Offsite to Tahoe

The yearly work trip to Tahoe was great fun! Unlike last time where everything was smoky thanks to the fires, the air was crisp - which Tahoe is known for. This time, I rafted on the Truckee river. The water was cold, but refreshing. The rapids were beginning/intermediate but just being on the river for half a day was a treat!

India Trip

This time we mixed work with leisure and did a whirwind trip of 5 cities and one hill station.We were in Mumbai, Surat, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Saputara.

I attended my cousin's marriage in Kolkata and experienced the city after a couple of decades. It brought back a lot of old memories, like going in the metro and tram and eating Jhaal Muri! We tried the street food including Jhaal Muri and Toast Muri as well as all the Bengali sweets in the marriage.

Then we went to Bengaluru, where we had a great time staying with another cousin. We ate the best south indian food at small restaurants and of course MTR! Surat and Mumbai are the usual suspects where family lives and Delhi was work related.

The highlight was a trip to Saputara which is a hill station on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border and it was a blast with 15+ cousins! We were awake almost all night and had lots of chatting/singing/dancing! We also went to some beautiful spots in Saputara at a Sunset point overlooking the valley where everyone was eating Maggi. We also ziplined in the hills near Saputara.

Ski week in Hawaii

To round out seeing almost everything in Hawaii, we went to Oahu for a third time. There were a few key things on the list which we hadn't done.

1. Pearl Harbor - Kids are old enough to understand its significance now
2. Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay - Somehow conditions were not right in the last couple of trips 
3. Disney Aulani which we felt the kids would love.

At Pearl Harbor, there was a light drizzle. There is so much history there, and we decided to take a submarine tour of the USS Bowfin.

Hanauma Bay was as beautiful as we expected. It was a perfect day and we saw so many fishes. It was the first time Surabhi snorkeled, with my help of course.

I also did a bunch of snorkeling at the Disney Aulani where the water was chilly but we could see the fish in all their glory. Kids absolutely loved the place with its private beach, slides, pool and activities.

Food wise, Govinda's at the ISKCON temple was a highlight. Getting Satvik food in Hawaii was a treat!

Cancun for new years

Last New Year, we were sleeping in Hilo when the clock struck midnight, only to have an epic new year's day. This year, we went to Cancun with 4 families. 8 adults and 8 kids so it was a blast.

We were supposed to stay at the Moon Palace in Cancun for 6 days, but we upgraded to the Grand for last 2 of those days, which was totally worth it. Both places were beautifully kept and the hospitality was perfect.

The highlights of the trip were:

• A boat ride to a reef where I saw an eagle ray, totally unexpected given the reef was not great. The eagle ray was digging into the sandy bottom for something. I thought it was a sting ray but only after some research, I found that it was way bigger than sting rays with a long straight tail. Also, I realized I was too close to it after reading stories about ray stings. Seeing a majestic animal like this was out of this world. Surabhi's first snorkeling day was great, she was tentative but also very happy when she saw a fish.
• The boat ride was on a speed boat which 2 people drove. I was with Surabhi and Anu was with Adi. We were pretty tentative about riding the boats but it turned out to be awesome
• Ziplining with kids. Adi still can't get over his fear of heights while Surabhi totally loves it!
• A day at the Beach Palace where the beach waters were turquoise and warm. It was not great for boogie boarding but the waves and water were amazing
• Trying the flowrider at Moon Palace which is an artificial boogie boarding machine
• A magic show on Saturday night by David Magee the magician and mentalist in the Grand's theater
• Couples massage at the grand. Both the massage and the swimming pool inside the massage place were out of this world
• The water park in the Grand where the kids had a lot of fun

This time, we were wide awake at midnight on new years, with food, DJ and friends, which was great. But I would rather sleep if the next day would be the one like in Big Island a year ago!

Business trip to Delhi

Had a quick business trip to Delhi, but this time felt more choked in the Delhi air than ever before. If you did not know better, just from smelling the air, you would conclude that everything was on fire. I stayed at the Crowne Plaza which smelled of paint and veneer. I fell sick with a sore throat within 12 hours.

After that, I went to visit my parents in Surat and then my inlaws in Mumbai. Those were the highlights of the trip. Especially attending Ahaan's first birthday party was a blast.

P.S. Met Arshad Warsi on the Bom-Paris leg. Felt coy about taking a selfie, for which I got an earful from my wife. Selfie or it didn't happen!

Thanksgiving in LA, Palm Springs

Day 1 and 2
Adi and I have been to Universal Studios Hollywood on a dad-son trip, but Surabhi had not ever been. Adi loved Harry Potter and so did Surabhi. Adi is still scared of roller coasters but this was the trip where Surabhi overcame her fear. We both loved Flight of the Hippogriff. Surabhi got scared in the Studio tour, especially King Kong 3D. We all loved Water World. I think kids will be happy to go again to Universal Studios or Disneyland any time!

Day 3
We went up the aerial tramway to Mt. San Jacinto. It was cold and crowded. There was a huge line, but we got our tickets from a lady who decided not to go, at a 20% premium :). That saved us a couple of hours, but it was my first time in the US buying tickets in "black". The hike at the top of hte mountain was cold but beautiful

Day 4
The last day, we went to Joshua Tree National Park. The Cholla Cactus Garden and the Hidden Valley hike were highlights. I have never seen Cactii so beautiful in my life.

We also met up with Raj and Priyanka in Palm Springs with their friends, which was fun!

Company Trip to Big Island

We won an incentive trip to Big Island for the very first time! It was a great setting to mingle with work folks. We stayed at the Fairmont Orchid which was really nice! It is not set on a sandy beach but has a nice cove for snorkeling. I saw many fish, an eel and a couple of turtles in that setting.

For our activity, we went kayaking from a small cove to Captain Cook Monument and it did not disappoint. We not only saw dolphins literally a few feet from the Kayak. We also had a wonderful time snorkeling in the area where there is a nice reef with tons of colorful fish! On the way back it started pouring heavily leading to a surreal experience where it was low visibility and finding the cove was pretty difficult. Being in a group was comforting but barely helped since we could hardly see anyone. For some time, we were questioning whether we would find the little cove we started out from. Toward the end, we saw another turtle just lying above the water. I think it was the most adventurous snorkeling trip in my life.

We went out to get chocolate from the original Donkey Balls store where we picked a few chocolates. Overall, a memorable trip!

Las Vegas with friends

Thats it!

Offsite to Tahoe

We stayed in a really nice place - the resort at Squaw Creek, but the air quality was bad due to fires. Tahoe is always paradise for me, but I have never gone swimming in the lake mostly because I have only visited Tahoe in late summer once and I always felt it might be too cold for me. But this time, it was really hot and the water was inviting. This time I decided to go kayaking in Lake Tahoe and took a nice dip in the absolutely dark blue lake. We had dinner at the golf course which was nice too!

Cruise to Mexico

We were a group of four families who took a Carnival cruise to Mexico. It was a blast!! The ship had a water park which was the highlight. The food, beautiful sunsets, mini-golf and shows all added to the experience. We also a dozens of dolphins playing next to the front of the ship as we cruised into the sunset. The port of Ensenada was fun to get out to, but there wasn't much to do, except get a glimpse of Mexico.

Italy

This was our first family trip to Europe and we covered Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Lake Garda and Verona!

Rome was beautiful with so much history that I was amazed at how well they have sustained these structures for so long, each with its rich history. We did the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palantine Hill, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and each had its own beauty. We ate the best gelato near Trevi fountain. I have never had Kumquat gelato and it was really awesome! We also went to Vatican City museum and Sistine Chapel. St Peter's basilica is the best church I have seen from inside!

Florence is probably the most beautiful city with its beautiful sunsets and all the art. We did Michelangelo Square, where Surabhi fell trying to climb the statue and slit her chin. That night we went to the hospital and got it glued back. That would be the only tense few hours on the trip. We did Uffizi with a guide and it was awesome. I also hiked to Boboli gardens and of course the beautiful Ponte Vecchio.

We did a one day trip to Pisa and it was really beautiful. Climbing to the top, we felt the tilt. Before that we had Pizza watching the Soccer WC in Italy!

Next stop was Venice. We probably walked the entire city in 2 days, going to various touristy and non-touristy areas (well, almost all of Venice is touristy, so...). Highlights were a nice gondola ride, an amazing restaurant that made ketchup from scratch for our kids and an amazing Polenta meal on the canal!

Next stop was off the beaten path to Lake Garda which is a tourist spot but more frequented by locals. Its a beautiful alpine lake where we had dinners on the lake. It was just beautiful. We took the cable car to Monte Baldo which had unbelievable vistas. There were Alpacas on the top which made my day.

