Day 43 - Last Full Day Of The Trip

Alan is making we write this tonight even though I'm too sad.  Alan will agree with everything I say in green

 

How can it possibly be time to come home?  We only just got here.  I am feeling really sad about having to leave this beautiful paradise but there are four reasons to come home, our four fluffy girls.  We have missed them so much.

 

We were up at a reasonable hour this morning as we were to be picked up for the Arizona Memorial tour at 9.25am.  We went down to breakfast and instead of taking 6 fruit salads like we did yesterday, we took 22.  We had to.  Tomorrow morning we are being picked up at 5.45am for our flight and breakfast doesn't start until 6.30am.  We needed to get our money's worth.

 

We were looking forward to the Arizona Memorial, that was until we arrived and discovered we had to wait almost two hours.  We would have thought, going through an actual tour organisation, we would have received some priority.  That wasn't the case.  I'm not exactly sure what we paid for considering the Memorial is free.  It was very hot and humid and not much around to do to fill that amount of time. There's a museum and stuff like that which I found very interesting but it still didn't come close to filling all our spare time.  Finally we were let into the theatre to view a 30 minute film and then we were on the shuttle out to the Memorial.  It is actually quite moving although you really can't comprehend what it must have been like that morning on 7 December 1941. The USS Arizona still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbour where it sank, with the viewing platform built over the top of it. A few pieces of the warship just poke out of the waters surface.

 

In all, 21 American warships were damaged or sunk when Japan launched their surprise attack on the Naval base at Pearl Harbour that day. 2390 Americans died, of which 1177 were on the Arizona. Most of the bodies of the Arizona dead are still entombed in the sunken ship.

 

We returned to the hotel and had some of our fruit salad and then hit the lagoon for a swim.  The roads were fairly busy coming back from the Memorial and we thought the beach would be too.  However, it was quieter than it had been the last few days.  When we made mention of this to a security person who was in our lift, he suggested that everyone was watching "the big game".  Hawaii were playing San Jose in some sort of football. It was a college football game.

 

After our last holiday swim we returned to the room and showered.  Before heading out to dinner we were treated to a fireworks display.  It was nice of the people of Hawaii to give us a great send off.  We walked about four blocks to a mexican restaurant.  The food was nice but, as always, there was far too much of it.  We didn't appreciate the waitress giving us a lecture on the art of tipping, including telling us how much to tip her.  On reviewing the bill we discovered she had charged for us a salad which actually came with the meal.  There went her tip. I think it's a bit rude telling customers how much they should tip you.

 

We are now back in our room, looking very sad at each other.  12 hours from now we will be on our way back to Australia and will be home in less than 24 hours. 

 

There will be one more holiday blog, a bit of a summation so to say, so stay tuned. It may not be tomorrow or the next day but definitely it will be posted by Wednesday. Once we get back home, over our jet lag and out of holiday mode.

 

Thanks to everyone for tuning in and sharing our holiday stories, photos and especially our wedding.  We love you all.

 

Trivia for the day: 66 years on and oil still leaks from the engines of the USS Arizona into Pearl Harbour at a rate of about 2 litres per day.

 

 

Here is a video of Alan playing in the water.

 

 

 

 

Day 42 - A lazy day in paradise

Sarah's making Alan write the blog entry today. I'm very tired after such a hard day so it will be short. Her comments will be in orange.

 

We slept in this morning thus missing our 7am pickup time for a free breakfast at Planet Hollywood. It didn't matter though as we also get a free breakfast here at our hotel so we went down and filled our cooler bags to the brim with all kinds of goodies. I'm pretty sure the Planet Hollywood breakfast was just going to be a hard sell on signing up for some tours.  Did I say that yesterday?  I'm tired too so I'm not sure.

 

We spent the morning doing not very much at all, the way it should be in such a beautiful place at the end of a long holiday. I don't think I could ever get sick of sitting and reading whilst looking every so often at the ocean.  I saw some interesting things; a guy fishing in the lagoon area, another guy using a metal detector in the lagoon and the large number of elderly people who stay in the water for hours.  I think Honolulu is becoming the new Florida for retirees.  For lunch we ate 6 fruit salad tubs left over from our breakfast after which we took a wander across the road to the beach where Sarah had a paddle at the waters edge. We then walked slowly down the street looking in all the shops and buying a few bits and pieces before returning to our room for an afternoon just as lazy as the morning.

 

Late in the afternoon we ventured back over to the beach and we both had a dip in the lagoon. We were surprised to see hundreds of little fish swimming around near the shore. The water was pretty cold but we stayed in there for an hour or so.  The water temperature is 27 degrees, hardly cold.  I could have stayed in all day.

 

We had a lovely seafood dinner at the restaurant downstairs and now have retired back to the 18th floor for the evening.

Day 41 - Aloha!

Even though it is Alan's night to blog and he's had a 3.5 hour nap this afternoon, I've been made to do it. Of course, Alan will still have to add his 2 cents worth which we all know gets rounded down to nothing.  So, his nothing comments will be in pink.

 

We woke at 6am today at Alan's direction even though I thought we should have been up earlier for our 9am flight.  The heavy rain overnight had caused havoc on the road but thankfully that havoc was not near the airport.   A very smooth trip by taxi and we arrived at the American Airlines terminal. As usual, I was right in my time management skills. This was one of the tickets that formed part of the Qantas frequent flyer points we received from my parents.  After a few hiccups with their automated check-in, we learned that the flight was full and again we didn't have seats together.  However, we weren't flagged for extra security by airport staff.  We asked the desk attendant at the gate if there was anything he could do and thankfully we was able to do a bit of a shuffle and seat us together.

