Happy New Years

01/01/09 man that happened quickly.

So i asked myself this morning what i wanted to achieve this year, and the answer was, "i don't know"

I would have to assume that there are heaps of people out there in the same position this year. All i know is that i want to do something, i don't want to get to the end of the year and feel that another year has just slipped by.....

Hmmm, best i get my thinking cap on! :)

Wandering Thoughts

So we have been home now over four weeks. (man has that gone fast) And so much as happened!

A new US President has been elected - Congratulations Obama

A new NZ prime minister has been elected - Congrats John Keys

The house has been put back on the market so we are trying to keep a perfect house and look for a new place to live.

Mum had an operation - that was very successful

Tony finally got out Windsurfing again - I was worried he had forgotten how to :)

Plus a multitude of other smaller things.... I always think how amazing it is for so much to happen in such a short time, and then nothing interesting will happen for ages.

I took some photo's at the fireworks the other week, trying out heaps of different settings on my camera. I thought this one wasn't too bad

The last American Post

Yesterday we jumped on a double decker tour bus to see the sites. We discovered that we had already seen most of the "sites" of San Fran, but we were able to orientate ourselves in the city a little better. It was pretty cool driving across the bridge (literally and figuratively) Tony felt he had to duck as some of the tunnels and trees were a little low for his liking. Sometimes being short has it's advantages.

We jumped out at Fishermans Wharf again and hopped on a cable car which took us to the top of a really big hill. This street (Lombard Street) has a 27 degree slope and has eight switchbacks (hair pin turns) so that people and cars can actually get down the street!

We spent the rest of the day looking at the different suburbs of San Fran, Chinatown, Little Italy, Alamo etc, we also popped back into the Apple store (trip 3) to see the new Macbooks. I have to say that they are really nice, and I could really do with a laptop.. hint hint

Last night we headed to the port for our last dinner outing. On the way we decided to stop into our favorite little store (4th trip) to purchase a Nano for myself. it was time to upgrade from my brick of an iPod purchased around 4-5 years ago, so Tony got me one as a belated birthday present. It goes with my new Nike+ running shoes and kit we bought earlier in the trip. I am really looking forward to trying it all out. Can you all hear the inner geek speaking?

After dinner Tony decided desert was in order, so we headed to a little creamery, no one else was in the shop so we didn't realise quite what we were in for. Purchasing an ice cream has never been so fun. I decided to have an Oreo one, which involved vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, chocolate bits, two Oreo cookies and two spatulas to crush the Oreo's and mix it all together. Tony had a chocolate fudge one and you can imagine what his had in it!

Today we are heading up to have a look in the Coit Tower before heading off to the airport early this afternoon. We have had an amazing trip and neither of us want it to end.

We met some Lady's on the trolley bus last night, who told us to "say nice things about us Americans" and to be honest, other than United Airlines staff (not all, just some), we really do only have nice things to say about Americans. Everyone has been really friendly, helpful and nice. The scenery has been amazing... more than I ever dreamed of, the food has been rather hit and miss to be fair, some has been awesome, others not so great (Twinkies are not nice by the way) the roading blew Tony's mind, and the public transport system has Tony stating that we should build a monorail in Wellington on a regular basis!

It has been really interesting hearing people talk about the election and the difference in feeling about it all over the country. I will blog a bit more about this and other American musings over the next few weeks when I get a moment to think some things through better.

See you next time America.

Alcatraz

We headed into San Fran a little weary, all the excitement of Silicon Valley had us feeling that there was nothing more worthwhile seeing. But we were wrong!

After dropping the car at the Motel (there are no early check ins at this motel) we headed into town to take a look around. We walked most of the way down Market street - which turns out to be a really long street. Tony's Apple GPS directed us to the Apple store (for the second time) where we proceeded to drool over the new Nano's (again) and found out that the new mac books would arrive the next day.

After scouting around a little we headed back up to our end of town for an early dinner, and some crap TV.

Today we got up and headed over to Fishermans Wharf to look into a bus tour and Alcatraz. We walked the length of the wharfs just because we could and because it was a lovely day and it was all rather pretty.

Lunch was next on the list Tony wanted to go to Hooters, but we couldn't find it, so we settled on a nice place on Pier 39.


We found the seals at the end of the Pier, they were loud and smelly, but rather entertaining, I ended up taking heaps of photo's until we couldn't stand the smell any longer!

