The East Coast – US & Canada

East coast was high in pecking order ever since Shiva visited Niagara in May 2017 for Sri’s convocation. I insisted on covering eastern Canada as well. Shiva’s cousin Harish stays in Boston; hence, understandably, I was trying to avoid Boston in all possible ways☺.  Harish and Sowmya welcomed their first child - princess Priyanka in June 18. I yielded this time; agreed with Shiva to loop Boston into the itinerary for the little darling.  We had our tickets blocked quite early in the year, when Shiva's bro Sriram was still in Buffalo. April 18 - he got placed with Microsoft in Seattle. Shiva’s parents soon booked their stay with Sri for 6 months starting June 18. Sri along with my in-laws decided to join us from Canadian part of our trip. Post my indagation on places to see in Canada, I came up with the itinerary – NYC – Niagara- Toronto – Montreal – Boston.

NYC – City that never sleeps

29^th July 2018, we took off to NYC at 8.30am. It was a awful 14 hour long flight - landed at 2.30pm EST. Predictably there wasn’t a single seat vacant in the cabin. During the flight, we managed to forcefully put kids to sleep, though Vidur slept only for an hour and half. The remaining 12 hrs, he was an independent insouciant passenger – glued on to the screen!. Vedha slept for little more than 2 hours.  By the time we landed at 2.30pm local time, vidur’s eyes were already cherry red.

I had a choice to book a pre-paid minivan from JFK airport at $65 but for some reason I chose to take uber after reaching JFK. Despite a deplorable Wifi connection in JFK, I managed to connect to Uber after multiple attempts. Unfortunately I lost the connection once again as we neared exit. The officers kept pushing us out after the baggage collection. Right outside, a guy from Desi origin, with adept ability to dissemble, offered us Uber ride with an uber badge in his hand. At the drop of an hat, shiva was confidently walking right ahead under his escort into the car parking area. I asked him for the cost; he mentioned it’s as per meter. For a guy originating from Chennai like me, the word “as per meter” seemed genuine. Big mistake!  A moment of brain fade after a long tiring journey. The Pakistani driver dropped us in the hotel in his black chevy suburban and handed a chit (like a post it) calling it a bill - for $300. It skipped a heartbeat for both of us. Instantly I realized that we had embarked on a wrong vehicle; we have been conned!. Both kids were sleeping in the car. For a moment I thought “thank God, the crook got us to the right place instead of driving us somewhere and holding our passports for a Ransom”. After a bit of fracas with him, I settled him off with $200 which is roughly little more than double the actual price. Shiva took the picture of number plate before the he fled. I wanted to let it go and forget the incident.  After all $100-150 is not worth to muck up a holiday by taking on con men. Still, I called 911 upon Sri’s insistence.  Three NYPD officers arrived at the hotel reception in 20 minutes time. All of them were - at least 6ft tall - brawny - revolvers, handcuffs and walkie takie wrapped around their vest. One officer from African origin was standing next to me as I was narrating the incident - I could only see his chest unless I tilted my neck 75 deg upwards. The ‘officers’ told me it’s a civil case which I could take up in court but not a criminal offense and nothing that NYPD could do. Instantly they traced the number plate and provided me the name of Limo Company which owned the car. Seemed to me, that they were hoping for a bigger incident, and got disappointed!. I felt like at least asking them for a photograph with them which I could post in FB “with NYPD in NYC”.  Never expected such a grand welcome to NYC!.

I had booked my 6 night stay at ‘’Wingate by Wyndham’ at 35^th street – 7^th avenue, Mid-town Manhattan. NYC is split into 4 boroughs - Queens, Bronx, Manhattan & Brooklyn.  It’s a rectangular design with streets that run parallel cut perpendicularly by avenues.

I got few victuals from a convenience store next door. Vidur hit the slumber land by 7ish. We three pulled along till half past 8.

Five Days in NYC

Vidur got up at 4am but I told him to just lie down quietly. He slept off again at 5am and woke up at 7. Kids brilliantly adjusted to the new clock. To begin the day, I took a sim card from T-mobile with Canada roaming. We then walked to Herald Square station took metro cards. We stood there perplexed, trying to understand the byzantine structure of metro system.  No one had time or willingness to explain to us. One bystander gave us a head start – read the map - and follow uptown and downtown directions to choose platform. Once you understand the metro map, it is very simple. You can explore the whole city with their metros. I should have downloaded the metro app and explored it before we traveled.

