hancock"

As I mentioned earlier about the abundance of Hispanic community here, it provides the opportunity to have some great and authentic Mexican food at almost every nook and corner. We tried a small Mexican eating joint for lunch and the food was incredibly delicious there. After lunch we headed to complete the "Walk of fame" and halted at the "kodak theater" . 

Lots of public cultural events, concerts, famous shows are done here. And sometimes used for private parties like weddings. The layout is busy street with tons of traffic, and the noise level outside is way too much. The area outside the theater building is constructed with large moulds having signatures and foot-impressions of famous Hollywood celebrities. Further ahead, there was a mall where a private party was going to start and so there was this "Red Carpet" and lots of security guards around. It was thus very clear that it must have been a celebrity party. People were just crowding the place like anything, we stood there for around 30 mins in wait to see or photograph someone famous but, famous people aren't always punctual , right??

So, after giving up on the Red-Carpet attraction we headed back to our drive, A Nissan Versa this time. The walk of fame is also a pathway for many budding pavement artists, to come into picture. We saw the work of this artist who was making amazing paintings with just spray-oil colors and a piece of cloth and cardboard.  He maneuvered all these things so swiftly that it was impossible to tell that his work of art just took 15 mins to be done. Besides pavement artist there are many people dressed up as some character from any movie or kids shows, collecting random dollars from the onlookers just to be photographed with them. Anusha became adamant to buy one of these balloon art works. We had to buy her a couple of swords and she was pretty happy playing with them. she even started a sword fight with a random lady in crowd. I am sure she caught her attention by her gibberish talk and balloon sounds. Crazy as it sounds I had a very happening day in LA. It was like coming to a civilization 50 years ahead, well, that's because we just came back from yosemite and were still in the hangover of nature !!

Later in the evening we drove through the "Beverly Hills" area. It is definitely an awesome residential area, mostly because half of the properties belong to movie stars there. But very few actually stay here. The houses are more like their investments rather than dwelling. Owning a nice lavish house here, with the view of the downtown, means easily loosing half a million dollars!! But that ain't a big deal for Hollywood I suppose :)

I could have written more about the beautiful houses we saw but its not worth it  because the beauty of houses was overshadowed with large trees covering them. Probably everyone has something to hide there!!

Altogether, Beverly Hills was just about having a good feeling of looking at and roaming about very expensive houses :). Next halt was the "Rhodeo Drive". Again, LA being the fashion capital, Rhodeo Drive is amongst those places where multimillionaires  shop around in expensive and lavish Bugattis and Ducatis and Lambhorginis for high-end fashion designer clothes and furniture and Decos!! For detailed information see the following link : Rhodeo Drive , because I am not very good at fashion talk !

The famous "Beverly Hillshire" hotel stands at the end of Rhodeo drive. It can be best cited from the movie " Pretty Woman" and Rhodeo Drive is where Julia Roberts went shopping !

We had planned the next morning to visit the "Griffith Observatory". A little towards the outskirts, this is more like an observatory-cum-science museum. One can have a very good view of the LA downtown from here. A live illustration of "Tesla Coil" was going on when we visited here. I will not go into the details of that, but my fellow EE and EC engineers can understand that it is "Wireless Electricity". Current is amplified through large magnetic coils(Tesla Coils) and dissipated in to thin air. It can be received by certain kinds of receptors and nothing else is harmed which is in the path of that current. see link : Tesla Coil .

The famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign is also very clearly visible from here. The downtown is quite nearby the observatory. We visited the famous "Walt Disney theater" where we had the opportunity to see a live musical concert. 

This was the first time I ever saw/listened to a western musical concert, an orchestra. A different experience altogether because I am only familiar with Indian musical instruments and basic western instruments like a guitar. But here a group of students from nearby university were playing classical western musical instruments like Piano, trumpet, trombones, tubas, bassoons , obeos , drums and flutes too. The symphony they played were truly entertaining and relaxing.

Later in the evening I visited my college friend Priyanka and we set out to meet our relatives in Irwine. The stay in Irwine was very nice. Meeting family on a Road trip is a great feeling.. you know why?? You can boast about your chivalrous experiences !! We visited couple of nearby cities, of which one particular city caught my interest. The name is "Artesia".  Believe it or not, I would like to call it "Little India". A whole street was full of just Indian grocery stores, restaurants, showrooms and even banks !! I was loving this place! Our relatives told us that its worth roaming around here at Diwali time because everything is like in India!! After having a good time with family we returned from Irwine and just made in time to visit "Universal Studios". If I wanted to talk about this place I would like to sum-up by describing the "Transformers 3D" ride we did. It had opened recently and we were very lucky to visit at right time. I did the ride thrice!! It was an amazing experience. There are 3 large screens which broadcast 3D images and there is .. I suppose a circular track and 3 coaster cars go around it. Every screen is so big and near to the car, that the picture on the screen feels real when you see it through 3D glasses. And in addition to that, the cars are moved in such a way that everything falls in place with the story we see. Its like you are the part of that movie. Amazing feel of riding the car extremely fast, driving straight into a bomb-blast but coming out alive, falling vertically down from a building with real acceleration due to gravity..!! They even blow hot air in our faces if we see a blast. Everything was extremely real !! I will give 100/100 score to this ride! A must do thing here. It also had a childwatch section so one parent can stay with the child inside and the other can ride :) There were many more 3D rides we did, like "Terminator 2", "Shrek", "Mummy Returns" and "Jurassic Park", but the "Transformers 3D" was the best ! By the evening we were pretty exhausted but excited to get ready for our next destination : "Las Vegas" , Nevada. And this time I was driving !

