Travel Diaries 1 - Journey from Las Vegas to Hawaii

An account of various journeys and trips we traveled in 2010:

December 2009 - January 2010: California / Vegas Trip

Memorable trip with parents, sister, bro-in-law and a 2-month niece

• Los Angeles - Malibu Beach, Malibu Temple, Pacific Coast Highway, Kodak theater & Hollywood Boulevard, LA Live were fabulous. Universal studios was good and so was Disneyland.
• San Francisco - A very very unique city completely different from the rest of US. Cable cars, hilly roads are its USP. Golden Gate Bridge view from Bay beach was a view to die for. Crooked street was fun. Fisherman's wharf, Coit tower, Union Square were good. Spent Christmas here.
• Santa Cruz - En-route LA to SFO. Mystery house's location. Nice one
• San Diego - Sea World was good, again a different kind of city with heavy Spanish influence.
• Las Vegas - Rightly called the sin city, the city which never sleeps. So much vibrancy, lights and colors can lighten up anybody's spirits :). Casinos, live-shows, sleepless nights, huh :)) We spent our new year's eve (my wifey's birthday eve too) here.

That was our first visit to the west coast. Loved it and with family, it was a perfect gateway. We (bava and I) drove from LA to SFO (8 hours) and back, LA to San Diego (4 hours and back), LA to Vegas (3 hours and back) and the driving was fun, especially on pacific coast highway. Lot of memories, lot of enjoyment. Really nostalgic.

February 2010:

• Ashburn, Virginia: Tanya's annaprasana ceremony beckoned us to sister's place at Ashburn. Fun time with family again.

March 2010:

• Washington DC: Parents Canadian visa appointment, interview and approval. Celebration time in the capital city of US. Though a small city, its a unique blend of grandeur and simplicity. Capitol building was worth seeing once. Smithsonian museums, white house, monument, memorials were good too.

April 2010

• Pittsburgh: visited the famous SV Temple or chinna Tirupati en-route to Toronto while bringing parents from sister's house. one of the biggest and nicest temples of the continent. Similar one is in Malibu, LA.
• Niagara Falls (US view): Though we have lost our count of visits to Niagara, this was the first time from American side. Not as bad as I expected, but Canadian view is far better. 
• Toronto: A one day trip of important areas in Toronto City with parents - The downtown, CN Tower, City Hall, YD square, Swaminarayan Temple so-on and so forth.

May 2010:

• African Lion Safari, Hamilton: Supposedly the best safari of North America. Visited once before with cousin Preetham and Saroja. This time with parents. It was a sunny day and could experience the majesty of lion and cheetah from a foot distance. Ostrich, bison, deer - none of the hosts thought twice to stop our vehicle. Visiting casino later the day was an icing on the cake.
• Niagara Falls (Canadian view): Now from the Canadian side. Journey behind the falls captivated parents. My mom says this is and will be the best siteseeing spot anybody can ever see :)
• Ottawa: My in-laws joined to make the family gathering bigger and merrier. All of us visited Ottawa, the capital city of Canada. Parliament hill was as usual majestic and so were other parks we visited.
• Wasaga beach: Sunny day at the beach two hours north of Toronto

June 2010:

• African Lion Safari, Hamilton this time with in-laws.

July 2010:

• New Market: To a raspberry picking farms. Had fun picking raspberries, blueberries in rain.
• Toronto city trip, this time with in-laws

August 2010:

• Saugeen Country / Grey county: An yearly trip with our group of friends in Mississauga (Canada kutumbam) to Saugeen. 3 days - 30 members in a cottage, beaches, water sports, waterfalls, campfires, kayaking, canoeing, fun and frolic. Memorable !!! Already waiting for 2011 summer camping with CK.
• Virginia Beach: 2 day trip to Virginia beach along with sister, bro-in-law and niece. BEST TRIP TILL THEN, period ! 37 km Chesapeake Bay Bridge - Tunnel is a made man wonder and a drive on that was mind blowing. Later, an ocean front hotel suite with Jacuzzi and all ultra star amenities was a spoiling luxury. Strolling on the beach after midnight, drenching in Atlantic waters during the day was the routine of the day (or two).

September 2010:

• Toronto: Casaloma palace, Center Island and AR Rahman live-show.

October 2010: Alberta Trip

Another memorable trip with in-laws

• Calgary: Small but beautiful city, vibrant downtown, Calgary tower, museum and urban island park were nice.
• Drumheller: A surprise addition to the itinerary, thanks to my friend's suggestion. Completely worthy. Mushroom hoodie style hillocks, grand canyon modeled canyons, authentic dinosaur museum, river. Would have missed something if missed visiting this place.
• Edmonton: Much bigger than I expected. Vibrant downtown, WC square, largest shopping mall in North America. Good enough.
• Banff: I forget words, just thinking about the beauty the nature has bestowed upon this area. I don't think I can see a more beautiful place in my lifetime or rather I'm not sure if there is one in this whole world. Snow-clad mountains, green water lakes, lush pine blankets, a perfect treat to eyes, senses and heart. Lake Louise is by far the best location that world can ever witness. Moraine Lake is not far behind. Rope-way to the top of sulphur mountain gives a panoramic view.
• Jasper: If we missed this, I would not have forgiven myself for the entire life. This is a gateway to Athabasca glacier, the sheet of ice which is as thick as the height of Eiffel tower and which is a source of rivers draining into pacific, atlantic, arctic oceans. We traveled on this sheet of ice on a rugged snow-coach. The very feeling of standing on a glacier was overwhelming and incredible.

November 2010:

• Visited sister's place at Ashburn again for thanksgiving day weekend, but preferred to stay back at home.

December 2010:

• Blue Mountains ski resort: Karthik, my cousin visited us from NYC in peak winter and what else could be the right winter tourist spot. First visited Wasaga beach, which was then clad with snow. We danced and had fun on the snow beach and then reached the ski resort. The snow shoes we were given were heavier than us and we were novices to skiing. We slipped, tripped,struck,fell like there is nothing else to do but later picked up the techniques and had fun skiing. My second time after my brush with ski blades in Manali 3 years ago.
• Niagara-on-the-lake: For the first time, visited the place where Niagara river joins Lake Ontario. Later visited Niagara Falls.
• Toronto city: this time with Karthik

Holidays 2010 - New Years Eve, 2011

• Hawaii: This time for my wife's birthday (Jan 01), we planned to be in a dreamland called Hawaii, somewhere near nowhere. Pacific waters, beautiful islands, active volcanoes and lava fields, outdoor events and water sports like bungee jumping, snorkeling, scuba diving, jet skiing, parasailing, local new year's party (which I can never pronounce or spell, just like local area names) are awaiting us.
• Ammadu's birthday: This has always been special for us as the whole world celebrates along with us.I try to make it as special as possible, but I can never give surprise gifts like she does to me.  She holds a record of celebrating her birthday in different cities in the last 6 years. So I try to take her to the most exotic places as possible.

• 2006 - Seoul, Korea

• 2007 - Bangalore, India

• 2008 - Toronto, Canada

• 2009 - Hyderabad, India

• 2010 - Las Vegas, USA

• 2011 - Hawaii, USA

Lets hope our Hawaii trip will be as eventful and memorable as other trips were. Will post our pics in Travelogue album of my Facebook account. All the trips I mentioned in this post are captured in form of pics in this album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=516769053&aid=158000