080 USA; Niagara (Canada)

USA; Niagara (Canada)

We drive up to Niagara and watch the mercury fall. Autumn is far more advanced and many of the trees are bare as we approach Niagara. We stop in a place called Dubois and visit Macey's & Sears. Two more 'American things to do' ticked off the list.

Halloween is massive here. We love the decorations. The best we saw was two dirt bikes in a field with skeleton's riding them. The road was too narrow and too busy for us to be able to take a photo.

We visit Gobblers Knob of Groundhog Day fame with Punxsawtawny Phil. It's about 8 miles away from the main road and we are genuinely surprised when 2 other cars also turn up. The sun is out and we have a pleasant stop. This is Frank predicting how many more weeks of Winter?

We spot a quaint store in a picturesque autumn leaved valley with a sign just saying "moonshine". We have to stop and fortunately there is no traffic. (The roads we are on are narrow and windy and have huge stretches of no overtaking or stopping)
We are given a shot of moonshine and after drinking it can barely speak!

The Guinness hats come into their own. It is freezing. We are a bit late in the season for seeing the Elk rut but with a bit of luck we may spot some. So just in case we don't, we take a photo with a statue :)

We've walked in the park and been on the look out for about an hour. We had given up spotting any Elk and were heading back to civilisation when we spot a small crowd at the side of the road. We find a turning spot and managed to get back. We are rewarded by a small herd.

Iconic American school busses.

And there are the Canadian falls. We thought after Iguassu that we might be disappointed but we are not. It has been raining for quite a few days so the volume of water is above average and is spectacular.

A wonderful dinner in a restaurant  overlooking the falls. We hadn't planned it this way but as we were dining the daylight finished and the lights came on the falls. So with no effort we had perfect timing. Notice we now are wearing sweaters indoors!

It is raining as we walk back and the lights that illuminate the falls catch the rain. Frank captures the Tower hotel behind to achieve a great photo

The Canadian falls lit up with the coloured lights.  Every 10 mins or so they would go back to white.

It wasn't really necessary to go on the Maid of the Mist to get wet as it was still raining.

We choose to take the tour behind the falls. They have created a tunnel behind the falls with two port holes. You can't see much - just tons of rushing water but what is amazing is the noise. Then you come out onto a platform so you can get even wetter!

We had been led to believe there wasn't much at Niagara. Even though we were there out of season (the season ended two weeks before we got there and quite a lot of things were closed) we found heaps to do. There is a surprising number of children's entertainment features.  This was dinosaur mini golf. There was the waxworks, Ripley's believe it or not, amusement arcades, Guinness book of records, house of horrors etc.

We drove to Niagara on the Lake (Ontario). It was a beautiful place. Some amazing homes. No shortage of money around here.

So while the autumn was more advanced here, it was still beautiful (although freezing and plenty of rain)

We could not believe it when these people went in the open basket across the river. We are huddled in the gift shop, with our beanies on, our jumpers, our jackets and we are still cold. It is raining and windy. They are nutters.

The American falls on the left and Canadian on the right. This is the view from our hotel window.









And that was Niagara.
Despite the weather, and having to spend an extra day, so I could spend hours shut up in the hotel to apply for my job (no fun and only a very short time to turn round the application) we still had an amazing time.

Next stop Miami Beach - and back to warm weather :)

079 USA; Washington

USA; Washington
The security is very visible. We mention this to the Taxi driver and he thinks we are being disrespectful and lectures us on the importance of Washington to the world and why protecting it is worth it. I was surprised by the depth and feeling of his arguments and was a bit humbled by him.

First stop - of course, The Whitehouse. As with many things we've seen in real life it is much smaller and far less imposing than the views we get on our screens. A couple of months ago some twit jumped the fence and now you are a long way back. They've even closed the road that runs in front so the tour buses can no longer go by. One twit, spoiling things for so many.

The National Mall is awesome. Massive. Clean. It seems 10 years ago there was a big clean up throwing out the unwanted vendors and homeless. There were only one or two cafes, discretely placed and strategically placed toilets.

The day was overcast and cold. We are finding it strange being back in our jeans.

I genuinely love the national pride in America.

There are flags on their trains, on their bridges, on their public buildings, in their graveyards and in the front porch.

Jefferson Memorial. For some reason this one is stuck to the side and is quite a way away from the rest. It was difficult to get to and even harder to get away from. We were waiting a long time for any form of transport.

Their National War memorial is extraordinary but these simple words stole the limelight for me

Good old Abe. How big is this statue! The sun has come out and we are beginning to shed the layers :)
I'd forgotten how many great speeches this guy made.

The detail on this bronze were amongst the best I've seen. I found this more impressive than the actual Vietnam memorial.

There are acres and acres of war memorials and tributes to American leaders. This is one of two references to women. It is about caring rather than killing and it wasn't until I saw this that I reflected on the roles of women in Washington.

