Bridging gaps

One of the engineering wonders that I was taken to in San Fransisco was the Golden Gate Bridge. Since the climate around this time of the year through out the US of A is warm or even hot in most places, I decided against carrying warm clothes. I did take a jacket, though, for my son (thankfully) cos I was soon to experience the strong winds at the view point around the bridge, which almost threw as off our feet!!

It was a beautiful bridge constructed right across the strait. It had a pathway for people who wanted to walk across the bridge and there was a path for bikers too. We however decided to drive through the bridge, as we wanted to cover a few more places. At the time we visited, a huge container vessel that passed by below the bridge made for a picture perfect scene.

Picture Courtesy: K chitappa!

Some interesting facts that I learnt about the bridge are -

**The color of the bridge was painted an International Orange. The name of the bridge, though, did not come from its color. It is the bridge across the Golden Gate Strait that is the entrance to the SFO Bay from the Pacific Ocean. Hence the name - Golden Gate Bridge.

**Eleven men were killed during the construction of the bridge, and that was actually a safety record of that time. The expected fatality was more than 30!

Tons of other facts about the bridge are available online and make for an interesting read. :)

Sweet Tomatoes.

One of the eatouts that we went to in SFO this weekend really impressed me with its concept. It is called Sweet tomatoes. Its a chain of restaurants within the US, though I just found out that the state I stay in does not have one :(.. Really did want to try out the lots of other stuff in their menu that I missed out...

As soon as you enter, you see the vast spread of the buffet before your eyes. (Vegetarians also have a huge choice). Starting with a variety of salads, cut vegetables, it goes on to have baked potatoes, pastas, soups (the variety was so huge that there were 3 kinds of soups for vegetarians, and around 5 or 6 kinds for non-veg lovers), macaroni and cheese, various types foccacia (which I learnt was a sort of pizza), baked beans .. this is just probably half of what they had to offer. To top it all, they had different kinds of desserts, what with muffins, brownies, cakes, icecreams, toppings for ice creams, seems like a never ending list. With all of the items available, you can mix and match them according to your taste.

You can check out the menu here - Sweet Tomatoes

Once you get in, you first pick up a tray and go along a line to pick stuff that you like. Try not to pick everything that catches your eye this trip itself, cos you will have tons of things on the other side to try out later after you pay and finish your first round. At the end of that line you have the counter where you pay for yourself and get a bill. Then find a place to sit and enjoy your meal, and go back how many ever times that you want, to the buffet, and pick what ever else that you need. Another tip is, try not to order any drinks, as that adds up quite a bit to the bill. This place have drinking water available for free in dispensers, which is another rare thing I guess here around the US, as we need to buy soda or coke at most of the places as they dont serve water.

Well, the size of the buffet does explain the width of the people here too! There is no stopping you, and you need to have a conscious watch on what you are eating and how much you are eating. But it is a place to definitely visit if you are touring the US. Also if you are in a hurry and want to grab some quick meal, this is the place to be in. No wait times, and the food is ready for you to start on it as soon as you get there.

Journey so far ....

It's been a week now that we are in the US of A. Quite a few experiences to speak for during the travel ... interesting learnings.

The Bangalore airport checkin, immigration, security and waiting was all the usual stuff. In Lufthansa, the staff on board were pleasant, and we got a bassinet for the little one almost immediately upon take off. A comfortable journey and the food was just about right, as I was able to even choose a few things in the menu to feed the little one (I wasn't carrying anything other than biscuits for him).

The mid-way stop was at Frankfurt, and the airport, with its various duty free shops, and a lot of "eccalators" for my kid to walk to and fro on, made it a happy experience. Exhausting though, as my son wanted to keep me busy by making me walk/run behind him, where ever he went for the four and a half hours of wait... He even woke up two ladies sleeping on the lunge chairs! He made amazing conversation with them with his limited (tanglish) vocabulary, and they understood and enjoyed every bit of it!

Then, we got on board UA, to cover the next journey which was going to be 9 hours long. No bassinet this time. Food - hmm - nothing much to speak of, especially for the kid. The staff on board, nothing much to speak of either... or probably, we could speak about how there was no trace of "being pleasant" in them, to the extent of being unpleasant. My husband still says he found nothing wrong in that, and that's the normal caustic humor(!!?) displayed by people around here. I haven't still been able to agree with him on that front, as other people that I spoke to around were always ready with a "hi how are you" and with a smile on their faces. Hmm.. so there, 9 hours of bad food, bad humor, bad back later, we landed at ORD, and waited with fingers crossed for the immi officer to call us. After a few tense moments, which made us a lot wiser, we cleared and got the  stamping (phew).

Out we came, only to be held back by the baggage clearance guys, who informed us that we have been held back for a "Special Survey" (oh please give me a break!!). But thank our stars, they did nothing much but scan the baggage, and we were let go (yippee ... scott free finally .. was the feeling!). We boarded our go air (airport cab) and headed to MKE.

Sonny gave an initial resistance to sitting in the car seat with an "amma madeela okkachikanum" plea... but well, what could we do? Coaxed him into "indha oorlai no amma madi". Thankfully for us he is a pretty coaxable kid :) .. and so finally reached room sweet room... all set to explore the new place!

Eating out at MKE

The first day of eating out at Milwaukee, or rather, the States, was at a Mexican restaurant. I had what was called a Veggie burrito. It turned out to be a huge maida chapati filled with some rice, vegetables, a green sauce, sour curd (they had a variety of options to pick and choose from, and this was what I chose) . After the meal, I decided that the Mexican I have had in Pune was a lot yummier than what these guys offered, though there is no arguing as to which is the authentic Mexican! :)

The fun part of the eating out was a visit to Kopps, an ice cream joint. They specialized only in custard and cream and not ice cream, though it all tasted the same to me!!! I had a chocolate sundae with nuts and a huge cherry as toppings. It was on the same lines as hot chocolate fudge at apna Corner house... (a small difference though ... at apna CH, you can ask for extra nut toppings for free, while here you had to pay extra for the first helping of nuts too !!!)