The Big Apple- Bite 3

http://tinitravels.blogspot.com/2010/09/big-apple-bite-2.html

I thought I will never get around to finishing up this trip in words...but then it would not have been fair, now that I am in the process of racking my brains about other trips I have not penned down (wonder if this phrase would even hold true after some time :) ). So before I get around publishing my travels (he he!!)...the chronicles should be complete right down from landing at a location to taking off, shouldn't they?

Me at Times Square

After a really late  party where I was standing pretty much the entire time, I finally hit the bed around 3 in the morning with a packed schedule for the next day, since that was to be the last day in NY (at least for now). Dreamless sleep ensued, only to be broken by the telephone ringing (I am pretty sure it would have rung in vain at least 10 times before it caught the attention of my brain which then asked me to wake up and pick up the phone). It was a wake up call at 11 in the morning :) So I got ready, and stepped out of the hotel to walk around directionless (or if I may say..going in and out of the supremely expensive shops at Times Square!) till my friend arrived. So turns out, that I had wandered not too far from the Ripley's Believe it or Not place which was right next to the NY Wax museum...tempting to step into one of those, but then my research (or talking to many many people before the NY trip) was suggesting that I could give these 2 places a pass and walk on to the other places like Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn bridge, the fireworks (yes it was finally the 4th of the 4th of July weekend), the Empire State building, Broadway musical....loads to see and not much time.

This was an exhibit at MoMa!

So stop wasting time you silly girl and move on...but how could I when my stomach was growling :( Remember I got up at 11? So we went to this small little ice cream place which came highly recommended...yup my NY guide was quite a foodie. Pity I did not eat as much as was suggested. That reminds me of one of the offline comments I got on the NY blog posts, that there was not much mention of food while travelling to a city which was so famous for it. Anyways...now it is going to be almost 5 months since I visited NY, so I have naturally forgotten the name of the ice cream place (without feeling guilty). But i do remember, that after trying at least 6 different flavours, I decided to take...no not my usual chocolate flavour...but Key lime! Different... And while trying to finish the really huge "small" cup of the ice cream, I was sugar saturated!! I needed some salt in my system... You see a lot of bakeries in NY..but when you try locating one of the road side shops (like the ones we have in India where you can get samosas :) ) where you can get salty stuff, you only get Chips! So we walked into yet another McDonald's (If I start thinking of the NY trip, I always end up having a faint taste of French fries in my mouth!...I went to that many McDonald's there!).

While I sat waiting reserving the seat in the very very crowded McDonald's, a gentleman came and sat on the seat next to mine and started talking about some church he was a member of and asking me which church I went to...OK!!! Weirdo!! So I just made up some stuff saying I go to Church in San Diego since I am only vacationing in NY. He seemed like a fanatic and I was too hungry to explain to him that I was a Hindu (who knows how he would have taken it!). Strangely enough the guy though of me as a very devout Christian and congratulated my friend, who by now was walking towards the table with 2 large fries, for having such a good wife!!!! That remained the joke of the day :)

Inventions at MoMa

Wishing Well..errr...Fountain!

So now it was high time we started the touring for the day! First halt was MoMa (museum of Modern Art)...now what do I say about the museum...for one, my friend got a discounted entry into it with a student ID which expired God knows how long back...and I had to pay full price!!! But it was a place one could spend days exploring...but that one would have to be supremely interested in art...and that was not me :) So for me Moma was a very very good one day exploration. The photography section was my favourite. and then there was the coffee place next to the fountains...with a wishing fountain kinda thing. Not that I am superstitious, but yes I did throw in a dime (or was it a cent or a quarter? more than a year in the US and I still do not know the coins!!!) and wished for something, forgetting which would again be attributed to the 5 months :) (not that anyone would be interested!).



I was here!



Sipping the tea, we thought that if we rushed, we might be able to catch a musical at Broadway. So we rushed. Little did we realize that it was 4th of July and all Broadway shows are cancelled for the evening (I think in anticipation of low crowds since everyone would want to watch the fireworks. So we decided to walk to the Brooklyn bridge instead.

