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Published: March 12th 2008
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The New year went off really well, this time with my parents with us...
Mom made Semiya payasam (my absolute favourite) and sweet for the New year...
We went to "Mandir". a Hindu temple nearby...
Then as usual, a long phone call sessions exchanging New year wishes to friends and family...
The rest of the afternoon was spent in chatting and watching TV.
We started off for crystal cathedral near my place..
It is famous for its architecture..We spent some time aroundthe cathedral...The sunset was magical that day...
We returned back home and ended that day with a great New year dinner by Mom...mm..Nothing compares to the taste of
it 😊
Ever since my parents visited us, I made a point to take them somewhere or other during weekends in between major trips planned...
They got used to life in US by now...
They know few roads to walk on, few shops to look at, few TV shows to watch for, few websites to browse through and
few equipments in the Gym..So it kept them fairly busy during weekdays...
The next weekend in January was 6th and 7th of January..
We decided to roam somewhere around LA downtown on 6th
Jan...We started with LA exposition park.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_Park_(Los_Angeles))
It was an infomative time spent on museums and science exhibition. The rose garden was also very good...
We proceeded to Griffith park observatory (http://www.griffithobs.org/)
I like going to griffith observatory...Generally I like science musuems...I love the view of LA and Santa monica downtown from Griffith..It is a view not to be missed...It is wonderful during sunset and in the nights with lights everywhere...
Amma Appa also enjoyed the views and the museum...There is an open air restaurant at the top, where one can have view of downtown while eating...It usually gets windy and cold there if it is not summer...Anyway it was a time well spent.
By the time we got down of griffith observatory it got dark..We drove through Beverly hills, Rhodeo drive (It was
especially amazing with Christmas/ new year decoration)...After driving through the show rooms and shops on both sides, I thought there is no doubt that this is the costliest street in the world...We looked out carefully to spot
any Hollywood figure...But unfortunately no one that we knew😊 We drove through the famous sunset blvd.It got late , so we left Hollywood blvd. for the next time....On the
whole it was a day well spent...
On 7th Jan, we had a relaxed day with some movie... We started to Chinese temple near Chino in the afternoon...I love the construction of chinese temple and its rich look. There was some prayer going on in the hall in chinese..It was nice to hear.. We roamed around the temple, had a nice snack and sugarcane juice in Fresh paradise hotel @ chino and came home....
The next weekend happened to fall on January 12th and 13th. We had already made our plans for the weekend, It was Universal studios and Hollywood on Saturday and Palm springs on Sunday...
Balaji had some official meeting on saturday so it was only me amma and appa...
We started early in the morning on saturday... We reached there around 8.15 The counter opens only @ 9 in the morning...We roamed around the Universal studio city walk and was taking some pictures...
As soon as the counter opened, we got our tickets and went straight to the studio tour... Amma Appa enjoyed everything about universal studios...😊 We did the itenerary in the reverse order to avoid crowd...
After finishing studio tour, we went
straight to the lower lot for the rides... I do not usually take adventurous ride that well..nyway, I told my folks that all the rides are pretty simple and they did not expect what they experienced with Mummy😊 They were happy that they made it finally😊It was fun😊
We started going in all the other rides and shows one by one from lower lot to the upper lot...😊
They felt it to be very thrilling😊 Appa liked the person who scares near the entrance of House of Horrors😊 He scared me out really!!!
Balaji picked us up in the night and we all went to Hollywood...
We roamed around Kodak theater, Hollywood Highlands, Chinese theter, the Hall of Fame etc..
Appa took their photo with the signature of Antony queen one of Appa's favourites.. They also took pictures wit h the signature of Arnold....
It was a long day.. We finished dinner at the famous electric lotus(http://electriclotus.com) in LA downtown and rushed back home for a good night's sleep ater all that action😊..
The next day, we started to Palm springs.. We started quite late after having lunch...IT is famous for the revolving aerial tram..We went in the
aerial tram to the top... We were told that it was one of the three revolving aerial tram in the world!..
The top of the mountain was full of snow.. There was a trail where we could walk down to reach a ski ground... We did not have plans of skiing that day.. We walked in the trail for sometime and headed back...There was a presentation on the architecture of the tram.. It was amazing indeed....It was time well spent...
We headed back home by evening...
It was pongal time after that.....Amma made wonderful pongal and sundal....We distributed in our office as well...It was so yummy....We had sumptuous lunhc with vadai payasam..It is the best thing I like about south Indian festivals😊
Starting the next week, there were some rain in the forecast...The next saturday which happened to fall on 19th, the weather was not so condusive for travel..So it was time well spent at home😊 We went to San clemente beach on sunday evening...San clemente is the place whee I go to work... It is near the beach and is very beautiful..I love the landscape.. I showed them around, to my work place and we went
to the beach.. San clemente beach has a pier too... We took a stroll along the beach and returned back home...
There was rain in the forecast for the next week too... We went to long beach on 26th January..We went on a 2.5 hours whale watching cruise and saw 3 whales.. It was very nice.. Amma, Appa enjoyed the cruise...
We went into the Queen Mary's ship which is now converted into a restaurant...The Scorpian submarine was unfortunately closed. So we could not go..May be some other time....It was a nice trip😊
January had been a month of lots of local trips..Looking forward for a trip to San Francisco mostly next month....
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