California trip: Those 9 golden days of my life

Memoirs of the Golden Valley trip

Its been a month since I have come back from the golden valley (yeah this is what I call the California state) and I still cannot forget the exciting time I had out there. So here it is, my diary specially created for those wonderful 9 days (18th Nov to 27 Nov 2005). It will be a long read keep in mind

18th Nov: Set foot in the valleys
The day when the great trip started. I reached LA from Chicago at 11 in the night. Shobhit (my friend from Infosys) also reached there around the same time. We were received by Ravi (my VJTI buddy). Ravi stays in West L.A and his house was just 7-8 miles from LAX airport. However the traffic on 405 freeway (busiest freeway in USA…this is what Ravi claims) took us around 25 minutes to reach his place. After reaching Ravi’s place, we had a small chat after which we retired to bed.

19th Nov: Universal studios (Actors: Nahush, Ravi, Shobhit)
We made out trip to Universal studios. Before reaching universal, we had a glimpse of the much famous “HOLLYWOOD” sign on Mt.Lee
At Universal, we came across many of my fav cartoon characters (Shrek, Spiderman).

There are many rides in the universal studios for all the age groups. I really had fun in the Mummy ride. The show “Waterworld” was really wonderful. Jurassic Park ride was okayish. But the best part was yet to come “Shrek 4D”. People nowadays come up with so many innovative ideas. Everyone must have heard 2-D, 3-D but what is 4-D. Well in 4D shows, it gives you the real feel of the movie. You still have to wear those 3-D glasses. However in this case, the seats start rocking (when the Shrek in riding the horse carriage) and water splashes on our face (when the donkey sneezes). This gives the 4D feel. After coming back from Universal, we went to the Hollywood street where we saw the Kodak and the Chinese theatre. Then we (even Sudeep joined us) went to the Santa Monica pier for a walk and had a dinner at All India cafe



20th Nov: Sea World, San Diego (Actors: Nahush, Ravi, Shobhit)
We had a 120 mile drive to cover in order to reach Sea World which is located just on the outskirts of San Diego. Sea World was a nice place though I preferred Universal Studios. Sea World is more of animal shows than an aquarium. Shows range from the world famous Shamu (killer whale) experience to the dolphins show to the sea otters performance. Each of these performances were unique and worth appreciating. The efforts put down by the employees of sea world in training the animals were commendable. Other than this we took a roller coaster ride in “Lost in Atlantis” and saw another 4D show and the “Haunted Lighthouse”. We even took a trolley ride (my first) in the Sea world. In the evening we had dinner at Baja Fresh near Ravi’s place. In the night we took a trip of USC





21st Nov San Jose trip (Actors: Nahush, Shobhit, Aniket)
In the morning we rented a car (17k mile driven Chrysler Town and Country). This car (or should I say minivan) could accommodate 8 people. We first picked up Aniket (my GPR buddy) from Artesia. He had come there for some personal work. Instead of going to San Jose (he stays in Milpitas which is 5 mins drive from SJ) through the more common 5N freeway, we took a different but more scenic, picturesque freeway (combination of 1N and 101N). This freeway 1N runs parallel to the Pacific coast and passes through Malibu (one of the most expensive places in USA and where many of the Hollywood stars reside), Pepperdine University (most picturesque univ in USA as it overlooks the pacific ocean and Malibu). This was really a wonderful drive and we enjoyed every bit of it. For lunch we stopped at Santa Barbara and whoa what a town. Looked completely different from the typical American town. Looked more like an European town (though haven’t seen a European town yet). Now I am clearly disappointed on not getting an admit in UCSB (U.Cal Santa Barbara). From then on, we made a stop at Solvang (a Danish town). This was quite a nice place. We reached Milpitas around 10 in the night

22nd Nov: Lake Tahoe drive (Actors: Nahush, Shobhit)
Woke at around 6:30 in the morning. We had to go to Tahoe which was around 250 miles from Milpitas. We left Milpitas at around 7:45 and reached Tahoe at 12 noon. Unfortunately, the trolley ride (which takes you to the top a mountain which overlooks the entire Tahoe lake) was closed. We were disappointed because of this. However we decided to go down to the lake, take some snaps and do some trekking (such a bad idea). The water in the lake was crystal clear and chilly. It was mentioned that at a particular location in the lake one can see 67 ft below the water level. We also enjoyed walking in the woods. The entire region around Tahoe lake is such a beautiful place that I would recommend everyone going to the Bay area to visit this place. The drive around the lake is a bit scary with some steep slopes and winding turns. The maximum speed limit at most of the places is a mere 10 mph. We came back to Milpitas by around 10 in the night

