4th of July Fireworks in COVID times

We wrapped up the BIL's family visit with an entire day at Great America theme park which finally ended with some amazing fireworks..

Given all the walking San had done to that point, she was now on a cast and in a wheelchair. So that was interesting in itself. Great America is not designed to be friendly for people who have casts but the kids who manned the rides did their best to accomodate. They gave a list of rides that were safe for her and we took her only on those rides. San was actually smiling most of the time she was being wheeled around.. the irony of the situation was also making me laugh every now and then!

Great America is a poor mans Disney.. and you get to see that the poor man who visits this park is at least 3 sizes larger than the average person visiting Disney. 4 of 5 people you cross are walking with a struggle, are obese and in general show poor health just by looking at them. We saw many rides go down because the rides got stuck or people got stuck in the seats and had to be retrived. That apart, we went on a handful of rides which were in general safe and were not going to get stuck. BIL, me and Jr. spent one hour on a line when they shut it down and sent us back. We still put on a smile and went about the rest of the day.

The place is beautiful with all the fountains and floral arrangements.. 

The smile from the kids made up for all the standing in lines and josting for space with the wheelchair.

While Jr., the little one and BIL made it through some of the risky rides, the rest of us split up and did different things. My MIL and me went on the rotating tower and got a birds eye view of silicon valley. My old office is right behind this part and my new office was also visible. 

the day ended with fireworks. We got great shots on an iPhone with the right setting.. 

A few shots of the fireworks in a slide show.. Most of them were taken on an iPhone

 

and a video of the highlights of this day trip.

We had a great time the entire day, except for the exit out of the park. The design of the exit and the procedure leaves a sour taste.. Everyone was trying to exit the park after fireworks. There were no traffic cops to get any order. It was a free for all towards the exit after being in a gridlock for 1 hour. Finally we made it out and home closer to 11:30 PM when the fireworks had ended at 9PM and we had sat in our car at 9:15! It is a 15 minute ride back home on a normal night! If there is one thing they could fix immediately, it is the directing of vehicles out of the park.

Our hope is that we eventually make it to Disney with the kids(?! at heart) soon, once the delta variant makes its exit. Till then, we will always have memories of this Great America trip, when it comes to roller coasters, fireworks and parking lot exits! 

Moneys worth for a local day well spent!

Global Winter Wonderland

This year we have a new Christmas attraction that is local. A "Global Winter Wonderland" in the parking lot area of the Great America Park in Santa Clara.

Guess they bought all the props from the Beijing Olympics at garage sale prices and set it up in Santa Clara. The whole thing was like a Chinese Christmas celebration with "Chineseized" doll displays of American icons including Disney themes!

The "Global" was thanks to the following displays and they were all very impressive.

The ticket prices were a rip off considering there was separate tickets (3$ a ticket per kid per ride) and an entrance ticket of 9$/person on discount! There should have been no entrance tickets for the kids and that would have come close to being fair. Nevertheless, we had already promised the kids that we were going there and we had no choice in the matter once there.

We made the most of a very cold evening and spent a good 3 hours wandering around the light displays, taking photographs and having the kids go on a few rides and try some of the carnival type attractions.

The kids were happy and tired enough to eat a speedy dinner and go to bed fast. So from that stand point it was a good deal! Next year we will be back to Christmas in the park. For all we know, might still take the kids there one of these days.

Some snippets of the three hours caught on video..

Next year if this attraction is still there, might go only if there are some discounted tickets... then again the rest of the family thought it was okay for the price we paid.

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Turtle Bay in Redding

As part of our recent trip, almost a whole day was spent at the Turtle Bay Exploration park in Redding.

We have driven past Redding many times without ever stopping to find out what this was all about! Thanks to Mitr, AnuP, and the rest of their gang, who visited this place the previous day, we got to spend a nice day with activities for the kids.

On our way to Mt. Shasta, Jr. empatically declared that "the trip was boring!". On further questioning she said "I only like trips with small driving and where there are structures!". What structures? was our question. The prompt answer as "Structures where kids can play!".

Well, this place had "structures" per her definition. It was nicely laid out. A little bird house where kids got to feed parakeets, a butterly garden, a beautiful kids play area with picnic tables where we had our lunch.

When you have four uncles in the party (namely periappa, chitappa, mama and uncle!) you get a chance to actually free up your hands from kids! It is always nice to have the extra "uncle" hands! Balaji, my brother, BIL and BIL's housemate are all a big hit with the kids!

Many a type of "butterchi's"!

And let us not forget the "bumble bee"!

You cross this and go to a museum, gift store and cafe. The museum had a display of the local fish and some history of Indian tribes that occupied the area. We never figured out why the place was called Turtle bay, but this museum did have a few turtles swimming in the display cases and a wall of little metal turtles with peoples names on it! The little one displayed her counting skills "one, two, four hundred, two fifty...."

Then you get to cross the Sundial bridge. It was neat and clean and had amazing views of the sacramento river This place is apparently more beautiful in the night when the bridge has lights on it, but we could not wait that late. The little one was so thrilled to run around the glass surface on the bridge and pet all the doggies that were on the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge is a international garden of sorts with little sections of plants from every major continent. There were also some interesting ponds, water fountains and bonzai displays.

The right caption for this picture would be "Cute - On Demand!"

