We saved the best until last! This beautiful place in the middle of the Pacific is a world away from our last mainland location, Las Vegas, in every way.
The locals here are relaxed, almost serene, as they go about their daily business, and they smile a lot – why not, they live in Paradise after all! The abundant coconut palms, colourful flora, Polynesian cultural influence and rich, royal heritage give it claim to that title – despite the usual high-rise hotels in the city and clogged freeways in and out of town during peak hours, just like other mainland cities.
There are no casinos in Hawai’i – the only other US state besides Utah that prohibits gaming. Hawaiians go to Vegas for that, and Las Vegans come to Hawai’i for their vacation.
The weather has been warm but not too hot, 82F (28C) most days, although a little humid with an occasional light shower away from the coast. In our few brief days here we have witnessed a luau by the sea with stage show, been on a guided bus tour around the island of O’ahu, and swam in the temperate, clear, turquoise water of beautiful Waikiki beach.
We paid our respects at the USS Arizona Memorial and museum in Pearl Harbor – a very moving experience. We travelled right around the majestic Ko’olau mountain range, along its full length on the leeward (western) side, up around the top and back down along the windward (eastern) coastline. Our driver/tour guide ‘Bill’ had an encyclopedic knowledge of the island’s history at every point of interest along the way and knew all the best places to stop. O’ahu is one of eight Hawaiian islands (excluding several attolls), not the biggest in area but the most populated and tourist friendly. At about 1,500 sq km it is much smaller than Tasmania.
We have briefly experienced a lot of different aspects of life in the United States, all of them memorable and interesting in different ways. Of course there is so much more that we did not see – maybe next visit?
We return now to Sydney’s cooler days and chilly Autumn nights, and hope that we can return some day, at least to gorgeous Hawai’i, just for a ‘do- nothing’ retreat if nothing else.
Honolulu
How do you describe Las Vegas? Big, bright, flashy, loud, brassy, sassy, decadent, over-crowded and over-priced. And that’s just the hotel lobby! Everything in Las Vegas is BIG. Every big resort hotel has a huge casino floor plus acres of surrounding themed attractions, most of them much larger than Sydney’s Star City. Ours is the MGM Grand, the second largest in Vegas, with 5,000 rooms, 19 restaurants, casino floor area of 172,000 sq. feet, and a total property area including pools and surrounds of 6.6 acres.
We picked a busy weekend to be here – Saturday night there was a heavily promoted world championship boxing match in the 16,000-seat arena within the MGM complex, which was filled to capacity, plus nearly that many people again milling around in the casino and restaurant areas. 30,000 people elbow to elbow – it was a zoo down there! Luckily we could retreat to our quiet room way up on the 19th floor.
Friday night we saw Cirque du Soleil ‘KA’ in the MGM Grand’s theatre – one of seven different themes of Cirque du Soleil performances currently playing in different hotels in Vegas. Brilliantly staged, great entertainment.
Saturday was the highlight – a one hour helicopter flight out to The Grand Canyon in Arizona. The route goes over Boulder City (outside of Las Vegas), Hoover Dam and giant Lake Mead, finally landing in the Canyon for champagne and snacks before the return flight. What a fantastic experience! Ken loves heights (not!) so Bev had the window seat both ways. We picked the best weather day, sunny, calm and hot (90′s F). Sunday was very windy, not what you want up in a chopper, and Monday cooler (60′s F) and cloudy.
Mother’s Day, we found some solace from the noise and crowds in a Catholic church just a short walk from all the action. This beautiful new church seats 2,200 people, offers 8 weekend masses, and had about 1,500 in attendance at the 11am mass. It was built as a ‘smaller’ cousin to the main Cathedral at the other end of town. Right here in Sin City! That’s Vegas for you, full of surprises.
We have trekked around ‘The Strip’ to visit as many other resorts as we could, within a couple of miles. All pretty exhausting but a once in a lifetime experience. Now for some R and R in Honolulu.
