How I Covered the Best of the USA in 10 Days!

It wasn't the most conventional holiday approach when I decided to cover the East Coast and the West Coast in two days right before my half-yearly assessments. In 2018, when my brother was to graduate from the University of Southern California (USC), we planned a graduation-cum-holiday trip. My aunt and I flew from Delhi to Los Angeles via South Korea.

Our Little Shopping Spree in South Korea

Never had I ever visited South Korea but being a huge fan of Korean TV Dramas I couldn't wait to get a tiny glimpse of the country I'd seen in the shows. After shopping for cosmetics, (something the country is famous for) and eating some ramen in the lounge, we boarded the plane to our final destination, LAX.

Food Trucks and Mountain Towns

Since my aunt and uncle frequently visited the United States, we immediately went to a car rental and got ourselves an SUV.  After checking in at the hotel my brother came to meet us and since we were famished we decided to eat tortillas from a food truck. The next day we visited malls and shopped a lot.

On the same day, we also visited a small mountain town in California, the Big Bear. It is a retirement town nestled amongst the hills surrounding the lake Big Bear. Defying a common conception that people have, this town actually receives snow in the winters, California isn't all sun! We also visited the zoo.

The Graduation Day

Again, against common belief, it began to drizzle in LA, putting the outdoor graduation ceremony of my brother's college at risk. Luckily, a sunny day was in our stars and the weather improved. We shopped for some USC hoodies and headed for the graduation ceremony where I ate at least half a dozen doughnuts waiting for my brother to be called up for receiving his degree. The campus was state-of-the-art and I was left gawking.

Then at night, we went clubbing where of course I stuck to flavoured cola whilst everyone was doing shots. We went back to the hotel at 3:00 a.m.

New York- the City that Never Sleeps

It might come as a shock to you that despite being in New York only for a day, I just covered the American Museum of Natural History, better remembered as the place where ‘Night at the Museum’ was shot. We did see the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Centre, but not extensively. People often ask me as to how could I waste five hours at a museum but I have to say it was worth every minute and I have zero regrets.

Even though we had another rental car in NY City, we chose the cab experience that rainy day. We covered a lot more of sightseeing from the cab’s window than we could have in a week.

Exploring the Upstate New York

We took our car and headed upstate NY to the small town of Livonia (in the state of NY itself). We had booked a stay for ourselves and for my elder aunt and sister who were to drive from Toronto and meet us there. This was supposed to be our family weekend. After a 6-hour drive covering bits of Pennsylvania too, we reached our destination.

It was a brick house on the outskirts of the town where all houses had at least a mile's spacing between them. It was peaceful and surreal and cars barely crossed by.

We even visited a state park, which had a step waterfall too. The homestay was an amazing weekend getaway. We ate s’mores, cooked dinners and sat up till late by the fireplace. When it was time for us to go, we parted our ways.

We shopped wherever we could and a little secret to cheap shopping is to buy from outlet malls. l also enjoyed quick meals at Chipotle, a famous eatery, whenever we headed out. All the flavoured colas and medium-rare steaks made me wish I could stay back. Availability of good food has always been my primary concern when I head out and this country never disappoints.