We were in a quandary between empire state building and top of the rock. We enquired about this at the hotel reception. With a snobbish reply from the desk, we were soon reminded not to expect hospitality in the US. A similar question in Georgia had a completely different tone of response from any mediocre three star hotel in Tbilisi.  Though Rockefeller takes you only up to 80 floors as against 120 in empire state, we chose Rockefeller based on reviews from trip advisor.  I called up maapi (Ram) – old friend of mine. We met for lunch after enjoying nice view of NYC from Rockefeller tower. Ram is always an enjoyable company; particularly I was meeting him after a decade. He gave few excellent ideas – museum of natural history, whirlpool jet boat in Niagara River and Ben Jerry factory tour in Vermont.

We ambled across diamond district to 5^th avenue - one of the renowned luxury shopping avenues in the world.  We boarded a bus to Times Square. It rained heavily for 15-20 mins. We came back to room around 7ish to end the long day.

Second day in NY - we started little late and went to museum of natural history. It was a science museum and a very interesting one too. Both Shiva and I wanted to spend a lot time there. One hour long queue for tickets, 25$ additional cost of tickets for vedha which is of no use and practically one of us would waste time running behind vedha – all of these made us quash the idea. We walked out to central park across the street. We had lunch in saravana bhavan which was 10 mins saunter from central park and took metro back to hotel. We weren’t so happy with the ponderous ambience at SB - little shabby, cluttered and definitely way below the one in Dubai. Yet for a full meals on growling bowel – who gives a damn about ambience. After brief siesta, we walked up to Times Square to spend the evening.

The third day was spent fully at ‘The Mills at Jersey Gardens’ – an outlet mall in New Jersey. Our itinerary had a day reserved for outlet mall. Woodbury common was a popular outlet mall; promoted even as a tourist attraction. However, it cost a whopping $40 person for bus tickets. So I decided to stick to 'the Mills'. We took the bus at port authority bus station. The system of boarding the bus was quite impressive. It was similar to boarding a train. Besides, it’s very frequent, very convenient and just took 30 mins to reach the mall.

Next day, Statute of liberty was the plan. I had booked pedestal access a week in advance. Since weatherman had predicted rain, the ticketing area wasn’t that crowded. Thankfully it was bright and sunny at the Island. A pleasant 20 minute cruise takes you to statue first, Ellis Island next and drops you back at Battery Park. Both pedestal and the statue were enjoyable. We had cheese pizza for lunch at the café in the Island. There was a long queue for taking Ferris back to NY. We were lucky to be the last passenger group to board the yacht from the first group – otherwise it would have been grueling tan of my skin for another 20 minutes under the radiant sun. We decided to skip Ellis Island museum and instead do Wall Street. After a short break at Battery Park, we walked to 911 memorial, one WTC, and Wall street. We took the metro to Brooklyn bridge next. Knackered legs, calescent queues, crowded bridge and soaring mercury – all of these sapped out our enthusiasm. We walked up to a point where you can a get decent view of Manhattan Bridge and a nice photograph to call it a day.

The last day was just empire state building (from outside), central park, and Macy’s store (supposedly largest store in the US). I was wondering why it was so disorganized. You will find same brands, same collection in two different levels; washroom only in some levels; a complex route to the coffee shop inside. While Shiva and kids headed back to room, I went to Penn station to confirm our tickets for next day’s Amtrak to Niagara. Penn station gave me the feeling of a Bombay churchgate station, where swathes of people run – literally run! across all directions to catch the trains – like a movie in fast forward.

The Mesmerizing Niagara

Our train to Niargara departs at 6.40am from Grand Central. This time I made sure to book Uber. Grand Central station was listed as one of the attraction in NY. Sure it was!.  After boarding the train I realized, the booking was only till Niagara falls USA, however we have booked the Airbnb on the Canadian side. After the train departed, I called up Amtrak and changed it to Niagara Ontario station. Sri also suggested that as it would save atleast 60 mins at border crossing. The train journey up to Albany was frabjous. It went right on the banks of Hudson river with breath-taking mountain behind the river. Rainy and cloudy weather puffed up the scenery outside – icing on the cake.

