Ajey and I were last in California for our first anniversary – a good 24 years ago, and I had a solo trip before Manasi was born – and even that’s more than 2 decades! And then in 2020, Manasi found her Hindustani vocal guru, SO, who first lived in San Diego and then moved to the Bay Area a couple of years ago. You know, before Covid hit – we just took for granted that all music classes had to be in person – and then literally overnight, everything was online, physical boundaries just vanished! So we had our Hindustani teacher in California, and resumed guitar lessons with AG in Pune! It took a bit of adjustment to work with time zones and the screens – but it’s been 5 years now, and still going strong! It’s been on our list – and finally for Spring Break 2025, we were able to coordinate with SO for a long overdue visit!

My March birthday always falls around Spring Break – so as Ajey loves to point out – we always do something special for my birthday. Ostensibly, all our Spring Break vacations are my birthday celebrations!! This year, we actually flew out on my birthday – yes, my ‘celebration’ – a 3 hour car ride to Chicago, followed by a 4 hour cross country flight – that birthday dinner in San Francisco better be spectacular!! Thankfully, the travel was all uneventful – but as soon as we left SFO airport in our dashing hybrid Jeep Rubicon – we were hit by the infamous Bay Area traffic. Our hotel was almost exactly across the Bay from the airport – location was meant to give us easy access to SF downtown, San Ramon where SO lived, and South Bay areas. What was meant to be a 30 minute drive took us more than 2 hours. When we reached the hotel, the temptation to call it a night was strong – but with only few days here, we didn’t want to give up on a night in San Francisco!!

Plan was to get to a ‘happening’ area in SF, find a place for dinner – and then head back. So we headed to the Mission District – or thought we were headed there! We crossed into SF over Bay Bridge – by the way, having tolls automated is probably a highly efficient move, but I wish they would keep one teeny little manual toll booth open for tourists like us who don’t have the FastPass thingy! At the very least, provide instructions on how to pay missed tolls online! So we were on a bit of a wild goose chase here – other than the touristy areas, it is really hard to find good spots in a big city – unless you have a local with you, or have been here before. After driving around for some time, we accidentally stumbled into Chinatown – didn’t expect things to be so quiet here – most places were closed, and the streets were empty. We had almost given up on finding a restaurant, when we come upon a colorful square with several options – and purely by chance, ended up at Tony’s Pizza – which we discovered later, is rated as one of the best pizzerias in the world!! The wait time was crazy – but so, so worth it – and burrata is officially my favorite cheese now!!

We had a full day planned in San Francisco – and it was eventful enough that I thought it deserved its own post! So read all about ‘Walking on sunshine‘ – a beautiful day enjoying the California sun! We still had one last thing on our list – Muir Woods National Park. When we were first planning the trip, Ajey and I were really hoping to go see the Giant Sequoais – I’m sure you’ve all seen the famous picture of a car driving through a tunnel in the massive trunk! And although this was a little far to drive to in our short vacation, we found an alternative – Coastal Redwoods!! About an hour drive away from our Oakland hotel, this was the perfect day trip! Luckily, I found out that a reservation is needed to park at Muir Woods, and even luckier, I was able to get us a slot for 1pm that very day! Would have been incredibly frustrating to get all the way there and have to turn back!! Also, as the website very helpfully mentions, there is no WiFi or any kind of cell service at Muir Woods – so make sure you have your parking pass downloaded to your phone!! To book your pass, here’s the link: Muir Woods. The parking is free, and there’s a $15 entrance fee which comes with a brochure with a map of all the walking trails!

There’s usually a balance in our vacations – city lights and sights for me, and nature trails and hikes for Ajey – so this was the perfect foil to our day in downtown San Francisco. The towering trees, the wooden walkways and trails, the gentle babble of a stream – perfect for a recharge!! Some of these trees are more than a thousand years old – silent witnesses to the passage of time and a good reminder that we are but a tiny, insignificant speck in this giant cosmos!! We didn’t venture off the ‘tourist trail’ – but there are several challenging hiking trails here as well. And although Manasi rightly said that we didn’t really look like ‘professional’ walkers in our jeans, we still managed to get in a good hour and half along the ‘easy’ trail! We should have probably wrapped it up earlier though – a big surprise awaited, on our drive back. It took us about 45 minutes to get here, and we had estimated the same for the return, planning to drive directly to Manasi’s music teacher’s house. Once we cleared the valley, and phones were back online, I was astounded to see that Google was estimating a drive time for 2 hours!! 2 hours, that can’t be right?! Well, the infamous Bay Area traffic strikes again!!

