This blog is to maintain an account of my travel experiences, whether it is business or pleasure.. there are things I wish to remember.. when I'm old and am not sure whether I will travel as much!

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

A Monumental Experience

The story so far.... Continued from Part 2: Night Riders Part 1: 1000 Days and Still Tripping
The Travel Scrabble caught our attention from the moment we entered the living room. So, as the others were getting ready, Sowmiya, Rathish and I got down to business and picked up our pieces and the game began. Even as we were all setting our pieces on the holder, I began cribbing about the rules! They never sent it to me by email in advance! The 'official' rules of Scrabble never appealed to me from a vocabulary sense, it was more of a selfish game and all to do with strategy. The rules we used to play with, during Columbus Reunion, was the one I am used to, so there was some fine tuning to be done, going into this game.

Within the first few moves, the brains of her baby, a.k.a my nephew (or niece), became evident, as she raced away to a HUUUGE lead, much larger than the scores of Rathish and me put together. She played the game with the same Mastery as Vishy Anand in Chess, but her opponents here were no less than Karpov or Kasparov ;-) She took control with her dominance over the closed board and with some help from the pieces. But, from then on, it was always going to be a fight for the second spot. It was a fight to the finish between the two of us and the game kept swinging between "advantage Ram" and "advantage Rat" and finally in the last move, Rathish took the 162-160 lead, just like Aamir Khan in Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. I am not even going into Sowmiya's score. But you guys realize... its all because of the rules! ;-)

We had a heavy lunch which was preceeded by a heavy breakfast, so we were understandably a trifle reluctant before we set off. The destination was The Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma. It was a pretty late start, and we were within 2 hours of closing before we got to the gate. So, we were beginning to think whether the time was going to be enough. Our thoughts were cut short by what we saw through the windows. The breath-taking sight of the ocean on one side directly down below and the hill on the other side, was simply something I am used to seeing only in BMW or Lexus ads. I used to wonder whether such places ever exist, but now, I am convinced! We were all at loss of vocabulary to describe what we saw. I would have failed in the Scrabble game miserably, if I were to play at that moment (as if I did not screw up, even under normal circumstances!). Subha ended the silence with a summary: "This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen!". I think it was a fairly accurate summary for me too. We were really hesitant to accelerate and were barely going at 5 miles an hour and even that seemed too fast! Awesome!

We drove all the way down to sea level and Subha was uncontrollable at the sight of waves hitting against the rocks! She ran all the way down to the farthest rock to get her legs washed by the waves of the Pacific! Sai, aunty, Sowmiya and baby had no hesitation in doing the same! Rathish and I had a wonderful time with the camera and the camcorder. I was so thankful to Mother Nature to have given me this instant in time, where I could relish the air, the water, the sky, the rocks, the technology and this life at the same instant!!

After having spent quite some time and realizing that we can never have enough of this experience, reality set in and we had to leave very reluctantly. We were looking back all the time. Atleast we have Rathish's camcorder footage that captures the essence of this beauty to relive it. The sound of the waves hitting against the rocks and the carvings alongside the coast line rocks made this really memorable. We drove all the way up to the Old Point Loma lighthouse. There was a neat little exhibit, that described the workings of the lighthouse, some history about this specific lighthouse, etc. It was good education and some fascination.

Then, there was an exhibit inside the lighthouse. We were excited and were led to believe that we could grab an "operator's eye view of the Pacific, but looking at Rathish and Sai's expressions, as they descended the narrow stairs leading out of the lighthouse, I was convinced that it was not quite the same as what we had fathomed. Aunty summarized it in a few words: "cha... onnumey illai". It was probably the operator's humble quarters within the lighthouse.

We went closer to the Cabrillo monument, but instantly our eyes went towards the inland San Diego, as it was seen over the Coronado Island. It was a wonderful sight of Downtown San Diego, the airport and the rest of the land over the Pacific backwaters. A few sailboats racing across the waters provided topic of discussion as we sat down admiring the beauty from the high hills on this national monument. I can best describe this experience as "monumental".

We then headed to the Seaport village, which is a small ensemble of antique/gift shops, restaurants and activity by the ocean. It was a pretty good place to hang out and we filled our growling tummies with Fries, Rings and coffee. It was nice to get something warm by the ocean besides getting our parking tickets validated for Free parking ;-) Fatigue was slowly creeping into the Bay Area delegation as we headed back home. We took a small nap as aunty ushered Sowmiya and Sai to her hilltop friend's place for a "tea party" ;-) As we woke up, we realized that they had missed us out there, so I assured aunty, that I'd go there with her the following day, if necessary.

We began watching Mumbai Express, the latest Kamal Hassan flick, after dinner, but since we had to watch it on the laptop, thanks to an infidel DVD player, it was not inspiring enough for a tired audience. So, after having a brief chat, we all consigned to our dreams. End of a long but super day, it will be "etched in my heart forever"!

Continued: Part 4: 858 Wet Ramp

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