23rd Nov: Back to LA (Actor: Nahush, Shobhit, Aniket)
This day we (myself and Shobhit) started early at about 8 in the morning and headed directly to San Francisco. Actually we had been to SF the other day but it was pretty late and we couldn’t see anything. The first tourist spot that we covered in SF was the Lombard Street (crooked street). It is the most crooked street in USA. In order to reach the crooked street, we had to drive the car on an elevation/slope of 20-30 degree. At the upper end of the slope there was a stop sign. It is so difficult to stop a car at such a spot. The crooked street was really nice. Then we went to the Golden Gate. I do not know why this gate is famous. It was nothing special. I preferred the Brooklyn Bridge in NY over this one. Anyway, we stopped there only for taking snaps and returned back. Then we headed to Stanford in Palo Alto, which is around 30 miles from SF. The university was a cool, quite place. Being the holiday season, we couldn’t see many people in the campus. The campus has some splendid buildings (maybe it was Greek architecture) and statues. We reached Milpitas at around 1 in the afternoon and left for Los Angeles (picked up Aniket) at around 3:15. We had plans of going to the Mystery spot (only place in the world were there is no gravity) and the Monterey beach (picturesque place full of golf courses and a 17 mile scenic drive). However the holiday traffic did not favor us and we had to abandon the plans. Hence we headed straight to LA though made a small pit stop at Santa Barbara again for an ice-cream break. We reached LA at around 12 in the night after picking up Alok(another VJTI cum Infy buddy) from Long Beach airport. By this time Prashant (Infy buddy) and Arshad(VJTI cum Infy buddy) had already gathered at Ravi’s place

24th Nov: Grand Canyon (Actors: Nahush, Shobhit, Ravi, Arshad, Alok, Aniket, Prashant)

Early morning at 2:30 am, all 7 of us left for Grand Canyon. It was close to 8 hr drive. So we had to switch drivers after every 2 hrs. Ravi, Shobhit, Alok and myself got a chance to drive the car to GC. The other 3 folks were busy sleeping in the car. Inspite of this overnight journey, none of us was tired and were still excited about the GC trip. We first reached Williams where we had our breakfast at Denny’s. After that we headed directly to Grand Canyon. We reached there at around 11. Grand Canyon is truly a nice tourist spot. It is a deep, colorful gorge formed due to the Colorado river. The view from Grand Canyon is breathtaking. We did some trailing on the rim of the Canyon. By 4:30 we were all exhausted because of the trail walk and chilly winds blowing. We decided to return back to our hotel in Williams (Fairfield Inn). After reaching hotel at around 6:30 in the evening, we again went to Denny’s for dinner. We retired to bed early that day (by 10 pm)



25th Nov: Las Vegas (Actors: all 7)
The California trip remains incomplete without going to Las Vegas in the neighboring state Nevada. In the morning we headed towards Las Vegas. En route we got a chance to see the Hoover dam. Dunno why this place is famous. It was nothing special. We didn’t even get out from our car. In the meantime, our entire car trip was filled with great Mp3 songs. Moreover Aniket (anda as he is called) had bought his laptop also. So we got a chance to see many movies (Rangeela, Naram Garam, Chupke Chupke) and several of the Great Indian laughter challenge shows. Moreover everyone was also busy pulling each other’s leg though Prashant and Shobhit were the ones who were most teased. We reached Las Vegas by 2 in the afternoon. After checking into the hotel, we directly went to the Las Vegas Strip which is one of the most happening streets in USA. The entire strip is filled with innumerable casinos.. Mandalay Bay, Luxor (Egyptian architecture alongwith the Sphinx), New York - New York (Famous monuments of New york recreated), MGM Grand, Bellagio (the climax of Ocean’s eleven was shot near the fountain of this casino), Paris(famous monuments of Paris is recreated), Venetian(the casino has a look of Venice with even Gondola ride available), Circus Circus, Treasure Island, Mirage, Stardust, Wynns, Stratosphere. The list is endless. We didn’t even get a chance to visit all the casino. Our entire evening went in visiting some of these casinos and trying our hand at some slot machine and table games. I was fortunate to win 20 bucks that day


26th Nov: Las Vegas (Actors: all 7 of us)
Next day again we went for some sight seeing. This time we chose Stratosphere. It is the tallest building in Las Vegas (observation deck is on the 106th floor). Stratosphere is famous for its 4 rides which are on its 106th floor. It did not have courage to take these rides. However my other friends bought the tickets for the ride. However when we reached up, we found out that the rides were closed due to heavy winds. Dejected, we all went back to New York New York casino to play for some time. This time I managed to win 40 bucks. The Vegas trip proved to be lucky for me. We left for LA at around 7 in the evening. Reached there by 11. Had a dinner at Jerry’s and went back to Ravi’s place

27th Nov: Back home (sob sob)
Had to get up at 5 in the morning grrrrrr…..flight was at 7:30. I reached Chicago at around 1:30.

Finally one of my most wonderful trip came to an end…..wish I keep on having such trips once a year.

Some stats for the trip:
Total miles driven: close to 3500 miles
Total size of snaps taken: 1.4 GB