Finally, we came to Verona, the home of the real characters that inspired Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet. We saw the first century arena which still houses concerts. It was really surreal to see something operational that is from the 1st century!

We never rented a car, but used trains all over Italy. I loved the trains! They were fast, clean and fun!

Emergency trip to India

Grandma passed away, so visited India for a week. She was the last of my grandparents, and while she was really ailing, we will always miss her! It was good to see the extended family after a long time.

Spring Break in Arizona

Almost a decade ago, we had visited Grand Canyon's west rim, when the skywalk had not been created. But we have never seen the more touristy and beautiful South Rim. This Spring Break, we took a trip to Arizona and stayed at the El Tovar on the South Rim. We loved the place with Elk grazing outside the hotel in the morning and deer on the trails. We did a good bit of the Rim to River trail and the views were breathtaking. We then had the finest lunch at the Bright Angel Lodge, especially their Tortilla Soup is the best I have had.

Then we headed over to Page to see lower antelope canyon. We were in sandstorm and had to cover our entire faces which made the experience very interesting, especially the drive to the canyon. In the canyon, the scenes were unreal. I just could not believe what I was seeing. The sun's rays coming down the canyon and the beautiful shades of brown are something I have never seen. Then we went to Horseshoe Bend to battle another sand storm. We also saw the Glen Canyon dam and checked out Antelope Canyon by boat. The driver was nice to allow the kids to drive the boat with around 25 folks on board!

Final stop was Sedona. It was way more beautiful than I had imagined. We stayed at the Poco Diablo Resort which I would totally recommend. We hiked on top of Cathedral rock, saw the most beautiful Church up there and had great food!

All in all, a great trip!

Business Trip to India

I had gone to India on a business trip, spending 4 days in Jaipur and one day in Delhi. We went to a bunch of areas in Jaipur. Hawa Mahal and especially Amer fort were pretty good! We had the best food, period! We stayed at ITC Rajputana and went to both LMB for their massive thali with dal bati choorma as well as Rawat for their Pyaaz Kachori.

New Year's in Big Island

The last time I was in Big Island was in 2010 and we covered Kona and south of Big Island in that trip. This time, we decided to do the rest of Big Island. Last time, we had covered Kona and the south of big island. So this time we decided to spend three days in Hilo and 3 days in Waikoloa. Hilo was all about the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. On 30th December we visited during the day and saw all the points, including the Thurston lava tube the Jaggar Museum Overlook and the sulfur vents. It was just amazing, but this was just the beginning. On 31st December, Aditya and I took a helicopter tour to see the lava in the caldera. We saw burning lava which was great.

But what took the cake was the second trip to the National Park at night. Adi and Anu serendipitously met a friend who said that we must see the glow of the volcano at night. I was really tired that night, and we decided to skip it. But having slept early, I woke up at 4 am and woke up my wife to ask if she was up for going. She readily agreed. The kids grumbled when we woke them up, but the next few hours were the best on the island. It was a full moon day. We reached the Jaggar Museum overlook just in time for the full moon to set. The glow from the Halemaumau crater was a sight to behold. We saw the sun rise and came back to check-out of the hotel. 

We drove to Hapuna Beach where we would spend the next 3 days. On 1st of Jan, we saw the moon set, sun rise over the Halemaumau crater and sun set at Hapuna Beach.

Every day for the next 3 days, we would hit balls at the golf range, followed by two visits to the beach and evening in the hot tub. Hapuna beach is great for Boogie Boarding. Adi and I literally bruised our stomachs boogie boarding. Finally, Virgin America was overbooked so they gave us $1600 to fly to OAK instead of SFO, setting us up for the next trip!

Thanksgiving in Disneyland

Anu, her parents, her brother's family and I went to Disneyland for Thanksgiving. Surabhi loves Disneyland! She could not get enough of the princesses and the rides well, the not too scary ones! This time again, we saw Frozen in Disneyland's California Adventure. But this time, we got nice orchestra seats in the fourth row thanks to Anu. The show was so much better when you saw it from up close. You could feel the emotions of the artists.

Adi and I did the rushin' river ride multiple times and got really wet, especially the second time. We saw the fireworks and water show as usual. All in all, it was a great trip.

Summer in India

Work stuff and kids' vacation fell into place allowing us to go to India for 7 weeks. I took a one week trip from India to Zurich for work.

Zurich
Besides work, I drove an electric bike throughout the city. Its a beautiful city. On the weekend, I went to Lucerne by train and from there to Mt. Pilatus on one day on cogweel railway. Its the steepest cogwheel that took us through the clouds. The view from up there is breathtaking! The next day, I went to Rigi Kulm which was equally beautiful and scenic.

India

India was all about meeting people and having great food, as well as work trips to Lucknow and Delhi. The kids spent extended time with their grandparents which was great. Adi used to go swimming and learn the guitar in Surat. It was one refreshing change from the usual for us.

Christmas in Mexico

We had only been to Puerto Vallarta and this time, we decided to go to Cabo. The flight was short and smooth but the immigration line was really long. We decided to stay 4 days at Cabo San Lucas and 2 Days in San Jose Del Cabo.

The first 4 days, we stayed at the Bahia hotel a block from the beach. We went to Lands End and the Arch and saw sea lions that the kids loved! We then went to a glass blowing factory where Adi, Surabhi and I actually blew glass. Having never been there, all of us loved it. The rest of the time, we were either in the ocean, the pool or the hot tub. The ocean was pretty nice but overrun with businesses and swimming areas were pretty small. There was always a backdrop of some cruise ship behind you.

The next 2 days, we stayed at Cabo Azul and that was awesome. Their pools, beach activity and food were awesome. You could not get into the ocean, but it was great nonetheless.

Thanksgiving trip to Vegas

We had planned a trip to Las Vegas with my in laws but they had to leave early, so we went without them. Adi had complained that he wanted to see the Eiffel tower, and why I went to Paris without him. So we decided to stay at the Paris so he could get a pseudo feel!

We obviously went to the top of the Eiffel tower, which had a nice view of Bellagio. Paris is pretty nice. Kids loved the crepes and we liked their sandwiches. We also found a nice Indian joint called Rani's which had really home cooked Indian meals.

We went to a bunch of other casinos and checked out the water fountains, the circus show and so on. The best part of the trip though was the day trip to Death Valley National Park. I was visiting after a decade and I have always loved that place! We went to Badwater, hiked on Artists Palette and loved Zabriskie Pt. Plus, kids loved hiking on the yellow mountains at a random point on the way!

All in all, a great trip!

Father Son trip to Harry Potter Land

Adi and I took our first father son trip to Universal Studios to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Adi had just completed 8 books and had watched 6 movies by this time so it was perfect timing.

We flew down to LA and spent 3 days in Universal Studios. It was so much fun! We bought the interactive wand at Ollivanders, although Adi didn't get picked by the wand maker. We went in the Forbidden Journey ride, like 10 times. Adi just loved it. Once he even sat alone without me (I was in the next coach), but the ride got suspended for a few mins mid-way scaring him. He would not sit in the Flight of the Hippogriff after going on Jurassic Park since he was scared.

I commend him on going to Jurassic Park and Mummy rides once. He also loved Transformers, Simpsons and Shrek. The show he loved most was Water World. We saw it 5 times and just could not get enough of it!

The first evening, we went to the planetarium at the Griffith Observatory and watched two shows there. We found parking far back so hiked half a mile to get there. Adi loved the shows!

After a fun trip, we came back, bringing great memories.

Business Trip to Paris

I made a quick business trip to the Paris office. I stayed at the Villathena, which is a regular hotel walkable from the Google office. In the evenings, I would take a walk to various tourist spots including Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. But what impressed me most were The Louvre and the saturday trip to Versailles Palace.

The Louvre is huge and full of beautiful artifacts, but the oldest sculpture Ain Ghazal which is 9000 years old is fascinating. As is the medieval region section which literally makes you feel like you have gone back to the medieval era.

The train ride to Versailles was fun. More than the Versailles Palace, I loved their gardens. The fountains were beautiful even though it was a somewhat rainy day. Also loved the exhibits in the Petit and Grand Trianon on Marie Antoinette's estate.

I upgraded to business class on my way back which made for a comfortable ride home.

Disneyland and Pismo Beach

We took a week of to take kids to Disneyland and Pismo Beach. We had another family joining us for the kids and so the kids had company! We met them at Newport beach where the kids had a blast.

We spent the first day in Disneyland where we did rides during the day and shows at night. Adi loved the Indiana Jones ride so much that he went 3 times! We also loved the Star Tours ride! Adi has traditionally been scared of roller coasters, but he somehow got rid of his fear in these roller coasters which was great. Surabhi loved the Astro Blasters ride! In the night we saw the paint the night parade and fireworks. The former mesmerized Surabhi and she saw all her favorite princesses.