LAS VEGAS  :8th May - 11th May

Las Vegas is a pure desert! Till 4 hours of your drive from LA you will not see much civilization..! Do not stop for hitchhikers here or for that matter anywhere. Just 30 mins away from this city, you will come to know that its nearby. I mean, everything is so dark and bland before it, may be  few diners and small casinos here and there but as soon as you can see very bright light in sky, or may be a bright yellowish green beam shooting in the sky, you are near vegas. The city literally sparkles from way beyond 50 miles. I was wondering what was the cost of running this place, say in terms of electricity and water and so much maintenance. I have tons to tell about this place. Our stay of 6 nights and 4 days in vegas comprised of staying at different hotels and casinos and we made sure we saw and stayed at the most popular ones.

We reached at around 2 am at night and it seemed like 8 pm in the evening ! Lot of traffic, its true the city never sleeps. And why should it, when its earning filthy amount of money ! Our first stay was at the Riviera Hotel and Casino. The good thing about Vegas is that you will get a 5 star hotel in very reasonable prices in off-season. And according to me the best time to see Vegas for the first time is in the off-season. Say a weekday rather than some long weekend etc. Because at that time the prices are 3 times the original.!

The Riviera Hotel was more like a 2-3 star hotel and room was decent enough given the fact that we had been staying in tents and all sorts of motels :P

But the next stay was definitely a luxurious experience. We stayed at the "Trump International" hotel the next day. We took a suite and I must say that everything inside was excellent. A big Jacuzzi in bath, a full kitchen with all accessories, a living area and a king size bed. This was just a hotel and not a casino, so guests could experience total relaxation.

We visited the following hotel-casinos during our stay. the first was "Circus-Circus" which was mostly kids attraction so Anusha enjoyed it a lot. Then, was Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, MGM grand, Aria, Encore, Wynn, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandallay bay, Mirage, Monte Carlo, New York-New York, Paris, Palazzo, Stratosphere, Treasure Island and Venetian. As per the categories, Bellagio, Venetian, Aria, Palazzo, Encore, Wynn , Trump International and Manadalay bay are all 5 star Hotels and Casinos. That means more than a couple of billion dollars in their making and I have no idea of the amount being used in maintenance. Caesar's Palace, Paris, Hilton etc are 4 starer. 

And the rest are 2-3 stars hotels and casinos. Whats worth seeing in these places is the theme they are based upon and the decos being used. Particularly in the 5 star casinos, I noticed that things were taken care of on a very minute level. everything was up-to the mark, perfect and very beautiful. The pictures I have posted will speak more than my words. They are mostly of the 5 starers we visited.

Some theme based casinos we saw were , Venetian based on the city,Venice. They actually made a little Venice inside. Boats are rowed inside in water, just like in Venice. There are Streets etc. on a miniature scale though.. but its worth a sight. Bellagio is based on a floral theme and was probably one the most beautiful decos I saw. Luxor is in shape of a pyramid, the top of which shoots a bright yellow light into the sky at night that is visible from far off. Treasure Island is on a pirate theme. Stratosphere is a high tower and gives some breathtaking rides including a free-fall from 870 feet high tower!

Encore and Wynn are very luxurious 5 starer hotel-casinos. They are new constructions and have a very modern look both from inside and outside. Color schemes used are very coherent almost everywhere. Shades of Blood red, brown, green, yellow and royal blue used in a very appropriate way. Right from chandeliers to curtains and glass used, everything was very proportionately designed keeping same color scheme in mind. 

I couldn't imagine that using such bold colors could actually enhance the aesthetic factor of a place to such a great extent. It is like making a solid statement! I am definitely going to use such schemes when I design my own house. The hotel buildings of Wynn and Encore were a majestic "Mahogany Brown" in color at the outside. They depict a classy look at the outside so onlookers are tempted to go in and see the rest of it. And then as you go inside they amaze you totally with their state-of-the-art designs. No doubt, I would categorize these two as architectural as well as decoration marvels ! Paris and New York are on obvious themes. The Caesar's Palace is based on "Roman" architecture theme. The hotel building looks like an ancient Roman Palace.