Onto Alcatraz. Because we had arrived off season, we were able to get tickets on the next boat out to what used to be a prision on an island in the middle of the San Fran Bay. Everytime I look at the island or hear the name I totally think of Harry Potter and Azkaban.

After listening to an orientation video, we headed up into the main cell block. We were given an audio tour (it was included in the price, you didn't really ahve much choice) which told you all about the cell block, the escape
attempts and the wardens areas. It was really enlightening, they liked to tell us about Al Capone as much as possible, but I guess this was the main claim to fame.

When Tony started getting really cold (that's what happens when you don't bring a jumper) we decided it was time to head back to shore.

Alcatraz was everything I expected it to be, and the photo's you could take of the San Fran skyline were fun... Well these ones were anyhow... you have no idea how many shots it took before we got San Fran in the back ground!

Silicon What?

Need I say more????

Except I should confirm that we did not get into the press conference, it was actually over before we got there! Tony was in geek heaven.

Santa Cruz

We spent the next day doing the thing we love the most, Outlet shopping. We headed down to the Great Mall of the Bay Area which is south of San Fran, and on our way to Santa Cruz.

We spent a couple of hours perusing the fine stores, and purchasing discounted goods, until we found that we had had enough. Interestingly we did not have a map. so we took the long route down to Santa Cruz, as we couldn't find the short one... (it was lovely and scenic though so we coped. i think the problem was that Tony was focusing on the new shoes he brought and not the road!)

Santa Cruz was ok, I guess we were expecting another Clearwater Beach, and this was not that. We went for a walk and had a nice dinner on the pier over looking the harbour.

The next day we decided it was time to head up to San Fran itself and Tony wanted to try and gate crash the Apple announcement of the new Macbooks, so with detailed maps in hand, we headed for the mythical Silicon Valley

Yo Yo Yosemite

We headed onto Yosemite National Park to check out what was going on. And to be fair... not a lot. It had been snowing so the roads had been closed all day, they had just opened up when we arrived there in the mid afternoon.

If you hadn't of guessed already it was rather cold. At some stages it was down to 32ºF (1ºC). The road through Yosemite was really nice, there was snow on the ground and everything was turning red or loosing leaves. This made for a very pretty drive.




We spent the night in a little town called Oaksdale. The local pub served great food and had some live music, it was just the recharge we needed.

Death Valley

We left Vegas after stopping back in at an outlet store so that Tony could buy a new bag as he now has too much stuff to fit into the bags we had already bought. - He will argue that I have bought all the stuff, but mine still fits in the same bags so you tell me who the shopaholic is!

We headed on out to Death Valley, took a wrong turn, turned around and were on track again - A little slip in the GPS (my boyfriend). Once we got there, it was exactly like the National geographic show I had watched on it, except in real life, there are heaps of tourists and long drop toilets.

The salt plains were very cool and the valley itself was so barren. The temperature has dropped here and it is abnormally cold for this time of year, so we were not hit with the sweltering heat ( I guess that is a bonus? but normally a part of the whole experience)

The valley is 282 feet below sea level, you can camp in the Valley but in summer it can get up to 57 degrees Celsius (134 degrees Fahrenheit) So I'm thinking camping is not the best idea in the world in the middle of summer.

We left death valley and headed for a small town called Beatty to stay the night. They still allow smoking inside here, so we had a really hard time finding somewhere to eat, and had to put up with the mild stench of cigarettes.



Off to Yosemite now...

The Grand Canyon!

First thing this morning we headed off to the Grand Canyon. wow, that's all I can say. Yes Megan was right, it is just a big hole in the ground, but it is an awesome hole.




We headed back to Vegas after that, and stayed at the Excalibur a castle themed hotel at the other end of the strip to the Riviera. We walked around the southern end of the Strip, went to the Luxor and the MGM casino's and shopped at the M&M store and the Coca cola store - Look out for our funky new salt and pepper shakers!

A little bit more gambling finished off the night. Shattered, we headed off to bed.

Get your kicks on route 66

Yesterday we drove down to Flagstaff as the first part of our Grand Canyon tour. We went via the Hoover dam, which was a really interesting experience. They are upgrading the road at the moment, and that means building a straight one right through the middle, so we got to see how they build a really large bridge!


Today we headed out on the historic route 66 to see the sights.

We started at the Petrified Forest, which is a forest full of wood that has been petrified over millions of years, and now look like crystals. the landscape was amazing and the painted sand was the most spectacular thing i had seen all day :)

Next we headed onto the Canyon de Chelly, which is a canyon (if you hadn't of guessed) which is pretty big, but not as big as the Grand Canyon.

