TravelStream™ news feed for member pod501 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/pod501 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:17:00 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pod501/1/1206319440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pod501/1/1206319440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pod501/1/1206319440/tpod.html Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:17:00 -0400 POD World - American Vacation (Holiday Road)

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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Well I've finally reached my final destination and I'm using the title of a song from Men Without Hats, a new wave French Canadian band from the early 80s to finish things off with. I took the bus here from Seattle because the train was full. It turns out everyone wants to catch the train because it enables you to miss border control. With all the talk about how horrible American customs officiers can be I personally think that Canadians are the worst. A guy on the bus who often takes the journey over the border was saying that they always deny entry to 1 person on the bus going into Canada. You can bet your house that they will pick on anyone that is non US/Canadian going over. In our case this poor Asian guy was denied entry and the bus left border control without him. For a few moments however I thought I was going to be denied access as the officer asked me all sorts of questions about where I'd been, what I was doing, where I was going and what I had done in Canada on my last trip there. At this point it paid having a good memory as I could quote verbatim my itenary to him for this and my last trip as well as interspersing this with appropriate geographical knowledge of Canada and he let me in.

In coming to Vancouver I was heading to a place that gets a very good rap from people I've met that have been here before me. Indeed many people have told me that this was a place they would like to live in. I personally was skeptical as having been to Canadian cities before I know that they generally don't offer a lot for the tourist and are virtually carbon copies of Australian cities. And in Vancouver we have the perfect situation of how the hype and rap the city gets outweighs what is actually here for the tourist. Described as the worlds equal 1st most livable city (how Geneva ties with it at #1 I'll never know) and #3 city in Canada boasting a pop. of ca 2 million people it is the fastest growing city in this nation and a melting pot for all sorts of nationalities. The population has been swelling these last few years due to large immigrations from various Asian countries as West Coast Canada isn't all that far a place for them to settle in. Being the 4th mildest city in Canada, the only warmer cities being on Vancouver Island and the warmest being Chilliwack, also the name of a not so famous Canadian band that had a big hit here in the early 80s, it rains alot but rarely snows in the city area. Its still winter here, with temperatures at about the level of the coldest winter day in Melbourne but the difference is you don't hear anyone complaining about the cold like you do every day of a Melbourne winter. The locals are used to this sort of weather & dress for it.

It didn't take long to feel like I was back in Canada. There are fast food vendors on most corners downtown selling all manner of delicious junkfood, real meat hotdogs, hot chips & poutine (this being a French Canadian delicacy of chips, gravy & melting cheese - yum!). This may strike you as being very American but in fact I've noticed that the prevelance of such vendors is more commonplace in Caanda. The vendor I went to was perfectly bilingual - he addressed me in perfect english and then spoke to the 2 French Canadian girls next to me in perfect French who in turn spoke to me in perfect english when I accidentally bumped them. Only in Canada can you find such impressive levels of bilingualness but sadly the Quebec debate is still reigning here as a recent report discovered that only 50% of Montrealites use French as their first language, and only 80% of Quebecites use French as their first language. And now their dismantling some French immersion programs in primary schools ... there are a few unhappy Quebec campers!

I deliberately did no advance preperation for my time in Vancouver - I did not want to be influenced by reading material about what to expect or do. And so upon arrival I did a quick recon of the city and started speaking to this official at the skytrain station who gave me some information on the sorts of things tourists like to do here. It was gold because after wandering the streets I had no idea what one could do here. Indeed I really only came to Canada for 1 reason - Tim Hortons donuts. Tim Horton was a reasonable Canadian ice hockey player from the 60s & 70s. Upon retiring he opened a donut store named after him that he started to franchise before his untimely death in the mid 1970s. In the years since his little donut shop has become the most popular place in Canada with stores found all over the country. Tim Hortons simply has the best donuts of anywhere in the world and this was my primary reason for visiting. To spend time eating donuts & nobody does donuts better than Canadians because cold weather is conducive to donut eating. Given that Tim Horton's can be found on every corner in every shopping centre in Canada it is pretty easy to combine donut eating with other activities around town. A donut & small coffee only cost you $2.08, compare this with $6.00 for the equivalent meal in Australia and you begin to see why its worth travelling 17000 km for some decent donuts.

My first stop here was the Capilano suspension bridge. This is the highest suspension bridge in the world (so they say) and is set amidst a beautiful temperate rain forest. The bridge crosses a running river below and crossing it feels like you are Indiana Jones escaping from the Temple of Doom but only much braver (cos you're higher up!). Crossing the bridge was challening, it sways from side to side, and it was wet, and kids like to jump on it, and the handrail only comes to halfway up your body, so if one did slip you could well end up over the ledge. After surviving the ordeal I then went through a series of suspension bridges in the tall trees. The whole thing was pretty cool, pricey but worthwile. I then headed to Grouse mountain, the tallest point in the city of Vancouver at 3700ft. In order to appreciate the beauty and geography of this city one needs to get some height. I took a gondala type car up to the top of the mountain sharing the ride with a bunch of locals all dressed up for skiing and boarding. I thought I was underdressed until I saw a guy wearing shorts - there is always one. The ride up (& down) was very cool and better then anything in Disneyland. The car swayed back and forth as it went through each tower. However I would have to say that this was the biggest waste of money I'd spent so far this trip. Unless you're participating in the winter sports with the locals there is nothing up the top for you except an overpriced cafe and movie about bears that I wouldn't have enjoyed when I was 5, let only much older.

Deflated I went all the way down to the waterfront and ate junk food at the local market. Here I was treated to a local delicacy - beavertails. I'm sure this is for the tourist but it was a light fluffy pastry overloaded with cheese & garlic. I attempted to do some shopping in the city area but discovered that prices are not too dissimiliar to back in Australia and this idea died pretty quickly. On my next day here I headed off to Granville island, a place that has recently become all arty farty & trendy with artists moving in. Here there are funky cafe's and yet another market offering all sorts of goodies worth eating - a common pasttime here. Afterwards I headed off to Stanley park, one of Vancouvers drawcard attractions. I am always wary of cities that have a park as their drawcard attraction. Just look at Kings Park in Perth, there is nothing for one to do there but stare at the trees and hope to see a kangaroo. However Stanley park is much more than that. Set in the far edge of downtown it offers walking tracks, ponds & lots of green trees. Indeed it reminds me of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra heading into winter. The drawcard attraction is the Acquarium, apparantly one of the finest in North America. I went here as a kid when our family came to Vancouver. It was a disastrious trip, we stayed at a dodgy hotel & got stuck in the lift and coming to the acquarium was some sort of compensation. I would have to say that the Acquarium was yet another complete waste of time & money. The issue is not that there was anything wrong with it, the whales & sealions are cool, but that the entire place was swarming with kids that climb up onto every display so that you can't see anything. As they continue getting in your way you get more and more fustrated so that eventually you leave after an hour because if you stay you'll end up hitting someone. I went to the Sydney acquarium late at night once and that was really good, they don't do that here but should really start thinking of it.

I think that Vancouver is quite a pretty city and would be a nice place to live but for the tourist there are no real obvious things to do. Personally I think people only come here to take the train over the rockies, which isn't running at the moment (still winter), or to go skiing. The moto is that tourists should not expect to much from Canadian cities. Vancouver is clean & safe. You know it is safe because you see lots of single girls walking alone at night. I've met girls that won't go out alone in Melbourne, although don't ask me what I really think about that. The food here is excellent and is something the locals pride themselves on. There are quite a number of similiarities to Melbourne but its definelty more visually striking & prettier. Vancouver is sitting not far from the edge of the rockies, is wedged on the edge of the straight of georgia, a small strip of water that runs between Vancouver island and British Columbia, and is spread out over a large area that is on several different pieces of land connected via bridges. You then have the majestic mountains that sprout out of city such that if they ever do get sunlight here standing on the edge of the harbour with the mountains in the background & tall buildings in the foreground would look very pretty. Sadly I never got that view as it was cloudly the entire time I was here.

