We have just returned from a quick trip to LA last week. Taking advantage of a brief lull in the work world, I hastily planned a dash to the entertainment capital with the extended family in tow. I've been to Los Angeles on multiple occasions before. As a graduate student, as a newly employed single guy, as a newly married couple. This was my first trip in my new avatar: father of a particularly mischievous 15-month-old tyke.
The onward journey
We set ourselves a start time of 8AM from the Bay Area intending to escape traffic snarls at both ends of the journey. However, it was only after 10:00AM that the one-kid circus hit the road, packed with enough food to feed an army. 90 minutes into the drive, we were wolfing down idlies (+ gojju), tamarind rice (+ chips) and curd rice (+ home made pickles) in a rest area along the I-5. One coffee stop and 75 songs later, we were in LA: nearly 7 hours after we had started. Surprisingly, the LA traffic was mild and we could check into the hotel at 5pm.
Universal Studios
Visit #4 for yours truly. Yes it is over priced. Yes it is over crowded. But you've got to hand it to the Universal folks that successfully manage to keep people interested in this place even after all these years. With a new ride (Transformers 3D), a change here (King Kong 3D in the studio tour), a tweak there - the place seems to be reinventing itself at some level to live up to its title of "the entertainment capital of LA". They have built it and the crowds indeed keep coming.
The Jurassic Park Ride
When it comes to going on rides, I will admit without shame that I am reduced to a quivering mass both before and after the ride. And I throw up three of my four previous meals both during and after the ride. Yet, about once in five years, I do end up going on one, only to curse myself for the next five years.
1997: Giant wheel in Black Thunder, Mettupalayam. Culprits: Taunting friends, my own ego and stupidity. Outcome: (pun intended) the lunch - a full meals in TN parlance, if I may add, and the last few morsels of that day's breakfast.
2001: A centrifuge posing as a ride, New Year Block Party, Tempe, Arizona. Culprits: Taunting friends, my own ego (there was a girl in the group) and plain stupidity. Outcome: The Thai dinner and two cans of Pepsi.
2006: The Mummy ride, Universal Studios. Culprits: The smooth talking staff "It goes forward at 40mph and returns to the starting point at 40mph." I'll bet that guy would have described the Pope as a German guy in white wearing a cross. Outcome: although I didn't do the technicolor yawn, I was caught in nauseous spells for the next two days.
I have only been on bus/plane rides since then, save for a nano-roller coaster ride in Malaysia in 2008. A wife can be extremely persuasive on the first anniversary.
2012: The five year cycle was up and I told myself that I would go on the Jurassic Park Ride that seemed less evil than the rest. The wait time was nearly 60 minutes and as the line snaked through to the boarding point, my stomach kept churning. As we rounded the last corner, I was ready to sneak out under any pretext. However, when my wife pointed to a young girl taking the ride in spite of her right leg being in a cast, my pride was stung and I had to take the ride.
The night of the fight, you may feel a sting. That's pride ****ing with you. **** pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps. - Marsellus Wallace, Pulp Fiction. Truer words? Never spoken.
To make an already long story short, I survived the ride - the spitting dinos, the roaring T-rex, the fall and all. And honestly, it wasn't too bad. The regulation picture from the ride shows me clinging on for dear life, yelling like a mad man. But here is the best part: neither did I barf nor did I suffer from any dizziness afterwards. (Although, I might have as well thrown up the sorry veggie burger that I had for lunch.) Perhaps I'm getting better with time, like wine? Stand by for a confirmation in 2017.
The heat
I've spent the first twenty years of my life in the oppressive heat of Chennai. I've spent the next 4 years in Phoenix, Arizona where the heat was dry but just as oppressive. Add another 3 years in Singapore and I have no business complaining about heat anywhere on earth. But I felt really, visibly uncomfortable in LA when the mercury was above 104F. My complaining about the heat is like Manmohan Singh complaining about corruption, but that day I was as comfortable as Swami Nithyananda in a press conference. How soon the body gets used to the pleasures of milder climes. I sought out every mist blower, every square inch of shade, applied liberal quantities of sun block and yet was nearly dead by the end of the day.
The return drive in numbers
0 - food stops
1 - beverage stop
2 - diaper stops
3 - pm start from LA
4 - beverage stops we should have had
5 - times we told ourselves "No road trip till son turns two"
The car
My ride for the trip was a brand new 2013 Hyundai Sonata: the odometer read 10 miles when I picked it up and the new car smell was very strong. I have been among the people that have been blown away by the looks of the reincarnated Sonata - the Koreans have hit this one out of the park surely. After the 900 mile journey, I was seriously toying with the idea of replacing my 8-year-old, used Passat. But then it doesn't take much to convince myself that a new car is never a good idea financially and my present ride, though not a head turner in any sense, is after all reliable and gets my family from one place to another in reasonable comfort.
