Around Southern California

The last 15 days were full of action for me. Practically know the roads connecting my house to the different hot spots in San Diego byheart now. Also have a good idea about the Pacific highway running near Los Angeles, which is full of beaches and to an extent the streets in the LA downtown. Drove 60 miles a day on average during this period...phew!

A friend, another friend and his parents, and another friend of his visited San Diego on the 27th of May. It was a long weekend. Went to the Pacific beach, went to the San Diego harbor and did go-karting that night...twice. a very expensive sport...wont go near it for another 3 months atleast, or so i hope. The following day we went to the SeaWorld in San Diego. what a place! the animals are simply amazing. although, at times, i felt like an ASPCA agent, i couldnt help but wonder the way these animals are trained. Shamu, the whale was amazing. So were the dolphins, the walruses, the penguins, the sealions, the sea otters, the sharks, the polar bears and the infinite varieties of the fishes. the entire day was not enough to cover every nook and corner of the place. bought a pass for a trivial $11 on top of the actual entry fee, which i can use any number of times through the remainder of 2006. hoping to go there atleast one more time this year. that night we met some common friends over dinner and remembered some good old times in Cincinnati. on the 29th, we started late, exhausted by the previous two days. We planned to go to the Malibu Venkateswara temple, near LA and return by 5pm in the evening, while my friends will drive to the bay area from there. Blame it on the amazing LA traffic, it was 9:30pm when me and B reached home that night. The only solace was the good darshan we had in the temple...

The next four days were really busy. Four day weeks are surely more taxing than the normal five day weeks. had to drive to the airport to drop B off, who was leaving to India for 10 days for his sister's marriage. Have to pick him up from the airport tomorrow, and that should put an end to driving more than 10 miles continuously, atleast for a while.

On the morning of the 3rd of June, i drove to LAX international airport, to pick up my cousin, whom i was meeting after about five years, his wife and kid, whom i had never met before. We checked into the Marriott in the LA downtown and set to Santa Monica beach after having lunch at an Indian restaurant. It was really hot and we couldnt stay there for long, cos of the infant. We then went to the Malibu temple(twice for me, in 6 days). kept driving on the Pacific highway for a long time, enjoying the scenic beauty and then set about to Beverly hills. We were all exhausted by then and missed our way somewhere and decided to skip it and went back to the hotel after having dinner at Denny's. The next day was spent in Universal studios, a miniature version of the one i had been to in Orlando in July 2004. Relived some of the old rides and enjoyed some of the new ones(ones that werent in Orlando). Mummy Returns and Jurassic Park were good in particular, and Back To the Future chose to remain my favorite. We spent a good time outside the Universal Studios, at the Universal City Walk and had good mexican food. I then dropped them at the hotel and returned to San Diego at 1 am. They chose to stay back for a couple more days in LA.
Work resumed on monday and only monday was relatively peaceful. Had to pick them up from the Amtrak railway station in San Diego downtown on Tuesday. They went to the World Famous(as they claim) San Diego Zoo on wednesday. took a break and dropped them off at the zoo and picked them up after work in the evening. We went to the San Diego harbour(twice in 10 days) that evening and spent some time taking pictures. On thursday, i dropped them off at the SeaWorld and then picked them up in the evening. They supposedly had a very good time at both the zoo and the SeaWorld. On Friday, i went really early to work(woke up at 5:30 am!) and returned early too. They just walked to a nearby mall and did some shopping and had lunch. We then set out to Old Town San Diego, where the oldest settlements were supposed to have been. There were a lot of shops and restaurants, all in mexican style. We had a good time there. Then we went to the Coronado beach in Coronado island, south of San Diego. The beach there was lovely. We spent over an hour there, taking videos and pictures and then set back to the Old Town San Diego for dinner. It was midnight by the time we reached home. Yesterday, all of us and my roommates went to an Indian restaurant and had some good food. My cousin's flight was at 2:40 pm and i dropped them off at the airport at 1:40pm sharply :D.

It was about 4pm when i thought of taking a short nap, cos i was feeling really exhausted. By the time i woke up, it was well past 11 pm! I went back to bed at 3 am and woke up again at 8 am and i feel rejuvenated as i write this. The last 15 days were sapping the juice out of me. But, i will have the memories and the photographs to bring to life the various places i visited taking away my tiredness with them...