Panera Bread

There is an Amrikan bakery chain called Panera Bread. They are obviously a bakery, but they also have cafés across the country. They are very good. And very popular. 

They are also something else.

They have a charitable foundation called Panera Cares. It looks and runs like any of their cafés, with one exception.

The prices are suggestions only. The expectation is that people pay what they can afford. If you can afford nothing, then you need pay nothing. Those who cannot afford to eat at a regular cafe, can eat here with dignity.

Often, a good meal is paid for with time spent working in the cafe.

We found one of these cafés opposite our hotel in Boston, so frequented it as often as we could. There were often people under training for obvious reasons, but the result was always a pleasure to contribute to.

We wish them well in this venture, and hope that others take up the challenge to provide for the less fortunate in such a dignified and supportive way.

Verdict?

I have seen much more of LA now.

Some parts are actually beautiful.
Some parts are impressive.

But it IS still LA.

"I hate LA" is SO last Thursday.

It's not so bad

Meet me at Starbucks in L. A.

That would be a joke, right?

You can't even specify the street, and expect any better results.

So many streets in LA are stupidly long. They just go on and on and on.

Sepulveda Blvd is 25.4 miles long.
Mulholland Dr is 23.8 miles long.

There are so many. La Brea doesn't even figure in the top twenty. Nor does Santa Monica Blvd. And they are really, really long. Spanning more than suburbs, I imagine some span cities.

While on the subject of addresses;
We probably all know about Amrikan street numbering. Every block starts at a new hundred. That's why their numbering goes so high, and how it is so easy to find an address.

Rather than trawl the street looking for numbers, just go to the right block, and narrow it down from there. It's not the way every street does it, but it is pretty common.

One more thing.

In New York, there is a strange numbering system. Down the middle of Manhattan is Fifth Avenue. It runs down the east side of Central Park. You have probably noticed that the horizontal streets, while not imaginatively named, are prefaced with either west or east. To the west of Fifth Avenue, the streets are prefaced west, and so on.

So the famous 42nd street is either West 42nd St or East 42nd St.

What you may not have noticed, is that the numbering starts at Fifth Avenue, and goes both ways.
On one side of Fifth Avenue is number 1 West 42nd St., and on the other is number 1 East 42nd St.

So on a busy traffic day, best you don't tell a taxi you want to go to 342 West 75th St., when you really need to go to 342 East 75th St. I doubt he would be impressed.

I Hate L.A.

I think I have made this clear in the past.

It's a necessary evil as a means of getting to somewhere. Otherwise it's a craphole.

And then, a couple of trips ago, we discovered the trolley from the airport hotels to Manhattan Beach.

I liked Manhattan Beach.
I didn't want to.
I tried not to.

But I liked it.

Now we have done the tour of L. A.

There are a range of tour routes, all colour coded.
Orange, from The airport hotels to Marina del Rey.
Green from Marina del Rey through Venice Beach to Santa Monica.

Remember the story of the time we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Santa Monica. It was a crappy hotel in a crappy suburb. It was the most expensive hotel we have ever stayed in, and we have stayed at some expensive hotels in our travels. It was also the crappiest hotel we have stayed in.

Anyway, it has been repainted, and it's a Wyndam Hotel. And they have cut the room rates in half.
And the whole neighbourhood has been refreshed. It's really looking good. Bastards!

Yellow route from Santa Monica through Brentwood to Beverly Hills.
Red route from Beverly Hills to Hollywood.
Purple line from Hollywood to Downtown LA.

On the first day, we took the bus from the hotel to Del Rey. Stopped for a while there at a mall. Sarah discovered the "Ralphs" supermarket chain, and we bought some brunch.
Then jumped on green to the pier, and onto yellow and red to Hollywood. Had lunch at the farmers market, and then retraced our steps back to the hotel. Took all day.

The next day we did the whole thing, through to the purple line. This finished just before 6pm, and did not give us time to get all the way back to the pier before the last buss back. As luck would have it, the bus company has a service at 7pm going directly back to the LAX airport hotels.
The only suggestion we would make, is that there should be bust direct from the airport hotels to Hollywood in the morning. Otherwise, by taking the first bus and not stopping, it takes till after 2pm to get to Hollywood.

Los Angeles is a massive city. Actually, its 88 cities. Crazy huge.
Doing 5 circuits in one day was a hard ask, but illuminating.

I won't even pretend that I have seen the city. I have seen bits of it. Mostly on he upper deck of a double-decker, roofless bus. It gives a great perspective. I must say, though, that a short stretch on the Hollywood freeway on the purple route, on the top floor of a double-decker bus without a roof, is, lets say "challenging". I was holding onto anything that could blow away.
Sheesh! Sarah wasn't best impressed.

While on Hollywood Boulevard, we say a red carpet arrival at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Also, on the final run back to the hotel after dark, we travelled the length of La Brea. We travelled through suburbs that are probably best viewed from the top floor of a very tall bus.

Quite a range of experiences in one day.

