HONOLULU

 

As this is our third time in Honolulu our plan is to spend as much time as possible lazing around by the pool and Waikiki Beach (which is just across the road - see photo 1), doing a little shopping (just kidding – a lot actually) and stuffing ourselves full of food at places like the Cheesecake Factory (also just across the road). As of Wednesday all is going to plan. Last night’s feast at the Cheesecake Factory left us so full that Phil couldn’t finish his dessert – a real first J.

Wednesday was our day for shopping at the Weikele Premium Outlets. We didn’t buy much – just the entire wardrobes for our grandchildren for the next two years. OK, that may be a slight exaggeration, but not much. When you get shops like Tommy Hilfiger and Tommy Hilfiger Kids, OshKosh, Polo Ralph Loren Kids, Sketchers, and so on Sue says you just have to buy stuff, especially when the discounts are up to 70 per cent.

On Thursday we did a tour of Oahu that was similar to one we did a few years ago but with some new stops (see photo 3 of us at a lookout). We had previously been to places like Sunset Beach on the north shore (where the legendary massive waves board riders love come in in January) and the Dole Plantation where pineapples are grown and the magic Dolewhip pineapple ice cream is made (and yes, we did have a very big serve each). But we also enjoyed beautiful views of Hanauma Bay (see photo 2), the extensive mountain rainforest and numerous beaches as well as a tour of the Kualoa Ranch which runs horses and longhorn cattle.

Another new stop was the Byodo-In Temple, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the early Japanese agricultural workers of Oahu (see photo 4). The Temple is beautiful and the periodic sound of the bell creates and wonderful atmosphere of tranquillity.

We also saw a lot of golf courses, which prompted our guide to tell us that Oahu has 40 golf courses and makes more annual income from them than from all its agricultural products combined. As sugar has disappeared and pineapple growing will cease soon they are investing in even more golf courses for the future. It seems that one thing we have learned from most of the places we have visited on this holiday is that, when all else fails, get into tourism.

Speaking of tourism we were lucky enough to be here for the third annual Pan Pacific Festival which is a huge street party right outside our hotel (see photo 5). Performers come from all around the Pacific rim and we saw some great acts such as brilliant Japanese drumming group. There was every kind of food from Pacific Island countries and Asia that you can imagine. Lucky us to able to just walk outside and join in!

We go home tomorrow so there isn’t much more to say. We hope everyone has enjoyed reading our blog and we are looking forward to catching up with you all. See you soon.

LAS VEGAS – Lake Mead

 

 

 

On Sunday evening we took a coach to Lake Mead for a dinner cruise (see photo 1) and a close up encounter with Hoover Dam, which was created by damming the Colorado River in the 1920s (see photo 2 - Dam in background between us). The Lake is huge, and even though it has been falling seriously in recent times it still holds several trillion litres of water to supply Las Vegas and Boulder City. It is surrounded by rugged hills many of which are covered in ancient black lava flows and it all looks very forbidding (see photo 4). But the sunset over the Lake was gorgeous! (Photo 3).

The Lake is fed by snow melt from the Colorado Rockies with very little coming from the meagre rainfall this area receives. We were told that the couple of hundred ml (between 2 and 4 inches annual total!!) Las Vegas receives each year all falls during July and comes in great sheets that flood the lowest parts of the city, including The Strip, and shut down traffic. That is so hard to picture when you have been walking around for days in 40 plus temperatures without a cloud to be seen.

HONOLULU

On Monday we flew to Honolulu and had yet another bad experience with American Airlines. When Sue tried to check in early this morning the web site would not recognise the booking. We rang American and it turned out that they had cancelled our booking for reasons they could not explain. We could get no satisfaction from the person we spoke to, so Sue called QANTAS (she is a QANTAS Club member) and was able to get a very efficient staff member to ring American and spend an hour sorting it out (!!) while we waited on line. The person on line at American was as unhelpful as the first one, but our QANTAS friend was very persistent and knew all the right questions to ask. So eventually we were put back on the flight to LA and the connecting flight to Honolulu.

They initially put us several rows apart on the LA to Honolulu leg but we sorted that out at LA airport and ended up having a very smooth flight to Honolulu in all respects. It must be said that American Airlines personnel we dealt with face to face were great, but so many of the back office people seem poorly trained. Jamie used to work for an airline and says the various issues we have had are not unusual for American Airlines, so we would be very reluctant to use them again.

When we finally rise and shine in the morning we will be able to relax, knowing that this is a rest time after our hectic travels, and the last place we are visiting before returning home.

