First Trip to the States (Abroad)

In last winter (December, 2016), I went on my first trip abroad to the United States along with my brother. The purpose of this trip was solely entertainment and fun.

My brother lives in San Francisco, California, so we spent our time roaming around the West Coast because of it’s awesome weather. We left for the States (from Delhi, India) on 9th Dec 2016 and our itinerary for next 10 days was something like:

Since this was my first time going out of India, I had never sat in a 16-hour long flight, and trust me, it was loooooong!

Landing in San Francisco

We landed in San Francisco on 9th December early morning (I guess around 6 AM PST). As soon as I got out of the plane, I could feel the difference in the air - I was not in India anymore.

The weather was awesome!! I had seen this kind of weather only in hill stations or maybe near some of the beaches in India. I had a sudden realization on why many people want to come and live here. If I could enjoy this weather everyday, then I would also want to live here. Although, this was just the tip of the iceberg.

After leaving the airport, we directly went home and mostly rested (due to the long flight), went out for a walk and packed/prepared for the rest of the trip since we were hitting the road very next day in the morning.

Trip to Yosemite National Park

Next day, in the morning, we drove to Yosemite National Park for it’s great views and weather. Even the way up to the hills was very good, the weather was very nice and calm, a glimpse:

Finally we reached Yosemite, it was an awesome place to be, the sky, the wind, the weather, all were perfect. Since it was the time of December, there was little snow, a bit of rainfall (hence, you can see me wearing a Poncho). My brother used to come here a lot for camping and hiking, our trip was just for the day though.

Viva Las Vegas

After hiking through the Mountains of Yosemite, we left for Las Vegas. We reached Las Vegas in the evening.

After checking in the Linq hotel (which was surprisingly very cheap, apparently hotels in Vegas earn money through casinos, not through lodging), we went roaming around the streets looking at different attractions, checking out various attractions provided by each of the hotels.

We concluded the night with a show by Cirque du Soleil - a Montreal-based entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world (based on a quick Google search :P).

In the morning, we made our way to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon

While travelling to Grand Canyon through the dusty roads of Nevada and Arizona, we made a pit stop at Hoover Dam.

An interesting fact, if you have watched a lot Road Runner cartoons when you were a kid, then I am pretty sure that the Nevada/Arizona desert will give you a feeling of Déjà vu.

On reaching Grand Canyon (around noon), we went for a Helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. The chopper pilot showed us around and then took us inside the Grand Canyon. Helicopter was the only way to actually go inside the Canyon (unless you want to rapple down the cliff with an elastic rope :P).

After thoroughly taking a lot of photos, we took the helicopter back to the top and just walked around the Canyon for the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening, we went back to Vegas to Party and take rest.

Back in Vegas (Partying and Cooling Down)

As soon as we came back, we went drinking and then hit the casinos. I don’t have a complete memory of that night (well, that’s Vegas for you :)), but I am pretty sure that we had a lot of fun.

The next morning, as soon as we got up, we left for Los Angeles.

Los Angeles (City of Angels)

We reached LA later that day, at this point we were so exhausted that we directly went to bed. Recharge was needed to continue the journey.

The next morning, we went to view the Great “Hollywood” sign and visit the famous Griffith Observatory.

Later, it was almost 4 (approaching the time of sunset), so we went to the Venice Beach (‘the’ place to view the sunset). If you have heard of Santa Monica Pier (maybe in TV shows or movies), then to paint you a picture - this is the beach where Santa Monica Pier is located.

After the sunset, we continued down to Santa Monica Pier to have dinner and look at why people talk about it so much :). Apparently, this is the spot where almost every teenager in LA takes his girlfriend for a date :P

Finally, to conclude the day, we walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The next day, we spent it wholly at Universal Studios.

Universal Studios

The trip to universal studios - in just one word was legendary. We went to multiple parts/sets of the different movie series. There are so many pictures and memories I want to share here, but since I cannot add all of those images here, I’ll just add 2 of my favourites.

• The Good Place: The actual set of the TV Show - The Good Place, it came out in the September of 2016 (just a few months ago) and it was totally awesome, thus being on its actual set was amazing.

• The Wizarding World: The fantastic magical world of Harry Potter. The village of Hogsmeade and the great Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I also had the famous ‘Butter beer’ and bought a wand from the ‘Ollivanders’.

• Sets Tour: Later, we toured the actual sets of multiple movies and TV shows like Jurassic Park, Grinch, Jaws etc.

• KrustyLand: Next, we went to KrustyLand for the rides and having lunch (in that order :P).

• Rides: After lunch, we explored the park, went to the themed rides based on ‘Jurassic Park’, ‘The Mummy’ and ‘The Transformers’.

• Workshops/Shows: We also attended multiple shows where they showed how they actually produce different kinds of sounds in movies using the technique of Foley.

At the end of the day, we were so exhausted that once we got back to hotel, we slept for 10 hours straight without blinking an eye.

Back to San Francisco (via US101)

In the morning, we packed everything and took the most scenic route of the West Coast (US101) back to San Francisco. We rode back in a Convertible Mustang, so you can assume that the 7-8 hour ride back home was totally awesome.

Along the way, we stopped at multiple places on the side of the road, because we couldn’t resist just sitting and taking in the scenery.

San Francisco (Also Silicon Valley)

We reached SF later that day in the evening and directly went to home after having a great (and heavy) dinner. The next morning, we went to see The Mystery Spot, just for fun. Obviously, just a simple phenomenon of gravity was being portrayed as a mystery :P

Later that day, we went to Mountain View to Computer History Museum. We spent the entire afternoon in Silicon Valley and returned to Bay Area in the evening.

The next day, we went to SF city. It was just amazing to see how the entire city has so many slopes, since it is built on unlevelled land. We went to one of the famous streets of SF - The Lombard Street.

Later, we went to the SF Coast and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Finally we ended the day at Pier 39. This was my last evening in States (for this trip).

I had the flight back to Delhi, India in the next morning and this was my last day of the trip. It was one of the most memorable trips I had till date and in many ways it actually motivated me to live and spend a longer period of time in California (which I will hopefully do in future).