A visit to San Jose-Part 1

San Jose is the 3rd largest city in California... Its is also one of the 10th largest city in United States and thickly populated... We thought of exploring the city and yes few weekends were reserved... Our first visit to San Jose was on 24th Dec 2009, on Christmas eve... No doubt the city was celebrating Christmas... Our plan was to visit Tech Museum, a museum with scientific innovations... You mention it, You find in this museum... Everything that is science, technology, life science could be found there... Most attraction is iMax dome theater... We watched movie Sea World...





As soon as we stepped out there was a great attraction... We were near Community Park, where all organizations send nicely decorated Christmas trees and the park was full of them... Every tree was unique... Trees from different schools, cancer organization, red cross, sacred heart, AIDS foundation, community centers, etc, were arranged... First time I was into Xmas celebration... The song 'Jingle bell...' was so pleasant... After having a look at all decorations, we saw a big line waiting to get into a room... Hey, it was Santa's workshop... Santa was inside wishing all a Merry Xmas... I just poked in door, because it was highly impossible for me to follow that huge line...





Well, Christmas eve was full of fun, surprise and thrill... Well I celebrated in one of the big city!!! Cheers!!!

Lake Tahoe

After reading my 1st post I felt like making a record of other places I visited earlier... Among them 1st comes Lake Tahoe, my first trip in USA...

Most of the hilly regions cover with snow during winter... It was 3rd week for me in Campbell and Vinay had Christmas Holidays... So a plan was made to visit the snow filled Lake Tahoe, a fantastic place of all season... The plan along with our friend Shyam and Kranthi... This was my first trip in US and snow for first time... I was very much excited about our trip... We left home at 2 am in midnight of 26th Dec 2009... Well covered with warm clothes and jerkins...

It was a bit long journey... As we came closer and closer, temperature began to fall, could see snow on the roadside... We were eager to see the snow and play... We got down from car and ran towards snow... This was my first experience... Couldn't control my excitement... Started playing, throwing snow to each other... Took few snaps, and back to our vehicle...



It took 4 hours to reach the place Tahoe... We had our breakfast i.e puliyogare prepared by me and kranthi... Then we found a skiing center... There are many skiing centers in Tahoe... The place we choose was "Sugar Bowl" skiing... The guys checked where we could find the skiing materials for rent, and we got them...





We took all over equipments, the heavy weighing skiing shoes, skiing board and sticks... We were made to go to skiing grounds through trolley... I enjoyed the ride very much... Snow snow and snow everywhere!!! Trees covered with snow, cottages with snow, vehicles with snow!!! Mind blowing view it was :)





I felt difficulty in walking wearing those shoes... Same to all others... First time really it is difficult... Some how reached the skiing area... Initially I couldn't do skiing... Fell down twice, then I was able to stand firm on the boards... Now comes the skiing, where i fell down again after few distance... I was really shocked to see Vinay performance... He learnt the knack of skiing in couple of minutes and I'm proud, he was the first one!!! I followed Vinay and had a great time skiing with my hubby...



After hectic schedule, along with my friend prepared snowman, played with snow, loved the snowfall... All of them were exhausted... We took and exit from skiing center, and thought of taking a view of the lake... Before that our stomach wanted something hot and spicy... We had burgers, fries and hot coffee... Continued to drive to next point...

Finally we were at LAKE TAHOE ...





Eyes felt glad for such a superb view... Our trip was worth... The snow filled hills, water with snow, trees covered by snow, everywhere snow... Loved the place very much... Had a great time with our friends...

It was 12 am we returned home... I was tired and legs were paining... Had some coffee and went to bed... The view is so much filled in my eyes, even now the snow comes in picture...

Banana Almond Cake

Since my childhood days I'm very much found of cakes... As I'm the owner of my kitchen, I thought of trying cakes... My husband also likes cakes, but here in US we find cakes with egg... so thought of trying at home... I made little changes to my mom's procedure and it was a success...

Here goes the procedure for Banana Almond Cake (also called Eggless Sponge Cake)...

Ingredients:
All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Salt - 1/4 spoon
Butter - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1/4 spoon
Almond finely chopped - 1/2 cup
Ripen banana - 1
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 spoon
1/4 cups of soda (like pepsi, coke, optional)


Procedure:
Pre-heat the oven for 350 F.
First smash ripen banana and add melted butter to it. Add milk and mix well and keep it aside. In a mixing bowl take the flour, cardamom powder, finely chopped almond, sugar, salt and baking powder. Mix them well. To this add banana mixture and soda (Soda gives rising effect. As we are not using eggs, I suggest its good to use). Mix in one direction to avoid lumps. The batter should be like thick paste. do not liquefy. U can adjust the consistency by adding milk or flour. Do not add water. Once the mixture is ready pour it into greased baking pan and keep in oven for 20-30 minutes. To check weather the cake is baked or not, u can check the change in color to brown, or pears a tooth pick. If tooth pick comes out easily and non sticky, your cake is baked very well.



Remove the pan from oven and keep it for cooling... once is it cooled, cut the cake into pieces... Banana Almond Cake is ready to serve :)

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA

Its already 5 months I came to USA... In-spite of hectic schedules of Vinay, we made some time to visit few places in and around Campbell... One among them is Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco...

Our journey started at 8.30 am on 9th May 2010... We went to Light rail station (LRT)to catch train at 8.52 am and got tickets to Mountain View... it took 1.15 hrs to reach... we had next train i.e Caltrain to Millbrae at 10.19 am... we had to catch another train i.e BART (bay area rapid transit) from Millbrae to Daly City... thank god we had train for every 15 mins... From Daly city we took SFO muni bus... Finally we were at Golden Gate Bridge... It was 12.15 pm when we reached the destination... Nearly three and a half hours... Fed up of travelling, completely exhausted... But the very first sight of bridge gave me energy...






The bridge was calling me near to it... Gained the spirit to watch and started walking towards it... It is the biggest bridge in the world... So height, touching the sky and so lengthy... The red color bridge made me astonish for a moment... The way it is designed to connect the two shores of pacific ocean is incredible... It has got huge pipes and thick ropes... we can see the foundation is very hard... Hats off to great mind worked for it... Walking on the bridge is really fantastic experience... The sound of vehicles, cold wind blowing across the bridge, the vibration of bridge soooo on... A GREAT EXPERIENCE...



This is how it looks from pacific ocean... one of my photography :)

Life is a JOY, If u ENJOY!!!

Hi all...
After a long time I'm feeling like writing something in my blog...
The time is running... yeah it doesn't wait for anyone... we have to run along with it...
so many changes, new place, new things, new people, new friends, every new teaches new!!!!!!!!
Day by day life is showing its million faces... lots of changes happening in life...
I've thought of making a note on my new life... my new start...


Regards,
Shubha M