We left the Netherlands with fond memories and a slab of old Dutch cheese. We flew westward, to the eastern coast of Northern America. This was my third visit to the United States of America and was going to be the longest one yet.

Here is a pseudo-photo-blog since I find myself extremely lazy and disinclined for cooking up ways to fit the 2 months into a single blog. Plus it makes sense since it was a break from travelling and we were enjoying family time. But we have quite a few photos to share and events to document, soโ€ฆ ๐Ÿ˜’


Home, Sweet Home

We caught a series of trains to Diโ€™s place in Jersey City. The cost of public transportation was enough to make us realise that this country would hit our budget hard. Perhaps the only solace was that we would have our accommodation taken care of. We were going to stay with my sister in Jersey City and Parulโ€™s brother in Washington D.C. for most of our duration in the country.

The Manhattan Skyline ๐Ÿข

The days in New Jersey were spent in the usual routine. The biggest comfort for me was having the kitchen!

๐Ÿ’š Salads ๐Ÿ’š
I lied when I said that Old Dutch Cheese was the only thing we got from Amsterdam #hagelslag
Parul's favourites ๐Ÿ˜„

Salsa, of course, took the lionโ€™s share of our time ๐Ÿ˜

Our little one ๐Ÿ’•
Little Joys
๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ‘ฆ

We also caught up on some television shows and other usual comforts of the โ€œregularโ€ lifestyle.

Night time TV
Home cleanup with Priyanko โœŒ๏ธ

I had a few friends around where Di lived and we managed to meet them a few times. One of the nights we went to party in the city and I drank myself to the point that I was sick ๐Ÿ˜ฌ We walked around in the city when the days permitted it.

It's a Jain thing ๐Ÿ˜‚

Ma Papa came to Jersey City after Maโ€™s school term ended (for good this time ๐Ÿ˜„ Ma was kicking off her retired life) and we went to pick them up at the airport.

Just Landed

Praval came over from Washington DC for Parulโ€™s birthday and we celebrated it in New York City.

Cakes! Left : the giant Chocolate cheesecake by Cheesecake Factory (took a week to finish this one off!); Right : Matcha crepe cake by LadyM (I think I like the classic flavour more)
Sunlight, Dudes & Drinks
Elevator Shenanigans
Walking about NYC

Washington DC & Shenandoah National Park

That night we drove to Washington DC in a rented Mustang. Praval did most of the driving. We just enjoyed the โ€œfeelsโ€.

Mustang! ๐Ÿด
Midway massage chairs are a thing ๐Ÿ˜ฒ

The first thing we did when we reached Washington DC in the dead of the night was to check out the Lincoln Memorial.

Big Abe's House ๐Ÿ  by night ๐ŸŒ™

There were two things that stood out about this place. One, the number of birds lying about. This thing is a menace I tell you ๐Ÿ˜‘ Second, the number of drunk people enjoying under the watchful eyes of Uncle Abe. Had this been India, a bunch of constables would have beaten them out with sticks ๐Ÿ˜›

Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument
โœŒ๏ธ

We settled into Pravalโ€™s house for the next few days.

Settling into Praval's place meant moving stuff and eating his stash of gol-gappas ๐Ÿ˜ˆ
Praval exchanged his bed for a plate of Rajma Chawal. Fair trade I guess ๐Ÿ˜„
I also got meself a leather jacket ๐Ÿ˜Ž

Over the weekend we went for a nightโ€™s camping to Shenandoah National Park. The drive was quite beautiful and kept getting better as we approached the park.

The road to Shenandoah
"Where do we have to go?" "Right there bro"
"I can't see it..." "It's right there!"
"Still don't get it" "Just use Google Maps" ๐Ÿ˜‘

The national parks in USA are pretty sorted out and this was no exception. The camping grounds were well marked and equipped.

Camping ground

We bought a lot of firewood and prepared to spend the evening barbecuing. I think we had gotten a bit too much of food ๐Ÿ˜‚

Evening is coming
Campfire barbecue

Oh! And we discovered โ€œThe Dollโ€ of Shenandoah at our campsite ๐Ÿ˜ฑ

We found this creepy thing at the camp ๐Ÿ˜ฌ
So we made a video ๐Ÿ˜›

While we were wrapping up the camp in the morning, we saw some deer grazing near the camp grounds ๐Ÿ˜„

This was a lovely surprise

We also went for a short hike to the Dark Hollow Falls which was right next to our camping ground.

