Florida 2006

When hundreds of thousands of people in Seattle were shivering with cold and rain in their powerless houses, a place called Florida still had in its skies, a glittering yellowish thing called Sun, brightening and cheering up people's lives. Yes, you start appreciating Sun much more if you are resident of NorthWest.

Dec 18th - The trip began like any usual trip of mine, packing my bags at the last moment. And as usual I had forgotten some key things like a towel, sunglasses, swimming trunks, the laptop bag and some more things which I have forgotten now. :) And my three "Shaane" friends who went to drop me to airport, somehow knew everything I would have forgotten. I was so glad that all these are things that money can buy, and I had not forgotten my mastercard.


Dec 19th - Domestic flights serve reasonably nice meals to their First Class passengers, the bacon Omelette and Beef patties were pretty good. While landing at Orlando Int'l airport, I had realized what's coming ahead. Water all around with shimmering rays of Sun and temperatures well above 80. Perfect conditions for a vacation.
Then started the nostalgic part, we were waiting for the baggage to arrive and someone tapped on my shoulder from behind, it was my best friend, Abhishek Das. And all those pranks, poltus, fights and jokes just came afresh. It had been an year and a half since I last saw him but nothing had changed, not even his shorts, they were the same as what everyone used to see him in at IIT. (though he claims otherwise.) He knows my liking for Chicken and he might have started preparations for it just a day back but I know this Chicken was marinating in his head since a month. His apartment mates told the excitement that had been bubbling in him, since a week. Both by Chicken and kheer, I must admit Das has turned into an awesome cook.
The day was spent more or less in going into past, in discussing things which we would have otherwise discussed on phone, if I had not been there. Had food at a pizza place which I felt is visited for a reason more than just their pizza. ;)
Then we got our rental car, the Chevrolet Malibu and drove to a nearby beach.


Dec 20th - A visit to Orlando without visiting a Disney's theme park would always be called incomplete, we chose to visit Epcot. Mission Space took us to Mars, went into Seas with Nemo and Friends, there was a turtle talk throughout which S/W engineer inside me kept wondering how were they creating animation online? (I am still not totally convinced), the test track which was reasonably thrilling, 3-D movie with effects, "honey I shrunk the audience" was one thing I found particularly entertaining, a handheld gladiator simulation made us travel the whole world, and finally the fireworks were simply superb. (Ask me for the videos that I captured.)
We wanted to celebrate Shrivaths' birthday that happens to fall on Dec 21st, but unfortunately, it was pretty late after we left Disney, so all bakeries were closed and IHOP, the place where we dined that day, refused to do anything special.

Dec 21st - The day started with a visit to Kennedy Space Center, a bus took us on a guided tour to various snapshots of history of space race, covering the details of space shuttle's engine to the actual consoles where man controlled first human's journey to moon followed by a simulation of what happened when last man stepped on moon. We were also shown the work towards the giant International Space Center, which would be twice the size of a football stadium. It is difficult to capture all the details, but I would summarize it as a must see for anyone who has slightest of interest in space exploration.
After that we reached the Dayatona, somehow managed to get parking and beach access, thanks to a kind SriLankan receptionist but the beach could not hold people's interest for more than half an hour, after all people were restless for something else, what had to become the highlight of the trip.

• Note: The details of this part cannot be revealed here so as to respect our Non Disclosure Agreement which has been created with a fundamental respect for every trip members' right to privacy. No disclosure about Laila, Lisa or any other bhabhi would be made a part of this blog.

Dec 22nd - Last night everyone had slept pretty late, so we left a little late for the Magic City, Miami. A four hour drive and we were there.

[Before moving further a tip for all the readers - while driving in Miami, don't make a mistake to follow traffic rules. The one who drives the most reckless survives, follow the rules and you'll end up with some mishap.]

The water was not too cold, and a refreshing dip got rid of all the tiredness. The sea waves, the beach sand, the palm trees, the view of awesome Miami skyline, and the presence of so many tourists in this festival season, I am simply out of words for the whole experience.
The dinner that night sparked a new concept of defining people when we encountered a "Bhai Bandi" at Denny's.
At night, we stayed in Homestead, right besides the Everglade national park, and discussed all our escapades we'd had till then.

Dec 23rd - We woke up pretty early in the morning, and left for KeyWest, the best drive I've ever had in my life. The blue green water of Atlantic Ocean on both our sides was simply spectacular sight, it was like a 100 mile road in the middle of the sea connecting 43 Florida keys. And not forgetting to mention the sandwich made of Dolphin meat I had as my lunch. (Yea yea, now please don't tell me how cruel of me and stuff, I was feeling guilty swallowing every bite but somehow I made that decision to have that experience.)

We visited the southern most tip of continental US, rather we visited southernmost hotel, southernmost house, southernmost motel, southernmost christmas tree, southernmost yellow coloured house, southernmost desi, this word southernmost seems to be in fashion in that area.

Then, we parted into two groups. Me and Goru went on a kind of mini-cruise, where we went off 7 miles from the coast, where we had an amazing experience of Snorkeling. They provided us with an apparatus which sealed our eyes and nose and breathing was through a pipe which went from our mouth to just above the surface of water.
I must admit it was a little scary in the beginning, there were thoughts in my mind, Dude!!! what am I doing completely immersed in water seven miles away from land in Atlantic Ocean!!! Shouldn't I be calling for help!!! But soon, it was like live discovery channel, jelly fishes passing by me and I was making unsuccessful attempts to catch them, and the huge coral reef beneath me seemed like a magnificent work of mother nature.
I made it alive to boat, and as they were served us champagne, I found myself lost in a glorious sunset. After leaving the board, we shared our underwater experiences with our friends who had chosen to go in a glass bottom boat so that they can see the reef from the boat itself without actually entering water. We bought some souvenirs, had our dinner at a Thai place, and then decided to head back. By midnight, we were back to Homestead. We were not hungry but we still wanted to???, so we went to Denny's, where we met a "Bhabhi Bandi" this time. :)

Dec 24th - A tiring day - Snorkeling, other activities at KeyWest and I had already driven for like eight hours that day. It was all on me if I wish to continue all the way back to Orlando or we stay at HomeStead since I was the lone driver among the four. There was no particular advantage in continuing, since we knew it would waste the next day anyways, if we reach by 5 in the morning. But I still decided to continue just to test my endurance, how long can I continuously drive. Also, I preferred to drive on a trafficless night road.
The experiment was successful, I exceeded my own expectations, we reached home and of course I had every reason in the world to feel dead tired. But I still didn't sleep for long, wanted to have a chat with Dikshit and Gupta as it was our last day, so woke up early and had breakfast with them. The lunch was at a Desi place called Aashirvaad, whose Malai Kofta deserves a special mention. 20 mile one-way trip for food was worth it.
We had quite an adventure while returning the car to Avis guys, I was totally unimpressed with the customer service they offered me and their whole unprofessional way to handle the situation. They finally had to waive all the extra charges imposed, rather I took them even below what I should have paid, but they wasted more than a couple of hours of mine. Anyways, let bygones by bygones. I was pretty interested in going to Universal CityWalk but everyone just chose to relax, so we just stayed at home and watched Sholay. :)

Q: LailaTumhaara naam kya hai?
Ans: Laila. [No no, please don't correct it to Basanti, it is Laila :P]


Photos added: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=149299479