Our first cruise!

The traveling Narayanan's went on their first Cruise during the Thanksgiving break with the Cousins.  It was also a San's birthday gift of sorts..

We went to Enseneda, Mexico from Long beach on a 2 day, 3 night Cruise. I am guessing we were never really far from the coast but it was a nice and different experience staying on a ship for days and having fun.

The sunset at Long Beach was gorgeous and we got to see the Queen Mary (from the outside!) and then boarded the Carnival cruise. 

We were greeted by a nice Rainbow as we boarded the ship.. It was a nice omen?!

We were greeted in our cabin by this nice Towel Elephant. Later we were treated to a one hour class on how to make towel animals. The entire family enjoyed that. 

When we were in Enseneda for a short time, there was a paid trip to see "The Bufadora" or cave where the sea water enters a narrow rock formation and sprays out. Given we had 3 hours in the place to see this, have lunch and shop at the local flea market, we did a very bad job of rationing out the time. 

The coastline very much feels like we are in and around Carmel. No surprises there. The Bufadora was a let down. After 30 minutes there, this was the best we saw. No 100 foot spray! 

The flea market was interesting. Not much different from the San Jose flea market, but more local items and same bargaining. Every shop had the same stuff! 

We also ate at this stall of sorts where they make fresh Tacos! The little one was enjoying this the most.

After a last minute shopping attempt by the ladies, we rushed back to the bus and were back at the ship after a small detour to see an old Casino that was famous in Enseneda in the 30's and 40's. 

The flea market was very colorful to say the least!

Back at the ship we had a formal dinner, explored mini golf on the top deck, participated in treasure hunts, ate lots of fries, ice cream and hot chocolate, not to mention masala Chai! 

And yes, we know how to make towel elephants now!

Before we knew it, the ship was back in Long Beach and we were drivng home. Be it outdoor camping, cruising, etc. the first time is always an exploratory trip. It took us 24 hours to get the hang of the ship and know how to get from one place to the other. If you know where to get what, which stuff is included in your package, what is free, etc. and time various activities within the ship with a planner, one can get a lot more out of the trip. 

We were first timers and did manage to experience a lot of what was being offered. Next time, as there will definitely be a next time, we will go on a longer cruise where we spend more time on land in between the cruise. 

It is one thing to take photographs of sunsets from land. Sunset in a cruise is breathtaking!

While the land part of this trip was not as good as we expected it to be, we definitely recommend the Cruise for a three day activity for a long weekend. If you have friends and family with you, even better! The kids really had a great time! 

Nice clean fun! 

"If little girls had Brains!" - How autocorrect is ruining inflight entertainment

On a recent United flight they played a Sandra Bullock Movie called The Heat.

There is a scene in this movie where the cop character played by Melissa McCarthy, is searching for the police chief's "balls". She is searching everywhere in the office and even annoucnes to the rest of the police force "has anyone seen the captains balls? they are small, tiny, the size of ball bearings? no.. they are the size of little girl balls, IF little girls do have balls!"

Or at least that is what I remember seeing in the trailer!

For some strange reason, United decides to play this movie in a flight that does not have personal TV screens. Why they would do that is beyond me as it is an R rated movie that is not appropriate for kids staring at the big screens, given all the language in the movie.

For a worse reason, they decide to "autocorrect" the dialogues in the movie.

I am not sure if this was United's doing or Fox pictures doing, but it was a bad call. They replaced words like shit with stuff, other four letter expletives with kids choice of abuses and the worst choice was to replace "balls" with "brains"! 

There I was half asleep, trying to fight my stomach convulsions trying to divert myself, put on headphones to see what the movie was about and the first dialogue I hear ? 

"they are the size of little girl brains.. if little girls had brains!" and it just pissed me off. Was thinking "why won't little girls have brains! My girls are smart. How insulting is that for any little girl who happens to be on this plane? what are they thinking?!" and then it came to me that the original script was not this. 

United seriously needs to rethink its movie choices and they need to stop this autochange feature. Given the new dialogue was in Melissa McCarthy's voice, I am surprised she would do a voiceover for a dialogue that needlessly ridicules girls!

That special month.. that special day!

November is almost over.

Three birthdays done and one more to go, in this family of all November borns.

First was the little ones birthday, which was celebrated the usual style with a small group of her school friends, sister and cousins at a local "paint your own ceramic" place. She had fun, getting two dresses for her birthday, dressing up, distributing cup cakes etc. We are going to miss this phase soon as our little girl is already eight and has a mind of her own. 

Next was Jr.'s turn. She had a deal. If we skipped a birthday party (which we were not planning to have in the first palce.. we had told her "you get a big party for 10th, then 13th and 16th.. nothing inbetween!") she will get my hand me down iPhone and I get to spend the 200+ bucks to upgrade to a new iPhone. So we ate out at a place of her choice and called it a Happy birthday. There are no birthday photos this year for Jr. ! Here she is, all grown up, at the little one's party. 

My birthday gift to her was a book "Indian Melodies for the Alto Saxophone" which had western notation for most of the entire Carnatic music series with Geethams, Varnams and some Keerthanais. The best part is that the book came with a CD where Kadri Gopalnath performs the lessons on an Alto Sax, so we know what it is supposed to sound like. Jr.' loves it compared to Daddy's hand written notations. We strongly recommend this book for other folks who are learning Saxophone in the Western style trying to do Carnatic music songs. There will be a video of her doing some songs later this week if she works on it. I call her "Nagubaby" in hopes that she will play one of my favorites "Nagumomu" and so far she is givng me the nasty look. 

It was going to be a hit or miss for my birthday as my travel plans were in flux. Last minute we found that I was going to make it back home, just before my birthday. The family was all happy with that news. There is always the plans and reality. Got a massive food poisoning event at the last meal on the trip, that pretty much wiped me out. It was a miracle that I made it back, on a long flight, all weak and throwing up. 

Got out of bed to throw up and saw it was 2AM. Wished myself a happy birthday and went back to sleep. My entire birthday was a blur. Mostly slept through it on a Gatorade and water diet. This is the first time I opened a birthday with throwing up. Well, there is a first time for everything!

The last few days has seen some improvement with bread and yogurt rice becoming part of the diet and so far they have stayed down. It is going to be a long and slow road to recovering from this one as my ability to smell or taste things is gone. 

Even with all this going on, life is not without a lighter side. A few days ago, I felt barely alive and was half asleep fighting my stomach and lying down. It felt like a dream. A small hand reached out into the comforter, pulls out my right thumb, presses it down somewhere and places my hand carefully back in position. When I woke up, realized it was the little one "opening" my iPhone using my thumb print, to play games! Reminded me of the villains in old Tamizh movies who get the dying man's thumb print on a document that wills away his farm!

We are now down to San's birthday which involves "more travel" as part of the birthday gift. Prayers are already in effect for me with family and friends so I recover fast. Someday I will write a book for folks with food allergies as a "travel guide". In the meantime, it is time to go back to sleep and get back to normal!