And so my trip is over. I have disspelled the myth that you can't get good coffee in North America, and that you can't get good bread. For each crap coffee you have over here I can tell you the location of equivalent crap coffee in Australia. I would have to say that the brewed coffee is definetely improving. I've done everything I wanted to do, and seen eveything I've wanted to seen. The West Coast certainly has a different feel to the East Coast, the most fustrating being the lack of decent bookshops cos people like to do outdoor activities. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog. I can't say what is coming up next, maybe some Christmas specials, a European or Vegas vacation. In any event tommorrow I begin the long journey home.

Thanks, Paul. (bonus features follow)

Coffee Survival Guide
---------------------
Decision -> Decide if you want something that tastes good or a quick shot of caffeine.

--> Caffeine only options (taste not so important)
1. Head to McDonalds. Order a small coffee. Add 3 cream & 2 sugar. It doesn't taste too bad and is quite cheap.
2. Head anywhere that isn't Starbucks. Order a brewed coffee. Add 3 cream & 2 sugar. If a larger size add portions in appropriate quantities.
3. Head to Starbucks & order a brewed coffee. The reason why this option is last is because a brewed coffee here costs more then anywhere else and you wanted coffee for caffeine purposes only.

--> Wanting a nice tasting Latte
Look for anything that isn't a chain store. Check that they have an actual espresso machine where the coffee is grinded (& not a push button machine where a Latte magically appears). Then use the following as a guide.
1. If you see the Lavazza sign, and the place is run by authentic Italians then you go here. However you need to be careful as many places have Italian sounding names but there are no Italians running the place. Recon is essential.
2. Look for French Creperies. The level of coffee at French Creperies over here is really quite impressive. And there is generally at least 1 in each city. Its worth trying & I have had some good coffees with this method.
3. Look for anything with a French sounding name. There are generally a few French bakeries in each city, try out their coffee if you can't find a creperie.
4. Goto a chain store that isn't Starbucks.
5. Goto Starbucks.

Tips/Notes for people coming here
---------------------------------
1. Don't fly United Airlines.
2. Know your geography. Having a good knowledge of where all the different cities are in the areas you are coming to will save you time & hassle when you are there. You won't need to look stupid looking stuff up or asking dumb questions.
3. Most ATM's charge a non bank surcharge. So you not only cop the Aussie bank fees but also pay extra for the transactions. Not sure how to get around this except by making large cash withdrawals.
4. 1 day is all you need to see any Canadian city.
5. 2 days for most American cities is enough.
6. Be patient. There are queues for most things and you are guaranteed that at some point someone will cut-in in front of you when you're being served to ask a question. Don't take this personally, Americans expect a high level of service.
7. Take full advantage of the service industry. Ask questions when you can, always have drink re-fills.
8. Always order the small size for everything. Its bigger then large in Australia.
9. Eat the bacon. Its much better then in Oz. Its crispy!
10. Be careful that you don't get addicted to ranch dressing. They have it with everything here. Its really nice but its harder to get in Australia so if you return with an addiction you might need rehab.
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Seattle, Washington, United States

In many ways it was appropriate that the last song playing at LAX when I boarded my flight north to Seattle was 'Danger Zone'. Kenny Loggins always has a way of linking in with my holidays and in America he still seems to get alot of airplay. Amazingly my airport experience went perfectly and I was treated like a human being. I had to pinch myself, I thought I was dreaming. People were friendly, polite & making jokes. I thought I was at the wrong airport. Things were made easier going through security when this woman came through mouthing off and swearing at everyone as if she had really bad PMT and so everyone's attention was on her and I was able to slip through without incident. My thinking is that United Airlines is the biggest problem in this country and I paid extra this trip to fly better airlines. I definetly recommended Alaskan Airways & strongly suggest that United be avoided at all costs.

Seattle is an absolutely fantastic city. Situated on Pudget Sound, and surrounded by Lake Elliot and Lake Washington it is the 25th biggest city in the USA and is situated in the northwest corner of the country. It is one of America's most modern cities as this was one of the last areas in the country discovered by Europeans in the late 18th century. However Seattle didn't really get going as a city until the 1890s when gold rushes in Alaska and the Yukon made Seattle a main entry point to these regions for people seeking their fortunes. The city is home to the Seattle rock scene in the early 1990s, a scene that single handledly nearly destroyed decent music as we came to know it until Britpop & Prog saved the day in 97, numerous movies like Sleepless in Seattle and the 80s classic 'Say Anthing', Frasier and some other TV shows. Many Aussies describe this place as being the Melbourne of North America. With this in mind I checked it out in order to form my own opinion.

Seattle is usually surrounded by cloud and a light drizzle. In fact there are only 55 days a year when the skies are clear here and most of these are in summer. So you can imagine how lucky I was to have my entire time here with nearly clear blue skies, sunshine and no rain and I arrived on the 1st day of Spring (sun is shining, flowers are bluming all that ...). After performing a quick recon of the city I set my sites on the cities main attraction, the Pike Place Market. I am more of a market expert then people realise and have never been very impressed with any of the markets I've seen outside of Melbourne (this includes the shockingly pathetic Salamanca market). The Sunday Camberwell market, the Queen Vic and the south Melbourne markets all take some beating IHMO. However the Pike Place market is all of these fused together in an area about the size of the Queen Vic market. Its set out in a confusing array of arcades & old buildings and the market not only pours out into the surrounding streets but is found hidden inside numerous levels of these buildings. You can walk & walk through each building again and again, back and forth and always make a different turn and discover something new.

The market offers food, food and more food & everything else you expect from a market. Fresh produce (fish, fruit, vegetables, meats etc..), tacky tourist soveunirs, Cafe's, coffee's, bakeries selling bread (unusual for America), donuts, books, clothes, cheeses, speacility shops and an array of international cuisine. There was an obvious french influence here as you can tell by the names - sur la table, du jour & the very french bakery. There was Turkish & Greek food, Italian, Falafel and most perculary a Russian place that sold wierd looking food that had the longest lines of the lot (if I was adventureous I'd have tried some). The only reason why this market is not better then anything in Melbourne is that nobody was selling 2nd hand CDs - if it did it would be a shoe in for worlds best market. After eating my hearts content here and perusing all the shops I could easily have spent a day but left the area for the bay and a trip on the ferry.

Seattle is not only a city set between some lakes but in the distance you can see the snow capped Cascade Mountains. In another direction you have mount Rainer, the 5th biggest mountain in the USA and in another direction you have another mountain range with snow capped mountains. I think its the Olympic but I'm not sure. With the water, and the snow capped mountains in the background combined with the city skyline I was able to get some stunning views. Short on time I headed to the museum precient and took in 'the Seattle Music experience'. Here I wanted to get some explanations on how the Seattle rock scene started but a little offshoot museum next door called 'the science fiction museum' turned out to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This museum is a must for any nerd. It had the original console used in the 67-69 Star Trek series. An array of lights that looked really tacky! It also had ET, a klingon, numerous phasers from different TV series & movies, twiggy from Buck Rogers, the robotic dog from the original BSG, the robot from Lost in Space, the actual model of the death star used in Star Wars, a history of Sci Fi and a zero gravity toilet. It was the coolest place. In the end I didn't spend much time experiencing music but when I was there all I felt was fustration. The problem with this museum is that they have all these interviews recorded with numerous big name people on various computers throughout the place but when the museum is crowded people just hog a computer and you can't get on one. So you don't get to see anything. They also have recording studios, mixing desks, instruments to play with but again people hog these things and I didn't get to play with anything.

