Road Trip to Midwest
Hello folks!! After a long time I am posting something again!! In the last 3 months a lot happened. Pranav has grown older by 3 months (You guessed it right!!) He is talking a lot. We are waiting for him to start speaking in sentences pretty soon!! He has a very infectious smile and he is pretty active. We are definitely enjoying his company. Wish it could be true for his grandparents!!
Anyway, we had a very early summer vacation. We set out on a long road trip during the Memorial Day weekend. We packed all our stuff in our recently bought Honda Civic (BTW, this is a great car for long road trips.) and headed out to Midwest. The trip was initially going to be only to Chicago. We decided to stopover in St. Louis enroute to Chicago since Divya's cousins (Ramya and Radhika) wanted us to come there at least for a day.
So this is how we did it. We left Atlanta on May 25th Afternoon. The drive was pretty reasonable. The weather was picture perfect for driving. We touched the states of Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky on the 25th. We had booked a room in a Holiday Inn Express in Paducah, Kentucky (At least my job helps us in getting something cheap!! ) after 350 and odd miles. We figured out Pranav would be able to withstand around 6-7 hours in his carseat. We stayed there for the night and had breakfast the next day morning and left for St. Louis, Missouri on 26th morning. We crossed Illinois enroute to St. Louis, Missouri. We were able to reach St. Louis at around 11:00 AM on 26th morning. Had lunch there. Saw Keshav and family. We had a chance to meet Ramya and company for the first time. (BTW, we have a great picture of Divya getting 'emotional' as soon as she saw Ramya.) We had a great dinner in "Cheesecake factory" on that night courtesy Ramya and her husband. After coming back, we also got a chance to meet Murali, Renuka and their kids. Had a very good conversation with Murali. We were talking till 2:00 AM that night. We retired to our beds at around 2:30AM and woke up at around 6:00 AM on 27th morning. A short note - I think I was able to drive home the Hindu viewpoint on all the issues that may have triggered enough arguments. Hopefully I did not hurt anybody's sentiments, political or otherwise.
On 28th after lunch, we set out for Schaumburg, Ill (My cousin's place..) We reached Schaumburg at around 5:30PM on 27th afternoon. We had our dinner there and got a chance to see their finished basement. It was exceptionally well done basement. I believe as of now, these guys have the "hottest" house among the couples that I have known so far. We played with their kids and retired to bed early that afternoon. Next day morning (28th May) we went to the Swaminathan mandir (BAPS) in Schaumburg. That mandir was absolutely magnificient. I have great respect for Gujaratis. After seeing this mandir, I really respect their organization and ability to do grandiose things without "government" assistance or intervention. We had a great time there and for lunch we got a chance to go to Jay's place. He is one of my University of Florida friends. We got a chance to meet his wife as well for the first time. I was told she was very very interested in cooking and trying out different delicacies. (Asked Divya to take note of this - as there is no dearth in talent from my side in tasting different delicacies.. But nothing has happened so far to that end... Let's see!!). Chicago was unusually hot that day, it was around 35-36C on that day. So we had to drop our plans for going to a park. Anyway, we played basketball, Pranav shot his first basket on that day. On that day, my Perimma and Perippa were expected to land in the Chicago trip for their summer vacation. (This has been a ritual for the last 4-5 years for them.. Wish my parents were like them!!) . Got a chance to meet them. Pranav played great with the kids and he had a great time. We have the entire video of his antics and it is pretty fun to watch. The next day, we started our long trip back to Atlanta. While coming back, we made sure that we got all delicacies made specially for me by my dear patti (Avakkai and Deepavali Lehyam). While coming back, we were able to cover the first half of the trip around 350 and odd miles in 5 hours and we reached our hotel in Elizabethtown, Kentucky at around 5:00PM. We were expecting that we would reach there between 7:00PM and 8:00PM. But we covered that distance in tremendous time. We went to bed early that day, thinking that we can wake up early and have a headstart. But we woke up at around 6:30PM and after breakfast it was around 8:30 AM when we left the hotel. We slowly headed down to Atlanta, this portion of the road trip seemed to be laborious. But we made it somehow and reached Atlanta at around 3:00 PM in the afternoon. We had our lunch and prepared for the dinner, started our cleaning process because of the trip and eventually retired to bed at around 8:30 PM on 29th night.
I would suggest you guys get onto maps.google.com and check out the directions for Atlanta to St. Louis; St. Louis to Schaumburg, Ill and Schaumburg,Ill to Atlanta, Georgia. Hats off to google for the satellite imagery as well. Anybody, including Martians can see our home now, courtesy Google.
This trip was great and we got a chance to meet a lot of people. It was also a chance for Pranav to see some our relatives and it was overall a great experience. I wish everybody goes on a long road trip. We seriously missed some company, cause for this entire road trip would have been much more memorable if we had more people on board..
This roadtrip posting has been long overdue as Divya was planning to do it. She is still planning and let us see when she wants to get to it. Enjoy this and we have another interesting roadtrip experience to share with you that we did immediately after this. I (or Divya) will try to write about this very soon. In the meantime, you guys have a great time.
