Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon - A rugged beauty and a remarkable record of Paleozoic Era. This post is about our trip to this beautiful place. I remember this place as shown in "Hai Rabba" song from the movie Jeans. To cover this place by car would take 4 days; so we decided to take a flight to Las Vegas, stay there and then take a tour arranged by http://www.grandcanyon.com

We started on a friday night and reached Las Vegas in an hour by flight. We had to stand in queue at the McCarran Airport for a taxi as Vegas is a very happening place and crowded, not to mention on a weekend. The taxi charges were pretty high. Our hotel was near by; we checked in and had a good night's sleep. The next day, after having breakfast at the hotel, we left for a nearby resort where the Tour bus would pick us up.

At 10 am, the bus took us from the resort to the Boulder City Municipal Airport, where we had a mini flight (which can carry up to 14 members) waiting for us. This flight was 30 min long and we could see Lake Mead very well. My husband and I got seats 2A and 3A; adjacent to the window. It was awkward to board this small flight and settle down; too small that one couldn't even stand up straight.

After we were dropped at the Canyon Airport, we were guided to a helicopter which took us for a flight into the Canyon. It was a beautiful experience to watch the majestic Canyon from a higher altitude as well as near it; this being my first helicopter ride (I got the front seat besides the pilot - an added excitement), I enjoyed it a lot. You can see the different shades of colours on the Canyon and its minute layerings formed by the river along millions of years - simple soil erosion yet so beautiful.

The helicopter dropped us near River Colorado. We walked down to the river where a boat was awaiting us. The boat ride was pleasant. It was serene atmosphere except for the occasional helicopters flying around. From the boat, we saw the highest point of the Canyon which is about a mile deep i.e. this is compared with the 3 times the height of the Stratosphere tower in Vegas!

The Canyon is occupied by the native tribe Hualapai and you could see signboards mentioning - "No trespassing- Hualapai Nation". The Hualapai people believe that the rivr water brought luck, our boat driver gave a bucket of river water and asked us to apply afew drops on our cheeks. The river water was cold and refreshing.

After the boat ride, we walked back the small path from the river to a slightly higher place to board the helicopter. Then the helicopter dropped us back at Airport from where we took the bus to The Eagle point. It was named so as there is a formation on the Canyon in the shape of the eagle. The majestic Skywalk is the major attraction here because :

It can withstand the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes
Can survive an 8.0 magnitude earthquake within 50 miles
Suspended 4000 ft above Colorado River on the edge of the Grand Canyon
Immune to winds in excess of 100 miles per hour

The floor of the Skywalk is made of glass alone and when you walk over it and look beneath, its a thrilling experience. The Canyon is a natural wonder ; along with it, the Skywalk stands as a man made wonder.

After that, the bus took us to The Guana point, where you can see a different part of the Canyon; it is another view point. Then back to the Airport and to Las Vegas. What we covered was the West Rim of the Canyon. There is the South Rim of the Canyon too to be explored.

You can stand in the Canyon and keep viewing it and it will never be enough; such is the beauty of it with brilliant colours, its sheer majestic size and the layered patterns. You get a different experience in different point and rides - the boat, helicopter and by walk. It was never enough for me, however we had to catch the flight back to Vegas and so had to leave. The Grand Canyon - beautiful indeed and a must see place!

More pics here

Golfing!!!

What's the most posh game that's played? Well, it is the Golf. And a common man's version of it "The Mini Golf". On a weekend, we went to a park where there was this Mini Golf facility. There were few other sports too. Mini Golfing was a first time experience for me. I used to think what's the big deal in hitting a ball into a hole. But learnt the mini version of the game and had a fun experience.


There are various mazes and a hole in each. There were 3 courses and each course had 18 holes. We should attempt to hit the ball into the hole within a minimum number of strokes. They give a score card per group. A group is limited to 4 people. People come here , have casual talk, linger around and play the game too. Some very small kids just hit the balls and have fun. I noticed that a lot of adult groups too do not keep score; they play for fun.

Nothing more to say, have a look at the snaps. Click on the images to see the enlarged version. If you get a chance, try this game. Happy Golfing!

This evening...

We have been planning to visit Costco since long. We need to have a member card to go there. After applying online and a wait time of two weeks, the card arrived finally and we decided to go shopping this evening. My hubby reached home by six;, we had crackers and tea; got ready and reached there by 8 PM. Unfortunately we couldn't even go through the whole shop as they started closing by 8.45 PM. We wasted quite some time in the clothing section as there was no trial room. After picking up whatever we could, we went to the billing counter. The number of items were too less after having come to Costco. We had found the place today; quite near by and decided that we will come again soon.

We thought of having dinner outside but the fact that there was Dosa maavu and sambhar at home tempted me a lot. And so headed home directly unusually (We mostly end up having dinner outside if we go shopping). Quickly made coconut chutney and had dosas along with sambar. Was a wonderful satisfying dinner.

