On Friday, July 1st 2011, I rented a car from enterprise and was lucky to get a new sedan with just about 100 miles on the odometer. I picked up MJ and Tanu and then we hit the long weekend traffic and reached Neha's place. We picked Avi and Neha at her place and then started for a memorable and my probably first exclusive road trip to Niagara.
The GPS was fed and we were on our way. I was driving and MJ was my navigator. We started up with a fun game in which one player thinks of a famous personality and the remaining can ask upto ten questions to identify the personality and the answers from the player could be nothing other than a 'Yes' or a 'No'. I thought of Tantia Tope (freedom fighter from the first war of independence) and was caught by the 6th round. I cannot recollect what Avi thought of but he did win as we could not crack it.
Meanwhile, while we were engrossed in the excitement and the game, we missed an exit and did not bother much as the GPS re-directed its path. But sooner than later we found that we were going to Niagara via Canada and thus had to change course which added an hour more to our destination.
We stopped by a junk food store for a quick dinner by 11:30 PM. The funny part is that I ended up eating salad at a junk restaurant which seemed like the only option for a veggie. MJ took over the wheel and Tanu being her navigator drove till the wee hours of morning. We saw signs of a 'Mustang' driver initially but was smooth enough later for me to have a quick 30 min nap. By early morning, Avi took over and I navigated him and we reached Niagara by close to 7 AM. We were able to see the rising mist on our way.
After driving for the whole night, it was time for us to freshen up. We had a quick and a quite good Indian breakfast at an Indian restaurant which was actually a small truck. We then went to the visitor's center got our tickets and then decided that we would visit "Maid of the Mist" and "Cave of the Winds" before retiring to our hotel.
I took some pictures with my SLR before the Niagara falls and then headed towards the "Maid of the Mist" . I did not dare to open my SLR before it but caught a snap and a video from my iPhone. I haven't seen anything more beautiful, anything so gigantic and roaring with ferocity but yet pleasant.
We were all excited to witness this marvelous wonder of the nature. After taking some more photographs we then went ahead to the 'Cave of the Winds'. Here, we went to the top most location and stood directly under the falls and were completely drenched. The hot summer dried us in no time and we took the bus to visit all the remaining views of the falls.
We were all tired with the lack of food and sleep. So, we decided to have lunch at one of the Punjabi restaurant. We had a sumptuous lunch and everyone was so sleepy now that no one volunteered to drive to the hotel. Seeing the state of my friends, I decided to drive but I was equally tired after just sleeping for about thirty minutes last night. Neha was navigating me and as assumed everyone was fast asleep within a couple of minutes. Neha, being my navigator held her sleep for sometime but not for long. Here comes the scary part, soon my eyes were closing so much that I could concentrate on only one thing i.e., the car in front of me. I was sure I would not crash into it but was no way keeping the eyes on the route to take. I missed a few exits and turns but thanks to my driving skills, I brought everyone safely to the hotel.
Avi, MJ and I shared a room while Tanu and Neha were in the adjacent room. We took a quick shower hit the bed so hard that we didn't know the world until the alarm rang at 6PM. We decided to take an other look at 'The Niagara' in the lights and as it was not very exciting we left the place for some fireworks organized by the Casino. We parked our car in a ground and I set up my tripod and my SLR camera waiting for the fireworks to begin.
We then had our dinner and then left for the Casino. This was the first time, I entered a Casino. Though, I did not like the ambience of the place surrounded with the smoke from cigars and alcohol, it was a good experience to see Neha play. Ofcourse, I was a mere spectator, partly because I was from old school of thought who thinks not to invest money in gambling and partly because I'm miser enough to give away my money to someone (Odds are always in favor of Casino).
We retired to our beds by about 3 AM and finally had a good sleep till 9 in the morning. Then we started to think of our plans for Sunday. After a quick research on the web, I found that the famous Pittsburgh Venkatachalam temple is not very far. After searching on the map, we found it was on our way back to Chicago with a very slight deviation. Everyone nodded with the plan, so we decided that we would have a quick breakfast in some Subway and then have our lunch at the temple canteen and the famous Udipi restaurant near the temple. We also decided on meeting a mutual friend of ours, Prasad alias Rapdas in Columbus and then thought of having our dinner at 'The Dosa Place' in Columbus, Ohio. Rapdas was soon leaving US to pursue his Phd at the 'London Business School'. He was my senior at my grad school and we shared good compatibility during his six month stay in Austin.