Signing off!! and expecting India to be a Hindu rashtra soon!!!
Anyway, we had a very early summer vacation. We set out on a long road trip during the Memorial Day weekend. We packed all our stuff in our recently bought Honda Civic (BTW, this is a great car for long road trips.) and headed out to Midwest. The trip was initially going to be only to Chicago. We decided to stopover in St. Louis enroute to Chicago since Divya's cousins (Ramya and Radhika) wanted us to come there at least for a day.
So this is how we did it. We left Atlanta on May 25th Afternoon. The drive was pretty reasonable. The weather was picture perfect for driving. We touched the states of Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky on the 25th. We had booked a room in a Holiday Inn Express in Paducah, Kentucky (At least my job helps us in getting something cheap!! ) after 350 and odd miles. We figured out Pranav would be able to withstand around 6-7 hours in his carseat. We stayed there for the night and had breakfast the next day morning and left for St. Louis, Missouri on 26th morning. We crossed Illinois enroute to St. Louis, Missouri. We were able to reach St. Louis at around 11:00 AM on 26th morning. Had lunch there. Saw Keshav and family. We had a chance to meet Ramya and company for the first time. (BTW, we have a great picture of Divya getting 'emotional' as soon as she saw Ramya.) We had a great dinner in "Cheesecake factory" on that night courtesy Ramya and her husband. After coming back, we also got a chance to meet Murali, Renuka and their kids. Had a very good conversation with Murali. We were talking till 2:00 AM that night. We retired to our beds at around 2:30AM and woke up at around 6:00 AM on 27th morning. A short note - I think I was able to drive home the Hindu viewpoint on all the issues that may have triggered enough arguments. Hopefully I did not hurt anybody's sentiments, political or otherwise.
On 28th after lunch, we set out for Schaumburg, Ill (My cousin's place..) We reached Schaumburg at around 5:30PM on 27th afternoon. We had our dinner there and got a chance to see their finished basement. It was exceptionally well done basement. I believe as of now, these guys have the "hottest" house among the couples that I have known so far. We played with their kids and retired to bed early that afternoon. Next day morning (28th May) we went to the Swaminathan mandir (BAPS) in Schaumburg. That mandir was absolutely magnificient. I have great respect for Gujaratis. After seeing this mandir, I really respect their organization and ability to do grandiose things without "government" assistance or intervention. We had a great time there and for lunch we got a chance to go to Jay's place. He is one of my University of Florida friends. We got a chance to meet his wife as well for the first time. I was told she was very very interested in cooking and trying out different delicacies. (Asked Divya to take note of this - as there is no dearth in talent from my side in tasting different delicacies.. But nothing has happened so far to that end... Let's see!!). Chicago was unusually hot that day, it was around 35-36C on that day. So we had to drop our plans for going to a park. Anyway, we played basketball, Pranav shot his first basket on that day. On that day, my Perimma and Perippa were expected to land in the Chicago trip for their summer vacation. (This has been a ritual for the last 4-5 years for them.. Wish my parents were like them!!) . Got a chance to meet them. Pranav played great with the kids and he had a great time. We have the entire video of his antics and it is pretty fun to watch. The next day, we started our long trip back to Atlanta. While coming back, we made sure that we got all delicacies made specially for me by my dear patti (Avakkai and Deepavali Lehyam). While coming back, we were able to cover the first half of the trip around 350 and odd miles in 5 hours and we reached our hotel in Elizabethtown, Kentucky at around 5:00PM. We were expecting that we would reach there between 7:00PM and 8:00PM. But we covered that distance in tremendous time. We went to bed early that day, thinking that we can wake up early and have a headstart. But we woke up at around 6:30PM and after breakfast it was around 8:30 AM when we left the hotel. We slowly headed down to Atlanta, this portion of the road trip seemed to be laborious. But we made it somehow and reached Atlanta at around 3:00 PM in the afternoon. We had our lunch and prepared for the dinner, started our cleaning process because of the trip and eventually retired to bed at around 8:30 PM on 29th night.
I would suggest you guys get onto maps.google.com and check out the directions for Atlanta to St. Louis; St. Louis to Schaumburg, Ill and Schaumburg,Ill to Atlanta, Georgia. Hats off to google for the satellite imagery as well. Anybody, including Martians can see our home now, courtesy Google.
This trip was great and we got a chance to meet a lot of people. It was also a chance for Pranav to see some our relatives and it was overall a great experience. I wish everybody goes on a long road trip. We seriously missed some company, cause for this entire road trip would have been much more memorable if we had more people on board..
This roadtrip posting has been long overdue as Divya was planning to do it. She is still planning and let us see when she wants to get to it. Enjoy this and we have another interesting roadtrip experience to share with you that we did immediately after this. I (or Divya) will try to write about this very soon. In the meantime, you guys have a great time.
Signing off!! and expecting India to be a Hindu rashtra soon!!!
posted by DK | 4:24 PM
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