Somewhere close to Brooklyn bridge





Caged

With loads of talking, we did not realize how many kilometers were covered. However, what also was not realized, was that we were lost :) We were somewhere close by,but we were lost. So while my friend asked around, I clicked around. Then we finally found the way to the Brooklyn Bridge. Some bit of history about this monument...Its a Gothic style bridge which took 13 years to make. The bridge connects Manhattan and Brooklyn over the East river (yes I did read most of this on the bridge, but obviously forgot...so I sought the help of good old Wiki....to refresh the memory...more you can read there!!). It was getting kinda dusky, so was a good long walk with loads of people cycling around and walking. This bridge in other times is the prime spot for viewing the 4th July fireworks. But unfortunately, this year, the fireworks were on the other side of the Hudson river, so one would be able to view them only from a distant view

Anyways...we walked into Brooklyn...and decided to stop by at a convenience store to buy cut watermelons...sit on the roadside and relish the fruits while the sore legs healed for the walk back. And by then it was already time for the fireworks...9 PM is when they started. So we somehow managed to walk back to the bridge. It was so totally worth the walk!!! Even from so far, the lit up sky was a treat to watch! I finally saw 4th of July celebration in NY!! (nothing compared to our Republic day parade or anything...but spectacular nonetheless!). By the time the fireworks finished, it was the perfect time to try some photographs of the Manhattan skyline....must say..I was proud of myself :)

So now if I went back to the list my research had provided me...barring the Broadway musical, the only thing that was left to see was the Empire state building. If only Dad was a billionaire, I would have hired a private plane to fly me there cuz I could not walk another step....three days of walking was finally catching up. But alas, we decided to walk and take the subway. So we reached Empire state building at 12:30...and even though we were supposed to take the escalator up the 102 floors, to me it seemed as if we would have to climb....I was there...and I did not want to climb :( how sad is that :)

NY from Empire State

But then we did take the elevator! After all one should go and see the tallest building in NYC, shouldn't they! I just scrolled up my blog to see how long the post is, and turns out it is really really long!! So I will let the pictures I took of the empire state, from the Empire state, tell you how spectacular it was, and what I would have missed had I given way to the laziness!!

With that it was time to bid adieu to NY! There is more to see and more to experience. so in the hopes of coming back again, I boarded the flight to Chicago...only to realize that the flight from there to San Diego had been delayed by 5 hrs!!! oh come on!!! Really?? I am tired...I have to drive back to the hotel...and i have to go to office tomorrow...you really wanna delay the flight? But meri kaun suntaa hai.

Anyways, I was sitting there reading "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", when i noticed an old lady walking up to all the Indians sitting around one by one asking them if they were going to Toronto. Surprisingly and much to my disappointment, all that the Indians were answering was no...since she was obviously at the wrong gate. Since this was towards the latter part of the 5 hours, I was worried I might miss my flight if I go up to help, but what the heck...I suddenly missed Ma...the lady could only speak Punjabi. so I went to her to ask her for her boarding pass, checked with the airport folks about the gate (thankfully it was on the same terminal), took the lady to her gate and talked to the folks there to keep an eye on her and make sure she boards the flight since she would not understand English, told the lady that she was now on her way to Toronto...and ran back before I missed being on the way to San Diego!!

The Big Apple- Bite 2

http://tinitravels.blogspot.com/2010/08/big-apple-bite-1.html

OK I will start this one by a little bragging!! Why not...after all this is the first time I am travelling business class. So for scribbling the second bite of the big apple, I am lounging in the Admiral's club lounge at Chicago, waiting for my next flight. Ya but the bragging stops there....It is a freakishly expensive lounge and so I am just lounging :)

Lets get down to business...after all this post is not about Chicago airport...

After an exhausting yet entertaining first day, I was all kicked about where I would be taken the second day. I was told by my friend tat he was bunking office (how long has it been since you read that term?? :) ) and hence could not take me to see the Financial District lest his boss or more so his clients catch him touristing New York :D

So it was natural that come weekend I would like to go to Financial district and walk around. More so the fact that to go to the much talked about statue of Liberty one has to take the ferry from the port in the Financial District. So like all tourists do, target one was the Statue of Liberty....Financial district walks could wait.