We spent the second day at CA adventure. It was Surabhi's dream to be a princess and meet Elsa and Anna. And what better place than Disneyland to do that. We did a meet and greet with the princesses and saw the Frozen musical. The musical had really high production values and could stand out on its own as an attraction. We had nice orchestra seats which only enhanced that experience. Surabhi sat through every moment of the musical and asked to see it again at the end of it.

This is where we parted with our friends and went to Pismo beach, but not before an amazing lunch in Artesia at Rajdhani. Pismo beach was relaxing, but the beach itself was a bit disappointing with seaweeds and flies around those that totally irritated the kids. The sand was nice and soft, but the beach itself wasn't great. We played ticket to ride for the first time and Adi was able to get a hang of the game which was great!

Overall, it was a great trip with friends and memories for life.

India, Karan Johar, Mangoes

Sometimes, the experiences that come as part of your job can surprise you. This was one of those trips to India which happened unexpectedly when a media event was scheduled in Mumbai and I had to represent Bollywood Music as part of my portfolio.

I traveled on Lufthansa and A380 for the first time, and while the plane was fascinating, I have to say their business class does not compare well with other airlines. There is much less privacy and space compared to other airlines.

The event was hosted by Karan Johar at the Taj in Bandra. It was a well organized event to promote Google Search for Movies and Music in India. This was the second time I felt like a visitor in a town I grew up!

I had a chance to meet my parents/friends and eat lots of alphonso mangoes, which are my favorite! Overall, it was a great work trip!

Trip to Korea

It was mostly a work trip, and I have to say that both colleagues and other folks I met in Korea were really nice.

In the evenings, I went and checked out a few places. One was the Gyeongbokgung palace which is just off the seoul metro station. It is absolutely huge and beautiful with lots of history behind it. Another evening I had a nice dinner in Seoul at Han Miri where my colleagues graciously picked out the best vegetarian options - the food was great. I also visited Gangnam which is their shoppers and diners paradise. It was very interesting. Finally, as icing on the cake, I literally stumbled upon the French Open trophy tour, where I saw the actual trophy presented on the French open.

Finally, the most exciting piece - I took a day off to go to the North Korean border. We went in a trip to Panmunjom, the place on the border where you can cross over to the North Korean side. The history of North Korea since the Korean war is both fascinating and painful. We saw North Korean soldiers on the other side and we had UN guest passes as a sign that we are non combat civilians. The military complex there had both South Korean and American soldiers side by side which brought realism to what we hear in the US about thousands of soldiers stationed in South Korea still. On the trip, I had the best Bibimbap during lunch.

Overall, it was a great trip. Flying business class on Singapore Air was a great experience as well! The only struggle was the combination of food and language barrier sometimes, which was generally not an issue since I had someone else helping me out!

Second trip to Maui

Having loved Maui in the first go around, we couldn't wait to go back. We stayed in Kihei again, mainly because of the family friendly beaches there!

But on this trip, in addition to beach activities, we touched the clouds while going to Haleakala national park and the ocean floor in a submarine, both great experiences! We also did a bunch of boogie boarding (first time that Adi felt comfortable with it) and plain hanging out at the beach. 

Jakarta, Hong Kong and India

I went to Jakarta, Hong Kong and India on a business trip from Oct 28 to Nov. 13.

This was my first trip to Indonesia and south of the equator for that matter. We stayed at the Fairmont which was really nice. The hospitality, rooms and breakfast were all excellent with a special mention of the rain showers they had in the rooms. It literally felt like bathing in a waterfall! It is a country of contrasts and we met and saw people from all socio-economic levels! The only thing that was difficult was getting vegetarian food - much more difficult than I had imagined. Barring really fancy places, it was even difficult to explain what vegetarian means (Indian-style).

This is my second time in Hong Kong and I did the central mid levels escalator for the first time. Hong Kong is a developed country for all practical purposes, and vegetarian food was much easier, if you had someone that talked the local language.

Finally, we landed in Mumbai. This was my first time in my native city as a tourist which made it interesting. We stayed at the Trident which is a nice hotel. The food was really amazing, which shouldn't be much of a surprise.

After completing the work stuff, I headed over to Surat to spend Diwali with parents which was nice!

Summer trip to Tahoe

We went on a company trip to Tahoe, a departure from the winter trips we used to have. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Incline Village. Having injured my back in Badminton, I decided to go Sailing as an activity. Being on the lake was so amazing and serene. They pampered us with food and drinks. We did the tunnel creek hike and climbed some rocks to get amazing views of the lake.

In the night, we had a nice dinner, but the most fun was a karaoke session with fellow Googlers. My PM friends and I sang "Wonderwall" by Oasis. We also had a nice dance party for which we had to change venue multiple times for various reasons. 

All in all, it was a great trip from Google as always!

Monsoon in India

We went to India in summer this time to accommodate for the kids schedule. It was hot, humid, rainy but also a lot of fun. It had been years since I saw the Mumbai in monsoon. Since my parents are now in Surat, the stops in Mumbai were brief, but enough to eat at the best joints and meet old friends.

Bulk of my time was spent in Surat. We went to Lonavla with cousins and setup the program last minute! It was a great meetup in Lonavla and we did a nice hike close to Aamby Valley. We also did Zorbing and ATV rides on a bumpy dirt road in 19 Degree North opposite to Aamby Valley which is their adventure sports place. I had never done Zorbing so did not know what to expect. It was on land and not as much fun as I had hoped for. ATV ride was a lot of fun though.

In Surat, we celebrated Papaji's 60th birthday, where we got a nice cake and did a potluck where family folks brought a lot of food from Idly to Pasta to Pav Bhaji. It was such a great time with the entire family. I also went to Bardoli near Surat to scout a temple for a future event, and the dhoklas there were out of the world.

Overall it was a fun trip to meet friends and family, and best of all, the kids did not fall sick.

Business trip to Israel

We travelled to Israel for a work related summit, and it was an eye opening trip about a country I know so little about. First, on the not so bright side, no direct flights from SFO to TLV. Had to take a stop, but thanks to inflight entertainment, the inward journey was a breeze.

I stayed at the Savoy, less than half a block from the beach. The office was a 40 mins walk, but the weather was so awesome that I walked on many days. On Saturday I went to city of Jaffa by bike - yes the hotel gives out bikes to travel along the beach, which was awfully nice of them.

On Sunday, a working day in Israel, we planned a trip to Jerusalem. It was amazing how that one place is so sacred to Jews, Arabs and Christians at the same time. We went to the wailing wall, the church of the Holy Seuplchre where Christ was put to rest post crucifixion and resurrected thereafter. Never before have a I seen a single place of such religious importance to three religions at the same time. We did not visit the Armenian quarter.

The work was awesome, but so was the Google office! The food was amazing. A great assortment of Israeli and middle eastern food. They also had fresh squeezed orange juice which was awesome. Dinners in the evening were another thing worth mentioning. We went to one of Port Said's hotels, where the dishes are very innovative, yet tasty. There were a bunch of new dishes that I tried - Matbucha, Shakshuka, Mujaddara and the original versions of falafel, hummus and tahini.

On the way back, I got upgraded to business class which was awesome. It was a 12 hour flight on a 787 and the upgrade really helped to get some sleep and catch up on movies.

All in all, an amazing trip!

Tahoe for Christmas and Skiing

This is our umpteenth Tahoe trip, but the special thing about this one was of course friends, but that it was the first time Adi would learn to Ski. He and a couple of his friends had ski lessons for 4 months and he picked up skiing pretty well.

We stayed at this beautiful home with expansive views of the lake. Anu and I divided up the skiing for 1 day each while the other one was with Surabhi. The snow was good but not amazing, but fun nevertheless.

Trip to Kauai

My parents have never been to Hawaii. When they were visiting this Thanksgiving, we decided to change that.

We have been to Kauai before and loved the South Shore at Poipu as its great for kids, good snorkeling and easy to cover the rest of Kauai. We landed in Kauai on Nov. 26, and went to our condo a block from Poipu Beach Park. We bought groceries as we were going to cook a lot on the beach.

Everyday, we would take a morning walk or jog on the beach, followed by one trip to one part of the island, followed by snorkeling on Poipu beach again. With two of the greatest cooks I know with us, there was no day that the food was short of excellent.

Nov 27, we did the Kilohana Plantation Train that Adi had enjoyed 4 years earlier. This time it was Surabhi's turn to feed the pigs! She could not get enough of the pigs and the rest of the trip she wanted to pet piglets.

Nov 28, we went to Waimea Canyon, and the beautiful canyon lookout. Parents absolutely loved the breathtaking views. We followed that with at a trip to Wailua falls, which is very beautiful .. one day I want to go to the bottom of the falls.

