JOIN USIt was the fall of 2017. My husband's scheduled business trip to the USA coincided with my daughter's midterm school vacations and we planned for a family holiday.
All our weekends in August were spent planning for our trip to the land of dreams. On the day of our scheduled departure, we were supposed to catch an early morning Lufthansa flight.
After the immigration procedures, we were surprised to be treated to a live Hindustani Classical vocal recital at our airport at 2 am.
It was an 18-hour long flight from Bengaluru to Detroit, with an hour-long stopover in Frankfurt for transit. There was a very short time for transit and we literally ran from one terminal to another.
We were pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by warm and sunny weather in Detroit. We took a taxi to Holiday Inn Express in Birmingham, a pleasant and clean place.
In the morning, we were treated to some lovely American breakfast. While my husband was busy attending his scheduled business conference and conducting workshops for his Detroit team, my daughter and I had the opportunity to explore the beautiful cityscape around us, interspersed with its landscaped gardens and parks.
We observed that Birmingham was more widely spread out and did not have high rise structures. It was a pleasant experience walking around this beautiful place. We visited some amazing government run libraries, which enjoy a good patronage by all age groups.
We hired a cab using the 'Lyft' app on my mobile to ferry us around to slightly distant places.
We visited the Somerset Mall which was an architectural marvel with its building blocks spread across a very wide road and connected by a beautifully designed skywalk.
The ambience inside was very pleasant with large skylights allowing the sunlight to stream into the
nooks and corners of the building and some lovely music to keep the mood upbeat.
We visited The Marvin's Marvellous Mechanical Museum. 'Taste of India' and 'Flavours of India' treated us to some awesome Indian cuisine during our stay.
We visited The Ford Factory at Rouge for a guided tour. We had to take a bus ride from the Henry Ford Museum to the factory, where we were briefed on the history of the Ford factory in their very own miniplex. We were also told about their achievements and current innovations.
We were then allowed to walk on a bridge along the periphery of the factory building, observing the stage by stage assembly of their very famous F150 trucks.
We saw a lot of young men and women working diligently as a well-knit team. Later we were taken to an observatory on the rooftop to observe their green initiative.
Their factory rooftops and external wall surfaces are covered by a cover of green sedum, a kind of flowering plant, which provides a thermal insulation against the harsh external weather and reduces the load on internal air conditioning. It also helps in rainwater harvesting.
The next stop on our trip was Florida. We stayed at the Disney's Art of Animation Resort. We were given our magic bands at the welcome desk. The magic bands were to act as our e-wallets, e-entry tickets and e-keys for our room during the course of our stay. Our little princess, whose birthday was around that time, was offered a very special room facing the pool, its window overlooking a huge statue of the Sea God. We quickly had some supper at the resort's food court. We went to our awesome and unique Ariel-themed room and freshened up. We spent our first evening at the Disney Springs.
Despite the drizzling damp weather, our spirits were not dampened. We enjoyed our window shopping and enjoyed some lovely live band music while exploring the Springs.
Next morning after a quick breakfast, we set out to spend a magical day at Disney's Magic Kingdom. We
took a picture of our daughter dressed in a Cinderella attire, right in front of Disney's Cinderella Castle. It was to become some prized memorabilia. We enjoyed the Fantasy Parade and fireworks in the evening. The next day we visited Epcot. We had fun at the Soarin', a flight simulator attraction.
Next morning, we had breakfast, packed up and vacated the room. We left our luggage at the resort's cloakroom. While we waited for the bus to take us to the airport, we explored the resort and took a lot of pictures. We took an afternoon flight to New York.
Beautiful New York was dressed up in shimmering lights and was all set to welcome us. Our relative picked us from the airport and took us to his house in New Jersey.
During our stay there, we shifted camp every couple of days to stay with and enjoy the warm hospitality of our various relatives. Every evening we spent in New Jersey were evenings of celebrations with family and friends. During the day we used to take the train to New York to explore the city.
On our first day, we booked tickets for hop-on hop-off bus ride. We explored Downtown.
We visited the Statue of Liberty. A ferry, with a guide who briefed us about the various historical events and the landmark buildings along the New York skyline, took us back and forth along the Hudson
River while visiting the Statue of Liberty.
Next day we explored Uptown, visited the Museum of Natural History and literally got lost in Central Park. We spent a scintillating evening mesmerised by the large LED advertisement screens at Times Square. We did a bit of last minute shopping at Jersey Mall.
After enjoying all the bonhomie, we were ready to leave the US with all the love and warmth we had received. With a grateful heart, we were ready to bid adieu to America. It was a dream holiday indeed!
(The author can be contacted soumyasprakash@yahoo.co.in)