Crumbs

But wait...as usual I woke up late enough to have just missed the breakfast and the last day's talks of the famous bakeries in NY did not help. So the first stop on the journey of day 2 was "Crumbs" a bakery famous for its cupcakes. and boy oh boy!!, were they cupcakes or what!! each one could have passed off as a mini cake! Did I mention is some earlier post about the massive appetite of Americans? If not I will mention it now and if yes, I will reiterate it again.....they hog!!!! Give them something sweet and they will gobble down any amounts! Well the cupcakes did look very tempting. So me and my friend took 2 different flavours in the hope that I would get to try a little bit of both...and I was confused about where to start :) Soon enough I realized that in 1 year though my appetite had increased substantially, it was still lagging  far behind in comparison to the Americans. One fourth of the first cupcake and I was gasping for breath! So quite religiously we got the cupcakes packed (knowing fully well that at least mine would be thrown away!!) and lugged the packet along...onwards to the next stop...

Ya right!!!

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It has been so long that I think I am beginning to forget the course of events...
So before they are just blurred incidents in my mind let me string them together!

Me at Battery Park

So well...stuffed with cupcakes...we walked to the Financial district. Strange how much we were walking...or did we take the subway?? (see this is what happens when you don't write on time!!!) anyways what matters is we reached Financial District.....oh wait I remember we took the subway for some part and walked some part (Phew!!!)  Where the walk started was someplace called Battery Park, which if I remember is at the tip of Manhattan. This is where we were supposed to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.

Battery Park

Please pay attention to the phrase "supposed to" in the above sentence, cuz I was in NY on the weekend when half the world had decided to visit the Statue of Liberty...so the queue to the ferry was long enough that if they let us put a handkerchief in the line like we do in the state transport buses in India, we would have had time to take a leisurely lunch (maybe even back at Times square), ride back to battery park and still have to wait an hour!!!

Me against Manhattan

Naturally I was disappointed....you come all the way to New York and go back without seeing THE landmark??? But then...there was this ferry ride which would take you around the Statue and back...the Hudson river cruise...I remembered people telling me that was good enough...and that you really would not want to go all the way up the statue...etc etc....OK the real reason I was so kicked about this ferry ride was because there was no queue!!!! We bought the tickets and we boarded the ferry and 10 minutes later, with a prime viewing spot (turns out later that this spot was bang opposite the actual prime viewing spot for the statue) we parted from the banks of the Hudson.

the Other skyline

Colgate Island

The Manhattan skyline and another skyline (cannot remember the name now even if my life depended on it....curse the bad memory!!!) witnessed the historic event of me clicking them...oh how I wish I would have taken this cruise in the evening time...the pictures would have been priceless (the ones I took now can be purchased for a handsome amount though!!!...interested buyers please email me :) ). The cruise took us around the Statue of Liberty and thankfully I got plenty of clear shots to take back home that I was there!!! But other than the statue let me jog my memory to see if I remember all that we saw....Ellis Island (for some reason I thought it was LS island....), Governor's Island, some kinda hospital....a huge Colgate clock on a place called Colgate Centre (how uncreative!!)....and.....I give up....

Statue of Liberty

NYSE

AIG 70 Pine

The Charging Bull

Having disembarked from the ferry we needed to finish those cupcakes lest the cream turns into malai! So we found a restaurant in the Financial district...bought water...and took out the box....well I don't know bout the other cupcake but mine surely had turned sour....punishing me for making it swing in the NY heat (the ungrateful cupcake I tell you!!!). Finally getting rid of at least a kilo of weight we walked the Financial district...saw the Hyatt on Wall street....why do I mention it? Because the name of this speciality hotel was Andaz!!! yes yes the urdu waala andaaz!....saw the steam rising from the manholes (like I had always seen in the movies....yay!!!), NY Stock exchange.....and some building which was inaugurated on 30th April!!! (for those who are lesser informed...here's a bit of trivia...30th April is my birthday!)....and also not to forget, the Trinity Church...which unfortunately I could not see from inside but would have loved to!! Oh yes and of course the 'must see if you are a tourist' destination...the Wall street Bull....another bit of Trivia there (thanks to my secret sources!!)...the bull, alos called the Charging Bull is not on the Wall Street as most of us 'tourists' think...it is on Broadway (its been 2 days and I still do not understand the naming conventions here....oh but how does it matter!!!)

