(Panorama above is the view of the outer walls of Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas National Park) Shreya and I visited South Florida for 4 days during July 4th weekend. Summer is not the right season to visit Southern Florida. It is the wet season with some occurrences of hurricanes. But, the bright side is the benefits of the “off-season”. That is, relatively less rush, cheaper hotels, etc. Key West is the southernmost city of Continental United States. It is 4 hours South West of Miami, accessible by the Overseas Highway (US Route 1). This scenic highway consists of 42 bridges connecting number of islands to the mainland USA. Key West holds a lot of historic significance. This city was a Spanish colony until Great Britain took over Florida in 1763. In 1982, Key West declared its ... read more

(Panoramic picture above is frozen Lake Helen in Lassen Volcanic National Park) Another spontaneous trip - Shasta and vicinity. Shreya and I planned a weekend trip to Northern California while returning home from office on Friday evening. We drove to Sacramento and stayed the night at my cousin’s place and started heading further north to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen Volcanic National Park Some background about this national park - whole of the USA was surprised when a volcano erupted in Northern California in 1914. It was followed by series of explosions for three years. The latest eruption occurred at Mount St. Helens in 1980. Lassen Volcanic National Park is the southern most end of the Cascade Range. We reached Lassen National Park around 12 pm after lunch in a restaurant outside the national park. First ... read more

Two exciting days at Utah deserts brought a craving for more of it inside us! However, we had an evening flight back to the Bay Area from Salt Lake City on Monday. We reached Salt Lake City on Monday morning around 2:15 am and stayed at Metropolitan Inn in the downtown. We checked-in and crashed to the beds. To our great surprise, they had “tempurpedic” mattresses! It was so comfortable! Not to mention, we over slept the next morning and woke up just half an hour before the check-out time! We called the front desk and requested one hour extension for check-out! We found an Indian restaurant nearby. When we reached there, we found out that it was closed due to the long weekend. Luckily, we found an Indo-Nepali restaurant “Himalayan Kitchen” next to it! They ... read more

Trip to Utah was planned two or more months back! This was the Memorial Day weekend and we wanted to make a longer trip rather than usual weekend activities in California. We flew to Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday night; rented a Hummer 3 from the airport and drove south to Moab, UT. Utah is very famous for its national parks and desert. There are 4-5 national parks featuring red canyons. Canyonlands can be thought as a national park from the same family as Grand Canyon. Colorado River is the same primary reason for its formation. Moab is a small town near Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, 4 hours drive from Salt Lake City. We had a two-night reservation at Moab Valley Inn. We reached there around 2am and crashed. Next morning, we ... read more

Big Sur is a very famous tourist destination along the Pacific Coastal Highway-1. Big Sur generally refers to the region surrounding the town of Big Sur. It’s boundaries are not very-well defined; however, in general it is considered to be the area between the Carmel River and San Simeon town along the pacific coast. Big Sur is world famous its resorts and state parks along the coastline. This beautiful drive on the PCH-1 provides number of stunning vistas. We reached San Simeon on Friday night and spent a night there. Our lodge - San Simeon Lodge was located just across the ocean. We got a beautiful view from the parking lot of the lodge. Hearst Castle Next morning, we had a breakfast and left for the very famous Hearst Castle. I knew beforehand that this is ... read more