Dark Hollow Falls
We found an extremely willing subject in Praval. Our trigger happy selves happily clicked away ๐Ÿ˜„

We then wrapped up, refuelled and drove around in the park for a bit.

Checking out the camping setup around the grounds
Petrol Station photoshoot ๐Ÿ˜›

The Skyline Drive made for some beautiful points where we could click the landscapes and our own buffoonery.

Skyline Drive
Buffoonery
The Landscapes
The People
The Birds
The exchange of grub on the car ๐Ÿ˜›
The Parul out of the sky-window ๐Ÿ˜‚
Bidding the park goodbye
Never knew Paris was that close ๐Ÿ˜ฒ

Back in Washington DC, we spent the days working on our fitness in the buildingโ€™s gym, trying to wrap up our pending blog work and, once in a while, left the comfort of the house to explore the neighbourhoods of the town. Old Town Alexandria was a charming place to spend the day walking about.

The pretty streets of Alexandria
Tourist Pleasantries
Colour coordination ๐Ÿ’› โฌœ
Pretty pretty
Wilkes Tunnel
Another one because I love this shot so much ๐Ÿ’›
I think Parul would have liked a house on the waterfront ๐Ÿ˜›
Carlyle House. This one had quite a history to it.
Spite House. Used to be the thinnest house in the world ๐Ÿ˜ฒ
Pastels & Hues
White Romance

Another favourite haunt of ours was Georgetown. Pravalโ€™s office was in that neighbourhood so we went there much more often, to grab a meal or to catch a movie. It was another nice place to walk around, a bit less touristy and more crowded than Old Town Alexandria.

Around (George)town
The Potomac

Apart from these, a mention worthy feat of ours was watching John Wick 1 & 2 before going to watch John Wick 3 in the theater. The back to back consumption of such studaapa had a long lasting effect on us ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

Sushi Cometh

We reached Jersey City in time to celebrate Maโ€™s 60th birthday ๐Ÿ˜„ Diโ€™s friends had come over so we had a gala night at home.

Celebrating Ma's 60th

That very night, Di went into labour and the next morning baby Anhad was born ๐Ÿ‘ถ We were left at home to take care of Salsa while the adults went to the hospital with Di. The next morning we took an excited Big Sister to meet her Baby Brother ๐Ÿ˜„ It was interesting to listen to all the emotional ups and downs she was going through in accepting the situation โค๏ธ

Are we ready for this? Hell yeah! โœŒ๏ธ

After much uncertainty and deliberation, Parul and I settled on the name Sushi as the one weโ€™d give Anhad.

Little Anhad Basu
The Usual Suspects ๐Ÿ˜‚
Parul wanted to name him samosa as well ๐Ÿ˜›
Weird uncle rituals
The Homecoming!

He completely took over the attention of every member of the household.

The ๐ŸŽ of everyone's ๐Ÿ‘€

We literally spent our days and night looking at him move and yawn and smile and frown and burp. It was as if we were seeing those human emotions and actions for the first time! Strange, the things that those chemicals in your brain make you do ๐Ÿ˜„

An inevitable love affair โค๏ธ
Silly little thing ๐Ÿ˜˜

Our days fell into a blissful routine again. Picking up Salsa from her playschool and taking her to the playground before walking back home became the norm. We got a bigger share of time with her since Sushi kept everyone else busy. I think everyone liked this arrangement ๐Ÿ˜›

Posers
Aladdin day out
Our little munchkin ๐Ÿ˜˜
Spending time at home
and on escalators...
Playground after school
Of course Parul is her favourite
All because of them cheeks ๐Ÿ˜’

We also discovered a really cool arcade bar near Diโ€™s place and it became our favourite haunt to meet friends.

Alcohol and arcade games are an epic combo! ๐ŸŽฎ

There was, of course, the home cooked food and I got to satisfy my cravings for kitchen time as well.

Pan seared salmon with lemon garlic butter sauce. This turned out quite nice! ๐Ÿ˜„
I had no hand in creating this but the Five Guys hamburger deserves a mention ๐Ÿ”
Egg rolls (by Ma) with Butter Chicken (by Barthwal). I did the coffee โ˜• ๐Ÿ˜‚

Our first outing with Sushi was the Fatherโ€™s Day celebration at Pia Diโ€™s place. It was an hour north of Jersey City so Parul and I took the train upstate. We had a blast enjoying the countryside and a day away from the city.

