4th of July Fireworks in COVID times

We wrapped up the BIL's family visit with an entire day at Great America theme park which finally ended with some amazing fireworks..

Given all the walking San had done to that point, she was now on a cast and in a wheelchair. So that was interesting in itself. Great America is not designed to be friendly for people who have casts but the kids who manned the rides did their best to accomodate. They gave a list of rides that were safe for her and we took her only on those rides. San was actually smiling most of the time she was being wheeled around.. the irony of the situation was also making me laugh every now and then!

Great America is a poor mans Disney.. and you get to see that the poor man who visits this park is at least 3 sizes larger than the average person visiting Disney. 4 of 5 people you cross are walking with a struggle, are obese and in general show poor health just by looking at them. We saw many rides go down because the rides got stuck or people got stuck in the seats and had to be retrived. That apart, we went on a handful of rides which were in general safe and were not going to get stuck. BIL, me and Jr. spent one hour on a line when they shut it down and sent us back. We still put on a smile and went about the rest of the day.

The place is beautiful with all the fountains and floral arrangements.. 

The smile from the kids made up for all the standing in lines and josting for space with the wheelchair.

While Jr., the little one and BIL made it through some of the risky rides, the rest of us split up and did different things. My MIL and me went on the rotating tower and got a birds eye view of silicon valley. My old office is right behind this part and my new office was also visible. 

the day ended with fireworks. We got great shots on an iPhone with the right setting.. 

A few shots of the fireworks in a slide show.. Most of them were taken on an iPhone

 

and a video of the highlights of this day trip.

We had a great time the entire day, except for the exit out of the park. The design of the exit and the procedure leaves a sour taste.. Everyone was trying to exit the park after fireworks. There were no traffic cops to get any order. It was a free for all towards the exit after being in a gridlock for 1 hour. Finally we made it out and home closer to 11:30 PM when the fireworks had ended at 9PM and we had sat in our car at 9:15! It is a 15 minute ride back home on a normal night! If there is one thing they could fix immediately, it is the directing of vehicles out of the park.

Our hope is that we eventually make it to Disney with the kids(?! at heart) soon, once the delta variant makes its exit. Till then, we will always have memories of this Great America trip, when it comes to roller coasters, fireworks and parking lot exits! 

Moneys worth for a local day well spent!

Couple of hours at the Oakland Zoo

It was raining in the morning and outside temperatures were in the high 30's. We had made plans earlier to walk around Berkeley and then go on to the Oakland Zoo by noon. The weather was not something we factored in.

So we whiled away the morning indoors with the kids playing Kinect and then the sun came out! It was warm enough to walk outside without a jacket. It was already 11:30 AM.

With a rush of last minute enthusiasm we declared "even if we get to spend only two hours at the Zoo, so be it! Let us go" and we drove off to Oakland.

The weather was perfect to walk around and we got to spend exactly two hours at the zoo. We knew we were going to cover a small section of the zoo and let the kids go at their own pace till the zoo officials kicked us out at 4PM.

We were in for a treat. The lions and tigers were at their active best as were the macaws! The rest of the cages and enclosures were empty but thanks to the skyride we were able to figure out which enclosures had active animals and go see those.

Here are some pictures, thanks to the 70-200mm lens and the 2x extender which was used extensively on this trip. The wife and kids as well as BB family gave the photos a two thumbs up..

The small play area with the frogs and tortoises brought back so many memories of our last trips to the same zoo..

The little one still has the same fascination for the golden lion at the exit after four years!

The kids got their share of "rides"..

Finally for the photographs of the Tigers and Lions. Have never been able to get them like this in any zoo trip so far! Must have been my lucky day..

As far as wild animals go this is what we got to see. So in line with the S.Ve. Sekar joke,

Question : Can you name 10 wild animals?

Answer : 5 Tigers and 5 Lions!

you get 5 photographs of the Tigers and 5 of the lions.

Well, let's make that six pictures of the Tigers as this last one is too good to not post on the blog!

Our short visit in video.. The 70-200 converted to a 140-400 may be great for pictures but it is not easy to shoot video with such a huge lens combination. Holding it steady in your hand becomes quite a challenge.

The next visit might be a few years down the road for all we know. One thing is for sure. If you want a place where kids can have some outdoor fun, the Oakland zoo will always make it to the top 5 in our list!

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Global Winter Wonderland

This year we have a new Christmas attraction that is local. A "Global Winter Wonderland" in the parking lot area of the Great America Park in Santa Clara.

Guess they bought all the props from the Beijing Olympics at garage sale prices and set it up in Santa Clara. The whole thing was like a Chinese Christmas celebration with "Chineseized" doll displays of American icons including Disney themes!

The "Global" was thanks to the following displays and they were all very impressive.

The ticket prices were a rip off considering there was separate tickets (3$ a ticket per kid per ride) and an entrance ticket of 9$/person on discount! There should have been no entrance tickets for the kids and that would have come close to being fair. Nevertheless, we had already promised the kids that we were going there and we had no choice in the matter once there.