We stayed at "Trump International" , "Caesar's Palace" , "Stratosphere" , "Hilton"  and "Paris" hotel and all were as per their ratings. Trump International was exceptionally good on the service front.

so,If one thinks Vegas is all about gambling, one would realize that I haven't talked about it as yet ! Well, one reason is that we weren't allowed to take a child in there and second reason is that we were very engrossed in estimating the costing of each and every casino we went to. Vegas also has lots of shows and concerts in different hotels-casinos. Even boxing and wrestling matches are held here. Some of the famous shows of the "Cirque du soleil " happen very often and are worth seeing. They are real artistic marvels. Some shows are conducted by the hotel-casinos themselves and are free for the public to watch from outside. The free ones which are NOT to be missed if you are visiting Vegas are : "Dancing musical fountains of Bellagio" (they are done every 15 mins) , "The Volcano" by mirage and "The pirate story" by Treasure Island.

Our stay at the Caesar's palace was an exquisite one because we (as in me and Anusha, mother-daughter) went out for a girls-night-out ! And that's because Deepak was on a boys night out with his friend. I need not discuss what boys do at night-out in Vegas, but I can definitely narrate the girls-night-out part. Mumma and baby strolled around in "Planet Hollywood" and then walked down the "vegas strip" watching Bellagio's fountains and Mirage's Volcano show. Then we munched a few snacks.. I had a coffee and she had juice. We strolled in the Caesar's palace later and returned to our rooms to sleep cosy around midnight. Yes, me and my daughter are party animals !!

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK : 12th may - 14th May

The Grand Canyons, being one of the natural wonders of earth are frequently visited by people all around the globe. There is a west rim, which is the most popular one and is managed separately by the Native American tribe called " Hualapai". Then is the south rim and north rim which are a part of the Grand Canyon National Park. Carved by the Colorado river over a time of 40 million years, the Canyons will never seize to amaze people. Although, they are not the deepest or the widest, even the longest naturally occurring canyons, still they are considered natural wonders and are a big attraction for people throughout the world because of its visually overwhelming size and its intricate and colorful landscape. Geologically it is significant because of the thick sequence of ancient rocks that are beautifully preserved and exposed in the walls of the canyon.

On the way from LA to the west rim of Grand Canyon, there is another attraction called the "Hoover dam" which lies just in the midway. It was initially called the "Boulder Dam" and is located at the Nevada and Arizona border. It was one of the earliest made dams in US history. Constructed around 1930's during the great Depression, it was dedicated to Franklin Roosevelt and was designed by John L Savage. Hoover dam is a magnificent example of a well-coordinated and well-designed project because the terrain where it was built is a plateau region and it must have been a lot of work to cut through all that landscape. Its main use is hydro-power and irrigation.There is not much to see and one can complete the tour independently in 15-20 mins only.

The drive from Hoover Dam till the west rim of Grand Canyons is quite nice .. just like any other highway in US, except for the last hour. The road track for the last hour of the drive was no less than a hiking trail. We could get the feel of driving in a desert. There were these small weird and spooky shrubs which technically were trees. They are called "Hell-shrubs" or something like that.. may be because of their appearance. And the landscape is in shades of light and dark brown, some brick red and a little green here and there. Its amazing, how natural beauty can be of different forms yet each form has its own aura. All through that rough drive we were hoping to see a glimpse of the Canyons as seen in the pictures but all we could make out were large boulders and huge rocky ranges. At the end of the rough hiking drive, we could notice our car was fully covered in dirt. We drove to meet a highway again(a better drive this time) and in a few turns we could see a long stretch of that highway, and the Grand Canyons visible at the horizon. We were still around 30 miles away from the rim but these Canyons are so majestic and magnanimous that one could clearly see them and can just imagine, how minute a human being is!! Yet, he is the one who could tame such wild nature.

Now, private vehicles are not allowed to reach up to the sky-walk of the west rim. I had forgotten to mention that the west rim is so popular because of this"Sky-walk" construction. It was proposed for construction by the  management committee of the Grand Canyon National park, but later its maintenance was taken over by the local native American "Hualapai" tribe for employment and finance purposes. They even provide transportation to the west rim because it is also a good source of income to them.