After brief 15 minute queue to complete the immigration, we set our foot on the Canadian soil for the first time. It was around 4pm. Sri was waiting for us with the ford expedition. Serendipitously, we got a free upgrade from minivan to full size SUV.  There was one glitch though – the AC was not throwing in front seats (only). We were guided by ‘Enterprise’ that we could exchange the car anywhere in Canada enroute, wherever there is a full size SUV available. I was so eager to get behind the wheel right away. But this was Sri’s backyard, so it was wise let him take the wheel throughout Niagara.  The Airbnb I had chosen was 10 minute drive to falls. It was two bedroom villa with full fledged kitchen. We were quite enchanted with the house. The next two days plan was well laid out and we stuck to it. We completed maid of the mist (horn blower cruise -as called from Canadian side) that day. The yacht went so close to the falls. I was spellbound and agog over the beauty of it – truly unbelievable. I enjoyed some incredible views from top, whilst Sri walked up to fetch the car from parking. You get the complete view of horse shoe from the Canadian side only.

The next day we did the cave of the winds – that’s on the American side. It was a Sunday, so it took longer than we expected at the border crossing, which resulted again in scouting for a parking away from the main parking lot. Similar to previous day, Sri dropped us, so that we could stand in the line for tickets, and thereby save some time. It’s been ages since I stood under a waterfall. The last was time we experienced a waterfall was in Karnataka – western ghats – called manikhadara which was on a top of a cliff – 9 years ago. For kids its the first time.  This is the last stream of fall on the American side – earned the moniker “bridal veil” for the appearance of it. From the top of the falls, an elevator takes you down and a small walk way will lead you to the tail end of the falls where you can stand there right below the splatter. Even the tiny stream was so voluminous that it hammers you from the top, which makes is impossible to face up - rather you can only expose your back to the water. It was magical to see the might of the falls from right below. We just could not leave that place. We went on and on for more than an hour until our avidity for relishing the splendour was partially assuaged with some physical exhaustion.   

At 5pm, we had booked for Niagara wihrpool jet boat ride. We just had enough time to drop Shiva’s parents and Vedha home and go directly to the pickup point for the cruise. This was an adventure activity. Down the Niagara river, a jet boat, which was big enough to carry 15-20 people, zigzags into the whirlpools in the river. Gleaming blue sky, the emerald green water, the ferociously river between two cliffs, the depth of 150 ft, jet boat at full speed, the zig zag stunts, the sight of cyclopean whirpools, and water splashing on you making you dripping wet head to toe – we were thrilled to pieces. Perhaps the best experience of the whole trip. The intensity of whirpool is categorized into classes based on the intensity. They took us 6 times into the class 5 whirpool. We did see class 6 whirlpool from some distance. Thank God it was illegal to go into that – surely an impenetrable one. Vidur had super fun with us. Thanks to my NY buddy (Ram) for suggesting this.

The next day we checked out around 11ish. The ford expedition had room in rear for some 8 suitcases/bags, a stroller and seven of us!.  Atweel, this is a dreamboat – particularly in road trips with big group.  I wanted to do journey behind the falls - the last activity left in Niagara. Shiva and her dad were not that keen. Parking- again - is a nightmare around the falls in summer. It was around 12.30 by the time we reached the ticketing counter. The next available tour was at 2pm. After a bit of quandary, we decided to do it since there was nothing compelling in Toronto that day to cover. They have dug a tunnel behind the falls on the Canadian side (one end of horse shoe). Though you cannot see anything from behind the falls, it was truly an immersive experience to feel the force of water, once again. The end of tunnel leads to a small portico which lands you right at the end of falls. Ponchos were truly useful in sparing us from another change of dress. Another squiz at the beauty from a touching distance. I was glad that we did not miss this.

We set forth further into true Canadian territories – Toronto which was a 2.5hr journey from Niagara, with Sri behind the wheel.

The pivotal part of the trip (Niagara) was so successfully and satisfying, I was a skosh complacent to cover ‘places’ during the rest of the trip.