With the freeways clogged with rush hour traffic, Google directed us to some lovely country roads. And even though we were late, make that very late – still couldn’t help but admire the vistas – gently rolling hills in the background, all clad in emerald green, fields on either side with white picket fences, spring flowers adding a blaze of color, an occasional herd of cows or horses grazing peacefully – it was idyllic, so very reminiscent of the the French countryside and so very different from the urban California we had been seeing! Manasi had a wonderful in-person lesson with her teacher – the first time they sat down together in 5 years !! And then the best part of the day – dinner with SO and her lovely family! The pick was Indo-Chinese at a restaurant called Indochine – and it was really, really good – Burnt-garlic fried rice always has my heart!!

We had come to California with the intention to absolutely pig-out at the variety of restaurants we kept hearing about. With the exception of the excellent pizza at Tony’s, disappointingly, we hadn’t had much luck. Of course, there was the touristy fish-n-chips and the crab chowder at Fisherman’s Wharf – but the Indian restaurant we ate dinner at our second night was not even up to the standard of Peoria’s Indian Tadka! I mean, Ajey literally declared the standard breakfast at the Holiday Inn to be the best meal so far!! We had been excited about In-n-Out Burger – and this is the last thing I expected in California – but here was a burger place that served only beef burgers – no chicken or fish sandwiches, not a vegetable to be seen. Strangely, all our vegetarian friends had highly recommended the veggie burger here – which we discovered was grilled onions and cheese on a bun – umm, no thank you! And I hate to do this – but that incredible flavor of the grilled onions that everyone was raving about – think about it for a minute, not so vegetarian, is it?

The last 2 days were dedicated to meeting friends in South Bay – started with lunch with new friends, the W family. Their daughter, SW, is at Illinois with Manasi, in the same program. The girls were laughing as the 4 of us parents were talking about our Pune origins – you know how it is, establishing the right Pune cred! – and I’ll admit it, I’m very much the stereotypical snobbish Punekar – so creds are important (and necessary)!! We had lunch at a Maharashtrian restaurant – Puranpoli – and it was sublime! My favorite Sabudana-wadas, and taking us back to Sinhagad, pithla-bhakri-vangyachi bhaji! And of course, the eponymous, puran-poli, which came drenched in desi ghee, with the perfect filling to cover ratio!! Later that day, we met with A & V – from new friends to old – A and V were both at COEP, and right after they were married, they lived a couple of years in Peoria, cementing our friendship. In one of the odd turns of life, their daughter is now a freshman at Illinois, years after their move to California – bringing them back to the Mid-West, rekindling those old ties!

Brunch with the Gs was next, and once again, reconnecting after several years – and so wonderful to meet their younger daughter, who is getting ready to head to college next year. We just had enough time to meet one of my oldest friends, KB – old as in, we go way back! Again so great to catch up – so many memories, straight flashback into our young adult days!! To be honest, we could spend a month here – and still not be able to meet all our California friends – so all you dear people we didn’t get to see, we’ll definitely plan something soon!! And then between the visits, we had a chance to visit the hallowed campuses of UC Berkeley and Stanford – so very different, Berkeley with its modern campus, and Stanford with all the vibes of a Spanish hacienda!! I’m sure Manasi would love to study here at some point in her career, but the distance – how will I stand that!! After meeting all these families here, sending their kids to school half a continent away – I have a renewed appreciation for our 90 minute drive to see Manasi!!

From KB’s home, it was straight to the airport for our red-eye back to Chicago – and our route took us straight to the picturesque downtown of Mountain View. We were debating if we should grab a quick dinner – when we noticed a restaurant called Khazana – yes, Sanjeev Kapoor’s Khazana!! It was tempting, very tempting – but we had barely 30 minutes, surely not enough for a sit-down at a fancy restaurant! Besides, surely they wouldn’t have walk-ins, only reservations? And then a parking spot opened up literally in front of the restaurant – so we decided to chance it. What followed was the fastest ever, and most delicious ever dinner we’ve ever had!! Only regret was that we didn’t have time to sit down and savor the outstanding flavors!! Onwards to the airport and our midnight flight. In theory, the red-eye is a fantastic idea – why travel during the day, spend the night on the plane, arrive bright and early and ready for the day!! The reality was somewhat different. The flight time is barely 4 hours, and between the bright cabin lights and the service – btw, I don’t really need pretzels at 1 in the morning! – there was no sleeping at all! Landing in Chicago at 4am, and then driving first to Champaign to drop Manasi off, and then home to a full work day – it was absolutely brutal!!

Sunny California – what a wonderful Spring Break!!