The Korean memorial. While the sculptures were not of the same quality as the Vietnam one, the way this was displayed was very moving. You got a feel for what they lived through, rather than just focusing on the names of the deceased.

 

Running out of superlatives again. This was fantastic. If you look you can see that the actual sculpture is in the rock taken from the middle of the large rock behind.

Parts of his famous speeches were engraved in the surrounding rock. Yet another great orator.

And the biggest space was dedicated to Roosevelt. A small mention was made of the works of his wife. Lots of focus on his work for the poor. Frank joins the dole queue; and maybe he'll have to when we get back to help pay for this trip!!!!

Things are big in America :)

Not the best photo of Frank but he was so engrossed that I struggled to get his attention. We visited the Spy museum. Really good in its own right but there was a focus on James Bond and they had Frank hooked.

Our photos of Capitol Hill are not that great as it has a great amount of scaffolding. Here is the Freedom statue that is at the top.

We chose the Air & Space Smithsonian. After 3 hours we were exhausted. Could easily have spent hours more. Watched a program on the Hubble Telescope in the Imax theatre. Just can't get enough of this kind of stuff. (Currently writing this at Cape Canaveral.)

No trip to Washington can be considered complete without a visit to the Iwo Jima statue,  but boy they've made it hard to get to.

Arlington Cemetery. All military people and their wives are entitled to be buried here. Acres of graves. JFK is buried here.

We finished our trip in wonderful sunshine. We took the Metro to Alexandra and had a wonderful lazy brunch by the water in this very quaint town.

Washington was very impressive. I need to go back to Canberra now and look at the place;
1) with new eyes
2) and understand how an overseas visitor experiences it

Next stop Niagara

078 USA; New York

USA; New York
When you arrive in New York everything seems familiar - because we've been seeing it all the time for years on our TVs & in the cinema. It feels great, even though the weather is cold and showery for the first two days.

So we catch the Metro into Times Square and are immediately attracted by the Naked Cowboy. Now we've just moved from shorts and singlets to jeans, vests and sweaters and this guy is in the street wearing just his jocks, without Goosebumps - and yes, I looked!!

The New Years ball is tiny. So different from what we see on the TV

It is cold and wet and we've both caught a cold on the plane yet we are still enjoying ourselves.
I now understand why people come back here time and time again. It feels good.
The views from the Top of The Rock (Rockefeller Centre) are magnificent. We walk straight in, no queuing, no crowds.

Great photo of  the Rockefeller centre

We walk the Highline. A wonderful 're-use' of an old railway line. It is much longer than we thought and very busy.

At the end of the Highline walk we come across the ComiCon Conference. Brilliant. Thousands of young people, who've gone to a lot of effort, having  a great  time. It was wonderful just being on 'the periphery' of it. Perhaps this is why we couldn't get reasonably priced accommodation?

 

We go to a NY Jets game and  learn that Taxi drivers do not like to cross state borders. Even though they are the New York Jets, they play in New Jersey. Getting there was an adventure! Once there the prices surprised us. $5 for a small  bottle of water, $10 for a small bottle of beer, $115 for a  seat in the gods section. But we are glad we go and we even understand most of it :)

bit slow though. Takes 45 minutes to play a 25 minute quarter.

We intended to try American food but just couldn't bring ourselves to eat Hot Dogs.

The  stadium holds  85,000 seated.  The  second biggest seated stadium in the USA. The Americans sure know how to pump a crowd. The  National Anthem  brought tears to my eyes. There were fireworks, cheerleaders, free gifts, entertainment. So well done.

We made the mistake of going to the Empire State building. We queued for nearly 2 hours. What was annoying was there were no signs to let you know how long to go and the line was designed in such a way that it took about 10 mins to reach the next corner, so you always thought you were nearly there. Really it was a total rip off. Yet look at the crowds as compared with the Rockefeller Centre, where the view was basically the same.

Ticking off the boxes; Grand Central

And there she is. Magnificent. Yet once again smaller and less imposing than imagined as we've all been exposed to pretty good film footage of her.
It was funny watching the ferry tilt to one side as everyone went to Port to look at her.

The World Trade Centre memorial is so well done. Not quite as moving as Gallipoli, but not far off.
In the rubble they found this tree, not quite destroyed. They've nursed it back to health and replanted it at the site.

There are two of these 'pits'. With everyone's name around them, including those who died at the Pentagon and the 4th plane. The fact they have not rebuilt on land that must be amongst the most valuable in the world is truly inspiring. When it is someone's birthday they place a white rose by their name.

The sun came out for us and we had a magnificent walk in central park.
A great space. Loved it and loved the numbers of people (locals, we think) who were still being at leisure. We spent two to three leisurely hours in the park and loved it.

The Guggenheim Museum.
The building is magnificent and really makes you want to explore.
Unfortunately I think they must have used all the money on the building because the art was pathetic.

And that was New York and we loved it. Next stop Washington DC.