Back to LAX

The next day we flew to LAX.

United, about 5 hours and change. Survivable.

Hey, guess what?  This time, I DIDN'T get pre-selected by TSA. Bastards!

We are in LAX for about 4 days, and we have a 3-day hop-on-hop-off booking. That will keep us busy.

I have said it many times. Hop-on-hop-off busses are a great way to see a city. This time around, Sarah went all out with tours and hop-ons. It certainly paid off.

As I said before, we went back to Boston, because we didn't get everything done. We had bought a Go Boston card, and it had lots of things to do. One was a tour down to cape cod. We would do it the day before we left.

Read the fine print, idiot! The day before, I reread the voucher, and it said that the tour is only a few days a week. Today is one, tomorrow isn't. Crap! It leaves in 30 minutes, and we don't have time to get there.

We did our PhD on getting to Cape Cod a couple of times since, and its pretty damned hard. No simple bus or train.

So Sarah has been planning this trip for months. Her go-to website? Viator.

With Viator, se got all the tours I have already mentioned in HNL, SFO, NYC and BOS, as well as the new one in LAX.

Martha's Vineyard

So our last tour out of Boston was a day trip to Martha's Vineyard.

This time picked up by a small bus at some ungodly hour. There were 11 of us on this trip, and the driver had water and muffins for us for the trip. Excellent!

Anyway, another drive down to the coast, and a ferry ride across to the Vineyard. We were met by a driver in a slightly smaller van, who took us for a 3 hr tiki tour of the island.

Nice place.

There are some beautiful homes here, and every one of them is staggeringly expensive.

Some fun facts:

Saw Jim Belushi's grave. Fans are constantly leaving things on his headstone, and it needs cleaning daily.

Saw Chappaquiddick Island, where Ted Kennedy failed his driving test. Didn't get over there, because it's only accessible by barge. The bridge we all heard about is on the island, not to it.

Jacky O has an estate of 366 acres on the Vineyard. Since her death, the property is held by her daughter Caroline.

Jaws was filmed here, with lots of locations all over the place.

There's a who's who of famous people who either have or had homes here. Michael J Fox recently sold his home to a retired Boston Ice Hockey player.

Bill Clinton comes here every year, and now so does Obama. In fact, Clinton is a fan of the Black Dog restaurant, now famous. It appears that a Black Dog t-shirt he gave to a certain humidor was used as a piece of evidence linking them together. Doh!

The day was drizzly, but yesterday was worse all over. We didn't move far from the hotel that day, but today was do-able. Even with less than stellar weather, its still an excellent tour.

Very worthwile.

Highly recommended.

Cape Cod

Next Tour.

Fall in Cape Cod. The same tour company as the last few.

Lots of little villages, with lots of cute small (and not so small) homes. Sarah loved it.

Hyannis, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Sandwich.

The tour included a ferry ride from Hyannis out to have a sea view of the "Kennedy Compound".

I have to say, that while it was a nice toddle out into the bay, the intended view is underwhelming.

First, we were not permitted to get very close to shore.

Second, the compound is actually just 3 houses together in a rather exclusive subdivision. No high fences, no big gates. Just three houses.

And they're not even the most impressive houses there. Right next to the 'main' Kennedy house is one that looks a bit like the White House.

This house belongs to the family who owned The Gap and Banana Republic.

Not a Kennedy.







Great area to visit, but if you are looking for the Kennedy compound, the boat ride would be a 'take-it-or-leave-it' option.

Enrique

So on a day off between tours in Boston, Sarah wanted to go and see Enrique Iglesias.

While I was working in Auckland, she rang me to say that he would be having a concert while we are in Boston. There were tickets available. She decided to wait a couple of days till I got home.

When I got back, she couldn't find any seats. Sold out.

When I was back in Auckland, she rang to say that she had found a website that had tickets for sale. She bought some. We found out later that this was a reseller website. The tickets we received were addressed to someone else, but the FAQ on the site insisted that it was legal to resell tickets. Alrighty then...

So we make our way to the stadium, hoping that we won't get thrown out, or worse, arrested. Blong our tickets and ... and ... it's all good. Phew!

So we head on in before somebody changes their mind.

This is the TD Gardens arena, where some team called the Boston Bruins plays ice hockey.

It's actually at a major rail station in the city. Last time we came to Boston, we used this station to get to a cute little town called Rockport. We didn't even realise that straddled across this rather large station was an even larger sports stadium.





The stadium is pretty much like the big one we went to at Sydney Olympic Village to see Ricky Martin. Are you seeing a pattern here?

Anyway, the show was due to start at 19:30, and it did. There was an opening act called jbalvin, whatever that is.

Apparently, it's a latin band with a pretty good rhythm, even to an old white fart like me. The deep percussion rhythm reminds me of Hindi music. I rather liked it.

Then there were a couple of guys doing the dj thing while the band's gear was removed.

Then we saw the 'other half' of the lead act. Not only have we never heard of a bulldog that wasn't a ... um ... bulldog, we didn't realise that this was a co-act till sarah printed the tickets.

