Winter Break 2024

Winter break is usually a time for get-togethers and some trips. In 2023, we had people come over to our place as we celebrated my in-laws’ 50th wedding anniversary. In 2024, we had some plans, but none of them panned out. So, we had a staycation this holiday season.

On the last day of school, we went bowling and then went to a restaurant. Bowling was so much fun. It has been many years since we went bowling and we enjoyed it so much. Sarath had to go to the lab on Saturday and Sanjay had Telugu class on Sunday. So, the weekend was just normal. On Monday we drove to LA for a quick 4 day trip. We went there after two years. The kids were very happy.

This was also the first time we all drove long distance in our Ioniq5. Having an electric car takes a bit more planning as we have to charge the card mid way and this takes about half an hour to an hour depending on how long the wait is. So, even without traffic it adds up almost an hour to our trip. There are many more Tesla chargers than Electrify America or Charge Point. That is a bit sad and when we saw how many Tesla chargers are there at every charging station, we felt really jealous. Hopefully, we can soon get the new adaptor for our car which means we can charge at the Tesla charger as well. But, it was a nice change from the mini van. One this is there is definitely less mess to clean up. The kids are also older, so thankfully they don’t mess up the car as much. The other nice thing is that we can connect our phones and listen to music on Spotify. Our mini van is a very old model and it only has a 6 cd changer and no way to connect our phone to the car audio system. So, listening to music in that is very challenging. So, this time we enjoyed listening to our play lists. Of course we each have a playlist of our own and we took turns playing them.

We only stayed there for 4 days. We reached there by Monday evening and left on Friday afternoon. Sanjay wanted to go to Universal Studios and San Diego zoo. We’ve been to both places before, but he was little at that time and didn’t remember much. So, we thought we’ll go again. We went to Universal Studios on Tuesday. We had planned to be there by the time they open so that we can avoid the long lines and also go on all the rides. We’ve been going to Universal Studios for a while now and this was the first time we actually got there by 9am. It was amazing. The kids being older set up alarms, got up and got ready. We ate breakfast and headed out. We found parking very close by and were in the park by 9:30 am. We went around very leisurely.

For the first time in 18 years, we went to the studio tour without having to wait in line for an hour. We waited for about 10 min and that’s it. The only thing we were not happy about was that it was very cloudy all day long. It even rained in the afternoon when were having lunch. We couldn’t even find a place to sit inside and we just stood under the umbrellas outside to finish our lunch. We were worried about how we would go around in rain, but luckily it stopped by the time we finished lunch. Thankfully, we didn’t have any rain for the rest of the day. I usually don’t go on rides much and it makes my head spin. I had been to the minion ride before and that is okay. I still close my eyes sometimes during the ride. This time, I also went on the Harry Potter ride and I did not like it much. I was scared and the car was moving around a bit too much for my liking. It gave me a headache by the end. The kids also don’t like going on these rides much as they don’t like the roller coasters. This time, they did go on a few rides. Sanjay loved the Harry Potter ride and Sarath was okay about it. We had fun watching the Harry Potter light and sound show. They had a lot of fun with their cousins. We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner and crashed after we came home.

We took a break on Wednesday. We were all so tired that none of us woke up until past 8am. The kids didn’t wake up until 9:30 or later. We then had pav bhaji for brunch/lunch and just crashed again. All of us were too tired to do anything at all. In the evening, the four of us went to visit my cousin (Karthik) who lives close to Irvine. He is related to me, but if I have to say how he is related, it is a long story. His mom and my dad grew up like cousins and we knew each other. They used to live in Madurai and came to Hyderabad during the summer holidays. We used to spend some time together at that time with some of our other cousins. Now, his parents are also here. So, I thought it will be nice to visit them. His mom was very happy to see all of us. She is very old and is pretty much confined to the house. We stayed there for an hour and it was very pleasant. Karthik’s wife and daughters were very nice and friendly. They have two dogs which were very cute and cuddly. The kids had so much fun with the dogs. In that one hour, Karthik’s mom told me about 15 to 20 times how happy she was to see me. Her face was radiant and I could see the happiness. I am really glad we went.

On Thursday, we went to San Diego zoo. We didn’t leave as early as we had planned, but it was not too late. We reached there around 10:30 or so. We went on the bus ride first which was nice. After the bus ride, we went to eat. It took us an hour to order food as the lines were super long. The food was not good at all. After lunch, we started walking around and we pretty much covered most of the zoo. We did miss a few animals like the Koalas. It was fun and tiring. We kept sitting down where ever we could and we kept moving. Going with a group makes it more fun on trips like this. All of us had so much fun. There were holiday lights all along the paths and after it got dark, it was really cool. It was cold on this day as well, but since the sun came out it felt nice during the day. After sunset, it was cold again. After all the walking, we all sat down for a good 30 – 45 min drinking coffee and hot chocolate. It felt relaxing. After that the kids wanted to go on the Gondola ride. Somu and I didn’t go. I would’ve gotten a headache if I went in that cold and so we both stayed back while all the others went. On the way back, we stopped at Biriyani Pot Express and ate some nice yummy hot biriyani. Once we were home, we crashed. It was a lot of walking all day long.

Originally, we wanted to leave early on Friday so that we could avoid the down town traffic. But, the kids wanted to see the Wicked movie. So, after we came back from the zoo on Thursday, we booked the tickets for a 9 am show. So, even though they were tired, the kids woke up early and went to the movie. We charged the car and packed everything by the time the kids were back home. We had lunch and then left at 2pm. I was really worried about the traffic as we would be in downtown during the peak rush hour on Friday. Thankfully, the traffic wasn’t too bad. We reached home at 10 pm even with two breaks in between on to charge the car and one for dinner.

Even though we just sat in the car all day long, we were really tired. After a nice warm shower, we hit the bed and it felt cozy to get under the covers. Even though it was a short and hectic trip, it was fun. I’m glad we went.

The next day Sarath had to go to the lab and we spent the day unpacking and generally cleaning up. After that we spent the days lazily waking up at 8:30 or 9 or even later some days. We ate and slept and did minimal stuff. The kids did work on their pending home works and other stuff they needed to get done before the school started again.

We spent New Years Eve just as lazily. Our original plan was to watch a movie and stay up until midnight. The kids wanted to watch a TV show, so we left them to it. Somu and I generally did some online shopping until midnight while eating ice cream. It was perfect, cozy and very relaxing. On New Years’ day, Sarath wanted to have friends over. So, we ordered pizza and soda and they watched some TV show for a while and then played for a while. After his friends left, we went to eat pani puri. The kids didn’t want to eat much as they had been snacking all day.

The rest of the break went by quickly. We explored a few restaurants and we also went to the exploratorium that week. We have been planning to do that for a long time and it was worth it. We planned to leave early in the morning, but since Sarath was working late at the lab the previous day, we slept in a little and reached there by 10:30 or so. It is a fun place. Small, but they had a bunch of exhibits. This was the first time that we all split up and enjoyed the exhibits on our own. Both kids had the phone and the place was not very big. We just kept checking on them from time to time and Somu & I enjoyed some of the exhibits together at our own pace.

We struggled to get back to the reality of waking up early for school. Since school started on a Tuesday, it was nice to have a short first week after the break.