Travel Blog cont... Day 2 - Lake Tahoe and Squaw Valley

.......continuing the 2nd part of this travel blog...

enroute Lake Tahoe
The journey to Lake Tahoe was uneventful except for the pit stop at the Petrol Pump. Here we met a couple of Biker Dudes, we were checking out their bikes. Up until then I had never seen a Harley Davidson this close. The sheer size of these machines is HUGE. Upon seeing our excitement, they were generous enough to let us use their bikes for taking snaps. The California Sun had finally decided to bless us with its gracious presence, and we were thankful for that...

Beautiful Blue Lake Tahoe
Located on the border of California and Nevada this beautiful lake is nestled in mountains. It has the bluest water I have ever seen. The mountains surrounding it give it a majestic aura. During winter the mountain tips are covered in snow.
The bright sun leaves a silver shimmer on the water and the blue backdrop makes it a sight to behold. The city too is very laid back and not crowded, in spite of it being one of the most visited places in US. If you are planning to visit SFO, make sure you have this place marked in your trip planner.
Me and Harsha just could not resist the temptation of having a dip in it. ;)... Its a "Chair and Book" kinda place, where you spend 3-4 days just sitting by the shoreline and reading a nice book. Unfortunately... due to time constraints we had to move on…

Squaw Valley Ski Resort
The 1960 Winter Olympics were held here. On our way there we had to pass a bridge. Due to repair work only one lane was open. At a time traffic could move in one direction only ("Alternate Stop/GO"). It was a pleasant surprise to find no one tailgating. Couldn't imagine the chaos a similar instance would have caused in India.
At the resort a room sized lift (I am not kidding, this elevator was huge) took us to the cable car. The ride way up gave a nice view of the valley. Once on top you get a panoramic view of Lake Tahoe.
After having a chocolate frosted vanilla ice-cream we decided to be a bit more adventurous and try ice skating. The last time I had touched skates was way back in 6th grade (those were roller not even in-line). Though I was not able to skate smoothly I was actually able to circle the skating rink 4-5 times. And no, the skating rink was not the size of boxing ring... remember 1960 OLYMPICS.. duhh :)..After a few slips and lots of falls, I was able to get off the rink with all of my 350 bones intact. (stats courtesy munnabhai)...

.....Way back
.......Harsha over came his speeding ticket fear and broke the 65mph barrier :)
.. CALLED UP ONE OF MY BEST FRIEND SURAJ, made plans to meet the next day, the thought of seeing him after such a long time brought a smile to my face.... remembered the dialogue Sid says to Sameer in Dil Chahta Hai....
"Sid: Dekh raha hu wo jahaz, jo zara der baad dikhai nahi dega. Jante ho hum tino us jahaz ki tarah hai, jo aaj nahi to kal apni apni manzilon ko dhundte hue niklenge. Aur ho sakta hai, hamari manzilein alag alag ho Sameer: Tu ye sab kyun keh raha hai meri samaj me nahi aa raha. Hum dost hai, zindagi bhar ke liye.Sid : Sid: Ofcourse hai!! Lekin kiski zindagi kise kahan le jaati hai kya pata? Kabhi socha hai?? Har saal yahaan aana to ek taraf, 10 saalon me milna bhi mushkil ho jayega!!"...........maan in miss my College Days...


Photo Link http://new.photos.yahoo.com/sfx_mayuresh/album
PS: Harsha brought it to my notice, that i met my friend on the 3rd day and not the 2nd. On replaying the sequence of events if think its correct... For the sake of cronological scantity i have made correction to the 2 blogs :)

Day 3 to follow...

No Absolutes - Food for thought

Saw a movie coupla days back - "Rabbit Proof Fence". It’s a poignant story of 2 Aboriginal girls and their escape from a detention center. The theme revolves around the Australian Govt. policy that has resulted in the so called "Stolen-Generation".
Approximately from the start of the 20th century to 1969 the Australian government agencies and church missions forcibly removed children of half-cast from the families. The policy’s motive was to train and educated these children so that they could be assimilated back in the society.
But the policy and the way it was implemented has left and entire generation alienated and in trauma.

In the end it however got me thinking......
Often in life there are no Absolute GOOD or BAD, just people/ideologies with a point of view.. and there are no absolutes here......each is correct form his point of view. The actions that follow are a direct consequence of this belief.

Only History/Consequences gives us the tool for pannning out and see the complete picture. At this moment all we have is a "point view". All we can do is, learn from the past mistakes and do what we believe is GOOD, and pray that History deems our action to be GOOD.

Travel Blog ---- To SFO.....Day 1

This is just a travel blog, have tried to cram in as much as possible in this blog (the same way we crammed in so many places in 3 days of traveling)

Sept 01 2006
...had to get up at 3:00 to catch the 7:20 flight to SFO from Logan Int. (Boston),
(the only way that I was gonna to achieve it ,was by not sleeping at all)
US Airport Security was still on ORANGE level so we had to check in on time to avoid any disappointment later.....

7:00 Logan International: ....had a Latte at StarBucks, then for the entire flight duration ZzzzzzzZzzzZZZ :)..

10:30 at SFO airport My friend's baggage got lost in transit. Logged a complaint, the lady at help desk assured us that the baggage had been checked into SFO and they would have it delivered too our hotel. We considered ourselves lucky as another passenger’s luggage was accidentally shipped on a flight to NewZeland...

11:30 The AirTrain took us to the Hertz building where we took our car. I am really in awe of the infrastructure in US, CONVENIENCE I think is the best way to describe it.
.. You book a flight ticket and travel around 2000 miles,
.. a moving walkway takes you to the AirTrain terminus,
.. board this fully automated AirTrain(it has NO driver), it takes you to the building that houses all major car rentals,
.. pick up the car(almost brand new, fuelled up) drive it around and then just drop it back,
.. follow the same path back, and a plane will fly you back home...
add to that the air tickets and car is booked at a one stop shop on the net.....
If India wants to promote tourism industry, the key word which should be centrifugal to all investment is CONVENIENCE

12:00 (back to the SFO itinerary)... met a friend of my friend :), chalked out our plans for the day ahead, ate (hogged is a more appropriate word) at an Indian buffet, then checked into our Hotel...

Ride to Mystery Spot ...spent the ride lazing around in the back seat of the car, taking photos of the scenery on the way. The forest road was cool, dense canopy of trees banking both sides of the road.

Mystery Spot This spot still remains a mystery to us, cause we were not able to take a tour. The wait time was 1:30 hours, plus 45 minutes for the tour. We decided against it as we had to go the Pebble Beach to watch "SUNSET IN PACIFIC" (yippee.....)"
....another 2 hours drive to Pebble Beach and another back seat bumming session for me... ( for those who have not guessed it so far.... i don’t have a Driver's License :}, so I either sleep on the back seat, or Navigate (yeah.. navigation is fun in US.. sometimes you have to use a MAP, mapquest does not always located the desired destination:))

Pebble Beach
This place is where the Rich and Famous live, it’s a private stretch of road that looks over the Pacific Ocean. The view is awesome, unfortunately on that day it was overcast. I had read that the Pacific is Deep Blue in colour.... was really looking forward to see it.... but.....
........maybe next time...:(.. missed the "SUNSET IN PACIFIC" too... :((

..way back
.......the radio played "Welcome to the Hotel California".
........go lost on our way back, ate dinner at Wendy's, somehow managed to get back on track, hit the sack... zzzZZZZzzzZZzzzZZZZZZzzzzz..
........DAY 2 follow...

Photos : http://new.photos.yahoo.com/sfx_mayuresh/album/