Spring Break 2014 ( Apr3-11) - New York/Washington DC with my parents

  Just completed one memorable week of vacation with my parents, my wife and our children. New York and Washington DC were the main centres we focussed on but the drive through the ten states or so was an experience in itself.
  Niya was very happy and upbeat all through the trip and her sweet and smart conversations kept everyone engaged and in high spirits. The drive also provided us the opportunity to reflect  on what US offers and how the early settlers fought through the resistance of the red Indians and how there is still so much more possibility that the huge land offers and the like. It was also a great time for me to catch up with my parents on the journey of my life and where my old associations were right now - nice conversations , nice drive , nice sights ,  more exposures ,  great weather.

http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/04/ny-trip-with-my-parents-apr-3rd-2014.html

http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/04/april-4-reidsvillenc-to-washington-dc.html


http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/04/april-5-2014-visit-relatives-at-new-city.html

http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/04/april-6-2014-bushkill-delaware-water-gap.html

http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/04/april-7-statue-of-liberty-empire-state.html

http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/04/april-8-outer-buroughs-empire-state.html

http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/04/april-9-museum-of-moving-image.html

http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/04/april-10th-dc-again-twin-museum-of.html

http://cnatatlanta.blogspot.com/2014/04/april-11th-white-house-lincoln-memorial.html

April 11th - White house , Lincoln memorial and back.

   I did wake up around 7:30 AM but had not taken the refreshing bath that I usually have taken all through the trip and that did have it's effect. I felt sleepy early in the morning and with at-least twelve hours of driving ahead of me,  my health did not feel right. Anyways, our first destination was the white house and the GPS was turning us around in circles and I was getting frustrated. The plan was to drop our parents while I find parking if possible. Finally we did find a junction that said 'White House  ---> ' and left our parents to find the white house on foot. DC is again a foot town much like New York is. It was 9:45 and the plan was to pick them up again at 10:45. Meanwhile , we did find free parking behind the white house.
     Niya does know what the white house is. So it made sense to show it to her. So we walked around the white house and took some photographs of the white house. The walk was tiring and having had to carry her for some time, it was with elation that we welcomed Niya's solution of standing on the foot board of her brother's stroller. Meanwhile our parents had called and informed that they were now walking towards the lincoln memorial.
    So we waited for some time and then drove to the lincoln memorial , planning to drive around in circles till we find our parents. Without much struggle , we picked up our parents and started off on our journey to our home in Atlanta. The cherry blossom rush and the road work throttled the traffic bad and I wanted to get out of this bad patch before we had our break for brunch. Once the road work section was over, the traffic was flowing though full. So we took the next food exit to 'Panera Breads' and had pasta. This revived me up very well and now I was driving full force.
      It was 3 PM when we left Panera, the GPS was showing ten more hours of drive and I predicted that we would reach home at 3 AM. That is exactly what happened. The sights got greener and more pleasant as we went southward. The roads were much straighter and so much more easier to navigate. We took a couple of rest area breaks on the way as dictated by Amey. As night fell, Divya and Niya fell asleep and me and my parents spoke about all our old neighbors , old school mates etc. That is one thing with such trips - nice family conversations during the drive. So exactly at 3 AM , we were at Johns Creek home and having unloaded the minivan, it was time for me to return the minivan to Hertz and get my favorite Altima back which is what I did and now I missed the head room that the Dodge caravan had given me for the past week.
        It was a great feeling to be back at home and after three thousand miles of drive through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia , West Virginia ,  Maryland , Delaware , Pennsylvania , New Jersey and New York , every one resonated the feeling that it felt like we had done something. It was also a good idea to be back a few days before the work starts to give myself sufficient rest. I have been enjoying rest except for this task of writing up the trip memories. DC was the winner for me and I can easily still spend a week there just to study through the truly amazing museums.

