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!

What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does...

This is the last post on the Europe trip. The previous post on the series is here..

The last day (day 13) of the Europe trip was spent on two things. Most of the day was an Evans and Evans trip to Hogwarts.. let's just call it that. It was actually the Warner Brothers studios shooting location for all the Harry Potter movies over 10 years that is now a Studio tour. 

As usual we had to go from Kings cross station to Victoria, then board the bus which took us to the studio in a little over an hour and we were handed tickets and told that we had a little over 4 hours to come back to the bus. We will be back in Victoria Station area at 5:15-5:30 PM. 

We also had tickets for the London Eye that evening. We wanted to see the views of London as the sun set so I could get some pictures with the daylight and some with the buildings lighting up.

First it was almost our last day and this would be almost the last time leaving the Kings Cross station. The kids were eyeing Lola's hand crafted cup cakes two days straight.. so today was their day! 

Then we were off.. 

Full disclosure. I had not read a single Harry Potter book to date. Have only watched the movies as they came out in theaters. Missed the Order of the Phoenix in theaters and caught bits and pieces of it at a later date in someones house but that was it. Was and still am a big fan of the whole series of movies. Who can resist magic?

Don't think there is a picture of me and San being happier in this trip! 

We had four hours to spend at the place and we walked through every room, exhibit and hallway and when we came out of the place it was exactly 4 hours. This included a 20 minute break to have lunch before going into the studio. 

The kids were given little Hogwart's passports and they had to find the 7 secret Horcruxes in the place.. so they were busy searching for those in the various rooms.. 

Then there was the butterbeer, which can give kids a brain freeze, has unknown health effects on muggles and gives dads wallets a cold.. 

The whole experience was amazing.. our 4 hours is condensed into the video below.. 

The skies were brilliant and my hopes for great pictures from the London eye were already high..

We reached the Victoria station, walked towards the London Eye and realized that the entire area was a circus. Apparently there was a large protest for DJT's visit to London and the wife and kids had heard about it through social media and our tour guide from the previous day's trip.

The whole place was crawling with people who had signs in their hands. 

It had become hot and a little on the "about to rain" side and I removed my jacket to avoid going into one of those dangerous "avalanche sweats" as I call it. Was also proudly wearing my 60 day Challenge Bikram Yoga San Jose T-shirt to announce to the folks on the street that I was American. 

Given the generic anti-American sentiment on the streets that day, was thinking if I should buy one of those London T-shirts.. then we realized no one cared.. The London protesters were an interesting bunch.

We got some great views of the city from the London Eye after we saw a 4D show at the basement that was part of the ticket.

A video of the London Eye experience ..

Got two pano shots from the London eye..

One from either side as our little carriage made it up and down over 40 minutes.

Slide shows of pictures from Hogwart's and the London Eye 

When we came out it was about to rain, the streets were extremely crowded with protesters and we wanted to find dinner.

San's classmate had recommended a Chat place which had 8 branches in London and was very popular, but based on the 1 hour 20 minute wait time (there were 100+ folks standing in line knowing the wait time) we decided to take his second recommendation. A place called Shapur's in Strand area.

We went to Shapur's and had a nice dinner.. 

We walked to the train station from there past the Royal Opera house which was beautiful..

Then it started raining and we realized (were actually told by someone) that this is the "typical" London weather and we were really fortunate to miss it over our three day trip. 

Apparently that is what London looks on an average day.. "like Seattle" is what we all said at the same time and walked down the steps to the train station.

The next morning we were going to take one last train ride on the Europe trip to Gatwick airport and it was going to be back in the US.. 

We thoroughly enjoyed this 14 day trip. It took a lot of planning from San and the kids and San pretty much arranged every little thing. I was happy to be on package tours so I could also play tourist and enjoy the sights with the lens or my eyes.  

It was also a blessing to be able to meet San's Sister and her family during this trip, not to mention two of her classmates and one of our family friends.

We would definitely recommend the tours we took and the Air B&B's we used in various locations. 

I also loved writing about this trip.. even though it has taken two full months to finish writing about a two week trip.

This blog is my pensieve! 

More animal cuteness

Finally got to finish editing the last of the animal pictures from the San Diego Zoo trip on New Years day! Yes, life is like that. There is a reason they call it work-life balance instead of Life-work balance. That already shows you why things are messed up when work is put before life! 

Add a few things like bugs, jet lag etc. and things get pretty difficult to catch up, across the board. Today was devoted to myself and family. Most likely we will spend tomorrow celebrating mothers day with me getting completely out of the effects of the bug. Somehow the cough and upper respiratory system never recovered over the last 14 days.  

Went on a heavy fruit diet for last 48 hours and took a nice afternoon nap today after doing yoga. Feeling much better now. 

Here are some of my favorites from that last batch of pictures. The rest are in the Galleries..

The highlight of the zoo trip was seeing the pandas. Not something you get to see in every zoo you visit. The Tapir was also another highlight. Very few zoo's have Tapirs. 

We really loved the zoo trip. The older the kids get the better the zoo trips are. More time having fun and less time for food breaks. 

It was great to take a break from the routine and edit pictures. Next picture time will be memorial day. Have to go on some local getaway, even if for a day!