 

We knew ahead of time that we would need to purchase food and headphones for this flight.  What we didn't know is that they were trialling a new system where no cash would be accepted.  We quickly ran off and bought some ham and cheese rolls for the flight before the door shut.  It's very annoying that so many Qantas frequently flyer points were used to get us on a flight where we don't get a free feed or at least a set of headphones. San Francisco airport had 4 runways operating this morning with planes coming and going and criss crossing each other at a very regular rate. I sure wouldn't want to be an air traffic controller organising all that chaos.

 

After a 5 hour flight, we arrived into a very warm and humid Honolulu just after 11am.  We'd had a problem a few days ago when a simple question asked of the agency through whom we had booked our ground transport had prompted them to cancel it on us.  Many emails were sent telling them not to cancel it, with them responding that they had tried to call us and left an urgent message for us to call but as we hadn't responded, they had cancelled the ground transport.  Of course we hadn't responded ... they had left the message on our home answering machine.  Hadn't occurred to them that although we had taken a trip to the Grand Canyon through them a few weeks ago that we weren't at home. 

 

As we walked off the plane I saw someone with the Diamond Head tours folder and as we walked towards her, she asked if we were Alan and Sarah.  It would appear that they had received information about the cancellation but were expecting us anyway.  Must happen every now and then.

 

We were ushered with others to baggage claim and our bags and us were quickly whisked away to the bus and were on our way to our accommodation.  On the bus were a family from Brisbane.  We've encountered two lots of Brisbanites in two days.

 

The hotel is lovely, just as we had hoped.  We had to wait until 3pm to check in but when we did, we weren't disappointed. Between arriving here and checking in we took a walk over to the beach and down the street looking around the shops. We each had the thickest thickshake I think I've ever had in my life. It took me a good few minutes of sucking before anything started to come up the straw. There was a dude on the street with his 2 pet macaws which we had some photos taken with. Of course he wanted payment afterwards. We are on the 18th floor with a lovely ocean view room.  While Alan slept this afternoon I sat and read, watching the beach.  I then watched the sunset whilst listening to the music and singer coming from the bar area of our hotel. 

 

Alan finally pulled himself out of bed in time for us to go down and get a pizza and some drinks and we returned to the room.  Alan has just had a shower only to find we have no hot water.  We must do something about that tomorrow and definitely before I have to shower.

 

We have two cooler bags in our room for our BOB - Breakfast on the Beach in the morning. The hotel puts on breakfast but instead of you dirtying tables around the pool, they make you take it to the beach.  We will hit the BOB early as the company who picked us up this morning from the airport has free breakfast for us at Planet Hollywood.  I think it is nothing more than a hard sell on tours while you are here but as we are only here for two days, and one tour is booked for one day, they aren't going to get us to do anything other than take a second breakfast.

 

 

 

 

Day 40 - Again No Rain In San Francisco

Sarah's blogging and Alan's commenting in green.

 

We had a lovely night in our new hotel.  Very comfortable bed and nice squishy pillows. It's great to have a king size bed for a change because Sarah doesn't roll all over me. It was a little noisy this morning with trucks on the street so we were up and moving by 9am.  We went down to Pier 39 as we'd seen really nice crepes coming out of a store there yesterday. Thankfully they were open and we each had an extremely large strawberry crepe with whipped cream for breakfast.

 

Rain was predicted for today and as the clouds rolled in we thought they might be right.  We decided to embark on a 2.5 hour bus tour of San Francisco anyway which started at 10.45am. We were dressed reasonably warmly so we sat in the open section, but as we rounded the first bend we were immediately hit by a chilly wind.  We very quickly moved inside the trolley bus where it was a bit warmer.  We rode through the very steep streets of San Francisco with the driver pointing out various areas of interest.  Our first stop was the Palace of the Fine Arts. We then moved down to below the Golden Gate Bridge where we had another photo stop.  We went past the smallest cemetery which is right near the Bridge, which was a pet cemetery.

 

We then stopped by the side of the Bridge and we had half an hour to do whatever we wanted.  As you can see from the photos, Alan decided to climb over a display and be in everyone else's photos. I had to be very quick because a bridge security patrol cruised by, followed by a California Highway Patrol going by the opposite way. We learned many facts, most of which will appear in Alan's comments. We went to Union Square, The Presidio, Chinatown, Nob Hill, Grace Cathedral and Washington Square. However I can say that neither would I want to live here or ever be able to afford to live here.  To buy is way out of our price range and we couldn't even make the rent, let alone have a car we can't park. It's a very nice city and the people are extremely friendly, but it's far too cold here for my liking. Very few houses have garages and parking on the street is virtually impossible.

 

After our return to Pier 39, we ventured in to one of the many food places and I had a clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  I had to have one before I left here and I wasn't disappointed.  Alan just had some boring calamari. Um hello..... Sarah had boring calamari for dinner tonight.

 

We were due to meet Kay and Jim at their hotel at 2pm but before doing so, Alan needed to return to the room to add another jumper to his clothing. I seem to recall that Sarah changed into something warmer as well. We arrived just a little late to find that Kay had taken a tumble down the stairs and had hurt her hand pretty badly.  We returned to their room to ice it and while deciding what we were going to do, there was a knock on the door. The hotel had sent up a free breakfast voucher for the two of them because of the fall.  If Alan had known that earlier, he would have been tripping me up all over the USA. Sarah's clumsy enough that I don't need to trip her up.

 

Jim and Kay had been up to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world earlier in the day and asked whether we would like to see it.  Alan and I were actually going to suggest it to them.  Kay stayed in the room and I probably should have elected to stay with her.  There were three large hills to climb to get there, each one worse than the previous one.  The third was a killer. It wasn't a bad walk at all. Just a few little hills. I was ready to die when we reached the bottom of Lombard St and elected NOT to climb the large number of stairs to the top with Alan and Jim. 

 

Whilst recovering I heard a lady behind me say "my heart is going to beat out of my chest".  I recognised the Australian accent and came face to face with two sisters with their husbands from Brisbane. 

