Boston (or Bahstun, as they call it there) and New England

Decorative heating pipes - our Boston Apartment

On our last day in New York a rain front moved across, but the heaviest rain was at night, so really did not impact our travels. We took the train from New York to Boston as planned. Very comfortable trip – roomy cars and an efficient cafe car. Our B 'n' B host was waiting for us at our Beacon Hill 'apartment' to let us in. Quite a surprise with this place! It turned out that despite being marketed as a 'B&B', the accommodation was really a small separate apartment. And I mean small! Up 6 steep stairs to a foyer, then DOWN about 20 steeper steps to the basement rabbit hole. There was a reasonable sized kitchen and bedroom (though both penetrated at various angles and levels by old central heating pipes), microscopic bathroom (1.2m x 1.5m) all built about 1840, with a renovation in early 1900s. Not super clean, but tolerable. No TV, but WiFi internet worked well. Windows opened at ground level, one onto a narrow yard & wall 2 storeys above, one to a light well 6 storeys deep, so we never got a 'day time' feel in the mornings. Anyway, it provided a good and conveniently located base to explore Boston, which we did. 

Saw all the usual historic sights, and took the opportunity to see through the State (Parliament) House of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

On our last day in Boston we took a ferry to Salem, an interesting and pretty village and site of the witch trials of 1692.

House in Sandwich, Cape Cod

Sunday was time to move on again – collected a rental car from Boston airport, and drove down the coast to Plymouth and Cape Cod. We got off the motorway for a beautiful drive along the bottom of the Cape Cod 'hook'. Spent a few hours at the very picturesque town of Sandwich, before reluctantly moving on to Newport, Rhode Island, which on approach seemed nothing special, but after a better look really is quite full of picturesque mansions, and a harbour full of huge and expensive yachts! We've since travelled all the way up through Massachusetts, visiting the Concord home of 'Little Women' author Louisa May Alcott; across the corner of Maine (visited a tram museum, wherein is a Sydney Tram!) and up into the mountains of New Hampshire where we rode the 1860s cog railway up Mt Washington. Lots of picturesque timber houses, and in the north, beautiful autumn foliage. Different from what we see in Australia, in that there are much more deep reds, as well as the many shades of green and yellow.

Louisa May Alcott House, Concord, MA

Marble Hall, Newport, RI

Mt Washington Cog Railway

I don't think I've said anything particularly negative in my blog to date, so it's about time to vent my frustration with a couple of things... I'd hate you to think that everything in America is just perfect.

First: TV. It's abysmal! A hundred channels of JUNK.. like 'Worlds Best Vacuum' ... 'Mum is 55 Looks 27' … 'Jewellery Auction' etc, all ads, all the time. “Reality TV” so unreal it's sickening. News... well the ONLY news that anyone wants to see, of course, is the Mitt Romney/Barack Obama slanging match. And that is very poorly presented if compared to Australia's ABC news presentation; there may be stuff happening in Syria and Libya (where a US Ambassador was sadly killed). But the rest of the world almost does not exist! And any other good dramas or docos you may see on ABC, SBS or even commercial TV at home, are simply not to be found here. At least not on TVs in hotels, many of which only have satellite or cable TV feed.

Second: Tea & Coffee. It's impossible to make yourself a good cup in hotels, apartments or B&Bs. Noone seems to have invented ELECTRIC KETTLES over here. They've all got these silly coffee makers, which gurgle away and spit out moderately warm water, but the tea bags make an almost undrinkable brew, and no-one has heard of instant coffee to make a quick cup without having to mess about with filters & packets. And of course, NO MILK, only powdered non-dairy creamer. Pth-ewy. If you buy a cup of tea or coffee at Starbucks or the like you get a BUCKETFUL (unless you emphasise SMALL CUP) of tasteless tea, or triple strong coffee!

Well that's off my chest. For the record, we did get to watch an episode of the British drama 'Hustle', (which we liked at home) in New York (albeit punctuated with ads for pharmacutical products with very long disclaimers!), and I have had a couple of passable cups of tea and coffee... over the last four weeks.

Sydney Tram - in Trolley Museum in Maine

Boston - The Old State House amid the modern city

Third frustration: I got this blog almost ready to post, and last night, for the first time in weeks, we didn't have WiFi access!

