TravelStream™ news feed for member inourshoes on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/inourshoes en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:23:46 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148709600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148709600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148709600/tpod.html Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:23:46 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

To be honest with you, I am terrible with history. I didn't know that the Declaration of Independence was signed in Independence Hall until I joined the guided tour led by one of their volunteers. Actually let me back tracked a little bit, when we got to Philly, my main objective was to go visit the Independence Hall. When we got there, we saw the sign outside the Hall saying that all the tickets were given out for the day. I saw the park ranger standing right behind the sign and holding a stack of tickets. I approached him anyway just wishing to confirm that the tickets were all distributed and there was no other means that I could get tickets. He then asked me whether I really wanted the tickets and how many I wanted. I told him I wanted 2 tickets, so he took 2 out of his stack. I guessed that's how they screened some of the visitors. So don't despair next time you are there and they claim that the tickets are all gone.

A volunteer led us through a room and briefed us on the history of the Independence Hall and its historical significance. He proceeded by taking us to the Colonial style courtroom and explained how the judicial system worked back in the 1700's. We then walked across the hall to the room whether meetings were held and the Declaration was signed and the US Constitution drafted.

After wrapping our tour of the Independence Hall, we walked across the street to line up to get into the Liberty Bell Center. No ticket is required to visit this center. The line moved pretty quickly even though there was a security check point. The Liberty Bell was rung during the adaption of the Declaration of Independence. Exhibits in the Center highlight its historical significance.

Closed to Independence Hall and the Center, one can find several well-preserved 18th century structures. One of them being the Benjamin Franklin post office and museum. Unfortunately, the house where he and his wife used to live in was not preserved. We saw traces of their kitchens and some of the utensils used during their time.

We then went to Philly's Chinatown for an early dinner. During our visit to Manhattan, we went to Chinatown almost every day for dinner and never felt unsafe for a single minute. In Philly, I felt a bit scared after a black male tried to grap my husband's arm and pulled him aside. We had no idea what he wanted but my husband swung his arm, the black guy let go of him and basically, we power walked our way towards the area where we saw most people were when we were looking for parking.

Being in a new city, we didn't want to take any route back to our car after finishing dinner. We took the same route back while staying alert to make sure that nobody popped out of nowhere and tried to snatch our bags or something. Luckily, nothing happened this time.

After hopping into the car, we decided to head towards Penn's Landing (waterfront). Parking was scarced 'cause there was an event (I found out by watching the news that night). We only got the chance to drive slowly along the street to take in the view before heading to our next destination - Washington, DC.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148277600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148277600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148277600/tpod.html Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:22:42 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Manhattan, New York, United States

Got up in the crack of dawn. Took the subway to Castle Clinton to start our more than 2 hours of line up to board the ferry to Liberty Island. Located on New York Bay, the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of love of liberty shared between France and the United States during the American Revolution. Even though this Statue was patterned after a Roman goddess, Libertas, the sad thing was when it was unveiled back in 1886, no women were invited to the event. Once my husband and I arrived, we joined the promenade tour which took us through the monument lobby, past the original torch and then to a park ranger guided tour to the museum. After a brief introduction by the ranger, we were left to go over the permanent exhibit in the museum that details it's origin and construction (full size mold) and the story of her evolution. After touring the museum, we then started our observatory tour where we visited the pedestal observation platform (about 150' in height) for views of Manhattan skyline. Inside the pedestal, people can view the interior framework of the Statue as designed by Gustave Eiffel. We wrapped up our visit to Liberty Island after proceeding outside onto the lower promenade of Fort Wood. We then boarded the ferry to our next stop, Ellis Island.

Ellis Island, although much overshadowed by Liberty Island, seems to be a more fascinating place to visit. Once a military fort, it evolved into an Immigration station for the Port of NY. Between 1892 and 1954, Ellis Island became the gateway to the American dream for more than 12 million people, amongst them, Bob Hope and Max Factor. We were glad we picked up the "Gateway audio tour". It led us through an experience that replicated the immigrants' journey through the Island, some ending with happiness, on the other hand, some ending with sorrow. There is a collection of artifacts brought by immigrants to America that truly shows the diversity of immigrants passing through that gate.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149317220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149317220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149317220/tpod.html Fri, 18 Aug 2006 00:10:06 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Arlington, Virginia, United States

Last day in DC. Visited one of the most famous monumens of the nation, Iwo Jima Memorial. This massive memorial (6 times life size) is to commemorate the success of taking control of Iwo Jima. Five marines & 1 Navy corpsmen climbed on top of Mount Suribachi to raise the American flag and the moment was captured by a news photographer. The image photograph was later made into a bronze sculpture that we see today. Unfortunately, only 3 of the 6 men who raised that flag actually survived the war.