 

We returned to their hotel room (going down the steep hills was much easier) and sat around and chatted for a while. We returned to the room briefly to do a bit of packing and met them for dinner down by the Pier.  Before saying our goodbyes we ventured back to the chocolate shop.  I think Jim and Alan were trying to outdo each other on who could buy the most.  Alan just now said behind me "I think I bought too much chocolate".  I already knew that.

 

It was then time to bid Kay and Jim farewell.  We love them so much and it's so hard when we live so far away from each other.  It was hard to say goodbye to Christie and Steve too in Las Vegas but I chat with Christie at least once a week on the internet.  Jim has to go out and buy a new computer with a large screen so Kay can email more often.

 

So tonight we pack again for the second last time.  Tomorrow it is hello Honolulu.  I've enjoyed my time in San Francisco.  Still, as I write this, it hasn't rained today.  However we are looking forward to a bit warmer weather.  Today it reached a maximum of 17 with a cold wind coming off the water.  Glad we are leaving now as Friday it will only be a maximum of 13.  The prediction for our three days in Honolulu is partly cloudy and 30.  Sounds good to me. It sounds like it's just started to rain now, after 10pm.

 

 

 

 

Day 39 - A sunny day in San Francisco

It's Alan's turn to blog today. Sarah will put her thoughts in red.

 

After an awful nights sleep of being woken constantly by noise from the busy road outside and the very thin walls, we got up this morning and Sarah immediately began checking the internet for somewhere else to stay. It didn't take long to find a better looking hotel so we packed our bags, checked out and went outside to catch a taxi. They didn't even ask us why we were leaving 2 days early. Maybe they're used to people leaving after only one night because the place is such a dump.  The smell of the place didn't improve even though we had the window open a good portion of last night.  We were freezing.

 

We caught a taxi to the Radisson which is just a block from the waterfront. It's much more expensive but also much nicer. The lady at the counter even let us check in 5 hours early than usual which was a bonus.

 

After that we went out for a walk around the shops and stopped for a visit to the wax museum. There were lots of exhibits in there most of which looked extremely life like. By the time we finished that it was time to meet Jim and Kay around the corner at their hotel. They're the parents of Christie who was at our wedding, and are down here from Washington for the weekend. We all went for a wander over to Fishermans Wharf and stopped with the crowd to watch all the sea lions who've been calling pier 39 home for decades now. Boats are no longer allowed to enter the area any more to ensure the sea lions aren't disturbed. They're loud and a bit stinky but they're also fun to watch.

 

We continued browsing through all the shops along the pier checking out all the cool touristy type stuff there is to buy. There was a shop with some great Wizard of Oz glass globe things which we liked but I'm sure they would have broken in our luggage before we got home so we didn't buy one.  They were music boxes and absolutely beautiful.

 

We'd barely eaten a thing all day so we headed off for an early seafood dinner which was absolute yumminess. By the time we came out of the restaurant it was snowing outside so we made a quick stop in one of the huge number of chocolate shops around here to buy some late night snacks and then said a quick goodbye to Jim and Kay, until tomorrow at least, before hurriedly returning to our hotel room. Thankfully it was only half a block away instead of having to catch a cable car about 20 blocks back uphill to our crummy hotel of last night.  It wasn't snowing.  It is about 13 degrees and I like the cool.  It has such a fresh feeling.

 

We'll both be sleeping well tonight.

 

Trivia for the day: It's the second time I've been here and Sarah's third time and never before have we experienced a sunny day in San Francisco. I believe tomorrow is going to be wet and icky though.

Day 38 - San Francisco

Sarah's travel day blog.  Alan's usual nonsense is in green

 

We had to be up at 5am this morning to make the flight from New York to San Francisco.  We didn't mind if it meant we finally got to get away from the place.  We didn't find one nice person in New York.  Not on the tour bus, not walking around, not in the restaurants/shops and definitely not in the hotel.

 

We cancelled our shuttle booking and instead took a taxi.  At that time in the morning, it was a quick trip and we really didn't want to have to deal with going from hotel to hotel picking up other people. The trip by taxi between New York airports and Manhattan has a set fee of $45. It's amazing how taxi drivers can actually find the accelerator when the meter isn't ticking! We reached speeds of 75 mph in a 45 zone. The Delta Airlines representative wanted us to try the self check-in, even though we explained to him that it doesn't work for us.  A few minutes later he was convinced and we joined the queue for the service check-in.  Before making it to the counter another Delta Airlines representative was very rude and ordered us back to the self check-in but finally allowed us a service check-in.

 

Again we were selected for the "random" secondary security check.  Yeah, random that it happens to us every time.  The line for the security check was short but it took them forever.  Alan got his check done fairly quickly but I had to wait for the Airport employee to check the person behind me first.  They spoke the same foreign language.  I guess it doesn't matter about first come first served.  Finally my check was completed and we walked away from the gate and Alan asked whether I had our boarding passes.  I didn't so we had to return.  It took about another 10 minutes before we were able to collect them from the very disorganised staff. They called for boarding at 8am, they scanned Alan's boarding pass which allowed him through but mine came up with that I hadn't been security checked.  Great!  She checked with her Supervisor and I was allowed on the plane.  She gave me a friendly shoulder rub on my way through.  I must have looked pretty annoyed.

 

We were supposed to take off at 8.25 but it was after 9.15 before we got underway.  Just after take off it was announced that we would get beverage service on the flight but we would have to pay for the food.  A 5 1/2 hour flight with no food.  Unfortunately we had little to no money as we'd been unable to get a travellers cheque cashed and places in Manhattan charge you to use an ATM.  Do you believe that? Hmmm, supposedly everywhere accepts American Express travellers cheques. Yeah right, not in New York. Also, to watch the movie on the plane we needed to pay $2 for headphones.  We were planning on sleeping but then Alan found a pair of headphones in his seat pocket and we were able to share an ear each, for Evan Almighty. Pretty funny. We did at least manage a couple of hours uncomfortable sleep each.

