Priti's visit to the USA

Priti came to visit for a month, and we went to a few places, namely Stanford University, San Francisco (boat ride and crooked st), half moon bay and pacifica. She also went to LA to visit Ankita.

While all this is routine, I must talk about something not so routine that happened. I like to call it The Prius incident, since such a thing could only happen in a keyless entry car like the Prius. We got stuck in traffic on our way to Half Moon Bay, and on the single lane, I felt like jogging since it was great weather and we were going downhill. So I got out of the car, and started running after telling Anu to swap seats with me (I was driving). After running about a quarter mile, I looked back and saw Priti waving from behind. I thought she was also jogging and continued running. Thats when a car came to my side and said that I had the keys in my pocket. So I had to run uphill for almost a quarter mile, which just killed me. Really funny.

Sea Kayaking in El Granada

Its been a while since I went sea kayaking. Last one was in Alaska. Thanks to the Blogger off-site, we went sea kayaking in El Granada, just shy of Half Moon Bay. We kayaked for a couple of hours followed by late lunch at a nice Italian restaurant. The guides were pretty good, and we stuck to the bay for the most part. My favorite was when we went out to sea and saw the Pacific Ocean in all its vastness. Had a good time.

Settling Ankita

We went to LA to receive my cousin who was coming from India to join USC. We drove to LA on Wed night, and the commute was really good with almost no traffic. We stayed in downtown LA at Wilshire Grand on the 14th floor. It was decently lavish and had good views of the city. I picked Ankita up on Thursday evening. To avoid the traffic, Anu guided me through little known alternate roads, thanks to her iPhone. I did not think we saved any time though. But as luck would have it, we arrived just on time, literally minutes in waiting time. The next few days, we helped her feel at home, got basic stuff.

We roamed in downtown LA, went to Venice beach. The water was surprisingly warm at 72 degrees. We had a good time on the beach.

I worked from the Santa Monica office for a couple of days, and the commute killed me. Santa Monica freeway is always crammed. We returned on Sunday night.

OMG!!!

Many ways to describe this post. Happy Birthday, Surprise, Domestic Espionage, I Am So Dumb but I will go with OMG! A week from my birthday, when Anu told me that a surprise is being arranged for me, I was wondering why she told me about my birthday surprise in advance. As per the plan, I was going to go to a "surprise" concert, followed by a "surprise" trip to Clear Lake. On the day itself, the surprise was elaborated saying we were going to rent an RV, so it would be really exciting.

But here is what was planned. A bunch of my friends were going to meet up at the California delta with a houseboat rented for the weekend. Up until I reached the marina, I was still thinking that maybe this is some exotic concert on a houseboat. Everything was perfectly executed including but not limited to misleading me, great food, music, and other logistics. Even friends who are not local knew this was going to happen. Revealing the surprise before hand was an excellent ploy to keep me from thinking anything else.

Needless to say, we had a ball. We drove the 12 person houseboat through the delta. The menu comprised of Pav Bhaji, Pani Puri, Idly-Vada, Palak Paneer and a bunch of snacks. The sunset was beautiful from the top of the houseboat. We huddled atop the houseboat in the night and stared at the sky and saw a bunch of shooting stars. The silence of the delta and soulful music added to perfect environment.

On Aug 4, we took out the boat into the water channel, anchored at a nice spot and went in the water. The water was really nice since the days are hot. Again we watched the sunset (this time while eating pani puri), listened to music, talked and slept. Some of the guys had to leave that day, so the second night there was only seven of us.

Aug 5, lather, rinse, repeat. We left the marina around 4 clock and came home. Kudos and thanks to all who came. This is the biggest surprise of my life. I am not sure I could pull this off!!

Rafting on Middle Fork American River

A couple of years back when I had gone to raft on South Fork American River, I had decided that Middle Fork must be more fun and adventurous. This time, Daivak and Palak accompanied us for the trip. Daivak took out his Honda CRV, which made the trip really comfortable.

We camped at the same place we had camped a couple of years ago. Last trip, rafting was the most salient feature of our trip. This time, there were two: Rafting and Food. Thats right.. our better halves made the most amazing food you could eat while camping or rafting, and then some more! The menu consisted of Muli Parathas, Pav Bhaji and White Dhokla, with my measly contribution of Corriander Chutney. But that did not mean we forgot the barbecuing part. On Saturday night, we had a candle light dinner with Pav Bhaji and barbecued veggies in Chat Masala. Note to self, potatoes work great for barbecues!!

On Sunday, we started off with a quick in car breakfast of sandwiches and chaat puri, thanks again to Anu and Palak. The first feeling I got on reaching the put-in place was that it was too hot. The second feeling when I entered the raft was that the water was too cold. Our guide Tyler appreciated the rapids well. Class 4 rapids were breathtaking with Tunnel Chute taking the cake. During lunch, we ate Muli parathas along with the sandwiches they provided. The experience wasn't new to me, having eaten the same on our trip to Alaska while hiking in snow. We reached the put-out point at around 4:30-5 and made the comfortable journey home in Daivak's car.

Seattle.. yet again.

I visited Seattle after 3 years to meet my NCSU roomies and school buddies. The group came around full circle with our better halves! I always like to goto Seattle for its scenic beauty. Anu likes cloudy skies(spoiled by the California sunshine I think) and I love the greenery.

