By Simran JayasingheAll smiles at the Homewood Suites!
Not too long ago we went to Palm Springs for a relaxing vacation. It was the end of summer, everybody in our family needed a break from all our summer activities. We drove out to Palm Springs and stayed there for about 5 days. We started in San Diego, and traveled north on interstate 15 to the 79 east, then to the 371 east, and finally onto the 74 east which brought us to Indian Wells near Palm Springs. We drove through the Cahuilla Reservation, and the Santa Rosa and San Janito mountains. The scenery was beautiful, and the drive was enjoyable.
It was a nice, relaxing vacation, even though most days it was really, hot, usually around 105 degrees. Since it was so hot outside, we took advantage of the hotel’s air conditioning, and stayed in the room all day playing Monopoly, cards, and other games we had brought along. We stayed at a Homewood Inn and Suites. The hotel room was perfect for our family because it had a room with a king bed and a living area with a sofa bed. The room also had an oven, a microwave, a stove, and a sink.
The hotel had a complimentary breakfast, which was wonderful, and they also had an evening snack, that was scrumptious as well. The hotel had a nice pool and gym. We swam on a couple of days, and when we did, it was late in the evening because it was cooler. We used the gym a couple times too, all five of us, my Mom, Dad, two sisters, and I. The location of the hotel was convenient. Just next to the hotel was an Applebee’s, and we ended up ordering food from there most days. Overall, the stay was relaxing and enjoyable, and if we go to Palm Springs again, we will be sure to stay at the same hotel!
By Kiran JayasingheOne of our favorites – the Long Beach Pike location. (Image from the internet).“Hurry up! I’m hungry!” (Image by the Jayasinghe family).
July 31st was our grandmother’s birthday. I’m not going to tell you how old she turned, but I can tell you that we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. We went to PF Changs, at the Pike, in Long Beach. The restaurant is right by the water, and you can see boats go in and out of the little harbor. The Pike is a very busy place, so it’s best to get Valet Parking. After the car was taken, we met our uncle inside. That was one of the highlights, because our uncle is almost always out of town, or at work, and we never get to spend time with him! The restaurant wasn’t crowded at all, and we got a table quickly. To drink, we three (Kiran, Simran, and Svara) had water, and so did our uncle. Our mom, grandpa, and grandma had virgin Pina Coladas, and our dad had a beer. Since we love Pina Coladas, we each had a few sips from our mom’s. We all agreed that there was a little too much coconut, and we’ve had better. While we were tasting Pina Coladas and talking like food experts, our dad was ordering food. We had white rice, noodles, firecracker chicken, sweet chicken, garlic beans, and Mongolian beef. Although we expected the firecracker chicken to be spicy, it wasn’t spicy at all, and it was delicious. The Mongolian beef was great, and our mom and dad just loved the garlic beans. All of us cleaned our plates, and we had to order another dish of Mongolian Beef, firecracker chicken, and noodles. But there was still something to come, even after all of that – dessert! The staff served our grandmother a scoop of ice cream with fried banana. None of the other adults had dessert. The three of us had a “great wall of chocolate” , a huge slice of chocolate cake with 2 scoops of ice cream and raspberry syrup. It was very rich, but we finished almost all of it! We all loved our visit to PF Changs (as we always do) and I think you will too!
We woke up at the Embassy Suites hotel in Kansas City Nebraska. Today was the last day of our trip. We hurried down to breakfast because we knew that Embassy Suites provided an excellent breakfast.
We packed all our belongings, and drove to the Kansas City airport. We turned in our rental car, and took a shuttle to the terminal. We had to wait about an hour before boarding our plane.
The trusty car that took us around (Image by the Jayasinghe family).Waiting for the flight back home! (Image by the Jayasinghe family).
We were in boarding group C, so by the time we finally got on the plane, there weren’t any seats together. All the aisle seats and the window seats were taken. Only, single middle seats were available. I had to sit in a middle seat with two strangers on my right and left, my sister Kiran had to sit in a middle seat towards the front of the plane with two other strangers. My little sister, who is only 7, did not want to sit alone, and my mom did not want her to either. Finally, after a stewardess asked people many times if they could move to a different seat and make room for my mom and Svara, one person moved and they got seats in the front part of the plane. My dad was seated near enough to me that he was able to ask me with hand signals if I was okay or not. Although Kiran and I were fine, our mom said that she was worried the whole three hour flight back to L.A. my Mom said that she will never fly Southwest again!