Nov 29, we went to a farmers market and spent the entire day on Kalapaki Beach. It is great for beginning boogie boarders with a very nice beach. I was in the water for hours. We had Pav Bhaji just steps from the ocean water and the experience was surreal.

Nov 30, we went to Hanalei Bay. But before that on our usual time at the beach we spotted a few sea turtles. The kids were mesmerized with the sea turtles, and one of them came ashore. Snorkeling with turtles was not something I planned at all, but it was an amazing experience. Hanalei Bay is beautiful with a great beach, and amazing views of the mountains.

Kalapaki Beach will go down in history where Adi did boogie boarding for the first time, and he did snorkeling for the first time on Poipu beach. We ate lots of ice cream, coconut water at a farmers market and shaved ice as usual.

Overall, the sixth trip to Hawaii was amazing.

Puerto Vallarta!

We spent our Christmas with friends in Puerto Vallarta. We were staying in an all inclusive resort called Riu Pacifico Palace, which had a nice Greek Santorini feeling to it! We stayed there for 5 nights and had a wonderful time in the resort. Our room was nothing short of spectacular, with sweeping views of the Pacific! We just chilled out on the beach and in the pool. This was the first time that I got a hang of Boogie Boarding. We also attended a MJ concert which was pretty good. The food was great initially, but became repetitive towards the end. Overall, a really fun trip!

Priti's Marriage in India

We went for Priti's marriage in India in Dec. It was the most hectic trip ever with 2 kids. We were there for just 5 days in which we went from SFO to BLR to Surat and back to BLR for the marriage. It was important to go meet Bai, so we had to make this really hectic arrangement. The marriage was in Iskcon temple and it was small but fun, and the food was great!

Quick India Trip to meet Bai

Naniji expired all of a sudden and also Bai had her operation in Oct, so I went over to go meet her. It was good to be with her during the operation. I also went to Assam to meet with Nanaji and rest of the family on the maternal side. It was a quick but important trip which gave me closure of going and meeting folks important in my life.

Parents visiting in the USA

Parents and Priti visited the USA in Aug - Sep. We went to Yosemite National Park, where it was insanely hot! We also went to Del Valle Regional park in Livermore, where I kayaked with Mom for the first time! I also swam in the Lake which was somewhat dirty but a cool experience! Other weekends we just stayed at home.

Las Vegas with the Wish team

We went to Las Vegas with the entire Wish team, and it was something. We brainstormed the product but in the night, we ate at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, one of the premier Michelin star restaurants in Las Vegas. I haven't eaten breads better than this place.

It was a short trip and mostly work related, but I also managed to go swimming in the morning in the hotel.

Annual ski trip to Squaw

I hadn't ski'ed in almost 2 years thanks to my knee injury, surgery and the arrival of Surabhi. This was going to be a big test of the knees. Squaw is one of the most beautiful places in the world, but would I be able to comfortably ski again? Over the years, skiing has become more of a sightseeing activity than a sport for me. I have chosen not to go any more aggressive while skiing, which means that I want to ski so that I can enjoy the views from the top of the mountain.

In this trip, that mission was definitely accomplished. The views from the top of Siberia Express were as breathtaking as ever. I ski'ed for a couple of hours and started feeling a bit of discomfort so I decided to stop. I had a great lunch at the top of the mountain where the Tram stops and had a great party last evening. Overall, it was a fun trip.

Hawaii, for the 5th time

After visiting Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Big Island, we decided to come back to Oahu for our 5th Hawaii trip! With 2 kids, this trip was going to be more of a relaxing trip than doing a bunch of activities. We went twice in the water every day, and Adi just had a blast on the beach!

We took the kids to the Dole Plantation where they had so much fun. First, we took the Pineapple Express to view the pineapple plantation. Then we fed the fishes at a nearby lake. Finally, we sat down for a great lunch at the plantation.

Adi loved the hot tub on top of the hotel. He did not still know how to swim. Overall, it was a great trip.

Work trip to New York

This was a quick work trip to New York, to meet the Apps Script team and go to SMX East. I spoke about AdWords Scripts at the conference to about 40 attendees. This was probably my first time giving a talk in such a conference. It went pretty smoothly I think. I also met up with Ankita in the evenings. Overall, it was a great trip.

Shekhar's marriage in India

After almost 6 weeks of being a bachelor in the USA, I went to India to attend Shekhar's marriage. The highlight of this trip was of course the marriage, but also all the great food. I went to Surat and met up with a bunch of relatives which was so much fun. Shekhar's marriage was fairly hectic but a lot of fun. The last few days, Anu and I ate at all the street corners I was crazy about as a kid.

Las Vegas

From London, I directly flew in to Las Vegas with my PM offsite. And boy, was it an activity filled offsite. In just 36 hours we managed the following:

Shooting in machine gun vegas
We shot 3 kinds of gun. A pistol, a rifle and a fully automatic rifle. I hardly shoot guns, and am very poor at it too. But it was still a lot of fun.

Dinner at Tao
It was a fancy dinner alright! Great vegetarian options too.

O
After dinner at Tao, we went to see O. This cirque du soleil show is definitely worth watching. The way the set turns into a swimming pool and then land is pretty amazing. So are all the acrobats.

Tao Nightclub
This is the fanciest nightclub I have seen in my life. The atmosphere was just electric out there.

Go Karting
The next morning, we went go karting. It was a lot of fun.

Tao Beach
Just before catching our flight back, we were at Tao beach. Its a nice pool area with all the amenities you would expect. There was even this girl who would clean your glasses after being in the pool!

London Trip

I was in London on a work trip. Google has very nice office, right in the heart of London. Traveling by bus or tube to office was great fun. I stayed right opposite Green Park in Hotel Athenaeum, great hotel with a great location.

I also spent a lot of quality time with Priti. Every evening and the weekend, we were together and had a lot of fun.

Evenings:
Every evening we would go do one thing. One day, we went to the London Eye. We saw the 4D show, did one round in the eye which was a lot of fun. Then we took the ferry on the Thames river which covered a bunch of landmarks around the river. One day we visited UEL. They did not allow us inside UEL which was disappointing. One day we did O2 arena and cable car. We also did London Bridge and Mayor's office. Buckingham Palace was walking distance from the hotel. These short sightseeing trips were really fun.

Weekend:
On Saturday, we went for the tour of Cotswolds, which takes you through beautiful quaint English towns, untouched architecturally by modern civilization. It was all very beautiful. Especially bourton-on-the-water was a beautiful place. Each town is so serene and its very easy to imagine the 1800s in the UK. The English countryside is beautiful. We also went to the Blenheim Palace which feels like a palace from the days long gone. It is very well preserved as well.

On Sunday, we went to Cambridge by train. Traveling by train makes you realize how British rail inspired Indian Rail. It had to, given the british started it. The two are very similar in the manner in which the tracks are laid, the electric poles and so on. The university itself feels like you are living in a part of history. Each and every college is just architecturally amazing and beautiful.

Overall, London has great public transport, much better than any place I have visited. Buses, tube, long distance rail just make everything convenient. The food was great as well. Indian food is much closer to India in taste. Especially Govindas is a great place to eat simple vegetarian food.

New York

Was in new york for work this time. Met up with Ankita and Gopal one of the evenings and had a blast. We had two dinners, one home-cooked and one outside. I have yet to eat better chaat in the US than Khasiyat.

Ankita's marriage

This time I was in India for Ankita's marriage. It turned out to be somewhat hectic and sad with mom and grandma falling ill. Grandma fell and had a tough time getting up and sitting down. Mom got malaria and was in the hospital for a few days.

Ankita's marriage was the only bright spot. We had a lot of fun in Indore in the sangeet, phere and reception. I got a chance to meet up with a lot of people I had not met in a long time. And of course, the food was great!

Zion National Park

With Anu and Adi in India, I went to Zion National Park alone, doing this for the first time in my life!! And it turned out to be a great experience, much better than being bored at home without family.

I flew to Las Vegas on Friday evening, stayed at Luxor for the night (and a quick poker game which I lost). In the morning, I drove to Springdale, UT at the gates of Zion National Park. The weather was hot and the landscapes were amazing. On Saturday, I took the Canyon Overlook hike which is a beautiful hike that ends in a breathtaking view of the canyon. I spent the rest of the evening stopping at random points on Mt Carmel Hwy. It was just beautiful!

Next day, I took the Zion Shuttle and headed along all the points of the shuttle. I did the Emerald Pool hike, and walked to the Narrows. The narrows is a water trail where you just go into the water into the canyon. The water was freezing, but the views were breathtaking. Never done this kind of hike. I hiked almost a mile where the water became chest deep and I decided to head back.

