Kanakasabapathi's Blog: January 2013

Coast to Coast Tour of USA

Here is an account of our cross country tour of USA a few years back. Our first son Subramanian (Raja) was pursuing his studies in Cornell University for a Ph D. Our second son Gopalakrishnan (Rahul) had completed his B.Tech in IIT Madras and had obtained admission in University of California, Berkeley for a direct PhD. My wife Shyamala, Rahul and I flew to USA, landing in JFK Airport of new York

Artist Working on Portrait in Central Park, NY

The campus of Cornell University is set in surroundings naturally beautiful. The town of Ithaca is also surrounded by places of natural beauty. Niagara Falls is approachable by road and is not very far away. Another place worth mentioning is Watkins Glen with its gorges and waterfalls. This is one place of my choice for any admirer of nature.

Ithaca Falls

Ithaca itself has many waterfalls and gorges. Raja took it on himself to take us to every place he considered worth visiting for us.

At Niagara during an earlier visit from Ithaca

Raja made elaborate plans for driving to Santa Barbara. He had friends on the way with whom he fixed accommodation for all of us. In places where there was none to stay with, we depended on motels.

At Lakewood Vineyard Near Watkins Glen with Mark the Owner

Rahul had taken the responsibility of accommodating all our things to be carried in the boot of the small car. Earlier whatever could be packed and sent by post or courier had been sent. On the day we left, all the friends of Raja lined the street with tears to say farewell to him. It was a sight we all remember vividly now.

Rahul Packing the Boot

Sri Vidya Temple Rochester (We had visited this place on a separate trip.)

The first halt was in Corning to visit the Glass Museum. A wonderful collection of glass artifacts was displayed in the museum.

Corning Glass Museum

We then moved over to Akron in Ohio for the night halt. It was an apartment occupied by Raja's friends and they had left the entire place for us for the night. The next morning we went to Cleveland on the way to Chicago. In Chicago, Dhiraj was available to host us. Dhiraj and his wife Ambika had made elaborate dinner arrangements for us.

Vivekananda Avenue Chicago

We were at Chicago for the American Independence Day festivities on July 4. We made a visit to the temple, Chicago Museum of Natural History and witnessed the fireworks in the night. I made a visit to a prospective client who took me to his palatial house, one of the million dollar homes in Chicago. However, Harry Bala the client who promised orders never followed up and the visit was a waste. While walking in downtown Chicago, an American asked me if I was from India. When I answered, he took me to a nearby street sign which read, "Vivekananda Avenue". The city remembers the saint who carried the essence of Hinduism to America.

Skeleton of Susie The Dinosaur in Chicago Museum of Natural History

On the way to St. Louis, we stopped over at Springfield the home of Abraham Lincoln. We visited the home and the cemetery of Lincoln in pouring rain. Here, Raja was mistaken by an American family for an American singer. They refused to believe that he was not what they thought him to be and wanted his autograph. It took quite a bit of convincing on Raja's part to impress upon them that they were in for a mistaken identity.

Hindu Temple Chicago

At Lincoln Memorial, Springfield

At St. Louis, we stayed again with Seethu who was a colleague of Raja at Cornell. Now he had been married and was in a teaching job in Washington University. With Seethu's help we did some sightseeing in and around the city. The most important place of visit was the Arch which gave a beautiful view from the top.

Starting Place of Lewis & Clark Expedition St. Louis

We next moved on to Meramec Caverns, on the way to Kansas, but with a slight diversion to the South. The caverns are long caves full of natural formations.

Meramec Caverns

We then proceeded towards the Rocky Mountains. The next halt was at Boulder, Colorado.

Rocky Mountains

We spent sometime in the mountains and moved on to the Canyons. We covered the Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon and the Grand Canyon from the Northern side. In all these places, we stayed in motels booking room for two and the other two sneaking in! Rahul had a hectic job taking out things from the car and packing them back for departure. Only he could squeeze in all the stuff in the limited space.

The above pictures are of Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon

Before visiting the Grand Canyon, we had a late lunch at one of the wayside restaurants. All of us were hungry and a buffet was available. The soup particularly was extremely tasty and we filled ourselves mostly with soup. After some more sightseeing, we were driving through the forests late in the night. We had no idea about availability of any motel and it was already eleven o'clock. Finally we spotted a motel which had just two rooms, one of them already occupied. There was another contender seeking a place to stay but we barged in and occupied the room.