 

An uneventful flight and we arrived in a reasonably cool San Francisco. Another SuperShuttle trip with an Asian driver who spent the majority of his time driving at 70 miles an hour whilst looking at a street map.  God we hate shuttles. I think they'll just employ anyone for their shuttles regardless of whether or not they actually have any driving ability.

 

The hotel is, well one word, dreadful. It is very reasonably priced for San Francisco and well located and although we weren't expecting much, this is a lot less than we were expecting.  Firstly, it smells.  It is like someone used about 10 bottles of very strong air freshener trying to cover something up which didn't work.  It is a non smoking hotel so that isn't it. It doesn't smell like air freshener to me. It just smells like stinkiness.

 

The room is OK.  There is paint peeling and we have no fridge and there is no ice bucket. Great, we can't have a cold drink. Instead of the sink being in the bathroom it is right near the bed.  I had to go and ask for some more pillows and thankfully we got the last two to spare.

 

We took a short walk and had some lunch of fish and chips at a local cafe and came back to the room.  It is at the end of Fleet Week in San Francisco and we were able to see the Blue Angels perform acrobatic manoeuvers from our room. I'd never been to an airshow before.  We could have got premium seating tickets for US$26 but we felt free from our room was a good price.

 

It is a really beautiful day in San Francisco.  I've been here three times before and it has always rained.  We just know that is what will be on the cards for us the next two days.

 

My friend Christie's parents arrived in town from Tacoma, Washington today.  We were going to catch up with them tonight but after our 5am start we are pretty tired.  We have arranged to meet up tomorrow afternoon.

 

There are no photos today, unless you want to see the ones I took of Alan sleeping on the plane with his mouth open. I could have taken similar photos of Sarah but I would have needed to wake her to get the camera.

Day 37 - Darn it, we're still in New York City

Alan gets to blog again tonight since Sarah has a sore leg. I'm not sure what that has to do with typing on a computer, but anyway if she adds any comments they'll be in red.  Alan offered to do the blog and I was grateful.  We have to have the computer on the window sill to get wireless internet access in this hotel and it is uncomfortable sitting this way.

 

Unfortunately we had another full day to spend in this place so we slept in and didn't end up leaving our room until midday. We started walking north and after 17 blocks we hit Rockefeller Plaza where we stopped to watch the ice skaters on the outdoor rink. We stopped in a little shop to buy a donut for morning tea and were finally served by the 2 girls behind the counter once they had finished their conversation with each other. We've come to expect this from New Yorkers by now.

 

We left and headed further north and after battling through the crowds on the 5th avenue sidewalk we finally came to FAO Schwarz, the huge toy store. There used to be a giant toy clock and train set just inside the door, but that's been replaced with all sorts of gigantic stuffed animals. On the second floor there was a crowd of people watching two staff members playing on the giant floor keyboard. Movie lovers may remember Tom Hanks playing it in the movie "Big". They were very entertaining and we were all ready to buy one until we realised that we'd need a much much much bigger suitcase in which to get it home. There was also the small issue of the quarter of a million dollars price tag.

 

Alan forgot that before we reached FAO Schwarz we made a visit to St Patrick's Cathedral.  I feel sorry for the poor people praying with the number of tourists taking flash photography.  Of course we didn't do that. Well, only a couple.

 

Alan also forgot that we stopped in at Trump Tower.  My god that man likes his gold.

 

After leaving there we headed over to Central Park and entered at 64th street, which meant we had walked 32 blocks from our hotel. Not a bad Saturday walk to stretch our legs. We had a bit of a walk through the park and sat and watched the ducks and the passers-by while we decided what to do next.  Being a Saturday we didn't have to deal with so many New Yorkers, mostly tourists.  That is just slightly better.

 

We thought we'd had enough of walking for a while so we went and jumped on a tour bus since our tickets from yesterday were still good for today as well. We jumped out near Times Square and got a bite to eat including the closest thing we've had to a milkshake since being in America. I'm sure our bones have become brittle through a lack of milk over the last 5 weeks or so. We thought we should probably see at least one museum whilst in New York so we chose Madame Tussauds wax museum. It was too crowded though so we hopped back on the bus and went downtown to the Museum of Sex instead. It wasn't really as interesting as you might think, but we did buy a magnet from the gift shop.

 

We would have liked a trip up The Empire State Building, but the haze was bad again today so there was no point in paying $17 each to see nothing. We went out to a Texas bar for dinner and now we're back here counting the minutes until we can leave this city early tomorrow morning.  Yes we went to a place called Rodeo Bar and had mexican food.  I had a steak enchilada which came with this very strange chocolate spicy sauce.  It wasn't really sweet, just strange.

Day 36 - 6 hours on a bus is more than enough

It's Alan's blog day while Sarah's thoughts are in pink.

 

We had an opportunity to sleep in this morning which we gratefully did before rising at around 10am. Eventually we got ourselves moving as we were to spend the day touring the city on an open top double decker bus. First priority was to walk the 15 blocks north to the Gray Line tour visitor centre and redeem our vouchers, which took us about half an hour. There are 3 tour routes available and you can jump on and off the buses as often as you like as they come along every few minutes.

 

We chose to take the uptown tour first which was a two and a half to three hour loop and took us through such areas as The West Side, Central Park West, Harlem, Manhattan Valley, Spanish Harlem and Museum Mile. There's a tour guide on the bus who provides a constant commentary along the way pointing out absolutely everything there is to know. Practically every second building is famous for some reason or another, like movies or tv shows being filmed there, or someone famous owning it or living there, or just for being old or big. Also, they point out the home of every celebrity who has ever lived or lives in New York.  There were no seats together when we got on because unthinking Americans chose to sit separately although travelling together.  The woman I was sitting next to was travelling with two other women, one in front and one behind.  Every time she wanted to talk to the woman behind she slid over and sat partly on my lap.  Every time she wanted to take a photo, she leaned back on me.  Every time she wanted to look the map, she hit me in the arm.  Not once did she say sorry.  Finally after almost two hours of this she said to me "oh am I taking up more than one seat".  My response was "yes, only for about two hours".  She then made some comment about my big arse.  Yes, my butt is bigger than hers but I managed to keep mine on the one seat, unlike her.  Thankfully we were able to move and sit together after that. 

