My first road trip!

Thanks to recession that many companies decided for year end shutdown. Less concidentally, both of our (Deepti and me) clients observed the shut down. This gave us 11 days off starting from 12/24. This was good for us because unlike contractors this was like a paid holidays for us.

We could not decide anything for vacation well in advance because my client postpone the project deadline only on previous Friday(otherwise there would have been lot of work during this shout down also). One thing I always knew was that I will utilize this time for a road trip. Now the question was the place. First thought which came was Mt Rushmore and Yellow Stone National Park, the only reason we dropped it, was distance which was 1400 miles one side and would have made the complete trip almost 3000 miles. I was not so comfortable with so long trip (being my first one)..The second option was San Diego as I had heard a lot about Sea World (with Shamu fame..).After a breif discussion, we easily agreed upon this option and started further planning..

Now the question was how many number of days. First we thought 2 days of San Diego and 1 day at LA should be enough. Thanks to Google and Wikitravel, that we found that there are many interesting places in both the cities though we already visited Universal Studio, hollywood and Disney land in a Bus Trip a year ago. We also did not want to make the trip very hectic and also wanted to travel majorly in day time. We finally concluded for 7 days including 3 nights in San Diego and 3 nights in LA. The dates decided were 26th to 1st after considering weather, preparation and new year.

Next step was to book the hotel and purchase tickets. It took us almost 4 hours of continous surfing kayak, priceline etc, to finalize the hotels. There were too many options and a wide price range. Hotels in LA were quite expensive. We opted for budget hotels, Ramada and Super at San deigo and LA respectively.

Daywise experience is as below;

Day 1
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We started at 9.30 am from home. It was a sunny day to make the driving more enjoyable. Drive from LA to San Diego had lot of traffic with 6 lanes. The average speed of this trip was 75 mph excluding 2 breaks for 30 and 15 mins. Though we initially thought that we will share the drive but I did all the driving till the San Diego hotel which was about 450 miles. We reached the hotel by 6 PM.We went to downtown and saw following places on the way:
1. Airport: Was facing the harbor.
2. Kettner Blvd and San Diego Skyline - Very beautiful though not not very large.
3. Hyatt Hotel - Mentioning because it was very well decorated
4. Convention center - An auto show was running in this large building. We did not go inside.
5. Gaslamp Quarter (5th Avenue) - Happening and upscale market full of restaurants and many people performing at streets. It was a surprise to hear bhajan music and we found ISKON team dancing to the Hare Krishna mantra on the streets.
6. Hotel Del Coronado - It was like a Mysore Palace in India (I have just heard but not seen). Fully decorated with lights. We went inside and found it to be luxury hotel with Gold, open spa and big dining hall..

Day 2
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After having the breakfast in the hotel, we left at 9 AM:
1. Sea World - It was little disappointing (may be because we went with very high expectations). And also becasue we found it to be very similar to animal shows we earlier saw in Six Flags at Vallejo. The park was not too big and we could easily finish it by 5 PM. But we really liked the sky tower and sky ride. We purchased a Shamu poster as Soveniur.
2. Old Town - The town was built in 1850 and had lot of shops with antiques and craft. It was cold in the evening and we enjoyed a masala tea at a small cafe.
3. Sea Port Village - This was a market facing the harbor.
4. Buggy - At Seaport Village, we saw couple of buggys and decided to have a ride. After little negotiations, we finalized for 85$ an hour. It was very cold and he offered a red plush and royal blanket. It was a fabulous experience roaming around the city in this royal buggy and people watching us (infact few people were shooting as well!) This was the best and most romantic part of the complete trip.