Annoyed at this I decided to use the little time I had left to see if the museum had anything about Kenny Loggins. Indeed he seems to be so influencial over here I was pretty much expecting him to show up somewhere but he was nowhere to be found. There were the original guitars used by Jimmy Hendrix and a history into the evolution of some different styles of American music. Hip-Hop, cha cha, electronic etc... Eventually I found a history into the Seattle music scene. It turned out the scene (eventually) grew out of the bans against 'Louie Louie' a song by a Seattle band in the 60s that got played so many times it was banned here. This reminded me of the bans some Melbourne churches had of 'Shine Jesus Shine' in the 90s that gave the song a sort of secret cult following. Seattle has always had rock bands, in the 70s Seattle gave us Heart, which I didn't know before coming here, that gave us hits such as 'Magic Man', 'Barracudda' and 'Alone'. However in the 80s alot of clubs were banned from playing certain sorts of music, the law were coming down hard on these and party venues and so when you push music underground you eventually get a scene that gave us Nirvana and many more before the Presidents of the United States came along and ended everything.

My last stop here was the Space Needle. A series within a series, this is the entrant for the classic series, 'Great Towers of the World'. Built for the 1962 World Fair, this towering structure was to symbolize the future. Nowadays it looks like a tacky tower from the 1960s with a great array of tacky souvenirs, my favourite being the salt & pepper shakers in the shape of the needle. I was treated to more stunning views of the city & area and was also able to check out the world's tallest structure display at the top. Now I've been to 2 Eiffel Towers (one in Paris, the other Vegas), the CN Tower, Centrepoint Tower, the Skytower, the Empire State building and many more.

Seattle is also known for its 'coffee scene' & is the home to the orginal Starbucks. The original Starbucks can be found in the Pike Place Market. I checked it out in order to determine if the original Starbucks is better then any other one and if it all went downhill afterwards. It was easily the busiest Starbucks I'd been to. People were queuing up out the door. It was certainly efficient though. They have 3 girls taking orders, more staff just doing this then in some other Starbucks and once they take it they write it down on a cup & then throw it over to the 2 barristers, who must catch it. Its very cool to watch and if they thumble the catch then someone waiting can intervenue and recover for them. It took 20 mins to get a coffee, a little more then at other Starbucks and it was nothing special. It tastes the same as any other Starbucks. So they've either standardized the taste to the point that its the same everywhere, or it always tasted like this. I tried alot of coffee in Seattle in order to determine its quality. I used a random method to find it and I have to say the coffee was ordinary. A little too strong in general but I did have 1 cup that was really good. I'm sure if I lived here I could find some good places as there were Cafe's everywhere.

I can see why people think Seattle is like Melbourne. It has markets, coffee, places to eat, shopping and a few other things to do. It is quite a big tourist destination over here, despite not being peak season yet and this took me by surprise. Its a beautiful city, known as the Emerald city in fact, and definetly worth a visit if you're in the area (but come to Pike Place market on a Saturday for the full effect).

This ends my time in the USA as I now head over the border to Canada. I've compiled a list, top 5 things I'll miss about America.

1. Rootbeer & Siera Mist. I love Rootbeer but we discovered this new soft drink over here that is a refreshing lemon line flavour that is miles ahead of Mountain Dew & Sprite. If you come here check it out.
2. Free refills on all my drinks.
3. Chicken options. Chicken is my 2nd favourite food and over here they take chicken options to the next level. In Australia if you go to a non Asian restaurant you generally only have a few chicken options. Over here they have an entire page devoted to chicken options. Thats 12 - 14 ways chicken can be done. From cagun, to orange chicken, lemon chicken, mexician infused flavours, down to various fried chicken options it can take me a very long time to order when I see the chicken page.
4. The overall good mood that everyone is in over here. 'Have a good day', 'You have a good night now', 'Welcome to ...', 'If you've got any questions feel free to ask, I'm happy to assist'. The entire service industry blows me away.
5. The accents. There are regional differences. Californian accents are the hardest to get the handle on for some reason, the other states generally have a more drawn out sound that you get a handle on pretty quickly.

Thanks for reading this far.

Paul.
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Los Angeles, California, United States

Many people bag LA as being one big concrete jungle but this is unfair. Its a big city with many areas and places worth seeing and exploring. Treating it as a single city that can be seen in just a few days does not do this place justice. Sure the city has its problems and areas to stay away from, but then this is the case for most cities. LA is a city of about 4 million people, although millions more live in the areas immediately surrounding it that aren't included in the city of greater LA. Yes there is a huge urban sprawl here and many spagetti freeway systems that one can be lost in but it is also home to Hollywood, some great beachside areas, numerous museums and other attractions.

The drive here took longer then expected, courtesy of some deteours we took along the way but also due to the fact that you just can't drive from A to B as the crow flies in this country. We drove down mountain ranges, through valleys, accross dry rivers (California is also in droubt), in some cases descending thousands of feet in not more then a couple of miles. The scenary coming in was spectaclular as we headed for our first destination - Santa Monica. Not only is this a song by Everclear it is easily my favourite place in LA and somewhere you can just chill out and watch the world by. We hadn't booked any accomodation as we weren't sure where we were going to be that day and turned up at 1 hotel only to be told it was full and we went to the place next door. Spring break hadn't hurt us until this point in the trip, and although we haven't seen the makers of the classic video series, 'Girls with low self esteem' in action, many people have come south for the holidays. Our hotel could only be described as 'flea bag' and easily the worst place we'd stayed at this trip. It was the sort of place people on the run stay in the movies - dodgy door, dodgy windows, dodgy bed. Indeed they save money on cleaning by sweeping everything under the bed. I got the full movie experience here. When I woke up one morning and left my room the blonde girl next door was standing in the doorway smoking a cigerate not wearing alot whilst her partner was sleeping alone in the bed with the L shape sheet.

Having already been to Santa Monica my goal was to shop, as we hadn't done alot of that this trip, and so I explored the 3rd st promedade. This is a 3 block pedestrian only mall that is unique in the sense that America doesn't have too many pedestrian only malls. I noticed a percular thing however in that Bookshops in California are smaller and less common then on the east coast. Having spent alot of time in East Coast bookstores on my last trip it was challenging even finding a bookshop. Throughout the trip I have proudly boasted my spiritual gift of finding public toilets to Vaughan but here in LA they do everything to counter this. Many shops and stores do not have public restrooms that you can easily use in other cities (Starbucks, bookshops etc) and so you need to seek other options. When checking out the beautiful Santa Monica pier I had the pleasure of seeing these 2 guys driving their porsche out of the pier (in the hope of impressing girls) and seeing it break down for all to see half up up the exit ramp (which is on a steep hill). A big black puff of smoke left the rear of the vehicle and the car only went backwards down the hill. After checking out the area Vaughan reported to me that night that he thought he saw Julianna Moore going for a jog. I noted that I saw a pretty redhead girl going for a jog but wasn't sure if it was Julianna Moore because there were lots of pretty redheads going for jogs. So it remains in doubt if Vaughan really did see Julianna Moore.

After surviving our dodgy hotel experience we moved onto our next destination - Malibu. Home for many of Hollywoods rich and famous our goal in coming here was to do some starspotting. In particular we were hoping to see some Australian stars as we thought we might be able to get them into a photo. Anyone would do - Portia de Rossi, Isla Fisher, Alan Dale, Guy Pearce or even one of the brat pack - Britney, Paris, Lindsay (although we wouldn't approach them). However it was all in vain and we spent our time lazzing about Malibu village, a qaint shopping plaza that could easily exist in numerous towns around Australia. ie It was no great drama, a bit like ER. It was possible we saw Heather Graham but again I'm pretty sure it was just someone that was trying to look like her.

We then left Malibu for the east side and checked out Pasadena. This is a lovely city featuring 20 blocks of shops set admist old style Spanish Colonial buildings. This was really just a stop for shopping and to give Vaughan experience in driving accross LA - something that is incredibly fun & I'm glad to have done. Our main destination was Disneyland and so we headed back to Orange Country - the place where our trip begin. Set in Anaheim, a city in its own righe (& not LA) Disneyland is a place I went to as a kid and loved. The experience of coming here as a kid was not only a childhood highlight but worth 1 extra point for my parents when giving them a score out of 10 in their assessment as parents. Of course no trip to California is complete without a theme park and I chose the most popular one for nostalgia purposes.

