This post has been long due. Wanted to post this a week back, but work is kind of hectic. So, could not post it. Anyways, to cut the story short, me and Chitra had been to San Antonio during the Oct 28/29 weekend.
San Antonio is the 7th biggest city in USA and has got a historic touch to it. Its around 3 hrs drive from Houston. The main attraction of the city is the “River Walk” area. Its a small river which flows right thought the heart of the city. There is a walkway around this river, and the walkway has all kinds of shops and restaurants on it. Nice place to spend a day! One more attraction is the Sea World water park. We spend our first day at the Sea World water park.
Here is a photo essay of the trip!
We started our trip with Sea World…
Sea World Entrance - Click to Zoom
Sea World Entrance - Click to Zoom
At Sea World, you can feed the dolphins!… but only during the feeding time. But we did manage to get pretty close to these wonderful creatures…
Sea World Dolphin - Click to Zoom
Next, we went to the Sea Lion Show. It was just Amazing. You need to see the show to believe what these wonderful creatures are capable of! The show was really funny and cute!
Sea World - Sea Lion Show - Click to Zoom
Sea World - Sea Lion Show - Click to Zoom
Sea World Sea Lion Show - Uncle Max - Click to Zoom
Next was the Shamu Show - Shamu is a huge whale and this show too was great. Below are some pics of the show…
Sea World - Shamu Show - Click to Zoom
Sea World - Shamu Show - Click to Zoom
Sea World - Shamu Show - Click to Zoom
Sea World - Shamu Show - Click to Zoom
Lady Selling some soft drinks - Click to Zoom
We saw one more show called “Viva”… it was the one with white whales and dolphins and some synchronized dancing!. Was good…
Sea World - White Whale - Click to Zoom
The last show that we saw was Water Ski Show. Saw some amazing stunts…
Sea World - Water Ski Show - Click to Zoom
Sea World - Water Ski Show - Click to Zoom
Then we spend some time on different rides… and this was the first one… the Roller coaster… was pretty exciting..
Sea World - Roller coaster - Click to Zoom
Sea World - Roller coaster - Click to Zoom
Sea World - Roller coaster - Click to Zoom
After Sea world, we checked into our hotel, and spent our evening at the River walk area… which was fully lit-up at night … Here are some snaps… of the same….
San Antonio - River Walk - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - River Center Mall - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - River Walk - Click to Zoom
The next day, again we went to the River Walk area, and took a boat ride…
San Antonio - River Walk - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - River Walk - Click to Zoom
There are Restaurants, and shops all along the River walk area… Nice place to shop and hang out…
San Antonio - River Walk - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - Restaurant on the River Walk - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - River Walk boat ride - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - River Walk - Theater - Click to Zoom
And here are some pictures of the buildings in the downtown area…
San Antonio - Downtown Area - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - Downtown Area - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - Downtown Area - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - Downtown Area - Click to Zoom
This was shot from the boat ride…
San Antonio - Downtown Area - Click to Zoom
Doesn’t this building look like a flat wall ?
San Antonio - Downtown Area - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - Downtown Area - RiverCenter Mall - Click to Zoom
The famous Alamo - This monument has its own place in the History of Texas …
San Antonio - The Alamo - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - The Alamo - Click to Zoom
Our last visit was to the Tower of the Americas. Its a 750 Foot tall tower, with a revolving restaurant at the top!. You get to see an amazing 360 degree view of the entire San Antonio Area!
San Antonio - Tower of the Americas - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - Tower of the Americas - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - From Tower of the Americas - Click to Zoom
San Antonio - Downtown area from Tower of the Americas - Click to Zoom
Hope you enjoyed the Virtual Tour of San Antonio! :)
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November 8th, 2006 at 11:43am
This post was long due. Finally found some time over the weekend to post this. Time flies by and its already a week now since this trip. The trip it self was fun.
Our Group: We were a group of 10. 3 Couples and 4 bachelors.
Travel time: appx 7.5 hrs drive - one way
Distance: appx 440 miles- one way
Vehicles: Chevrolet Uplander & Ford Taurus. The Uplander is sort of a mini van accommodating around 7 people. We couples were on the Uplander and the bachelors were on the other car - Ford Taurus.
We planned to start at around 2 PM on Friday, but somehow as usual we started at around 4 PM. :) The drive was pretty cool. Took some breaks on the way and we reached our destination at around 11.30 PM at night. Since it was a long weekend, we could not get any hotel rooms in Virginia Beach itself at a reasonable price. So, we had booked our rooms in hotels at Norfolk which is around 15 miles from Virginia beach. We stayed at the Hilton Norfolk Airport hotel.
Since we were all hungry, we decided to go out to some place to eat. IHOP was the restaurant of choice, but it was crowded. Finally we had to be happy with Wendy’s drive-in since most of the other restaurants had closed by then.