What a wonderful town! The tour guides tell us this laid-back, unique city is only 7×7 miles with a resident population of 850,000 (closer to 2 million when all the tourists are in town in Summer) – about 8 million when you include the entire Bay area. The folks here have a different attitude to life than we have experienced in the big, busy Eastern cities like New York and Chicago. It is a more cosmopolitan place, casual, accepting, creative. Amazing scenery, great tourist experiences.
We came at a good time of year. Clear blue sky the whole time, and hardly any fog, which us apparently not the norm. The locals tell us it has been unseasonably warm – low 80′s F Wednesday and Thursday.
We stayed right near Fishermans Wharf, a short walk from Pier 39 where there are lots of seafood restaurants and interesting shops. We have seen (sometimes too briefly) the Wharf area, Downtown, Union Square, Haight-Ashbury district, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, Japantown, and Sausolito. We walked across the famous Golden Gate Bridge and rode the rattly old cable car up and down some of San Francisco’s mind-blowingly steep hills. Great fun! Wish we could have stayed longer. Check the photo gallery at http://gallery.me.com/kendriver
Next stop: Las Vegas!
After flying from Madison to San Francisco via an aircraft change in Denver Colorado, we had two wonderful days with our Californian friends Mary and Archie McDowell, who we met on our 2008 Globus Europe tour. Mary and Archie had kindly invited us to stay in their loving home in Modesto, 92 miles (about 150 km) east of San Francisco, which we shared with Quigley their excitable and very friendly miniature daschund.
We were driven way out of town on two full-day excursions… on Sunday, a 3-hour drive south-west to beautiful Monterey on the Californian coast; and on Monday about 2-1/2 hours east to amazing Yosemite National Park and up to the high country where there was snow on the ground – spectacular! We are very grateful to Mary and Archie for their kindness and hospitality.
Tuesday, they drove us all the way back to San Francisco, where we enjoyed one last lunch together, at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on Fishermans Wharf, Pier 39.
We love Madison, it is the most beautiful, calm, quiet place we have seen so far. Downtown Madison is about the size of Parramatta CBD or a bit larger; include the University of Wisconsin campus and the inner suburbs and this enterprising, thriving city is about the size of Canberra. The focal point of downtown Madison is the magnificent Wisconsin State Capitol building, modeled after the US National Capitol in Washington DC and the centre of government for the State of Wisconsin. A local ordinance prevents skyscrapers being taller than the Capitol building, so it is the dominant structure visible from most parts of the city.
The city sits on an isthmus between two scenic lakes, Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. We had beautiful sunny weather on Thursday and enjoyed lunch by one lake along with Uni students, locals and visitors, and a walk by the other lake as well. Shopping and dining opportunities are plentiful and good quality.
Adam lives a long way from his work but enjoys the walk around the Lake Monona to get there. It has been great spending these few days with Adam, and now we are off to the warmer climate of California.
They call it the windy city. Yes, it was cold and windy sometimes, but so were Niagara Falls, Boston and New York. And it rained a bit. Our first day out trekking around on foot, there were some heavy showers and the shoes got a bit soggy, but we still managed to see some sights and take a few photos.
Day two, not so much rain and we saw a lot more, including an interesting visit to the Planetarium museum.
It was great to have Adam with us to show us around and share his local knowledge of downtown Chicago. We made good use of the subway to get around.
Our hotel, the Hilton on Michigan Ave (huge!), was opposite Grant Park, where Pres. Obama made his inauguration speech. Chicago has some great public spaces, including Millenium Park with its futuristic outdoor concert venue and the lake shore area. Lake Michigan is so big it is more like an inland sea.
PS: writing this, we are hearing about even more severe weather events in some parts of America, with the number and ferocity of tornados described by the media as “the worst in living memory”. Hundreds of people killed, property damage beyond the point of counting the cost. We pray for those poor souls.
Got the Doctor’s visit sorted out – in Niagara! The Canadian health care system is a lot easier for visitors to access.
Not only was there a walk-in medical centre with a modest fee ($75) for non health card holders, but there is a web based appointment system to pre-arrange the time of your visit… logged on at 11:15am, the system provided a booking reference number and an appointment time of 12:15, just one hour – and that was on Easter Sunday!