LAS VEGAS – Days 3 to 5

 

Day 3

Today we took a ride on Las Vegas’ hop-on-hop-off bus, the Big Bus. We took about half the route today and the rest on Friday. The trip took us past a lot of interesting places on and off The Strip. One was the Luxor casino and hotel. Photo 4 shows the front of the Luxor with its enormous replicas of the Sphinx and Cleopatra's Needle. In the foreground waseappened to capture a good example of the sleezy side of Vegas. There is another big mobile billboard that runs along The Strip constantly advertising 'Girls 2 You' and shows three very underdressed girls who look like they are up for some action. In addition to the billboard there seem to be guys who look like pimps at every street corner handing out cards with topless girls pictured on them and the phone number of that service. We are not easily disgusted but these sleezebags have managed it in spades.

One place well away from The Strip was the Atomic Testing Museum. Back in the early 1950s they actually had nuclear testing near the city and the casinos used to throw parties where guests would sit on the roof with drinks etc and watch the explosions. No kidding!! The cancer rates in Las Vegas in the following years would have been pretty bad we think.

We got a closer look at the Excalibur, featured in one of yesterday’s photos. Its theme is mediaeval England and food in the restaurants is based on that of the middle ages and is served without cutlery so you can eat it in the appropriate historical way. Rip the meat apart, stuff it in and clean up later. Sounds like the old Bunratty Castle restaurants.

We stopped at the Paris for lunch at the Village Buffet (see photo 1 showing the exterior, including a half size exact relica of the Eiffel Tower). Like all the ground floor of the Paris the Buffet is set in an old Paris street with painted sky and a light level corresponding with twilight. A unique atmosphere and the food was French provincial. Beautiful! Even the Ladies is beautifully decorated (see photo 2). When we left the restaurant and walked outside we were lucky to catch part of the fountain display at Bellagio which happens only once an hour. Spectacular!

That night we went to Bally’s to see the show Jubilee (see the short promo video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZtSwdiJcQA). It was wonderful! Most of the show was the older style Las Vegas show with chorus lines, old songs and lots of flesh and feathers. It was a topless show but Phil swears he was at least vaguely aware that other stuff was happening on stage J. The staging was spectacular and the dancing awesome. One tap dance number involving the whole chorus line was so good you could almost hear the ghost of Fred Astaire cheering.

Day 4

Friday was shopping day at the north side factory outlets on the way to and from a tour of old Las Vegas on the Big Bus. Old Las Vegas is where you find many of the wedding chapels where registered marriage celebrants of all kinds can and do perform wedding ceremonies. Apparently the number and type of Elvis impersonator celebrants is huge. You want a tall Elvis, a short Elvis, a young Elvis, an old Elvis, a black Elvis … even a female Elvis! Elvis with cleavage? Nuh.

Old Las Vegas also has many old one and two floor motels and older housing, which reminds you of scenes from old movies showing how the place was back in the 1930s to 50s. It also has an official national museum called The Mob Museum which has lots of exhibits from the days the Mob ruled the city (see photo 3).

We also saw Freemont Street which is partially covered by a large canopy and cooled by the air conditioning from the buildings. At night they have what we were told is a spectacular light show, but unfortunately we didn’t get time to see it. But we did get time to see some other famous light and sound shows of Las Vegas. That night we went to the Mirage to see the Cirque du Soleil production of Love, a show featuring the music of The Beatles (more on that below). After the show we stayed and watched the ‘eruption’ of the volcano, which faces The Strip out the front of the casino and is a big rock structure set in lovely landscaped pools. Quite a show but we thought not as great as the fountains light and sound show at Bellagio. A long string of fountains rise very high, fall and spray in all directions to the rhythms of classical music.

LAS VEGAS – Days 1 and 2

 

We arrived in Las Vegas on Tuesday, 3 June following an uneventful flight with United Airlines, which was far more efficient than American Airlines. It looks like we have hit typical May Las Vegas weather – high 30s for our whole 6 night stay – which suits us fine.

The Aria Resort is right in the middle of The Strip (part of Las Vegas Boulevard) and is amazing! Like everything here it is over the top. The ground floor includes the lobby, casino, restaurants, bars and more and is huge. The second floor, the promenade level, has three enormous pools, restaurant and café, Starbucks, shops and so on. The towers are also huge: we are on the 19^th floor and nowhere near half way to the top.

The Crystals shopping centre is part of the Aria complex and is full of high end shops. But the most interesting things we saw there were a peacock made from flowers (photo 2) and a piece of modern art that leaves the junk we usually get in the ACT for dead. It consists of several transparent glass pillars that are coloured with changing lights from beneath and fill with water and empty in a cycle. During the filling the water in each is churned in such a way as to create a thin vortex that looks like a waterspout. That seems to typify how creative people can be in this city.