All and all, the journey was an enjoyable one. Loved revisiting New York - I think I'll never be bored with that city. "Learned" a lot from the various museums in Washington. One week for me was enough, overdosed from all the information. Even though we have spent a week in Washington, we barely scratched the surface of what are there to see in terms of museums.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148451360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148451360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148451360/tpod.html Fri, 18 Aug 2006 00:05:46 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Manhattan, New York, United States

Took the subway to Chelsea Market, in the Meat packing district. I am a fan of the Food Network, and know that their station is there. Besides Food network, Oxygen, and quite a few productions have their offices there too. For Vancourites, Chelsea market is very much like our Granville Island, except that Granville Island is more jam packed, and of course, no TV stations in it.

Next stop was Forbes Magazine Galleries. Don't let the name fool you, it is not only a gallery of magazine but galleries of a variety of arts and cultural artifacts Malcolm Forbes collected over the years. In each section of the gallery, we saw his collection of toy boats, toy soldiers, hand written letters by first ladies, vintage monopoly games, oil paintings, pop art, etc. This is not a gallery a tourist would think of visiting but would be a interesting place to go if you have extra time. The bonus is that admission is FREE. Something pretty much unheard of in NY.

Went to see "Wicked" in the afternoon. This is a big and family oriented production about a story behind the witches of oz. My husband and I enjoyed the show and found it to be much better value than the one we went to the night before.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148624640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148624640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148624640/tpod.html Fri, 18 Aug 2006 00:05:08 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Manhattan, New York, United States

Last day in New York. Spent most of the time shopping, especially in Chinatown. For those of you who love pashmina, be sure to go to Chinatown. They have all colours under the rainbow and they are cheap. If you are interested in "those" LVs, Coach, Celine, be sure to pay attention to the people who are standing around and what they are holding in their palms. That's all I can say, good luck shopping.

Friday was freebie night at the Museum of Modern Art. Got there after visiting Bloomie's and saw a huge, huge line-up. Joined the line-up anyways as we saw that it was actually moving pretty fast. It was really organized and we got in within 10 minutes. Since admission was free that night, the museum was filled with people and therefore, noisy. I guess you pay for what you get, right?

We picked up the audio tour and proceeded to the top floor and worked our way down the floors. I was surprised that this museum allowed people to take pictures of paintings (even though some of them are reproductions). When I visited their temporary location in Queens last time, photography was only allowed in certain sections of the museum.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149301800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149301800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149301800/tpod.html Thu, 17 Aug 2006 22:46:28 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Washington, District of Columbia, United States

We all know Lincoln was assassinated at a theatre, Ford theatre. What I found out from this trip was that he didn't die there, which was my original assumption. Instead, he managed to cross the street to the Pederson House, but, died the following day. The theatre closed for a period of time after the event but subsequently, re-opened. It is currently a functioning theatre except that nobody sits in the Presidential box where it is re-created to look it what it used to be like when Lincoln was assassinated.

National Museum of American History was our next stop. In this Museum, anything goes, hi-tech, low-tech, Presidential history, American history, Star-spangled banner, a collection of first ladies' dresses, replica of the entrance to the President's office and even Julia Child's kitchen. I found Julia Child's kitchen particularly kitchen. It was donated when she moved from the East coast back to California. Except for a couple of knives, the kitchen where she shot a number of seasons of her cooking show is now on display. The collection of first ladies' dresses worn during the inaugurations are also interesting. It gave me a sense of how petite they all are.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149141600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149141600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149141600/tpod.html Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:57:42 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Started the day off by visiting the Smithsonian Castle. It is the Smithsonian's first building but today only functions as information center and administrative offices. Next stop, Nation air and space museum. According to Dennis Miller, he thought the museum should be empty but instead full of exhibits about aircrafts, spacecrafts, history and principles of flight. Being scientifically challenged, I don't find this museum particularly interesting, although they were tons, I meant, tons of visitors. The exhibit I was really interested in was the Milestones of flight gallery. It is the gallery that has the wood-and-fabric plane that the Wright brothers were successful in flying. The bike made by the brothers is also on display.

National Museum of Natural History was our next stop. In this Smithsonian museum, one can see collections of dinosaur fossils, gemstones, taxidermed animals, insect zoo, and even a fossil lab. It is a great museum for visitors young and old.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149143220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149143220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1149143220/tpod.html Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:23:35 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Planned to visit Washington Monument and the Holocaust Memorial Museum that morning. Arrived at the museum at around 10-ish. The earliest admission tickets distributed were for 12:45 pm. So we got our tickets and walked across the street to the Monument.

