Friends of Indian senior citizens organization enjoyed their annual trip to New York and New Jersey on August 11 and 12 with 110 seniors; ages ranging from 60 to 85 and different ethnicities. Thanks to the Executive Committee who worked very hard for the safety and well-being of every one and made this trip as enjoyable as possible.

All the seniors gathered at 5:30am on Saturday, August 11th at the Burlington Senior Center (61 Center street) and by 6:00 AM, both the coaches with 55 seniors each were out on the road.

Our first stop was Milford Service Plaza in Connecticut. After 2 hours of early morning ride, everybody was looking for hot tea, coffee and breakfast before we continue our trip to Jain Center of America, Flushing, New York. Jain Center of America is a unique place. It spreads on 3 floors, having beautiful idols of all Thirthankers of Jain faith. Next Vaishanav Temple is only few minutes away in Hyde Park New York. We reached here right on time for “Rajbhog” darshsan of Lord Shree Nath Ji at 12:30 PM. Rita Shah was already in touch with Anil and Meena Shah for our lunch at this facility. After the lunch, we went to Staten Island Ferry ride. Though it was a rainy day all enjoyed ferry ride. We left at 6:00 PM from the ferry terminal to go to Swaminarayan Temple in Secaucus, NJ. Here we had Darshan and Aarti of Lord Swaminarayan. Our secretary Jayanti Patel was in contact with Executive Committee of the temple who had arranged a very nice dinner for us. Now it was about 8:00 PM in the night and having travelled more than 14 hours all seniors were almost tired. After the dinner, we left the temple and checked-in hotel Hilton in Elizabeth, NJ at 8:30 PM.

Next day on August 11th, Sunday morning we left the hotel at 8:30 AM for Mohegan Sun Casino, Uncasville, Connecticut. We spent 5 hours at the casino, enjoyed playing some games, eating many varieties of food at the buffet bar. This was very relaxing as compare to Saturday and everybody was able to move around at their choice place, gambling, bear bar or food courts. We left casino at 5:30 PM headed to Umiya Mata Ji Temple in Fox borough, MA. Once again, our secretary Jayanti Patel was in contact with Executive Committee of the Temple so the Committee with very precious introduction received us. We enjoyed a very nice dinner here. This was our last attraction. At 8:15 PM, we left the Temple for Burlington, MA to arrive by 9:00 PM.

Though managing two buses and many hotel rooms, with back-to-back schedules, was very challenging but everything went very smoothly and FISCO Executive Committee is thankful for the great energy and cooperation of all the seniors.

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