Time: July 28, 2013
Place: Pretend City, Irvine
Company: Wife and daughter
Highlights: Pretend City is a non-profit museum made exclusively for kids of all ages. Kids can become artists, waiters in restaurant, postmen, policemen, farmers, doctors, sailmen and can even play in house kitchen or room, beach, do grocery, go to bank and lot of other things that adults do. It is really a cool place and definitely worth a visit.
Time: July 27, 2013
Place: Quail Hill Trailhead, Irvine
Company: Wife and daughter
Highlights: A broken Kitchen stove led to a food outing, and since we were out anyways, we researched for a nearby short trek with nice far-out views, and we landed up at Quail Hill Trailhead in Irvine. This is a 1.8 mile trail in the open land with a small uphill elevation, and ideally suited for kids. It is beside the freeway, so its good to see zooming cars but bad due to the noise. However it is pretty barren, so it is not so great trail for those seeking trees and shelter. Surprisingly, Tontu walked (inclusive of 2 minor falls) the entire stretch because of which it took 1.5 hrs for us to complete!
Time: July 14, 2013
Place: Swami Narayan Temple in Chino Hills
Company: Wife and daughter
Highlights: We planned to visit the Swami Narayan temple since it was just an hour's drive away. I had heard a lot about Swami Narayan temples around the world and how architecturally great they were but today I saw them in my naked eyes and I was astounded. It almost seems too good to be true. There are intricate sculptures on the walls, roof, pillars and almost everyplace where the eye is used to see blank plainness! I also read about swami Narayan and came to know his true self. It is definitely worth a visit.
Time: July 10-12, 2013
Place: Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Company: Wife and daughter
Highlights:
Preview: Considering that July 11th 2013 was our 5th wedding anniversary, a thought always existed that this anniversary should be made extra special. However, it never was clear on what would be the ideal celebration. Definitely an outstation trip was in order, but considering July was a vacation month, all travel-related would be extra costly. So, if hotel in Hawaii costed $500 in off-season, it costed $800 in July. Added to this was my job uncertainty and hence my "home" city. So "from" was unknown and hence did not book flight or car. One option was to drive across the Mexico border to any nearest beach resort but folks said that was too risky. So, had all options open until July 9th when I knew for sure that I will be in present "home city". Last minute research led to 'Cabo San Lucas' in Mexico, a 2 hr non stop flight journey which boasted of 'Land's end - El Arco de Cabo'. Thankfully, even though it was a last minute booking, tickets weren't too pricey, although it was still about 100 USD more per person. Anyways, got the ticket booked to San Jose Del Cabo from Orange County for 10th, with rented car in Mexico and resort booking in Quinta Del Sol.
Day 1: There were multiple sites for me to book the tickets, and the most lucrative one unfortunately errored out many times. So I ended up booking via expedia. Later I checked that if I had booked via airtran directly, I could have got an earlier flight (0830 hrs) for same price. As it happened, our 1301 hrs flight was delayed by 3 hrs. Added to this the fact that the taxi guy had taken a long route to airport instead of a shorter one (hence more pricey) had messed up my mind. After a long wait in the airport (thankfully Tontu got a pal to play ball) and another long wait for the flight to take-off, had an easy journey and we reached Los Cabos International airport in Mexico. Customs was easy and finally got a shuttle to Europcar rental agency.
I was told that the car rental insurance was expensive. Yet I had booked the car, instead of just relying on taxis. Added to this, the car was manual. So, it was my first experience with a manual car and left hand driving. Plus, we had lost that evening (had plans to see sunset). So all in all, I was grumpy.
Thankfully, drove safely from San Jose Del Cabo to Quinta Del Sol resort which is about 45 mins away at the start of Cabo San Lucas city. Nothing great about the resort, and value for money. Doesn't boast of private beach or 5-diamond style. Decent room service and accommodation.
Wifey and self stayed up till midnight to celebrate the anniversary day commencement.
Day 2: After complimentary continental breakfast, had booked an appointment with Grand Solmar group of resort for a free trip of their hotel (marketing), free lunch and free boat ride to see the natural arch. Unfortunately the free trip turned out to be a nightmare - it was more of a marketing gimmick to get us into a membership of sorts for vacationing in star resorts. What should have ended in 90 mins, prolonged to 3 hrs and we almost missed the last boat to the arch. Nonetheless, it was great visiting the Grand Solmar and its very impressive rooms and penthouses.
The arch itself was awesome and majestic. Very profound thought that this land was under the ocean many many years ago. Since this place marks the border of Pacific Ocean and Sea of Cortez, there are violent waves (good for surfing), and sure enough the boat rocked to and fro. It was a glass bottom boat, so saw some fishes too. Also saw Lover's beach (calm waves) and Divorce beach (dangerous waves). I was blue due to sea sickness but enjoyed the arch enough to see it as a dinosaur drinking water, which was spectacular, thanks to wifey for taking the picture.
Once back at the room, took some rest and enjoyed a cake and an ice cream. Then again headed out to the nearby Medona Beach for sunset but it is not a beach for sunset. It was more for leisure and for Tontu to play with sand. Then at night fall, enjoyed couple of Tequila shots (surprisingly, for the first time with wifey) at a local eat-out facing the ocean!
Headed back to the room and ended the day remembering the wedding day 5 years ago!
Day 3: Had enough time only to finish breakfast, pack, check out and drive to rental agency, and take shuttle to airport. Trip back was all on time, and we were back in our home by 4 pm!
Overview: Cabo San Lucas is a great tourist destination. Perhaps we could have stayed longer and did other things such as adventure sports (zipline, snorkeling, etc.) but with a toddler, we were satisfied with what we did. Our primary attraction was the El Arco and it provided the satisfaction in many-fold. This was a different kind of an expedition, in the sense that we never got time to spend in downtown, rather allowed ourselves to enjoy the Mexican local ambiance such as in a small-time eat-out on the beach. It was another of those trips where we did not get to see a single Indian in the tourist spot. Surprising!
Although it started grumpily, it surely ended on a high note, and we now not only have fond memories of Cabo San Lucas but also our 5th wedding anniversary!!
Time: July 7, 2013
Place: Legoland, Carlsbad
Company: Wife and daughter
Highlights: An hours drive from our place, on the way to San Diego. It is an amazing resort theme park made entirely of Lego blocks. Excessive imagination and creativity at display! Also many rides that cater to all age groups. Again, Tontu had fun with helicopter, boat, sky-cycle, train all in one day. But the thing which she enjoyed most was the water park. A number of attractions in the water park such as water slide, water zoo and time spent in the 2 ft depth pools really made the day.
It wasnt as hot as 4th so it was not so tiring, and surprisingly Tontu didnt take a nap in the noon, as she usually does. That helped us cover most of the rides by 7 pm and allowed us to view the 4D picture. Definitely a place to visit with kids!
Time: July 4, 2013
Place: Disneyland, Anaheim
Company: Wife and daughter
Highlights: Disneyland is just one road from our home! It is just 10 miles on one single road! Yet hadn't been until now since we wanted to wait until Paavani was as nearer to 3 as possible (since it is free until 3) to better appreciate the characters. Finally decided on Independence day, although it was holiday season.
To tackle the crowd and lines, headed straight to the last section and worked from backwards. It was extremely hot but managed to still enjoy the parade and other rides. Paavani was extremely happy to have experienced train, boat, (elephant) airplane, carousel, etc all in one day, along with Mickey and Minnie character interactions! While she was asleep, wifey finished off the whoopy rides. Finally day ended with fireworks, but we ended up staying till 11 pm to finish the unfinished! Totally fun filled day!