While this guy is a singer, he seems to be more dj, and uses a lot of recorded tracks from and with other artists. Apparently, he does tracks with all sorts of artists even I have heard of. Funnily enough, running shazam during a concert is a cool way to see if someone is lip-syncing.
Ok, this guy isn't lip-syncing, his work on stage is just one element of the multilayered performance.

By the way, his use of graphic imagery is fascinating. Very impressive. Oh, and I quite enjoyed his music, too.

After another half hour wait for the stage to be changed again, the main act started. Lots of squealing and waving. No, not from me. Luckily, not Sarah either.

It's funny. The people who had tickets on the floor right against the stage would have been ecstatic to be so close. Worth the big bucks they paid.

But wait. For an acoustic set, they exposed a circular stage at the opposite end of the floor. Enrique and some of his band made their way to this stage, and began a very intimate set.

The guys who paid for those stage-front seats must have been standing at the opposite end from Enrique saying "WTF!!!"

This was unusual. Enrique pulls a guy up on the stage, and proceeds to sing duets with him. The guy cannot sing, and spent most of the time either taking selfies with Enrique, or texting somebody. A bit of a doofus, but boy is he getting laid tonight!

We left the stadium by about 23:30, so that was practically 4 hours of entertainment. Good value.

iPhone

I plan on buying an iPhone.

While we have been in Amrika, the 6 and 6+ have been launched. That happened on the 19th of September.  As we drove past the NYC store on the 22nd, I couldn't believe the queues outside. I mean, I get the first day, but this was 3 days later. Forget about visiting that store!

Today we did a tiki tour of the Copley Place shopping area, and walked past another Apple Store. This is the 29th, and it's been 10 days since the launch. But there was a queue outside this store. Oddly, I could walk in and look around. There was a longer queue upstairs. Apparently, those upstairs have a phone reserved to pick up. Those outside the door are wanting to buy. They are issued a voucher and a phone booked for them. I asked one of the blue shirts what would happen if I wanted to buy a phone. He agreed that I would be sent to the back of the outside queue. Bugger that. I'll wait till I get to Sydney.


In the Copley Place mall, I saw a Microsoft store. This is something they have been doing recently, looking remarkably similar to the Apple store.

As we walked past, I asked Sarah how you can tell it's a Microsoft store, and not an Apple store.

Logo? No, easier than that.

There's no queue! Ha ha!!





I try to avoid the whole light side-dark side argument about Apple. It's no secret that I use Apple products, but I can't believe the anger and vitriol online from both sides.

For those living under a rock for the last few years, or who still have a flip phone, here's the Readers Digest version of the evolution of the smartphone:

1)   Apple invented the modern smartphone. That's just a fact. Like most things Apple have done, the idea has existed before them, but they put the spark of life into it. Smartphones were around before the iPhone, but they all looked like the Blackberry. Tiny keyboard. After the iPhone, every new smartphone had a touch screen and no keyboard.

2)   Apple made themselves unpopular by suing Samsung for copying the iPhone look and feel. What would you have done? You are given a patent for the way something looks, and then somebody copies it. Make a soda bottle that looks even close to the famous coke bottle shape, and the Coca Cola company will send a fleet of lawyer up your arse. But Apple must accept that a good idea cannot be protected?

3)   Apple kept strict control on the look and feel of everything on the iPhone. People who wanted to personalise their phones complained about that, and supported any OS that would let them tinker with it. It's funny how few people would have complained in 1998 that Nokia only had one font, and they couldn't change the keyboard.

4)   Once there became choice, people wanted more than Apple was prepared to offer. So there was Android from Google, an open source operating system, that you can tinker with to your hearts content.

5)   The Google marketing people have done their jobs remarkably well, because suddenly millions of people want every adjustment possible on their phones. If the iPhone wouldn't do it, it must be a vital new feature and Android would give it to you.

6)   Slowly Android got better and better, and in many ways it was better than iOS. Samsung, the major Android player, has released some nice phones. At the end of the day, though, I like the way iOS just makes sense. No instruction manual required. Simple.

7)   There are many phones from many manufacturers and from many service providers. Each one can modify Android to their own style, with proprietary software loaded on each phone. There are also many versions of Android, and each supplier releases the version tuned for their phones in their own time, if at all. As a result, Android has become fragmented. There are many phones still running older versions of Android, and these will never be upgraded.

8)   When you sweep away all the crap, this is the important thing. Apple makes beautiful phones that are easy to use. Android is getting easier and easier to use, and many phones that run it are very impressive. That's all that matters. The differences and advantages of one over another are only noticeable by a handful of people with no life. For the rest of us, it's a matter of personal choice.

9)   My personal choice is that I prefer Apple. In fact, I doubt that I can even turn an Android phone one, I certainly wouldn't know what to do with a Galaxy 5.