I would have to say that Disneyland as an adult is a little dissapointing. Spring Break hurt us in that more people were there then expected but it was the little things that bug you when you're single and don't have kids of your own. Just about everyone at Disneyland brings kids and so they are everywhere and always getting in your way because they walk in random patterns from A to B. Many of the rides I went on as a kid are still there in their original form. The Haunted Mansion which is described as the most unscary mansion ever is just that! Set in a beautiful New Orleans style home the main highlight was when we entered a pitch black room and 50 kids screamed in unison cos someone turned the lights out. In fact the ride was more amusing for being so bad and for the Spanish translations they put in for all the ghosts. I'm sorry but a Spanish accent just cannot sound scary and when you say something scary sounding in english, and then have it translated into Spanish sounding like Speedy Gonzalez you just have to laugh

The jungle boatride could use some new jokes and props and hasn't changed in 25 years. The Matterhorn was fun but again had not been changed. We went on some of the newer rides, and a little scared of scary fast rides, found that they weren't that scary. Star tours was a Star Wars simulator that had you in the trenches of the death star during the daring attack in Star Wars - very cool. The Buzzlight year ride had you shooting Aliens and the Indiana Jones ride tried to replicate the experience of Indy escaping the Temple of Doom. It was fun but could've been faster and bumpier then the descriptions led you to believe.

Indeed most of one's time in Disneyland is spent in queues. In fact the only time you don't queue is when you goto the toilet. Again toilets are something Disneyland needs more of - they are few and far between. With people everywhere and a really hectic 2 week schedule we were over the place pretty quickly and left late afternoon to head off to our final dinner - at Chili's. Sadly, 2 weeks of having fries with every meal had caught up with me and I wanted fish and brussel sprouts, which turned out to be broccli (cos I can't tell the difference as its all green) and missed out on all the big burgers and mega meals they have. For the last time Vaughan and I shared a final US meal with all the usual things we've come to expect. Girls with funky accents introdocuing themselves and giving you soft drink refills when you're only halfway through you're previous glass, providing status reports on how we're going with our meals, free water & bread and arrival - the list goes on. It was here we had the judging for one of our trip games - 'The Tacky souvenir game'. We're not sure who won and so we're going to take our entries to a neutral arbitrator for judging. We decided on Allan.

We never made it all the fast food restaurants we were hoping to get to. We liked Denny's, for breakfast especially, and In & Out burger was good. Wendy's was pretty crappy (& made me sick) and Maca's has a few wierd items over here that should be avoided (who wants a McBiscuit?). Indeed Starbucks was the chain I went to the most. The main issue with Starbucks in America, and indeed many service chains, is that the staff they employ often don't have very good english (as they are hispanic) and therefore it can be difficult to relay an order to them. In 1 case Vaughan tried ordering a soda with no ice, a "no no" in America, and I suggested that if he does that again he shouldn't be allowed back in the country because the server just doesn't understand why anyone wouldn't want ice. Back to Starbucks though the service is generally incredibly slow because all these American Idoits walk in ordering their stupid Frappachinnos & iced coffees (apparantly there is a difference). Now these drinks take forever to make and only succeeded in slowing the service down for everyone. Add on the fact that the person making the coffee sometimes goes and does something else and a coffee at Starbucks generally takes about 10 - 15 mins.

And so that ends phase 1 of my trip. Tommorrow I am off to brave the American airport system once more using every bit of nouse I learnt last time I was here. I am preparing by convincing myself I am the lowest form of life imaginable and that security has every right to suspect me capable of doing anything and everything. Travelling with Vaughan was fun, although there were all these Simpsons references I didn't understand (cos I don't watch it) which I eventually picked as being all the unfunny comments he was making.

Paul.

PODWATCH - The Cheers Game
Sadly this game didn't work out as we hoped. Its actually really hard to order at Starbucks (or wherever) & use a fake name. The problem is that you need to pay extra attention for this different name and I kept forgetting! You just make things hard for yourself. Also when we did try and go for combinations such as Bill & Tony both of us wanted to be Bill because nobody would ever want to be Tony (as in Tony Grieg). Still we used the fake names from time to time and nothing interesting ever came of it. And you need to be careful, once I went back to the same place in 2 consective days and the guy remembered me and so I needed to recall what false name I had given him. I might just be myself from now on.
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Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, United States

The first thing you see on the road into the Grand Canyon (or the reverse Ayres rock as its called these days) is this giant re-creation of Bedrock from the Flintstones. A giant Fred Flinstone can be seen from the road encouraging you to camp at the Bedrock camp grounds. Here you can see the entire Flintstones theme in all its glory. Their car, Wilma, the drive-in, this place has it all. Not long after this you see a giant golden arches and the most expensive McDonalds in America ($7.99 for a McValue meal) is upon you just as you hit the entrance to the Grand Canyon. At the entrance we saw a curious sign, 'no refunds', as if people had come to the Grand Canyon and not seen anything or had a negative experience and tried to ask for their money back. This is America and so it wouldn't surprise me if people had.

The Grand Canyon (or le Canyon grand as they say in French) is one the greatest natural wonders of the world and just one of the many things that God has blessed America with. They don't say God Bless America for nothing, or maybe they do. I digress. It is the scene where the Brady Bunch went for their family holiday in summer but we went in winter and took the chance that the weather would be bad. We weren't wrong. A massive storm front had been moving into the area and so our time here was marked by strong snowfall and build up on the ground in 0 degree and less temperatures. Do you know what happens when you come to the Grand Canyon and its snowing? Well actually you can't see anything! You go to the look outs and look out at the Grand Canyon and all you see is this massive formation of white nothingness. Its the most amazing thing. What's that you say when you look out - that's the Grand Canyon. Here we saw American sarcasm at work, people would call home on their cell phones and say, 'I'm here at the Grand Canyon honey but I can't see anything'. The few people we met there apologized for the bad weather as if it was their fault (thats very Australian). We went round to all the different lookouts, at one of them we even saw another bit of rock and got all excited and took lots of photos but for the most part all we saw was white nothingness.

The next day we were there we had high hopes of the sky clearing, the sun coming out and everything looking good. Well actually I decided to be completly negative and sleep in when one would normally be out at sunrise trying to get good photos. Vaughan was more of a go getter and went out in the early morning cold of -8 degrees and snowfall to see if he could catch a glipse of the grand canyon. And clear up it did. He returned with reports that you could actually see the other side and so we were off. Its the most amazing thing seeing the Grand Canyon when its covered in snow and the sky is (mostly) clear. Its simply beautiful watching the layered rock formations covered in white going all the way to the bottom. Of course we shared the event with a busload of German tourists, as well as Japanese. You know you're at a real tourist destination when a busload of German tourists turn up. Vaughan got to work taking photos for the girls travelling together on the bus. This is his thing over here, asking girls taking photos of their friends if they'd like one together, in the hope of meeting a girl, or just another traveller. Its a good plan and he's met alot of different people this way.

Anyways after seeing all the ice and snow on the ground and slipping around and walking slowly we were amazed to see all these crazy people going out on the trails that take you down to the bottom of the Canyon. Now imagine this, you're on a rock ledge walking down, there is ice and snow about, 1 slip and you could well be over the ledge as there is no handrail. Possibly I read too much of 'Fatalities at the Grand Canyon' (a book you can get here) however all these crazy thrillseekers were out walking down to the bottom in gear that didn't look all that appropriate. Maybe they should've saved time by throwing themselves over the ledge to begin with? Then we saw the mules (or horses - I can't tell the difference - I don't like farm animals) with people on them following the same trail down. Now if the animal acts up, or slips, you're off taking the fast way down to the bottom. We didn't hear of anything going wrong so maybe its not as dangerous as I think.