I was so happy as yesterday too I got Jalebis and Mini rasagullas from an Indian sweet stall. Today's lunch was also good ; Drumstick sambhar and Sepangkelangu fry followed by vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberry pieces for dessert. It's been treat after treats for my taste buds since yesterday. My husband also got me a three fourth trousers and a matching top for our on coming trip from Costco. I think I can call it a wonderful day. I do wish to make another trip to Costco and have a detailed shopping. Looking forward to that day soon...

Cheese, grease and peace

This is another of my experiences in the kitchen as you probably might have guessed from the title. You know, I love to cook and do all the associated task that comes with it, grinding, chopping etc. But the thing I hate is to clean up the stove top which has got all of the stuff sticking to it like glue. Even my dearest hubby refused to take up this chore who usually helps with stuff in kitchen. So I had to do this all by myself on this Sunday night. Generally I keep postponing this stuff for as long as I can. I certainly would have loved to watch a movie after dinner than doing this but the sight was too pathetic that I decided to take it up right away. After using a good cleaning liquid, I finished up the task. Then the stove top looked nice and clean and would be a welcome sight for me when I start to cook Monday's lunch.

It reminded me of my grandmother and mother. My mother; no matter what starts the day after cleaning the gas stove every morning with a detergent followed by cleaning up the slab where the gas stove is placed and then boil milk for coffee. I was in awe of her patience coz I do this task once a week; twice rarely.

My grandmother's routine too would be to get up in the morning do the "vasal kooti, kolam pottu, adupu moluvi" and then start making coffee. In those days, she had a stove made of mud(she used a kerosene stove in the last few years of her life but kept using the mud stove also). Wood was bought and stored in the backyard, dried in the sun if there was a rain. Every morning, after removing the ashes of the previous day, the mud stove(mann adupu) would be dusted with a broomstick followed by a coating of water in which cowdung was dissolved.(Cow dung is used to line the floor and walls of buildings owing to its insect repellent properties, with some types of insects). Then it would be left to dry and over this she would do kolams. And then start the mud stove with few fresh wood and the rest the previous day's wood. The wood would be turned on with some dried coconut shell broken into pieces and dried cow dung cakes, dipped in kerosene and lighted with a match.

Reminiscing the above ,cleaning my electric stove top suddenly felt as a 'no big deal'. In my childhood, I got very few opportunities to stay with her as we lived far from home town. But in those few days, I have seen her daily regimen. She used to do it dutifully and with no complaints and with all sincerity. She is no more and there is no ancestral house anymore. But the memories are still afresh.

I know you must be now wondering about the title. I just did not find anything else.. meant to say the cheese on the stovetop turns greasy and takes away my peace. Now don't sulk, will find a better title next time :)

My experiences in the US kitchen :)

Like most city girls, I too was not a great cook. My visits to the kitchen were very limited. My mother was a very lenient person; never insisted us to cook. She used to ask us to study or go to some useful classes and encourage us in everything but cooking. And we too never found time - lots of playing as a child, tuition and special classes while in 10th and 12th, then college - unfortunately I ended up being in a first batch and we were treated like school kids and then a career demanding unusual work timings and long hours of work. Of course I know these are lame excuses because one can always find time for something that they are interested in. So basically I had little interest in cooking and hence I was in kindergarten as far as cooking was concerned and used to cook only if need arises or when I find some recipe really interesting.

Then I got married, had to live so far away from home and had to cook myself! Thanks to Skype and my sweet amma - she used to tell me one recipe per day and I used to note down meticulously every thing she said. But for her, I never could have cooked so many yummy dishes. And these days I also refer to the net for new recipes. There are good sites with videos too. I got very inspired from all these sources and now I have developed keen interest in cooking. I also discovered that the secret to good cooking is a good recipe, lot of time and patience.

But let me tell you some of the experiences I had while in the kitchen. Here there is no gas stove but the heating source is an electric filament. It was very new to me. I used to keep forgetting that it is a stove. Somehow without real fire or flames, it didn't appear to me as a "Stove".

One day after grinding, I just kept the small mixie jar directly on the stove. Only when the plastic melted and the smell of burning plastic came out, I realised that I had kept the jar on the stove. The stove wasn't on but it was hot. I felt so bad because I didn't have my little jar anymore. And we had brought it all the way from India. Similar incidents are - plastic jars, spoons loosing their shape as I had kept them close to the stove.

There are four stoves and even if few are not heated, the radiation keeps other stuff on those stoves hot and I once ended up burning my fingers by touching a plate on another stove which was not at all turned on.. but was very hot as the stove next to it had very hot oil in a kadai.

Then we had purchased wooden ladles for cooking. I washed one to use for tempering/seasoning. As you know for seasoning the oil will be hot and the ladle should be dry, otherwise the oil splutters. I felt the ladle was too wet and thought I can dry it by keeping it in the oven for a few seconds, but it turned out to be a bad idea.. it got burnt and the ladle broke. The oven was filled with so much smoke. I got very tensed but acted calmly and cleared of everything.

