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!!