Does it all sound tiring (keep in mind we were walking ALL the time!!!)? Yes...then add more pity to it cuz we had completely forgotten that we had not had lunch! So on our journey to finding a good lunch place...we landed up (or rather I was tricked into this huge mall with tonnes of discount!!!! why do guys derive pleasure in testing our will power when it comes to shopping????). There were $400 worth shoes on sale for $60 (and that's just an example!)....but I strengthened myself and tried on many a pair but bought none (and it was not because I did not like any mind you)!!! (BRAVO!!!)

And before I could be lured into another shopping mall (I would not be able to resist it that much would I??) I started cribbing about being hungry (he he...). So the cute little Italian restaurant we went to....(and I remembered to ask my friend before I started typing this out).... was called Barbarini's. Loved the cheese platter there and ate so much that I could nothing more than nibble at the main course! A must it at for anyone going to NY!!

Anyways...this evening was far from over. It was one of my friend's birthday and I was invited to the party knowing no more than 2 people at that party (one being the host!). Anyways with the hope that I would not get bored there, I returned to my hotel...changed into something a bit more formal and headed off to.....again I cannot remember where he stays!!!! forget it...my friend's birthday party...(stopping by on the way at a shady looking kebab shop to buy some food as had been popularly requested...I could have sworn I was standing in Chandni Chowk!!).

2 known faces

At the party I had the fortune of discussing with a budding (drunk) author about her upcoming children's story book...along with a nightful of interesting conversations.

It was finally time when my feet were crying out and my eyes refused to keep open any longer than was necessary to reach back, did I decide to head back and rest for yet another long and hopefully as eventful a day as this trip had been till now!

The Big Apple- Bite 1

Finally...after postponing it over 10 days, here I am finally jotting down the experiences of the 3 days I spent in THE city to visit in USA....

Times Square

Yes ladies and gentlemen, you guessed it right (and shame on you if you did not!!!! there is only one city called the Big Apple!!), I did finally get a chance to go to New York. And that too during what would possibly be my last long weekend here (at least for the time being). Turns out, while the New Yorkers step out of the city for the 4th of July, the rest of the country (or may I say world!) steps right in....so the delta population in the city goes up just a trifle :-)

But the city is a must see for anyone who is visiting the US, worth every penny one would spend in reaching there. You know what was my first thought when I landed there? If New Delhi and Mumbai were to have a child, it would surely grow up to be New York!!  (cheeky right?? :) ) But I mean it....New York (NY from here on!) has the life and pace of Mumbai, the style and luxury of Delhi scaled up 10 times!!!
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When I thought 10 days of postponement was a shame I should rethink the timeline for feeling ashamed :). Here I am resuming writing after more than a month of the successful completion of an amazing holiday and that too from my office sitting in between the tension of a Go-Live (talk about sincerity :D ). I can blame it on work but you know better (read laziness!!!!)

So my 3 day long adventure started with an overnight flight (we Indians call it overnight and these Americans call it Red-Eye!!! which is quite true cuz I could not sleep a wink thanks to the crying baby and the whining dog around my seat and ended up getting off the flight with....wat else....red eyes :) )

Cop Horse!

The flight landed early enough for me to feel guilty about waking up my friends to come receive me, so I had to search for cheaper or for that matter any available alternative to reach my hotel. The option that we finally chose was a shuttle service taking us from JFK to Manhattan...Times Square (yes yes yes.... I was staying bang at Times Square at Crowne Plaza and not some shady place!!  long live the Hotel points!!). Anyways let me snap out of the glee of staying at Times square, and continue the narration :) So this shuttle service pretty much took to all the by lanes leading up to Manhattan. These by lanes were interspersed with Sardar ji uncles selling newspapers and very scenic parks (which I think were made on top of gutters, cuz trust me they smelt &#^$*#*). The journey which normally takes around 30 odd minutes if one would be driving in a personal car, took us around 1.5 hours....but it was all super cool....looking at the skyline and the river and the bridges and the Mumbai style fast paced people rushing all the time everywhere :))