And so after getting some good shots of this place in the snow we left, heading straight for the McDonalds so I could add Arizona to the state count. Now I've had McDonalds in 10 US States, another 40 to go. If I ever do all 50 states I then need to do US territories. We headed south for a bit of a deteor, to the beautiful town of Sedona. Climbing to the dizzy heights of 8000 ft, easily the highest I've been since I once had 3 coffees before lunch, we entered the largest Ponderosa Pine plantation in the world and took the most scenic drive in the state, and indeed one of the most scenic in the country, down through a narrow Canyon that dropped thousands and thousands of feet in just a few miles. At first you could see a new lot of snow covered mountains (with their snow covered Ponderosa pines on top) almost around every turn you took before the snow gave way to beautiful Red Rock formations (I thought they named the chips after this place) that could well feature in numerous westerns and indeed some of them have. We ended up in the beautiful town of Sedona, packed with tourists, and ate a lovely lunch on quality US bread that is quickly dispensing the false myth Australians have that you can't get good bread in America. You actually can - just look harder. We turned around and went back up the Canyon road to do it all again because the scenary was so breathtaking.

After all this we headed back to LA.

PODWATCH - Riding in a car with Vaughan
Driving and travelling with Vaughan has been a positive experience. Of course Vaughan has benefitted from the rules and regulations that Allan & I came up with after 2 overseas trips. Naming our GPS 'Maybe' and our car 'Steve Holt' (or Stevie) is all part of the in car fun designed to make things more pleasureable. Sharing the driving, the non driver is responsible for navigating and double checking that the information 'Maybe' (our GPS) provides is correct. We have found that the higher we went the more mistakes Maybe made as the GPS seems to lose accuracy. We have also found that in America many changes for freeways are not exits in the Australian way but more you must be in the left 2 lanes to go here, and right 3 lanes to go there etc... And so you always need to check for this. Many exits are right on top of each other and so you could get 3 or more exits in very quick succession so you need to know what you're doing. The drivers themselves seem to be very aggressive, northern suburbs from Melbourne type but more extreme, used to the fact that if they don't try and push in they will never get their lane. Its all good and we haven't had too many problems after our first big day of driving.

Actually, the hardest part of driving in America on the wrong side of the road is not the fact that right is left, and left is right - this you get used to pretty quickly because you just follow the traffic. The hardest thing is that because you're on the left your sense of 'centre' of the car is now different. We both found ourselves continually drifting off to the right hand side of the lane because we kept thinking we were too far left. This meant that sometimes we were sticking out of our lane. We got used to things pretty quickly but this issues still creeps into our driving occassionally. The roads may be worse then in OZ but people fly down the freeway doing at least 80mph.
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Williams, Arizona, United States

We have now made alot of progress on the American freeway system. What we've noticed is that the further away from LA you get, the better everything seems to be on the road. Essentially the problem is that we're all a bit spoilt in Australia. We have better roads that are generally signposted alot better logically, with exits in better positions. Here it seems that the roads in and out of LA are so busy that they don't get a chance to do any works on them and so they detoriate. Overpopulation - it has its positives and negatives. In its positives there are cheaper prices brought on by competition but the trade-off is crap roads. Driving around Arizona has been a treat, the landscape is amazing and you get that classic Western feel with tumblewood blowing accross the road and signs telling you to look out for Deer and Elk (or Reindeer as I call them cos the picture on the signs looks the same).

A closed freeway and a combined decision by myself and Vaughan that 'Maybe' (our GPS) wouldn't be able to handle this in her navigation resulted in us diverting from our original destination of funky Flagstaff to the historic and quaint American town of Williams. Situated just outside the entrance to the Grand Canyon this town is quintiessential small town America at its best. Indeed it could almost be a replica of Stars Hollows (the fictional town from the Gilmore Girls) without the Rotunda and Park. For example, the guy at the coffee shop was really grumpy and acted like he didn't want to serve me (only some will get this reference). The town features numerous hotels and lodges as well as everything you'd expect to see in a US small town. No chain stores and mostly the local guy. Small Cafe's and boutique restaurants as well as Bakeries and gift shops all feeding off the people coming into the Grand Canyon. Note that in America bakeries are not the same as in Australia where you line up to get bread and pastries, here they act more like Cafe's that sell you bread related products.

Williams is about 7000 ft above sea level and after experiencing temperatures in the mid 20s everywhere else we've been it was a big change when the mercury plummetted down to 0 degress celcius and less. Not only this but the coolest thing happened to us when we were here - It snowed. Now I don't mean wussy Australian snow, I mean the real deal powdered snow that covers the ground and settles. Being the crazy Australians we are we had to walk around in it and act like we'd never seen it before. Sadly all the crap Earthclub camps (Christian ski camps where nobody would speak to you but somehow people thought were great) to the snow in my old church put me off going to the snow in Australia and so it was good to experience it here.

Here we basically had the classic small town experience. We had breakfast in the stereotypical US Cafe-diner where the waitress would continually come by and refill your cup and ate all the yummy food you'd expect in an American fry up. This is the sort of society I'd love to live in whereby you get free refills of coffee and sodas at every meal just as it is here. I've no idea what Americans think when they come to Australia and have to pay for things by the glass but I'm guessing they are not happy about it. Vaughan too has been enjoying the refills although it took him a while to realise they were free (partially my fault for not making a big deal of it or finding out if it was so) and has been induldging. The coffee in Williams was also excellent and its going in my book - coffee - An American survival guide.

Probably the low light of our time here was a re-enactment of a Wild West Show. Imagine the scene, a bunch of guys dressed up as Cowboys pretending to be back in Arizona in the 1880s. In the background are fake props for the saloon, hotel, general store etc .... It is bucketting down with snow and the crowd that has come are freezing their butts off watching these guys put on phoney accents and trying to ad-lib a story about nothing. They had no plan for what they were doing and their entire re-enactment got more and more embrassingly bad that they just fired their pretend guns. Indeed it was so bad it made our old beach mission dramas (amateur dramas for kids) look like they were professional. We left after 10 mins of this rubbish, and also because we had freezing wet butts. I really hope these guys don't do this thing every day.

And so we're off to the Grand Canyon and are likely to experience it in a way only a minority do - when it is covered in snow.

Paul.
POD WATCH - A ride with Vaughan
Many years ago Vaughan made a tape compilation series for his car featuring many classics from the 1980s. In the spirit & honour of this compilation I too have created a special compilation for us to complement our journey (along with the complimentary cactus trees we see along the way). I tried to feature songs from US bands to help get us in the mood for our trip buy sadly there are very few decent US songs that Vaughan might like without sending him into spasms. And so I was forced to avoid the classic US bands like Kansas, Journey, Reo Speedwagon, STYX, Blue Oyster Cult and many more because basically the music here has been challenged for many years. Indeed even on the radio all I hear is music from the UK and even a few songs from Australia so I've no idea what is going on. And so along the way we've been listening to the same 5 CD's I made before coming. The ironic thing was that when we did listen to the radio they played mostly the same songs I had on the CDs and so we reverted back.
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Lake Havasu City, Arizona, United States

There was 1 more unexpected event that happened to us on this journey. Our trip down south coincided with 'Spring Break'. Spring Break is a time of year when all the college guys and gals from the cold north, breaking out of their freezing winters, decide to head down south for some fun time in the sun and also to try and 'hook up'. It is everything you see portrayed in the movies and TV shows that hail from this nation. There really are parties in the hallways & rooms of the hotel. What amazed me most was how easy going and friendly people were. Guys and girls just go up to each other and introduce themselves and organize their partying for the evening as if they'd been friends for ages. If I hadn't seen this first hand I would never have believed people could be so open because I tend to find that social groups in Australia generally stick to themselves. Even though I'm getting older, and not part of the sping break event, girls would still greet you or smile when you passed them in the hallways of the hotel, such is the relaxed feel that everyone on Spring Break has.

