Trip to the USA

July 18^th 2013 was the day we landed in New York, JFK airport, a not-so-impressive looking airport as compared to the other two airports in NY, namely, La Guardia and Newark airports. It was a hot day in NY, more than 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and it remained that way for a couple of days more, before starting to cool down.

An hour’s drive from JFK airport landed us in St. James Hotel in midtown Manhattan, which is a few blocks away from the much-hyped Times Square, which is on 7^th avenue. A tariff of $574 for four nights of stay at this hotel sounds a much better deal than the expensive rents in NY, which can range from the whooping $6000 pm in Manhattan to a modest $1500 in the Bronx area. After a late evening sleep which extended to early next morning, we were ready for a full day of sightseeing. The first day took us through Times Square (which is a non-stop entertainment hub on the streets of Manhattan) and the priceless 86^th floor observatory view of the city from the Empire State building, which incidentally has survived 2 planes crashing into it!!  Downtown Manhattan includes a cruise (available only up to 5 pm) to the Statue of Liberty and the Ground Zero location, which now has 5 World Trade Centre buildings coming up in the same location.

Upper Manhattan represents the northern parts of the New York bay and includes several heritage sites using Art Deco architecture. There are more than 17,000 churches in NY, most of them in this area. The Upper Manhattan tour (on the hop-on, hop-off Grayline buses) included a stop at the Central Park zoo (although not so good as the Singapore zoo) gives you a chance to look at sea lions and penguins. A little walk from the Central Park zoo lands you in the high fashion Madison Avenue street on 5^th avenue.

As the USA is a country of immigrants, you see a lot of these influences in NY. Upper Manhattan has Dutch influence, while downtown Manhattan has a China town and a Little Italy. Interestingly, the first Chinese who landed in this country were cheap laborers brought for building the American railroad. Many Chinese women married American citizens and got a foothold on American soil. The variety of cuisines available is also a reflection of the rich immigrant culture.

Our next stop was the Mile-high city of Denver, which is now a major hub in Colorado. The modern Denver airport with its amenities, air trains connecting terminals, and a host of terminals is a reflection of its increasing importance.

After a couple of days of rest in Denver, we were south-bound to the Californian city of Los Angeles. An hour’s drive on the rented car landed us in Anaheim city in Orange county. We checked into Hyatt Regency, which is close to Disneyland park in Anaheim. As a single day ticket to Disneyland is $92, we had to make the most of it the next day. Disneyland was not a disappointment, as it provided full value for your money, with the highlights including the Alice in Wonderland, Splash Mountain, the Pirates of the Caribbean, the “It’s a small world” cruise, the “Finding Nemo” Submarine voyage, Mickey’s and Minnie’s houses, Tarzan’s tree house, and (of course) the Disneyland Railroad.

The next day was time to visit the LA beaches notably the Laguna beach and Santa Monica beach. Although it is very sunny in California, the weather is still cold and so is the sea water. This is definitely contrary to us folks in India, who associate sunny weather with warm climate. Laguna beach is very tourist friendly with a great sandy beach. The view from Bubba Gump restraint (known for its excellent seafood) reminded me of the beach-side shack in Goa. The beach-side pier at Santa Monica beach, which was the next stop, is an entertainment center by itself.

A visit to Los Angeles is incomplete without a tour of the Universal Studio attraction. The entire park is located on a mountain at different levels, which are connected through escalators, called Starway. The full-day attractions included the Jurassic Park ride, the House of Horrors (scary intermittently), the short 2-minute Revenge of the Mummies, WaterWorld (which has live stunts performed by stunt actors), Shrek 4D (an amazing treat), the Transformers (an extremely thrilling 3D future ride), and ended with the Universal Studio Tour (including the famous Bates Motel from “Psycho” fame, creation of flash floods, the fictional Wisteria lane houses used in “Desperate Housewives”, and the Shark pool used in “Jaws”).

The road trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco is 382 miles (or around 6 hours of driving). On route, we stopped at the picturesque town of Santa Barbara and had some great Mexican food. We reached San Francisco city by around 9.30 pm, after having some Indian food at a local Indian restaurant, which are more common in this part of the world. San Francisco weather is colder near the water bay and warmer away from it. You see a lot of bridges (other than the much-famed Golden Gate bridge) across the many bays in the city. Driving on the Golden Gate bridge is an awesome feeling, primarily because of its height above sea level. The other attractions in the city include Fisherman’s wharf and the Ghirardelli Square (known as the original chocolate factory in the US). Fisherman’s wharf is considered as the original fisherman’s colony from the older days, and you can view a sea lion colony at one of the piers. You can also take a cruise to the infamous Alcatraz island prison.

The next day, we took a drive to Napa valley, which is famous for its wine-making industry and vineries. The landscape in Napa valley is very similar to any French wine countryside and even includes a castle, which was imported from France. It was the Napa valley, which broke the monopoly of the French wineries and proved that wine can be commercially produced anywhere in the world. Though it is quite a pricy place, Napa valley is very picturesque valley.

The next day, we visited the famous redwood forest area, known for its giant Sequoia trees. These massive trees can live up to 2000-3000 years and can have barks for a car to pass through. Another popular spot in the neighborhood is the Mystery spot, which has featured in “Ripley’s Believe it or not” archives, as the only place on Earth where you cannot stand erect. The exact location of the Mystery Spot is on a hill, where the trees have branches only on one side. The final spot on our California trip (before returning to Denver) was the Capitola beach, a sunny, warm, and peaceful beach. As it is a pretty easy-going beach, you find a lot of surfers around trying to learn or toning their surfing skills.

Our final stop (before flying back to India) was New York, where it all started. As we landed in NY late in the night this time, the view of lighted streets of the New York grid was a memorable one. This time, we stayed near the LaGuardia airport in Queens Borough. The temperature in NY had cooled down by this time. The next day, we had to catch our return flight from Newark airport in New Jersey and are an hour-long drive by cab from Queens. This time, it was a Bangladeshi cab driver, whose errant driving reminded me of some of our own cab drivers in Mumbai. Though he charged us a hefty fare of around $150, we were glad that we reached the airport on time, and that we had not exhausted all our dollars on shopping and all the wonderful experiences of our trip to the land of the immigrants.