Our room overlooks the Monte Carlo Casino and from it we can see at least parts of many nearby hotels and casinos including MGM Grand, New York New York, Planet Hollywood and Bally’s. We can also see the desert hills in the background, reminding us of just where this place is. The room itself is very big for a hotel room and all functions such as TV, lighting, music, temperature and opening and closing curtains can be operated using a bedside touch pad. Cool huh!

On Wednesday we took a walk down to New York New York and MGM Grand. On the way we took photo 4 which shows a view from the footbridge between those two hotels down The Strip to Mandalay Bay, the Tropicana and Excalibur. Note the seven lanes each way!

NYNY is impressive from the outside with its towers built in the architectural style of famous New York buildings, but is nothing special inside (except maybe for the Statue of Liberty  made with jelly beans - photo 3). MGM Grand is a very different story indeed. We entered from the bridge over Las Vegas Boulevard (as you are blocked from crossing The Strip at ground level) and found ourselves in the treetops of an artificial jungle with an escalator down to the Rainforest Café.  The Café is fitted out with large tropical fish tanks, jungle plants elephants and various jungle cats and a waterfall. The wait staff are dressed as forest guides. Jungle sounds play constantly and an artificial thunderstorm occurs every 30 minutes. It is hard to capture the feel of the place in words, but we found it quite creative and enjoyable … and yes, the food was great too! After that we thought we might check out the lobby but were told that was about a quarter mile walk from the Café!! Like we said, everything is BIG here. So we decided to leave that for another day. We did so much walking yesterday that Sue now has a blister under her smallest toe, so today will be on the hop on hop off bus.  They have 2 different circuits, so will do both and give our aching feet and legs a rest.  Talk about being fit to enjoy your holidays!!!

We spent the afternoon by one of the pools (photo 1). They are set among lovely Palm trees with wonderful views of the nearby buildings.

Please start reading this post below at Barbados

 

SAN JUAN

 

On Saturday we arrived back in San Juan, Puerto Rico and took a tour of San Juan off the ship before being dropped at our hotel. San Juan is a city of half a million people with the historic part located on an island. The buildings in Old San Juan date back 400 years and represent centuries of Spanish architecture. The whole area is heritage listed and by law if a building is repainted it must be in the same colour to preserve the heritage façade. Speaking of colours they are quite varied, with a sandy yellow being popular and many examples of orange, light apple green and various blues. A very pretty area. It also includes the old Spanish fort, the Castillo San Cristobal which has a wall 28 feet thick (which also surrounds the whole old town) and used to be defended by 460 cannons (see photo 3). Impressive, as is the price of condos in that part of town – about one million!

New San Juan is modern and has a sort of Miami/Honolulu feel (see photo 4). The beaches are lovely. The Capital Building which serves as the centre of government is the only one of its kind in the world with sea frontage and is made from the most beautiful Italian marble. When excavations were being made for its construction a treasure trove of ancient Indian artifacts was unearthed. These were pieced together to form a totem pole which was erected in the square to mark 500 years of European settlement. It seems very appropriate.

The tour finished at the airport so that people could catch flights, so we facing the need to get a taxi to the hotel. But luckily Pedro, our very nice driver and our wonderful tour guide with a very dry and cheeky sense of humour, offered to drop us at the hotel and even helped with our bags. Just a couple more of the very nice people we have met on this holiday.  The hotel had a strict policy regarding getting into your rooms, se we sat in the foyer for 3 hours cooling our heels before being given the OK.  The room was well worth waiting for, as the view from our room could only be described as breath taking!!  However they party hard in San Juan, and the band downstairs finished playing at 3am!! 4 pretty tired travellers then spent the day plane hopping back to Houston. (Never complain about waiting for luggage at home – we waited just on an hour for our luggage to come out when we landed at Houston!!)

AT SEA

Our last day on the ship was spent at sea heading back to Puerto Rico. We were all so tired it was great to just chill. Lounging by the pool, the odd drink or twenty-two etc – hard to beat.

That night we ate at Portofino, one of the specialty restaurants (see photo 2). Sue’s birthday occurred before we left home but Jamie and Gary wanted to celebrate it with us anyway, so it was a special treat. Jamie has been having the best time marking Sue’s birthday ever since arrived. She has a wombat theme going and so wombat stickers, post cards and other wombat paraphernalia (ordered on line from Australia with Phil’s help!!!) keep appearing in unexpected places. One morning on the ship we awoke to find the outside of the cabin door festooned with streamers and wombat stuff (see photo 1). Jamie is one very fun lady J.

BARBADOS

Our last stop was Barbados where we docked at Bridgetown. This island is one of the bigger ones we visited (166 square miles) but nowhere near as big as St Lucia, though it does have a population of 290,000. It is the most easterly of the Caribbean islands and was the only one consistently occupied only by the British, so it has some interesting historical buildings and ruins. One structure we were thrilled to see close up was Kensington Stadium, home of cricket in Barbados and the scene of many test matches between the West Indies and Australia (see photo 1). Out the front is an impressive statue of Sir Garfield Sobers.