We drove the wrong way around the canyon, so although we got to see some cool sights, it did not take us in the direction we required so we had to turn around and come back! whoops.

Onwards to Monument Valley.... we drove through Monument Valley at the end of a very long day.
But what an amazing place. The scenery we had had all day was so varying and amazing. what both me a Tony could not believe was how much of America is not inhabited. There are so many people crammed into the city's that you would think that there was not enough space for everyone, but when you get out into the country, you realise that there is plenty of space, miles and miles of it in fact! America is a huge country, that is one thing we have learnt on this trip!.

We headed back to Flagstaff tired and aware that we had driven something like 500 miles (anyone feel a song coming on?) for a pint of Cider and an early night

Vegas Baby!

We arrived in Vegas to discover you can gamble at the airport... how cool is that, there were slot machines everywhere!

The strip is not far from the airport so after a quick taxi ride we were at our splendid hotel, the Riviera. This hotel is a little uptown from the main part of the strip, so we had a little bit of a walk to get down there. Interestingly though there is heaps of construction going on at the moment so there are huge vacant lots where building is just starting on new billion dollar resorts... so much for a recession!

We spent the night at a Cir du Soleil show called "Mystere" to celebrate our one year anniversary. the show was amazing, and we both enjoyed it thoroughly.

We walked down the strip to see the volcano and dancing fountains (all the usual sights you look for in a new town!) we found the fountains but not the volcano.... I thought that was rather weird! The next day our cab driver told us that the volcano caught on fire and was being rebuilt, hence the reason we couldn't find it. I felt a little ripped off that we had missed out on this icon, but I got over it quickly!

We spent the last couple of hours of our huge day/night playing the 1c slot machines. We didn't win any money, but I guess you have to bet big to win big!

Viva Las Vegas!

Chicago (Like the Musical)

We arrived in Chicago to be meet by my cousin Gavin - Man it was nice to be met by someone! We went straight out to Rockford which is West of Chicago city where they live.

We spent a day chilling out in Rockford doing washing, catching up on sleep and meeting the cats. (Mingo and Mija) Nicky and Gavin had just come off a night shift so this worked well for them as well!

Friday was Wisconsin day. We drove up to Wisconsin (Because we could) to a town called Beloit, and then onto Janesville, we walked around the rotary gardens and enjoyed seeing Fall coming to life with the changing of the trees.

Saturday was Shopping day, We started off at Best buy, moved onto Linen and things, then onto the big one, Super wall mart. It was pretty cool to walk through such a big store, Tony's biggest thing was that there was a McDonald's inside! After this we headed onto Sam's club, and then finished off with Kohls. It was a really interesting experience going to some of the normal shopping stores in America and understanding the concepts of Bulk buying. Tony managed to get a years worth of Antihistamines for a ridiculously low amount of money. We managed to restrain ourselves somewhat and although it looked like we bought a load of crap we didn't really!

On Saturday night we headed out to hear a Treasure Hunter Bob Marx speak about some of his experiences. He was amazing, this guy has done deals with the Mob, been sued, had his Lawyers knocked off, been kicked out of 22 countries, and Knighted in 3. His stories were completely incomprehensible to a girl from Wellington, this guy used to drink with the Rat pack, the original one! Madness!

On Sunday we headed up to a place called The House on the rock . This could possibly be the weirdest place i had ever been! This guy Alex Jordan, built this house into a rock face, and then filled it with a whole pile of weird stuff. The coolest being these mechanical bands. He has whole orchestra's set up mechanically to play all sorts of different tunes. It is so weird but really cool at the same time!

Monday was our day in Chicago city. We headed into millennium park where we looked at all of the Water fountains and of course the famous Bean. We jumped on a bus tour and spent the next few hours listening to a guy tell us all about Chicago... a really easy way of hearing about it all! we went up the Sears tower to the 103rd floor. Man was the view amazing! We also went up the Hancock building to the 96th floor for cocktails at sunset. Afterwards, we headed to Greek town for dinner. We made it home just after midnight, thoroughly exhausted! but content with a fantastic day in the Windy city (Yep apparently it is meant to be windy to, but i don't think it has anything on Wellington!)

Today we are heading off to Las Vegas. We have had an awesome time here in Chicago, so thanks Nicky and Gavin, we really appreciate the hospitality you have shown us and i have really enjoyed getting to know my cousins again, (including Jacqui in New York!)