It was long walk and on the other end of the garden was a kids play area with a beautiful water fountain and a "structure" made from willow branches which made Jr.'s day.

Pavan uncle watching the kids while they pose. They definitely did a better job of posing from the fountain top compared to the mountain top!

If your kid demands "structures" and you have no clue what "structures" are, they are there in the Turtle Bay Exploration area. Even if you dont spot them, your kids will!

Strongly recommended as a break for kids in between trails, hikes, snow, forests, lakes and mountains.

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Crocodile park

Went to the Crocodile park in Chennai (on East Coast Road). Spent 2 hours there. Saw enough crocodiles for a lifetime! The snakes from the Guindy snake park (which I have visited many times as a kid) have also been moved to this location.

At the entrance, there was this cute tortoise and turtle exhibit.

Here is a map of the worlds croc's. I didnt know that crocodiles were there in all these places!

The adults are almost my age !!

There were three different huge areas with at least 30 or so crocs in each tank.

They practically had a sample of every type of crocodile in this place (alligators and gharials too)!

The sample above covers asia, south america, north america and africa !!

For the grand finale, there was this Dinosaur !!

Note the two little dinosaurs watching the big one!


We also visited the snakes..

Here they are, up close and personal..




There are 4-5 snakes in every one of those pots and the guys keep milking venom every two minutes.

Me: Sir, enakku oru doubtu saar ! (I have a doubt!)
Cool snake venom milking dude (we will abreviate this to dude) : Sollunga Saar (tell me)
Me : how come you dont wear any gloves ?
Dude : we tried gloves. But then the snakes slip through and bite us. Bare hands is better!
Me : do you guys get bit ?
Dude : yes. sometimes.
Me : what then ?
Dude : depending on the snake we have anywhere between 2 hours to 24 to get to a hospital!
Me : you are kidding.
Dude : No Saar. Really. We have a vehicle standing by in case we get bit.

Luckily dude didnt give me a demo of getting bit! But, it was awesome. The whole park is nice. Top notch quality for any animal park! Loved it. Dont miss it if you are visiting Chennai, and do take the kids. I thought Jr. would be scared, but she actually enjoyed it!

Dizzee World !!!

We went to Dizzee World for an afternoon. No.. not Disney in LA, Dizzee in Chennai on our recent trip to India. With the kids that was more than we hoped to pull off on a hot weekday.

This place is relatively expensive by Indian standards. I have only visited VGP amusement park in the past in Chennai, that too in 1993!! Now there are almost 15 of these parks on the East coast road! This is the first time, I have actually made time to visit one of the parks.

We were greeted at the entrance by a mickey look alike.. lets call him Mikcey !


I really dont know if MGM (the Metro Goldwyn Meyer) owns or has a stake in Dizzee world.

We went on the giant wheel first. It was really nice. Jr., who is supposed to be Dora's next avatar, was actually scared of the giant wheel..

but baby!!! what a surprise! She really enjoyed it. Everytime we all got butterflies in our stomach, she let out peals of laughter and was giggling away.

Here are some views from the top of the giant wheel..






Then of course were the little harmless rides which Jr. went for with her mom. These are the same standard (looks, maintenance, everything) to rides in our local parks here in the Bay area (Bonfante gardens or Kelley Park!)


The themes and decorations were cute. Here is Jr. taking a break between rides .

They had a whole section of games where you toss rings around bottles and win prizes , etc. etc. But the people who man those booths were all missing. Gone for lunch!! A two hour lunch (we just gave away those coupons to the doorman while exiting).

Then, we had Jr. go on some really kid safe rides, like the carousel and Cinderella rides..




It was a weekday and the place was almost empty. Then a bunch of school kids came out of nowhere. Must have been a school excursion or picnic. Jr. suddenly found herself josling for a place on some rides. She was a natural "jostler"!

After the school crowd left, we once again were left to enjoy the empty rides. She got an unlimited ride! on the train and played in the video arcade to her hearts content. Only 50% of the machines worked. The rest had a notice on them which said "I am sick"!! But we had plenty of machines to play with and had them all to ourselves. Incidentally the arcade was the only air conditioned building in the park. So we enjoyed the break from the sun.

Then there were the rides from hell. I avoided all those rides. My brother came out of one and described his experience as one similar to an ant who has just come out of a mixer!

Just when we were about to exit the amusement park, San spotted the mother of all rides. She tried to get me on the ride. Mr. Chicken promptly refused and she insisted on going alone!

They couldnt have a solo rider, so the operator went and found one of his buddies to balance San on the other side of the ride. Then things got worse. The ride went on and on and it didnt look like it was going to stop. San started screaming from the top. We started screaming from the bottom. I suspected some foul play and my brother went rushing to the top. The belt had broken!! They had to switch off the mains and let the thing come to a stop on its own. San must have set the record for the longest ride on the swing chairs. She couldnt walk properly for some time.

I avoid these rides for a reason. At the end of the day, they are not safe! In my first 4 years in California we had seen two accidents. One in the Great America Park where a kid flew out of the "drop zone" (the very next day after we had gone on the same ride !) and another kid flew out of the Jurassic Park ride in Universal studios!! I was really getting knots in my stomach when I realized that something was wrong and was just glad that they knew how to locate the main switch!!

On the whole Dizzee was a good experience, except for that one ride. The kids and the adults had a great time..