New Jersey and Washington DC

We reached New Jersey and it was a better place to live away from the hustle and bustle. It was very crowded on the roads and it took us quite a while because of so much traffic.
Here was our first encounter with Walmart, a huge store and very interesting. We had a nice stay with Aseem Bhaiya and lots of good advice which stood us in good stead on our journey.
We reached Washington DC and stayed at ISKCON guest house which was located at a posh area in Washington DC but away from the tourist attractions. The food at ISKCON was excellent and we never missed Indian cuisine the two nights we stayed there. One day we had dinner with Dr. Maheshwari and the next night we stayed with Himanshu and Ritu and their little one.
Day 2 in WDC we went to the National Air and Space Museum which I feel needs a full day to see properly. We spent most of our time there. There was again along queue to get in. And they were doing security check also. Many groups of school children were there. I esp. liked the section on Wright Brothers. Quite a few exhibits of space were also there which we later repeated at the Kennedy Space centre in Orlando. We went to an Art museum after that that too was interesting. We saw the White House from outside and realized that we used to confuse it with The Capitol. We took the metro and then boarded a bus to reach back to the ISKCON Temple.
Day 3 Himanshu came to pick us and we went to Baltimore.We participated in the Rath Yatra organized by ISKCON in Baltimore that day and we spent time at inner harbour Baltimore a picturesque place. There is a great Aquarium in Baltimore which we saw. Later that day we went to the Lincoln Memorial. We went to the temple guest house and took our luggage and stayed with Ritu and Himanshu that night.
Himanshu dropped us to the Airport the next day with packed lunch. That was the first of several domestic flights which we took in America.

I love New York

We stayed for only 2 days in New York, which were less considering, all that is there to see over there. On our first day, when we reached the Times Square we booked tickets from a vendor for a Hop on and Hop off Bus sightseeing tour, covering Downtown, Uptown, and Brooklyn.

We took the Uptown Loop.I had a long list of places to see, but it was not possible to see everything. We went to the American Museum of Natural History. Its last one hour is free and we reached 15 mnt before the last hour so we did not need to buy tickets, which were quite expensive and probably we would not have bought them. We hopped off from our bus over here. Then we walked down to the Central park, which acts as the lungs of New York, an interesting place in the middle of this concrete jungle, with everybody doing there own thing.

From New York

From New York

From here we took a cab to Times square. It is interesting the way you can hail a cab anywhere in New York. At Times square we visited the famous Toys R US shop and few others and then we took the night loop bus.

From New York

That night loop was a mistake because the air was very chilly in the open bus and 3/4th of my family was sleeping. We got off from the bus after more than half the tour was over and headed to our hotel in a cab. It was around 11pm when we reached back.
The next day we again headed towards the Times Square. This time we took the Downtown loop.

We went through Little Italy, Chinatown and went to see the Statue of Liberty. We took a ferry from the Battery Park. Our ticket for the ferry, was included in the hop on and hop off tour which we had taken. The Statue was not as magnificent as we thought it would be.

From New York

From New York

At the Statue of Liberty there were a lot of Indian tourists. We bought a few souvenirs at the shop over there. There is a museum there but you have to arrange from before. The ticket to Ellis' Island was included in our ticket but because we caught the last ferry we had to choose between stopping at statue of Liberty or Ellis' Island we obviously chose the former.

From New York

On returning back we again caught our hop on hop off bus and contd with loop. We left the bus at Rockefeller centre. We went to Top of the Rock, which was a great experience. There was a long queue for the American Girl Place where we had thought of taking our daughter, so we had to give up the idea. And in the end we headed for The Empire state building which was the worst experience of all, because of the long queues even late at night. On way to Empire state building we came across Best buy Store where we almost went berserk, a whole store of electronic goods!!
Day 3 we lost time packing but then as usual headed for Times Square. We visited the stores there Hershey's was great, the children esp loved making chocolate there. We went to the MTV store, Planet Hollywood etc.

From New York

From New York

From New York

Then we took a cab back to Comfort Inn, picked up our luggage and took the same cab to New Jersey.

Our USA itinerary

Breathtaking New York

We landed in New York, JFK Airport on the 14th of May 2007. Customs was not as difficult as we had been anticipating. My suggestion for anybody traveling to America for the first time would be, not to carry any grains, uncooked vegetables, fruits and esp. no mangoes.
We took a taxi to our hotel The Comfort Inn, Long Island City not really in the heart of things. (It cost us around 50$ for the taxi and some more for the gratuity). Hotels in New York are very expensive and its best to plan well in advance, so that you can get a good deal through the internet. All hotels all over USA can be compared on the tripadvisor site. This hotel, which we found our way to, with not much difficulty, had been chosen because of its proximity to Queensboro subway station,,just walking distance. It was bed and breakfast, free wifi access in rooms, which proved to be a boon as none of our phones worked BSNL and Airtel, for both we had got roaming activated in India!!. The room was small but clean and had two queen beds. Bathroom or maybe I should say Restroom was nice.

After freshening up we went out and bought a calling card and contacted home. Subway was 2$ for each of us from point A to point B and return. We took tickets for Times Square. The Subway station was very old and sort of tacky with two floors of trains passing through and rocking the place.

We got off at Times Square and lo and behold!! it was a fantastic sight, standing there and not knowing where to look and what to see। Hello America!