Anyways, when we finally reached the hotel (37th floor with a view of the Hudson (supposedly one could see the 4th July fireworks from there)) and me being me, crashed on the bed and dozed off....(talk about the time saving with Red Eye!). It was not before noon that I stepped out to meet my friend and to get the first experience of the ultra hot  NY!!! (and they were not kidding me when they told me it was hot :)). When God was distributing intelligence I think I was caching a nap somewhere. Not only did I not take the NY is very hot comment seriously, I went one step ahead and was dressed up in Jeans, black T shirt and sneakers!!!! (Sweat just trickled down my brow just in this Air conditioned room just rethinking how hot it was!!!)

Spot me!

Step 1 was to go see Duffy's square, THE centre of Times Square (by the way my hotel was right opposite M&M store...just thought I'd tell!! My God I think I fell in love with the city completely :) ) At Duffy's square is I think the biggest store of a brand called Forever 21 (I was one of the lesser initiated till sometime ago, now I pretend I know all the brands :) ). They have a huge hoarding which takes snapshots of the junta standing at Duffy's square. So I waved to myself and clicked a customary snap (as one of my colleague puts it "Patel shot") and walked on. There was so much energy that one cannot help but walk with that pace. Crossing the streets even when the pedestrian crossing shows a stop sign (So Delhi!!!!!), hustling past hoards of people (so Mumbai!!), jumping into small eateries on the sides of the roads all famous for something or the other (SO Delhi and SO Mumbai!!!), huge animated hoardings of Broadway plays, brands, soccer matches and you name it (So NY!!! :) )

I did not realize when we walked and walked and reached a huge Apple (or was it a strawberry (i think it was an Apple (you know NY being the Big Apple))) made out of Legos.

Big Apple (Strawberry?)

PS- did you notice the thought within the thought within the thought? :) (Inception Inspiration!!!! advantages of writing a late blog!!!)

Lego Dragon

Anyways back to the Legos, I was standing at the Rockefeller Center, which I was told was the heart of Midtown Manhattan (wonder where my guide was picking these snippets from? Guess it comes from walking too much in NY :) ). So this Lego store prided itself in having a whole Rockefeller centre created out of Legos as its centrepiece. Also the store had the cutest and hugest Dragon (again made out of Legos) trailing the whole store. I was tempted to buy a Lego Taj which I would then assemble back at home, but decided against it since it was so heavy!

There were other things which one could see at the Rockefeller centre but we decided to continue walking (you know I love my complexion so much that I was hell bent on ruining it in one day itself!). For those who are planning on spending three days, I advise you cn follow my itinerary to check out most of the important places. But if you have more time than that, there is soooooooo much to see. contact me and I will tell you all that I missed :) For One was the NBC studios. I am told that they give backstage tours. Then there is 'Top of the Rock' Observation deck. I left it since I was going to see the view from the Empire state. But if you have time, then why not!!!

Rockefeller Centre

I just read through all that I have written till now in the post and I realize that it is such a touristy post and no adventures like my other trips :) there is always a first time, right?

And we are walking.....

Not too far from the Atlas man (little trivia...my project's name too is ATLAS :) ) infact right opposite it, is the St Partick's Cathedral. I looked so inviting that we could not help walking into it. And trust me, was not the least bit disappointed! I had seen other cathedral's too but the glass work in this church was so exquisite!! It would have been nive to just sit there and relax (selfish motive of escaping the heat outside should not be mentioned here though!!) but time did not permit that.

St Patrick's Cathedral

It had been a couple of hours that we had been walking. But I guess when you are walking for leisure you do not realize that. If I had been asked to walk this much for work, I would have possibly collapsed long back and filed a complaint suing my company :) But this was not the case. Not only was I up and about walking the streets of NY (wondering and getting confused about the street nomeclature of streets and avenues), but was vigilant enough, not to let a photo op pass by :) It would be later at the end of the trip that I would actually count how many pictures that I clicked and wonder in amazement how a 3 days trip could have 600+ pictures (and a record 100 of them mine :) )

Jai Hind!