The inbound flight was late. We spent a bunch of time playing UNO at the airport. We were flying in on a Thursday to make the most of the trip. Both Arpit and Vivek came to pick us up at the airport. The next day, I worked from the Seattle office and we met up for dinner in the evening at Inchin's bamboo garden. Its the best Indian Chinese I have experienced in the USA with all the dishes catering very well to the Indian palate. Kalmady joined us for dinner, coffee and the San Juan trip. Ravi met us for dinner too.

On Saturday, we went to San Juan Island from Anacortes by ferry. The whale watching trip was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it more for the rain and sea than watching the actual whales. The return was eventful. Arpit's car had a problem that it wouldnt open up. Meanwhile Anu and Shweta taught the owner of an Espresso coffee shop how to make Pav Bhaji. Finally AAA helped us out and we were on our way back.

We met a bunch of old friends from VJTI on Sunday, just reliving the nostalgic days. Quite a population of VJTI'ites, NCSU alumni and HMPS alumni is in Seattle. We stayed at Arpit's house which is really well decorated/furnished/painted.

Arpit, Komal, Vivek, Reshma and Kalmady were at the airport to say goodbye. Now thats what I call royal treatment.

Shasta Lake, Whiskeytown lake

We had not planned anything in advance for this Memorial Day, so we decided to drive up north to Shasta lake a couple of weeks before.

On the first day, we went to Shasta caverns, a very interesting first time experience, where you see formations formed by dripping water over a long period of time. Stalactite and Stalagmite are two examples of forms growing from the ceiling and from the floor respectively, and they meet after thousands of years. This tour also included a boat tour on the lake and a bus ride to reach the caverns. Next, we went to Shasta Dam where they gave us a tour, took us down into the dam. We were surrounded by more than 50 feet of concrete on three sides. The tour was very informative, and we saw the simple hydroelectric production theory in action out there. More interesting was how the dam was built. For example, they produced the concrete in an onsite location, then moved it using a pulley system to form concrete slabs, which in turn were used for construction. Also, they had to reroute the river in the meantime. The dam produces 1KWH in 2 cents. We pay around 15 cents for that when it comes to our house. In the evening, we went to the Sundial Bridge. Built by a Spanish architect a few years back, its a pedestrian bridge made of glass on the Sacramento river. Really beautiful, especially when its lit up in white light at night.

The second day was for activities. We went down to Whiskeytown lake and hung out at the beach. We were in the water for a long time, played a board game, and finally rented a powerboat which we drove like crazy on the lake. The boat touches 45 mph, and Anu probably made turns at that speed, throwing us off. Fun times.

Yosemite NP

I have been to Yosemite on Labor Day weekend in Sep. 2004, but I must say that Yosemite is much more beautiful in early spring, when the waterfalls are fuller. We did pretty much the same things we did before, but the water made all the difference. We went to Vernal Falls hike and to a bridge above gushing water about .5 miles from there on the way to Nevada Falls. In the spring, the Vernal falls hike will soak you wet due to the mist from the gushing water. We saw Yosemite falls, Bridal Veil falls both full with water. We also went to the tunnel lookout this time, it has a comparable view as the top of Glacier point, and I would suggest checking it out rather than drive up to Glacier point. We also took a trail to Mirror Lake, which is more like a marsh than a lake.

The India trip

I look forward to going to India on every trip. This time, the agenda of the trip unlike past trips was to stay home and spend time with family.

The only trip we made was to Nasik and Parner, to meet my in-laws' maternal and paternal sides. In Nasik, Anu's maternal grandma has a nice place just close to the river. It is one of the tallest buildings in Nasik and the view from the top terrace is quite beautiful. Parner is where her paternal grandfather lives. On the way back, we went to the Ganpati at Ranjangaon. It was a fun trip.

Another salient feature of the trip was that we worked from our respective offices. Google had a brand new building and the paint made me nauseous. The sales and marketing folks I met there were very nice, and are doing really interesting stuff. The catered food is awesome.

This time, I also did a fair bit of shopping. Chief amongst shopping was buying a tabla at Dadar. And as always, met friends, ate at my favorite joints and watched a bunch of desi television.

Premiere of Eklavya - 15 Feb 2007

There will be another entry for the India trip, but I think this one deserves its own entry. We got a chance to goto the premiere of Eklavya, one of the most awaited movies in 2007. It was supposed to be a star studded event, and that is exactly what it was.

The premiere was at IMAX Adlabs at Wadala. We were checked at three places for the passes and after giving away the car to the valet guy, we came out on the "red carpet", in time to see the entire starcast of Eklavya taking a group photo. Then, we saw Vidya Balan giving a long interview and we were behind watching the entire starcast talking to each other. Anu had the guts to ask Jackie for a snap, and he agreed and I was happy to take it. Then she took an autograph just for kicks from Boman Irani and my photograph with him. After that, Aishwarya Rai passed us by in a hurry, she was surrounded by her cavalcade, and quickly made her way into the screen. There were refreshments and drinks, which didn't interest me much.

The movie was good, short and had great editing. I must say I was impressed with the theater, sound, screen, all seemed better than good US multiplexes like AMC Mercado.

For the record, we saw the following celebs:
Amitabh Bachhan, Jackie Shroff, Sanjay Dutt, Vidya Balan, Raima Sen, Boman Irani, Moushumi Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Aishwarya Rai, Zayed Khan, Jimmy Shergill, VV Chopra, Sunil Shetty, Amar Singh, Raveena Tandon, Bhagyashree, Aftab Shivdasani and a bunch of smaller stars (look at me talking!) whose names I dont remember.