Our America Tour - Part 1

America, the land of opportunities holds an unique attraction for people all over the world. For many, visiting America at least once is a life-time dream.  We had the fortune of undertaking a tour of this great country for a period of 20 days from 2nd Sep 2019.

We are thankful to our good friends Ms. Ragini Darshan and Mr. Darshan, who have settled in US,  for instilling in us the desire to tour US by repeatedly sending us affectionate invitations. We chose to visit their home first at Princeton, New Jersey before joining the 12-day conducted tour of a well-known tourist operator. We felt highly honored to be received by the great couple at Newark Airport, New Jersey (pic 3, top row above).

Our host's residence built of wood, stood on a plot of 1.25 acres of a virgin forest. Entire colony is a forest. No street lights here to leave the environment unperturbed. Cutting trees is a big no. Tender animals like deer are frequent visitors! Living with them gave us an insight in to the way of life Americans prefer to live and their concern for environment.

We started exploring US under the guidance of our host, by visiting Dukes Park at Hillsborough, NJ.  J.B.Dukes (1856-1925), a leading industrialist has developed this 3000 acre park for the cause of environment. Compare this to 'big people' in India who encroach thousands of acres of forest land every year for selfish use!  The park open to public, is a green beauty to watch which is the home for many rare plants, trees and animals.

Next day our friend took us to Edison National Historic Park.  Edison is the greatest scientist of 20th century who is better known as the inventor of the 'electric bulb'.  His inventions in the fields of power generation, mass communication, motion pictures and sound recording have revolutionized the world.  He holds the unique record of over 1100 patents for his inventions.  Visiting his house of residence and laboratory of research was a special experience. Antique car (pic 2 in top row) seen above was gifted to Edison by his good friend and scientist Ford during early 1900s. The car is in running condition even today!

Mr. Darshan (with red shirt) induced me to go for a bit of adventure of climbing the nearby Sourland Mountain. Being a Sunday, I saw quite a good number of natives venturing to climb the hill.  Many of them were cycling to go up with their pet dogs.  Americans prefer to enjoy their week ends to the fullest extent.

Spending a few days with our friends gave us the confidence to take up an independent trip to Boston (through a local tour operator) for 2 days.  Boston is a very nice city with many parks and monuments.  In this tour we also had the opportunity to visit Harvard and Yale (2nd pic, top row) universities. Earlier we had visited the nearby Princeton University (3rd Pic, top row) wherein our dear son Dr. Subhash had done his post-doctoral research.

On 11th Sep, before joining our tour party, we visited the famous Museum of Natural History, one of the most visited museums of the world at Washington D.C.  How nature evolved is the theme of the museum.  Nature includes both living and non-living beings.

The museum collections include 126 millions of specimens of plants, animals, rocks and minerals.  The museum is also the research lab for about 185 natural scientists.

After joining the tour party, our first visit was Air & Space Museum. The museum is the research center for history of aviation and space travel.  The heroes of the museum include Wright brothers (inventors of aeroplane) and Neil Armstrong (first man to land on moon). The museum includes innumerable interactive models to highlight various scientific facts related to air and space travel. Playing with a few of them was an experience of 'fun and learn'.

Washington D.C. (D.C. stands for District of Colombia which contains the city of Washington) is known for its historic monuments.  Second World War memorial (pic with fountain) includes tributes to thousands of soldiers from different states of the US, who laid down their lives.  But I didn't observe any mention of the thousands of soldiers from other countries, who too have laid down their lives for the cause of US-led alliance.  India alone has lost about one lakh soldiers in this ugly war fighting for the US-alliance.

The capitol (lowest in pic above) which houses legislative assemblies of the US,  the official residence of the US President- White house and Lincoln memorial are interesting to watch.

We were fortunate to travel together with 47 enthusiastic and friendly passengers, mostly from Namma Bengaluru. They were all persons from different walks of life who had all fulfilled most of their life goals.  Moreover every one of them was creative in many fields of life and were good presenters too.  Long bus journeys were God sent opportunities for lively interactions and songs. I too was an active participant and I am thankful that our tour friends over a period of time gave me the role of compere for the journey performances.

Our US tour continued for ten more days.  I assure that I will provide you further details by next week.  In the meanwhile I wish you all 'a happy World Tourism Day' (27th Sep).  Your thoughts on this occasion are most welcome.

Why two beds in US hotel rooms which accommodates only one couple?

This question has certainly haunted the minds of US-travelers. I invite our friends to upload below/or whatsapp their views on this interesting puzzle! (My whatsapp No. +91 98455 62603, e-mail id-klakshminarayana1956@rediffmail.com).  I am sure this debate generates loads of fun!
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