Dec 15 '08 - 10:00 AM - My company's leave calendar jumps onto my keyboard and yelling at me " Did you see Dec 24 - 28 is company holiday for X' Mas.? a 2 day off will make it a 9 day vacation"
This strikes my dumb brain.. and started to plan for a vacation.
With only 4 days left to start my vacation and the flight tickets and hotel rates are skyrocketing for the gala time, I started to plan for Florida... the rates and availability of seats and rooms directed me to west coast.
A trip to Vegas or west coast which needs lot of time, which I have now. Called my brother in west coast for his availability who is taking rest after a minor surgery. He was busy with work after his medical leave and gave some tips and idea for the trip. Then called my college , roommate Balki (though he was popular as dikki in college) who spent his life as a student in CAlifornia, gave some valuable info to spend more time at Las Vegas
With this input I started hitting Google Uncle for Flight tickets and Hotel rooms and got lot better deals. Within 3 days I booked flight and hotel rooms and started looking for offers, coupons, tickets and places to visit in my trip.
Worked out a plan to Start from Hartford CT on Sat Dec 20th evening
20th Night - Reach Las Vegas the city of casinos - NV
21st - Go to grand canyon (helicopter tour) - AZ
22nd - Spend day in a Casino cum hotel in the happening place
23rd - Start to Los Angeles biggest city in Carlifornia - CA
24th - Visit Universal studios
25th - Start from LA X' Mas Night reach Mountainview my brother's place
26th - Visit Golden gate
27th - Some time at museums
28th - Relax and start back to home
29th - Monday Morning reach home and start to office
Later found my colleague also had similar planning so we planned for meet at LV and LA
Most of the items went as planed..... except for the starting leg of our journey.
Escape to Vegas from Hartford Snow
Dec 19th a 8inch snow storm in Hartford was predicted till midnight but continued till next day Dec 20th noon.
Roads are covered by snow and taxi companies are not offering full service. we asked for help from our neighbor who dropped us at airport.
Despite snow me and my wife satya reached earlier and the flight started from the gate on time. Waited in line for Flight wash - first time I saw cleaning the flight with passengers inside with a jet of hot water and some liquid to wash away the snow. To our bad luck we waited for GO signal from air traffic control nearly an hour watching other flights to take off and some fun watching fountains made by snow blowers. People started clapping for the take-off in the same day... but awaited the trouble in the connecting flight which we missed by the delay. So we are in standby (if some1 not catching the flight we will get the seat) for the next flight to LV. Again a 2 hour wait in the Philadelphia airport. A connecting flight to the next one was bit delayed so passengers were rushing to catch this flight.. nearly 30 ppl were changing from the other flight we lost our hope for a seat... to our luck we got 2 seats next to each other and started our flight to las vegas.
Reached LV at 1 AM a 4 hr delay greeted by the slot machines at the airport...took the rental car which we used only to move between the cities. Drove to hotel Monte Carlo in LV Casino Strip and slept at 2AM after a small dinner.
The Grand Canyon tour Many movies are made in this place - Land , Air and water
Sun Dec 21st Morning - Shuttle van picked us at our hotel entrance
then boarded a big shuttle bus to the airport
got golden tickets for the tour and a small photo shoot at the airport
boarded a Small 16 seater flight to grand canyon AZ
Flew through Hoover Dam ( birds view of a dam which we have seen only in discovery channel)
Incredible views of the desert and colorado river. landed at grand canyon airbase and boarded a helicopter to the base of canyon to the banks of the river. Had a small photo shoot of the red chips of canyon. Went for a 20 minute boat ride just 5 of us (me , my wife satya, srikant , preeti and Ram the kid). A silent place sorrounded by walls of nature, sailing in a boat with no commercial crowd.
Co-Caption Ram took over the wheels for a while and showed the spots added the fun to our trip.
Back to helicopter ride for 5 minutes to a bus which took us the the Skywalk point and the Gaona point... had a panoramic view of the canyon 6000 ft above the valley. Had a full hot buffet lunch for the cold weather and left the place at 4 PM back to airbase, flewback to LV airport @ boulder city. In return shuttle we made a new friendship with family of 3 a from tamilnadu in US for 5 years.
At 5 PM getting darker in LV 8 ppl started to see various shows and themes of casino. Las vegas comes to life after sunset. One of few cities in US where we can see ppl in streets after sunset.
Had a private Gondala ride at Venice.. then carried on to other casinos and free shows. Believe me just free shows in Las Vegas can fill 2 days of your time.
Some of the places we visited
1. Casino Venetion
2. Mirage Volcano Eruptions
3. Ceasars Palace - Shopping plaza.
4. Fountains of Bellagio - Musical fountain
5. Paris at Las Vegas - Climbed Mini Eiffel tower
Two kids got tired and we settled for dinner at PF Chang and had a nice dinner and chat with new friend. Tired after covering all these places by walk we headed to our hotel and fall asleep.