The west rim doesn't have very steep depths unlike the south rim. The average depth of Canyons over here is some 700 feet unlike the south rim where the depths can extend up to more than a 1000 feet. The best thing about the west rim is that one can walk along the steep canyons, there is no boundary or protection from a free-fall. Well, I can't say if that is a good thing but I found it exciting on an adventurous scale. A natural thing seen just the way it is. That is why a lot of hiking and rock climbing is done here. There is this eagle-point where the view of two Canyons across the valley looks like open wings of an eagle. I found a huge boulder, sturdy enough to take my weight and this boulder was lying exactly along side an edge of the Canyon. The view from where I sat on this rock was amazing, breathtaking.. really pumping up the adrenaline! I took many pics of my own, my feet hanging down from the edge of that boulder into the valley. It was really exciting but definitely dangerous. Deepak took my pics because, he was reluctant to go up there, and thus he stayed with Anusha mostly while I enjoyed the rush which pumped up in me when I looked down the valley ;)  Though later, Deepak manned-up and climbed the same boulder!

Sky-walk is an amazing feel. As the name suggests, its walking over the depth of the Canyons on a glass floor. Although, its considered to be safe but as precautions people are advised to walk real slow with cotton-cloth shoe cover-ups. I was laughing to myself, why would anyone give such an advice.. I mean.. looking down a depth of some 800 feet, one cannot run anyway ;) Stilettos and heels are a total no-no. Cameras are not allowed either. All for sake of maintenance of the glass floor.

When I took the first step, my heart was pounding !! but in a few minutes I was comfortable. No matter how hard I tried it wasn't possible for me to walk the whole path looking down! But feel was awesome!! The floor is U-shape and depth gradually increases as one walks till the end of the floor. Anusha.. unaware of where she was at, was walking at much faster pace than any other adult over there. I tried to make her look down the floor so that she could see the valley too but she was interested more in the bolts that held the floor and she couldn't even notice the depth ..!!

huh.. Ignorance is a bliss after all !!

Later we hiked to the topmost point in west rim. It was just a 10 mins hike and was quite easy too. We made just in time for the sunset along with a couple of hikers. If you wanted to hear silence..this was the place! so quiet that one could listen to the winds gusting through and the river flowing so far away! There was so much alignment in the colors around at that time. The Canyons all brown and brick red and earthy and at sunset, the golden yellow and yellowish orange color enveloped the valley with the beautiful greenish-blue colored Colorado river still making its way through the canyons.. carving their depths even deeper for adventurers to explore. The view looked like a painting.. and it was my "perfect sunset".

After the sunset we hiked back to the origin, the city "Williams". It had gotten dark and with the help of a guard we located a roadside gasoline trailer that sold maximum 5 gallons gas per car. Although we had fuel, but just to be on a safer side we took the additional because one cannot be very sure on a road trip. It had been an adventurous day but we soon realized that adventures weren't over yet.

Now since the region is quite remote, the GPS and 3G/4G etc. don't work here easily. While coming towards the rim it was not dark and the drive was very straight forward. But while returning we couldn't get the GPS to work properly so we were driving clueless through a remote town. After a while we sort-of realized that this might not be the right way but we carried on looking for some signs to meet the highway somewhere.. but nothing appeared. It was pitch dark, and ours was the only car on the road and there was no civilization anywhere. Driving through the wild west.. with low gas. soon we saw a car ahead of us and we started following it only to realize that it was a cop car. Extremely relieved, we kept on following it till he pulled over when he sensed something was wrong. The cop spoke in the typical cowboy accent and told us we were already 50 miles in the wrong direction. We could not have thanked him enough for he came at the right time. We sure were scared this time So, we drove for about an hour, joined the highway and had dinner while I took over to the drive to "Williams" We stayed at Williams for the night in a small motel situated on historic route 66. This route was used in past by travellers till the time the interstate highway was constructed. After that everyone started using Interstate highway to save time and the cities located on this route lost a lot of business. 

The drive to Grand Canyon National Park which I did, was very picturesqueue . The park is very big and a home to lots of wild animals but we just took the drive that ran alongside the Canyon edges. The views from the south rim are more spectacular than from the west rim because more of landscape is visible and one can feel the vastness. The visibility is very good even from 100 miles away!  Its a little less on the excitement factor because there are more restraints on hiking taking into account larger depths. The views are mostly same from everywhere. We watched the sunset from a very popular "Hopi" Point, not in complete peace though because of its popularity, many people come over here. The north rim is exactly opposite the south rim, but it a long 5 hours drive to do. We passed on that because the temperatures are lower there because of altitude and its not visited much.

At night ,we drove back to Las-Vegas again and spend the next day roaming around the las-vegas strip and staying at the "Paris" Hotel. 

A long vacation and a long road trip was finally ending. We drove to Long Beach airport, returned our rental car and waited for our red-eye flight to Boston. The images from the most beautiful places I visited in this trip were reverberating timely in my mind. Sometimes natural beauty, sometimes city night life.. there were these different feelings that echoed all the time. It was one heck of a vacation.. that I really needed.. may be to explore the world.. or may be to just get-away.. We arrived at 6:00 am in Boston.. exhausted but with a very wonderful experience of the trip.