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
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.
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 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.
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 .
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.
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.
We then proceeded towards theRocky Mountains .
The next halt was at Boulder ,
Colorado .
We spent sometime in the mountains and moved on to the Canyons. We covered theArches
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.
Meramec Caverns
We then proceeded towards the
Rocky Mountains
We spent sometime in the mountains and moved on to the Canyons. We covered the
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.
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
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.
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.
After placingRahul '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.
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.
University of California, Berkeley
After placing
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 aroundSan 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.
We then went around
Lombard Street, SanFrancisco
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.
Tree at Muir Woods. SanFrancisco
View of Golden Gate Bridge
1 comment:
Nice tour. Nice write up covering entire tour along with pictures/photographs. We missed some of them, but now you covered them. Thank you very much
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