Last day in LA and finally we hit the road

Friday

Well original plans we only had booked the apartment until Thursday but we still hadn't been to Universal Studios! So, a couple of emails and we extended our stay for another night - reduced cost too. I thought it better to do now. Universal Studios (US) was better now instead of of in a couple of weeks when Disney Land beckons.

So, we headed off at 10am, to swap the convertible for the Jeep - the Jeep gave us more room and plenty of comfort for being on the road - leather seats, in built GPS, and Internet, plenty of power and heaps of airbags. After the swap over, we spent the day at Universal Studios.

Universal Studios was so much fun and Tony had never been to anything like this.

LA has been great, and we'll be back as there's still Disney Land and we fly home from here in mid October. But now we hit the road and head north along one of the worlds great drives - The Pacific Coast. Once packed up, we headed north with no real zdestination planned for the night.

We reached Santa Barbara, for Brunch. A very picturesque town with a very Spanish arcitecture influence. Lunch was in one of the restaurants on the Santa Barbara pier - seafood, yum. I figured that a drive till 4.30 - 5pm, would be enough which took as to a little coastal town of Cambria. We of found a great place, that had a couple of rooms available, to stay on the beach.

Linda, Sophie and went for a walk and found a group of seals lazing about on the rocks a couple of four hunded meters from where we were staying. Very cool. Later in the evening we had dinner at a local bar. Again yummy, seafood and meat.

Saturday

In the morning both Linda and I jumped on the net to see if we could get and apartment in San Francisco. We wanted a zcouple of nights but we couldn't get anything for Sunday, so we grabbed little house for Monday and Tuesday nights. So, that gave us another day on the Pacific Coast Highway which turned out to be the best option anyway. There was so much too see. It took us all day to get a 150 miles to the Moneterey area.

We headed odd first thing to the Hearts Castle. A massive, massive house that the Hearsts' family built and donated to the state as a museum. It was incredible - all the art and historical artifacts gathered zand incorporated into the zaricticture or on display. The devotion to preserve the art and the building development is a great story in its self.

We then spent the whole afternoon in awe of the road hugging the coast and the views. There were plenty of stops for photos or in one place to see Sea Elephants basking in the sun.

Hmmm... because of the all the stops we didn't get to Monterey until 6.30pm, which left us with a problem finding accommodation. We needed up grabbing a couple of rooms in Salinas which is about 15km inland from Monterey.

So it's Sunday morning and were back to have a look around Monterey and then up to San Francisco.

 

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Los Angeles

Well here Sunday night at about 10.30pm, and taxied to Venice Beach to our apartment. The owner met us and showed us the stuff we need to know. Linda and I went for a walk on the beach and around the general area before bed. The apartment is only 50 meters from the beach.

Monday

Linda and I were up early so we walked along the beach to Venice and had a proper coffee! The sand is about 250 meters to the water - massive. We all wandered down to a local cafe (Cowes End) for breakfast and at about 11 we went to collect the Mustang from the airport - brand new. It is so good to drive a V8. We took the run north to Malibu where we had lunch on the pier. The weather is about 30C each day - perfect.

We drive back south to Venice go the coast and Sophie and I went for a swim straight out behind we're we are staying. The water is very warm. A very late dinner at a local steak house.

Tuesday

Los Angeles is so spread out and you really do need a car to get around. Public transport does exist but there are multiple bus companies, few train lines and the buses have to compete with the traffic. Late morning we headed north along the coast and then turned west into the Santa Monica hills and up to the start of the Mullholland Hwy. There was great views and it was good to have the V8 to belt around the hills and it got me used to driving on the right.

Mullholland Hwy turns into Mullholland Drive (film). Mullholland Drive is famous for celebrity houses and views of the Hollywood Hills. Unfortunately well into the Santa Monica Hills the road turned into a rough dirt track. I didn't want to take an open top hire car on the track, so reprogrammed the GPS and headed onto the 101 Freeway to pickup our trail closer to Hollywood. Los Angeles, Hollywood, V8 convertible on a 6 lane freeway at 80 mph And driving on the right hand side of the road - what could be better? Linda was terrified,

GPS man had us exit the freeway, and pickup Mullholland Drv, where we saw great views of Hollywood and started our exposer to commercialism of Hollywood (future stories about carpal, tour buses, cars, and locals). It was getting into early evening so instead of heading into central Hollywood and at Sophie's request we headed back to the coast to see the Santa Monica pier. This pier is at the end of the Venice Beach board walk and has a small amusment park on it - you may have seen on movies or Tv shows. It is also the official west end of Route 66.