 

During the ride we passed by such places as Time Warner Towers, Trump International, The Museum of Natural History, The Apollo Theatre, Malcolm X St, Carnegie Hall, the projects in Harlem, The Guggenheim Museum, The Plaza Hotel, Cathedral of St John the Divine, The tomb of Ulysses S. Grant, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Soup Nazi kitchen from Seinfeld and of course Central Park. We stayed on for the entire loop as we decided not to get off at any of the stops along the way.

 

We returned to the crossover point for the downtown route and changed buses only for our new bus to turn a corner and immediately terminate so the driver could have lunch. So we got off, walked back around the corner and caught the next one only for the exact same thing to happen a second time. It would be really nice if they could tell you that they're about to terminate around the corner before you get on. Third time proved lucky as we walked to a different bus stop.

 

So onto the Downtown loop which was also about a 3 hour tour. During this one we passed through many areas including the fashion district, Greenwich Village, Soho, the theatre district, Little Italy, the lower east side, Chinatown, the financial district, Stuyvesant Town and the East Village. We saw Madison Square Garden, The Empire State Building, The Flatiron Building, Times Square, South St Seaport, Macys department store, the Staten Island Ferry terminal, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge, The United Nations, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Plaza and Rockefeller Centre.

 

We did get off at one point on this tour when we got down to Ground Zero. The bus doesn't drive past here and we wanted to have a look at it. It's very hard to see anything these days as it's a building site for the new Freedom Tower and pretty much covered from view but now and then there is a hole in the fence which you can look through.  The hole was a good spot by me.  Although they are rebuilding, there is still a lot of twisted metal on the site.

 

From there we walked down to Battery Park which is the very south tip of Manhattan Island. Usually the Statue of Liberty is easily seen from here but today it was almost invisible due to the haze. We chose not to take the ferry to the island since you can no longer go up inside it.

 

By the time we got back on the bus and finished the downtown loop it was 6pm so we were starving having had only an ice cream all day. We started wandering back toward our hotel but do you think we could find somewhere to eat? Of course not, there's only about 10,000 restaurants in Manhattan. It wasn't until we were back at 32nd street before we found a little Italian place that we thought looked nice.  By this time I was sick and tired of being pushed, walked into and hit with boxes and handbags. 

 

It's a huge city. An old city with so much history. Some of the older buildings are just stunning with their intricate stonework designs. There's a ludicrous amount of people crammed into an island 7 miles long and 1 mile wide. Space is such a premium. We don't understand why so many people are willing to pay millions of dollars to live here. But after being here a day and a half, we've both had more than enough of New York and are ready to never come back again. The people here are the most selfish, ignorant, self important collection of nastiness you could ever hope not to meet. Of course not all are like that, we've encountered the odd nice person here and there, but we seem to have an unfortunate habit of searching out and finding complete knobs!!! After 9/11 the people around here apparently changed for the better. 6 years on and it would appear things are back to the way they used to be.

 

Trivia for the day: When taking a tour bus around the city you are constantly reminded to never ever stand up while the bus is moving. If you do, you will more than likely end up with a traffic light where your head used to be as they hang very low.  You also have to watch out for the trees.  Some of the tree branches will also take off your head.

Day 35 - New York City

Travel day means a Sarah blog day.  Alan's point of view will today be in green

 

We woke nice and early this morning as we needed to get to the airport in plenty of time for our customary manhandling by airport security.  They didn't disappoint us.  Today it was a little different as we were ushered off into a private area for our 'going over'.  Better than in San Diego where it was done in front of the patrons of Starbucks. Buffalo is by far the smallest airport we've flown out of so far, but they had the longest wait to get through security.

 

We started to get concerned after sitting at the gate for a while as we were supposed to be at 2A and there was only a 2 and it was deserted.  We felt a bit silly when we asked an airport employee who indicated the handwritten 2A over a door, that was until we saw everyone else subsequently asking where to find the 2A door.

 

Our one flight attendant, all you get on these small planes that only sit 50 people, was gay and picked that we were Australian after only a few words. It would seem that all the gay men can pick an Australian. I don't know what that says about us. Doesn't say anything about me. Everyone knows I'm as straight as straight can be.

 

After collecting our luggage we arranged the Supershuttle to our accommodation in Manhattan.  Only a short 90 harrowing minutes later, we arrived at our hotel. We seem to be in a fairly good area of the city here on east 32nd street. I don't know what it is about Supershuttle drivers.  I think they must get them all together and teach them how to drive without looking at the road and how to accelerate up to traffic and abruptly put their foot on the brake. The stereotypes are certinly true in that New Yorkers are ridiculously impatient. The drivers turn corners without even considering people crossing the road and queue across intersections like it's their god given right. Pedestrians stand on the streets barely inches from passing traffic waiting to dash across the to the other side instead of waiting the extra 30 seconds to get a walk signal. People in Sydney complain about traffic. They should try coming here for a day or two and then they'd realise that Sydney is like heaven compared to New York or Los Angeles. I would never even consider being a courier over here.

 

The hotel is nice, which is good considering we are paying a fortune for it.  Our room is on the small side but, funnily enough, our bathroom is the largest we've had on this trip.  I would have much preferred they reduced the bathroom and increased the living area.  We are supposed to have a queen size bed.  It is more like a small double.  I guess it is perfect for newlyweds.  If it gets too cramped, Alan can always sleep in the tub. Nah I'll just shove Sarah off the side of the bed.