We don't expect Spring Break to disrupt our trip too much but it may affect our ability to get hotels in popular destinations as we haven't booked every night of our trip - flexability is programmed in to the POD travel experience. And so when leaving Las Vegas we headed to the mecca of modern engineering marvels in Hoover Dam. Now if you're thinking this is just a big dam by the side of a freeway and you can just stop the car, get out and take a photo, you would be wrong. This is America and nothing is that easy. No - of course everybody leaving Las Vegas wants to see Hoover Dam and so you line up single file to get into the area, park in the big parking lot and then pay $7 to enter the place so you can view it from the lookout. Its a bit like going to Stonehenge. You then have to walk through all these displays (which are quite interesting) on how and why the dam was built, what is hydroelectric energy and why they needed it and if you were a really big sucker you could then pay extra for a tour of the power plant. Eventually we got to the lookout and could see the majestic view of Lake Mead, the point at which it was dammed and the beautiful Colorodo river continuing its journey. After a quick pit stop to the Cafe we were on our way and half our day was gone.

Our destination was the little known place of Lake Havasu City (or Lake Have a sue as locals say it). This city on the shore of Lake Havasu is the venue to a little known trivia fact that I discovered a few years ago now that made me want to come here. It is the site of the original London Bridge. A rich guy bought the original bridge back in the 1960s and had it transported back to Arizona piece by piece where upon it was rebuilt in its original form. It is now crossing a part of the Lake. I had to explain to Vaughan that London Bridge hadn't fallen down but it was here in Lake Havasu. Checking out the bridge takes about 5 mins but you do have the option of doing a cruise of the Lake and checking out the nearby touristy english village replica. The landscape of the area is also quite striking. It looks like something out of a lunar landscape. Indeed I suggested to Vaughan that this might've been where the Americans filmed their staged lunar landings in the late 60s and 70s but he pointed out the appearance of mountains in the distance would probably have given things away as there are no mountains on the moon.

Sadly I didn't do much here, I just chilled out because the over indulgance in the local junk food had made me sickly and I needed to deal with that before moving on.

Paul.

POD WATCH - Jessie's Girl
In my sickness here there was 1 juicy bit of information I picked up whilst trying to simultaneaously watch 100 channels of cable TV. Rick Springfield, author of this early 80s hit is alive and well. He is actually here in America flogging a compilation CD on TV. A 10 CD 80s Gold Boxed set. It looks really good and of course Jessie's Girl is the featured track. So for those of you that remember, and have spent sleepness nights wandering what he is up to I believe he has found his true calling in life. Sadly for Rick he never had the success he deserved in Australia and was much more popular in the States which he now seems to have adopted as his homeland.
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Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Locals say the journey to Vegas from San Diego should take about 4.5 - 5 hours. Vaughan & I did this in the record time of 8 hours. This is entirely the fault of the American freeway system & Maybe making a critical mistake in heavy traffic. We were doing fine until we hit San Bernadino, and followed the exit as directed only to be told by Maybe it was the wrong one (she dinged us) and then it took an hour to get back onto the freeway in the direction we needed to go. Then we needed fuel, I've noticed gas stations here are about as common as in Canberra, and so we exited the freeway only to find that it wasn't possible to get back on! There is a consipiracy theory going on that Americans don't want you back on the freeway, once you're off they want you to eat at the diner and stay at the hotel. A note for new players - never leave the freeway in America. Of course not long after this we were hungry and again we left the freeway following the signs to a Mexician restaurant that turned out to be closed. Again we had to backtrack, find a town nearby, eat and then begin the complex process of getting back onto the freeway. Maybe they're trying to cut back on traffic by keeping us off?

The journey from SD to LV is nothing short of breathtaking. At first you pass snow capped mountains in California (remember its still winter here) before enterting the Mojave dessert. Sweeping big planes of nothing come before you and before you know it these huge mountains dominate the landscape in front of you. The view could easily be something out of a countless number of westerns. We made is safetly, despite the crap US roads that contain little traction, far too many bumps, and drove down the Vegas strip into our hotel that is right in the middle of everything.

Las Vegas is a fairly new city and one of the fastest growing in America. Named 'the meadows' by Spaniards who used the water in the area when venturing on the Old Spanish trail the name is the english equivalent. Scene of countless movies and now CSI the city is the perfect example of American excessiveness. The strip is where all the action is and numerous casino's can be found in the area of just a few miles. Now the thing is there are plenty of things to do here even if you don't want to gamble. The city is open pretty much all the time and there is always something going on. But for us going to Vegas really meant 1 thing - Paris.

Paris is a Casino that is a replica of the Hotel de Ville in Parie as well as numerous other areas of the city. It contains an Arc de Triumph, la tour eiffel, numerous boulangeries, cafes, restaurants all in the Parisian theme. It provides the perfect opportunity to practise 'Frenglish' a curious dialect of language perfected by the 12th Man in his phone conversations to his vineyard curator, Henri, at le Chateau vers de flore. And here in Paris they play the game. Signage is everywhere containing - Le Buffet, Le Restuarant, Le Burger, Le Necessaties and several people try and put on a fake french accent speaking english. Our first stop was the Eiffel tower where we were treated to majestic views of the city at sunset. The purpose for coming here was that when people asked if I had been to the Eiffel tower I could now reply, 'I've been to both. Which one are you talking about.' Vaughan hasn't been to the other (bigger) Eiffel Tower but when people ask him if he has been to the Eiffel Tower he will say yes and have people think he's been to the original.
In Vegas all you do is walk, walk, walk, spend, spend, spend and eat, eat, eat. We ate all our meals in Paris at le buffet, le boulangerie and le burger. Curiously the baggette I had here was more like French Canadian food then French but I guess that is the US influence. Other highlights of the city include the Venetian (not a Casino made of blinds) but a replica of Venice in Italy without the horrible smell and gondolas and canals are flowing throwing the area. There is also Luxor, a replica of the Pyramids and New York New York, which surprisingly is a replica of New York containing the Empire State Building and a Coney Island Rollercoaster. It also boasts a Brooklyn Bridge which apparantly has more pedestrians crossing then the original! The Bellagio is a big Casino with a beautiful lake in front of it that features a waterfall show every 15 mins to a different piece of music. Its exciting stuff to watch, particulary at night. There is also Caesars, a mega complex that is so big and contains so many shops, theatres , Cafe's and restuarants it takes forever just to get through. And of course there are the slot machines, tables which look exactly as they do in the movies. No point in me describing them.
After taking in the highlights of the city we decided that we should see a show and I settled on Cirque de Soliel. I don't know much about shows and theatres but what I do know is that all the best things from Canada come from Quebec (with the exception of Celine Dion & Micheal Bubble) and so it must be good. The only tickets we could get were in the far corner of the theatre at the back, the loser zone. We saw Cirque de Soliel - Beatles Style (Love). This was the Sgt Pepper of Cirque de Soliels. It was certainly a specactle. Not only do you hear Beatles songs sounding better then you've ever heard them (am not a fan but some were remixed) you get to see trampoline acrobactics, intelligent use of DVD and screen projection, lights, rollerbladders, props and people flying all over the place on harnesses. It is some sort of a progression of Beatles music but as all I know about the Beatles is from studying trivia questions I couldn't pick any sort of story or link between things. Each song starts a new set of acrobactics. It went for 90 mins and was definetly worth the money.
And so we went to Vegas and managed to avoid the dodgier side of things. This is of course difficult as adult entertainment options are thrust at you wherever you go here. So we're now all packed and ready to head off south because storms are coming into the north and there is no way we want to drive on these crap US roads when its raining.
Paul.

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San Diego, California, United States

Hi All,
Its funny how a little thing like a time change for daylight savings can upset your entire plans for the day. That's what happened when we left for San Diego. After the clocks were moved forward 1 hour for Pacific time (or specific time as its known these days) we overslept and then took too long checking out in the morning such that we left later then expected en route for our first destination - Pacific Coast Plaza. This a mall, or shopping centre (more like shopping experience) just south of where we were staying, that is one of the biggest malls in the state and certainly the biggest for the area. The idea in heading here was to experience some more local culture - after all life is pretty tough for everyone in the OC. The plan was to walk around, shop, listen out for some "shop girl conversations" that take in the language of the area, "Oh my God!", "Oh my Gosh!", "like what-ever".

