Vacation it is(was)!

We had a much needed( didn't we had one to India th year already?) SoCal vacation in Dec'10( I was too lazy to publish the draft). San Diago and LA marked off the list of the places to visit in US.We also got to met our cousin Kishore in SD. The weather was at its best for this time of the year and the general holiday ambiance made it even more memorable.

For the long flight trip I got this awesome idea( Its my blog and I can totally boast!) of buying Aarush a set of hot wheels and giving it to him only in the flight. What an idea it was, he was fascinated by those little cars which kept him busy (and us sane) for the first few hours and then he slept off!
Relaxing!














Harbor view from our room!














We visited Seaport village, Zoo and Legoland in SD, the best of which for a toddler was Legoland. Although he was not allowed in many rides, there were enough for him to play around. Kiran and I had equal fun and would totally visit it again after Aarush grows up a little older. Aarush straightaway hit the water sprinklers and refused to leave the place. He wouldn't get off the train the first time so Kiran went with him the second time and he was a happy man.

@Legoland

It was so cute watching him pick and give the lego blocks to a mom-daughter building with legos.

The miniland USA was an eye candy. We went on a boat ride, took pics with bob-the builder, whom aarush loved and went on slides ,slides and more slides.

SD zoo is huge. Their effort of preserving soo many animals, soon to be extinct species and building a forest like environment has to be appreciated. Although we incline more towards the idea of 'animals should not be caged', we came to know that their life span increases when under care.
@SD Zoo

There were some exotic animals which we saw for the very first time. Aarush wasn't too excited initially but got into the mood a little later. We might not pay a second visit unless Aarush is into animal research and insist that we go!

LA was more relaxing and was warmer than SD. Though we did not visit any toddler friendly places except for may be malibu beach he had total fun with cousins Chaitanya and Anu. I did not expect them to get along so well 'coz he was scared when my cousin Kishore tried to friend him.

He would comfortably say bye to us when chait was around and only played with him the whole time. Chait and Anu gifted him a cute tricycle and he was all the more excited. Looking at the fun he had I wish we stayed closer to atleast some of the gazzillion cousins we have.
Kiran insisted that I write about the “Wasabi” experience. This is something Not About Aarush;) He slept peacefully while we were at the restaurant! So Chait & Anu took us to this Chinese restaurant called Wokcano in LA and suggested we eat the vegetarian sushi with wasabi. Wasabi is a spice from Japan and is a root. Now, it‘s not spicy like chilies but it slowly explodes in your mouth and the effect is believed to irritate your nasal passage. So it was kind of a thrill to eat and experience wasabi with sushi. The effect ofcourse is for a short time and goes off  as you take the next bite of food.We enjoyed it so much that Kiran and I had to eat it twice and chait and anu did not want to stop.

Flight back to home was a little rough, Aarush was sleepy but refused to sleep and so was cranky for a good 1.5 hrs. After which he slept off and so us. In both of our flights, our co-passengers were nice enough to not mind Aarush's frequent hand poking towards their window side or grabbing their cups. Infact in the first flight she even took a picture of Aarush and was wishing for a grandson and the other lady mentioned about her 2 boys and that shez been through this age. Nice ppl they are!