Countryside train stations be like...
Water gun fights!
The Moms
The Dads
Please stand behind the yellow line ๐Ÿ˜›
Sunset at Hoboken station

Diโ€™s apartment afforded a beautiful scenery on clear days and occasionally we went around walking about either side of the Hudson.

๐ŸŒ‡ & ๐ŸŒ†
New York cityscapes
The Manhattan skyline
Night walks

Praval came to visit Sushi towards the middle of the month. We made time to visit a famous Indian food place in New York City that was on Diโ€™s list for a while. GupShup did not disappoint!

Lunch in the city. As you can see, Parul has an obsession with yellow things ๐Ÿ˜›

Before We Head West

We joined Praval on his return to Washington DC. Of course, we rented another Mustang.

๐Ÿ’™ Oh Yeah! ๐Ÿ’› โœŒ๏ธ

This time around we were going to meet our friends from school who had planned a trip to DC at an overlapping time. Ruchika was coming down from Canada and Shivank was going to be there with his family. Social media had managed to keep us in touch but we had not met each other in a long long time.

We walked around Georgetown on the first day; talking, drinking and talking some more.

An evening of alcohol and memories and alcohol-aided-memories ๐Ÿ˜‚ Oh! And oysters ๐Ÿ˜‹

On the second, we spent our day exploring a couple of museums and the National Mall.

Washington's Museums
Batman-ta-da-da-da-da-da ๐Ÿš™
Amazing Mexican lunch at Oyamel - Ruchika's find ๐Ÿ˜„
Blue skies
United States Capitol
The Washington Monument
Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool
World War II Memorial
Siblings in boots!

The evening was spent in Adamโ€™s Morgan, a neighbourhood that Shivankโ€™s brother was familiar with from his university days.

๐ŸŽธ Madam's Organ @ Adam's Morgan ๐ŸŽท

On the third day, which was also to be the last for us as a group, we wandered around Old Town Alexandria.

Back to this pretty part of town
Doing what we love to do ๐Ÿ˜†
โค๏ธ ๐Ÿ˜ฒ โค๏ธ
Who did it better? ๐Ÿ˜ฌ
Waterfront Park
Torpedo Factory Arts Center
She has a thing for pretty gates
"Ooo. What does this button do?"
Trespassing in alleys
Spooky!
Ending the afternoon with some Vietnamese lunch

While Ruchika and Shivank left for their respective cities, we spent more days in Washington DC. Our days were spent exploring the side of city that we were in. With Praval we had a regular routine of gym and watching Dark. The latter also caused intense discussions about physics and metaphysics.

Parul's state after watching the new MIB. No Will Smith == No MIB ๐Ÿ™…โ€โ™€๏ธ
Parul in โค๏ธ with her Ethiopian food. Found a nice place near where Praval lives.
Yoga se hi hoga ๐Ÿ˜‚
Ghar ka khana

We also went back to see the museums for a second time. We took our sweet time in the museums like we usually do. Washington DC definitely has some very interesting museums. To top it off, they are free!

Checking out the museums
Blending in...

Days went by and we returned to Jersey City almost a couple of weeks later to find that our Sushi had grown older by almost a couple of weeks! ๐Ÿ˜›

Sushi! ๐Ÿฃ

We were in time to celebrate his one month anniversary together ๐Ÿ˜„

Found a lovely cafe in Jersey City for cupcakes and tea

Over the next five days in Jersey City we cooked and hit the gym with regularity.

Pasta!
Eating and burning tikki chole ๐Ÿ˜›

We even managed to attend a cousinโ€™s wedding before heading out.

Stylo!
Shaadi scenes

We caught an early morning flight from New York to San Francisco on the 30th of June.

Perks of waking up early

If Youโ€™re Going to San Francisco

We had accidentally booked our SF flight for the day of Pride Parade. Though it was completely unintentional, we decided to make most of it. After dropping our bags at Aditi and Nishantโ€™s place, where we were going to bunk for the remainder of our time in SF, we headed to Market Street to get a glimpse of the famous festival of SF.

Pride Ready!

