The Vacation Impressions
It has been more than a month since I had my last post in to the blog. . For good reasons . I took off on vacation for three weeks . I have never been off from my work that long ! Did I miss work ? Not really. Why ? I was wired all the time . But I did stop writing the blog and enjoyed the lovely break from routine with family , relatives and friends .
Why no break from work ? Can we get away in the current Techie Mad World -- NO !!
With the technology support that is available , the need to stay connected is very high. So, I packed my laptop , soft phones and accessories along with my packing for the vacation trip. It proved so useful and I did not repent for carrying the Laptop. I also cannot imagine coming back from this long holiday to be up and running at work from day one which is the normal expectation.
My daily email traffic is very heavy ( in my own terms ) and I cannot imagine having to clear a backlog of fifteen work days.. I also used the time zone to my advantage to work on my vacation and stay connected. Also , I found ability to connect in, wherever I was and that worked again to my advantage. Family was not too much upset at my slotting in work because I did it only for a specified time and then the time zone advantage kicked in and there would be no prompt on my Blackberry for incoming emails. Ideal situation Eh ? No, There were prompts and important ones that I could not ignore on my holiday ( Read between the lines.. Pun intended )
Anyways, The vacation was great. It was great because it went as per plan except for a day when the weather ( Tornadoes ) threw our schedule out of gear. We were stranded at the airport with our luggage gone and had to manage a day with what we wore. The Airline that we travelled was most unsympathetic and most unhelpful. Planning for the trip began six months ago and we may have done more than five or six schedules that were torn up and redone again until we got the current one that we used. My wife did a great job in doing benchmarking , choosing the best dates and then left the booking of tickets and hotels and most important, the financials matters to me !!
We travelled to Minneapolis , Florida ( Disney ), Tampa ( to meet a old friend ) , Dallas , back to Minneapolis before going to Chicago and then finding our way back to good Chennai . The weather was up and down. Minneapolis was cold , Florida was great ( just like Chennai ) , Dallas blew hot and cold ( tornadoes hit this place ) , Chicago was wet and warm the same day ..
The Disney was just great and awesome. Each of the parks that we visited were great . The Sea World, the Magic Kingdom , Epcot and the Hollywood studios had their own stamp and class and it amazed you at the way each of them were packaged and made you gasp in excitement. The parks are big and you need great amount of energy to hop from one ride to another and continue this from the time you enter till they close up by 9 Pm. We would typically enter in at around 10 ish or so and wind up at nine PM after seeing fireworks. It is also not possible to cover up all the rides in each of the parks the same day, so you need to choose the ones that you are keen and go for it. We were largely helped in this endeavour by my sister in law who joined in with her family, so it was a great outing at Disney. Unforgettable and once in a life time kind of thing was the visit to Disney is my take . Each ride will have its own stamp and the time of each event/ride are just apt ( you will never quit a ride half way ) and no event will be similar. My daughter had a whale of a time enjoying each and every one of the rides and more the trickier the ride , the more happy, she was. Roller coasters was her cup of tea.
It was also good to catch up with our relatives and friends who we do not see often and sometimes we miss them when they come to India. This also went as per plan and we caught up with everyone we wanted to except for one
Also , attended a very heart touching event at Dallas , where the Indian Community had collected around US $ 100,000 to Akshya Foundation of Madurai and Mr Krishna who was one of the Top 10 heroes of CNN for 2010 was present personally to receive the money which was going to be used to put up a block to take care of the homeless in Madurai. His thank you gesture to the crowd stunned, not just me but the entire crowd. His "Thank you" was to touch everyone's feet and this he did on the stage facing the crowd and this was touching . He is a great example of someone who " Walk the talk."
Overall , great trip and oh yes.. The jet lag back home is such a pain… We all wake up at odd hours and stare at the ceiling !!
Why no break from work ? Can we get away in the current Techie Mad World -- NO !!
