I promise this is the last of my travel blogs (blags!) for a while. I know they've probably been boring for anyone else, but this is the new version of a travel diary for me - a way to keep a record of the trip beyond photos and souveniers (of which there are many).
We survived the nightmare journey home - a full plane is never a good plane in my opinion, and all of our luggage (new bag included) arrived home safe and relatively unharmed.
This, of course, is followed by the standard "Everything looks the same", as though we had been gone for 4 years, not 4 weeks!
Two days followed of strange jet lag, gasping at the heat and humidity, with loads of washing that seemed unwilling to get any smalller, food - oh my goodness, the food - bread, fruit, charcoal chicken, breakfast cereal all high on the list of favourites, comforts of home - bed, couch, tv & topfield, drawers & cupboard, new, clean clothes, and of course, just simply having nothing to do or see for a couple of days was great!
Today, I'm back at work. Why, oh why, does a holiday always have to be followed by work? I've never been given a good answer for this. Credit card, schmedit card I say!
Anyway, as all good things must come to an end, so too did USA2006. Now, what was AJAX again?
Homeward Bound, with a clunk!
laurette rynne - February 20, 2006Viva Las Vegas
laurette rynne - February 20, 2006
Las Vegas is the final stop on our trip, and what a great place to unwind and relax before heading back home. It has been 8 years since I was last in Vegas, longer for Tim, and boy has it changed!
Gone is the land of $1 beers and $3.99 buffets. There is no $1 blackjack, and even $5 blackjack is hard to find, and even harder to get a seat at. Theme casinos are on the rise, with no apparent end in site. Many of the old, kitschy casinos are gone - knocked down in order to make mega-casinos or mini-cities. Want to see the world - just go straight to Vegas. Paris, New York, Venice, Egypt, generic Italy, Rio all available within a 5-10 minute bus ride.
Many things are now aimed directly at families and tourist, not gamblers. This means that things which used to be free or extremely cheap are now pretty standard with the rest of the country. Food, once the single great hurrah of Vegas is now actually pretty expensive in most of the casinos. Roller coasters are everywhere now, with zoos and art galleries thrown in as well, there is lots to keep the kids amused. It's really just like one big theme park now - instead of an entry fee, you just pay your $5 shuttle fare from the airport and away you go.
Does this mean there is no fun to be had? No way, it's just a little harder to find "Old Vegas" beneath the glitz and glamour.
Gone is the land of $1 beers and $3.99 buffets. There is no $1 blackjack, and even $5 blackjack is hard to find, and even harder to get a seat at. Theme casinos are on the rise, with no apparent end in site. Many of the old, kitschy casinos are gone - knocked down in order to make mega-casinos or mini-cities. Want to see the world - just go straight to Vegas. Paris, New York, Venice, Egypt, generic Italy, Rio all available within a 5-10 minute bus ride.
Many things are now aimed directly at families and tourist, not gamblers. This means that things which used to be free or extremely cheap are now pretty standard with the rest of the country. Food, once the single great hurrah of Vegas is now actually pretty expensive in most of the casinos. Roller coasters are everywhere now, with zoos and art galleries thrown in as well, there is lots to keep the kids amused. It's really just like one big theme park now - instead of an entry fee, you just pay your $5 shuttle fare from the airport and away you go.
Does this mean there is no fun to be had? No way, it's just a little harder to find "Old Vegas" beneath the glitz and glamour.
Fisherman's Wharf - a tourist's paradise, a travellers' nightmare.
laurette rynne - February 20, 2006
Generally there are two types of people who go on holidays - a tourist and a traveller. A tourist is someone who just goes to the known places, buys t-shirts and souvenirs from every place visited, and takes "standard" photographs - here's me in front of xxx. A traveller is someone who goes "off the beaten track", and enjoys emersing themselves in a culture and discovers things that tourists generally would never find. Of course, there are also a large number of people who, like me, fall somewhere in between the two.
Tim & I try to plan holidays so that we have a nice mix of seeing the key things in a place - the things you've always heard about - with having enough time to explore an area without a planned agenda. Sometimes, unfortunately, time and money mean that travelling just isn't possible, and you are left with visiting only the tourist destinations in a place.
Tim & I try to plan holidays so that we have a nice mix of seeing the key things in a place - the things you've always heard about - with having enough time to explore an area without a planned agenda. Sometimes, unfortunately, time and money mean that travelling just isn't possible, and you are left with visiting only the tourist destinations in a place.
The Rock - San Francisco
laurette rynne - February 20, 2006
San Francisco is really just a through-stop for us on the way to Las Vegas. Both Tim & I had been here before, separately, but Tim had never been over to Alcatraz. As we were going to be so close, we decided to drop in a quick day in San Fran so we could do this tour. When researching the trip we discovered that there is now a night tour, and we knew immediately this was for us.
The tour leaves Fisherman's Wharf at 4.20, so you still get a bit of daylight, allowing you to see the city and circumnavigate the island before being led up the from the dock to the prison block by a tour guide with some very interesting stories about what we were seeing, and about to see. Once at the top, outside the prison blocks you are left to your own devices to explore the prison block and around the top of the island.
The tour leaves Fisherman's Wharf at 4.20, so you still get a bit of daylight, allowing you to see the city and circumnavigate the island before being led up the from the dock to the prison block by a tour guide with some very interesting stories about what we were seeing, and about to see. Once at the top, outside the prison blocks you are left to your own devices to explore the prison block and around the top of the island.
"Missed it by 'that' much"
laurette rynne - February 14, 2006
When we were planning this trip I really wanted to see New York covered in snow. As we couldn't make it for Christmas, this was going to be the next best thing. I had grand plans of ice skating in Central Park, enjoying the beauty that snow can provide to a city.
For most of the week it was looking like it was supposed to snow on Friday, and so I kept my hopes up that we would get a flurry before we had to leave. By Thursday, I knew this wasn't going to happen as the predictions moved to Friday night, then Saturday afternoon.
As we left on Saturday morning, Tim & I reflected that we were, in retrospect, pretty ok with the lack of snow. We had gotten to see a lot more of the city as we had beautiful clear, although very cold, days. We arrived to the warmth of San Francisco to find out that New York was in the midst of the biggest snow storm in recent history.
Although it would have been fun to see a blizzard (quite a rarity in Sydney!), we would have been stuck in New York for an extra couple of days and missed out on San Fran - so probably quite lucky in the end.
For most of the week it was looking like it was supposed to snow on Friday, and so I kept my hopes up that we would get a flurry before we had to leave. By Thursday, I knew this wasn't going to happen as the predictions moved to Friday night, then Saturday afternoon.
As we left on Saturday morning, Tim & I reflected that we were, in retrospect, pretty ok with the lack of snow. We had gotten to see a lot more of the city as we had beautiful clear, although very cold, days. We arrived to the warmth of San Francisco to find out that New York was in the midst of the biggest snow storm in recent history.
Although it would have been fun to see a blizzard (quite a rarity in Sydney!), we would have been stuck in New York for an extra couple of days and missed out on San Fran - so probably quite lucky in the end.