Soon after we arrived in America however it became clear that Vaughan didn't necessarily have all the right things for the trip. And so this trip to the mall turned out to be more a necessity as we went through all the big 4 department stores. Sears, Macy's, Bloomingdales, Nordstroom - with prices increasing as we went through each of them as well as the music classing up each time (Nordstroom had live classical piano!). Once we saw prices for things 1/3 of what we'd pay in Australia we were hooked and the next thing we knew 4 hours had passed and we needed to make tracks. So we hit the highway and headed towards the beautiful city of San Diego, arriving 2 hours later then expected. This meant that we missed half an afternoon of planned activities and needed to reschedule the 2 days we had remaining.

Situated just 15 miles north of the US-Mexico border it may surprise many of you when I tell you this is the 2nd largest city in California. Its LA-San Diego, San Jose and San Fran in order (note in my last email series I had 3 & 4 mixed up and I apologize for the stress this may have caused). Its also the 8th biggest city in the USA (after NY, LA, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia & San Antonio). The city doesn't necessariy have the same feel as San Francisco (which is packed with tourists) or the bigness & busyness of an LA but its easily one of the nicest and most relaxed cities I've been to in this country. Indeed it is quite compact and very easy to get around as the streets use a basic grid system (like most US cities but this one is pretty easy to get the hang of). I would go so far as to say that San Diego is the best city in California. Its sunny, clean, has stacks to do and is filled with friendly easy going people and the best coffee that I have ever had in North America. Indeed the coffee here is better then most coffee outside Melbourne in Australia. Many places here will appear in my new book, how & where to find good coffee in North America - also in the running to to be world's shortest book.

I had wanted to come to this city ever since I came down to Seaworld on my last trip and did a little feedback session with this girl upon leaving. Feedback is the process of analyzing and criticing what is good and bad about something and then using this knowledge to plan things better in the future. It is particularly uncommon around Christian circles nowadays so that volunteers aren't offended and stop doing things that they may be doing badly to begin with so that they can never improve (rant over). At Seaworld however they wanted to improve and the last question I was asked - "How long are you spending in San Diego?" received a response of "I'm not - I'm heading back to LA" got a strange sort of reaction from the question askerer. She sort of made an "Oh" and seemed offended I wasn't staying. I asked her if I was missing out and she said I was and that it was a beautiful city and if I get a chance I could here. So here I am.

We entered San Diego with the Top Gun soundtrack playing in the car, something I'm sure many of you would do if you came here (Danger zone being the song & title of this episode). Not only the setting for Top Gun but also another classic movie, 'Anchorman', I re-watched both of them before coming here as part of my trip preparation. I'm glad I did. I had no idea how prominent Top Gun features into the culture of this city. San Diego has the largest milatary presence of any city anywhere in the world. The city is home to most of the US navy, it has a nuclear submarine base and numerous other barracks and installations in the area. Indeed it is wierd how the paranoid Americans publize prominently what they have on offer here. It also has the busiest single lane airport in the country. This little piece of trivia I knew before coming but this has been repeatedly endlessly. On our first tour we were told it was the busiest in the country, then we're told it was the world! Our hotel was just under the flight path and when you walk the streets planes can be flying in not much more then 50 feet above your head. We were staying in little Italy, an area so named because it is so small if you blink you might miss the 10 Italian restaurants the locals are so proud of (certainly not a patch on Lygon st), but also so named cos if the buildings were tall the planes would hit them.

We decided to do a tour of the Old town to begin our first day. However a POD stuff up meant that instead of waiting for the tour bus at one of the well marked Orange signs, it turned out to be an Orange reflector and 30 mins of doing nothing ate into our time once more. Still we ended up in the old town, a tribute to the first Europeans coming to San Diego in the late 18th century. The girl checking us in thought my accent was very cute (couldn't say the same about her) and she personally escorted us onto the tour bus. Our tour guide, Torak, was named out of something from a Star Trek episode. He claimed it was a viking name. Vaughan believes he is playing the Cheers game and playing funny buggers with the names and trying to see who buys it. The tour was good for putting us onto a 'duck' type tour of the harbour and so we blew our money and left this early to head into the water. As we were treated to majestic and breathtaking views of San Diego bay, a POD of dolphins (probably wanting to meet me) followed our boat around as we saw all manner of top secret army vessels. We saw nuclear submarines, battleships sailing out and had numerous military installations pointed out to us. At the end of the tour our guide recommended a trip to the USS Middway an aircraft carrier from World War II and he pointed out the Top Gun bar, the place when Cruise sung 'You've got that lovin' feeling' to McGillis. We went there for dinner, its exactly the same place inside and I'm sure we're now the envy of all you top gun fans. FYI dinner was absolute crap and was bought out on paper plates with "silverware" of plastic knifes and forks. I guess this is payback for all the times I've made people eat off the same things at Trivia nights I've run. We were lucky not to experience food poisoning from this place but these are the risks you take.

The USS Middway is an aircraft carrier built for WWII that never saw action in the war as it took too long to build (by the time they finished building it the war was over) but was in service for 47 years. It is a fascinating place as you gain a glimpse into the conditions of serviceman on board the ship. There was so much to running a ship of that magnitude and so many little things they had to think of to make things run smoothly. We basically went on this because we were unsure when we'd next be able to go on an aircraft carrier. Top Gun again featured prominently on this ships, Danger Zone can be heard blasting out as you go through the hanger deck (its in a video) and jackets from the movie can be purchased here as well as various other top gun souvenirs.

My last day here was spent in the beautiful Balboa Park. This place totally blows you away. It is set admist a large parkland but is essentially a series of 18th and 19th century buildings in the style of Spanish colonial architecture. Everything is seperated by paved sidewalks, fountains and abudant amounts of flora and fauna. With attractions interspersed by water fountains, gardens and other pretty bits and pieces I was blown away by the beauty and relaxing ambiance of this place. The locals are also about walking their dogs, going for jogs (not so many fat Americans in southern California - they're in the cold north!) My first stop was San Diego Zoo. Famous for the Pandas, and site for the final scenes of Anchorman (although I can confirm they weren't actually filmed here but were in an old LA zoo) this is one of the finest zoo's in the world. A quick tour got me orientated and then I was off to see the very cute Panda's. They were playful and active and many good shots were taken. I didn't have alot of time and so stuck to all the big animals as I hate little ones, so it was tigers, big cats, camels, jabba the elephant (a star wars fan must look after him), llama type things and the Kokomodo dragon for me. Indeed the highlight of my visit, besides the Panda's was my very first corn dog experience. This is a hot dog cooked in a corn batter and served with fries, I'm hungry just thinking about it but it was delicious.

After this I went to the Aerospace museum which was essentially a glorified tribute to how great Americans have been in this field and neglicted to mention much of what anyone had done in any other country. It also missed Amelia Airhart and only mentioned women in the context of airhostesses. Interesting. Still I met an American computer nerd there who convinced me to try a flight simulator of an World War II plane that I continually crashed. Upon leaving I found myself in the midst of tour groups of mostly fat Americans trying to negotiate the park and completing what appeared to be some Amazing Race type thing. They were so bad at it and were continually getting in everyone's way I just wanted to yell out the answers. Around the same time I found a Japaneese Tea garden and desperate for tea tried to order but was soon surrounded by these groups of fat Americans completing the question - 'how many varities of tea does the tea garden serve'. They were all running around annoying everyone trying to work out the answer yet it says on the big sign out front that 43 varities were served and they all missed it. I tried to order a regular tea but this was difficult as they tried to sell me one of the 43 varities, and then an Iced tea, and then I had to chose my milk.