NY to Miami part 2

The next day we were up at the crack of dawn, and down to the beach for a walk and a swim. It was so lovely and warm!

We headed into Tampa to meet up with the guys from Wufoo. They started a company that helps you create online forms, it was really interesting speaking to a group of guys around the same age as me, who have created a company from scratch and are very successful. It was more interesting hearing about there experiences and thoughts and how they are really similar to the things I believe about doing business. Thanks for your time guys it was much appreciated!

We headed from Tampa back down to Miami, via an outlet mall (not on purpose!) and ended up taking the longest, straightest road ever! We eventually arrived early evening and could only manage a quiet dinner and then bed!

The next morning was a really early one, up at 4.30 to get to the airport for a 6.40 flight! We had an extra bag now, so it was much easier to pack! The worst thing in the world is arguing with a lady at United Airlines at 5am over whether I should be charged for our bags or not. Apparently the machine is never wrong, except when it is wrong! I was not a happy camper... especially when we where tagged for extra secuirty, again!

Anyway... off to Chicago

NY to Miami

The last four days we have spent in Florida. We flew into Miami and then drove to to Cocoa beach (by Merritt Island) then over to Clear water beach, just outside of Tampa, before heading back to Miami to fly to Chicago.

Our drive to Cocoa beach was interesting as it was my first time driving on the wrong side of the road in America. It started pissing down with rain about 10 minutes in whilst we were driving down a 7 lane highway. The rain was so hard that i could only just see the car in front of me... so a rather interesting start to the whole experience.

We left the rain about half an hour later and discovered we were on a very long straight road. Man it can get boring driving such large distances on such straight roads.

We made it to Cocoa beach without to much hassle... my navigator was pretty good (Don't tell him i said that though or he will get a big head!) we checked into our hotel, went for a walk on the beach and then off for dinner. the next day we got up and headed off to the Kennedy space centre for a good look around.

We went on a space launch simulator, had a look at the Explorer shuttle, read a lot about space missions, and generally learnt about space. We even learnt that Cochlear implants where made by NASA, (check out my friends website) The only problem was that although it was a lovely morning, about 40 minutes after we got there the heavens opened, and i mean opened! Tony and myself got so wet it was not funny! I ended up having to drive to Orlando with a singlet on and Tony was topless. if was very funny though.... it did mean that we left a little earlier than we wanted to, and we didn't go on any of the bus rides to the other sites, but we just had to much else to do!

We stopped at another outlet mall on the way to Tampa.... and i discovered that Tony really does have a shopping demon... i had to drag him out of some of the stores, and nearly resorted to taking away his credit card.... some good purchases where made though, especially the second bag for tony so that he could get all of his purchases home!

We finally made it to Tampa around 7.40, just after the sun had set. It was a little disappointing as it was one of those places in the world where the sun sets into the sea, and the sunsets are amazing. Tony got some photo's as we where driving, but it was not quite the same as being able to see it myself properly and not having to concentrate on the road. but i guess you can't have everything!
Clear water beach was amazing... it was beautifully looked after, and the ocean was very swimmable. We found a motel to stay in and then headed out for dinner. On the recommendation of the motel owner, we headed to Frenchy's rockaway Grill which was right on the water front and served us the most amazing Fish ever!

To be continued....

Photos

Check out the photos of our trip so far on Flickr.

Broadway

Today was our last day in NY. We spent the morning walking around China town, making last minute purchases, and wondering how we were going to fit all of our shopping back into our bags.

We navigated the subway with it's lines closed for repair ( i was very proud of ourselves for working it all out) had a massage and generally chilled out for the afternoon (i had a nap!) because... tonight we were headed to Broadway!

We had purchased ourselves tickets to All My Sons staring John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Patrick Wilson and Katie Holmes... that's right Katie Holmes....

Times Square at night was beautiful, the lights are really something
The show was awesome, and it was really cool to see real stars that close up performing... even Tony enjoyed it. It was a fab night and i am so pleased that we decided to go.

Our last night in New York finished Perfectly.

Dinosaurs and Rain

It rained today. I was not impressed.

We spent the morning in the Natural History Museum looking at the dinosaur skeleton's. they were very cool.

We then headed down to the top of Fifth Avenue - we were going to walk through Central Park, but the rain killed that idea.

We stopped first at the Apple store which was so jam packed it was not funny! Apple seems to be very popular over here!