The onward journey
We set ourselves a start time of 8AM from the Bay Area intending to escape traffic snarls at both ends of the journey. However, it was only after 10:00AM that the one-kid circus hit the road, packed with enough food to feed an army. 90 minutes into the drive, we were wolfing down idlies (+ gojju), tamarind rice (+ chips) and curd rice (+ home made pickles) in a rest area along the I-5. One coffee stop and 75 songs later, we were in LA: nearly 7 hours after we had started. Surprisingly, the LA traffic was mild and we could check into the hotel at 5pm.
Universal Studios
Visit #4 for yours truly. Yes it is over priced. Yes it is over crowded. But you've got to hand it to the Universal folks that successfully manage to keep people interested in this place even after all these years. With a new ride (Transformers 3D), a change here (King Kong 3D in the studio tour), a tweak there - the place seems to be reinventing itself at some level to live up to its title of "the entertainment capital of LA". They have built it and the crowds indeed keep coming.
The Jurassic Park Ride
When it comes to going on rides, I will admit without shame that I am reduced to a quivering mass both before and after the ride. And I throw up three of my four previous meals both during and after the ride. Yet, about once in five years, I do end up going on one, only to curse myself for the next five years.
1997: Giant wheel in Black Thunder, Mettupalayam. Culprits: Taunting friends, my own ego and stupidity. Outcome: (pun intended) the lunch - a full meals in TN parlance, if I may add, and the last few morsels of that day's breakfast.
2001: A centrifuge posing as a ride, New Year Block Party, Tempe, Arizona. Culprits: Taunting friends, my own ego (there was a girl in the group) and plain stupidity. Outcome: The Thai dinner and two cans of Pepsi.
2006: The Mummy ride, Universal Studios. Culprits: The smooth talking staff "It goes forward at 40mph and returns to the starting point at 40mph." I'll bet that guy would have described the Pope as a German guy in white wearing a cross. Outcome: although I didn't do the technicolor yawn, I was caught in nauseous spells for the next two days.
I have only been on bus/plane rides since then, save for a nano-roller coaster ride in Malaysia in 2008. A wife can be extremely persuasive on the first anniversary.
2012: The five year cycle was up and I told myself that I would go on the Jurassic Park Ride that seemed less evil than the rest. The wait time was nearly 60 minutes and as the line snaked through to the boarding point, my stomach kept churning. As we rounded the last corner, I was ready to sneak out under any pretext. However, when my wife pointed to a young girl taking the ride in spite of her right leg being in a cast, my pride was stung and I had to take the ride.
The night of the fight, you may feel a sting. That's pride ****ing with you. **** pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps. - Marsellus Wallace, Pulp Fiction. Truer words? Never spoken.
To make an already long story short, I survived the ride - the spitting dinos, the roaring T-rex, the fall and all. And honestly, it wasn't too bad. The regulation picture from the ride shows me clinging on for dear life, yelling like a mad man. But here is the best part: neither did I barf nor did I suffer from any dizziness afterwards. (Although, I might have as well thrown up the sorry veggie burger that I had for lunch.) Perhaps I'm getting better with time, like wine? Stand by for a confirmation in 2017.
The heat
I've spent the first twenty years of my life in the oppressive heat of Chennai. I've spent the next 4 years in Phoenix, Arizona where the heat was dry but just as oppressive. Add another 3 years in Singapore and I have no business complaining about heat anywhere on earth. But I felt really, visibly uncomfortable in LA when the mercury was above 104F. My complaining about the heat is like Manmohan Singh complaining about corruption, but that day I was as comfortable as Swami Nithyananda in a press conference. How soon the body gets used to the pleasures of milder climes. I sought out every mist blower, every square inch of shade, applied liberal quantities of sun block and yet was nearly dead by the end of the day.
The return drive in numbers
0 - food stops
1 - beverage stop
2 - diaper stops
3 - pm start from LA
4 - beverage stops we should have had
5 - times we told ourselves "No road trip till son turns two"
The car
My ride for the trip was a brand new 2013 Hyundai Sonata: the odometer read 10 miles when I picked it up and the new car smell was very strong. I have been among the people that have been blown away by the looks of the reincarnated Sonata - the Koreans have hit this one out of the park surely. After the 900 mile journey, I was seriously toying with the idea of replacing my 8-year-old, used Passat. But then it doesn't take much to convince myself that a new car is never a good idea financially and my present ride, though not a head turner in any sense, is after all reliable and gets my family from one place to another in reasonable comfort.
Whenever you invoke Tempe and 'Pulp Fiction', I fall under a spell where my eyes scan the next few sentences but the brain does not parse them. I keep looping back to the lootties of C252. Always nice to see your posts Siva. Keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteSince you've established Slow Electron as a personal space, please post some pictures of the family.
The lootties of C252 (I'm reserving that title now) can be a series of posts. About nothing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Prasad. Trying to get back to regular programming.