My Last Adventure of 2007!

The fact that these Christmas holidays were falling in line with a weekend provided me with a perfect opportunity to make a road excursion to California. Zeeshan, a friend of mine in Redmond, was the instigator of the plan. So I went to Seattle last Friday (Dec 21st) where on the same day, we (I, Zeeshan and two other friends) set off for a road trip to California.

After nearly 15 hours of long, tiring but fun-filled journey, we were in downtown San Francisco. Luckily our hotel was right in the heart of downtown which allowed us to experience a real downtown Christmas celebrations. After staying in San Francisco for a day and having been to places like The Museum of Art and Golden Gate Bridge, it was time for us to head to Los Angeles – another 6-7 hours drive from San Francisco. One day was never sufficient to explore San Francisco but that leaves me with a reason to visit it again in coming years, hopefully with family.

On the night of Dec 23rd, we were in Los Angeles. Our stay was in a hotel in Orange County – very near to Disneyland where we had to visit next morning. Next morning we were in Disneyland. It was an awesome feeling; here I was visiting a place which was, before, only a childhood fantasy for me. We spent an entire day at Disney, watched the Christmas parade of all the famous Disney characters, enjoyed all the dare-devil rides and to top it all off, there were fireworks in the evening right on the top of Snow White’s Castle. Amazing! the best fireworks I have ever seen in my life; be it live or broadcasted.

The next day, Dec 25th, was for us to explore LA and Hollywood. We went to Huntington and Newport Beach, had a lush lunch at a desi restaurant and then headed straight to Beverly Hills (aka Hollywood). Visited wax museum and wasted the remaining time walking on the Hollywood boulevard. Now it was time to catch a flight back to Seattle. We dropped the rental car at Avis and headed straight to Airport. In the night, we were back in Seattle and guess what, we were greeted by the same familiar wet weather. The next evening, I took a bus back to Vancouver.

Given that I have had really busy couple of months, it was a welcome break and I am glad I spent this time in California. If I am to pick only one thing out of the entire trip, I’d say it was weather. Amazing Californian weather! Clear blue sky with bright sunshine.

Life returns to normality. Heading into 2008, I know I have plenty and some more work to do. Hopefully it’ll be a great year ahead, Insh’Allah.

That finally brings me to the end of this essay-cum-post – the last for 2007. A very Happy New Year to all of you! May it brings peace and prosperity to all of us!