April 10th - DC again , twin museum of portrait and art , cherry blossom

    We were supposed to start as early as possible ( say 6 AM) so that we do the five hour drive from Bushkill.PA to Washington,DC soon enough for us to take the working hours of the museums at DC. That was the general direction for the day - check out the best museums till 5 PM , check out the cherry blossom and check out white house / lincoln memorial etc.
     We actually started off at 7:30 AM and reached DC around 12 PM. To save some parking time from the visit time, I dropped my folks next to the National museum of portraiture and drove away looking for parking. Luckily I found it close enough and reached the museum entrance around the same time as the rest of the group as they had to come round the museum to get to the ramp for the baby strollers.
    The museum was gigantic and was in fact two museums - National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art museum. We started off with the amazing portrait photographs by Yousuf Karsh. Then there were so many sections on the American history of the 1700s and 1800s that it was almost overwhelming. There were four floors of exhibits with left side for National Portrait Gallery and right side for the Smithsonian art.
        Initially, I had thought we could do Portrait museum and then do American Art museum. Soon I got overwhelmed by the portraits and wanted some solace in art. The variety in art did give solace. There were various sections which were very striking , most so when we reached the top floor which had the modern exhibits and which looked pretty much like the high museum of art in Atlanta. By the time , we had covered all the floors , it was 4 PM. So we bought some food from the cafe.Meanwhile, we could not find my father.I did one full round through the 4th floor but could not find. So I decided that I will run over to the National gallery of art which is a few blocks down to see work by Picasso and other french artists which is a must see as per the person at the information desk.
      So I reached the national gallery of art and rushed to the hall way he had mentioned and indeed the paintings were mind blowing. I hardly had the time and kept photographing names I knew - Pablo Picasso , Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet etc. Meanwhile my mother called and said that my father had joined the group. So I invited everyone over as per interest. At 5 PM , the national gallery of art closed and I walked back feeling surer of the museum content at DC.
      Next up was the cherry blossom - that is when a realization dawned on me that there is not enough sunlight left in the day and by 8 PM it is dark and you need light to appreciate the blossom as well as to appreciate the white house/lincoln memorial etc. To save some time, we tried to get a bus to tidal basin but we were out of luck as the bus stop we waited in did not carry anyone near to the tidal basin around which cherry trees bloomed. So we started walking towards it and we walked through the washington monument and captured more photographs from there. On our way to Bushkill , we had stopped by here at night and had taken some photographs of the monument with some struggle and had been chased off by the next car behind us. Now, we could do it all over again with time.
       The crowds were getting thicker and we were seeing more and more cherry blossom trees as we reached the tidal basin. Unfortunately , Niya had chosen such a beautiful surrounding to be wimpy that she could not play in the park. Then again, she does deserve better consideration in terms of vacation planning as we had been discussing even earlier. Some of her wimpiness rubbed off on me and tarnished the heavenly experience I ought to have been feeling. To add to that, the younger one was crying for milk and I accompanied Divya away from the tidal basin edge to the center of the park to find a spot. Kids!.
       Meanwhile , my father wanted to check out the Jefferson memorial which was visible from the basin thinking that it was the Lincoln memorial. Since the kids were slowing down the walk , my parents walked off alone while we waited at the park. When they came back , lincoln memorial was still undone and so was the white house. I was hopeful that the lights would be available at night time as well and if not, the plan was to come back to DC from the inn we had booked for the night at Laurel , watch these monuments and continue on back to Atlanta.
      We had been taking in quick dinners all along to save time. Today, we decided to get ourselves better dinner. So  a taxi took us to the parking spot near which was 'Austin Grill'. I had six tacos under the umbrella of 'All you can eat Tacos' , my parents had salmon grille and Divya had Tilapia grill. The food was pretty good but too bland for my mother's taste. By the time , the heavy dinner was over , it was 11 PM and we decided to check in to our place of stay and come back here for the white house visit the next day morning.
      That is how we reached Garden Inn at Laurel, Maryland. An old Gujarati Patel was at the reception and another couple argued with him over the wifi not working , lamps not working and the like.  That braced me up for some unpleasantness. First thing , he did not find my reservation and wanted me to call Expedia and ask them to fax in the confirmation. The phone number he gave me went to a line that said I had received some 'Walmart Gift'. This time he gave me the card and I called Expedia for real and meanwhile he found the reservation in the system and allotted us the rooms.
      The rooms were pretty spacious but I did not like having to remove all the big suitcases from the car at 12 AM , just to stay for one night - talk about lessons in packing. But that is what I did anyway and we crashed off with our parents in the adjacent room. 