Arrived at the clinic 12:05, saw the doctor at 12:10, on our way at 12:15. What a brilliant system!
Had to pay the full, unsubsidised price for prescribed medications – fair enough – but even then, received a free nasal spray to help clear the head.
Now to let the antibiotics do their work and hopefully enjoy better health for the rest of the trip.
From Toronto airport, a comfortable 110Km ride in a Niagara Airbus (19-seater coach) along a world class highway system – 4 or 5 lanes both directions most of the way – straight to our fantastic hotel, Sheraton on the Falls. Our room on the 16th floor faced directly out onto the Falls, a breathtaking view. The waterfalls are spotlit at night too – beautiful!
Walking around the top perimeter on the Canadian side of the Falls is an exhilarating experience. At one point, we stood directly over the edge of the drop and felt the thunderous power of the surging water beneath us (and got pretty wet from the spray). Those of you with QuickTime installed can see the water drop in a short video clip on our web album: gallery.me.com/kendriver – plus lots of photos; you just want to keep snapping say at this place!
Unfortunately, the Maid of the Mist boats were not operating because of ice in the lake and around the shoreline.
We were surprised to discover that the streets around Niagara Falls are like a giant fun park, with arcade style attractions stretching for several blocks, plus all the big hotels of course.
Next, we fly to Chicago to meet up with Adam.
A very comfortable first class train trip, Amtrak Express NY Penn Station to Boston. Took about 3-1/2 hours, some pretty scenery along the way. On arrival, found a great Irish pub nearby for dinner.
Both days we made full use of our 2-day tickets on the Old Town Trolley Bus, one of several hop-on hop-off services with 15 stops around town. Different driver each time we got on but all of them were real characters, sometimes with the same jokes, sometimes with a different take on a historical point of interest – and there is lots of rich American history in Boston. It is a fascinating and photogenic place.
One of the stops is the original “Cheers” bar (there is also a replica location across town). Ken sat proudly at “Frasier’s” corner of the main bar. Another great Irish pub for dinner last night, this time on the Boston waterfront. It’s all good!
The wind is still cold, Ken is still coughing, but we are really enjoying the trip. About to board Air Canada flight at Boston Logan airport to Toronto, for coach transfer to Niagara Falls.
Check out our online photo album at gallery.me.com/kendriver.
Despite the cold wind, intermittent light rain and the vast enormity of New York City, we have been out and about to see a few attractions and experience a small slice of life in this incredibly busy city. Because we only had a few days here, our activities were restricted to the borough of the island of Manhattan – itself a huge area of over 200 city blocks long by about 15 blocks wide, yet a lot smaller in surface area than the other four boroughs of The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Our outings have been mostly around the southern end of Central Park or around the Downtown (south) area of Manhattan, which is closest to our Midtown location on West 57th Street. We either walk, or use the Subway, which we have learned to negotiate with increasing confidence, even though sometimes we exit up to street level and somehow lose all sense of direction!
Central Park is huge (over 800 acres) and is a fantastic space for both New Yorkers and tourists and includes two lakes, a large playground, carousel, skating rink and zoo. Like all the other tourists, we did the horse and buggy ride, which was great but freezing (blanket supplied by the operator). Our buggy was pulled around by a hard working horse with a beautiful temperament, called ‘Lucky’.
We have also managed to briefly see Times Square (fantastic), Rockefeller Centre (a brilliantly designed city space), Greenwich Village, City Hall, Ground Zero (construction site), Wall Street, Chinatown, Madison Ave, Broadway, Brooklyn Bridge, 42nd Street… and on 5th Avenue, the Apple Retail Store, Macy’s and Tiffany’s. Also got to Palm Sunday mass at St.Patricks Cathedral. The Statue of Liberty was just visible from Battery Park on the southern waterfront, but we decided against joining the three-hour queue for the ferry ride out to get a closer look.
PS: Aussies, don’t get sick over here! Ken’s cold has turned to bronchitis, but a simple consultation with a GP to get a script for antibiotics, without a US health card, was estimated at $450! That includes a hotel visit; no walk-in Medical Centres like we are used to. So soldiering on regardless.
Next stop: Boston MA.