The island is so similar to St Kitts in lots of ways that there is no need to repeat things about housing, education etc. Photo 3 shows some typical poorer housing. First home buyer's dream? Challenge for The Block?

Like St Kitts Barbados is hilly rather than mountainous. Once again tourism is the main industry and sugar is down the drain almost totally. But the island does have many prosperous areas and a substantial middle class, with financial services its second top industry.

The very best thing about Barbados is the beaches (see photo 2). There are no grey volcanic beaches here, just fine white coral sand beaches fronting tropical green sea and decorated with palm trees. Your picture perfect tropical paradise! While Sue and Phil did a highlights tour of the island Jamie and Gary went to a beach just outside Bridgetown. The water was warm, clear and inviting, and Jamie saw schools of tropical fish and had a close (but friendly) encounter with a stingray. Life’s tough on a cruise J.

ST KITTS

On Monday we arrived in St Kitts, the main island of St Kitts and Nevis. We took a coach tour of part of the island followed by a scenic train ride all around the island. The train and line are remnants of the sugar industry which collapsed in 2005 due to competition from beet sugar. It was a great way to get around and we were entertained by a trio of local singers on the way (see photo 2).

The island was settled by the British in the 17^th century and for a long time was the centre of government for all their Caribbean possessions, as witnessed by the many ruins of old government buildings. The island was part occupied by the French until 1783 and the most durable thing they left behind was monkeys imported from Africa as pets. Now there are twice as many monkeys as people and they are considered a pest. Have an outdoor party and the monkeys will invite themselves baby! (See photo 1)

We learned late in the day that this country is no longer an aid recipient and has the best housing infrastructure in the Caribbean. That was not evident from appearances, as it seemed to have much the same mix of big, luxury houses and smaller village houses as St Maarten. But the place is very prosperous. It has advanced solar and electronics industries as well as clothing manufacture and has world class medical research facilities. St Kitts is one of the centres for research into finding cures for Alzheimers Disease and Parkinson’s Disease. It has the International University of Nursing and also Ross University which specialises in veterinary research. These institutions are attended by students from all over the Caribbean and even from Africa. Also, all education is free for locals and a new health insurance scheme is to be introduced. They can manage all this with no income tax and just a 17 per cent value added tax because they make so much out of tourism and their other industries. Quite a place!

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

Another day, another beautiful island. On Tuesday we visited the island of Antigua. Gary wanted a day off and had been here before so Phil took one tour and Sue and Jamie took another.

Phil’s tour travelled right around the island, which is bigger than the previous two we visited but at 108 square miles that’s not saying a lot. The island is very pretty and is very similar to St Kitts in many ways including the housing, education, the large number of churches everywhere and the importance of tourism. However, they do grow and export melons and black pineapples which does enhance the country’s income somewhat. Black pineapples are small pineapples that look black when they are growing but are normal inside (see photo 2).

We passed the cricket stadium built for the World Cup in 2007 and dedicated to Viv Richards. Guess who the only person on the bus was who knew about ‘the master blaster’? Yankees know nothing important! J.

We were driven up to Shirley’s Heights, a wonderful lookout and site of an old 18^th century British army fort. The ruins are in poor shape but that is not surprising due to the effects of hurricanes over the years. From the Heights there is a magnificent view over English Bay and Eric Clapton’s mansion set on a cliff above a point jutting out into the Bay. Where do the poor people live eh!

English Bay was a major British naval Base from 1745 through the 19^th century and also has impressive old buildings, except that most have been restored. Horatio Nelson was commander here from 1784 to 1787 and much of the building was done during his tenure.

There is an election under way at the moment. How familiar to see signs for parties saying stuff like vote for us for ‘more jobs, more investments, less taxes’. Some BS is universal, right?!

Sue and Jamie has a great excursion.  We boarded the coach with our tour director Vaughan.  He was hilarious, and everyone relaxed and enjoyed his banter.  We visited an old sugar cane homestead that is still being used as a residence.  They had 4 rooms open for you to walk through including the original kitchen.  The cabinets were full of interesting pieces (otherwise known as junk!!!)  We wondered who dusted them all.  We had several other scenic shots around the island including going to a black pineapple plantation, but finished at Ffyfe Bay.  It was the ultimate tourist destination that you see in postcards –white sandy beaches and clear blue/green water (see photo 3).  It was so easy to see your feet and the bottom of the ocean.  We were treated to a local barbecue lunch and entertained by a local steel drum band.  They were great, and played around with many different tunes.  On the way home we had a trivia quiz to see who had listened well during the morning.  It was 1 point for a right answer, and the winner was the first person to 3 points.  Well guess what limited drinker won a bottle of the finest Antiguan Rum???  Yes moi, so I have donated it to Gary and Jamie’s bar when we arrive back in Houston.