Defeasible two days in Toronto

With frequent pit stops, we reached our Airbnb home around 9ish at night. The house was in Markham – 30 minutes to the north of Toronto. Apart from downtown Toronto we did not have any other specific itinerary for next two days. Sri schmoozed about African lion safari during our road trip to Toronto. I reserved the second day of Toronto for the lion safari. Toronto also has an Indian dominated suburb - missisauaga.  Needless to say it has lot of south Indian food joints. One popular dosa corner called Gurulukshmi, which, I have heard so much from Harish (shiva’s cousin in Boston) while he was in Dubai. Sri and his parents were not any less gung-ho about it. Therefore it became a mandatory part of our Toronto itinerary. Shiva had planned to meet up with Parul & family, one of our motor city friends who were coincidentally touring Toronto. We thought it would be a good idea to call them over to gurulukshmi.  All the hoopla around it educed interest in Shiva and me to experience the meal. To our awe, we were denied a table for 11 on that day and only available slot was at 7pm for that day - that for 7 seats max. what rubbish!. Our folks were so desperate that day to ingurgitate dosas in gurulukshmi that they decided to ditch Parul & co.  Unfortunately to reach missisuaga we had to navigate 1.5hrs of traffic – one way.  We fortunately reached on time. Food was, no doubt, excellent by any standards. However, was it really worth spending 3 hours just for a meal? For God’s sake – I don’t want to throw my two cents here!  

We dropped Shiva’s dad for a sojourn at one of his childhood friend’s place - in missisuaga. I was reluctant to call my cousin Priya – simply because we have seen each other just once in life. We had no contact whatsoever. I only knew she is somewhere in Toronto.  I called her next day only to hear that she stays in Mississauga! not in Toronto. I had a long chat with her over the phone. I was reeling with guilt and shame for not meeting her having gone all the way to mississuaga to eat a goddamn dosa.

By the time we started the day it was 12 noon. Google maps then advised us travel time to lion safari increased to 1.5hrs which was 45mins when I had checked little early in the morning. Besides they would shut down by 5pm; so we decided to do the lesser alternative - the Toronto zoo; which was just 20 mins away - primarily for kids.

We headed back home by 4. Instead of downtown Toronto, Shiva and I preferred to visit an outlet mall in Vaughan hoping for some quick wins. We also visited enterprise twice en-route to these places scouting for a change of vehicle, in vain. Besides misguiding Sri that the vehicle can be changed anywhere in Canada, they had also informed an additional driver cannot be added in advance. Therefore Sri had not added me as additional driver envisaging an extra cost of $25 per day. Next day, en-route to Ganonoque (1000 islands), Shiva had to step into enterprise to make this work; albeit Sri and her Dad were quailing. Even I was flummoxed - why were they considering this expiatory when you are not at fault. They think it’s otiose to scuffle with them. NO!. Her intervention did make a difference; it started with a 10% discount in rental price and ended at 25% discount. I also added my name as an additional driver free of cost. I enunciated my yearning to drive - loud and clear and asseverated that I would take the wheel from now on.

Birthday at the Scenic Ganononque

Aug 9^th – we had a small cake cutting before departed from Toronto. We reached 1000 islands by around 4.30pm. We realized we were little late. I had booked 2 rooms in colonial resort & spa. Beautiful property cloistered away from hustle, with all facilities such as tennis, swimming, sauna, etc. We decided to do the 2 hour cruise instead of 4 hour one. The eponymous neighbourhood borders US and Canada with the lake in between and 1000 islands sprawled across the lake. The cruise started at around 6pm and took us around one end of 1000 islands. A quiet scenic birthday ended with some home-made rice and chips for dinner.

Off to Montreal - the French connection

We were quite disappointed with the gormless breakfast next day in the resort. There was practically nothing but bread and bagel. We checked out around 11. I took the wheel to Montreal. Montreal was a french colony. It is one of the few bilingual cities in the world. It is a mini France within Canada. We reached Montreal airbnb apartment by 3ish. We found that the building had a lock for which we did not have a code. The landlord of Airbnb was not picking calls. Unfortunately, Sri hadn’t confirmed that morning with landlord, however in my view, the landlord is still responsible to send the code us well in advance. She responded to a watsapp message that she is busy till 4pm. With two senior citizen, two kids, loads of luggage and a long journey –our forbearance was at its nadir. Again Shiva’s interference eventuated in some chinki opening the door for us in some 30 mins time. To my surprise, even now Sri wasn’t capitulating. I agree – it is better to avoid any sort of squabble; nevertheless Shiva’s puissant tone did make a difference once again.