By Kiran JayasingheHilton Garden Inn Lobby (image by the Jayasinghe family)
We woke up in St. Louis after dreams of the Gateway Arch and standing in the rain, which is what we had actually done the day before! After helping our mom pack the suitcases, we took the elevator down to the lobby for breakfast. We had porridge, waffles, eggs, bacon, sausages, fruit, juice, and cereal. You can always count on a good breakfast at a Hilton Garden Inn! Then, we went back to our room and relaxed for a bit, before we checked out and left for Kansas City. The drive was supposed to take around two hours, but we took around four, since we stopped at Ozarkland for fudge, Arby’s, and a rest stop.
We were staying at an Embassy Suites for the last night of our trip. The hotel was located on the outskirts of Kansas City. It was beautiful, with a huge lobby, a restaurant, free breakfast, and even an evening snack! We came just in time for the evening snack, so we ate celery, carrots, chips, and dip. Then we unpacked our luggage from the car and settled down in our spacious room. Or rather – two rooms. We lounged on the two queen beds and read books, and watched the cooking channel. Then, we decided to take a dip in the indoor pool. While we soaked in the hot tub, we watched the July 4th fireworks. We didn’t have a very good view of them, but we did see some. When the fireworks were over, we went to our room and watched TV again. We ordered dinner from the restaurant in the lobby, and then fell asleep for the last time on our trip.
Getting ready to eat a lot, starting, with the soup! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)
By Simran Jayasinghe
All the dishes won’t fit on the table! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)are.
I love Hot and sour Soup. My parents love Hot and Sour Soup. Everyone in our family loves hot and sour soup. The go – to place for our family to have hot and sour soup is China Wokery, at the Restaurant Row in San Marcos. About a week ago, we were celebrating our parents 18th wedding anniversary with our grandparents, and of course we had to go to China Wokery! When we got there, we were expecting it to be busy because it was a Saturday night, but there weren’t many people, probably because it was 8:00 o’clock at night and most people had already had dinner. We were seated quickly. We ordered Fried Rice, White Rice, Singapore Noodles, Kung Pow Chicken, Orange Chicken, and of course, a big pot of Hot and Sour soup to share. Our parents and grandparents loved the Singapore Noodles, and my sisters and I loved the Orange Chicken. These are dishes we order every time we visit! We had a wonderful dinner, and hope to come back many more times!
Some time ago, we wanted to go rollerblading, but the nearest one to our house, Skateworld in San Diego, only had a session from 7-8 p.m. We decided that we didn’t want to go to such late session, so we went to Epic Rollertainment in Murietta which had a public session from 5-8 p.m. Epic Rollertainment is located at 39809 Avenida Acacias, Murrieta, CA 92563. It cost $7 to skate since we took our own rollerblades. If you need to rent rollerblades or roller-skates it will cost an additional $4. This cost is about the same as the other rinks we have been to.
The inside was huge! The roller rink took up the whole right side of the building, and on the left, was the skate rental counter, the snack bar area, and the game arcade. They also had a lot of chairs for people to sit and relax. There was a big screen on one side of the rink playing music videos, the music was good! The session that we attended, was a little crowded, but that might have been because there were a couple birthday parties. Every so often, they would stop the skating and play games, and the winner(s) got glow in the dark necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. We all agreed that Epic Rollertainment is more modern than Skateworld in San Diego. I hope I will be able to visit Epic Rollertainment many more times over the summer!
We woke up at Susil Seeya’s house and got ready to drive to St. Louis. We had a scrumptious breakfast of spinach omelettes, sunny-side-up eggs, cheese, toast, butter, and jam. Our parents had omelettes with milk tea, and Kiran, Svara and I had sunny-side-up eggs with juice. Susil Seeya sure can cook!
After that, we hopped into the car and drove to Jefferson City to look at the state capitol building. It rained, again, and our drive to Jefferson City took a little more than an hour.
Inside the Missouri State Capitol building (Image by the Jayasinghe family).