10)   I've always thought that the idea of bigger and bigger phones is pretty absurd. When Samsung released some of theirs, they looked plain silly. It's like slapping an iPad up the side of your head. Plain silly. I was always pleased that Apple resisted the urge to go big. In fact, I wasn't best pleased when they took the iPhone 5 to a longer form factor than my 4S.

11) I need to upgrade, but I will certainly not be getting the 6 Plus. It's silly. I have handled both, and neither feels wrong, but the 6 will do me.

Rhode Island

Our next tour is a bus ride to Rhode Island. It's only a little over an hour south of Boston, and rather nice. We toured a couple of the Newport Mansions

One is called the Marble House, because it's, well, marble.

Another one is called The Breakers.

 Sarah can't decide, but she certainly loves Newport. Don't be surprised if we come back here again.

The Definition of Love

How's this?

A colourblind guy, who is prone to motion-sickness, travels halfway around the world to accompany his wife on an 13-hour bus trip to look at the colour of leaves in the woods.

So thats our first tour in Boston. Driving through the countryside while middle-aged women ooh and aah about the reds and oranges of previously green leaves.

By the way, this is where I would insert some photos of brightly coloured leaves. But how would I know, right?

So. We are off, and I'm SOO looking forward to it.

Let me explain a little something about bus tour etiquette.
It's pretty simple, really. Find a seat and keep it!
This way, you can leave things on the bus, comfortable that it's safe till you get back to your seat.

Until this trip.

There were 3 women who wanted to sit together, and ended up at the back of the bus.
After our first stop, they were quick to get back on, and claimed 3 seats at the front.
When 2 'previous' occupants of these seats arrived, they were curtly told that seats are not assigned.
They shrugged and went to the back of the bus.

After a later stop, these 2 came onboard and reclaimed their original 2 seats. One of the 3 was seated in the next row, and said her friends had those seats.
"Seats are not assigned".

Karma is a bitch, sometimes.

To be fair, it is very beautiful country. I don't need to be able to name the colours to appreciate that.

This was one of our first stops:

We stopped for lunch at a lovely tavern

Despite my natural shortcomings, this was actually a good trip, and worth the drive. Again, beautiful country, whatever colour it is.

Boston

Back in Boston.

Back in the same hotel.

Rooms are a little tired, but history up the wazoo, and the location is excellent.

Just around the corner is a place called Faneuil Hall. I don't know how the locals pronounce it, but I call it Finial Hall. It is the central point of Quincy Market.

Last time we were here, it took us ages to find it. The map on my phone had it located somewhere else, so getting Sarah to trust my directions were a challenge. We were looking for it, because that's where we were to pick up a hop-on-hop-off trolley we had purchased.

Anyway, once we found it, we discovered that it is a cornucopia of goodies. Food stalls, restaurants, souvenir stalls, shoe shops. Everything you could possibly want. If you are a woman who likes shopping, lunch and shoes.


One restaurant here is a cheers bar. Not the 'original' one. That is down the road from our hotel, on Beacon Hill. It's actually called the Bull and Finch Pub, but is the one they copied for the tv show. Can't miss that one either. Branding everywhere, and the obligatory souvenir shop.

Anyway, there is a Cheers bar at Quincy Market. We did dinner here again this trip. Add that to the list.

Also, just beyond Quincy Market is the wharf. Aquarium, boat tours, whale watching, more souvenir stalls. Just a great place to hang around.

JFKBOS

We got picked up from our hotel eventually. He was running late, and still took an hour to get out of the city.

Luckily Sarah has a retentive desire to be early to any airport.

We travelled to Boston on Amrikan Airlines, from terminal 8 at JFK.
Nice terminal. Spacious. No great queues at TSA, and guess what? I am pre-TSA cleared, and Sarah isn't. Again.
When she goes through Sydney airport, almost every time she gets taken aside for a swab for the little machine. I've only been chosen once.

Persecution complex much?

The Russian Tearooms

The third item Sarah pre-bought for New York was lunch at The Russian Tearooms, a very posh restaurant next door to Carnegie Hall, up by Central Park.

Very nice. Very posh. Not very expensive. Well worth the time.
Sarah had couple of flash Russian dishes, and I had the kiev. Now, we've probably all had the kiev. Chicken breast, wrapped around garlic butter, then crumbed. Then frozen. You'll find it in the freezer section of most supermarkets. I wanted to see how it was supposed to taste.

Pretty good actually.



The first thing is that it is huge, at least twice the size of the supermarket model. Next, when the waiter presents it, he offers to make the first cut. I've never had anybody offer to cut my food yet, so why not, right?

He cuts it in half, and it bleeds all over the plate. The butter has melted, and if attacked carelessly, it could spray butter onto the unsuspecting.

The butter has just a hint of garlic, unlike the frozen ones in the supermarket, which hit you in the side of the head. There are other flavours which a philistine like me could not hope to identify. Sufficed to say that the chicken is very moist, and very nice.

Let's go Shopping

The next tour was a visit to the rich and famous of the Hamptons, followed by a couple of hours at an outlet store.