We wandered z around taking photos (the sun was setting) and soaking up the atmosphere, Sophie and I had a ride on the roller coaster and we had dinner on the pier at Bubba Gump (Forrest Gump movie) - yummy.

As we did in New York - jumped on on of the open top sightseeing buses that toured around the touristy stuff and listened to the history of the area. The bus travelled along the Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Ave and then the Sunset Strip, Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. You can hop of and on these buses which we did at the Hollywood Farmers Market. As soon as we were off the bus Sophie saw one of the teachers from her dance school. We new they were travelling as a group and would be in LA but it was a bit freaky bumping into them. After a catch up we grabbed some lunch at one of the eateries, a French food cafe. Yummy, escargot and lamb sausages with a glass of beaujolais.

After lunch we caught Zthe next tourist bus back towards the tour end. We jumped off at the start of the Walk of Fame and wandered the mile back to our car. Hmmm, not sure about Hollywood.

For dinner we went to one of Linda's US colleagues, Marie for dinner. Marie lives up in the Santa Monica Hills above Malibu; up is UP, as it is very steep and winding 3 miles to Marie's beautiful house. It was about 40 min in peak hour traffic from our apartment at Venice. Marie's house has been rebuilt because she lost the original house in the 2007 wildfires.

Tomorrow we'll start thread trip.

 

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The last few days

Well today I'm writing this at the British Airway Club (see photo) at JFK Airport while we wait for our flight to Los Angeles. There will never be enough time to experience everything in New York. We'll be back.

Friday

Well we had a rest day. A sleep in - at least, I needed to rest my foot as I've lost the use of it. Linda still went in to walk the Brooklyn Bridge by herself, have a look around and do some shopping; the rest of just spent the morning taking it easy and we wandered into Astoria to a local Diner for brunch. at around 3pm, Sophie and I headed into 42nd St, just near Times Square, to see Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Linda met us there and it was fun to see all that weird stuff.

After that we has a bit of a wander around and ended up in a bar for dinner. Linda then headed home to see Tony, and Sophie and I headed off to the Mets baseball game. There home ground is in Queens so it wasn't far from home. Hmm - I bought some tickets outside the stadium from some scalpers! 20 bucks each and they had a z face value of 40. We ended up in some special club area, with great seats, where there were some giveaways - Sophie scored a Mets hat. The game was fun and the Mets won. We ended up home at about 11pm.

Saturday

We headed into z the Upper Westside to to Tom's (Monk's) Diner for lunch. It was the dinner used as the base in Seinfield. After lucy we caught the subway back to the American Museum of Natural History to go to the Planetarium. It was grouse. The museum is across the road from Central Park, so we wandered across the Park the the Guggenheim Museum to see the Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective display. It was a photography and video display of her work. Sophie and I were fascinated particularly of the videos and the methods she used to break down inhibitions.

We ended up back at the apartment by 7pm, our earliest finish for a day yet. We did head out for dinner to a local Italian Restraunt at 9pm. Tony said it was the best z meal he'd had since we arrived in the US. The mafia can certainly cook.

Sunday

Well as above we are at the airport waiting call for boarding to our flight to LA.

 

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The last couple of days

Tuesday

The forecast was for rain so we planned to go interstate - New Jersey. Jersytown was the destination, a big factory outlet, like DFO. A good decision in the end as there was big storms, high winds and heavy rain. Some trees blew down in our suburb, Astoria. There was heaps of shopping. Early Wednesday morning our font door alarm started sounding and not stopping. At 3.30 am I called the owner to come and fix it. Edgar was very z apologetic.

Wednesday

So we slept in because of the early morning problem. Headed in to Lower Manhatten at around lunchtime. The US Intrepid is moored here, as a naval museum. It is an aircraft carrier commissioned in 1943. So there was heaps of history; 2 kamikaze attacks in WW2, wars all over the world, the lunar program etc. It displayed many different war planes in its hanger or on the deck - a Bluebird spy plane, Concord zz many different fighters, helicopters and Sophie and I got to lay in one of the Gemini capsules from the early '60s space race.

We also toured into a old nuclear armed submarine and best of all the Enterprise space shuttle is housed here - awesome. They closed down New York the day they flew it in. Coincidentally today is the day NASA has flown in another of the space shuttles to Los Angeles for permanent display. This took most of the day.

Early evening we wandered around NY, through Hells Gate to the edge of the theatre area of Times Square. We went for dinner to a great Restraunt called 'Talia'. After dinner we headed back home to Queens.

Hmmmm Worth a mention is that the World Congress is sitting this week, so there is a massive police presence. There are also marines in the stations and in the subway continued warnings about reporting any suspicious activity or concern.