The end of our time was spent at a Mexician restaurant, not far from the Horton Plaza. An amazing outdoor mall type thing that has just about everyhing you'd want. The guy serving us at the restaurant called us Amigos and Vaughan was able to compare first hand how much better the Americans are at Mexican food compared to Austrailans. I took him to one in Melb before he left so he could release for himself how crap Mexican food is in Australia compared to over here. It only took 1 meal to make my point.

Signing off in the words of legendary Ron Burgendy himself, 'you stay classy San Diego' (& thanks for stopping by).

Paul.

POD WATCH - Maybe Baby
We have decided to name our GPS unit 'Maybe' after the character in Arrested Development. Primarily this is because we're never quite sure if we're going to get to our destination and also so that we can say 'Marry Me' whenever she speaks (only fans will get this). She gets the occassional thing wrong our Maybe cos American freeway exits can be in close priximity and her accuracy seems to be within 300 metres. We're starting to second guess her, so maybe is the way to go.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pod501/1/1205031540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pod501/1/1205031540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pod501/1/1205031540/tpod.html Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:08:39 -0400 POD World - American Vacation (Holiday Road)

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entry & travel map

Newport Beach, California, United States

Dear All,
I had planned for my first entry to be called something else but when I first used my IPOD on the plane this was the first song to play on shuffle and so a new title was born. The trip over proved 2 things - my nerdiness and Vaughan's travel inexperience. My nerdiness was on display for all to see when checking in for the flight. Upon being told that I missed out on my beloved aisle seat I asked the cute girl checking us in what the formula was for the seat allocations. She duly told me that the seats were worked out the night before using a formula giving preference to all families and couples and so therefore us single losers could be put anywhere (she didn't say losers but I read between the lines). I guess I need to procreate to get an aisle seat. Vaughan however, who checked in just prior to me, was wrapped with his seat allocation of 11G and I was a little surprised that he wasn't in the back of the plane like me, in row 68. Upon closer inspection of Vaughan's ticket I soon worked out that Vaughan got the seat allocation mixed up with the gate number and he too was back in row 68 with the common people. If they had a gate 68 at Tullamarine things would've been interesting.

After watching as many movies and TV shows as I possibly could I was left feeling a little bit ripped off that the flight wasn't longer so I could watch more. However we passed customs without incident and after some dodgy black guy tried to scum money of us at LAX we found the car hire place and checked out all the basics - liquid levels, spare tire and I checked if there was a gun in the glovebox (there wasn't). We then duly got lost on the streets of LA as Vaughan came to terms with driving on the wrong side of the road and I wrestled with the worst GPS unit in the world. If you made 1 mistake the entire system reset itself and so you have to start again. Using my advanced knowledge of American geography, and some stellar driving under pressure from Vaughan, we found the San Diego freeway and we eventually sorted ourselves out and made it here to the beautiful town of Newport Beach.

The idea to come here to the OC started as a bit of joke. I got addicted to the show upon purchasing the 1st box set of the series a few years ago and didn't leave home for an entire weekend as I watched wall to wall episodes. In fact I only left the house to buy season 2. I was then left feeling empty when I came all the way to California on my last trip but didn't stop at the OC. Then last year my French teacher made us write an essay on what we would do if we had a million dollars. Knowing that I would make at least 100 mistakes no matter how long I spent on it I wrote a rushed piece in 20 mins about how I would move to the OC. I didn't take it seriously but the whole class found it quite amusing as I read about my life as a millionaire in the OC and so I became the butt of a few OC jokes. So I decided to go back to America and this time take in the OC.

Newport beach is the largest city in Orange County, the county so named for the beaufiful oranges that grow in the area. It is situated just south of LA country and is one of the first major cities you come to upon entering the area. The township has about 100 000 people and it seems that every single person here is in this overall great mood. Its difficult to explain how you can come to a place where everybody is so unusually friendly. People say thank you when you move out of the way (or yield as they say here) and Vaughan nearly got caught in an infinite loop of saying thanks and having someone say you're welcome back to him until I broke it for him. Everything here is simply beautiful. The beaches, the sunset, the pier area and the boardwalk are the place to be for people watching. People watching of course is a glorified term for checking out the opposite sex. Again the girls here are really friendly, 1 girl low fived me when I walked past her (and she didn't withdraw at the last minute like I expected) and some girls actually smile at you when you walk past them. If I was someone else I'd chat them up. The sunshine, scenary and abudance of top quality junk food like donuts (1 shop is open 24 hours), pizzas, burgers and mexician all combine to make everyone very relaxed and happy. The only thing really missing from this place are the standard American chain restaurants. It seems as if the city has made an effort to ban such restaurants from the area and so the local guy outlet is still king here. Those of you that think all of America is chain restaurants should think again. There are exceptions. The reality of the situation is that they do need a Starbucks as the local coffee is crap.

The OC is of course more then the OC. Newport beach is also the place where the SS minnow set sail in Gilligians island. You see the footage at the start of the show before they embark for a 3 hour tour that all went horribly wrong. This explains why they were left stranded for 15 years, everyone thought they were around Hawaii but in fact they were in southern California not all that far from their Hollywood studios. The township is also the setting for another quality TV show in Arrested Development. In fact that show is made even funnier if you watch the OC and pick up on the digs it makes at the show. For instance in coming to the OC you don't go around calling this place the OC as locals don't call it that. Its like going to Perth and calling the sea breaze the Fremantle doctor. Its a no go. But I digress. If you come to the OC and call it the OC, everyone will know you're not from here (if the Aussie accent doesn't give it away beforehand).

Our primary mission in coming here was some basic R&R but more importantly to find the mythical Frozen Banana stand that features so prominently in Arrested Development. Central to the plotline of the show I wanted nothing more then to find this stand and have a photo taken of me in front of it. Nothing could prepare Vaughan and I for what we found when we came here. We set off to find a stand and duly found one in 5 minutes. We then found another one around the corner. Further investigation revealed that these stands were literally everywhere around the town. Frozen Banana's were actually a delicacy of the area and we just thought the entire idea was a joke! I then did a recon mission to one of the stands and got talking to the guy and asked him to explain to me what a Frozen Banana actually was. It turned out it was just a frozen banana but then the Americans have taken this concept to the next level of junk food. Taking something that is naturally healthy they then dip the banana into melted chocolate and give you the option of adding various sprinkle based toppings onto it. Presumably these are all the toppings that corrupt Australian donuts that aren't wasted on the American varities such as hundreds and thousands. You learn something everyday. We were amazed to discover how popular these frozen banana's were with the locals and I was trying to convince Vaughan that it was actually healthy as I was eating a banana. He didn't buy it. I eventually tried a frozen banana and wasn't all that impressed with it. The banana ruins the flavour of the chocolate.

Vaughan has been settling in nicely to American life. He did get sunburnt on his 1st day here and is struggling a bit with that but is otherwise good. He made an excellent restaurant selection on our first night - it had a bit of colour, a bit of life and we received our complementary bread and water as soon as we sat down. We're keeping detailed stats on restaurants throughout the trip. He is noticing many of the things I did when I first came here.
For instance when he first saw American toilets he was sure that the basin had overflowed but I pointed out that the water levels over here are naturally higher in toilets and that therefore you need to be aware of kickback when using them.

PODWATCH
This is a new section evolving from Keith's words of warnings. Here I note various observations on American life and / or our trip.

1. The Cheers Game - America is a place where everyone wants to know your name. This is most true in take away type places such that when you place an order they have to ask you your name. Inspired by a true story on my last visit when an English tourist in front of me in a queue once ordered a double shot expresso with a shot of cream and stated his name was Bond, James Bond and had his order processed as such (cos Americans don't get sarcasm and took him seriously). We have decided to use fake names wherever possible when ordering. In particular we're basing these on classic Aussie names. Mike & Mal, Bill & Tony, Ian and Richie as well as a few other offerings such as Hall & Oates, George & Micheal. You get the drift. I will let you know how we go toward the end of the journey.
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