This time we had a young guy as guide. Israeli, I think. He also spoke German, and there was a girl there to speak Spanish, and a guy to speak Italian. All were needed for this trip. We had a mix of nationalities.
This was an early start. We needed to be at the depot at 0630. Once more, confusion reigned, but everybody got onto the right bus eventually.
There were a couple of Aussie women on the bus, across the aisle and in front of us. One I referred to as "Jodhpur woman", for the way she fitted into the seat. More accurately, for the way her thigh found open space between the seat and the armrest on her seat, endangering anybody walking past in the aisle.
This bus stopped at a Panera Bread store on Long Island for breakfast. Then off to peek over hedges and up driveways of the rich and famous, while the guide tried to figure out who owns this house, and who used to own that one.
We stopped at South Hampton for a wander around the posh shops, then to Sag Harbour (or harbour to the Amrikans) for lunch. The diner that was open (getting to the end of the season) was packed, but Sarah and I had got in pretty quickly, and were given a 4-seater table.

As soon as we sat, we noticed a queue of people from our bus waiting for tables. At the head of the queue was Jodhpur woman and her friend, so we invited them over to join us. We knew they at least spoke something resembling English.

Chatted with these two for a while. Nice enough. They are now Kath and Kim. Just because.

Stopped in at the Outlet stood for 2 hrs. Clearly not enough for many of the women.
The outlet is in two halves, and, even moving quickly, Sarah and I only just got through the first half.
Sarah bought a coat. I bought 2 pairs of braces. They call them suspenders here.
Oh well. Seems only fair.

Touring

We are doing tours this trip. Lots of.

In NYC, we have two. The first one is an 8-hr tour of the city.

We meet our co-travellers at the Grey Line office just outside Times Square. One of the reasons we chose Times Square for accommodation, I imagine.

Once again, Sarah could teach these people a thing or two about organisation. This is going to be a theme.
While waiting to be directed to our bus, there are a couple of women nearby who are, well, high maintenance. As we head to the bus, Sarah is dreading spending the day with them. Luckily, they were in a group of 6, and there were only 2 spots left on the bus. Just room for us. The group of 6 and those other unsuspecting souls behind us will be on the next bus, just over there.

Phew! Crisis averted.

So off we go around town, with an odd little man as tour guide. Russian, I think.

We head up north from Times Square to the upper west side. This is the area to the left of Central Park. Famous people live here. And die here. One of the most impressive buildings we saw is called the Dakota Building. This is where John Lennon lived.

We then took a walk through the park to a place called Strawberry Fields, a memorial to him. It is within sight of the Dakota.



There are some beautiful little nooks and hidden crannies in Central Park. We saw just a fraction.

We also saw Riverside Church in Harlam, one of the largest churches in New York. Sarah was surprised to hear that it is also a Baptist Church, because it is a really beautiful building.

Most Baptist churches are usually rather spartan buildings, with none of the pomp and ceremony of the wealthy churches.

The tour is a good way to get an overview. Not a hop-on-hop-off this time, but good none the less.

Had lunch at an Italian restaurant downtown, had a wander around the new buildings replacing the twin towers, a ride on a ferry to drive past the Statue of Liberty, and then a ride to the top of the Rockefeller Centre, to get a look at the city from a long way up.

The 911 monuments are quite remarkable.
First, there are two, sited in the exact locations previously occupied by the two towers.

Next, each is made up from the clever use of a series of waterfalls. The first four waterfalls complete the square footprint, and pour seamlessly over the infinity edge and into the pool below.

In the centre of the pool is a smaller set of four waterfalls, forming another square, allowing the water to tumble further.

This use of edgeless infinity waterfalls adds a sense of tranquility to the solemn location.
Having the name of each victim laser cut into a series of bronze parapets that enclose the waterfalls, completing the memorial with the required gravitas.

There is no avoiding the raw emotion of the structure.

There were a couple of times when we got fought in the New York traffic, so had to take alternate routes.

The worst was over by the UN building. The president is in town tomorrow, and the barricades are here to make sure that inconvenience is maximised.

Times Square

This is a fun part of New York.







Kinda like Fremont Street in 'Vegas, the tone really changes when the sun goes down.

And of course, my favourite Amrikan store...

If you do nothing else in Amrika, if you have no shopping plans, even if you have no kids...

Find an M&M store. Explore it. Find you inner child and let them loose for a while. Everything you could possibly imagine, M&M branded. Cool.

Across the road is the Sarah's favourite store....

Seriously, just entering those stores puts you in danger of going into a diabetic coma.

I love NYC

No. Really. Love it. LOVE it.

This time we decided to stay in Times Square. Good decision.

Sarah found a hotel that probably wasn't there last time.

I certainly hadn't heard of it.













It's called the Chatwel.

Very nice. Very Art Deco.

Nice bathrooms.















Anyway. A hotel is a hotel. Location is what matters.

This location rocks.