There was nothing much to do for three days in montreal, hence I had suggested a day trip to Quebec city, which both my bosses (in Dubai) had suggested. There was only one issue – its three hour drive from Montreal one way. Shiva evinced her interest clearly to cover Quebec, though others were a bit indifferent. After lot of cogitation, her dad dropped out of the day trip as he was a bit under the weather.  Quebec turned out to be one of the finest place we visited in Canada. It was quaint, charming, serene, up-hill and an europeanish feel to it. The old town was brimming with tourist. We instantly felt we should have spent more time staying in the town. I also got to drive the beast for about 400 miles in one day.

We did old town of montreal twice during the other two days. We did the giant wheel ride adjacent to old town -an utter disappointment. We did some souvenir shopping at the old town to mark the end of Montreal.

Sharath had repeatedly told me about the popularity of Montreal bagels. The rest of the crew wasn’t so keen. However, upon my insistence, the final day morning we picked up some excellent bagels from bagel shop before embarked on our journey to the final destination – Boston. The bagels were so delectable, that I felt we should have done a brunch in one of those 3 days.

The much awaited Boston

My NY friend Ram had given another brilliant suggestion – Ben & Jerry factory tour in Vermont. Boston is 6 hours from Montreal but the wretched border took 1.5hrs more. Vermont is enroute (mid-point precisely) to Boston. Kids enjoyed the tour and ice cream snack at the end of the tour. It gave a nice break and a different flavour to the itinerary. The drive from Vermont to Boston, in the gloaming was a humdinger - surrounded by forest on both sides with uphill and downhill coming in tandem.

We reached Harish’s house by 9.30ish. I was looking forward to this final two days – simply to enjoy the brouhaha of 11 people in a 2 BHK home. Both the families have similar but complete unique de-rigueur to themselves. Both are staunch in their own ways.

I was peckish when we reached home at 9:30pm. We had a lovely spicy - rice, sambar, curry for dinner. Harish had made lot of sleeping arrangement plans which went higgledy-piggledy with 11 different preferences pouring in.

Whale watching, Harvard & MIT campus were the only to-dos in Boston. Harish was giving his orotund reviews about Boston attractions. He was pushing us for cape cod, in vain. We were too tired for any long journeys at this fag end. I incisively made him understand that Boston is not a tourist destination; it was never in the itinerary but for the little schatzi Priyanka and ofcourse - the merry of family gathering.

The next whole day we spent in Wrentham outlet village. Only Shiva's dad accompanied us to the mall. It was day well spent; well invested.

The penultimate day started with whale watching cruise from Boston harbour. It was again a unique experience going skosh deep into cerulean Atlantic spotting few hump-back whales and fortuitously a great white shark, that too very close to the yacht. We gleaned through Quincy market which was adjacent to the harbour. It was around 4ish by then. Harish had left home with his parents to Harvard square. After spending some 30mins inside the campus, we returned home exhausted and hungry.

Our flight was at 8.30pm on the last day. I went with Harish to Costco for an hour to pick some last minute bargains. Otherwise, the day went in packing and badinage with the family.

A comfortable empty flight brought us back at 7.30pm Dubai time. We did manage to sleep around 11pm hoping we were out of jet lag. Unfortunately this time, we had six days off in the following week of my return ensuing eid-al-adha (bakrid) festival. The jet lag tormented us for the whole of next week. We slept for 3 hours during the day and 4 hours during the night.

Thanks to God once again for a wonderful memory. Never imagined I would be so gifted to see the deiform Niagara. Shiva and Kids were brilliant in managing schedules, vagaries of climate, food, calescent queues in these attractions, etc. Having my in-laws did make a lot of difference to the trip – making it lot more engaging, unique and fulfilling – particularly for the kids. Thanks to Harish & Sowmya for the brobdingnagian hospitality.