Aditi went off with her friends and we somehow coordinated to meet up after the parade. Parul and I wandered on the side of Market street, clicking away with our cameras. Parul should be writing more about the SF Pride soon ๐Ÿ˜„

The scenes of Pride
The festival made for some lovely shots
And some inspirational messages ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

There are many more pictures of the Pride parade that Parul and I took and processed. You can see them all here ๐Ÿ˜„

We walked around at leisure and ended up in the San Francisco City Hall. We sat down to relax and take in the vibes of the place, the city and the festival. I had mixed emotions about the parade. There was an obvious commercial angle to it. Every brand probably took it as a chance to get some marketing and PR done. But underneath, the spirit of the festival remained. The liberty to be who you are out in the open. It was a happy feeling seeing everyone enjoying their pure unadulterated selves. Philosophically I might not completely align with this extreme but then my alignment hardly matters. The city had itโ€™s own character and it was living it right there. We also wondered what itโ€™d be like to get our parents to a festival like this. A culture they havenโ€™t been exposed to. Itโ€™d be interesting to know how theyโ€™d react to a culture shock like this!

Taking it all in at the City Hall

After the parade we went for some food with Aditiโ€™s SF friends and ended up having a fun evening that ended with Cards Against Humanity ๐Ÿ˜›

Wandering around town with the SF junta

The next morning we were to meet Parulโ€™s then boss, who was on a leave and had graciously invited Parul to meet her in Napa. We had contemplated a road trip across the USA at one point of time. But basic inquiry into the budgetary requirements had made us postpone it indefinitely. So we were quick to jump on the opportunity to drive to Napa. We were pleasantly surprised when the budget car that we had booked through Avis upgraded into a Nissan sports car!

The Nissan 370Z ๐Ÿ˜ฑ

We crossed a Golden Gate bridge that was dreamily shrouded in clouds.

โ˜๏ธ Golden Gate โ˜๏ธ

It was not until we hit the highway that I realised how powerful the machine was. Plus the thrill of driving a low slung vehicle is immense. The perception of speed and power increase manifolds. Driving in US, however, is extremely stressful with a zillion signs to keep track of. But once we hit the country roads, the scenery more than made up for the stress of driving.

One drive I approved of ๐Ÿ˜„

We met with Parulโ€™s boss and then did a couple of tours in the nearby vineyards - Mondavi and Stony Hill. We liked the later better because of the intimate setup. Wine became less Greek to us and we think we have become better at understanding wine ๐Ÿ˜› ๐Ÿท

Mondavi Winery
Stony Hill Vineyard

A special mention to the yellow dress that served Parul so well. May it rest in peace, wherever it is ๐Ÿ’›

Back in San Francisco, we spent time at home with Nishant and Aditi, exploring the nearby Fishermanโ€™s Warf and the Pier, and caught up with friends from our erstwhile offices (which were headquartered in SF).

Walking around the Pier and checking out the arcade
I got a freaky fortune predicted by a granny in a jukebox ๐Ÿ‘ฝ
More scenes from the Pier
Catching up with Samudra and Pratibha
Chai by Pratibha ๐Ÿต
Evening out with Parul's ex-colleagues; the night ended at a cool pirate themed pub ๐Ÿ’€

San Francisco was definitely an interesting city. I got some time to walk around and explore the streets as well which were a mixed bag of pleasantries and unpleasantries.

San Francisco! It's a different world altogether.
Street Art at Clarion Alley. There was some powerful stuff here!
Women's Building. The art around the building shows many iconic women from history and fiction.
Mission Dolores Park
19th Street to Castro
"Hope will never be silent"

Highway 1 to San Diego

The real reason why we were on the West Coast was because of Devashish. We had planned to meet him in SF and then accompany him on his drive to Seattle. He, as usual, messed up with our plans ๐Ÿ˜‘ We were now going to drive south on Highway 1 to San Diego with him and Lavanya. But since our agenda was to spend time with Deva and to check out the American landscape, it made little difference to us whether we were headed north or south.

Deva gets what he deserves :feelsgood:

We arranged for some camping gear and gathered supplies for a night of camping (we were tasked with the wine (because we had been to Napa ๐Ÿ˜‚)). One the appointed morning, we bade Nishant and Aditi farewell, thanked them for hosting us and dumped our bags in Deva and Lavanyaโ€™s (D&L) new car. We headed south and the road got scenic as soon as we exited the city.