I stayed Sunday night at Stratosphere, played another poker game before heading home.
When you are alone, you get barraged by all kinds of weird thoughts, like "What if my car broke down in the middle of nowhere". I also ate at this nice restaurant called Flying Monkey and at breakfast at Oscars, both of which were great.

Toronto and Waterloo on work

It was mostly a work trip, but really enjoyed Toronto downtown where I stayed. Waterloo/Kitchener is a fairly laid back place.

O Canada

We headed over to the Canadian Rockies on July 4th weekend. The traffic was surprisingly light and we spent 2 days in Banff and 2 days in the Lake Louise area. The landscape out there is just beautiful. In Banff, we went to Sulphur Mountain, took a boat ride on Lake Minnewanka, and really enjoyed the Rocky Ridge Resort perched on a hilltop next to Banff from where the views are just beautiful. We would go to the hot tub every evening and stare at the mountains. They gave us popsicles after the hot tub every day, a divine experience. Lake Minnewanka cruise was great as well. We saw a bald eagle and a deer crossing the road in Banff.

Next, we went to Lake Louise and it is by far the most beautiful lake I have ever seen. We stayed at the Fairmont overlooking the lake and the lake has different beauty almost every hour. We also went to Lake Moraine, another beautiful lake nestled in the mountains. I took a 3.6 km hike to Mirror Lake and Lake Agnes and they were beautiful as well. Lake Agnes has a tea house on top of the mountain and a waterfall too. Views of Lake Louise from the top of the mountain are beautiful.

Everything seems expensive in Canada after the US dollar has lost 25% against the Canadian Dollar. All in all, it turned out a great trip.

Trip to Beijing

In general, I have never been in a place where I know so little about the culture, language and civilization than China. I have never had my “Namaste” experience. This was it!

It was a business trip with lots of agenda items, but I made it a point to use each evening to learn more about the new place. Many things struck me about Beijing on my way to the hotel from the airport.
• This is a much more developed city than any big city in India and compares well with the US as far as their infrastructure of the cities goes. I hear that rural China is not as developed, but from what I see I am impressed.
• Beijing seems to be dotted with banks and massage/spa places. Almost every block has a bank and a massage parlor
• The people are very friendly and respectful.

We (my engg director and myself) reached on Sunday afternoon, and were greeted promptly at the Shangri-La. An excellent hotel with everyone trying to help you out in whatever way possible. Weekdays was going to be all work except for a team offsite on Friday and I had kept Saturday for some sightseeing.

There was an Indian restaurant right across from the Google office and having eaten there 4 times in 7 days, I can say that it is easily the best Indian food I have eaten outside India. I have always wondered what’s so difficult about replicating food from India that no place in the US seems to be able to make the same curries as in India. Hell, they do not even seem to have the entire gamut of curries here. Not this place, this was as authentic as you would eat at your neighborhood restaurant in Mumbai.

On some evenings, I would walk around the hotel and explore out the residential areas nearby. There is the street food and street vendors, old people outside the buildings, neighborhood shops which was very reminiscent of India. They seem to love their food, and their massages! One evening, I joined my colleagues to go to the night market in Wangfujing. There they sell the weirdest food you may have ever seen. The food is not for the faint of heart, even the smell of the food is not for the faint of heart! They have scorpions, sheep kidney, starfishes, snakes and many other unspeakable animals/insects fried on a stick. From there, we headed to the shopping street, and you would not be able to distinguish it from a high class shopping place in the USA. Then we walked near Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and the National Theater, which is surrounded by man made water façade on all sides. The only way to go inside is through a tunnel below the water. Very nice architecture.

On Friday, we took a boat trip to the Summer Palace. It has nice architecture with a lake surrounding it. Next, we took the subway to the Cashbox KTV Karaoke place. What struck me was that the lobby looked like a 5-star hotel. Add Karaoke to the list of things Chinese people are passionate about. There we sang English and Chinese songs, with my Chinese counterparts doing much better than me. I was very impressed by their singing abilities and passion! They also tried to teach me Sanguosha which is their signature strategy card game, which I would have loved to master if I understood Chinese characters. Looks like a fairly complex game.

On Saturday, I took a one-day Beijing tour to see the Great Wall (Badaling), Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The square is an expansive place with a couple of huge screens in the middle. People thronged the place. Then we crossed over the road to the Forbidden City. This place was ruled by the Qing and Ming Dynasties from 1368 to 1911. Lots of interesting architecture and stories here. Presuambly, this entire city was not open to the general public till the Emperor ruled. Only officials, concubines and eunuchs which served the Emperor were allowed. The king used to have hundreds of concubines and hardly anyone knew which concubine the Emperor was with on any given night. This protected him from a stealth attack at night. The concubines sometimes conspired by asking the eunuchs to bring babies from outside and claim it was the Emperor’s baby in hopes of becoming the Empress. There was a concubine selection process every 3 years. To become an official in the City, you had to pass a series of local, regional and provincial tests. Next we went to the Jade factory to see how Jade was carved from the stone.

Next, we went to visit the Great Wall. We took a cable car to the top. It was so crowded it almost seemed like walking on a crowded street in Kalbadevi. The views of the wall and the mountain are breathtaking. More than 20% of the population was building the wall at one time (1M+ out of a population of 5M). We climbed to the highest point of the wall. I never thought I would see the Great Wall of China before seeing the Taj Mahal but that’s what life is all about.

We ended the day with a tea ceremony. We tasted four types of tea and were told how each type is made, its medicinal value and how you should drink it. I loved the Jasmine and Lychee tea that they had. I bought some cups that change picture on them when hot water is poured and headed back.

As I look back at my experience, its interesting how two civilizations of two neighboring countries got to be so dissimilar from each other, almost not talking to each other (except Buddhism in the Tibet area) and how commonalities are now emerging again thanks to the westernization of both!

Trip to India.. again!

This time, we went to Jaipur and Kuchaman for my cousin sister's daughter's marriage. It was preceded by a huge city function arranged by my cousin brother. That function was themed after folk Rajasthan. So you had folk dancers, camel rides, bangles, fortune tellers, magicians.. the whole enchilada! Both functions were great and the food of course was excellent. We had booked multiple AC bogies on the way up and way back so it was trip full of fun and frolic.

In Mumbai, I did the usual.. eat at my favorite joints and meet a bunch of people. We also went to a buffet restaurant in Thane with my in-laws and had some great food there. All in all, a great trip.

Christmas at Tahoe

We spent Christmas at Tahoe with a bunch of friends. We rented a very nice house in the Tahoe Keys resort area. The plan was to hang out, cook, go on the mountain and generally relax. And we did exactly that. The menu varied from Chhole to Omelets to Mexican food. We went to the Heavenly mountain, skied for some time. The kids had a great time too! We ate at a great restaurant in Sacramento called Bombay Grill and headed back home. Renting a Ford Explorer helped of course!

Thanksgiving in Kauai

This was our fourth trip to Hawaii, to the fourth island. We rented a 2 bedroom house near Poipu Beach. Poipu has two nice beaches, Brenecke's and Poipu beach. We went there multiple times. Adi enjoyed a lot at Poipu beach which has shallow water and very gentle waves. We also took him to the Kauai Plantation Railway that takes you along the tropical Kauai Plantation and on the way allows for pig feeding. Adi enjoyed feeding the pigs and said to them "Eat your food, else you will all go to the bathroom!". We drove across the entire island, first going west to Waimea Canyon, followed by east to Princeville and Hanalei. Anu cooked great meals at home. On the flip side, I lost my swimming goggles to one of the waves.

On the activity side, I went Ziplining with Kauai Backcountry which was an exhilarating experience. I also went on helicopter tour of Kauai with Safari helicopters. The tour went through all the interesting and inaccessible spots of Kauai, covering rainforests, innumerable waterfalls and the beaches. I got a great view as I had a window seat. I also went snorkeling at Poipu beach which has a nice coral reef. Overall, it was a wonderful trip!

Trip to India

Quick trip to India to meet parents and sister. Traveled by Cathay Pacific for the first time, and it turned out to be pretty good.

Summer 2010 activities

We took Adi to Happy Hollow Zoo, Six Flags in Vallejo and San Francisco Zoo. He thoroughly enjoyed all three of them. The Zoo was closed in Happy Hollow, but the petting zoo was open. Six Flags in Vallejo has a zoo area, and really great rides. I would highly recommend it for both kids and adults. San Francisco Zoo is very impressive, the lion, rhino, giraffe were all sights to see. I went on a Google trip to Santa Cruz and that was great as well. The regular barbecue and rides of course.