Dec 22nd
Woke up at 9 AM and went out for groceries. We had a plan of sleeping rest of the day but caught up by a timeshare marketing trick and got some coupons and a show ticket. After breakfast buffet we headed to the seminar and wasted 3 hrs and returned in evening
Had a thrilling roller coaster ride @ New York New York Casino, headed to Excalibur casino like Disney world then to Casino @ MGM - Forest cafe.
Some rest at our hotel room then to get the tickets for the show. Circus de soleil at Treasure Island casino.
Went to Circus Circus Casino and then to Fremont Street experience - a 12 Million lights forming a canopy (roof)... it was so huge running between 2 streets.
The amazing circus show started at 9 PM it was one of the best shows I ever watched. Enjoyed the show for 90 minutes. Long and tired day made us to go to the bed.
Next day Dec 23rd - After a heavy breakfast we started to LA in our rental car.. The whole journey was Scenic with mountains and plains and straight roads to enjoy these views while driving and the speed limit was 75 and free road made us to sprint at 90 mph nearly 2 hrs.
6 PM reached the Griffth observatory and saw a show at planetarium about our universe another great show in a dome theatre, then played with telescope and other space exibits.
Realized our weight in various planets. Had a perfect view of the famous Hollywood Sign
Getting down the hill we went to the Hollywood Walk of fame and to the famous china maan theater. Saw the movie "Yes Man" alone only we 2 and one sleeping man was in the theater.
Struggled a lot to find our hotel and then a parking space 5 levels below the ground level.
Dec 24th - Next day started to Universal Studios early to avoid LA traffic and reached there at 8:30 AM before most of the shops were open. had a small breakfast and started enjoying the Mummy ride and had the skeleton face paint (my orkut face as of now). enjoyed rides and shows.
Mummy ride - a covered roller coaster with mummy moview theme
Jurrasic park ride - Similar to jurrasic park car ride
Shreak 4D theater
Special effects theater
Water world - So good to see it twice - a full stunt sequence performed live for 20-30 mins
Animal actors - Animals acting in movies
Simpsons ride - A cartoon rider but thrilling roller coaster which will break in halfway.
Lunch break
Studio tour - takes us to all the old sets and some of working settings where a movie was made.
Terminator - a 4D show of terminator movie and actors will perform live at some points.
Fire show - Live show of how big firefighting scenes are made.
On the way back we watched movie "The Day earth stood still"
Next the X Mas day Dec 25th - Most of the shops are closed and we started to Mountain view (bro's house) a long 6 hrs journey wasnt tiring at all. Whole journey was accompanied by huge mountains, scenic views , changing colors of the rock, rolling bushes more than a mile long cattle farm. we reached home by 8 PM.
Had nice chat with arun and went out to Saravana Bhavan to have nice Tamilnadu style food.
Idly Dosa pongal vada. Had a fulfiling meal and a little planning for next day.
Dec 26th - Woke up late and had late breakfast drove to most famous, Golden Gate Bridge in California bay. Took the cruise to see the bridge from sea in the freezing cold weather. Did some street walk and decided to have a view from mountains. Hunting for a parking space was long and found a crowded place for the view. Took some shots of dusk and weather forced us to shelter in our car back to dinner. Called it a day and returned home.
Dec 27th. - After a short discussion we decided to visit 2 places where Arun had not visited for past 8 years. Exploratorium is a science museum (museums and aquariums are more in US) where we learned many lessons of physics ( light, magnet), maths and biology by having fun and a practical demo where we can feel and experience. With short time to see the next spot we started racing to SFO Zoo though the reviews are not great but as it was closer we made the move and able to see some animals and birds. Zoo is filled with peacocks with most of other cages are empty. Had good view of our national animal Tiger and our national bird Peacock.
We closed the doors of Zoo and cabe back to pavilion.
Dec 28th - The final day of our loooong trip. To make this a relaxing day, we planned to visit local tech museum and some X Mas display along the parks. Tech museum was like a extension of Exploratorium a science museum and watched a small movie in IMax dome theater. After playing in visual effects and some techy things, went for lunch. On the way bought a ballon teddy for sathya and had hot lunch, Then X Mas displays of small houses and Jesus stories from local schools. Went home back took some rest and had a home made snacks at Venky's (arun's friend) house.. had fun with his kid and rushed to catch our flight back to hartford.
Dec 29th Morning 9:00AM reached hartford and back to office at 10 AM.
Pics of the trip :
http://picasaweb.google.com/manostb/CANVAZTripDec08XMas?authkey=LVSQpK-MKAo#