All tickets to the Monument for that day were all given out and were told we should come back before 8 am the next day to line up for our tickets. Since we can't get in, we were left to admire its grand scale from the outside. While my husband and I were doing that, my husband saw a man giving out some tickets. Learning from my experience at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, my husband quickly approached the man to find out whether he, in fact, has some tickets to give away. Yes, he was giving out extra tickets to people to take the elevator to the top of the Monument in a moments' notice. (My guess is that the Monument reserves a limited amount of tickets for each time slot in case some VIPs - of course, not like me, show up). As we were about to head towards the inside of the Monument, we saw that there were people lining to go up the Monument but for a later time. Somehow, we lucked out, got the tickets without having to line up and actually beat the people who were already lining up.

The view on top of the Monument was awesome. When it is so hard to get a good view of the White House these days, it is probably the only place where you can have a glimpse of the White House and the Ellipse in front of it. When we took the elevator down, at times, the park ranger slowed down the speed so that we can look at the plaques mounted on the inside wall of the Monument.

From Washington Monument, we went to WWII Memorial and Lincoln Memorial. Boy, they didn't look very far but sure took us a while to get there. Every structure in DC is massive, just like Vegas, it looks so close but in reality, is quite far. On our way back from Lincoln Memorial, we stopped by the Korean War Veterans Memorial where it honours the 1.5 million Americans who served the war.

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is a must see, an eye-opener as to how lucky we are, to be able to live without the fear of persecution just because of race, political beliefs, sexual orientation, being physically disabled, etc. We started our tour from the top floor, the photos and exhibits sent chills down my spine. There is a short film showing how Hilter came into power. A section of the train that took the victims to the concentration camp is on display. There are piles of victims' belongings, such as, scissors, spoons, razors, toothbrushes, and most of all, shoes. There is also a scale model that shows how the gas chambers and crematoria worked. Taking kids to this museum is not a good idea and this visit is definitely worthwhile for adults.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148882400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148882400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148882400/tpod.html Wed, 16 Aug 2006 01:25:37 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Washington, District of Columbia, United States

It was Memorial Day and George W Bush was at the Arlington Cementery and a Parade was to be held at noon. We saw truckloads of army arriving 11-ish, and some people were around the reflecting pool waiting for the parade to start. Instead of sticking around for the parade, we went to the National Postal Museum nearby while we awaited our time to board the DC duck tour.

There is a railway car and various exhibits on postal history as well as a huge collection of antique stamps. Owney, the mascot of the postal museum, is also on display. Once a stray dog, he found himself sleeping on a pile of postal bags one night. He liked the scent of the mail bags and followed the bags onto the trains. When train wrecks were very common back in those days, no train Owney rode was ever in a wreck. He was considered a good luck charm and was adopted by the postal workers. Later on, he became an official mascot of the Mail Service and travelled around the world by trains and steamships.

The DC duck tour took us around the National Mall and got us into the Potomac River. This tour was well worth the money as it gave tourists an overview of the major attractions/Memorials of DC.

Georgetown, other than being famous for Georgetown University, is also a posh area where one can see an abundance of fancy sports car cruising along M street. It is also where one can find a variety of restaurants. DC is famous for its soft shell crab. As a seafood lover, I didn't miss the opportunity to try it. But I think I still prefer lobster. For the budget traveller, there are restuarants along M street that offer prix-fixed $20 menu before 6 pm.

After dinner, we cruised around the neighbourhood in our rental car. Some of the roads are still cobbled stone and narrow. They are lined with trees and federal style brick row houses are the typical style of houses around.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148968800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148968800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/inourshoes/nyc_-_dc_2006/1148968800/tpod.html Wed, 16 Aug 2006 01:24:49 -0400 East coast trip (Part II) - New York City ~ Philadelphia ~ Washington DC (2006)

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Alexandria, Virginia, United States

Mount Vernon is the estate of George Washington. He called the area around his estate the Mansion House Farm and often referred himself as a farmer rather as the President of the United States. During the guided tour, we were told that even though he never travelled to England during his lifetime, he recreated his garden into an English garden by drawing ideas from books and his creativity. In addition to touring his mansion, we got to tour the servants' hall, kitchen, stable, massive garden. The tour to Mount Vernon can easily take up half of your day.

We then headed to Old Town Alexandria. Similar to Georgetown, some of the streets in Old Town are still cobbled stone and also lined with federal-style brick town houses. The weekend we were there, it just so happened that Godspeed Landing Festival took place at Alexandria Waterfront. Godspeed is a replica of 1 of 3 ships that brought British settlers to settle permanently in the US, in Jamestown, Virginia. Alexandria is 1 of 6 stops Godspeed will make during its 80 day journey.
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