Last night we went to see a comedian.  He was priceless, and we almost cried with laughter.  The downside was that we didn’t go to dinner till after the show, so it was almost 11pm before we collapsed into bed.  It was a long but fun day!!!

 

 

ST LUCIA

Wednesday was beautiful St Lucia! This is by far the biggest island we have visited so far at 238 square miles (616 square kilometres). It has many similarities to the other islands except that it is much more mountainous and mostly covered with rainforest that is full of Australian ferns. The capital, Castries, looks very prosperous so tourism – the main industry – must be thriving. Photo 1 is a resort.

We took a tour around the island that showed us some wonderful sights. We give the island 9 out of 10 for beauty and the tour no more than 5 out of 10 for the way it was run. The tour guide was nice but had poor English, for the most part gave rote descriptions of what we were seeing and was unable to understand most questions. Still, we had a good time.

The island’s industries also include banana plantations, fishing and a rum distillery that makes 160 proof rum! It is known locally as rocket fuel, for obvious reasons.

We visited the Maranatha Gardens, a beautiful botanical garden with the loveliest tropical shrubs and flowers. But the highlight was La Soufriere volcano. It is an imploded volcano so the caldera (the Qualibou Caldera) is only about 400 metres above sea level and you can drive through it – all 12 square miles of sulphur springs (see photo 2), steaming hills, forest and two peaks called The Pitons which rise 600 metres above sea level (see photo 3).  It reminded us of Rotorua – sulphur smell was horrendous.  At times their mud pools will spurt up into a geyser, but today they were just bubbling at the surface.  We think that was just as well!!!

SAN JUAN AND CRUISE SHIP

The blog will not include photos for a few days as we are paying huge Internet access fees and it is as slow as a wet week. But we will make up for it by including a selection of the best from the cruise after we get back to the States.

We arrived in San Juan on Friday night and did not see much of it before boarding our cruise ship around noon Saturday. But we do a tour on our return and from what we have seen so far we are sure we will enjoy it as there is a lot of historic architecture.

Our ship, the Jewel of the Seas (Royal Caribbean line) is great! It takes about 2000 passengers and has every luxury. The crew are very friendly and helpful, the cabin is about as spacious as they get and the food is to die for. We have spoken to many fellow passengers, and they all say to keep talking as they love our Aussie accent. Even at dinner last night the waiter came over and said “Aussie, Aussie Aussie” to which we dutifully replied “Oi, oi,oi”!  It cracked everyone sitting nearby up, and we all had a laugh.

ST MAARTEN

We sailed Saturday night and arrived at St Maarten on Sunday morning. St Maarten is divided between the French and Dutch and each side has its special charms. This place is just what you might expect from a Caribbean island. Beautiful clear blue water, forested hills, busy markets with lots of stuff you can buy (especially clothes, as Sue and Jamie can attest J). We were taken by coach from our landing on the Dutch side to Marigot, the capital of the French side where we checked out the flea market. Then the highlight of the day – a boat ride to Simpson Bay then back to Philipsburg where we docked. We were treated to commentary and some great singing of typical Caribbean songs by a guy named Shine (accompanied at times by Sue and Phil – how unusual that they should be singing along –maybe it was helped by the free rum punch that was distributed as we boarded the sightseeing boat!!!) who had us all singing and even dancing along.

We saw a lot of beautiful scenery, lots of yachts and some very interesting sights like the wrecks of ships destroyed during Hurricane Louis in 1995 and left to rot. Apparently 1200 boats were ripped out of the water by the storm and a lot of people died. So much housing was destroyed that the government rebuilt lots of low cost housing that still looks pretty new. Fortunately, and very surprisingly, quite a few 200 plus year old houses somehow survived and are real attractions for an island that depends on tourism for its prosperity. This was certainly a great place to visit.

MIAMI

Photo 1: homes on the inland waterway.

Photo 2: A 1930s Oldsmobile, just like Grandad Knight had. Classic!

Photo 3: it's a tough life in the Miami Police :-)

Photo 4: not quite like a Sydney surf clubhouse ...

We flew to Miami on Thursday via Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). Flying American Airlines has been unbelievably frustrating. They cancelled our flight the day before and did not notify us. Sue discovered what had happened when she logged on to print the boarding passes. They had put us on a flight the next day to San Juan via Chicago (!) and Miami instead – with no stopover in Miami! Would have been nice to tell us guys!! So we went out to the airport and Jamie used a contact in the Airline to get us on a late flight to DFW that day so we would not miss out on our Miami experience (and the $400 we paid for the hotel!). So we got in very late and were worn out.