If you want to see a show, they are literally outside the door.
Over the road is a show called "Hedwig and the angry inch" Don't ask.
Just over there is Mamma Mia, next door is a new play with Blythe Danner, along the road is Les Miz.
And so it goes on. Theatre after theatre after theatre.

Want dinner? Diners everywhere. Bubba Gump down on the corner, Applebees around the corner, and obviously Starbucks on every corner.

SFO NYC

Flying from San Fran to JFK was uneventful. Ho hum.

This isn't Facebook, so I won't document every breath on the flight.

I will only say this.
United must use the guy that does the voice-overs for new movie previews, to do their recorded onboard Pas.

"Your Attention, ladies and Gentlemen."

What? Hello? Shit! Pardon?

"The captain has illuminated the seatbelt sign..."

Oh is that all? Jeez!

As you were.

Time to Fly

So that was San Fran. Just a flying visit.

Off to the airport to fly to NYC.

Just like many airports in Amrika, the 'kiosk' screen is on the public side of the check-in counter. Do your thing, ask the guy if you need any help, and then the bag tags print out on his side of the counter.

Don't want to pay for the extra bags with credit card, so offer cash. Clearly not the done thing.

As I have heard previously, the airlines encourage passengers to exchange their cash for a debit card at a machine over there, and the guy behind the counter offered to do it for us.

This is a great idea! Imagine if all airlines did the same thing. No cash to balance. No time wasted trying to balance anything. All automatic, all done. Nice.

He comes back, saying the machine is out of cards, so does something on his computer, and we are on our way.

We then have the fun task of getting through TSA. Security screening is such fun, don't you think?

Sarah is getting really pissy.

When you check in, up in the top left hand corner of the boarding pass is a messge that you have been TSA pre cleared. I know this because it is on my boarding pass. Every flight.

And guess what? Correct! It is NEVER on Sarah's boarding pass. Ever!

San Fran airport is quite nice on airside. To be honest, most airports are crappy landslide, and their only hope of redemption is airside. This one is good.

We find a food court, and free wifi.

Before this trip, I was having a debate (with myself) about the need for an Amrikan sim for my phone. On a previous visit, I bought an Amrican sim on trade me (the NZ version of E-bay) for about NZ$25. Seemed a good deal compared to the Amrikan price online.

When we got to Seattle, we went in to an AT&T store to activate it, and the guy laughed at me.
It seems that buying the data package I wanted, would have given me a free sim. Bugger.
To be honest, pretty much any package would get a free sim. Double bugger.

When I'm travelling, I am not a social animal, and don't use any talk time. I will also have bugger all texts, too. It's the data for me, thanks. Online. There is so much that I need to keep up with.
And, no, not the Twit. Nor the Book. Can't stand those things, won't have a bar of them.
No, I need to keep things like maps running, and of course, Uncle Google.

We need to know where shops are, and how to get there.

Anyway.

Things are now different. Wifi is now everywhere. And it's mostly free.

Sometimes a pain, but I can usually get online with my phone and/or laptop online, most places I need to. So on this trip, no local sim, and so far it hasn't bitten me on the bum.

Mour Tour

Set the day aside for a city and rock tour.

Picked up from the hotel at 09:30, and taken to the Grey Line tour office at Fisherman's Wharf to check-in. We were told that the Alcatraz tour would happen first, and the bus would take us over there  at 10:00.
Slightly disorganised, considering their demographic is non-english speaking and Amrikans. Sarah would whip them into shape pretty damn quickly.

So we make it on a bus to the actual wharf, and queue up to board the ferry.

It only takes about 12 minutes to get across.

I'm not sure what the sign graffiti on the wharf means, and I doubt Sarah felt relaxed by it.





What did appear to be very welcome on the island were the flies. The little buggers were everywhere.

Bastards.





As you enter, you need to queue up to get issued with a personal guide thingy. It's your standard issue digital player with headphones.

This is issued in quite a large room. We form a queue around the wall. Once upon a time, this room was the showers for the prison. The new entrants would get their first shower here. Cosy.

Notice the shower heads are set out from the central pillars, and are all facing down and in.
Down and in.
The lower rail at ,um, waist-level, has soap trays scattered along it, accessible from both sides. Efficient.

I'm guessing that's about enough on that subject. Yup. 'Nuf said.

It's an interesting tour. Worth doing.

One interesting tidbit, though.

The official consensus is that the prisoners who escaped and were not recaptured, perished in the waters. Tides, temperature, sharks. The Alcatraz trifecta.

The reality seems a little different.

There are many sharks in the bay, but they are all small, and not the slightest bit interested in people-sized meals. The impressive sharks usually don't come into the bay.

There has been an annual  public "Sharkfest Swim" from Alcatraz to the mainland since 1993.
In 2006, a 7-year-old boy did the swim in 47 minutes.

Alrighty then.

If you're going to San Francisco

You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there

Yeah Yeah whatever.

Seriously, it's a lovely place.

Starts with a nice new terminal.