 

We tried to cash a travellers cheque at the hotel but they wouldn't cash $100.  So, we thought the next best thing would be the Chase Bank.  Wrong.  They don't cash travellers cheques without a passport, which we had left in our room.  We are in the most populated city in the US and the bank won't cash it although she did suggest we try Macy's across the road. I can't understand the logic.

 

We went to a little restaurant/bar at the base of the Empire State Building which is around the corner and one block up from our hotel, for a late lunch.  On the way back we saw that the waiting time for the Observation Tower was only 30 minutes and decided to wait an hour and return, that way we could see it in the light and watch the sunset.  However, when we returned the waiting time was up to 60 minutes.  Obviously others had the same idea as us. We decided to try it again another day as we would have missed the sunset by the time we made it to the top.

 

It's getting very tiresome trying to talk to people who either can't or won't understand what we're saying. When we went out for dinner tonight the guy taking our order could barely comprehend a word I was saying to him. I could have sworn I was speaking English. I guess I should be speaking American instead. Sarah suggested that we find an Australian bar tomorrow just so we could have a conversation with someone to whom we won't need to repeat ourselves half a dozen times.

 

No photos today.

Day 34 - Canada

Blog by Alan today with some thoughts by Sarah in orange.

 

For anyone who doesn't already know, Canadians have a reputation throughtout many countries (and especialy in my world) as being really slow and dimwitted. Just thought I should point that out now.

 

Luckily today was dry as we had a lot of things planned. We began by driving across the Rainbow bridge into Canada. The border security woman asked us a few questions but let us proceed through as Sarah was looking less dodgy than usual.  Me?!  With that haircut I'm surprised we get anywhere. We easily found our way to the Falls in spite of her directions and soon found parking only metres from the main attraction areas for only $10 for the day. In Sydney it would probably have cost about that much per hour. Her directions were take a right at the lights and another right and then right again to the falls.  Pretty basic instructions.  I don't know why Alan had a problem.  I think it comes from actually listening and taking instructions from women he has a problem with.

 

We decided to do the Maid of the Mist boat ride first of all in case it got busier as the day went on. We went down to the water in an elevator and then joined the mass of tourists waiting for the next boat, while also putting on our blue raincoats. We got on the next boat and were lucky enough to find a vacant spot next to the railing so we could hopefully get some decent photos. The boat pulled out and went past American Falls before arriving at Horseshoe Falls. At the bottom of the falls the wind blows so strongly and there's so much water spray flying around that it was almost impossible to get clear photos. It was great fun though and an awesome view. Without the raincoats we would have been absolutely drenched. It was over too quickly and we returned to the dock for our next adventure. Getting off the boat was a trial. Most people on there were Asian tourists, all of whom wanted to be first off the boat and pushed and shoved without mercy.  Actually one of them pushed me hard into a metal railing and then shoved themselves on to the elevator even though the elevator driver kept telling them to stop getting on.

 

We walked half a mile or so down the road to Horseshoe falls, taking photos along the way. From there we once again went down in an elevator to the Journey Behind the Falls for which we were wearing yellow raincoats. This is a passage which has a couple of portals looking out into the falls. You can't see anything except tons of gushing water but there's also another section which goes out onto a little platform just beside the base of the falls. This part was infinitely more wet and windy than the boat had been but we still managed to get a few photos before being blown away.  Before starting the Journey Behind the Falls, the lady in front of us asked one of the employees whether we would get wet.  The answer was the spray was the same as it was outside near the railing.  Yeah right.  The top wasn't anything other than a sprinkle.  At the bottom it was like someone was spraying a high pressure hose.

 

We returned to street level and bought a lemonade. We paid with American money which everyone in Canada readily accepts, however the cashier gave me Canadian coins for my change. What am I supposed to do with that? Dopey Canadians! We went to catch a bus back to our car but after sitting around waiting for a while we went to take a few more photos of the water. Naturally as soon as we left the bus stop, it came along so we had to run back to get on it just before it took off. I was about to get off back at our car when Sarah had the bright idea that we stay on the bus to our next destination because there was no parking there. So we did, and when we arrived there was of course plenty of parking available. Good one Sarah! Bugger off.  I pointed out the map in the bus and you agreed.  At this attraction we went down yet another elevator and out onto a boardwalk adjacent to the river, which at this point had turned into grade 5 rapids. It didn't take long until we had walked to the end and back and taken the elevator up to the top.

 

A bus was arriving as we came out so we took it back to our car and headed north again in search of the butterfly conservatory. Yeah he conveniently forgot to mention that he made us get off the bus one stop too early and we had to walk.  Good one Alan! It didn't take long to get there and we went into the big aviary-like structure which is the home to around 2,000 butterflies. Some of them had such pretty colours and Sarah managed to get one or two on her hand.

 

We left the butterfly joint and headed back toward the falls again. Before crossing back to America we bought 6 pieces of fudge, 3 of which we've already eaten for dinner. Once we'd done that we headed for the bridge, but of course following Canadian directions is not that straightforward. You're right there at the bridge entrance but instead you have to make numerous turns around small streets, with only little insignificant signs pointing the way until you actually fluke the correct way onto the bridge. At the other end, the American border officer grilled us with quite a number of questions including where we were from, what our jobs were, where we were staying, where we were going for the rest of our time here, how long we'd been in Canada plus lots of others. I'm sure it didn't help given that we told him we had only been in Canada 4 or 5 hours, but the dopey Canadian woman had stamped our passports with the date from 2 days ago. And Canadians wonder why the rest of the world poke fun at them for being slow. 2 days behind everyone else seems about right.

