I’ve always dreamt of going to the United States of America ever since I was a child.  I imagined how it would be, how the people would be, how clean and organized it would be and how great it would be to study, work or live there.  I would talk about it in ‘larger than life’  terms and my friends would say that when I actually go there it would not be like that and I would be disappointed but boy were they wrong!  America was all that I imagined it would be and more!

After dreaming about it and imagining it for so long, I finally visited USA  with my husband for 2 months from 15th Sptember to 15th November 2008. It was like our second honeymoon.  I can honestly say that I  had the best time of my life in the U.S.  We visited 10 different places during the 2 months we were there and got to see the North, South, East and West of the U.S.!  It was an amazing and unforgettable trip. We visited Minneapolis, Fargo & Grand Forks in North Dakota (North), Vancouver (Canada), San Fransico, Los Angeles, Napa Vallery, Yosemite National Park in California (West Coast),  Las Vegas in Nevada, New Orleans in Louisianna (South), Disneland in Orlando, Florida, Washinton, Buffalo & New York (East Coast).

The country is so beautiful and clean, people so friendly and warm, systems so organized and reliable, food so yummy and sumptuous and I could go on and on …..

Here are some pictures of some of the places we visited :

Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco, California

Niagara Falls - Ontario, Canada

Trump Towers - Las Vegas, Nevada

Yosemite National Park, California

 

Universal Studios - Los Angeles, California

Ziplining in Grouse Mountain - The Peak of Vancouver

Whale Watching - Victoria, Canada

 

White House, Washington D.C.

 

Grand Canyon, Arizona

From Minneapolis, we went to Fargo & then to Grand Forks where we stayed with my uncle.  The fresh and crisp air, manicured lawns, clean & broad roads is what really struck me here.  It was a pleasure to go for long walks in this beautiful and quiet neighbourhood.

Manicured Lawns, Fresh Clean Air and Quiet Neighbourhoods

 

The University of North Dakota

The high point here was the University of North Dakota.  As my uncle is a professor there and my aunt also works in the administration department we got the full tour of the university and it was out of this world!  The university campus is so big and beautiful and sprawls over hundreds of acres.  It’s like a little town of itself.  I would have loved to study in a university like this.  We spent a day at the business school and I enjoyed the tour thoroughly.  They had a live trading center for the finance students & a Center of Innovation for students who wanted to start their own business which I found quite interesting as we don’t facilities & opportunities like that here in India. We also spent a day at the Law College and sat in for a class (as my husband is a lawyer, my aunt had arranged for a tour of the law college). We also saw their Wellness Center which has state of the art fitness equipment and got the tour of their ice hockey stadium which was just amazing.

School of Law

 

Wellness Center

 

State of the Art Fitness Equipment

Lovely Chapel at the Center of the Campus

At the Sprawling Campus

The university was just awesome, I loved my time there and treasure those moments.

Itasca Park

We also went to Itasca Park where we got to see where the mighty Mississpi river originates.  We had a lovely little picnic there and crossed the Mississippi river.

 

The mighty Mississippi river begins to flow from this point

 

Crossing the beginning of the Mississippi river

Grand Forks

We had a lovely time in Grand Forks and carry back fond memories of UND, Itasca Park & Grand Forks, North Dakota.

We started our trip to the U.S. in Minneapolis where we met family and visited Mall of America. This is one of the biggest malls in America and has a theme park right with different kinds of rides and a huge Lego playground in the middle of the mall which is interesting to see and for children loads of fun!  We had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe which actually had a rainforest theme with rain falling every half an hour and animated gorillas & huge aquariams.

Rainforest Cafe Restaurant

 

At the Mall of America

 

Lego Playground at the Center of the Mall