San Franscisco

San Franscisco:
This Thanks-Giving we planned for an SFO trip with a huge gathering of my friends and collegues. This is indeed important for me as I will be meeting Ananthu (good old college friend of mine) and for Sharmila, its her days-out with her pup friend Mohanapriya. Note that both Ananthu's and Priya's family are in SFO.

Day one - We hired a caravan for seven and started afresh late in the night from LA. It was a pleasant, mild with cold and encouraging journey. At dawn we reached SFO and myself&family stayed at Priya's home. It was a warm welcome from both Priya and Kandhavel (Priya's hubby) as we started to roam on the beaches of SFO. SFO has its own mark of having all IT giants, locking in its silicon valley. Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, CISCO and many others. The CISCO office premises is exciting with 40&odds identical building arranged in a well framed row. I called up ananthu as he joined alone with this team. We took a cruiser and watched the SFO golden bridge at a closer shot. The cruise also covered sight seeings of the Alcatraz prison, however it did not allowed to step into the prison. We quickly geared up the steep lanes of the downtown and climbed down the crook street. This street is famous for a zig zag design and the architechtural geniosity in constructing houses alongside the road. Later in the evening we also covered the light house builiding. I spent the night with Ananthu and family and prepared for the early morning Black friday shopping. Aradhana (daughter) is totally fun filled playing around me as Vishnu (his wife) prepared delicious Idli chuttney.

The second day, ananthu could not join, however the trip was exciting at the "Mystery spot".The lady who described the mystery spot is really a total mystery with fun filled real time examples. You will be leaning towards the ground (45 degree inclination) when inside the home.. that is the so-called mystery. Then we played Volley ball in the beaches and returned back home safely. Priya made delicious supper and I went back to sleep for the next day dreams.

The third day, ananthu joined me again with family, where we all went to Napa Valley. This is famous for wine making, with a large landscape covered with grape plantations. The Castillo de Caprosa is an ideal place for everyone, where our guide detailed the in and outs of the making of the entire castle (built for attraction alone). Exciting. We then went to "Hot Geyser" where hot water raises from ground for every 30 minutes or less.. should the volcano be passive.

The next day.. planning to leave to LA. Priya and Kandhavel did a delicious crab curry with other non-veg savvies. Wonderful. We said good bye to the family and local teams who joined us on the tour and reached LA at midnight.

Get-To-Gather

Sunday, Dec 14th - We called for a get-together @my home with some of my collegues/friends. Lakshmi, Thanu, Swaroop, Rajesh, Vedha, Prabha, Ajith and Alex. Sharmila, as usual did a good job challenging her own culinary skills, with a variety of veggie and non-veg dishes. Awesome. Its another time to watch the tamil movie "Arithum ariyalum" which steamed up more laughter and fun for this party. Playing card game "Ace", really aced up the show.

New apartment

Moved to a new apartment "Americana Independence". This is three blocks away from Oakwood apartment, where I stayed for almost six full months with a few of my collegues at office. This new move is to accomodate Sharmila at home. Americana.., this place is not much of a paradise, but a real place for residents. It have a kewl swimming pool, confortable fitness center, and more space for community celebrations. The leasing officers were kind and gentle and can aptly respond to any queries, within SLA hours. I rented a single bedroom apt, which really had more space when compared with neighboring apts, but need to get a refrigerator and microwave at extra cost. A bulky A/C with buzzing sound is the music for my night dreams. Kewl place indeed.

Dasavadharam

Kamalhassan in Ten commandments?? Striking with a wide angled story line, that runs around the biochemical scientist Govindan. I read from an article where it explains on butterfly effect that matches the story of Dasavadharam. This story line should be read with an assumption that when a butterfly flutters from a far away island of panama, the effect will cause a storm over africa. Stunning, isnt it. Similar is the story, where all characters were evolved for a huge cause.

Worth a money watching the movie.

Six flags

Amazing..Thrilling..Mind boggling.. vrrrroooooommmmm! the flying machine rotates, revolves, jumps, and throw you uppp and doooooooowwwn. Interesting., this magic mountain in CA is one of the heart throbs in this city downtown. This exhibit has plenty of wonder rides. The most awesome being the X2 or the Extreme. This one takes you with a backward climb, and keeps changing position from front to back and vice versa., without slowing down the vehicle. Batman and Scream were the fast rides that stops me breathing for a couple minutes. Dejavo, is a time machine that makes you forget things for a while and makes you to recollect with a complete backride from where it ends. Goliath and Colossus are more exciting as well with Colossus being the longest track. The water sport rafting, is another amazing experience where one cannot hide out from being drenched.

Who else can make this sport better with me.. Here is the team.. from left suresh(a) sulekha-picked room-mate, rajesh-the young boy in this team, lakshmi narayan - charming lad, Sharmila - my wife and me.