The drama continued at DFW when they changed the gate for the Miami flight, once again without notification, and we got to see far more of the airport than we ever wanted to see. Jumping ahead for the moment, our American Airlines flight to Puerto Rico on Friday night was held up while we at on the tarmac for one and a half hours while they fixed a fuel pump. So we didn’t get to the hotel till after midnight. But the fun didn’t end there. Someone used their room key to enter our room by mistake, so we had to call reception and wait while they delivered new keys to us. So it was after 1am before we got to sleep. Thanks to the airlines these two oldies have had 2 successive nights after midnight……and we were badly in need of beauty sleep!!! It’s gotta get a whole lot better now eh!?

Back to Miami. We liked what we saw. Our hotel was the Marriot at Hollywood Beach and we took a drive from there to famous South Beach. The whole place reminded us of the Gold Coast, what with big homes on the waterways reminiscent of the Gold Coast canals, the high rise apartments and the lovely beaches. The lovely warm weather was a plus too. I’ll swear we must be weather gods as we have enjoyed warm dry conditions all the way so far.

We just have to comment on the way people dress in Miami and here in San Juan. So many, especially women dress in tight fitting clothes, often with G string bottoms, regardless of their shape and weight. What don’t they get?

Despite some bad travel experiences we are looking forward very much to getting on board the ship.

HOUSTON

Day 1

On Monday we visited NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston. The place covers a huge amount of ground and has a great variety of displays accessible to the public. As you drive in the latest display is the 747 that used to carry the space shuttles and from which they were launched. It was only delivered a couple of weeks ago and is still being assembled.

We visited the original Mission Control from the Apollo Missions era. The room had been cleared out years ago but has been restored with the original equipment so that it is as it was when Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon in 1969. Awesome says Phil! We also saw – and touched – old rockets like the Redstone used for space research in the 1950s. Inside a big pavilion we saw all four stages of a Saturn V rocket used for one of the Apollo launches. The rocket and its engines are gigantic – we were completely dwarfed standing next to them (see photo 1). The power of those rockets must have been unbelievable.

The Centre has a great emphasis on education. There are lots of videos, original equipment and space capsules and interactive displays. They apparently get lots of school groups through for a fabulous experience.

Day 2

We drove northwest to Brenham on the outskirts of Houston. Brenham reminded us of Braidwood with its heritage buildings and general feel. The highlight for us was a visit to the Bluebell Ice Cream Company. They take the milk of 60,000 cows per day (!) and make a large variety of ice cream flavours which are marketed all over the US. The production process is complex and brilliantly automated, but still provides quite a few jobs (thank goodness). Of course the best part was the ice cream samples. Heavenly! The best sea salted caramel Phil has ever tasted. Oh dear, are those shorts getting a little tighter J. But we are both doing a fair bit of walking…think walking around factory outlets count as walking!!!

Day 3

Tonight Jamie and Gary had friends over for Texas BBQ so we could meet them. Gary did the BBQ cooking in a smoker, a real Texas thing. We didn’t realise until know that Texas BBQ is not just the ingredients and style of preparation but also the use of a smoker to do the cooking (see photo 2). Gary’s pulled pork has about 15 spices in the marinade including several different flavoured salts, pepper, garlic powder, chilli powder, sauce and lots more. Delicious!! His marinated smoked chicken is also to die for!

We met so many lovely people tonight, all good friends of Jamie and Gary and so much fun. We will look forward to seeing them again on our next trip here. One of the funnier ladies was a non drinker – she asked for a Pina Colada, skulled that and asked me to make her another.  Her caffeine free diet coke is still sitting in the fridge!!!  As she left she took a Pina Colada to go…..in a HUGE plastic cup – would have been at least 3 glasses in the one cup!!!  Bet she slept well last night!!! 

 

We’ve only been here less than a day and love this place already (see photo 1 streetscape).

The Prytania Park Hotel is out of the city in a nice area and has a real heritage feel with its lovely architecture. This morning, while waiting for Jamie and Gary to arrive from Houston, we took a streetcar ride down to the French Quarter and wandered through the French Market. Now that’s what you call a cultural experience! Lots of local Cajun food and plenty of knick knacks to remember New Orleans by. As it is home to the Mardi Gras there were some “out there” tshirts and souvenirs!!!  There is even a place you can tour through that makes most of the Mardi Gras floats and costumes – we just missed a tour!!!  Bugger!!!  There are numerous souvenirs with masks and feathers – now they could be popular, but luckily for all you at home, they would have been too difficult to get back looking in their original condition!!

People are so friendly here you just feel so welcome. As with San Francisco we have found ourselves in a very cosmopolitan city, but the difference here is that most people seem to have some sort of American accent J.Of course no trip to a market would be complete without us buying gifts for all and sundry – and we found some pretty good stuff people!