April 9 - museum of moving image , times square , world trade , bull

   Yesterday's attempt at planning had not really paid off very well with the closed museum / closed restaurant etc but I continued to leverage on the spots I had found in my research and we went to the museum of moving image in Queens. This time again, we reached around lunch time and we had our lunch at subway and got metered parking.
     The museum was very impressive as far as I was concerned with my passion for movies. A very artsy gallery with a budhdha statue that disappears as you draw closer to it and a movie/documentary  about the artist's brother's suicide and his and his parents reflections on it and other such unique items. Certain 'do it yourself' sections - one where I tried voice dubbing and got my voice played out in place of the original voice which was pretty interesting. Also, finding movies that I have watched among the best movie clips , seeing 'Raging Bull's original boxing gloves and the like - it was a perfect experience for me but not so much for my parents who were back down much before myself.  My father and Niya recorded an animation and got the animated movie sent to the email and the like.
       Today, potentially the last day at New York, I had planned to take my parents again to the Times Square and then to world trade center site , the bull statue and so that is what we did. From times square , having set the GPS to WTC , we saw the bull on the way and dropped my parents there. The additional challenge today was that my phone had no battery charge. We had planned to drive around and go back and pick up our parents and return back to resort early starting from NY around 7PM so that we could start our trip back to DC early and have some museum working hours to us. We drove around a couple of times finding no semblance of a parking lot and luckily at 7PM which was the slated time for departure , parents had just arrived back at the bull statue and we picked them up and drove back.
   Earlier on in the day, I had gone to the resort office and booked a room near DC for tomorrow and we were slated to leave the resort a day earlier as more time at DC was the best bet we had. So with ample rest , we were ready for our second DC stint on April 10th.

April 8 - outer buroughs / empire state again

     To avoid some of the on-the-spot driving that we had to take up , for example , to get to the parking lot, today I did some extensive research through the Fodor's and Frommer's guides and zeroed in on specific destinations to go to and also verified that parking is available. As parking in Manhattan is a challenge and as we had seen quite a lot of Manhattan driving around yesterday , today I decided that we could go to the outer buroughs of brooklyn/queens/bronx and I found some destinations and wrote them down and ensured there is parking there as well.
     Meanwhile, we did try to come up with a plan to cover Niagra and decided to give up on it as it involves atleast a two-day effort. That is how the focus shifted back to NY and I thought the outer buroughs would help round up the perspective on new york and also I was very hopeful of the parking in Brooklyn as opposed to Manhattan. The planned itinerary was to go to a vietnamese restaurant called 'Rice' as by the time we reach Brooklyn , it is lunch time and from there to go to Brooklyn museum and from there potentially to museum of moving image. Well , the restaurant was closed!.
    So, we had italian food from near the closed restaurant's address and we had parked next to a fire hose to get a ticket which we saw later after the brooklyn museum. So after the restaurant, we went to the brooklyn museum which was closed on tuesdays.The botanical garden right next to the museum was full of dried up trees which we decided against and the childrens museum is much farther down to be able to walk down from and also which was potentially closed.
     Another planned destination for the day was the brooklyn bridge which we had passed anyway on the way to the restaurant and which was impressive. We had also wanted to walk the bridge. Parking is not all that easy in Brooklyn either. So, on the way back when we got some parking near the edge of brooklyn and Divya and Kitta decided to wait in the car while Niya against her oath that she would walk all the way up and down the bridge joined me and my parents. We were parked near the Manhattan bridge and not the Brooklyn bridge. So we decided to walk the Manhattan bridge instead so that we get a view of the Brooklyn bridge. So that is what we did and as the guide said, cyclists sped off as if chased by law. The walk was worthwhile and we reached back to our parking spot.
     As the weather was much clearer today,  a slightly off-beat plan of seeing the empire state building again surfaced. So that is what we did. I dropped my parents off at the empire state building and pushed us back into the turmoil of new york traffic struggling for a parking spot which would be free post 7 PM. Our destination was times square.
     We parked at a free parking spot somewhere in times square.
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     Then we walked around times square which felt really great with the huge light banners , the crowds and the general energy.  Divya wanted to get Niya a present and so we went to Toysarus at times square. Again, Amey had to have his milk. So I waited while the rest of the party went on the feeding drive. Meanwhile, I got a call from my father that they were back downstairs of the empire state building and that the phone was not working. So I had to get us out of toysarus quick and decided to try finding Divya and the kids at the next floor. An associate helped me and confirmed that there was no-one named Divya at the women's restrooms. As expected, when I reached back , I saw a few familiar faces and we started walking back to the parking spot. The times square was indeed great as was the empire state views as per my parents.  So that was another day coming to a close and we drove back to reach past midnight yet again.