Ten States in a Fortnight - then New York City

Time moves fast when you're travelling! Another week has gone by & we're now in Noo-York!

Arches National Park

The Trafalgar tour of the Scenic Parks finished in Las Vegas, after more spectacular sights: Arches National Park, Monument Valley and Mesa Verde, where there are cliff houses built by Native Americans around 1100 – 1280AD, stand out particularly. The Grand Canyon was certainly spectacular, but for us seemed a little less so because it rained just after we arrived, and out planned flight over the canyon was cancelled due to low cloud the following morning. Nonetheless we did get some quite good views. To summarise the two week Trafalgar tour, we would have to say we thoroughly recommend it! Very efficiently run, we definitely saw the pick of the available sights – and the guide certainly knew his job – it was his 8^th circuit of this tour this year, but he still approached it with great enthusiasm!

Mesa Verde Cliff Houses

Monument Valley

At Hoover Dam

After returning to Las Vegas we took a half day trip to the huge but unfilled-since-1998 Hoover Dam, which which sits on the border of Nevada and Arizona, two of the ten states we have visited on the western portion of this trip (that ten includes New Mexico of which we crossed the NW corner for about 40 seconds when going from Colorado to Arizona.)

Back in Las Vegas we had another last explore of the rather loud & brash city - and of course the retail outlets - before flying on to New York on Thursday. Amazing how many poker machines there are in LV! The entire ground floor of our hotel (and every other hotel) was given over to machines & gaming tables, throughout almost every shopping area we visited, and even in the airport arrival & departure lounges AND the baggage collection area! Contrast this with the collection points at the airport for travellers packs (unused hotel soaps shampoos etc) to be sent to the military, and a request we received at a supermarket (here in New York) to add a gift to our checkout payment to provide lunches at a local school!

The views from the plane were good for the first half of the flight over the canyons and deserts west of the Rockies, then the mountains with a first dusting of snow on the highest (up to 14,000ft) peaks. We caught sight of the shoreline of Lake Erie later in the flight. It's a long flight – 4.5 hours, and we lost 3 hours in time zone shift, so it was quite late arriving at our apartment in East 11^th St.

A moment of concern when we alighted from the taxi and could not get anyone to respond to the doorbell! A quick phone call or two however resolved our access, and we soon settled in to a rather interesting small but adequate 3^rd floor bed-sitter in an 1840s house in Greenwich Village. (With bed, new bathroom, tables, lounges, TV and grand piano. (Well, you never know when a holiday tenant may need one.)

Brooklyn Bridge

New York Harbour - Miss Liberty & Lower Manhattan

So we've now been running around 'doing' New York – starting with open-top bus tours around four routes, including a night tour; a ferry ride to Liberty and Ellis Islands, a walk through lower Manhattan (Wall St, World trade Centre vicinity, Brooklyn Bridge) and today up the Empire State Building, Grand Central Terminal... oh, and shops! We've got to know the Metro, and are finding it pretty easy to navigate. 

It's hard to comprehend just how HUGE New York is, and how many people! Everywhere. Day and night. (And an awful lot of them are tourists from all over!). And Taxis. And scaffolding on so many buildings. 

New Yorkers, Americans generally, always seem very firm in their appreciation. It's never 'thanks' or even 'thanks very much', but nearly always 'thank you SO much!'. None of then has heard of New South Wales, though 'Sydney' usually gets an acknowledgement.

Crowds and Scaffolding - Times Square

It has become evident that we have not the stamina for travel that we did on our earlier trips (notably our 1975 epic), and are rather footsore and weary after 4 days here, so tomorrow may need to be a bit slower! On Wednesday we take a train to Boston on the next stage, and we will be back in New York in about 3 weeks, so can see more then.

Day 25....

Scenic Parks Tour

Yes, I know, this post is somewhat overdue. While some hotels offer free WiFi, there are frequently limitations that have impeded getting this posted earlier. Interestingly, the cheaper more basic hotels generally give easier access! Also this trip is quite full-on timewise.

