Portland - Florence Trip

Our recent trip to Florence, OR was quickly planned within 2-3 days. Our travel involved 15 adults and 4 kids. While the guys worked out the logistics and the trip schedule, the ladies put together a quick plan finalizing the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The trip was eventful from the word "go". Some GPS systems could not navigate to the final destination. We had some official work to care during the trip. The first evening pot luck followed by drinks was awesome and relaxing. Saturday morning was a Rava Idly mela - more than 100 idlies were made and consumed. The guys enjoyed the ATV rides in the sand dunes. The families with kids took the bus ride in to sand dunes...this is was breath taking as the bus ride up and down the sand dunes provided a good sight seeing and a thrilling ride.

The spot light of the trip of the kayaking!!. 2 Kayaks and a canoe were part of the vacation rental. The funniest part was we tied a small rope to one of the kayaks to pull it back if the rider lost control or was scared. Saturday dinner was again amazing with over 5-6 items to choose from!!. I got locked in the bath room for over 30 mins and all my attention seeking efforts went in vain. My friends came after some time and flipped open the lock within a minute. The other spotlight was the horse ride along the 1.5 mile trail along the ocean. It was the first time horse riding experience for all of us and we had good time navigating, controling and talking to the horse!!. The return journey was along the Oregon coast (101N) which presented some breath taking views of the ocean. We took some beautiful pictures and reached Portland in the evening.

Good Bye America

While we are wrapping our current visit to USA, I wish to take few minutes to recollect some memorable events that happened during this time. One lovely gift was the arrival of my daughter. Except few unsettling events on the personal front, it was a wonderful, memorable years, time well spent.


Some of my key observations on the common man's life in the USA;


1. Reliable power & water supply - Except during major snow / thunder storms, there was never any serious disruption of power. The same goes with water supply


2. Influence of internet: Internet has become a way of life for working class people and above.

3. Car: Except few select cities, you need a car in the rest of the country to commute to work or for pleasure.

4. Medical Facilities: Amazing. In the beginning the process appears to be time consuming and unfriendly, but once you get used it, nothing like it.

5.Schooling: Not a major fuss, if you are moving from India. Primary education is free and state run schools do a great job here.

6.Libraries: One can borrow as many books as possible. The free library services far exceed the ones offered by the hifi libraries in India like british council library, etc.

There are still more ....but stopping here. What about things that I did not like? The list again is long ...but what is the point in cribbing? Instead appreciate the good things around? what say?

A pleasant dinner!

The warm weather was a welcome break and I could literally tell people at the office and outside were enjoying the sun break. This evening we decided to try out a new place for dinner. Since we had to return on time for a work related telecon, we picked a near by restaurant called Mary Callendar's. It's a cozy, medium sized restaurant. Their welcome lobby displays their specialty - freshly baked pies and pastries which are appealing. The other thing I noticed is their uniqueness in the menu. They were extremely friendly in offering the vegetarian options. While I tried the unlimited soup and salad, my wife had pasta with alfredo sauce. The kid's meal came free with one entree and a beaverage. The food was excellent and we did not have room for the pies!. Once back home, I did some researching; their online address is http://www.mcpies.com/ and they are present in the west coast. They are a big chain listing more than 130 plus restaurants and the PERKINS chain in Mid West, Pennsylvania belong to the same group of companies. PERKINS - We frequented this lovely pancake restaurant, during our stay at Mid West and North East.

Stir/Protests/Demonstrations

Isn't it surprising that we find so many protests/stir/demonstrations in India than the other democratic countries? While the answer is not simple, many things have changed in the recent past and still requires a lot of changes. I mean some time back, the administration in Bangalore came up with a list of places where the affected parties can hold their demonstrations. But is that implemented? I am not sure. The political parties lack the nerve to ban any large scale demonstrations or marches because these very steps are perceived to be the tools to demonstrate the authority or the popularity.

It is during these protests or demonstrations that the common people are inconvenienced. The roads are blocked, children cannot get to school, essential services are disrupted and there is a possibility of mob attacks. While disagreements, open forums and public meetings are required in a democratic setup, they need to moderated in a frequency acceptable to the local communities. It is the responsibility of each individual to raise his/her voice against these type of inconveniences to daily life.