Staying in the middle of town, and took the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. This is an experience definitely worth doing. Here's a hint for new players: The cable car costs USD6 per person per sector. Our journey will take us across California Street from our hotel, to the corner of Powell, where we catch the car down to the wharf. That adds up to $12 per person each way, $24 each person return.



The waiter at breakfast suggested we buy the Muni card from the hotel concierge at $15 per person, for unlimited Municipal transport travel all day. Apparently, you can also buy them from Walgreens.
The one we got is like a scratchy. Scratch off the month and the date, and you must use it on the scratched day. No mistakes, no mulligans.

Apparently, these are the only cable cars of this type left in the world. Under the street, a cable runs the length of the track, constantly moving. The car driver manipulates levers to grip the moving cables. It is the skill of the driver, that allows the car to stop and start, go up and down very steep hills in perfect safety. Clever design. Clever drivers.

We spent the day at Fisherman's Wharf, and it is so much different to last time we were here about 12 years ago. 

Pier 39 is great. Again, much more to see and do than last time.

Couldn't get in to Bubba Gumps, so went to another seafood restaurant. We both had chowder. It's probably the only way that I can eat the critters Sarah devours.

Some people are vegetarians.

Some are fruitarians.

I must be an invisibilitarian. I won't eat anything that still resembles how it looked when it was alive. It must be completely disguised from its original form, otherwise I won't go near it.

I wonder how many of us there are, all hiding from our true selves. All avoiding looking our food in the eye. How many will eat a fish curry with the eyeballs staring up at you.

Blech!!

Also had a meal at Applebees.

We seem to have a mission to tick off all of the family restaurant chains in Amrika.

We've done Denny's, Olive Garden, Cheesecake Factory, Applebees, Bubba Gump, P K Chang's, The Old Spaghetti Factory so far.

Working through the list.

The great thing about many of these chains, is that they have free refills for the common drinks. Coffee, Lemonade, Coke. It's not a reason to go there, but it's a nice bonus, especially if you insist on spoiling your holiday by taking children with you. 

Especially in a hot climate, when they fill the glasses with ice. 

Mmmm. Refreshing.

Getting back to the hotel was more challenging than it needed to be. We intentionally wandered the piers with the intention of working our way back towards the cable car stop. This is next to a nouveau trendy complex called The Cannery. Sarah was looking for a large yellow bird.

Needless to say, this big brick monstrosity was built in 1907 to be a commercial peach-canning plant. After being converted into warehouses in 1937, and then abandoned in the 60's, the building was purchased in 1963 to be refurbished. It was fitted out for a series of shops and restaurants.

There is also a hotel, The Argonaut, in the building next door. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was all the same building, as they were both built at the same time.

Anyway, we rock up to the cable car stop. This is actually the end of the line for these cars. There is a little turntable next to where we queue to board, and it's entertaining to watch the guys manhandle a car onto the turntable, and push it around to face up the hill. We had time to watch this happen a couple of time. Boy did we have time!


Pretty simple process, right? Queue up, load up, off we go. Not so much.


We wait. We wait. We wait some more. Eventually they let some people get on the car that has been sitting ready for quite some time now.

Then it's full. We have moved up  a ways now, surely we will be boarding the next one soon. Yeah right!

But it's not quite full. Got a couple of spaces over here, standing on the step.
Does Sarah want to stand on the side? What do you think?

So we wait while some people come from further back in the queue.

Waiting. A couple more spots over here. Standing only, come on through.

Then it leaves. Half of the people cheer. The other half are obviously used to this nonsense.

Then we wait. After another eternity (can you get two eternities? Back to back? Doesn't that just become a bigger eternity? Do eternities come in sizes? European sizes or US? I guess these must be US eternities, so a size 6 eternity then), our car is pushed down, spun around and brought into loading position.

You guessed it, another wait. These guys are clearly in no hurry. The only reasonable explanation is that they are working to a timetable. One every half hour, perhaps. Maybe the mechanism has a limit of how many can be hanging off the cable. If Sarah was running the boarding process, she would have them in and out in a flash. Four minutes apart. Bang, bang, bang. Imagine all the cars on the one line, scattered about 10m apart, all the way up the hill. Yikes!

So we got onto our car, sitting inside, just like Sarah wanted.
Then the seats filled up.
Then the aisle filled up.
Ready? Not yet.

"OK, everybody in the aisle, stand on this side of the aisle and turn to face the window. Now you people, move up beside them, facing the other windows."

Sardines, much?

Maybe these guys worked in the cannery in a previous life. Or maybe they're on commision. Or maybe just a sweepstake.

Whatever the reason, I was stuck, unable to turn and look at the views. Well, that's not strictly true. There were a couple of guys planted in my face. They got the view outside the window over my shoulder, I got their... um ... belt buckles. Nice.

Note to new entrants: Despite the inherent danger (or perhaps because of it), the outside pole position is really the best place to be. But, having been on a less sardiney ride down the hill, I support the suggestions of the operators. Wear your backpack on the front, and as you pass another cable car going the other way, Suck it in, Princess! They get pretty close.