 

So we were allowed back into America thankfully. I didn't fancy spending the rest of my time in Canada. We headed east toward Wheatfield as we wanted to do the corn field maze that we had missed out on yesterday because of the rain. We got there and had the maze all to ourselves as we were the only people there at the time. It's actually 3 different mazes. The first one we did was the easiest one and as you go around you have to find points where you stick a finger into a chalk filled hole. At the end when you find your way out and have all 5 fingers differently coloured, you check your colour combination against a board which tells your character. I think it's pretty accurate, because it says that I "have the ability to inspire". It knows me well. I asked him to inspire me six hours ago and I'm still waiting.  That would be 9 years, 8 months and a number of weeks and days and I'm still uninspired.

 

The 2nd maze was harder and we took different routes to each other. After some time wandering, Sarah came to a raised wooden bridge just as I was on a path going under it. A short time later we met up again, but only because Sarah cheated and cut through the corn. Hey,  I've seen the movie Children of the Corn.  You'd be scared too.  Together we managed to find our way out. We took on the 3rd maze which is easily the biggest and hardest. Once again we both took separate paths and met up after a time after Alan cheated but still took quite a while to eventually find our way out. It's quite eerie being lost in a corn field with nobody else in sight. To help along the way they have markers at which you answer questions on a sheet of paper you're given and depending on your answer you go either left or right etc. Given that all the questions were about New York state history, they were of abolutely no use to us whatsoever.

 

It was lots of fun and I think we might have to find another one to do some time. We drove down the road to Olive Garden for a very late lunch/early dinner. I think we had cheese overload. I'm pretty sure there must have been cheese coming out of our ears and noses by the time we finished. The foods great though.

 

We briefly returned to our hotel room before heading back out for one last look at the falls before we leave tomorrow morning. We decided to go for a walk along the Rainbow bridge to get some nice night shots. It took quite a while but eventually they started the coloured lights which turns the falls all different colours. By this time I was practically a block of ice as it was freezing standing up there on that windy bridge. It wasn't cold at all.  He is such a big girl when it comes to weather.  Back through US border security, with a bunch more questions and now we're packing our bags yet again for the short flight to the big apple tomorrow.

 

Trivia for the day: A couple of days ago we mentioned that 285,000 litres of water goes over the American Falls every second. Today we learned that 2.5 million litres - about 9 times as much - goes over the Horseshoe Falls every second.

 

Here is a little video of the falls, with a commentary by Alan.  It seems to think it isn't working but if you click on the link below, you will see it.  Make sure you have some volume on.

 

 

   

Day 33 - Still at the Falls

You have me, Sarah, again tonight.  I doubt Alan will have any comments but if he does, they will be in red.

 

 

For all those who have come in to read the excitment that was our day, I'm so sorry to disappoint you.  We have very little to report.

 

We woke this morning to very grey skies and rain.  We decided to put off our tour options until tomorrow in the hope it will be dry and sunny.  We hung around the room until late morning and decided to head off to a huge corn field maze which is about 30 minutes drive east of the hotel. To get there we had to drive through some pretty bad areas of town. Some of the houses looked nice, but most were either boarded up and abandoned, or for sale. Most factories and motels have long since closed and the most common thing to see are Niagara visitor welcome centres which look dodgy at best. We kept praying that we didn't break down. Unfortunately when we got to the maze they said it was too wet and muddy so we didn't do it.  Disappointing.  We are hoping to get back there tomorrow afternoon, time and weather permitting.

 

We had an early lunch at the Italian restaurant, Olive Garden, which we didn't finish. It's understandable when we have a big salad bowl, an appetizer and very filling main courses each. They very nicely packed up our leftovers and we brought them back to the room.  Our room doesn't have a microwave but when we went to do some washing this afternoon, we found there was a microwave in the laundry room.  Yeah, that makes sense. Where else would you find a microwave? There's probably a fridge in the swimming pool and a dishwasher in the games room.

 

We had our leftovers around 6pm and at 7.30 we thought we better go and check to make sure the falls were still there.  They were, which was a great relief.  A quick walk to Denny's for dessert and then back to the room.

 

So what was our day.  Exciting hey!  Sorry, there are no photos today.  We will have lots from our various events tomorrow.  Rumour has it the weather will be improved.

Day 32 - Nice Falls

Alan left Sarah to blog today because he thought it would be a boring day.  It turned out NOT to be.  His comments will be added in green. Plus I had done it the last 2 days.

 

This morning started with a leisurely trip to the airport.  We were hoping that our days of being manhandled by Airport Security were over but that turned out not to be the case.  It is these darn airline tickets booked by Flight Centre that is doing it to us.  With the airline tickets booked by me we have breezed past security. I'm sure it's probably just coincidence.

 

A quick 1 hour flight in a plane that seated 52 people and we landed at Buffalo Airport.  Our luggage was collected very quickly and in no time, we were getting into our hire car, another Saturn.  We really look like tourists as we're in New York and the car has Texas licence plates.

 

Alan chose to finally listen to my directions for once and we arrived at the hotel with only slight confusion.  I think with all the scenery we just missed the hotel as we drove by.  We may as well have gotten lost because when we arrived at just after midday they told us we couldn't check in until 3pm.  We took a walk towards the falls and immediately fell in love.  Niagara Falls are beautiful.  Niagara Falls, NY, the town is not.  The place is pretty scary.  Most of the shops are deserted and, as we quickly discovered, those that are here are not worth visiting. This place is nothing like I was expecting. The Falls themselves are fantastic, but the town is virtually deserted, there are condemned shopping malls, abandoned arcades and restaurants, extremely dodgy looking souvenir shops and cafes and one totally out of place casino. Even in the middle of the day the streets were almsot like a ghost town. Maybe this is typical of America once you leave the big cities.

 

After taking a number of photos of the falls, we paid our $1 each to go to the Observation Tower and then took the lift to the bottom of the falls. The observation deck is 200 feet high and pretty scary when you look over the side. We then dropped by the visitor's centre and had a dreadful ham and swiss cheese roll. 

