Dallas.

We had been to Dallas, Texas to spend time (about 25 Hrs) with Lalitha's brother Krishnan & Family. It was a great time visiting a few temples as well as the Dealey Plaza, where John F Kennedy was assassinated in Nov 1963. There is a Museum on the 6th floor, from where Lee Harvey Oswald's bullets came!!  

We also took time to visit, President George W Bush Library / Museum. Krishnan did an awesome job of hosting us as well as taking us around on super developed Texas Infrastructure. (My first visit to Texas and the 20th US State I visited!)....... 

Karyasiddthi Hanuman, Dallas.. We also visited Guruvayoor temple....

Text of Speech JFK was to give a few hours later before he was silenced on 22nd Nov 1963.

The Cap was purchased, on 2nd Nov 2001, @Boston,JFK museum. No one can touch it, Not even Lalitha.!! I was sure I would visit Dallas, TX One day and preserved it to wear when I visit.. Mission Accomplished.! JFK was my all time favorite President, then Reagan and then Donald Trump.! Dubya is also up there (Scroll Below).. 

  

X Marks spot where Bullet entered the Motorcade from 6th Floor. Shot from my camera. 

What a tragedy! Within 90 minutes of losing her husband, (His Coffin in Cargo hold area!) Jacquiline stood and witnessed the oath taking of Vice President, Lyndon Johnson on Air Force 1. LJ became the only President sworn in by State Justice, rather than US Supreme court chief Justice. LJ ofcourse, A TEXAN!!! Sarah Hughes, who read the oath to LJ is the only woman ever to have sworn in a President.! At LJ's right, is the new first lady, Lady Bird..Hours later on reaching White House, Jackie noticed on her pink Chanel Suit Dress, JFK's Blood! 

The South Methodist university campus holds, George W Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

DUBYA (W)!!!! It was great sitting in that CHAIR!!!! They said, "Exact replica of OVAL OFFICE @ Dallas". I looked for the Winston Churchill statue; to test, if so.. and there it was facing the president !!!

Mr President, "WE HAVE A SITUATION" SIR, ahhahahahahh!!!!!

Regards

Karthik. 

Golden Gate and Alcatraz.

 Saturday 10th June, 2023 my 40 year dream turned in to reality.

In 1979, I read "The Golden Gate" by Alistair MaClean. The book is a plot to blow the Golden Gate Bridge if ransom is not paid by terrorists, when the American President and his 2 Arab guests were visiting the bridge. Such a masterful storytelling, made an impression on my as a 16 year old, that I decided that I should visit the place. While I had been to California a few times, I never got a chance to visit San Francisco taking detour and visit the most famous land mark which is about 85 years old now. Now that I am here finally, we decided to visit the Bridge and see its beauty. It was an amazing experience of walking about 3 miles both ways and enjoying the scenery of Hills, San Francisco skyline and skyscrapers besides looking at Alcatraz a mile away. Ofcourse, the weather was cold, windy, muggy sunnyless day. (It turned better after 2pm). Be aware that with road repairs etc. you may need to walk both ways which is about 3.5 Mile affair. 

I picked the Golden Gate book from the old booksellers shop a couple of hours before leaving Bangalore as I wanted to take pictures with the book at the famous site. 

We also visited the Alcatraz Federal prison which was closed in 1963 and is now a tourist spot. The 2 hrs spent were amazing. The audio tour (with electronic devices recreates the prison days!!)..... Glad we could make it. Alcatraz had notorious Al Capone had its guest besdies 3 in famous who made good of their escape on 11th June 1963 which the movie "Escape from Alcatraz" was filmed. 

Week 3 USA. (1st to 8th June 2023).

 

Relatively quiet week. The weather is getting better with more sunshine, of course, the maximum temperature never above 20C  which is cold by our standards!! Nice feeling is Sunset at 9pm, which gives a long day to work things and hit bed later and still be up at 4am sharp as usual ! 

++++

1. I am getting used to heating stuff in an induction coil stove. Unlike Gas, where switching off supply cuts fuel, here the residual heat makes things heat up for good 3-5 min more, which I found out the hard way by letting out milk boil over after I switched off supply, and moved to do other things without noticing what is happening to milk.
2. I find Ergonomic mat on the kitchen floor an awesome one, giving comfort to the feet while cooking. I plan to order one back home when I land.

Visited Google, Apple complex. Lalitha is a proud mom when Shravan explains a few intricacies .

1. 
   
   At Apple visitor center, cafeteria (it is a replica of Apple Park one)
   Virtual reality of Apple Park thro Ipad @Apple visitor center. 
   
   Shravan took us to a mini golf course, 18 holes, (each hole course about 75 feet long with upslope, water,etc) took us 90 min on a bright sunny hot day. Interesting experience, Lalitha beat me by one stroke. Sangeetha was the winner. 

There is a 4 mile walking trail (For walking and cycling only)... at Foster City.  Great feeling to do a brisk walk without any worries of vehicles. 

Lalitha was given a tour of Costco, Target, Safeway for buying stuff and the massive scale of storage. The Costco at Sunnyvale is good 150,000 Sq ft floor space. The pack sizes are humongous even by American standards. Lalitha's first impression is Indian food stuff/ spices seem to be of better quality and cleaner than back home.! (She is amused by the soilless Coriander (Cilantro) and potato in shelves! and Carrot as sweet as sugar). 

It was great catching up again with Kirti Shravan (Shravan's namesake) here at SFO. Shravan and Kirti were batchmates at Columbia, New York and shared @Manhattan, an Apartment as well as tough Covid times. Kirti is from Bangalore & they connected before leaving for the USA in 2019. Kirti now pursuing Ph.D. at NY. 

Visited ISKCON and Kamakshi community center, Santa Clara. The Indian community's spiritual deep dive and involvement is amazing to see! 

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