Another incident was like this.. quite of stupid of me though ; I tried to melt the butter along with the butter paper wrapped around it and it started burning. I panicked but I quickly turned off the oven, put off the fire and cleared up the mess.

That is how I had successfully filled the oven with smoke and fire. And after that I learnt to be more careful with the electric stove and the oven. I am very cautious when keeping stuff in the oven. I also keep the cooking area clear and with lot of space so that I don't have to end up keeping stuff on or near the stove.

Thus ends my experiences rather experiments in the kitchen :)

The Spanish Influence

Hola!!
We all know that India is a very diverse country with varied languanges and cultures. So is the USA. There are people from various countries making up the population. But there is one particular chunk of this population which has a great influence in the USA. And they are the Mexicans.

The infuences can be seen in the popularity of their language, cuisine, names of places etc. Almost a large percentage of products have labels in Spanish apart from English. Some of the stores have Entry/Exit signs in Spanish too - Entrada/ Salida. Many Mexican dishes are popular too such as the Tacos, Burritos, Enchiladas, Tortilla(pronounced Tortiya), Quesadilla (pronounced Quesadiya).



It was new to me to accept the Mexican pronunciation. La Jolla was a street name and the right pronounciation is La Hoya. "J" is considered as a "H" and "LL" is replaced with "Y". San Jose is said as San Hose. We can see that many places are named with a prefix of San and Santa.. e.g. Santa Cruz, San Diego. These words mean Saint or Holy in Spanish. Even Los Angeles is a Spanish term with an English meaning of "The Angels".


Los Angeles and Mexico City were declared as Sister Cities in 1969. I got this data from a board in Little Mexico. This place in in LA downtown reflecting the Mexican culture. It has a market, restaurants, music and of course a lot of Mexican crowd.

All the snaps displayed in this blog were taken at Little Mexico.




Hope this article kindled in you a little interest to know more about Mexico and it's culture. Gracias. Buenos Dias!!

Entertainment is Universal!

Let's start with an easy question.. What is the famous entertainment theme park here in the LA area? Yes it is the Universal Studios. On a weekend, we decided to give it a visit. I have been to the campus before as it has the Citywalk and the AMC theatres and is about a ten min drive from home. But to enter the Universal Studios was a first time for me and I was very excited!!!!!!!!!!!



We went to the lowermost level first and took the Jurassic Park ride. The ride is on a boat in an artificial river. First are the Herbivores animals. Then we enter the dangerous carnivores zone where some sudden jerks in the ride happen and big Dinosaurs try to attack us. It's so thrilling for a first time. Some of the creatures are very realistic whereas others look like dolls. We went for a second time too!




Next was the Revenge of the Mummy Ride. My husband warned me saying that this one would be scary ; so much that I literally closed my eyes during the first time. All I could hear was loud voice "Your souls are mine" repeatedly and this was high speed ride with sudden turns and reverses inside total darkness. After the first time, curiosity got the better of me and I went for once more and enjoyed it. You can see more here http://revengeofthemummy.com
There were people dressed up as mummies, pharaohs and scaring away people around. They would pose for a snap if we wished to take one.



Then we saw the demo of how real fires are created for movies. How the fire fighters and artists and all the people on the sets risk themselves. A special short movie is shown about the Backdraft effect and is the name of this demo too. Technical definition of a backdraft "A situation which can occur when a fire is starved of oxygen; consequently combustion ceases but the fuel gases and smoke remain at high temperature. If oxygen is re-introduced to the fire, eg. by opening a door to a closed room, combustion can restart often resulting in an explosive effect as the gases heat and expand."
Some other fire effects demo are shown for real.

The next in this level was the Special effects show. How layering of 2 different scenes are done. For this few volunteers are chosen from the audience. There is a big screen with a background(say showing a Window). The volunteer then waves her hand. It looks like she is really doing it on the big screen. Her movements are mapped with the screen with an existing background/scene on the screen. The other effects were sound effects created with various instruments like moving of a barrel - the rotating motion creates a sound, different sounds created by metal clanks so on. Then they showed a vanishing act of a standing person being tied to a vertical board and an explosion occurs. Even before the smoke vanishes, the vertical board is present but in the place of the person is a skeleton; all this happens within seconds.

We went to the top level and after lunch we continued on. The major attractions here are The Simpsons Ride - Its dark inside, high speed but virtual visual effects are created. It was very good. There was a 4 D Shrek movie - a different story than from the movies. And the detailed studio tour in a moving open vehicle - the cars used for Fast and Furious, the Wisteria Lane - a fictional street appearing in the American television series Desperate Housewives, other buildings and miniature models, how rain and floods are created, cars in action, a plane crash site etc.

The other ones which we did not see are the Water World, UNIVERSAL Animal Actors and Terminator2 - 3 D, Curious George and House of Horrors.


It darkened by 5.30 PM and most of the shows and rides were closed. It was a wonderful experience. You can look up each of the rides and shows in the internet for further information but it would be great if you can personally experience and enjoy the suspenses in the rides!