The streetcar took us along the banks of the mighty Mississippi. It was fascinating to watch how small ferry-like boats manoeuvre huge barges around very efficiently. We also caught a glimpse of the Natchez, a beautiful paddle boat typical of those that used to ply their trade on the river in bygone days (see photos 3 and 4). We are waiting for Jamie and Gary to arrive within the hour, and enjoying the rest before we all become “energiser bunnies” all over again!!!

Just back from dinner at Lola’s….and what a night we have had.  It is a quaint little restaurant off the beaten track and holds no more than 50 people. (Jamie had worded the waitress up and when it came time for sweets she said they had a “Wombat Special”!!!  I am not sure what she is up to, however she and Phil have been having some whispered conversations…  Who knows what they are scheming…but it will involve wombats, hence the card when they arrived.) The clientele were all locals, except for us.  Jamie and Gary had been there before, and the owner recognised them.  She even hand wrote the recipe for their Garlic Soup!!!  It was like sharing dinner with your family. We all had a good night (except when Jamie tripped on the uneven sidewalk), and it is now past our bedtime!!  Will continue the saga tomorrow…..

Day 2

This morning we headed over to the west bank of the river to view the city from a different perspective. Jamie and Gary took us past the site of her job when she worked here some years ago. The firm crashed during the recession following the Global Financial Crisis, as did many others in that industrial area, and it was very sad to see the devastating effects the collapse had on that part of New Orleans … and that was on top of Katrina’s destruction of so much of the city in August 2005. We lost count of the number of times we would be driving through a particular area and Jamie would say it was under water after the hurricane. But it must be said that New Orleans has obviously made a great recovery from both events.

We drove to Algiers Point on the west bank to get a great view and photos of the city across the river. It was also a good opportunity to see some of the river traffic up close. We then went to lunch at the Parkway Bakery for our first taste of a local delicacy – poor boys, which are often written and usually pronounced ‘po’ boys’ in the local accent. The po’ boy was created at this very bakery in 1929 to help feed striking streetcar workers. It is like a subway role with roast meat or seafood filling and salad with crusty French bread, which is the special distinguishing feature. Phil could only eat a little of the bread, but Sue ate the lot and we both agreed that the filling was to die for. The restaurant is on the top floor of a two level building and, amazingly, it was under two metres of water after Katrina hit! That flood must have been so scary.

After lunch Phil and Gary visited the National World War II Museum while the girls went shopping. The museum is pretty impressive for its size and covers the different theatres of the war quite comprehensively with very good video presentations and displays of arms and equipment.

At night we first went to Pat O’Brien’s on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. The place was packed with all sorts of people and has bars with unusual ceiling decorations – like Civil War guns and huge colourful German beer steins. Weird but fun. Their specialty drink is called the hurricane. Phil tasted one and nearly did a triple backflip. I wonder if NASA could use it for rocket fuel? … Pina Coladas from now on!

Our dinner stop was an up market place called the Pelican Club. Jamie had been many times before and it had always been reliable. The food was great and really lived up to expectations ….. when we got it. The service was absolutely awful. It was university graduations day and they seemed completely overwhelmed by the number of people coming in. Our booking was for 8.00 pm but our table was not set for ages and we didn’t eat till well after 9.00. Not a good end to what was otherwise a really great day. The upside was that we didn’t pay for drinks and our entrees, but paid for mains.  Not such a bad outcome!!!

Day 3

This morning we went out for a breakfast of canolis and beignets (pronounced ‘benyays’). Beignets are a light sweet fried pastry covered with powdered sugar (what we call icing sugar) and were originally created for immigrant workers to have with their café au lait.

We headed off for Houston on what must be the longest straight road in the world. It just goes on and on with almost no curves for hundreds of kilometres, and when it comes to swamps it just flies over them on the longest bridges we have ever seen.

We stopped on the way to do a tour of Oak Alley Plantation, which dates from the 18^th century. The plantation house was not as big as we thought it might be, but we thought the same three years ago when we visited Mount Vernon (George Washington’s home) and Robert E Lee’s home in Arlington. No doubt Gone with the Wind has left an impression that these places were all huge when in fact they were not so big. Mind you, they left the slave quarters for dead. Two families would have to share little huts with little floor space for sleeping. Quite an eye opener. Photo 2 is a view down the avenue of oaks from the house.