With the technology support that is available , the need to stay connected is very high. So, I packed my laptop , soft phones and accessories along with my packing for the vacation trip. It proved so useful and I did not repent for carrying the Laptop. I also cannot imagine coming back from this long holiday to be up and running at work from day one which is the normal expectation.
My daily email traffic is very heavy ( in my own terms ) and I cannot imagine having to clear a backlog of fifteen work days.. I also used the time zone to my advantage to work on my vacation and stay connected. Also , I found ability to connect in, wherever I was and that worked again to my advantage. Family was not too much upset at my slotting in work because I did it only for a specified time and then the time zone advantage kicked in and there would be no prompt on my Blackberry for incoming emails. Ideal situation Eh ? No, There were prompts and important ones that I could not ignore on my holiday ( Read between the lines.. Pun intended )
Anyways, The vacation was great. It was great because it went as per plan except for a day when the weather ( Tornadoes ) threw our schedule out of gear. We were stranded at the airport with our luggage gone and had to manage a day with what we wore. The Airline that we travelled was most unsympathetic and most unhelpful. Planning for the trip began six months ago and we may have done more than five or six schedules that were torn up and redone again until we got the current one that we used. My wife did a great job in doing benchmarking , choosing the best dates and then left the booking of tickets and hotels and most important, the financials matters to me !!
We travelled to Minneapolis , Florida ( Disney ), Tampa ( to meet a old friend ) , Dallas , back to Minneapolis before going to Chicago and then finding our way back to good Chennai . The weather was up and down. Minneapolis was cold , Florida was great ( just like Chennai ) , Dallas blew hot and cold ( tornadoes hit this place ) , Chicago was wet and warm the same day ..
The Disney was just great and awesome. Each of the parks that we visited were great . The Sea World, the Magic Kingdom , Epcot and the Hollywood studios had their own stamp and class and it amazed you at the way each of them were packaged and made you gasp in excitement. The parks are big and you need great amount of energy to hop from one ride to another and continue this from the time you enter till they close up by 9 Pm. We would typically enter in at around 10 ish or so and wind up at nine PM after seeing fireworks. It is also not possible to cover up all the rides in each of the parks the same day, so you need to choose the ones that you are keen and go for it. We were largely helped in this endeavour by my sister in law who joined in with her family, so it was a great outing at Disney. Unforgettable and once in a life time kind of thing was the visit to Disney is my take . Each ride will have its own stamp and the time of each event/ride are just apt ( you will never quit a ride half way ) and no event will be similar. My daughter had a whale of a time enjoying each and every one of the rides and more the trickier the ride , the more happy, she was. Roller coasters was her cup of tea.
It was also good to catch up with our relatives and friends who we do not see often and sometimes we miss them when they come to India. This also went as per plan and we caught up with everyone we wanted to except for one
Also , attended a very heart touching event at Dallas , where the Indian Community had collected around US $ 100,000 to Akshya Foundation of Madurai and Mr Krishna who was one of the Top 10 heroes of CNN for 2010 was present personally to receive the money which was going to be used to put up a block to take care of the homeless in Madurai. His thank you gesture to the crowd stunned, not just me but the entire crowd. His "Thank you" was to touch everyone's feet and this he did on the stage facing the crowd and this was touching . He is a great example of someone who " Walk the talk."
Overall , great trip and oh yes.. The jet lag back home is such a pain… We all wake up at odd hours and stare at the ceiling !!
Comments
You have covred quite a distance and quite interesting to read. Such a break is needed to recharge our batteries.
Being wired is inevitable! :)
I am glad that you had just 4 places to visit in detail instead of a hurried visit to 15 places in 15 days! I am sure you would have had a great vacation.
Aravind.
A good summary of the trip Sri. Thank you. Babu PR
Nice enjoyable trip (from the blog summary) Srikanth.
Photos are very memorable and Mr. Krishna's gesture is really touching!!
Cheers