My experiences in the United States of America

    Our California Trip - Jul 25 to Aug 2, 2017 It was just a few days to our California trip and my wife and I were unusually nervous. We normally look forward to these trips but this was not one of those times. For starters, the trip was the longest that we had ever taken in some time (9 days) and for me personally there was a lot of driving involved. Though I have been driving in India for a long time, this was the first time I would be embarking on a full fledged driving expedition in the US. Jul 25, 2017 Tuesday Our flight to LA was at 8 am. Just as we were getting ready, we received a message from the airline that the flight was delayed by an hour and a half. It doesn’t seem to be the ideal start to the vacation. We just hoped that this was just one small inconvenience in an otherwise interesting trip. Our flight to LA was rather uneventful and after 5 and a half hours we were at the Enterprise Rental car pick up area. As usual, they do not have the co...

We had planned a summer vacation at California. Since we envisaged a lot of driving, I felt it was prudent for me to acclimatize myself a bit with the US road conditions and also sharpen my driving skills. ( I don’t drive regularly and the last time I drove was in Feb 2017). Therefore, on Jul 15, 2017 we hired a car (Kia Sportage) and decided to go to Philadelphia. Philly is around 85 miles from where we stay and it took about a couple of hours to get there. We went to the visitor center to get some information on the must see places though we had done our own research. We were told that the tickets for the Independence Hall were exhausted for the day but there was a special entry at 5 pm. We visited the theater in the visitor center which was playing a movie on the American revolution. After watching the movie, we headed to view the Liberty Bell. There was a queue and it took us around  minutes to get in. Once we were done with this, we took a lunch break and then decided to...

My wife, daughter and I left for Niagara falls on Jun 28 th , 2017. It was an overnight bus journey from New York City to Niagara Falls ( Greyhound partner – American trailways). Reached Niagara Falls (American Side) morning jun 29 th . Freshened up at the drop point and headed towards the Niagara falls State park. The first spot that we visited was Prospect Point. That was the first view of the American falls that we saw. We took some pics. Called up home and showed the view to our parents. We had breakfast at Starbucks and then headed back to the park. We bought the discovery pass. This pass provided us access to a number of other attractions at Niagara falls. Since there was a forecast of rain, we decided to do the maid of the mist boat tour. This was an amazing ride. We had to wear blue raincoats before stepping into the boat. The boat ride takes you close to the falls. We first went to the American falls and then to the Horse shoe falls (Canadian side of the falls).  This...

This was our first major trip in the United States. Most of our other trips were short ones in and around the Greater New York area and did not extend beyond a day. Therefore, this was something that the entire family was looking forward to. We also had my brother-in-law joining us from Michigan. I have captured below the itinerary for the trip. To a large extent we did stick to the itinerary. Will detail out the specifics below. Original Itinerary Apr 15 – 10.15 pm – Arrival at Phoenix, AZ Radisson Hotel, Phoenix Airport Apr 16 - 9.30 am – Departure to Sedona / Grand Canyon National Park 11.45 am – Arrival at Red Rock State Park, Sedona – This is a state park featuring a red sandstone canyon outside the city of Sedona. (30 mins)             12.15 pm – Depart from Red Rock State Park towards Cathedral Rock 12.50 pm – Arrival at Cathedral Rock.  Cathedral rock is a famous landmark on the Sedona, Arizona...

There are a few things that I wanted to tick off my things to do list while in US. One of these was to drive a car. I have been postponing this for sometime for some reason or the other though I have been driving in India for close to 15 years. I did not have to undergo the road test while applying for my NJ driver's license as I had prior driving experience. Therefore, still did not get my hands on a car at that time. Winter was coming to an end and we decided during the President's day weekend, we should probably try skiing or snowboarding. Most of the places where this was available were away from the city  and could not be reached by public transport. We zeroed in on Camelback resort in Pennsylvania. It was around 85 miles away from where we lived. Though I was tentative, we went ahead and hired a car. I had opted for a small car (for some reason felt that it would be easier to drive). As luck would have it, the car rental company (Enterprise) which is just next door to w...

Today, I swam at the swimming pool at Xchange (place where we live at in New Jersey). It has been almost 3 years since I last swam. The last time I swam was at Hyatt Place in Hampi, Karnataka. Since it was a long time, I was initially apprehensive but later got into my stride. Still early days and I hope to get much better at it in the coming days. The pool has a number of amenities -  there is the usual pool. There is also a whirlpool ( a miniature pool with hot water where you can just lie down and relax, there is also a sauna and a steam room. Need to check how the steam room is different from the sauna.