 

In desperate need for money we took a walk through the scary streets to the casino to cash a travellers cheque.  We started to think that it wasn't as such a casino than a slot machine room when we stumbled on 8 gaming tables.  With the gaming tables came a cashier and we were able to get some money.

 

We then walked back to the hotel and looked very sad at the clerk who then let us check in at 2.30pm.  The outside of the hotel might look like a dump but the room is lovely.  We are on the top floor but didn't get a view, not that there is much of a view to have other than the buildings on the Canadian side of the border.  A nap was had after our very long and stressful flight and then we went out to dinner.  We ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe again as there really is nothing else around that looks half decent. The hotel has a restaurant but the online reviews suggest we are better not eating there.

 

After dinner we journeyed back over the road to view the falls and 50 photos were taken before the camera battery died.  We returned to the room and picked up the charged battery, jumped into the car and drove over to the little island between the American Falls and the view of the Horseshoe Falls.  Thankfully at night parking is free, saving us $8 and more photos were taken. There were a few people around taking photos and admiring the views, along with plenty of police patrols. Clearly the area is not particularly safe to be wandering around at night. Luckily big tough Alan was on hand to protect little wussy Sarah. There were no signs anywhere stating that the island closes and as we were leaving around 11pm they were closing the gate. It wouldn't have been a problem had we been locked in as it was only a 10 minute walk back to our hotel.

 

Tomorrow hopefully the weather won't be as bad as they predict as we are doing the Maid of the Mist (going to the falls in a boat), the Journey Behind the Falls, White Water Boardwalk (formerly Great Gorge Adventure) and the Butterfly Conservatory.

 

Trivia for the day: There are 2 sections of Niagara Falls - the smaller one is American Falls and the much bigger one is Horseshoe Falls. We saw a sign saying that the amount of water going over American Falls is 285,000 litres every second. It's mindboggling.

Day 31 - Playing the tourist game

Sarah has decided that Alan has to write the blog again tonight. Her thoughts are in green.

 

We were up nice and early this morning to make good use of our trolley tour tickets which we transferred from yesterday. We caught the train into DC and after a few moments getting our bearings we made our way to one of the tour stops. I picked a closer trolley stop to the train so Alan wouldn't have to walk on his sore foot.  I'm nice to him ... he wasn't as nice when I had a sore foot.  There was a trolley there waiting so we jumped on. Our aim was to do a complete loop of the orange tour before deciding where we wanted to get off and have a look at certain sights. The loop took us about an hour I suppose and after returning to our starting point we then got off at the next stop which was the Capitol building.

 

Right behind the Capitol is the Library of Congress which we were interested in browsing through. We walked around there and up the front stairs but unfortunately it's closed on Sundays so we didn't end up getting in. A long walk for nothing, although we saw plenty of cute little squirrels along the way. So we returned to our trolley stop to wait for the next one to come along. It didn't take long as they run very often.

 

We drove past tons of places like the Jefferson Memorial, the Smithsonian, the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial, The White House, The FBI building, the National Archives, the Botanical Gardens along with countless museums, statues and government buildings.

 

The next place we got off was the Lincoln Memorial, which we had already seen yesterday, but it's also where you transfer onto the red tour trolley. It came along almost immediately and we got on and headed across the Arlington bridge. The only place the red tour goes is Arlington National Cemetery, which is the humungous cemetery where many American soldiers and their families are buried. Out the back of the bus we could just see the top of The Pentagon.

 

Once we arrived at the cemetery we had the option of either walking or paying $7 each for a guided bus tour. We were feeling cheap so we chose to walk. The place is really really big and not very flat. It's around 600 acres in size and contains about 300,000 graves. Lucky we had a map which showed us the way to find the resting place of John F. Kennedy and his family. Behind him, his wife and his sons grave is the eternal flame. There were heaps of people there taking photos but it's very quiet and respectful. Alan was asked to remove his hat by the security person. We thought about walking to the Unknown Soldier Tomb where there is the changing of the guard every half hour, but it was too far and uphill so we went back to the trolley stop.

 

Back over to the Lincoln Memorial to get back on the orange tour but before that bus came along we had enough time to check out the Korean war memorial. It included a tribute to Americas allies during that war, one of which was Australia.

 

We jumped back on the trolley and returned to a stop where we could transfer onto the green tour line. We had a 20 minute wait before the green bus left so we bought a thickshake each as it was now after 2pm and we'd had nothing all day. We didn't get off at any of the stops on the green tour as we weren't so interested in the places but it was still nice to see all the different areas and places along the way. It included a drive down Embassy Row which is where most countries embassies are located, the National Cathedral which I believe is the world's 7 largest, the Watergate Hotel and passing through the very old Georgetown. Along the way the driver pointed out peoples houses such as Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney, John Kerry, Steven Decatur and plenty of others I can't remember right now.

 

By the time we returned to the White House trolley stop we were getting tired as it had been a really long day so we got out and took some photos of the back of the White House. We then walked to the nearest Metro station which for some reason was closed so we had to walk a few more blocks to the next one.

 

After getting back to our hotel we were ready for dinner so we went out to a little Thai restaurant just up the road where we had a great meal. I noticed the restaurant yesterday and suggested we might try it.  I also did a genius job of picking tonight's menu.  The dishes were delicious.  Now it's time to pack once again as we head north tomorrow morning.

 

Trivia for the day: Washington DC is the greenest city in the USA. If a tree is ever cut down or dies, it is replaced by 2 others.  There are also a lot of cherry blossom trees.  After visiting Japan First Lady Helen Taft wanted to landscape a lot of Washington with cherry blossoms but there was no money.  President Taft and his wife invited the Japanese ambassador to the White House and he offered a gift and asked what they would like and First Lady Helen Taft suggested the trees.  He asked how many they would like and she said 3,020.  The first two were planted by the first lady and the Japanese ambassador's wife in 1912.