We're now well settled into the routine of travelling with the Trafalgar Tour group – 14 Australians, 36 Americans (from the eastern states) and 1 Kiwi. The weather has been excellent, and much milder than in Las Vegas (even a frost at Yellowstone), the guide and organisation of the tour first rate and the group quite friendly and harmonious.

Bryce Canyon

We have already seen an amazing variety of countryside. Huge sandstone cliffs and canyons at Zion Park, the strangely eroded 'hoodoos' in Bryce Canyon, the huge and impressive Grand Tetons and all the volcanic stuff, wildlife and colourful countryside in Yellowstone Park, the heavily eroded South Dakota Badlands where we were able to walk through a small part of the maze of small canyons and gullies. You can appreciate how very easy it would be to get lost in there!

           

                The Grands Teton across Jenny Lake

In the Badlands

Other highlights have been:

• Stayed in Salt Lake City and did a walk through or around the various Mormon places, including the Tabernacle, wherein the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice and perform. Built in late 1800s it has an arched ceiling and has amazing acoustics.
• A 10 mile raft trip down the Snake River near Jackson in Wyoming, watching the Grand Tetons appear as the morning clouds lifted. We also saw several bald eagles, and beaver-gnawed tree-trunks on the river banks.

• 

  Bison ambles past 'Old Faithful' geyser at Yellowstone NP

  Our first morning stop in Yellowstone was at the Old Faithful geyser. While waiting for its predicted 90 minutely eruption, we decided to walk a circuit along the boardwalk around the geyser area. When we were about half way round, a lone male bison came lumbering by! Untroubled by us, he passed by us about 6m away. I'm not sure what we would have done otherwise – you are supposed to stay on the boardwalk as the ground can be unstable due to the geothermal activity. Anyway, it made for a couple of good photos and a video clip. We saw several large herds of bison later that day as we travelled around Yellowstone.
• Lots of geothermal activity – geysers, mud pots, steaming cones, boiling pools etc. But Old Faithful's eruption was rather overshadowed for us by the bison encounter!
• Yellowstone Park was severely burnt out in 1988, and (the northern part) 2000. There are still huge numbers of dead trees standing, mainly among regrowth, 24 years later.
• The rather sombre feel of the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn ('Custer's last stand'), and gaining an appreciation of the history of the interaction between the Native Americans and the Anglo American settlers.

• 

  Mt Rushmore

  The huge carved faces of Mt Rushmore and the even more enormous but yet to be completed statue of Crazy Horse. (Native American warrior on horseback being carved in a South Dakota mountain since 1950ish, and only the warrior's face is totally complete.)
• Shopped at a 'Walmart' store in Gillette, Montana!
• Huge coal trains – 126 wagons with 4 locos – in Montana and Wyoming.
• Some really excellent meals.

It's hard to get used to the fact that for most of this trip we have been travelling at above 2000m above sea level. Thus very often higher than Australia's highest mountain! 

LOTS of (big) caravans/motorhomes/five wheelers (RVs), (and salesyards with hundreds in each), in this part of the US! Apparently they tend to mass the salesyards in counties which have the lowest sales taxes. We have apparently gone through a lot of such counties!

Anyway, must travel on.... more later!

It's Summer in California

We're quickly adjusting to the balmy Californian weather - both slightly sunburnt from sitting in the top deck of 'Hop On - Hop Off' buses as we find our way around Los Angeles. Did the obligatory Hollywood & Beverly Hills loop on the afternoon we arrived - I was pretty proud that we had the oomph to do so after the 13 hour, very little sleep flight - but we did. Also walked the 1km from our Bed & Breakfast (which is quite good - quite exuberant hosts, nice location in a street lined with 30m + palms) and walked the "Stars Walk of Fame" on Hollywood Bvd. We found our stars fairly quickly, as you see in the photos, but unfortunately they don't seem to have updated Penny's to her married name, despite having had 40 years to do so!

...And I've just noticed, the photo of mine has the name partly obscured... shame! I'll have to come back another time & rephotograph it!