Monterey bay aquarium and cherry picking

On two weekends, we took our in laws to Monterey Bay aquarium and next week to cherry picking in Brentwood. Adi really enjoyed the different types of fish in Monterey. The cherries we picked were also really sweet, and the drive from Brentwood was nice too.

Universal Studios and Seaworld

We took our in-laws to the classic west coast trip to LA and SD. We rented a Kia Sedona and it was spacious since there were only six of us including Adi. On the first day, we went to Universal studios. The new ride I checked out was the simpsons ride and I was pretty impressed. We did the other regular rides and Adi and in-laws had great fun. In the evening, we went to Santa Monica beach and got a couple of names hand-drawn by a local artist, "Aditya" and "Welcome". Next day we went to SeaWorld and were a bit disappointed to find that the dolphin show was not playing. But we had fun with the other rides. On our way back, we stopped at an Indian restaurant on I-5 for lunch; we would never have expected that! All in all, a fun trip.

Battling a snowstorm in Kirkwood

Raj and I decided to go skiing for a day in Kirkwood. And what a day we choose! It was very stormy which made for pretty white-wash skiing conditions. The snow was fluffy so that was good but visibility was poor. It was fun all the same. I also saw some really adventurous guys doing pond skimming on that day. That was really fun to watch, as was the snowstorm itself from a nice rustic restaurant at the base. On the way back, we saw a couple of movies and were home in no time.

Big Island

Our trips to Hawaii have always been exciting, and we always end up getting some unexpected perks. This time, I booked a ticket on Alaska Airlines' inaugural flight going from San Jose to Kona. At the airport, just outside the gate, they greeted us with breakfast and cultural Hawaiian programs. We were given fancy memento bags and had games on the flight. Before we realized, we were in Kona, which is a big thing to say considering we had a 2-yr old with us. I won one of the games and got two tickets to the Luau at Royal Kona Resort. Good start, I thought!

Day 1:
The hotel was really nice, and we had an ocean view room. We stayed at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort. We went up to the beach to see green sea turtles coming up to the coast. The beach was a bit rocky, was great for snorkeling but not kid friendly. In the evening, we went for our the Luau. I cant say I fancied the food considering that we are vegetarians, but the show was great. Adi was mesmerized by the dancers. The setting was beautiful, on the beach and watching the sunset.

Day 2:
Kona coffee is famous, so we decided to visit Greenwell farms, one of the most famous industrial coffee plants in Kona. They showed us how coffee is made from the two seeds in the fruit of the coffee plant. The process is pretty interesting; they dry the beans, peel two layers and ship the green bean and it is roasted at the destination. Next, we headed up north to the Kohala coast to Hapuna beach. It was beautiful with blue waters and a gentle slope and Adi absolutely loved it. We stayed in the water for a couple of hours before heading back.

Day 3:
We headed up to the Hawaii volcanoes national park. The drive was absolutely beautiful, with landscape and weather changing every 30-40 miles. We went up to the steam vents, saw the lava tubes and the large craters in the national park. On the way back, we stopped at Punaluu beach which has black sand on the beach, thanks to the volcanic landscape. We cooked lunch at the beach, ate and headed back. We made a quick stop at the Magic Sands beach where I took Adi in the water again but he got scared by the big waves. Anu and Adi rested on the beach, while I relaxed in the water for some time.

Day 4:
With a short trip coming to an end, we headed back to the airport. Adi really enjoyed the small open Kona airport where all the plans were in clear view. We upgraded to first class for a 100 bucks each, our first experience north of coach. We got really good service for the upgrade, so we were smiling on our way back.

Tahoe trip with my team

We went to Tahoe on a company trip to Squaw valley. It was beautiful as always. We stayed at the Resort at Squaw which has a chair lift to the mountain which was very convenient. We rented our gear and headed up the lift. In the evening, we had a nice pizza dinner followed by a game of poker. This was followed by another day of skiing before we headed back. Fun trip!

The India Trip

This time we had a month long trip to India. We went to Assam to visit my maternal grandparents. We had great fun visiting Kaziranga National Park where we saw Rhinos and Elephants. Adi loved the elephant ride in the elephant festival. Our cousins took us to a nice resort where we ate their signature Crispy Chilly Baby Corn followed by a trip to Rhino park. We also had fun flying Kingfisher which had much better food than Korean Air which we took while coming to India.

Later, I went to Surat and met up with relatives as also with friends in Mumbai. And as always, I ate at all of my favorite joints. Priti took me to this new Sandwich place in Goregaon which turned out to be a branch of our favorite Sandwich joint in Santa Cruz. I also attended the Hridayesh festival including a morning flute concert at 6:15 am (thats right!) by Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia. It was unreal!! With Dad, I went to a relative's farmhouse close to Virar and had fun. We also went to the Brijreshwari temple.

On a free morning, I went to school and ate at our mess hall after 15 years. Although the school has changed a lot, the taste of channa and garlic chutney were the same, with kids scampering to get the garlic chutney. I guess some things never change!

Anu went to Mahabaleshwar, Pune and Ahmednagar and had a good time too. Adi enjoyed every bit of each trip he made! At the end though, Adi fell on edge of a table and had 3 stitches causing us to delay our return by 3 days... oh well!

Ropes course in Santa Cruz mountains

As part of the leadership workshop, we went to the ropes course in Santa Cruz. We climbed ropes, solved problems and had a fun time. My team was called The Simpsons, thanks to an idea from one of our team members. The place is in Scotts Valley in Santa Cruz, really far away from the freeway. It was pretty cold in the morning, but once we started climbing, no one felt cold! This was the first time I was doing a ropes course, and reminded me of how unfit I have become... I thought of the upcoming ski season and that I should exercise if I have to make sense of it!

Gilroy Gardens

It was Anu's idea to go to Sea World last week and this week she decided to take us to Gilroy Gardens. Its a great place for kids and Adi thoroughly enjoyed the place. We adults enjoyed the rides too, which were mostly family rides.

SeaWorld in San Diego

Priti was visiting from India, and we decided to go to Sea World. I booked a hotel very close to Sea World. We saw Shamu's "Believe" show three times. Priti was really excited to be drenched by Shamu (something I would have expected from Adi!!). In fact, Adi started crying inconsolably when he got drenched, which we should have anticipated. He had a great time in Sea World. We were there for two days, and covered all of it. I liked Journey to Atlantis a lot. On the second day, we also went up to Mexico's border (at Raj's request) and to Coronado beach. The water at the beach was surprisingly cold, but we had a great time. Overall, it was a great trip. Adi even enjoyed looking at planes on the airport.

Lunch Cruise on SF bay

We had a celebration cruise on SF bay which involved a luxury yacht. Lunch was on the yacht and was really good. We hiked on Angel Island, with amazing views of both the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge from various parts of the hike. There was dessert on the way back on the Yacht. All in all, a fun filled weekday.

Offsites in various parks

We went to two offsites, one in Cuesta Park and the other in Flood Park, both with the Adwords API team. Cuesta Park was marked by great Mediterranean food, Vegas showdown (which I won) and Croquet. Flood Park was marked with arranged games, and I won the crumpled soda can throwing game!

Rafting on the American river

This was a company offsite, and we went rafting on the South fork of the American river. It was a hot day and the water was cold but not chilly, so made for a perfect combination. We had lunch and hopped on to our rafts, going through the scenic valley. I jumped in the water many times and actually swam through a rapid.. which was great fun.

Trip to SF and Santa Rosa

We visited Santa Rosa in July 2009 to meet Ankita. We met up with Selvin and Dayana on the way up.

We went up to Healdsburg and spent the day in a park which has a small beach cornering a natural swimming pool. They actually built a swimming pool around the water for lap swimming. The ground was smooth pebbles so that was nice.

In the night we went to see "Up", our first movie with Adi. The theater was totally empty so that helped. Adi slept most of the movie, so it was fun.

Trip to Seattle

Two factors caused this trip to happen:

1. Adi's daycare was closed on June 12 for staff development day
2. It had been a couple of years since we visited Seattle, and our friends out there

We flew on June 11 with free tickets thanks to frequent flyer miles. The flight was delayed for a couple of hours, and instead of reaching at 10 pm, we reached around 12 midnight. After all the renting and collecting baggage, we reached Vivek's place at 2 am. I had thought Adi would follow his regular schedule of sleeping at 9 pm, but he was all excited at 2 am to see new people and would not go to sleep, until we did at 3 am.

Next day we went to Snoqualmie falls. The falls had plenty of water and was fun to b We spent the evening at Kirkland waterfront and waverly beach park with Arpit, and headed to their home thereafter. Adi had an adrenaline rush seeing new people and had a lot of fun. Watching Ariv and Adi play with each other was also interesting.