Thursday

Linda and I wandered down to 30th street and grabbed some bagels for breakfast back at the apartment. Z We went over to Manhattan, and the Statue of Liberty - What a site. After the SoL we caught the ferry over to Ellis Island. There was one 40 year period where 17 million immirgrants arrived by boat to this island for processing before patriation into America.

After Ellis Island we caught a bus up to Central Park to gomto the American Museum of Natural History. They let us in for free because it closed in 90 minutes. We still had time to see what we wanted - the Dinosours! So, so z, cool. this is the museum where they filmed 'Night At The Museum'. Once the museum closed we grabbed a cab to Times Square and grabbed some tickets to a 7pm Broadway show. I didn't go, so I sat in a bar down the road and edited some photos and chatted to some new friends. Linda, Tony and Sophie saw 'Bring It On'.

After that they came to the bar and we had a meal and headed home.

 

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The Last couple of days...

Sunday was an easy day as we were all a bit jet lagged. Late morning we headed into Manhattan and toured around upper eastside Manhattan areas and ended up in Harlem. It was another perfect day and we had lunch near Central Park on Madison Av. We headed back toward central NY, checked out Grand Central Station and ended up at Maceys, hmmm.

After a bit of shopping we headed home. Early evening we had some dinner in a local Diner and headed into Manhatten to see the city lights. The city z never stops. On the way back to the apartment we had dessert at Neptune Diner (I'll do a separate blog post about the food). It ended up a big day as we didn't get home 'till midnight.

Monday morning we headed over to Straten Island. You travel to the Island on a ferry from Manhatten, also an island. We are staying in Queens and it is on an island too. The ferry to Straten Island is free, and the you get to pass the Statue of Liberty on the way over and back. After that great little freebie, we had some lunch near the site of World Trade Centre.

The Ground Zero site is still under massive reconstruction. There is a temorary building set for visitors commemorating the tradgedy, the victims, the police department, fire brigades efforts to rescue and the recovery teams post the collapse. It is very moving. After that we moved onto to the site of the World Trade Towers where there are two magnificent Memorial Pools in memory of the victims from each site. I hope the photo does justice to them. The names of those murdered are inscribed in the stone top surrounding each pool.

We then headed over to the Empire State building. We've already got a great orientation of NYC, but the view from the top is fantastic. It really gives a birds eye of how big the city is. This building was constructed in 14 months.

Z After that little highlight Linda and Sophie, headed of for some shopping. Luckily Tony and I spotted an Irish bar for a little bit of reflection and respite. Nothing like spending early evening in Jack Demsey's bar in the centre of Manhattan having a chat. Tony likes margaritas! Back in Queens we had some burgers; still didn't get in until 11pm.

It's Tuesday morning here and actually raining! Thunderstorms are forecast so we are thinking of jumping on a bus and heading up to New Jersey for the day. Tony and I are told the shopping is better there, hmmmmm.

 

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First full day in New York

We slept in Saturday morning. Edgar the owner of the apartment lives underneath us, so he came up and made sure we were comfortable. He oriented us to the local area (Astoria).

Brunch was at a local cafe on 30th st, about a 10min walk from where we are staying; it's like Brunswick.

After brunch we headed to the train station, 30th Grand, and organised our tickets for the next week.

We are about a 20 min train trip from Central Manhatten.

What better way to start in New York then to go to Times Square. What a great place to be introduced to NY. People everywhere. Characters everywhere!

After wandering around for a couple of hours, we jumped on on open top double decker bus and toured around Lower Manhatten. It was such a great day, no clouds, sunny and about 26c. Fantastic way to just kick back and relax and take in the sights and history. We are going to do the same thing today (Sunday) for Upper Manhatten.

After the tour we just wandered around Manhatten in early twilight before heading back to Queens. Dinner was in a great restraunt in the next suburb. We wandered home out about 11pm.

 

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New York, New York

Well, we are in New York exactly as scheduled.

But it's still Friday evening here; so weird we leave at 9.30am, and walk home from dinner at 10.30 pm in Queens, New York after flying for 18 hours and it's still the 14th.

 

Flight was great. Linda and I found the 'Bar' that might become he local. Dinner was even better and the apartment is fantastic.

Tomorrow will be a bit of a slack rest day, and a look around NY.

 

 

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6 days to go...

Only 6 days to go and the new travel pack is sourced - Black Wolf, Cedar Break 90 litre. Oh, yeah

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12 Days to go.

Cars all arranged, thanks to Marilu at Midway.

12 days to go...

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