On-ward to San Francisco

Monday, March 19, 2012

Jacksonville, Atlanta, San Francisco

We woke up at Red Roof Inn in the morning and got ready by 5:10 AM and checked out of the hotel.

We dropped off the key cards at the front desk and drove toward the Economy Parking Lot Number 1 via Airport Road. We took the token for parking and and within 5 minutes we got a shuttle and got off at the second stop for AirTran and SouthWest at 5:25 AM.

The baggage checking-in was quick since there were not many people waiting and I had already paid for them $18 ($20/bag but they gave me $6 credit since I paid seat fees).  This took about 15 minutes and by the time we got into the gate area C it was almost 6:10 AM and they were already boarding and so got into the plane. We took off bit early at 6:30 AM from gate C6. Due to the early departure we arrived in Atlanta also 10 minutes early by 7:35 AM at D9 gate. So far I am impressed with Air Tran schedule and staff.

We took the train and there was a line for the escalator to go up to the concourse C (may be because it was Monday morning in ATL and it was 7:50 AM peak hour commute). Our gate was C21 and was next to the escalator and we didn’t have time to grab breakfast as AirTran started to board by 8:20 AM. We were airborne by 8:45 AM few minutes ahead of schedule. But the captain warned us that there was a rainstorm that they were trying to avoid and so we will go via Mobile and that would add few minutes delay to our trip. So getting off early was good.

Once we were airborne and climbed to 10,000 feet I opened my MacBook and found out the Gogoair.com onboard wi-fi service was only $4.95 for my 5 ½ h flight and so I bought the service. This allowed me to see where we were going in real time.

Trip to Jacksonville Hindu Temple

Sunday, March 18, 2012 3-8 PM

Tallahassee and Jacksonville, FL

This afternoon we packed and left home around 3 PM toward Jacksonville, FL. We took I-10 East and drove for about 90 minutes before stopping for a restroom break.

Then as we reached the outskirts of Jacksonville we stopped and took a coffee and donut break at a local Dunkin Donuts. Then we drove to Jacksonville Hindu temple (Hindu Society of Northeast Florida’s Ganesh temple). By the time we arrived at the temple, its had been open only few minutes earlier (the time on Sundays are 6-8:30 PM).

We spent sometime praying and took some prasadam. We also met the senior priest we had seen earlier during previous trips.

From there we took I-295 South to I-95 North to our hotel Ref Roof Inn on Duval Road near the airport. We checked into our room and immediately went to see the economy parking  lot where we will park our car tomorrow.

Once that was finished we drove back to have dinner at a Taco Bell and went back to the hotel. I checked the e-mail and went to bed around  9PM.

Trip to Jacksonville Hindu Temple

Trip to Jacksonville, Florida
Hindu Temple of North East Florida
Sunday, December 28, 2008

We visited the Jacksonville Hindu Society of North East Florida and the Ganesh temple today. We started around 8:00 AM from home and took Interstate 10 East and drove for about two hours and 45 minutes. The temple is now located in a new subdivision Greenland Road (4968, Greenland Road, Jacksonville, FL 32258 (904-268-7630) www.jaxhindutemple.org (compared to the time when we visited the temple in 2004).

The temple construction work was still in progress with volunteers painting the driveway. We went inside and participated in poojas for Ram and Ganesh. We finished our meal in the temple and volunteered to set-up chairs for the upcoming New Year Services on Thursday, January 1, 2009.


We then drove to Rajan Indian Grocery store in Baymeadow Road and purchased some grocery items before heading toward Beach Boulevard and reached the Jacksonville Beaches. The water was cold and there were signs stating that there were rip currents and hence swimming was not encouraged.

The kids waded the water in knee deep water for about 45 minutes. Then we picked some coffee and donunts at the Dunkin Donut shop and headed toward home. We were home just before 8 PM.