April 7 - Statue of liberty , empire state building ,times square

    It was monday now, the day when I would have been at office, working. So I wanted to make the most of it. Going by the most important ones first rule, we decided to cover the statue of liberty, the empire state building and times square today. New york parking is a famous challenge. So, the plan was to park at liberty statue parking for the first half , watch liberty and be back and take up the parking challenge in the second half of the day. That plan was albeit, misinformed as there is no parking next to battery park from where the liberty cruises start.
     On the way, we passed through New Jersey which was as haphazard as streets back in India. That was some insight taken as well. We passed through the holland tunnel, which Niya named the bathroom tunnel for it's white tiles all around. We were finally in New York , our coveted destination as  we crossed the tunnel.
    The traffic jams were a blessing as it allowed us to take snaps of the buildings. Now, we had to park our car for the ferry and it was clear as we reached the battery park that there was no immediate parking available. But, park we must. So we set the GPS to battery state garage and started off. Now, the traffic jams were starting to be less fun as it was eating into our time for the day's plans and this was unanticipated. We chugged along slowly and ended up parking at a 'Central parking' paid parking thinking it was 31$ or so for the whole day. Half an hour parking was slightly less than 20$ a day - so the 24 hour parking was the option to take. Kitta took his milk from the parking lot. It was a little cold and windy as well. We walked back to the battery park - kids in strollers.
   On the way, we saw an indian mobile hotel that sold us great chicken rolls.That was our lunch to go. We asked around and walked back to the battery park. We were slowly getting back to the groove now. One reason for opting a monday for the liberty tour was to get away from the crowds during the weekend. This, seemed to have a paid off as there was hardly any crowd at the ticket line. So, while I took the tickets, everyone else had lunch from the park. The park had nice statues as well which got some photo sessions from us.
      After the security clearance, we were in the liberty statue cruise. As soon as we reached the liberty island, Kitta wanted to have milk. So our parents went ahead and walked around the island while we found a family restroom to feed him from. By the time the feeding session was over, parents had walked around and come back to the start. Now, all of us walked together and took some snaps. I had taken so many snaps last time but was still impressed with the magnificence/perfection of the statue. It still drawed me to it. But the weather was not all that great - cold winds were blowing and we were concerned about the kids. Next we went to the cafe there where from I received a voice mail from office about an issue and this got cleared off quickly luckily. We also got some souvenirs from the store and took the next boat back.
     Meeting Jacob was part of the plan for the day. Jacob, who is working in New Port would take a train to empire state building where as we would take a taxi to empire state building. Both parties with varying commute challenges arrived at 5:45 and we had a tete-a-tete from the star bucks in the empire state building which is where Kitta had his next feeding session. It was good to meet Jacob after quite some time - we caught up on things and he rushed back to his wife at home.
    As far as empire state building was concerned , the plan was to see the night sky as Divya/myself have already seen the day view and also the night view is apparently more striking. What was missing was the consideration on how the clouds would affect the view and that struck us. Everyone of the staff told us that the view would look like you are staring at a frosted glass and nothing through. However , having come this far, we decided that our parents can go ahead and take in the view while we waited downstairs and saved some money. I returned phone calls to Sandeep (Bhavans) and Ajit(Manhattan) while waiting. In some time , our parents arrived , albeit a bit disappointed as the warnings on visibility had proved to be more accurate than anticipated.
      Next plan was to get the car back and drive around times square and go back. We flagged in an Indian taxi driver this time as opposed to the Pakistani taxi driver earlier. He was very friendly and was helpful at finding the parking lot whose specific address I did not have handy. So we showed him some photographs taken from there and we sort of investigated our way to the lot. He also made the offer  that once we were in the vicinity , he will charge us only for that and he would help us find the lot for free. Sounded genuine helpfulness to me . Once at the lot, again, it was raining hard and there was no way I could carry my kid through the rain from the taxi to our rental car. So I asked him to wait and it took me some time to find the parking ticket and back to the taxi. I had noticed that the pakistani driver had hit the meter to an extra 1.5$ to account for the time it took us to unload the stroller  / car seat etc. Judging by that time,  it was an expensive wait. So I accounted for that and gave him extra tip for his seemingly genuine helpfulness and resourcefulness.
        Next, we struggled through the NY streets through time square , saw china town and little italy on the way and drove back to the resort to arrive past midnight as has been the trend.
      