The state capitol building is made as a replica of the white house, but much smaller. The architecture was different than the architecture of the Nebraska statehouse building. There were many exhibits talking about historical events in Missouri, and also a couple of hands-on activities like lifting a pack that the soldier’s in the Civil War had to carry. (We tried that one, and only succeeded in lifting it when all three of us, lifted it together!). We looked at the gift shop, but sadly, they didn’t have keychains, and we decided we would wait to get something in St. Louis.
We drove through the rain to St. Louis, and finally got there at 5:00 p.m. We checked in to the Hilton Garden Inn, and after dropping our luggage off at our hotel room, decided to go to the Gateway Arch. To go up in the Arch, you need to buy tickets in advance, and so my dad quickly went online and bought some tickets. We bought the ‘Journey to the Top’ tickets, which means you get to ride to the top and watch the documentary movie. The price for each ticket is $13 for Adults (16 and over) and $10 for Children (3-15 years old). The Museum of Westward Expansion ( the museum about how the Arch was build) was under construction and therefore, closed.
We arrived at the Gateway Arch at about 6:00 p.m. It was still raining outside and we got soaked walking from the car to the arch entrance. We went to the entrance to the museum, but were told that we were only allowed to enter 20 minutes before the time on our tickets to go up in the Arch. Our tickets were for the 7:15 tram ride, so we had an hour to wait. We stood under a tent they had set up , until we were finally allowed inside. We got in line to board the tram that went up in the Arch. We had to wait in about 4 more lines until we were finally able to board the tiny tram! My dad, Kiran, Svara and I were in one tram. Our mom stayed in the museum because she thought that the tram would be too claustrophobic.
Waiting for our ride up the Gateway Arch. The opening sure looks small! (Image by the Jayasinghe family).What a view! The view from the top of the Gateway Arch! This is the tallest monument in the US (Image by the Jayasinghe family).
After being in it, I agree, the small capsule would’ve been way too small for our mom’s liking. The view from the top was magnificent. We could see the buildings on the other side of the river. Then we took the tram back down again. We picked a keychain from the gift shop and watched a 30 minute movie on how the Arch was made. By then it was 9:45 p.m., so we went back to the hotel and fell asleep.
I thought the Arch was much taller than this!!? (Image by the Jayasinghe family).The mighty Mississippi river in the background (Image by the Jayasinghe family).
We woke up in Omaha to see that it was raining (again!) and packed our bags. We were heading to Columbia Missouri, on our way to St. Louis Missouri. We were going to stop on the way and visit the Nebraska Statehouse in Lincoln. The drive was about 1 hour to Lincoln, and very dreary as it rained the whole way.
As we entered the statehouse, we all had the same thought, that it looked like Hogwarts. There were stone passageways and staircases, inscriptions, and carvings on the walls, ancient clocks, tiny elevators with doors that looked like they were made of oak. All these ancient looking features made the statehouse look like what we had imagined Hogwarts to be based on the harry potter books and movies. We wished we could have explored all the hidden passages! The architect chosen to design the capitol building was Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. The building started in 1922, and finished in 1932. The capitol building has 15 floors above ground, and on top of the tower is the 19 foot tall bronze statue of the Sower. The Sower signifies that Nebraska is an agricultural state.
Inside the Nebraska State Capitol Building (Image by the Jayasinghe family).Outside the Nebraska State Capitol Building (Image by the Jayasinghe family).
We would’ve loved to get a souvenir or two from the Nebraska statehouse, but unfortunately the gift shop was closed on Saturday. By the time we left the statehouse, it was still pouring outside. We ran to our car and started our 6 hour drive to Columbia, Missouri to visit one of our grand dad’s friends (Susil Seeya). The drive was not that fun because it was raining again. We only stopped once, to get ice cream even though it was raining! We got to Columbia at about 6:00 p.m. We were going to stay the night at our Susil Seeya’s house. Kiran and I got a bedroom in the basement. Svara was with our mom and dad in their room. We slept soundly and were surprised to hear the next morning, that there had been thunder and lightning. Our mom also told us how at 2:00 in the morning, she woke up because her phone was beeping with a flash-flood warning. We were in an area classified to be a flood zone, closer to the Missouri river. Because we don’t get a lot of thunder and lightning in Southern California, our mother was awake most of the night, although we slept through all of it!