While I rambled all of this, we had already walked 9-10 streets and a couple of avenues (I just types what I heard from my friend...I still don't know what streets and avenues would be) and reached an Indian flag right opposite the Central Park. I proudly got picutures clicked alongside The Pierre (owned by the Taj group) and walked into Central Park. Manhattan is a 5 mile or so island and a good about 2 miles of it is covered by this park loacted, where else, but at the centre of the island :)

Oh but did I forget to mention that before I stepped into Central Park, I saw the flagship store of Apple in Manhattan. A Glass cube...too crowded for anyone to stand for more than a minute! So we went in and came out :)

Junk musician

Apple Store

Cental Park

I have not heard about parks in other cities, but the ones in Delhi (you know the Buddha Jayanti park types?). But Central Park was anything but that. It was so full of activity. There were performers dancing, singing, playing buckets and pans, people jogging around with their ipods, caricature artists painting tourists faces and ice cream and Pretzel (I did not like pretzels!!) vendors handling out goods with hand and scooping money with the other (little surprise that most of them were our Asian bhaiyas!!!). On popular demand that when I write the memoirs of this trip I should mention this, I am writing this out, that they guys jogging around in Central Park were really check outable (if there is no word like that I just coined it!!). So after, licking half an ice cream and throwing the other half (God....these americans eat huge portions of everything!!), walking a lot and talking even more, clicking a few pictures here and there, we realized that we had been walking in the park for over 2 hours!

With this realization we also realized that it was 3 PM and all we had eaten since the morning was ice cream!

But we parked the hunger aside since we exited the park righ oppsite the Museum of Natural History! With 2 hrs remaining before the museum closed, we walked in with the idea of quickly seeing the important areas of the museum where the movie "Night at the Museum" was shot. Though a very huge museum, I would not say that one could spend 2-3 days there. 2 hours were more than sufficient to see the place. 

I was about as tall as that!

Noteworthy there was the section with dinosaurs....it was WOW!! There were skulls the size of a fully grown human being. There were weird looking animals which could easily have been called the missing links between sea creatures and land animals looking like fish with legs....After walking amidst these giant creatures when we stepped into the other areas of the museum displaying different cultures, I suddenly felt like I grew from being a pygmy to a normal sized person :) They had a whole section dedicated to Indian culture..with Indian weddings from no specific state (mixture of Bengali and Gujarati attire :)!!! and Bengal Tiger! We heard a growl....and it was not the tiger...it was my stomach...so it was time to leave in search of food!

I had been lured to NY in the name of good food. and one of those food I was looking forward to were Kaathi rolls. It has been 7 yrs! since I left Pune. So we went to this place called The Kati Roll Company. A very small corridorish place lined with Reshma Shera type movie poster and simialr songs playing....and they had Thums Up!!! So I had achaari paneer kathi roll (1.75 of those!!) and a Thums Up!

In between the never ending conversation and waiting for our friend to come (in 20 minutes as was promised to us) my friend realized that the guy sitting on the table opposite to ours looked familiar. Well the other person thought so too :) So these guys chatted for most part of the waiting time. And later we realized neither remembered each other's name and were too shy to admit! Bu guess neither cared too much too!!

So after the promised 20 minutes the group size became bigger, we chatted a little more and ate a little more, then walked to Times square and clicked a little more then went shopping for a party the next day. We just about managed to get into the store before it shut down at 11PM. After all the ghareloo shopping for brooms and mops, we decided that it was time to go watch a movie. At 12AM we watched Knight and Day and a not at all empty theatre!! Talk about active night life!!

By now I was tired and sleepy and had 2 more long days to walk around....I think I bit more than I could chew for a day!!! But so totally worth it!!

Keep watching this space for Bite 2

Of Black Bears and White Snow- Part 2

http://tinitravels.blogspot.com/2010/06/of-black-bears-and-white-snow-part-1.html

Had I been travelling alone to Sequoia, one day would have tired me out sufficiently and I am sure I would have nursed my sore limbs in the hotel for a day and driven back to San Diego the next. Thankfully...I did not do that. And hence I reaffirm my conclusion that exploring a new place (unless its some museum or a worn down German castle) is always more fun with company.