April 6 , 2014 - Bushkill / Delaware water gap

   Well , contrary to earlier plan,  I did have to do significant driving on all days so far. So we decided to give myself the break today and just drive local today and take in Bushkill falls / Delaware water gap/ resort facilities may be etc.
   So we were all good and ready and set out to Bushkill falls planning to spend 3-4 hours there. And to our luck, it was within five miles or so as per the GPS and we did reach quickly albeit to see the board that said ' Closed due to winter'.


 So we went off to 'Delaware water gap'. Jacob, a friend, who believes in travel a lot and whom I believe has a very even judgement on the worthiness of places had commented that the water gap is very beautiful. The number of signs about the Delaware water gap in the roads was so overwhelming that net net we were convinced that 'Delaware water gap' is the unplanned piece of luck that is going to make our day today.
    So before the GPS took us to the Delaware water gap destination, when Divya pointed to the trolley tours , I did not think much and we had purchased our tickets and waited for the next trolley. While waiting, the lady at the counter informed us that the Bushkill falls was closed as there was still 6 inches of snow in the trails and that the falls would open only on 12th, one day after our planned departure.
    Finally, the trolley came in and the guide started speaking excitedly about the various sights that struck as very insignificant. We did start sensing that this had not paid off. And the trees were all dried up. It was easy to extrapolate and see that the water gap was going to look great both in autumn and in summer when it is green. We just arrived a little too early and watched the dried ups all around.Well, for the record, the water gap is a glacier between two mountains that melted and formed the delaware river.
     The trolley tour, to me, was mostly advertising for the local shops around the town where you supposedly get good grilled food , great bakery etc setup couple of centuries back. So I did try one bakery and got ourselves Cannolis which again were not all that impressive. I had liked the Pralines at Savannah better.But again, the nature is beautiful here, just that you need to be here when there is some color - green/fall.
    On the way back, we went to an Indian museum/ store where Niya got herself some magnets and we  were back at the resort. Meanwhile, our supplies were dwindling. So Divya and myself went to the local food mart and replenished some stuff. We had rice dinner again and called it a day.

April 5, 2014 - Visit relatives at New City , New York

        After two days of drive and stopovers, we were at our final destination, the resort at Bushkill and I slept well but not too long either. First thing to do was to check out the new allotted villa and see if the new one is better than the current one. So I went to the office and got the keys and checked out the villa and then took Divya along and showed her the villa as well. In terms of location, it was way better than the previous one and so we shifted, taking all t
hose big suitcases back from the older unit to the minivan and into the new unit.

       Meanwhile, my parents had made bread/cheese/omelet based breakfast which all of us had. It was very evident that I needed some more rest before I could take on the trip in full swing. The plan had been to see the bushkill falls on the day of arrival. But then the plan also had been to visit Sheebachechi at new york during the weekend as they need to go for work during the week. This villa-shift had not been planned for and we thought that we would not get enough time at the bushkill falls as it was already post lunch. Yes , we had brought rice from home and had our lunch with curd , achchar etc.
         The jacuzzi was here as well and this time I read the instructions on how the jacuzzi has to be left running to take off the stench from clogged sediments in the pipes. So I did that and then had the water filling up for my dream relaxing massage that I was looking forward to. Well, when I came back around the time the water filled up, our daughter Niya was already in the water and she did not get scared when I suddenly turned on the air jets. I did get my turn after helping her and yes, it did count and I felt refreshed.
      Then we got everyone dressed up and set the GPS to point to New City. Kitta had to take a milk break where we were already pressed for time and we reached Sheebachechi's home around 8 PM after an almost 2 hours of drive. Ammu(Sheebachechi's daughter)  and Niya quickly got together and Ammu started showing Niya how to play the piano.The rest of us sat around in the cozy sofa and chatted.Then we had dinner with a surprising number of items as the trip had been planned just a few hours back through phone call discussions. After the dinner , it was movie time - 'Kunjanadante Kada' , a movie I had wanted to check out. It was still not clear whether we were going back or whether we were staying. I was still tired from the drive. So we did some post-dinner chatting watching the movie and finally decided to go back to the resort and the day ended post midnight as has been the trend.

