Oh.. ya.. I know I am lazy and late, but here is link of our photos of Washington DC, Air & Space museum at Virginia and celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi festival at Pallavi’s home.
Our next spot after the enchanting New York was the elegant Washington DC. We reached Pallavi’s home late evening. Pallavi’s parents have also come to USA to stay with Pallavi and Nikhil (Pallavi’s husband) for few months. We all, especially my parents found a good company in them and in a first meeting they were like close family friends. After a delicious dinner, Pallavi, Nikhil and I went on chatting for long time, before we called it off for getting a good sleep as we had busy plan roaming Washington DC the next day.
I had option of taking the train to go to Washington DC but I decided to dare driving on the busy streets of US capital. First we went to Washington monument, parked on street side parking and were lucky enough to grab a free ticket to reach top of Washington monument that afternoon. As we had couple of hours time yet for our turn to go to top of the monument, we thought its good plan to visit Mr. Obama.. hahhaha… not really.. We were actually excited to see “The White House”. We walked few blocks and saw US treasury department building on the way. And there it was, “The White House”, exactly same as I left it in 2007.. hehehe (oh yes, this is my 2nd trip to Washington DC). We did not find it so enchanting though. Dad thought “Rashtrapati Bhavan” in India is much better than this one. We then drove towards the Vietnam Memorial. Vietnam Memorial is a national memorial built in memories of US armed forces who served in Vietnam War. It was time to go to Washington monument once again as we had our tour scheduled to see Washington city from the top of the monument. On the way back we passed the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial. We decided to come back and enjoy these places again after our visit to Washington Monument. The Washington DC looked awesome from the 555 feet height. We got a very good aerial view of US Capitol building, The White House, All the other memorials etc.
World War II memorial is about the remembrance of US troops who served in 2nd World War. This memorial has beautiful fountain, 56 pillars and pair of arches. Lincoln Memorial has beautiful reflecting pool in front of it. You can see a classic reflection of Washington Monument in it. There is a big status of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of United States. This place looks like a humanity temple with Lincoln sitting in it as God, who helped realize Americans, that slavery is bad, all humans are equal. We then visited the Jefferson Memorial and Roosevelt Memorial. It was getting dark and probably a high time to see the famous US capitol building. We drove there and parked at street side parking. US Capitol building looked great in the dusk light. Not a good time to catch photos but really eye catching view in the evening sunset time. As you all know the United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, and the legislature of the Federal government of the United States. As I said, it was getting dark, and suggestively a good time to return home, as our stomachs were hinting.
We drove back to Pallavi’s house and enjoyed the dinner. I was not sure about our next day’s plan as I was thinking whether I should cover the Smithsonian Museums in DC or as Nikhil suggested see the Air & Space museum near their home in Virginia. We decided to take a call next day morning and surrendered ourselves in hands of Nidradevi (Sleep Goddess).
Next day was more like being at home in festival season. Pallavi and her Mom were going to do Haritalika Pooja. My mother joined them. I went out with Pallavi and her dad to fetch some “Patri” (tree leaves) and “Mruttika” (fine sand) required for Pooja. All three ladies later were busy in making “Pindi” (Lord Shankar Idol) with sand we brought. They did holy pooja with devoted hearts and later we had special delicious lunch made for Haritalika occasion. It was past noon when we found ourselves free. We then decided to go to Air & Space museum near the home.
It was fantastic museum. It displayed lots of and very special airplanes and space shuttles. Special to mention were “Lockheed SR71A Blackbird”, “Boeing 367”, “Enola Gay” (used in World War II to drop nuclear bomb in Hiroshima, Japan). This museum also has observation tower wherein you can see planes landing and taking off from Dulles airport very close to it. Also it has air traffic control workstation wherein you can hear the actual conversation between the pilots and traffic control officers. We took lots of photos in this museum. We were roaming in this museum till its day closing time.
Next day was “Ganesh Chaturthi”, a very special festival for Maharastrian community, so after coming out of museum we went to Hindu temple. As well as that evening we went to Indian departmental store to get the Lord Ganesha Idol. Nikhil selected a classic wooden idol. We decided to do some sort of decoration, hence got some stuff from Wal-Mart. That night everyone especially Nikhil, Pallavi and I were excited to design a small but elegant temple for Lord Ganesha. Nikhil came up with good proposal and we all found ourselves busy in making that temple. I helped them little bit before calling it off for the day at around 12.30 in the night. Nikhil and Pallavi were so enthusiastic that they continued to make that temple till 1.30 or 2 am that night. I was really happy for my parents and for myself as we did not miss Ganesh Chaturthi festival even though we were away from home.
Next day we continued the left out work of decoration and completed before Nikhil started the Ganesh PranPratishthapana Pooja. (Pooja offered to Lord Ganesha requesting him to stay at our house for the festival time and bless us with knowledge, happiness and meaningful life). Pallavi’s dad guided Nikhil about how to carry out the Pooja. My Mom and Pallavi’s mother prepared special lunch (Mahaprasad offered to Lord after Pooja). “Ukadiche Modak” was special item to mention out of all other.
After the lunch, we packed our stuff and took permission of Pallavi and family to resume our journey back to Ottumwa. Everyone greeted pleasant farewell to each other and I geared up myself for a long drive I have to take up that day to reach Minneapolis by the evening.
We reached Minneapolis that night about 9.30 – 10 pm and stayed at a motel. Next day morning, I found that the motel has swimming pool. I haven’t had opportunity to swim for quite a while, so I decide to take a dip in warm water in swimming pool. It was refreshing experience. We started our journey after a nice breakfast in the motel and reached Ottumwa by evening 5 – 6 pm.
It was fantastic experience and joyful trip with my parents all in all….
Salute to the patience you showed to read it till the end. Here is the photo link for you.
Chao,
Bharat