Well, after a day in Santa Monica where we dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean 12,000km from home, and another exploring Los Angeles Downtown, we spent yesterday 'doing' Universal Studios. Though usually not ones for amusement park rides, we were both quite impressed with the movie backlots tour, (featuring, among other stuff: dinosaurs attacking, and King Kong defending, the trams we were riding in; a dismembered 747; an underground train station collapsing in on us, and a 30+ year old shark model lunging at us ). So much so that we went around a second time! The WaterWorld  show, based on a movie I haven't seen, was also rather spectacular, particularly when a life size, burning, small aircraft crash landed in the water right at the front of the audience. Getting to Universal Studios involved catching the Metro train. Los Angeles Metro uses a 'Tap Card' system, as in London, and as was proposed for Sydney. It's hard to see how it was going to be so difficult and expensive to implement in Sydney! Interestingly too, the LA Metro stations were completely unstaffed - tickets and 'tap cards' had to be purchased from machines, which was a little tricky for us first timers!
This morning we packed up, got a shuttle to the Airport and flew (on a small CRJ200 twin Jet, for those interested,... e.g. Dan,) to Las Vegas, where it is seriously HOT. 100+ Deg F. Very interesting flight over the California desert, where we saw CROP CIRCLES!! [Actually, I suspect, patches irrigated by circular traversing sprinkler systems.]
On checking in at the Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel I was pleasantly surprised to find the hotel provides FREE WiFi (all the research I had done seemed to suggest hotels are all charging for WiFi). There was a slight catch, in that I had to open a browser & 'OK' a disclaimer for the hotel before I could open my email or browse further. So hopefully I may get to post this blog soon! We did a short walk up 'The Strip' (a 10 lane highway with ornate hotels, casinos, shops etc along both sides, but requiring bridges to cross from side to side due to said 10 lanes of traffic), ducking frequently into the hotels, shops and casinos periodically to revive in their air conditioning!
Tomorrow we meet up with the Trafalgar Tour group for our 14 day Scenic Parks Explorer tour which will take us through Utah, Yellowstone, Sth Dakota, Colorado & back here via the Grand Canyon and various other great and remote parks. Looking forward to that! I am also, of course, looking forward to the Outlet shopping trip Penny has planned for the morning!

Observation: lots of black cars in Los Angeles. More than in Sydney anyway. Also, lots of Toyota Priuses, even as taxis.

Second Test Transmission - Countdown

Well, we're off tomorrow. Up until this evening I would have said we were the best prepared ahead of time for any trip. Well, we really are quite ready, but I just had a minor crisis with getting our mobile phones set up for overseas use. I thought I was pretty smart - bought travel SIMs that give good call rates, are free for family to call us and  do not allow data downloading to inadvertently chew up the dollars. Which would all be good if they just WORKED properly on my phone! After two calls to the very friendly help desk, and several power down - power up and SIM change exercises during which they got it ALMOST working, I was advised to call Motorola (phone manufacturer). Oh dear, just what I didn't want to happen the day before we go. I had even given it a trial run earlier in the week and after a little jiggery pokery battery removal & replacement therapy it had seemed to work!

So I stopped and sulked a while over dinner, then went back, gathered my thoughts to give to Motorola, turned it on for 'one last try': and it worked! Only once, but that will do me for now! Too late for more messing about. I'll take my good old reliable (if expensive to use OS) Telstra SIM as a backstop, and both SIMs work in Penny's Sony phone, so we're OK. 

Anyway that apart, all is prepared. The garden fed, watered & mulched, food dealt with, pack-up-able house stuff packed up, grandchildren hugged, kids phoned; bags packed, checked, rechecked, more stuff added etc. Actually, we seem to be remarkably under our baggage weight limits this time. Penny thinks that can be taken care of with a bit of restorative shopping in America. We'll see.

Enough from here. This should test to see if my Blogging skills are on track. Hopefully the next one you get may actually have some travel tales in it.

Starting the Blog

Starting the Blog.

Well here goes! An attempt to diarise our forthcoming trip to the USA vis the medium of BLOGGING. Hopefully it will at the same time enable friends and family to keep track of where we are at, as we have effected on previous trips with emails.

But before we go, I need to get familiar with Blogger... I feel very much the trainee at present! I hope to sideline Joanne for a training session during her stay here this weekend. See how we go!

There will probably follow a few meaningless posts now while I try to master this, so apologies for the boring bits!