Anyways, after a breakfast of leftover Pizza from last night (Go on...think all you want about the reason for my chubbiness!!!....but in my defense I have not had a pizza in a loooooong time and I ate this time only out of hunger!), we were on our way back to Sequoia, this time much faster since we did not take pit stops at every 2 miles to admire the natural beauty down below and capture it in our cameras....but but but...Had my dadi been here she would have said "nazar lagaa di na" cuz right in front of was a long serpentine traffic jam....and we were told the waiting time was 20 minutes!!!

So we got out and started posing yet again as if one day was not enough to click pictures! You would think that...but no! Take a wild guess at how many pictures I clicked over the 2 days I was in the national park.....200...300...I took 600 pictures!!!! Of every stone, rock, hill, mountain to every twig of grass, the yellow flowers to the giant sequoia....and from the two legged homo sapiens to the insect munching bears!!

Having seen the high point (quite literally) of Sequoia i.e. the General Sherman trees, the day before with the bonus of witnessing 5 bears in action, we were at the liberty to roam around and trek around as we pleased with no real agenda. So we stopped at the completely unnecessary Hospital Rock. Now don't wonder in your mind as to why the name, nor will I tell....cuz I don't know and nobody seemed to find it odd, that a Rock was named the Hospital Rock without any related history nor being in the neighbourhood of any present medical institution. There were holes dug into the rocks which were displayed as the Grinding Spots as used by the native Americans....can you believe that....we saw holes filled with muddy water and larvae as a tourist spot. And we moved on!!!

Since this was the first time in the trip we had opened the map and the guide, we decided we would check off the listed places...one of them being the Giant Forest Museum where we got to get ourselves clicked (you will find me in the picture somewhere if you look with a microscope) with the the Sentinel (yes they had names for all their trees older than 1000 yrs....less than that they were all toddlers for whom the naming ceremony had not yet taken place :) )

Well Sequoia was a Walking place and they had thrown in a "market place" or two where people could buy stuff and eat stuff. I had already eaten enough cheese for a month and I guess so had my friends, so we packed in the goodies in the rucksack and set on foot in the hopes that when we were hungry we would be able to find a place where no hungry predators would be prowling for our food or for us. And it was also out of concern for the rental car lest the poor thing would get ransacked by the teddy bears (who I am sure would later be disappointed finding Haldiram Bhel puri in the car) and end up making us poor! While I saw the movie yesterday about the not so gentle bears, I was thinking all the time that such ransacking would be sight in the campsites at night only. But day 2 trip had welcomed us with a 7 seater car badly smashed up and torn apart in search of food (or did the rangers keep it as a memento???)

See there I go drifting about food again!!!

I resume writing after a bout of earthquake that rattled (well not really...happens every month here!) San Diego. I guess its a means of social interaction :) when people rush out of their rooms with something to talk about!

So after all the food talk we rode towards the next point in the map...Moro rock. Unlike what I interpreted, it is not the name of some famous person like General Sherman. Its a general name given to granite domes found in these areas (and by these areas I mean Sierra Nevada area). Distance wise it was just a 0.25 miles hike but involved 400 (felt like 4000!!) steps on top of barren rock! By the time we were done with it we were lighter by all the consumed cheese and heavier with many many pictures of the brilliant view from a height of almost 7000 feet. Climbing up is always easier. It it is the coming down part that scares the heebie jeebies out of me...and that too 400 steps. Thank god for the traffic jam (not of vehicles!!!! tourists!!)  which in my mind was breaking my hypothetical tumble from 7000 feet into intermittent stops and I was finally able to land back to 6000 feet height just in time to catch the bus to the Tunnel Log.

The Tunnel Log is exactly what the name suggests. It is a huge Sequoia tree which fell sometime in 1864 and a tunnel was created through it (not sure if it was for ease of movement or for tourist attraction). A popular posing destination for years and years guessing from the fact that when my friends saw my picture at that spot, they recollected having seen it in their childhood (which was not in the recent past!). Well having clicked our customary pictures we scanned the surrounding for any bears and not finding any, we finished up a packet of chips waiting for the next shuttle to arrive to take us to Crescent meadow. Yes that was all there was at the Tunnel log!!! What did u expect? 

