san franscisco trip!

Its been a long time since i wrote something. Every time I think I should write something, I cant decide what to write.
I am just bored sitting at office waiting for a meeting scheduled after a few hours. Listening to music, I have somehow got hooked to Hindi songs in the last couple of weeks. It feels like I have always listened to them! It all started with a trip to California a month back. Now that is a trip I can talk about and I have decided what to write about! :D
It all started with an elaborate plan with nrn,vkarthi, and me talking about visiting vinku residing in Sunnyvale on his birthday. Soon vkarthi was back to the US and the plan slowly started taking shape
There were two important things in the planning. One was getting chimpu to come from Seattle to San Fransisco and another was to keep this entire thing secret.
The air tickets were getting booked for me and vkarthi on two computers simultaneously.... after mine got through and hers was rejected, we realized there was only one available ticket on that flight! luckily that night, our night boy, nrn found another ticket on the same iterarny and hey, we felt that we were already on the way! unfortunately nrn could not join us owing to other commitments...
ah. Ticket to San Fransisco, car booked, and the thought of surprising vinku, we were really excited.
I reached the airport on time and found out that the flight we were traveling on was delayed by over 4 hours and hence our connecting flight would leave without us in it! vkarthi arrived and we were wondering..hmmmm.... "we return the tickets and get a refund" (The tickets were bloody expensive!) . Then for the noble cause of attending the birthday party(even though we were going to be late) we stuck to the plan. Boarded the delayed flight (which was deserted, only 6-10 passengers on the flight, the staff outnumbered us!) , reached DC and spent the night after parking our backsides on some chairs in DC. Luckily no further drama, and the morning flight came on time and we were on it.

The only thing that was bright at DC airport was what u see in the pic. vkarthi taking a walk and trying to get various shots.

The flight from DC to SF flies over the Rockies, and what a sight they were. I wonder why none of us actually took any pics. But from snow covered peaks to clouds flowing over the mountain top like water falling over a swollen lake, the last leg of the journey was really beautiful.
Called chimpu as soon as we landed in SF and waited for chimpu and vinku to get to the airport. Vinku dint know we were there, I just cdnt believe that vinku thought chimpu came to the airport to verify tickets or something like that! We saw chimpu, who danced and jumped like a true chimp on seeing us (vkarthi was truly impressed :D) . Then met vinku. It felt great meeting those two, felt like old times again! :)

Then on we were determined to make most of the 36 hours we had in SF. We ate at this place called "Dosa" in SF. The food was yum and tasted really good, we were the only desi's in that restaurant. Somehow chimpu stuck his head inside the kitchen and found out that the cooks were desi's only! So we were not overtly flattered, but still the food was really good.

Another trip to the lombard street
(crooked street , shown below) and the
golden gate bridge(On the right) followed.





The highlight of the day was neither of the two. It was the sunset spectacle at Half moon bay near SF.
All 4 of us took out our cameras (only vinku had an SLR at that time, vkarthi has one now and me will have one soon! :) ), kept cliking photos like there's no tommorrow.

The pic on the right somehow reminds me of RDB! :) (thanks vkarthi!)
I can only guess that we might have taken over 200 pics amongst all of us in like 20-30 minutes.

Then the drive back home, lots of catching up and then dinner. No prices for guessing what was for dinner. Pizza and coke :( . Pizza and coke are so much a part of our diet here that I feel sorry for us! We ate pizza, drank 'socially' and crashed! we were dead tired.

The next day we went to Big Sur, well the plan was to get there early. But as it happens all the time, we left home close to noon and were really hungry. But we drove on like true warriors who wanted to explore the place rather than sit and waste time in a restaurant. The drive was absolutely brilliant.
I have stayed in California during the summer. But I did not see the green pastures and green hills at all. It was just remains of numerous forest fires at that time. But this time, it was just mindblogging 'fresh green scenery'. We jostled places within the car to get into the best position to click.
Considering there were 3 of us (Vinku, vkarthi and me) drunk on photography from quite some time, it was only natural for chimpu to feel that he is missing out on something!! Slowly during the day we saw a transformation in him. He sat closer to the flowers, and if the flowers were not in the frame, not to worry, he would just yank the branches to get the flowers in the frame!!!! but overall all 4 of us enjoyed the sights and the sounds(of the camera clicks) :) .
We did end up eating at a restaurant and spending an hour there. But the restaurant was sort of peaceful with a stream running close by. The insides of the restaurant was bright with colored strips of cloth forming the roof.
Big sur trip was more of driving on California 1 highway and also seeing two places that vkarthi and I discussed over many days before we actually came; bixby bridge and pfeiffer state park. The pfeiffer state park has this magnificent water falls (the pic u see on the left!)

The journey back to airport was one of the 'tensesest' drives I have ever had. We dropped vinku at his place, packed our bags, and ran (drove, but ran sounds mo dramatic). In the car, no one spoke. We reached the rental agency, dropped the car, and ran to our terminals(we did run!!). bid adieu to chimpu on the way coz his flight was from a diff terminal. vkarthi and I boarded the flight and felt a HUGE sigh of relief! The next day at JFK airport, we took a pic of ourselves. I then realized that 'red eye' flights, really cause red eyes!! :D

vkarthi's trip saw her see as many dogs as there were cables holding the golden gate bridge(ok not so many, but a lot compared to the seemingly dry spell when she does not bump into any). Her "Can I say hello to them" somehow echoes in my mind every time I see a dog !!! :). Vinkus cinamon shots, something i have never tasted before, hmmm was different. The way chimpu slept with booze bottles all around him was funny :D ..Also chimpu's chimp like happiness on seeing us in the airport was a red bull equivalent after the long and dreary flight! vinku's "dont leave guys" when we were leaving was heart touching :P . These are some memories that I would look upon fondly.
It was a tired tired weekend, but one of the best!
Finally done with the post! :)

The pics in this post are not taken by me entirely. Its from Vinku's, vkarthi's and my camera. For those interested, I have the uploaded a few more pics of the trip, please click on the photo below:

Vinku's birthday - California trip