Disneyland - The Magic Kingdom

Now, Disneyland is huge. Most definitely. They have 4 themeparks there, and we visited only The Magic Kingdom

Away from the city. And then it took nearly an hour to go from entrance parking lot to the actual park ! Infrastruture to get people to actual park, is comparable to an actual city one. Across river by boats or by monorail. That did feel like Hogwarts entrance.


With springbreak going on in most of the states, there was a sizable crowd, which only added to the festive spirit.

And looking at the crowds, it made me wonder what recession was the media talking about ? I mean, people are living and spending just like before. Jobs are being lost yes. But that's not because people are saving-more-&-spending-less - as the media would like all to believe. The downturn is because of miscalculation by the bigger fish. But as usual media would like to pin down the blame on the silent majority. Phew, let me get on track.

Morning parade of practically all Disney characters.


Animatrix display of puppets co-ordinated with lights, sounds, even water.

I was so tempted to apply for job here. Surely they need designers, light-sound-water-software-hardware-structural-everything engineers, entertainers, what not. I can't think of any job description, that does not fit here.

The castle is the centerpiece. And maybe a million shows & rides around it. We did cover the whole place. Thanks to the maps and the Fast-Pass system.


And with dusk, things got even better. Castle looked more magical with all the lights.


Then at 8pm, they started the Lighted parade. Totally Ganeshostav-in-Pune style.


And finally fireworks at 10. Now I could say this was Diwali-style, but even better. Millions of rockets in sync with background music.

I know this blog is on a photo overload. But I just had to share each & every photo of that dazzaling fireworks. Truely amazing work there.

Theme parks 101

While on the theme of themeparks, here are some of the things common in each of them and important enough to make life easy:

• Buy tickets online. Or atmost via the automatic vending machine. Otherwise be prepared to waste atleast 1-1.5 hours to enter the park. Oh ya - only at the entrance !
• Parking lot - the first point of contact. Now they run for miles together, and sometimes on multiple stories. So each section or floor is marked with a unique identifier. A color scheme combined with a character name (like Goofy or ET or Jurassic Park). Take a photo of that. So it is easily remembered, while on our way back at the end of the day. And we avoid the "Dude where's my car ?" situation.
• And Maps. What would we do without maps ? Enter park, take map. Find locations of every show & ride. And cover them. As simple as that. Its called planning your day. ... And yes, it is humanely possible to cover all rides & shows.
• Limit how many souvenirs you buy, by marking them on the map. Each ride or show will have a gift shop dedicated to that Disney Character, Universal movie or such. Decide which one is you favorite and limit your shopping to that gift shop.
• And then escalators & elevators at strategic locations. Along with moving walkways, to cover those long mile without walking. So get all you need - strollers, food, jackets, etc.
• Now queues are generally long. But most of the parks have some or the other timesaver. So find out what it is ? Disney had Fast-Pass. A vending machine outside every show. It dispenses a pass for some particular timing and you need to come back at that time for this show. Universal has Child-Switch. When you are with a young child who is not allowed inside a show or a ride, one person is anyway going to wait outside with the kid. So rest stand in a queue, while the Child-Switch person can skip queue when its her turn. 
• That reminds me, take a picture of your kid at the start of the day. If anyone gets separated, it will be easier to show what clothes they were wearing.

Universal Studios in Florida

Universal Studios was more of a theme park. No shooting-wooting here. But it is a fun place.



People dressed up as Universal characters. Movie memorabilia.



Streets designed in a certain style. Playareas with a million ideas to keep the kids involved.



There are so many things it's all paisa-vasool. There is even a show put up, before the actual show, for the waiting crowd too !

Paisa-vasool ke saath, paisa kharch bhi hain. Coz there is an overload of merchendise that we can buy, food to eat & drinks in interesting sovenier bottles. But still its worth it.



But some had just way too long and slow-moving queues. And then some delay in starting. So I jumped out of the ET queues. But the rest are awesome. Terminator 2 : 3D - too good; just an extention of my favorite movie.

One thing I am fascinated by things in USA, apart from the infinite free space around, is the way everything is so well organised. Every single need or requirement is considered and taken care of. With the rule being - Safety First. Details of that later.

SeaWorld, Orlando

Orlando has so many theme parks. We need to spend an entire day in each. We began with Seaworld, which is an awesome place. People above age 3 will have all the thrill watching those large fishes & other sea animals - dolphins, killer whales, penguins, & a whole range of fishes. And really enthralling shows.