Day 3
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Next day also we left at 9 AM and day included:
1. San Diego Zoo - The place was very ineteresting. We started with a bus guided tour. Then we went to other corner of the zoo by Skyfari. The main attractions were giant panda and polar bear. We also liked Koala (generally known as teddy bear). There was a big elevator conviniently located which avoided steep hiking. At last we did one more round of guided tour and skyfari. From the skyfari, we could see the whole forest beneath us and could also spot some gorrilas and elephants from above. We purchased one Kenyan crafted wooden wall hanging as Soveneur.
2. Prospect Street - Market at La Jolla beach.
3. Masala Restaurant - This was rated as the best Indian restaurant located at 5th Avenue. We liked the food and ambience.

Day 4
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After checking out from hotel at 9 AM our schedule was as below:
1) La Jolla Beach - The place was very scenic and the 30 mins walk there was very refreshing. We also saw some seals lying there and it was their puppying season.
2) Costa Mesa - As a break on the way to LA, we went to south coast plaza (shopping mall) in Orange County. The mall was so big that it has its own zip code.
3) Little India - Artesia, popularly known as Little India is so called because the entire area has shops of Indian jewellery, Indian ethnic dresses, sweets, Indian resturaunts. We happily landed in Ambala dhaba and enjoyed chaat, lassi and stuffed parathas.
4) Getty Villa - This is a sister museum of Getty Center. The sculputures and paintings were very nice.
5) Rodeo Drive - The shops were closed but the street was fabulous and full of all big brands. The chandeliors were placed all over and were used as street lights. We decided to go again the next day.

Then we checked in hotel at 8 PM. The hotel was very near to LAX airport.

Day 5
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1) Catalina Island - The ferry took 2 hrs from Marina Del May beach to reach Avalon in Catalina Island. Then we took a bus tour for 2 hrs from 1 to 3 PM. The tour was very adventurtes with bumpy and sharp turns over the mountains along the coast. The tour guide Randy was funny as he kept speaking and we were wondering if he has a tape running in his pocket. The bus also took us to the Island airport at top of the hill (approx. 1800' above the sea). Then we went round in the market, along the casino and a beautiful beach, Descanco cove. The beach was one of the best beaches i have ever seen (full filmy..)

We both caught some cold at the island and so went directly to hotel from there. But I had to take a small call with offshore as they were working during shut down also.
Day 6
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1) Venice Beach - Famous for people watching. Also there was a muscle beach with open air gym.
2) Santa Monica Pier - Full of activites and rides.
3) ISKON - The temple was added in the plan in LA itself. It was wonderful experience to have lunch in the temple.
4) Rodeo Drive - This time we could also enter in the shops. Surprisingly, all the shops were selling ladies purses with prices going till 40,000 $. At present, we cannot understand the worth..!
5) Celebrity homes - Instead of taking the famous tour, we found the addresses of some famous celebrities on google. Some of the stars home we visisted included Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Arnold Sch.., Robert Mudrock, Cage Nicholas ect. Cage Nicholas mansion was huge but the boundary so high so that only a fraction of balcony was visible. The Bel Air and beverly hills area obviously had an air of royalty and luxury.
6) Getty Center- We could just spend 45 mins in the museum as it was closing time when we reached but the tram ride and view from the museum was breathtaking.
7) Sunset Strip - Full of night clubs, we couldn't figure out much there and so decided to go for dinner.
8) Clay Pit restaurant - The best rated Indian restaurant in LA located in Brentwood. The food and ambience was perfect for bidding farewell to 2008.
9) The Bridge - We don't want to be in hotel room. Hotel receptionist suggested us to go to Universal studio to see fireworks, but we decided to go to movie as U-S was approx 35 miles away. We went to Bridge and watched movie "YES MAN". The movie was hillarious and we enjoyed Jim Carrey a lot.


Day 7
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After checking out, we started from hotel at 9:30 am and reached home safely by 4:30 PM. The average speed was 75 mph. Fortunately, we found an Indian restaurant "taste of India" during lunch which was a treat as we were felling hungry because we skipped our breakfast. This time Deepti also drove last 120 miles.

Conclusion: In all, the trip was very good but little more hectic than planned. I would also like to appreciate my new car for a trouble free and fantastic ride.