TRAVELLING TO SAN JOSE: DAY 20

view on the way to San Jose

Tuesday, May 13..... Booked two tickets on GOTO BUS site, to travel to San Jose, a distance of 400miles from Los Anegeles, a bus journey of about 5 hours.
So after breakfast from La Brea apartment, Anu dropped us at Wilshire street metro station at 9.30am. We have to travel to Union Station and take another metro to China Town, from where we will be catching the bus.

with Ankar-Aparna

After struggling a little bit to take tickets from the machine, I manage to get two tickets. After 30 min ride, we reached Union Station. Walked out to another track for train to Chinatown, reached the departure point successfully.

Drama at the temple hall

The luxury bus many chinese passengers left LA at 11 am..... a long of 5 hours. After leaving the city limits, road, view was picturseque  ...... with stop for restrooms, the bus reached San Jose by 4.30pm,

Deity at Puttige Mutt

Onkar Bhat, s/o Keshav Bhat, Dubai times close family friend, came to the stop and took us to their house in McKee Street. Onkar, married last year to Aparna has a nice three room house, bought recently.

with temple priest & others

After having tea, we left for Sri Puttige Mutt Udupi at San Jose.
That evening happened to special day celebrated as Narasimha Jayanthi, special pooja, drama and grand dinner. After participating fully in the celebrations, we returned to Onkar's house at 10pm and retired to bed.
Written Saturday, 31 May 2014 at Bengaluru

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS: DAY 19

The world famous Universal studios visit was planned for Monday, May 12, 2014. Our host Anu, as usual took us to the entrance and dropped us. There were already lots of people by 10.30am and we bought two tickets for $92.00 each.

at the entrance

Universal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio and theme park in the unincorporated Universal City community of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use. Its official marketing headline is "The Entertainment Capital of LA", though during the summer it is often advertised as "The Coolest Place in LA". It was initially created to offer tours of the real Universal Studios soundstages and sets. It is the first of many full-fledged Universal Studios Theme Parks located across the world.

with the Vampire at Horror house

Rides and shows of the Entertainment capital...... UNIVERSAL STUDIOS.....
We started the tour with a visit to HORROR HOUSE...... something similar with darkness, weary sound, sudden appearence of ghost figures..... to scare you....

Shreik and girlfriend

Then the visit was to SHREIK SHOW......famous cartoon character on the show and movie Ice Age on 4-D effect theatre.....

houses for movies

scene of aircrash

Then on to STUDIO TOUR..... as there were many people, waited in the for about 20 min, sat in a tram taking us around the studio.... showing houses, dynosaur effect, rain and flood effect, air crash scenes, etc and it's about one hour tour.

upper level view

The we went to lower level, going 4 escalators.... to REVENGE OF THE MUMMY ride....,,,face heart-pounding special effects and unexpected twists at every turn as you escape the Mummy’s revenge in life-like horror.Then the TRANSFORMERS ride..... almost went but withdrew in the last minute....JURASSIC PARK ride was closed hence we could not go.

with Marlyn Manroe look alike

Coming back to upper level..... first we stopped at SPECIAL EFFECTS STAGE show where you’ll learn the secrets behind the making of your favorite blockbuster movies.

Animal show

Next show was for 20 minutes at ANIMAL ACTORS show.....where we witness Tinseltown-trained critters putting pet tricks to shame with their animal antics!

Next ride/show DESPICABLE  ME MINION MAYHEM.... in the line for about half hour.... Join Gru, his daughters and the mischievous Minions on a heartwarming and hilarious 3-D ride.....

water show

plane landing

WATERWORLD SHOW was another fantastic with  A Tidal Wave of Explosive Action......  sea pirates, shooting, light, fire, falling into water from a height, small plane landing on the waters.... superb show.
It was already 6pm by then, most of the rides and shows are closed.... walked around eating chips and drinking coffee......

Kishore, Deeksha, Anu and Vishwa

Kishore Bhat, whose parents Keshav and Vishala Bhat were close family friends..... lives with his wife Deeksha around Universal Studios, came to pick us..... had dinner at his house with Anu Vishwanath joining.
After food, chat we left from there, back to Anu's apartment, retired for the day.
written Friday, 30th May 2014 at Bengaluru.

TEMPLE AND BEACH IN L A: DAY 18

It's Sunday, May 11...... Anu and Vishwa had some plans for  us to go out....... After morning bath and breakfast, we set out to Hindu Temple at Malibu area, Los Angeles,

Hindu Temple

Malibu Hindu Temple, a temple of the Hindu God Sri Venkateswara, built in 1981, is located in the city of Calabasas near Malibu, California in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is owned and operated by the Hindu Temple Society of Southern California. Built in the traditional South Indian style, it is frequented by followers of Hinduism in Southern California.