On June 13, we went to Discovery Park. We packed a bunch of food and played frisbee and did some hoops. Adi and Ariv enjoyed the tot lots. In the night, we chatted and played Modern Art till around 4 am.

It was time to fly back on June 14, but we had lunch with a Gaurav and bunch of our juniors at Inchin Bamboo Garden. It was a fun trip and good to meet up with friends and Adi thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.

Adi's first birthday in Miami

We decided to celebrate Adi's first birthday in Miami. The idea was to just stay at the beach and unwind. Reaching Miami turned out to be more adventurous (in hindsight) and frustrating (at the time). Since the United flight got canceled, they put us on American, but did not reissue the ticket. So I reach the counter and find out I cant fly, and must talk to United. The check-in lady was on the phone with a United rep for almost an hour and I went to security literally 10 minutes before the flight. I was running in the concourse like a mad man to catch my flight.

The hotel was good, mainly due to its location. It was right on the beach, and Adi seemed to like the water with some apprehensions. He loved the hotel lobby where he used to go crazy. I was in the water everyday. We could walk to the nice shops and restaurants. We ate mostly pizza and a nice Indian restaurant called Guru. It was a good break.

Two bummers:
1. Adi got diarrhea on the last day.
2. I could never see the sunrise due to clouds on the horizon. I woke up everyday before sunrise.

SXSW at Austin

I am writing this post from the airport getting back from SXSW. It was a great conference for meeting people in the social networking space. I liked a couple of panels.

One was "Building a web business part-time". The big take-aways from this one was that partners and an advisory board are really important. Plus, the more you can bootstrap through friends and family, the more you can be independent and take your time. Once you start looking at Angels and VC, you are on a clock and there are many strings attached.

The other was "Converting Piracy to Profit". They are trying to convert pirated content to syndicated content, so that content owners can make money off of it, and the "pirates" can become content distributors. They are trying to negotiate with Ad networks to provide a share of the revenues on this pirated content to the content owners. I think they have a good case, and DMCA takedown notices is their stick in the carrot-and-stick analogy.

We ate at a bunch of places. The Gnocchi at the Hilton was amazing and so were the custom made vegetarian Quesadillas at the Hyatt. Moonshine won the dessert prize with their fresh Stout Brownie topped with Coffee ice-cream and Whipped Cream.

And of course, I must talk about the Blogger party which was awesome. People had a lot of fun and they were all happy when they left. Also met up with an old friend, after 4 years, which was good. It was a fun, insightful trip.

The India Trip

The trip started with Diwali just around the corner. This was the first time we visited India in October and it was really hot. But I was really happy to be there for diwali for the first time in 8 years. Anu dressed up in traditional Diwali clothes and I went to my Dad's office as per tradition. We picked up the new books for the year (where we do all our accounting in business). We fasted and ate great food made by the "Office Cook" at night. Very nostalgic experience.

We went to Rajasthan for Tammu's marriage and Adi's mundan (a ceremony where he loses all his hair for the first time). I went with the marriage party in an AC coach, which was a lot of fun. My wife and sis flew in with Adi the next day. The marriage was in Jaipur and the mundan was in Kadel. Adi cried his heart out during the mundan, but otherwise we had great food, met with a bunch of relatives and saw a bunch of places. One remarkable place was Salemabad where I plucked radishes from the farm for the first time. We were really tired on getting back, but it was worth it.

Next, we went to Nasik and Pabal to meet Anu's folks. We rented an Indigo and I was pleasantly surprised by the state of roads and how much it has improved. We met all her relatives and received a warm welcome everywhere. Got Adi's ear pierced in Nashik and he cried his heart out.go back.

And finally, about my time in Mumbai. I ate at my favorite restaurants, met a bunch of friends and also went to an awards show. Also attended a bunch of marriages with my parents. Since we were there for two months, we could really laze around, but time flied fast and before we knew, it was time to go back!

Travel freeze, thanks to Aditya

But there was a lot of travel where our home was the destination. First, Priti came for a few weeks. Followed by my Mom, followed by in-laws for welcoming our son into this world (April 7), followed by my parents for a couple of months to play with their grandson (May 28-July 28), followed by my in-laws who are still here (July 28-Oct 15).

Since we can't travel much, I have started learning swimming and vocals (in addition to Tabla). Hopefully, I will have some skills to teach my kid! Anu seems to be perpetually happy (and tired) after delivery, thanks to Adi.

The next outbound trip for us will most likely be India. Will keep you posted through this blog!

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.

Christmas Trip to Tahoe

We had a group of 10 ppl going to Tahoe for snowsports. We went to south lake tahoe and stayed in this nice 3 bedroom house we rented for 3 days. We went to Heavenly to ski for the first day, and 6 of us were taking lessons as they were first time skiers/snowboarders. Anu and I went skiing and joined the beginners around 2 pm. We took them to the mountain and gave them some tips. Everyone really enjoyed their first day.

Next day, we went to snowshoeing while some of the first timers went for the snowsports again. We went to Kirkwood for snoeshoeing, and I really liked the trail. We made golas out of Gatorade and well, snow and went up to neat creek.

The next day, we had lunch and came back to San Jose. Anu discovered the hot tub on the last day and we made the most of it!

Thanksgiving trip to Maui

Having loved our last trip to Oahu last thanksgiving, we went to Maui this thanksgiving, making good use of the Hawaiian Airlines vouchers we received last time.

We landed at the Kahului airport on Nov. 23. The flight got delayed so we landed at 4 rather than the 2:12 pm. We picked up our car and headed straight to our hotel in Kihei. Our hotel was one minute from Kamaole Beach Park 1 and had a nice ocean view. The waters at the beach are really calm and are best for the purposes of a novice swimmer like me.

On Nov. 24, I just chilled out in the water, and in the afternoon, we went to Kaanapali beach. The surf out there was really high, so we refrained from going into the water.

On Nov. 25, we went on Hana highway and it was really beautiful before it started getting dizzy to drive. Our Pontiac Vibe started showing "check engine light" so we exchanged it for a Chevy Impala, a much better car. It was a good decision to do that before the trip because Hana highway had a lot of turns. It had beautiful sights and we stopped over to drink sugarcane juice thrice. We had supper at the Garden of Eden, which has exotic flowers, peacocks, ducks and a beautiful vista of a waterfall.

On Nov. 26, we went for Paragliding with Proflyght paragliding. It was a lot of fun. You run from a cliff and then there is no ground and you are in the air with your instructor behind you. Next, we went to IAO state park near Kahului.

We went into the water every day, even on Nov. 27 when we left for San Jose. A great trip all in all!

4th July Weekend to Yellowstone NP

Anu, Me, Karan, Nimish, Vivek and Reshma decided to meet up for the 4th July weekend and goto Yellowstone NP.

We decided to stay at a different place every night to make sure that we cover both the loops, and our hope was to catch some animals (ppl were most excited about viewing a bear). We did see bear, deers and bison. We rented a minivan with DVD player, which turned out to be really handy.

We went on this wonderful trail and it started raining followed by hail towards the end of the trail. I havent seen icy rain/hail many times and I was really excited despite all the hurt due to the hailstones.

P.S. This post needs more flesh, and since I did not blog this trip right after we went, I have forgotten a lot of it.

Memorial Day weekend to Alaska

This has been the most adventurous trip of my life yet. This seemingly crazy idea of going Alaska was mooted by me, but it ended up being way more than expected.

Day 1: We went north of Anchorage to Matanuska Glacier. Hiked the glacier with normal shoes and came back to Anchorage. It was like walking on a huge ice landscape. We kept climbing until we reached a stage where we would just slip down trying to climb. Going up was much easier than coming down and at a point, the only was to come down given our shoes was to slide down (my ass and hands still hurt...)

Day 2: We headed south on Seward Highway to a hike of Exit Glacier. We were told we couldn't reach the top and we didn't. But we went far enough to see wonderful views of the glacier, and again reached a point where going up was very difficult and coming down was impossible short of sliding. I did try sliding down on one of the stretches with a gentler slope and realized that we made a good decision to stop where we did. The best part abt Alaska at this time was that the sun is out 19 hours. So we decided to do some sailing (kudos to Anu for finding the place). I had anticipated that I would be on a sailboat for the first time in my life, but I did not know that I would also drive the sailboat (yeah, we are talking tacks and jibes here!!!). The owner Greg was more than happy to let us go hands on on his sailboat, which had the head sail, the middle and the tail. Gaurav pulled up the sails and I did some steering (both with Greg's help of course). After a few tacks and a jibe, it was Gaurav's turn to steer. This was totally unexpected and hence quite wonderful.