We went to the Pittsburgh temple and after offering our prayers, we had a good lunch at the temple canteen. We were too full to go eat at Udipi and so we just had some Mango Lassi, Coffee there and then started for Columbus at 6 PM. Since, it was already late on our schedule, it was late for 'The Dosa Place'. We reached Columbus by 9:30 PM and stopped by Rapdas' place. He then took us to a Mexican place for dinner. I struggled to finish my dinner as my stomach was already full to start with. We then bid adieu to him and started back on our road trip to Chicago and were all back to our mundane responsibilities preparing for the weekday next. However, the wonderful memory in our minds will never be erased.....
The GPS was fed and we were on our way. I was driving and MJ was my navigator. We started up with a fun game in which one player thinks of a famous personality and the remaining can ask upto ten questions to identify the personality and the answers from the player could be nothing other than a 'Yes' or a 'No'. I thought of Tantia Tope (freedom fighter from the first war of independence) and was caught by the 6th round. I cannot recollect what Avi thought of but he did win as we could not crack it.
Meanwhile, while we were engrossed in the excitement and the game, we missed an exit and did not bother much as the GPS re-directed its path. But sooner than later we found that we were going to Niagara via Canada and thus had to change course which added an hour more to our destination.
We stopped by a junk food store for a quick dinner by 11:30 PM. The funny part is that I ended up eating salad at a junk restaurant which seemed like the only option for a veggie. MJ took over the wheel and Tanu being her navigator drove till the wee hours of morning. We saw signs of a 'Mustang' driver initially but was smooth enough later for me to have a quick 30 min nap. By early morning, Avi took over and I navigated him and we reached Niagara by close to 7 AM. We were able to see the rising mist on our way.
After driving for the whole night, it was time for us to freshen up. We had a quick and a quite good Indian breakfast at an Indian restaurant which was actually a small truck. We then went to the visitor's center got our tickets and then decided that we would visit "Maid of the Mist" and "Cave of the Winds" before retiring to our hotel.
I took some pictures with my SLR before the Niagara falls and then headed towards the "Maid of the Mist" . I did not dare to open my SLR before it but caught a snap and a video from my iPhone. I haven't seen anything more beautiful, anything so gigantic and roaring with ferocity but yet pleasant.
We were all excited to witness this marvelous wonder of the nature. After taking some more photographs we then went ahead to the 'Cave of the Winds'. Here, we went to the top most location and stood directly under the falls and were completely drenched. The hot summer dried us in no time and we took the bus to visit all the remaining views of the falls.
We were all tired with the lack of food and sleep. So, we decided to have lunch at one of the Punjabi restaurant. We had a sumptuous lunch and everyone was so sleepy now that no one volunteered to drive to the hotel. Seeing the state of my friends, I decided to drive but I was equally tired after just sleeping for about thirty minutes last night. Neha was navigating me and as assumed everyone was fast asleep within a couple of minutes. Neha, being my navigator held her sleep for sometime but not for long. Here comes the scary part, soon my eyes were closing so much that I could concentrate on only one thing i.e., the car in front of me. I was sure I would not crash into it but was no way keeping the eyes on the route to take. I missed a few exits and turns but thanks to my driving skills, I brought everyone safely to the hotel.
Avi, MJ and I shared a room while Tanu and Neha were in the adjacent room. We took a quick shower hit the bed so hard that we didn't know the world until the alarm rang at 6PM. We decided to take an other look at 'The Niagara' in the lights and as it was not very exciting we left the place for some fireworks organized by the Casino. We parked our car in a ground and I set up my tripod and my SLR camera waiting for the fireworks to begin.
We retired to our beds by about 3 AM and finally had a good sleep till 9 in the morning. Then we started to think of our plans for Sunday. After a quick research on the web, I found that the famous Pittsburgh Venkatachalam temple is not very far. After searching on the map, we found it was on our way back to Chicago with a very slight deviation. Everyone nodded with the plan, so we decided that we would have a quick breakfast in some Subway and then have our lunch at the temple canteen and the famous Udipi restaurant near the temple. We also decided on meeting a mutual friend of ours, Prasad alias Rapdas in Columbus and then thought of having our dinner at 'The Dosa Place' in Columbus, Ohio. Rapdas was soon leaving US to pursue his Phd at the 'London Business School'. He was my senior at my grad school and we shared good compatibility during his six month stay in Austin.
We went to the Pittsburgh temple and after offering our prayers, we had a good lunch at the temple canteen. We were too full to go eat at Udipi and so we just had some Mango Lassi, Coffee there and then started for Columbus at 6 PM. Since, it was already late on our schedule, it was late for 'The Dosa Place'. We reached Columbus by 9:30 PM and stopped by Rapdas' place. He then took us to a Mexican place for dinner. I struggled to finish my dinner as my stomach was already full to start with. We then bid adieu to him and started back on our road trip to Chicago and were all back to our mundane responsibilities preparing for the weekday next. However, the wonderful memory in our minds will never be erased.....
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