Lord Venkateshwara and Shiva Temple

at the entrance of the temple

The Hindu temple has two complexes – the upper complex with Lord Venkateswara as the presiding deity and the lower complex with Lord Shiva as the presiding deity. In addition to the presiding deity, both complexes have shrines for other deities.

beautiful view of Malibu Beach

at the beach.....

It's about an hour's drive from the apartment. After visiting the shrines, we had meals at the temple, packed puliogare and mosaranna.

waiting for the prey..

From there we left for Malibu beach, drive of another hour on the mountainous view of Santa Monica and Beverly hills of Los Angeles.
The beach was very windy, waters was on high tide, spent sometime walking around, playing, clicking photos and we were on our way back to the apartment, more than an hour and half drive in the city.
The day spent nicely visiting around.....
written, Friday 30th May 2014, Bengaluru.

BACK TO LOS ANGELES : DAY 17

Morning in Vegas

Saturday, May10..... after two nights at Circus Circus Hotel Las Vegas, it was time to leave from there and the morning call was at 9 am. Early morning walked around the streets of Vegas opposite to the hotel, quiet and no flashing lights.

Outside Circus Circus Hotel

Still some people were at the slot machines trying their luck, and some at the eating places. After the walk around, and having coffee and bread, back to the bus ready to leave from the gambling city.

at the CACTUS GARDEN

The bus with all people left by 9 am and reached CACTUS GARDEN in Vegas and M & M Chocolate factory.

CACTUS

We spent some time around the garden and visited a small factory making chocolates. (This is small compared to Hershey Chocolate factory near Niagara).

M & M chocolate factory

Next was stop for early brunch at Vegas Buffet, the same place where we had lunch on the first day.
12 noon was the departure time to leave from there to head back to Los Angeles. There was stop for shopping at OUTLET MALL, spent some time.

with Vishwa and Nikhil at LA

Reached back to Los Angeles by 6 pm at ChinaTown. Anu and Vishwa came to collect us.
We went round visiting little of LA centre and went back to apartment, had food and retired for the day.
2 nights/3 days Vegas, Grand canyon tour was good except for the tour guide, who was mostly speaking in Chinese.
Written Friday, 30th May 2014, Bengaluru  

GRAND CANYON : DAY 16

Grand Canyon

Friday, May 10, 2014.... wake up call was at 4 am and departure time from the hotel was 5.15 am.
Today's visit was Grand Canyon in Arizona, a distance of almost 400 miles from Las Vegas. People were ready in the bus and bus left the hotel premises by 5.30am
Journey was long, with stop for breakfast and we reached Grand Canyon National Park by 10.30am The highways are monotonous and boring except for some places, it was picturesque. 

Layers formed

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is contained within and managed by Grand Canyon National Park.

Canyon at the background

The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,000 feet or 1,800 meters). Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock.

The Grand Canyon is a big fissure in the Colorado Plateau that exposes uplifted Proterozoic and Paleozoic strata, and is also one of the 19 distinct physiographic sections of the Colorado Plateau province.

Colorado river

We spent about an hour walking along the rim the canyon, enjoying the beauty of nature, clicking photos. The call back to bus was 12.00 noon and we had hurry back to the bus to joing along with other tourists.
The next stop wa at HOOVER DAM, an engineering marvel.

Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam spans the Colorado River in Black Canyon between Arizona and Nevada, some 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas Nevada. Constructed in the 1930s, the concrete arch-gravity structure was intended to prevent flooding as well as provide much-needed irrigation and hydroelectric power to arid regions of states like California and Arizona.

Dam at the background

It was originally known as Boulder Dam, but was renamed in 1947 in honor of Herbert Hoover, who as U.S. secretary of commerce and the 31st U.S. president proved instrumental in getting the dam built. At 726 feet high and 1,244 feet long, Hoover Dam was one of the largest man-made structures in the world at the time of its construction, and one of the world’s largest producers of hydroelectric power.
After seeing the place, we were heading back to Vegas and reached by 5 pm. Evening walked around the hotel, ate some food went to bed early.
Written Thursday, 29th May 2014 at Bengaluru

LAS VEGAS ; DAY 15

entering Las Vegas

I booked a 3 -day tour from Los Angeles through TAKE TOURS to go Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and other places. Thursday, 8th May was the first day of the tour, Anu dropped us at Chinatown bus departure point at 6.45am

Hotel Venetian

The bus reached Las Vegas, distance of 400 miles at 4pm after having lunch at Las Vegas Buffet hotel (Mostly Chinese dishes). We manage to pick up some noodles, fruits and french fries.

water show

CIRCUS CIRCUS was the name of the hotel at downtown Vegas, which is 5-star hotel and casino, adveture dome and gambling places.

casino

City of Las Vegas and often known as simply Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County  Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for gambling, shopping, fine dining and nightlife and is the leading financial and cultural center for Southern Nevada.

hotel Circus Circus

The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its mega casino–hotels and associated entertainment. A growing retirement and family city, Las Vegas is the 31st-most populous city in the United States.