Orlando - not Bloom, but the Florida one

In the begining of March, while Minnesota was covered in snow, we went off to visit my friend M in Orlando, Florida. Thanks M, it was such a great holiday !

First thing to hit me was the weather ofcourse. I mean, away with the jackets. All the freedom to play in the backyard, walk in & out of the house without preparation, look around and actually see more colors than white & brown.

Florida vehicles don't have number plates in the front, only in the back. Thats the first time I have seen this.

Here are some of the Orlando downtown pictures. In general not too many highrises in Orlando. Thats due to the hurricane risks.



And being a coastal area, weather was all warm & toasty, this being winter. I am told summers are really really hot.



Florida and especially Orlando is major tourist destination. There are whole lot of places to visit and things to do. Beaches (Cocoa, Merritt), theme parks and more. I covered some usual suspects, which I could.

Update: So among the million things to do in Orlando, here are some which I covered:

1. A whole lot of theme parks. I visited 3 of them:
   
2. SeaWorld
   
3. Universal Studios &
   
4. Disneyland - The Magic Kingdom
   
5. Sea beaches - Cocoa, Meritt.
   
6. NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Also check ther website for any shuttle launch schedules. You can catch at actual launch too.
   

Missing snow

Weather is changing very very slowly here in Minnesota. Spring is around the corner. But not completely here. Its cold at 53F, but not enough to snow. So now I have begun to miss snow.



Watching snowfall is as soothing as gazing at rainfall on a quite weekday afternoon, at home. Only, this one is noiseless.



And opaque. Amazingly snow can cover a whole bush in a matter of minutes.



So far, snow has greeted me outside my window, every morning past 3 months. And now I need to prepare to see Minnesota in Spring.

My American Experience

There is immense source of inspiration for science-fiction here - Nature - so vast & mysterious , sights from airplanes, tech gadgets you can think of.

On a drive, it was a sight to see the changing vegetation from California to Nevada to Arizona.

I savored typical American vegetables, fruits and dishes, which I had only read about and never actually tasted. Veggies like avocado, broccoli, butternut-squash, raspberries, waffles, pancakes, mashed potatoes (the American one which is very different from chokha from UP) and much more.

I managed to collect all 50 state coins.

I have visited 10+ states. In some it was only touch and go. But I noticed how different and unique each state is in its own way. In terms of vegetation, soil, culture, people demographic and more. The 10 I visited so far are - California (LA), Nevada (Las Vegas), Arizona (Grand Canyon), Minnesota, Wisconsin (W Dells), Illinois (Chicago), Florida (Orlando), Maryland (Baltimore), Washington DC, New York (NYC, NF)

Environment consciousness is enormous now compared to 2002. There are 2 areas that can be improved  - reduce Packaging and reduce use of electricity. With the immense focus and work on Design in all areas of life, I am sure they will figure it out soon.

Bottled water is widely used. Though there is customary info discouraging it, bottled water is the thing. Thankfully, for daily use we can refill water by gallons. Otherwise those tiny plastic bottles piling everywhere would be a nightmare. East coast cities is where I found less use of bottles, and more tap water available. That was a relief indeed.

50 States Coin Collection

Completed the 50 state quarter coin collection in flat 2.5 months. Good one, I say. It helps that the last of the coins were released 5-6 months back. US mint had released a special quarter coin for each of the states in the country, and 5 each year since 1999.

Most of the store attendents in Minnesota can breath easy now. Cause I won't be pestering them for quarters in change. And the credit card companies too. Cause now I can switch over from cash to cards in my spending.

Big thanks to my hubby who contributed most here.

Dil Gira Kahan Pur Dafatan

My Current favorite song.  

Actually I loved all songs of Delhi 6. On second thoughts, I liked the movie too. 

When it was going on, I was all eyes-rolling "when will this end" type. And after it was over, I kinda missed it, liked it. But I think that’s more effect of the music. 

Absolutely lovely songs in a long time. All songs. 

 And about 'Dil Gira Kahan Pur Dafatan', the imagery is fantastic. I mean we must have seen this a lot in comics, animation, maybe even photography. But a full fledged film song? Not in Hindi atleast. 