Next stop--- Crescent Meadow, known in these circles as the "gem of Sierra". All the water that we noticed on the roads all this time had to have a source. And the snow at Crescent meadow was that source. It was as if we had stepped into a Bollywood song shooting scene....all white with spots of green (not fungus!!!! trees!). This trek was officially 1.5 miles, but whats 1.5 miles when you get lost in the wilderness (quite literally). By the time we were done with this we realized we had covered Crescent Meadow as well as Tharp's Log treks. 

Anyways, it was not the distance that we traversed that was the high point of the trek. Somewhere in the middle of the trek we saw a cute little stream of water on which a group of trekkers was building a log bridge to cross over to the other side, since none of us could locate one anywhere around and we assumed that the other group too was lost like us. It is at later times when you regret the spirit of adventurism!! Read on....

Well we thought we would cross the stream using the log bridge created by our European friends (ya ya...we did not even think of building another one...whats the point...but this was adventurous enough...wasn't it?). As it turned out the cute little stream was not so little....It was a mini river covered with plantation, further covered with a foot of fresh snow (which we very nicely thought to be snow on top of solid ground....like we had been treading till now!!).  The light footed (ok ok the lightest one of was successful in crossing the bridge....and have no doubts....it was not me!!!). The trail had formed in a way to keep the lady in the middle and so it was my turn (incidentally the 2nd lightest (in a group of 3 he he!!!)) to cross. The picture what you see here was just before I stepped and kept stepping into what seemed like a never ending puddle. Had I not been pulled out...once, then twice and then third time....I would have been a frozen block of ice, cuz trust me the water was COLD!!!!! After this I was super cautious in crossing even the log (I never trusted my feet in any case!!). In all this, we almost forgot that we were lost...but on the other side of the stream we saw a bench and heaved a sigh of relief, the human population was expected in that part of the forest!!

As luck would have it, we walked 50 steps and came across the magical bridge which had eluded us till now. Had it appeared earlier, I would not have had to re-visit my whole life in 15 seconds!!! We decided to celebrate....so camped there on the wooden bridge with the cute little stream flowing below and snow all around...the bhel waala and his assistant and prepared the most exotic Haldiram bhelpuri I have ever tasted. How did we eat it? Old papers lying in the rucksack were the plates and the old long forgotten people's business cards were the spoons (takes you back to the old Satyanarayan pooja days of eating panjiri out of a newspaper plate doesn't it? :) ) And we had the most natural ice bucket to cool our apple juice!!!

That was a lot of work! So the happy campers decided to call it a day and chill out at the Beetle Rock for sometime before heading back to Visalia. I had the fortune of being in the company of like-minded nautanki people. So we actually got ourselves clicked chilling out!!! Then my friends snoozed for sometime while I clicked some more (even smaller) yellow flowers.

With Indian Ocean in the background, we headed back to Visalia with a stopover but buy strawberries freshly picked from the backyard garden. It was time to hit the sack early cuz I had the 350 miles drive the next morning with the LA traffic yet again, so I better be up and ready early in the morning!

Day 3-- Ready to head back, I decided to fuel up. Remember when I had said Visalia was a small town? I was reminded of it again when I was looking for the gas station. But when I found one, I was pleasantly surprised to find a jolly Sardar uncleji running the place. And he was happier still (sometimes I can talk punjabi...he he!!!!). So after a ghar ki bani coffee I was all prepped up for the long journey!

Remember one thing which I learnt the hard way....never try to stretch your legs to release strain while driving the car, because if you strain a muscle, everything goes dark in front of your eyes for a time substantial to derail you from your lane!!!! So to avoid this do take a break when you are driving, no matter how fresh you think you are feeling. That's just what I did (after giving a heart attack to some poor fellow driving in the lane next to mine...quick thinking!!!). But I did make it back in good time and even changed my rental car and took a Mustang, therefore putting a fuel guzzler feather to the cap of this three day trip!!!

So here's to many more long weekends!!!!