The landscapes of Big Sur

We stopped at a bunch of points for some photos. D&L were doing this part of the route a second time so they knew where to stop and which cafes to raid. We just tagged along and played the devilโ€™s advocate in their discussions ๐Ÿ˜ˆ

Instinctive reaction on seeing bushes ๐Ÿ’ฉ ๐Ÿ˜‚
The Rock Band cover photo ๐ŸŽธ
D&L
DnD
Cafe break. The one thing I love about the US is availability of good salads!
These blue peckers were stealing leftover from the plates ๐Ÿ˜†
Rocky Creek Bridge

It was a fun ride that ended in a small camping ground where we set up our tents and prepared for the night. Deva, who was supposed to get all the ration for the camping, had forgotten all about it ๐Ÿ˜‘ So we spent the night barbequeing a slab of paneer and drinking all the wine and sake (the sake was there because of the extremely fun night we had had with Nishant, Aditi and the MindTickle bunch a night before ๐Ÿ˜›)

Working on those slabs of Paneer ๐Ÿ˜‘
Camping scenes
Having a hearty breakfast before hitting the road again

The next day we slowly made our way to San Diego, stopping multiple times for more scenery, photos and a bunch of sea lions ๐Ÿ˜†

I want a ๐Ÿ  like that!
Highway 1
Shutter Island ๐Ÿ˜ฌ
Life's a beach
Them blues
Of bridges and oceans
Sea Lions basking in the sun โ˜€๏ธ

We reached San Diego late in the afternoon and checked into a hostel. The city has a nice vibe to it and we found a lot of Mexican restaurants there which made sense since it was so close to the border.

Guacamole and chips (with tequila on the side). Who doesn't love Mexican food! ๐Ÿ˜„

While D&L went to check out the SF zoo, we decided to give it a skip because of the ticket price. We did do the San Diego beach though and it was quite fun despite the slightly nippy water โ„๏ธ

Beach Day!
Making a splash! ๐ŸŒŠ
The road-trippers ๐Ÿš—
Chappals galore!
More mexican food == day well spent!

Then of course there was the night life in the Gaslamp Quarter; more Mexican food and margaritas. Deva bought us dinner at a fancy Greek restaurant where we kept shouting โ€˜Oppaโ€™ for no apparent reason ๐Ÿ˜‚

Oppa!

All in all, it was a good couple of days. Then D&L headed north back to SF and we stayed on in San Diego for a couple of days till it was time to take our flight to Vegas and thence to Mexico City.

Where else will you find slot machines in an airport? ๐Ÿ˜’

Niagara & Liberty State Park

Two months later, our flight back to India would take us through the East Coast of USA. Parulโ€™s parents were visiting Praval in Washington so we decided to spend some time with them since we hadnโ€™t gotten much overlap in the past year. Parul had left earlier when I was doing the yearly ADK with the boiz.

Once I reached Jersey City, I caught the next dayโ€™s train to Niagara. The train took a beautiful route through upstate New York and I found myself in the city of Niagara by the end of the day. I do not have any pictures to show because my phone was a dead brick by then (๐Ÿ–• Motorola)

Parul and family reached a couple of hours later and we settled into our pretty AirBnB.

The pretty AirBnB

We went out for a walk till the falls that night and saw it lit up in trippy lights.

Niagara was lit!

We spent the next morning taking the Maid of Mist boat ride.

The family selfie
The gorgeous Niagara Falls
Under the Bridge
๐Ÿ’ช
Mother approves ๐Ÿ‘

We went back to the BnB to dry up and then returned to walk about in the State Park and soak in the beauty of this gorgeous waterfall. Other than the extremely urban feeling of everything around it, the Niagara Falls is one of the more beautiful waterfalls I have seen. Though I must admit that I had imagined it to be much bigger ๐Ÿ˜›

Canada through the Niagara mist
๐Ÿ“ท
The impressive Niagara river
Sunset
Parul likes this one a lot ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

We drove back to Jersey City a day later. The roads were as beautiful as the train route had been.

How I had to take Parul to Jersey City ๐Ÿ˜…

The next day, we went to see the Statue of Liberty with family. The history of that statue is quite interesting and we had a fun day out.

We got to meet the little ones yet again ๐Ÿ˜„
A random guy insisted we take a picture here. Came out quite good! ๐Ÿ“ท

That night, we caught our flight back to India, ending the four months or so in the western hemisphere.

All our (and Di's) bags are packed...

We had gotten a taste of what this part of the world had to offer and I am certain weโ€™ll be going back sometime, though not soon ๐Ÿ˜ฌ