Imagination is awesome. But the production is applaudable. (From past one and a half year, all I care about is logistics of anything. One of the newly acquired powers that come with motherhood). Unraveling Delhi Chandni Chowk on Times Square. That must have been one hell of a planning. I am all wrapped up in hows-and-whens ? And how much time did they get to shoot there ? And how do they clear out the crowd for this shooting ? Times Square must have featured in so many movies and songs. I am not sure, but I think it has had a deserted look in 'I Am Legend' and more disaster movies. Who gives permissions for this ? Doesn't the daily business/people get affected ? Or is it a fake ? A copy of Times Square in some studio ? (... This is not going to end after even an hour ...) 

Why don’t these film publicists give out production info in interviews rather than the lead actors discussing weird existential thoughts for publicity ? I totally want to know the details of how they filmed this song.

Driving in Minnesota

Everyone said that it would be difficult to drive on the right side of the road - after learning to do so on the left side. Now I realise that was the easiest part ! Just follow the other vehicles. Ofcourse at any turn, we might subconsiously move to the left side. But my rule is to keep chanting "right side" in the first few times.

Apart from driving on the right side, there are lot of other things to be learnt. Like the STOP sign for instance. Theoretically I thought, what a time waste ! I was used to the Bangalore habit of driving non-stop on a clear road, till we hit a jam.

But its not our fault. People density is more in Bangalore. With less elbow space, the traffic may look chaotic. But we do have some sanity in those chaos. And so everyone drives carefully. Atleast caring for the immediate neighbouring vehicles. (These explanations will be difficult impossible to absorb for the casulties that happen. But things happen everywhere)

But now I love the STOP sign. It is such a breather. No matter what, vehicle should come to zero at a STOP sign. And the first one to stop, goes ahead first.

And then the lane system. Stick to your lane. When the road curves, you curve. But do not move out of your lane, without giving indication. It is so smooth. Yet initially my jaws would literally drop on the floor, watching cars zip diagonally across the road, right in front of us. Inspite of the simplicity of this action, my heart is always in my mouth, while changing lanes on a busy road, if I need to take the next turn. And then add the "Left/Right lane must turn Left/Right" thing. I have missed turns, gone far ahead and come back so many times.

Every single time I go out, its an adventure. And I did have the baap of all adventures recently. I got lost. I took a road, which I knew by name. But I forgot that here roads can run for miles together. Forget road, 'Yonge street' (in Toronto) is nearly a 1000 mile long. Big mistake. Big lesson here.

Number one. Never go by name alone.

When you are lost, dont keep on driving non-stop in the hope of finding something familiar. Come to a stop in the emergency lane. And think.

Better still call & ASK. Asking for direction is always always helpful. Cliche I know, but I will tell you why.

Me ? I kept on driving on that never ending road. Then I took some turn and it went into the mountains. Then I switched over to some highway, which sounded familiar. Only when I saw the neighbouring city name board, I thought now I have to stop, or I might cross over to Iowa. Plus my toddler needed to be picked up from school and my friend from a govt office. Both were stuck there thanks to my promise of being there in 30 minutes. So I stopped at the next Caribou Coffee, called my hubby, said I was lost but pick those 2 up first. And then I proceeded to have a nice cup of coffee :)

After good 15-20 minutes, I asked the coffee shop attendent, which way to France Avenue ? He says, "Oh take this 62 East and France Avenue will be in another 5 miles." Twing, 5 miles ! Just 5 miles and I made my hubby come from so far ! Why didn't I ask before ! Bah. This is why - when in doubt, ask.

I thought it's embarrassing to admit that I got lost. But someone I know said, "It happens all the time. I have lived here for 30 years. But I dont step out without my GPS." So there, GPS is the best friend of drivers out here.

By the way, there is one good thing about getting lost. I finally stopped looking at the road, watching the lane lines & oncoming cars, and I could focus on each & every sign on the road. A major switch from Indian-driving-mode to the US one.

Let me explain. After all the years of driving from a right-side seat (the Indian right-hand drive), it became an instinct to watch out for the road dividing lines on the right; and being close to them. Same thing happened when I started driving here in USA. So here I was, seated on a left side seat, steering the car closer to the line on my right. Which means the car is right on the line, in two lanes. And that's a damn dangerous thing to do ! Aww.

Eventually I did get over it, after I realised it. But still, it had not seeped into my subconsious. I was still looking out for a car to come right on from the next turn. Or maybe for a dog to run across. When actually the most important thing to do is to look out for signs.

I think they must have a 'Department of Road Signs' here. They are so many, so up-to-date and so detailed. Speed limits. Construction activity. Each and every road, street, lane & area. Which lane to take for which place. Everything is out there. You just need to read them.



So there, a newbie Minnesota driver jotting her experiences in a long post.