Then we headed into FAO Swartz, one of the coolest toy stores in the world... which has the piano from the movie "BIG" in it. We watched a few people play, but I was a little to shy to have a go myself.

We continued on down Fifth Avenue till we got to Tiffany's where we had to stop in for a little look. I was a little overwhelmed with all of the beautiful jewelery they have and when they told me they had 5 floors of it I found myself quivering a little.

In the next block down was the Trump Towers, we took a quick peak inside an found a huge 5 level Nike store out the back.

We continued to walk all the way down Fifth avenue, back to Jacqui's on 10th street, man were we shattered by the time we got back.

Tonight we headed up to Harlem to see Jacqui's friend Connie's apartment and to go to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. The food was really nice, and the company amazing.

The cab ride home was an experience, I ended up sitting in the front seat with Bronwyn, Megan, Tony and Jacqui in the back. There were many comments made about hands in the wrong place and much commentary from the girls of the molestation of my boyfriend.

The near miss with the bus woke me up a little, but I was still more than ready for sleep by the time we made it back to Jacqui's.

Woodbury Commons

Today we decided to head to an outlet mall north of New York called Woodbury Commons.

To do this, we decided it would be a great idea to hire a car and drive. That in itself was a mission. After several google searches (for the best deals) we managed to hire a small Hyundai Accent. We asked google maps for directions and we were off!

We started off well, google maps was our friend...... then, we ran into a little blip... we couldn't find the Lincoln Tunnel. Google was telling us to merge to the right, but there was no merge..... so after a few grumbles and mumbles we decided to ignore Mr Goggle and follow the Rd signs.... it worked! We found our way into the tunnel and all was right with the world again.

Mr Google helped us get most of the way there ok, until we went south down the I-95 instead of north. Several miles down the road we worked out there was an issue..... there was a big bridge in front of us that we where not meant to cross. Apparently it was the longest bridge to cross the Hudson River and we where headed back to NY city.... whooops. (Tappan Zee Bridge)

So over we crossed, we paid a $4.50 toll and then turned around and came back.

We finally made it to Woodbury Commons around an hour later than we expected to, but we were all alive, (we hadn't killed each other) the car was in one piece and were ready to shop!

The shpoping was awesome, and there was some great bargins to be had, Megan got 2 pairs of sneakers for $70 for the pair, and Tony got some really nice short sleaved Quicksilver shirts for $10.48. We spent a good 5 hours shopping there before we needed to head back to NY to return the rental car.

The drive back was an experiance, it started to rain and was already dark by the time we left. We were doing really well until we missed the turn of for the Lincoln Tunnel (again!) so we had to go through another toll both, pay another toll, and do a U-turn (the lady at the toll booth told us it was ok!)

We made it back to the hire car place with just a couple of hiccups, ask Megan about those!

A quick fashion parade of the purchases ended the night, what a great but tiring Day...

At the top of the Empire

The morning disappeared in a hurry, we headed down to South Street Sea Port to the Bodies Exhibition. It was Amazing. Check out the website to see what it is all about, but if you ever get the chance to go to one, do it.




Megan Tony and myself headed up to Grand Central Station to check it out. Unbelievable! It is huge and the Chandeliers are amazing. They also have the staircase i want in my house.....


We went up the Empire state Building in the afternoon. The view from up there is amazing Tony got a feel for how big NY city really is!

Jacqui had a Stoop party for her birthday, heaps of people turned up throughout the night to help celebrate, it was a lot of fun. It was great to meet heaps of her friends and colleagues.

We were all completely exhausted by the end of the evening!

Budweiser in Brooklyn

Today was a long day, we headed over to Brooklyn this morning, and managed to get ourselves well and truly lost!

After much discussion, we ended up calling a cab to get us where we wanted to go which was Juniors Cheese Cake Company.


After much Cheese cake (which was fabulous) we headed over the Brooklyn Bridge to take in the awesome site of the NY skyline.

You can also see the Statue of Liberty from the bridge, which Gavin and Nicky (my cousin's) had never seen.

We then headed into wall street and the financial district for a quick shopping trip. We also took in the Trinity church and the New York Stock Exchange.

George Washington took the oath to become the first president of the United States of America on the steps of a building on wall street, so we took photo of his statue as well.









Nicky and Gavin headed back to Chicago tonight, but we are looking forward to catching up with them when we arrive in Chicago ourselves.

Tomorrow looks like another Jam packed day. Jacqui's actual birthday and therefore party are happening, and we are going to try to get a whole pile of touristy things in too.... having a fab time!