We made the most of a very cold evening and spent a good 3 hours wandering around the light displays, taking photographs and having the kids go on a few rides and try some of the carnival type attractions.

The kids were happy and tired enough to eat a speedy dinner and go to bed fast. So from that stand point it was a good deal! Next year we will be back to Christmas in the park. For all we know, might still take the kids there one of these days.

Some snippets of the three hours caught on video..

Next year if this attraction is still there, might go only if there are some discounted tickets... then again the rest of the family thought it was okay for the price we paid.

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Remlinger Farms - Day trip from Seattle

We had half a day to spend with the kids before the entire group showed up at Seattle two weeks ago and that meant a local visit to some form of amusement.

Remlinger farms was highly recommended by our friends in Seattle and off we went.

It was a really neat place with lots of rides for kids including a cute mini roller coaster... (trains, cars, mini boats)

carousels, ferris wheels, pumpkin rides...

Little displays of tribal Indian stuff (carvings, tepe's etc.), a haystack maze, a little sing along concert (which the kids really enjoyed) etc. etc.

and of course pigs, turkeys, sheep, etc. etc. The FARM ANIMALS!

That turkey was the safest for daddy (well enclosed!)

Daddy did blotch it by trying to feed the farm animals and got allergy symptoms for the last hour of the trip. On hind sight, should have just disappointed the kids when they asked me to feed the animals.

Note to family...

Superman : kryptonite :: Sundarman : pygmy goats

The grand finale for this farm trip was the pony rides. The little one went for back to back trips and even memorized the names of all the ponies there. Both kids had a really good time and the adults were happy to see them giggle with glee.

On the whole, this place is strongly recommended for a bright sunny day in Seattle!

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Dizzee World !!!

We went to Dizzee World for an afternoon. No.. not Disney in LA, Dizzee in Chennai on our recent trip to India. With the kids that was more than we hoped to pull off on a hot weekday.

This place is relatively expensive by Indian standards. I have only visited VGP amusement park in the past in Chennai, that too in 1993!! Now there are almost 15 of these parks on the East coast road! This is the first time, I have actually made time to visit one of the parks.

We were greeted at the entrance by a mickey look alike.. lets call him Mikcey !


I really dont know if MGM (the Metro Goldwyn Meyer) owns or has a stake in Dizzee world.

We went on the giant wheel first. It was really nice. Jr., who is supposed to be Dora's next avatar, was actually scared of the giant wheel..

but baby!!! what a surprise! She really enjoyed it. Everytime we all got butterflies in our stomach, she let out peals of laughter and was giggling away.

Here are some views from the top of the giant wheel..






Then of course were the little harmless rides which Jr. went for with her mom. These are the same standard (looks, maintenance, everything) to rides in our local parks here in the Bay area (Bonfante gardens or Kelley Park!)


The themes and decorations were cute. Here is Jr. taking a break between rides .

They had a whole section of games where you toss rings around bottles and win prizes , etc. etc. But the people who man those booths were all missing. Gone for lunch!! A two hour lunch (we just gave away those coupons to the doorman while exiting).

Then, we had Jr. go on some really kid safe rides, like the carousel and Cinderella rides..




It was a weekday and the place was almost empty. Then a bunch of school kids came out of nowhere. Must have been a school excursion or picnic. Jr. suddenly found herself josling for a place on some rides. She was a natural "jostler"!

After the school crowd left, we once again were left to enjoy the empty rides. She got an unlimited ride! on the train and played in the video arcade to her hearts content. Only 50% of the machines worked. The rest had a notice on them which said "I am sick"!! But we had plenty of machines to play with and had them all to ourselves. Incidentally the arcade was the only air conditioned building in the park. So we enjoyed the break from the sun.

Then there were the rides from hell. I avoided all those rides. My brother came out of one and described his experience as one similar to an ant who has just come out of a mixer!

Just when we were about to exit the amusement park, San spotted the mother of all rides. She tried to get me on the ride. Mr. Chicken promptly refused and she insisted on going alone!

They couldnt have a solo rider, so the operator went and found one of his buddies to balance San on the other side of the ride. Then things got worse. The ride went on and on and it didnt look like it was going to stop. San started screaming from the top. We started screaming from the bottom. I suspected some foul play and my brother went rushing to the top. The belt had broken!! They had to switch off the mains and let the thing come to a stop on its own. San must have set the record for the longest ride on the swing chairs. She couldnt walk properly for some time.

I avoid these rides for a reason. At the end of the day, they are not safe! In my first 4 years in California we had seen two accidents. One in the Great America Park where a kid flew out of the "drop zone" (the very next day after we had gone on the same ride !) and another kid flew out of the Jurassic Park ride in Universal studios!! I was really getting knots in my stomach when I realized that something was wrong and was just glad that they knew how to locate the main switch!!

On the whole Dizzee was a good experience, except for that one ride. The kids and the adults had a great time..