Trip to LA with in-laws

Dec 25,26, 2007

Aparna's grandpa, now 87, has been wanting to see Disneyland for over 50 years now and her mom had made three unsuccessful attempts to go there too. We decided to go to Disneyland this Christmas. We started on Saturday around 11:00 A.M (22nd) on southbound 101. 152 had one of the worst traffic jams I have seen in the last 4 years. The queue of cars extended all the way into 101!! After spending 1 hour in the crawling traffic and managing to go about 2-3 miles we decided on a new strategy. At We took a U turn at about 1:00, stopped at a gas station, had lunch and got back on 101 S by 2:00. From 101 at San Lucas and took 198E to connect to 5. We would travel about 10-15 miles longer and a bit windy but without the jam and worth the scenic beauty. I had taken this route before during jams on 152 . The decision turned out to be a good one cos we didn't see any traffic at all along this way and reached LA by 7:30. After meeting Animesh, Dantu, MV and others we headed to the hotel - Vagabond inn in Bell gardens and slept.
The next day we woke up early, cooked and headed towards Universal Studios Hollywood. We were one of the earliest to arrive at the theme park. The day was sunny and a welcome change from the cloudy days back in the bay area. After having a nice invigorating coffee in Universal City walk we proceeded to the park.

There was a large christmas tree both in the Universal city walk area as well as at the entrance of universal studios. We first proceeded to the studio tour. Theres tata with the Jaws Shark.


I have been to the Universal Studios 5 times in the last 5 years (as a tour guide to my friends and relatives while I was in LA) and each time the Studio tour always has something new to show me. Also this was the first time I went to Universal studios with Aparna. This time there was a new demo showing how the violent exploding car shots are done. Also they added some water squirting Raptors in the studio tour ( probably recycled from the Jurassic park ride). Everyone loved the studio tour - the mummy rotating tunnel, the king kong, the earthquake, the flash flood, dinosaurs, the jaws attack, the crumbling bridge and other stuff. Tata loved it and said, "this is what happens when great imagination meets great engineering."


After the studio tour we saw the Water world show at 1:00. The show had all new actors this time but the story was exactly the same as I have seen the last 4 times. I still enjoyed it. Everyone loved it. After the water world we had lunch - some delicious home cooked food. Me and tata went to the House of horrors, Aparna and Attagaru were too scared to enter. This was the first time I had been to the house of Horrors, I had been to the Mummy returns before though. I really liked the house of horrors, it is much much better than what it was two years ago. That is what I like about Universal studios, it keeps improving every year. Theres always something new to see. We saw terminator 3D and Shrek 4D. Tata being an ardent lover of action movies, absolutely loved terminator 3D.
All in all universal studio was a lot of fun.

The next day we went to Disneyland. We got tata a wheel chair. There was a huge crowd, this being the christmas eve, queues were almost 1.5-3 hrs of wait for anything we wished to see. However, since tata was on wheel chair the waits were reduced to almost nothing. Some people where taking advantage of this , we saw a group with 12 people accompanying one person on wheel chair.

I had never been to Finding Nemo submarine ride was very nice. Everyone really loved it. The ride took us in a submarine underwater and the effects where wonderful. We then went to see fantasyland and saw "Its a small small world". Once was not enough for both Aparna and Attagaru but we had no time to see it again. After having lunch there was the parade at 3:30. Fortunately we got a very good spot. I have been to disneyland 4 times before but never had a vantage point this nice.

After the parade, by popular demand we went to see the winne the pooh show. It was similar to "its a small small world." We then went to the haunted mansion and finally the Indiana Jones show. Everyone loved it.

The castle was wonderfully lit in the night. The fireworks were two hours off and it was getting cold. Also everyone was pretty tired so we decided to go back. Disneyland was wonderfully lit in the night, especially the christmas tree.


Disneyland trip left both attagaru and tatagaru very satisfied. The next day we decided to take the PCH back to LA. We started at 8:00 in the morning. We spent a little time at the SantaMonica beach wetting our feet.

On our way we stopped at the Avinal Beach for lunch. A herd of seals were happily basking at the beach. We had a little guest to accompany us at our lunch. He ate some home cooked artikaya koora and some bangaladumpala koora along with us.

At San Simeon we caught some elephant seals basking in the sun. The elephant seal males keep fighting for territory while the ladies and babies bask.

On the way the sun set and we caught the sun setting in the pacific ocean. The sunsets were brilliant
and one of the most wonderful sunsets I have seen.

We reached back home by 7:00 in the evening with wonderful memories.