April 4 , 2014 - Reidsville,NC to Washington DC to Bushkill,PA

    So, we spent the night at the Days Inn at Reidsville and I got around three hours of sleep from 3 to 6 am. We had our complimentary english breakfast - kellogs , cheese omelet and the like. We set out from there around 7:30 AM or so to DC.
   It was a day drive - so my parents could take in the sights and gain some perspective on what US looks like. We had to take a couple of breaks or so for feeding Kitta and were taking it quite slow and reached DC around 3:30. Parking was anticipated to be a huge problem but we did manage to find a pretty good parking spot right opposite the air and space museum. As time was limited, we were in a hurry to cover what we could. So I asked my parents to start off while I park the car in the right direction etc.

    So they walked through the national mall towards the capitol and took some photos there. We followed some way after but then I wanted to check out the national air and space museum before it closes for the day. Luckily for us, the museum was working extended hours till 7:30 PM. So I phoned and informed my parents and we all spent time at the air and space museum - the wright bro
thers' first plane , Neil armstrong's command module which is where he sat on his trip to the moon and other such remarkable sights.
    I wanted my parents to experience iMax 3D and I th
ought that a movie here would add extra to the experience. So after consulting the lady at the counter, we saw the iMax 3D movie ' The Hubble' which  did not meet my expectations but was still remarkable as the sights from the hubble indeed showed us how vast the universe is.
   Museum had about closed by now and I took our car and we set off to the cherry blossom spot - the tidal basin. That is when the washington monument struck us and I temporarily parked at a drop off zone and took quick photos of my parents against the blue moonlight.

Drive to Bushkill,PA
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        The drive to bushkill from DC was not easy. With just three hours of sleep the night before, I got challenged by sleep over and over again - partly also possibly attributed to the chinese dinner we had. The resort at Bushkill where we were supposed to stay did not have a matching GPS address nor a phone that answers. So we set off to the city of Bushkill. As sleep forced me to a shoulder, I re-tried the phone number and did find a human there finally and got the GPS address. One worry less and I slept for 45 minutes or so at the shoulder. My father was always awake and gave me good company through the drive all through the trip.
    We finally reached the resort around 3:30 am.  Well , the test was not over yet.  Our resort unit location was not very pleasant with mud road and too many steps and noise. Another family was also shifting and he told me that he has had to shift the unit a couple of times. Once inside we started facing further issues - commode that would not flush properly , poor quality hand soaps etc. The last straw was the jacuzzi with air bubbles that stank of clogged water. After the tiring drive, I had forced myself into the tub and was most unpleasantly surprised by the anti-climax and then phoned the resort office and got myself a new unit allocated , the shifting work would happen tomorrow.
      As it turned out later, this was a very good piece of effort to take - shifting homes at a vacation!  We got ourselves a much quiter unit very close to the entrance - very well lighted and the unit was quite spacious anyway with split level design - two bedrooms at the bottom most level , hall and dining and kitchen at mid level and childrens bedroom at top level. Well ,  we checked out a day early to visit DC on the return and on the day of check-out , the commode here got clogged as well. So while our experience at the resort was very good at the new unit, I would still not recommend this to a friend. 

Apr 3rd 2014 - Alpharetta to Reidsville

   Worked from home from 230 pm , 5 pm - pick up minivan - did not like it's lack of legspace, anticipated a not so pleasant drive on the dodge caravan as I struggled through the city roads from Hertz  to our apartment. Stuffed the minivan up with goods and we started off at 7:15 pm.

   Now it is 2:45 am and I am at Days Inn , Reidsville , North Carolina after a nice relaxing shower. Dodge was much better than I anticipated and the drive went nicely as has been my experience typically. The youngest one of us , the three month old Amey decides the breaks for the trip and he let it go non-stop till around midnight when he cried for milk. That was when all of us had our puri / chappathi / pizza dinner. Otherwise , I had nice conversations with my father and mother as Divya and the kids were sleeping.
   Nothing much to say really - just feeling good.