We had lunch at Oak Alley and took the opportunity to sample a lot of different Louisiana creole food, including chicken gumbo (a meat and rice thick soup), crawfish (the local type of yabbie) and red kidney beans with Andouille sausage. Delicious! These people really know how to cook. We picked up genuine Mexican tamales on the way to have for dinner (do you get the idea of how important food is to us?). YUUUUUM!!  Jamie and Gary have a lovely house, and we feel like we are quite at home.  Her 3 girls (her 3 “puppies”) have accepted us as part of the family, so all is bubbling along.  It is a good chance to catch up on laundry and repack the bags before leaving here on Thursday as we head to Miami and then on to San Juan and the cruise. 

We miss the family at home, but skype and the internet are wonderful inventions!!  It helps keep us up to date with the day to day goings on at home as we browse through the Canberra Times.  We even keep up with the Brumbies matches!!

San Francisco - day 2

Another beautiful day here in San Fran. Today we took a tour out to the Muir Woods National Monument to see the Giant Sequoias and Redwoods (photo 2). Those trees are amazing. Many are hundreds of years old and rise more than 100 metres above the forest floor and some are several metres round. Photos are great but just can’t do them justice. We were lucky enough to see young deer close up and took some great shots (photo 3).

Our next stop was Sausalito across the bay from San Francisco. A lot of the hippies from the 1960s apparently settled there so it is an arts and cultural centre (read more artsy fartsy than cultural!!). Once again we took the opportunity to ignore our diets (we did have lots of fresh seafood last night – maybe deep fried prawns still count as fresh seafood???) and indulged in some of the best ice cream we have ever had. Heavenly! While sitting on a park bench enjoying our treats we chatted to a guy who looked like an ageing hippy and probably was. He was a very friendly and obviously cultured man despite his shabby appearance and was most interesting to talk to. What a pity we were interrupted by an ‘ugly Australian’ tourist who sat down next to us and started to whinge about anything and everything. (The bus was too small, there was no leg room – maybe if you had been 100kgs less you may have fitted into the bus seat etc – saucer of milk for Sue for writing this bit J) Next time stay home lady!

On the trip we were treated to some of the best views of the bay and the city imaginable (photo 1). San Francisco is blessed with a truly beautiful natural environment. We got to appreciate this even more on our bay cruise this afternoon. We were treated to a large herd of sea lions basking in the sun adjacent to Pier 39.  They were making an unholy racket as they frolicked in the sun and waved us off on our cruise. Last time we were here we did a trip out to Alcatraz so this time we toured the whole bay but still managed to get some really good shots of Alcatraz from new angles. As the weather was near perfect we were able to see everything pretty clearly without the fog that is so typical of the bay area. Lucky!  Tonight we will wander back to Pier 39 for more fresh seafood.  There are just soooo many restaurants to choose from.  Our criteria are based on how busy they are, and we look at the food coming out on the plates.  We tasted Crab Chowder last night for the first time.  It was just yum.  They serve it here in hollowed out bread cobs – not the big cobs we are used to –maybe about half that size.  You could easily make a meal just out of that.  It was a new taste sensation for us!!

Tomorrow we are off to New Orleans where we will meet up with Jamie and Gary. We can’t wait to see our fabulous crazy friends again! The next couple of weeks are gonna be a barrel of laughs!!

San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO BLOG

Here we are in beautiful San Francisco. This is our second time here and we love this place!

The trip over was smooth, but of course tiring, and we landed in Los Angeles expecting a long wait to get through customs and immigration dealing with the sort of brusque officials we experienced three years ago. But this time it was different. For the most part staff were friendly and helpful. The immigration guy was very chatty and welcoming. All up it was a much better experience. We managed to stay awake for a little over 30 hours before we crashed last night.  I woke up and thought it was about 6am.  One look at the clock told me it was 9.20am, so 14 hours sleep and we are now ready to party!!

That great start has continued in SF. Our hotel is right near Fisherman’s Wharf and this morning we had breakfast at a restaurant on Pier 39 overlooking the water. Nice!

Yesterday we got on the hop on hop off bus to check out the city. Our driver was Willie, a really cool black guy who could earn a great living as a stand-up comedian. We have no idea what Willie is on but we want some! Maybe he is just ADHD but he talks 10 to the dozen and is so entertaining you don’t really care that you miss most of what he is saying.

The weather is great – cool air and warm sunshine. When the bus took us across the Golden Gate Bridge you could feel the temperature plunge God knows how many degrees as soon as we got on the bridge and warm up again as soon as we reached the other side. Wow the bay air is cold!! But it is all so beautiful. We got great shots of the Bridge and Alcatraz (which we visited last time).

We got off the bus at the SF city park and walked through the beautiful gardens to Stow Lake where we took some great photos. We also quickly checked out the Botanical Gardens and the Japanese Tea Gardens. The park is not only gorgeous, it is the biggest inner city park in the US.

One thing Willie told us is that there are more dogs than kids in SF and dog walkers can make up to $60,000 a year! All that cash plus fresh air and exercise. What a great job. Where do you get an application form???