The flight journeys were bad. The flights itself were ok, S was a real sweetheart and slept by herself, ate pretty much what we gave her and didn't require too much entertainment. A was difficult only in the feeding (her milk problem was very much in full force at that time) but was fine otherwise and didnt cry too much, slept in the bassinet and was fine during take off and landing. Only, the journeys were too long. The first leg from Mumbai to Amsterdam was ok, both kids slept through about half of it. The flight was delayed by 3 hours -was supposed to take off at 2 am and took off only at 5 am so it was a pretty bad night for us at the airport. So the kids ended up with half their night nap in the airport and half in the flight, so they were awake for longer than we had initially planned. Because of the delay in starting, the connection at Amsterdam was very short and we barely had time to rush from our gate to the gate for boarding. Had ideally wanted to walk around a bit, get some coffee and try to recharge ourselves but none of that. The next leg was bad since it was very long -all the way to San Francisco and all of us were exhausted by the time we reached there. To top it all the luggage did not make the connection at Amsterdam so we had to survive with the hand luggage till the next evening. Cautious me had packed three sets each for the kids and two for us, so we managed, after multiple trips to the laundry downstairs.
San Francisco : S enjoyed herself, but A and I were stuck inside most of the time (since she was refusing to drink milk, and i would keep trying every half hour and finally have to give by palladu, which become difficult outside). The day after we reached, the hubby and his sister took S to the SF zoo. The pictures are amazing and she saw a lot of animals that she had only read about/seen on TV till then. She got a plastic frog whose eyes pop out if you squeeze it hard and that was her companion for most of the trip. The next day all of us went to Santa Clara beach. Its a 2 hour drive from Palo Alto where the sis in law stays and its a really beautiful drive through sea on one side and mountains on the other. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant by the beach, and then the hubby and S played in the water and build sandcastles while A, my sis in law and I hung around in the sand.
The next day we did some shopping in the morning, I got a Stanford shirt for A (yeah i know!!, but S has one and its so cute), then got hit by some bad jet lag in the afternoon so our plans to go into SF during the day were shelved and we just crashed at home. I took S and A to the fountain at Stanford and then to the neighbourhood park, and while A found it a bit cold, S really enjoyed herself and refused to come home.
The next day we left for Minneapolis in the afternoon and because of the time difference, and again delay in the flight (Delta sucks! all our flights were delayed at least an hour) we reached only at 9:30 p.m.
The first day at Minneaopolis, I left A at home with my mom (so happy to see my mom there after the difficult days at SF) and we went to Mall of America with S. Its the largest mall in America, and right in the middle of it there's a big amusement park. S loved it as it is a Nickelodeon theme park and the kiddie rides are all based on Dora characters- there was the Dora ferris wheel, the swiper the fox car ride, Azul the train and so on. She enjoyed the carousel the most and went twice on it. The hubby is not much of an amusement park guy and kept himself amused by buying the Ipad. He was looking for it in SF but the shops were out so was delighted to find it in the mall. I packed off S with the hubby after lunch and enjoyed the scary rollercoasters with my nephews. Wow they are quite brave, dont think i was so brave at their age.
The next day again my poor mom was again made in charge of A while we set off for Lake Como. We first went paddleboating on the lake, its really beautiful, the weather was cold enough not to feel the effort of the paddling and the scenery around the lake was just beautiful. It was S's first time on a boat and she was quite excited. My brothers and their sons kept playing the fool and switching from the back to the front and the lifeguards were getting all stressed since that wasnt allowed in the middle of the lake!! After that we went to the amusement park at Lake Como. Again S loved the carousel, but this was a much bigger one- actually it was a historical piece dating back to the early 1900's and it had beautiful big horses. The amusement park was not very big- some small train rides for S and a couple of scary rides for the boys. We then had a Huge lunch at an Italian place on the way back to my brother place, the waitress managed to pour beer on my brother so the starters were free! The portions were quite huge (isnt everything?) but we were quite hungry and stuffed ourselves. In the night there was a small Puja at my brothers place to inaugarate the first of the Upanaynas. There was a nice dinner after that- for all the relatives and friends who had come down for the same. My brother has a lovely porch and back garden and the weather was just right for the adults to sit on the porch and have their drinks/snacks/gossip while the kids played in the grass. There were some vigorous football games going on and S fell down a couple of times, but all part and parcel I guess. My mom's siblings met again for the first time in many years and I met some cousins whom i had not met for ages so there were many Kodak moments and general chit chat. I felt really glad that we had made the effort to come for the upanaynas as it was a big deal for my brother.
Next morning it was an early start to the Hindu temple for my elder nephew's upanayna. Somehow managed to get both kids dressed and out by 7:30 (our family has all late starters). The ceremony itself was not long and the priest kept explaining the significance of the ceremonies. My nephew looked a bit apprehensive in the beginning but settled down shortly. Being a Monday there were only the close relatives and friends for the function so it was not intimidating. My brother and sis in law looked considerably relieved by the end of the day- i guess its really tough to organise such functions in the States since you have to do everything yourself. Even the party the previous night, there were not enough people to have a caterer, so all the dishes need to be cleaned up, house needs to be cleaned before everyone comes etc. Even the items required for the function, change of clothes for the children/parents etc, the saris/kurtas etc for the guests, I realised how much effort my parents also must have put in for our weddings.
The next day my hubby set off with S to the Grand Canyon. My parents, first brother and his family (not the brother whose children were having the thread ceremony) were going for 4 days and we thought it would be nice for S and the hubby to also go along. I decided to stay back with A because we were anyway doing a lot of travelling on the trip and she needed to get used to one place for some time and secondly she was still being very fussy with her milk so would have been difficult to do a lot of travelling which was required for the trip to GC. The flight itself was 3 hours, then 4 hours drive, then stay about 1 hour away, drive to different places everyday. S had a great time, GC was beautiful, she went on her first helicopter ride (we had initially planned for her not to go, but the hubby decided to take her along at the last minute), she was pampered by my mom and sister in law and freaked out with her cousins- my sis in law has a video of her jumping on and beating up her elder cousins who quietly took it all (since they were after all the elder brothers!). I managed to get some relaxation with A whose feeding improved suddenly (thank God) and managed to spend some time with my cousin who had some down from Michigan for the week to attend both the ceremonies. We were very close as kids and ever since she's moved to the States I've not been able to spend much time with her. So this was some good time together - we didn't get to do any partying (didn't want to leave A with my sis in law since she was anyway very busy with guests and was a new face for A) but we did go to many nice places and spent time catching up on gossip/old times. I really wish my kids had cousins who stayed in the same country so that they could meet often and develop this kind of closeness. My nephews are all in the States and though we end up meeting once in 2 years/ sometimes once a year its only for 3-4 days, and not weeks at a stretch like we used to have. Weeks of summer holidays with nothing to do but climb trees, make up secret gangs with neighbours, play on the beach/the terrace etc. Anyway i am digressing and coming back to the Minneapolis stay, the four days that S was in GC went by in a flash, and I missed the brat but was also glad that she was having fun and not missing out on anything because I was being fussy about A.
More in the next post.
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