Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 5

.....Continuing from my previous post (Las Vegas & California Trip - Part 4)

Today was going to be a bit relaxing since we didn't have anything planned in the morning and we were leaving Vegas :(.  Morning was pretty relaxing with getting up and getting ready.  I returned the electric scooter while everyone else was getting ready.  It was quick...I just had to drop it off and one of the bellman took it from me.  We all went downstairs and I checked out which was also quick within 10 minutes.  We got our car from valet parking and then off to LA around 10 am.

The drive was not so bad from Vegas to LA, but it was getting hot in the afternoon with high temperatures.  We reached LA within 4 and half hours, so it didn't seem much of a long drive.  We went to my aunt's place and it was great to see her after 3 years.  She welcomed us all and we relaxed for a bit.  After freshening up, we sat down to have lunch because I was really hungry.  It was a good day not to do anything since we were all still tired from the vegas adventure.

Btw, this week of Sept. 23rd was the week of Ganesh Chaturthi festival and my aunt told us that LA's hindu temple celebrates it big time.  It's a 9 day long festival, I think, and the devotees do puja every day and they have dinner (prasad) afterwards.  So we decided to join the celebration that night and enjoy the festival with everyone.  It was indeed magnificent!! They had decorated Ganpati's murti(sculpture) so beautifully that you don't want to take your eyes off of it.  There was aarti followed by dinner and delicious sweets (my favorite - Jalebies!!!).  I think I filled my tummy by just eating Jalebis only!!  I love them...Jalebi is the best sweet ever...no doubt!!  I was so distracted by jalebis that I don't even remember what else was in the dinner :P...haha.  Anyways, after coming back from the temple, we made a quick stop at a gas station to fill up gas and then headed back to my aunt's place.

Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow was going to involve some good adventure as were were going to Universal Studios and DisneyLand.  Both the days will be fun!!

Note:  We did  not buy Universal tickets online, so we were planning to buy them at the gate anyways.  But my aunt told me that the local (California) costco have good deals sometimes for these kinds of tickets.  Upon inquiring, we found out that they were giving Universal tickets even cheaper than advertised online, so we got the annual passes of Universal Studios for $69/person instead of $80 (as advertised online).  So, if you know someone in LA who has the costco membership, plan to buy the passes from there to save some $$.

Anyways, stay tuned for the next post on Universal Studios Hollywood!!