Day 1 - Saturday. Beach day. We were at the beach by around 11 AM I guess, and the beach was pretty crowded. Here are some snaps of the beach:
VA Beach - Click to Zoom
All along the shoreline there are hotels. Unfortunately we could not get accommodation in one of these hotels. But the rooms have a fantastic view of the sea!
VA Beach - Hotels on the Beach - Click to Zoom
VA Beach - Shoreline -Click to Zoom
Now this is what is called “Sun bath”…
VA Beach - Sun Bath - Click to Zoom
Hmmm…. Nice shot… What say ?
VA Beach - Hmm… Shhhhh!- Click to Zoom
There are lot of amusement rides on the beach - Jet skiing, Para-sailing and the boat ride shown below :
VA Beach - Pirates Boat Ride - Click to Zoom
At around 3 PM in the afternoon, we decided to go for Para-sailing. I was kind of determined to parasail when we first thought about this trip :)… …….. Para-sailing was fun. You must try it at least once in your life time. Here our snap - Me & Chitra
VA Beach - Para-sailing - That’s Me & Chitra - Click to Zoom
Towards the end of the ride, if you request, the operators will give you a dip in ocean. We had a nice dip. :) the water was ice cold, and we got half wet. But we got dried pretty soon since it was sunny. For me, Parasailing was the best part of the entire trip!
After Para-sailing, we spent some more time on the beach, and all of were pretty tired.
We then started back to our hotel & freshened up. We had decided to have food at an near by Indian restaurant called Dawat (also known as Nawab). The Non Veg food was kind of OK, but the Veg food sucked big time. Definitely not a place to go again :)…
Day 2: Sunday. Busch Gardens Amusement Park.
We started at around 10 AM to Busch Gardens Amusement Park. Its located at Williams burg, which is around 1 hr drive from Norfolk.
We had to drive via the Hampton Roads. Its land, then bridge over the ocean followed by a Tunnel under the ocean, bridge again, and then Land. Very beautiful.
Here is a Bridge over the ocean…
Bridge over the ocean - Click to Zoom
And then the Tunnel…
Tunnel under the ocean - Click to Zoom
This is how it looks on Google Earth - Satellite Image….
Google Earth View of bridge and the tunnel - Click to Zoom
As soon as we approached the exit to the Busch Gardens, we were kind of stuck in the traffic. There was a Major crowd…Looked like all roads led to the Busch Gardens….
Traffic to Busch Gardens - Click to Zoom
Finally reached…
Busch Gardens Entrance - Click to Zoom
Even though there was major crowd, the Amusement park was well planned to manage such crowds. There was ample parking space, and we did not have major problem parking our vehicles. There were trams to ferry people from the parking lots to the Amusement Park.
The Busch Garden Amusement park at Williams burg is based on “European” theme. The park is divided into different areas named after different European countries. And each of the country has its own set of Rides, Games and Shows.
Here is one of the theatres where shows are held….
One of the theatres in Busch Gardens - Click to Zoom
Busch Garden - Click to Zoom
Since it was very crowded, there was a wait time of around 20 mins to 45 mins on many of the popular rides. We did manage to sit on some of the rides. Here is one of the rides that we enjoyed… called the Dark Kastle. Its a 3D ride. Thrilling…
Dark Kastle - 3D Ride - Click to Zoom
Then we saw one of the shows called Oktoberfest … A dance performance…
OktoberFest Show - Click to Zoom
This was one of the rides.. where the water splashes…
One of the rides - Click to Zoom
The Amusement park is very big, and one would need at least two days to see the entire park and sit on all the rides. Unfortunately we did not have so much of time with us :(. But we did have fun all the time we spent there.
We started back to Norfolk at around 10 PM and reached Norfolk at around 11 PM. Finally found IHOP not so crowded. Had a heavy dinner at IHOP and crashed to bed.
Day 3: Return. Back to Kingsport. Started our journey back home at around 10 AM after having our breakfast at a local fast food joint. We reached Kingsport at around 6 PM in the evening.
All in all, a great memorable trip!
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June 5th, 2006 at 01:37am
The weekend passed by with a blink of an eye. This was by far the most memorable weekend in US. This was my second visit to a big city in US. The first one was Charlotte (around 2 weeks back). But the city of Houston is much bigger then Charlotte.
Almost everything went on as planned and I am writing this on an Airplane heading back to Kingsport. I started off on Friday evening from Kingsport at around 5 PM, and since there are no direct flights from Kingsport to Houston, I had to take a flight via Atlanta. The flight was pretty much on time, and I didn’t have too much of time with me to explore the Atlanta airport. Reached Houston at around 8.15 PM CST, pretty much on time.