Night street

After resting for a while, went round for night tour of Vegas at 6.30pm in the bus. Visiting huge hotels dining and night life and casino like Venetian,Paris hotel and some shows, light and water, native american show etc and open Fremont Street, all kinds of entertainment bright lights, coloured lights etc. and back to hotel by 10.30 pm
Rested for the night at Hotel Circus Circus......
written at Birthi Mane, Bengaluru, Thursday 29th May 2014

WEST COAST TOUR: DAY 14

Chicago intersection

Chicago: Morning 7.30 after breakfast from Nandini Somshekar, we were out from their house, walked a short distance to catch a bus to Cumberland. Bus arrived after few minutes. From Cumberland, we took city metro to O Hare airport, two stations away and reached there by 8.30am

from the flight to LA

Destination was Los Angeles, by United Airlines flight at 10.30am. It was 4-hour flight, to reach LA by 2.30pm. The local time (PST) was 2 hours behind, it was only 12.30pm.

beautiful view

Anupama (Anu) Vishwanth, a distant relation came to airport to pick us and we went to their house  for stay after having lunch at a hotel in LA. Nice girl, architect by profession, husband Vishwa, working as Engineer.

Anu with her son Nikhil

They live in LA Brea apartment at Burnside, nice locality, a distance of 12 miles from the airport, near "The Grove" shopping mall.  
We rested for the day, evening walked around the apartment park. Weather was pleasant, not cold like in New Jersey or Chicago.
We had dinner at home and retired to bed.
written at Birthi Mane, Bengaluru, Thursday 29th May 2014

EAST COAST TRIP ENDS: DAY 13

It's Tuesday, May 6, our East Coast tour ends with two days of seeing around in Manhattan, New York city. We packed our touring bags, had a good breakfast at Kedilaya's house and left there at 8.30 in the morning. The destination was Wilmington Airport at Delaware to catch a flight to Chicago at 6 pm.

NEW YORK TIMES SQUARE

Waited for the bus at Flushing Meadows, when it came we boarded and reaching Flushing Subway.
From there we got into our familiar No.7 train to 42nd Street Times square. We had to proceed from there to New York Penn station. We got into one E-train downtown, which was not going to Penn, got down at the next station, bought another ticket, got into another Q-train, reached Penn station.
The next destination was Trenton Transit centre, on  a NJ Transit train. Two tickets cost  $15 paid at the counter, waited for a while for 12.09 train track 6.


PENNYSYLVANIA STATION

It took about an hour and half to reach Trenton, passing through woods, Edison, New Brunswich .
It was 1.30pm when we reached Trenton. The next destination is Wilmington, now train is on SEPTA rail. New tickets costing $16 for 2 was purchased at the ticket counter, and asked what time the next train leaves. She said ..... in another 2 minutes from track 4.......
We ran with out towing bags down the escalator to track 4, where the train waiting " as if for us".
Another journey of 45 minutes, when we reached 30th Street station. Here we had change track and go in another train. So we got into another platform only to find out the next train leaves after 35 minutes. So it was breathing time, and we had subway for lunch, and waited.
Yes.... the was ready at 3.21pm and we boarded the train which was stopping every 5 minutes for stations and finally we reached Wilmington station at 4.05pm. Harsha was waiting as I told him we were coming there to go airport.
The next journey to the bus stop, walked along the streets in the city, a little distance crossing couple of streets and waited for the bus to airport. After few minutes, bus came we along with Harsha got into the bus, which took to airport at 4.45pm
That was a fantastic experience..... people asked...why did you travel like that... well, for fun, for exploring........... we had coffee with Harsha, spent some time.

We checked in for the flight, the stupid lady asking for $50 for two bags, as there were bulky. However, we removed some stuff from one bag, and had to pay $25.
The Frontier flight took of at 6.15 pm and reached Chicago Midway airport 7.45 and local time 8.45pm.
Somshekhar was at the airport, went along with him in the Chicago Metro (CTA) to Cumberland from there to his house in the car, at 10.30pm for night's stay.
Had dinner, spent some time talking and off to bed.
The day well spent..... exploring and travelling.....
Written Tuesday, 27th May 2014 at Peoria.