The next morning we left for the Grand Canyon. Raja wanted to go down in the canyon to get better views but I could not. After seeing around, we left for Las Vegas, our last halt before Santa Barbara. By the time we reached Las Vegas, it was late in the night and the city was brightly lit with all the casinos in hectic business. We decided to check in at a motel and have bath to freshen ourselves before visiting the casinos.

Grand Canyon from the Northern Side

The next morning, we had an early brunch at the Gandhi restaurant in Las Vegas and left for Santa Barbara. This was the restaurant that featured in the movie "Jeans" (It should be spelt as Genes).

The drive to Santa Barbara was through the desert part of Nevada and California. This part of America is one of the hottest with temperatures soaring beyond 55 deg. C. Car air conditioning had become ineffective. It was blazing heat with no vegetation anywhere around. The famous death valley was somewhere around.

We reached Santa Barbara late in the evening. Raja had fixed an one bedroom apartment as a sublease from an American, who was away for a short period. The plan was that Raja would move in with some other students after our return to India.

Raja reported at the university the next morning. He started trying to get accommodation for us by an early flight back to India. But no bookings were available

At Hollywood

At Universal Studio

Sunset Boulevard Hollywood

In Los Angeles, we made a tour of the Universal Studios, witnessing different aspects of film making and enjoying some entertainment rides and shows. The other places covered were the Japanese Shrine, Venice Beach, Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and Beverly Hills where the elite of Los Angeles lived.

Hindu Temple at Malibu, CA

Our next trip was to proceed to the Bay Area, get a place for Rahul to stay in Berkeley and return. Raja again made the trip by car on the coastal route to San Francisco. The route passes through hills with mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean deep down on the other side. It is one of the most picturesque routes we had taken in America. It was getting dark and the road ahead was not clearly visible with a number of bends and gradients up and down. Raja had developed skills in driving through such roads and did an excellent job.

Later in the night, we reached Sunnyvale after a Pizza dinner on the way. Raja's friends had an apartment there. They had all gone out of station and the apartment was available for us to use. Close to the apartment was the restaurant Komala Vilas where we could have excellent South Indian cuisine.

The next day we drove to Berkeley. Rahul's friends Sridhar and Mukund had already reached there. Rahul was to be initially accommodated in an apartment in which some senior students were staying. When we reached the apartment, we found it was full of people and baggage with clothing littered all over. Even the bathrooms were covered with unwashed clothes. We were rather put out by the dismal atmosphere. However, it was part of the game for students aspiring to study in America. We had to come to terms with the realities.

University of California, Berkeley

After placing Rahul's belongings in the apartment, we moved out. His friends had already started searching for a place for themselves and had located an apartment not far from the university, owned by an American of Korean origin by name Park.

It was a two bedroom apartment on Hearst Avenue which is a road straight from the university, downhill. The place was somewhat old, but better than the rat hole in which Rahul had to stay for the first few nights. Three people had to share the apartment. They decided two will take one bedroom each and the third will stay in the drawing room and this will be rotated on a monthly basis. The rent was $1650 per month. An agreement was made ready and signed in a couple of days.

Once Rahul's accommodation was arranged, we went around the university and the city of Berkeley. The city had a number of residents of Indian origin mostly from the north and west. There were Indian restaurants serving mostly northern cuisine and chat. The climate was pleasant.

We then went around San Francisco. One of the main attractions was Lombard Street known as the most crooked street in the world. We decided to drive through this street. The approach was on an up gradient with a number of traffic lights at road junctions. The slope was very steep. Every time Raja had to stop the car at a traffic light, he had to apply the hand brakes and release it when starting again. Whenever he applied or released the hand brake, the car would slide back a few inches. It needed careful handling not to hit the car behind and Raja was doing it eminently. Rahul had got down with the camera to take pictures of Lombard Street. Shyamala got scared and got down from the car. I stayed on and we reached the beginning of the street. Then we all drove down for an experience of a lifetime.

Lombard Street, SanFrancisco

We then went around the famous Chinatown, the biggest in the west. It was getting late and we had to find a place to have our dinner. After a lot of searching, we found a Chinese restaurant, but there was no parking place. We decided to park in the no parking zone and keep a watch from the restaurant as we had our dinner.

The restaurant was entirely Chinese and the staff were looking at us as if we were from another planet! It must have been the first time they had Indian customers. We were able to get some vegetable fried rice, managed to gulp it down and leave before the police could tow away the car!

The other places of interest visited by us in San Francisco were the Golden Gate Bridge, the Muir Woods famous for its old and tall trees. Later we visited an Indian lady who was selling pearls and corals in the Bay Area.