Day 3: We went to Alyeska resort on the third day. We took the tram to the peak of the mountain, and boy, what a view. In the evening, we went to Anchorage to watch two movies. First one was the Alaska experience movie. It is one of the best movies I have ever seen. The shots taken by a helicopter in flight arount Mt McKinley and along the Alaska pipeline will make you giddy. Next, we saw the movie about Northern Lights, it was just a slide show. An absolute anticlimax compared to the earlier show.

Trip to India

This is going to be a long one. Most of the trips were to get blessings from various Gods after our marriage.

• Mahabaleshwar: The first stop after arriving in Mumbai was going to Mahabaleshwar to Alka's marriage.
  
• Tirupati: This is a wonderful trip going in and coming back by flight with Priti and Darshan.
  
• Rajasthan: Went to Ajmer, Kuchaman City, Jaipur (and Chokhi Dhani), Salemabad. Salemabad is where our Guruji lives, a nice place in the middle of the desert. We met relatives in Ajmer, Kuchaman City(my birthplace), and Kadel (my dad's birthplace).
  
• Tuljapur and Jejuri: To get blessing from the lords (the thing that I found unique was that turmeric powder is used for devotion to Tulja Bhavani and Khandoba). My in-laws have great devotion in these places, just as my family has in Salemabad. We took the famous Pune expressway, built to US standards.
  

Skiing at Squaw and Diamond Peak

Finally, I got to ski at Squaw (I like that alliteration). I have once missed the company ski trip, once gone in an injured state and this time, I finally got to doing something! Squaw is a huge resort and I could cover only 40-50% of the blue slopes. The view from the top of Emigrant is really breathtaking. It was icy prompting me to stop skiing at about 3:30 pm.

At night, my wife and friends came over to Squaw. Since it was my wife's birthday the next day, we cut a cake at midnight. then we left for Tahoe Biltmore Casino for the night. The next day, we got a late start to skiing at Diamond peak, but boy it was a really good day to ski after the clouds cleared up after 2 pm. I went up Crystal Express when the clouds were there and was hammered by the winds on the top and poor visibility. That accompanied by my okish skiing skills was a scary combination. But when I went after the clouds cleared up, it was really awesome. The winds were there, but the lake view and the snow was pretty good.

New years in Tahoe

We spent the new years in a cabin in Tahoe. Booked a cabin in south lake tahoe. We reached there just before a snowstorm on 30 Dec. Due to the snowstorm, all ski resorts were closed on 31 Dec. We were indoors all the time, playing poker. 31st nite, we went to harvey's but couldnt get dinner and ended up eating at Taj Mahal (much to many ppl's disappointment). The unique part was this: when we entered the casinos, it was all OK. While coming out, the entire street was blocked out. I went back into the street the wrong way and the cops stopped me. I told them I came in by mistake and they allowed me to leave, removing barriers in my path.

Played Dumb C in the night and went to sleep. Skiing was the prominent thing the next two days, first on Diamond Peak (cut short by power outage) and then on Heavenly. Anu was learning well and I took her on a blue slope on Heavenly; she did fine with a few tumbles.

Dec 10-11: Heavenly and Mt Rose

We went to South Lake Tahoe for the weekend to kick off the skiing season. Having twisted my knee almost a year back, I was skeptical about how well I would be able to ski. But I had to try it to find out!!

The first day, Dec. 10, I went to Heavenly. My wife dropped me and I went up the Gunbarrel Express to try the first green slopes. After making sure I could ski on the greens, I decided to go up Powderbowl (where I got injured a year ago) for the first blue of the season. I fell down the second time coming down and bruised my elbow. But that dint deter me from continuing for the day. The next milestone was going up the Sky Express to 10040 ft., the highest one could get on the mountain. Coming down the Skyline trail, I crossed the CA border over to NV on skis and the view was truly breathtaking. On one side, was a view of the lake and on the other side, an envelope of clouds which was even more breathtaking.. something I have only seen from a plane.

Next day, went upto Mt Rose to teach my wife some skiing. After spending 90 mins teaching her, I left her to take the beginner lesson, and went on to the Lakeview lift and came down Ramsey's and Kit Traverse a few times. My knees were beginning to hurt and only after coming down did I realize that it was the ridged socks which caused burning. We left at around 3 oclock and reached home, in time for dinner.

Hawaii in Thanksgiving' 05

Since this was our first trip, we decided to goto Honolulu, Oahu. We stayed minutes from Waikiki Beach. The first day, we just hit the beach and relaxed in the blue and warm waters.

The next day, we went to Kualoa Ranch where we took an ATV ride to where Jurassic Park was shot, followed by a bus tour with one of the owners of Kualoa Ranch. We also bought a pearl, obtained live from a fresh water oyster. Driving an ATV was great fun, especially because it was muddy.

Next day morning, we went parasailing. We were cautioned that the waters were pretty rough that day and were given the option to cancel or re-schedule. But my wife and I decided that it would be a greater adventure. The warning proved to be true to its word and the waters were indeed choppy. The boat was bobbling in the water with the water splashing into the boat. We could see the color difference of the water.. greenish blue when shallow and dark blue when deep, boy, that was a sight to see. It was fun to parasail above the bay near Ala Moana blvd. The view was breathtaking, especially with airplanes flying just above the parasail.

In the afternoon, we hiked Diamond Head Crater near Waikiki. Was a short hike to the top. The top gave a great view of Waikiki, and the plateau behind.

Everyday, we used to go in the waters after each activity. I taught Anu how to float in the sea.

We also shopped a lot.. buying clothes to fit the look and feel of Hawaii. The icing on the cake was a voucher of $400 while coming back from Hawaiian Air, setting us up for a future trip.

Ice hockey at San Jose

We went for the company offsite to Logitech Ice. It was not only my first time ice hockeying, but also my first time skating. We wore the entire gear, and got a lesson. That was followed by a game between San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks. Unfortunately, we lost convincingly to the Canucks, but it was one game to watch.

Sep 29 - Oct 2 - Las Vegas and Grand Canyon West

As a part of the ongoing trip, I took my parents to Las Vegas and grand canyon west. Went to all big casinos; my parents were amazed to see the beauty of the interiors and wondered how man could make them. Wynn, Caesars Palace, Circus Circus (where we stayed), NY-NY, Venetian, Bellagio.. covered all of them.

The ranch on the pebbly road to Grand Canyon West has probably the best spring water you can drink. Great hospitality too...there was this typical western guitar playing man, who said that Baldev was his old time pal and he knew a lot about Indians. This is in the middle of nowhere (I'd be less surprised if he said he knew native Indians). We did not get a chance to gamble.. and in retrospect I dont regret it, coz I dont remember winning at gambling!!

LA, Hollywood, Santa Barbara

Took my parents to LA, Hollywood and Santa Barbara on Labor Day Weekend of 2005. Among the attractions covered were Universal Studios, Hollywood and Beverly Hills tour, LA downtown, Malibu Temple and Santa Barbara's sea lion cruise. Good times.

Rafting on South Fork American River.

We went to the South Fork American River on July 31. We camped the day before, since it was really dark and we could see a dense starry sky. Recommendation for the future to others (and myself) - south fork is doable in half a day (the first half hardly has rapids). Maybe we will do the middle fork this time.

Trip to LA and San Diego

Friends met up and made a trip to LA-SD. We went to San Diego zoo and beach. We also went to Universal Studios, City Walk, and Santa Monica beach. We ate at Monsoon in San Diego which has very spicy food.

Trip to Washington DC

We went for Kamla's wedding on the Memorial Day Weekend of 2005. Anu and I stayed in Days Inn. We went to Georgetown in the night and ate at an Ethiopian restaurant. Ate sumptuous food in Memsaab and attended the wedding in Murugan temple (day started at 4 a.m.). Not to mention drove the Sebring convertible for the first time.

Trip to Washington DC and Raleigh

Reached Raleigh on 23rd March for company business, met old friends as well as my thesis professor. Was back to NCSU after 18 months, good to be back.

Next I flew to Washington DC to meet Anu. First lets talk abt the good things abt the capital of USA. Really great monuments, the mere volume of it amazes me. We took a tour called DC ducks which shows u the main monuments followed by a 30 minute water run.

Many bad things about DC, haphazardly designed airports, streets are wild to a new comer... Indian food is outright bad compared to the bay area.

Trip to India - 07 Feb to 26 Feb

Got married.. nuff said.

Ski trip - Jan 20-21

Went to squaw on ski trip Jan 20-21.. had sprained my leg so could not do much.. except go upto high camp and enjoy the breathtaking views.

Muir Woods - Dec 31

Muir Woods is just north San Francisco. We took the 2 mile trail... nice place. Also stopped by Golden Gate. We spent the new year bowling, but that was preceded by great food at Suraj Indian Cuisine. The mango ice-cream was memorable.