We had made an online reservation couple of days back for a rental car for the weekend from National car rental. We had actually booked for a Compact car to go around. But when we went to pick up the car from National on Saturday, they told us that they did not have a compact car with them to offer us …. and guess what? … they upgraded it to a SUV for free. Jeep - Grand Cherokee. Wow… Both of us (me and Chitra) were thrilled!! Well … this was my first (major) driving, and what a vehicle to drive. It was almost brand new, with just 1750 Miles on it, and it rocked.
The rental Jeep that we got! - (Click to Zoom)
So, at around 9 AM on Saturday morning, we started our journey to the NASA Space center. Driving through the big city traffic thought a maze of flyovers and exits was a good experience and was much easier that I had actually thought. My wife had done all the homework of getting routes and maps to reach NASA. We reached NASA space center at around 9.40 AM. We had to wait for a couple of mins for the Space Center to open up, but that was not a problem.
Space center entrance - (Click to Zoom)
The NASA space center is a must see if you are to Houston, especially if you are interested in space, science and technology.
Controls Inside the Space Shuttle Cockpit - (Click to Zoom)
Controls Inside the Space Shuttle Cockpit - Top - (Click to Zoom)
Some Capsule - (Click to Zoom)
Lunar Vehicle - (Click to Zoom)
Skylab mockup - (Click to Zoom)
They showed us a couple of movies and then there was a Tram tour of the NASA facility at Houston. They showed us the Historic Mission control center, from where more then 100 space missions were controlled. They have preserved it with all the original equipments. i.e., we are talking about the equipments that were present in the 1960s and 70s timeframe.
The Historic Mission Control Center - (Click to Zoom)
After that, they took us to the current Mission control center. Actually there are two; one is for the space shuttle program, and the other one for the International space station program. And, since there is no Shuttle in orbit as of now, there were no people at the Shuttle mission control center. But we did see people working at the International space station Mission control center. Live. Real people. Real stuff! And everything is just state of the art!
Space Shuttle Mission Control Center - (Click to Zoom)
International Space Station Mission Control Center - (Click to Zoom)
From NASA space center we travel to a place near by called Kemah Board Walk. It’s a recreation center in the Galveston bay area. And that was too good. This place has a mini amusement park, and lot of fun. Both of us enjoyed it thoroughly.
Kemah Tower - (Click to Zoom)
From the top of the tower - (Click to Zoom)
Kemah Area - (Click to Zoom)
Kemah Parking - (Click to Zoom)
We specially enjoyed the “Beast” speed boat ride. It’s a super speed boat which can carry around 60 people, and it cruises at full speeds splashing water all over. In fact, many of the passengers sitting at the rear end of the boat get fully wet!
Boat Ride (not the one we rode on… this one is a slow moving boat)- (Click to Zoom)
Sunset - (Click to Zoom)
It was 6.30 PM by now, and we were already late. Actually, we had decided to have a dinner/get together with Chitra’s lovely & very helpful friends at a restaurant called London Sizzler on Hilcroft Ave. And we had a map with us showing how to go from our house to this place. But we did not know exactly where this place was. The map showed us the end point, but it wasn’t detailed enough. And the end result was, we were going round and round the same area to find the restaurant. And to make it worse, we did not have any contact numbers with us. (I know its stupid… but that’s precisely what Murphy’s Law states!) After around 45 mins of searching, going round and round, we managed to find the place. It was like so close but still far. We knew it was just somewhere round the corner, but just could not locate it.…. and by this time, all the people had already come and were waiting for us, and were worried too!
It was a major relief for us as well as all others to see each other
The food at the restaurant was good, but the company was better. We had a nice time chatting. The best part was the surprise at the end………:) A birthday cake! Yes… my birthday is just around the corner… March 7th.
My Birthday Cake - (Click to Zoom)
Was a wonderful evening! On the way back home from the restaurant to home, we made sure that we had numbers of all the people with us, and that we knew the route properly. Reached home safely at around 11.45 PMish.
Today morning we went out again, but this time to a shopping mall called “Galleria“. It’s a pretty big mall. We spend some 2 hours in the mall, had some food, went around etc. There is a huge Ice skating ring in the mall, but we weren’t adventurous enough to try it out (also, the timings for public staking did not fit our schedule).
We started back home at around 11: 30 AM. Returned our rental SUV back to Nationals at around 1 PM. Athul & Saki (Chitra’s friends) were kind enough to drop me back to the IAH airport. And that too on a Merc!! Wow!…
My return flight to Kingsport is via Cincinnati and it started of a bit late. I.e., by around 30 mins. But I have a 1.5 hr stop over at Cincinnati, which should take care of the delay!
All in all, a great weekend!
Update : Also I would say I am lucky to have some great friends at Kingsport!. Sugatha dropped me all the way to the Airport on Friday, and Andy picked me up on the way back!.. Had dinner at Andy’s house on saturday night. Thank you guys!
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March 7th, 2006 at 06:50am