Hawaiian Airlines

We had a nice flight from HNL to SFO. An Airbus A330.

Domestically, Hawaiian charge for each bag, which is a little different from their international allowance. Never mind. Same as pretty much all other airlines.

The check-in was probably no more organised than those back in NZ.

All kiosk. A couple of guys hovering around that can't answer more than the simplest questions.

Any hard questions, or to pay for you bags with cash, join that ticketing queue.
















A couple of funny things onboard.

First, the business class (they call it first over here), is just in front of economy, and there is nothing but a mesh curtain to separate the two zones.













Next, I was watching the cleaners out the window.
They had come back in from an aircraft, and needed to dump the rubbish.
They drove their truck up to a dumpster. Somebody flicked open the dumpster lid, and the girls tossed the bags straight off the truck into the dumpster. Very efficient.







What isn't the same as other airlines, is that they are probably the only Amrikan airline to give meals to everybody. EVERYBODY.  Even us back in cattle class. And very nice, it was, too.
Also, free TV and a bunch of movies. What they don't tell you is that you need to bring your own headphones, if you don't want to buy some onboard. So remember to take with.

Aloha Hawai'i

We have moved on to San Francisco.

But I have to say, we really enjoyed Hawaii. Like I have said earlier, it's like a holiday in Asia, but with more Japanese. It's great! We will definitely be back, more than once.
The hotel was in a perfect location. Waikiki is a perfect location.
Beautiful place. Have I mentioned that?

Touristy Stuff

We did a bit of touristy stuff as well.

As mentioned, we have been big fans of the hop-on-hop-off buses since discovering them in Dubai.

Too often, you come back from somewhere and a friend says "Oh, did you go to ...?" No.
"Did you see ...?" No
"How about ..." No
"Did you leave your hotel room?" Not really.

We did a tour around most of Honolulu, saw some familiar spots from both Five-0 series, and stopped at a couple of Malls.
We also did a tour along the coast. Nice views.

It really is a beautiful place, with beautiful views.
Even at night.

This was from the beach outside our hotel.
We stayed at the Outrigger Reef in Waikiki. From the restaurant at the back of the hotel you literally step onto the beach.

You'll be pleased to know I decided not to pop into my Speedos and sit on the beach.
We don't need those guys from Greenpeace throwing buckets of water on me and trying to roll me into the waves.

As you can see, there is a funky fan system on the ceiling, one driving the next, driving the next. Kinda cool.

The Cheesecake Factory

Sarah has a dirty little secret.

One of the reasons she chose a hotel in the Waikiki area, was because there is a Cheesecake Factory here. Ever since watching Big Bang Theory, she has been interested in trying it.

We went to a Cheesecake Factory in Vegas, but the meals are so substantial that there was no room for desert.
What's the point of eating at The Cheesecake Factory if you don't get to try the cheesecake, right?

So here we are in Honolulu, and here we are, going to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.

In Vegas, the place was full. There was even a small queue outside.

If you were walking past The Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was the only restaurant serving food in the area. There is always a massive queue down the sidewalk, any time of the day.

We decided to brave the queue last night, and made our way to the front. We were told the wait would be 1 hour for a table for 2. We said sure, it's worth the wait.
They gave us a numbered voucher, and told us to come back in 30 minutes to pick up a buzzer, one of those things that flash when your table is ready.

We asked if we could wait at the bar. Sure. Luckily there were a couple of stools at the end of the bar.

So we sat down and ordered a drink, to while away the hour.

Others at the bar had napkins and cutlery, so we asked the obvious question.

"Sure, you can eat here, what would you like?"

We had a couple of light meals, so there was room to share a slice of lemon meringue cheesecake.

Needless to say, it was very nice.

We left the restaurant exactly one hour after we were told the wait would be an hour.

Score.

My advice? Find the bar.

Pearl Harbour

The odd thing about Hawaii, is that it is a very Japanese place. They are everywhere. As we all know,  there were a good number of Japanese living in Hawaii long before Pearl Harbour.
As some of us know, those from Japanese heritage were interned in camps after the attack, both here and on the mainland. Even those born here, still Japanese, still locked up. Trust issues much? Bugger.

Anyway, there are Japanese everywhere today. This is clearly a major tourist destination for them. I would actually go so far sat to call it the Tokyo of the Tropics. It's like having a holiday in Asia, but with US dollars. I enjoy holidays in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, so it's all good.

There are tour buses and trolley buses everywhere. Everywhere! And at least a third of them are on private charter to Japanese groups. So despite a shaky history on the trust front, the Japanese are obviously happy to be here. A lot!

One of the bus companies dedicated to the Japanese tours have a really cool looking fleet of buses.

Have a look at the whale tail coming out of the roof at the back.

Very cool, huh?

But wait!

Japanese?

Whales?

But don't they...?

I wonder what the tourist call this vehicle...
Sushi-bus?


And then I started to wonder how these guys dress when they go out on a whale-watching cruise.

Sorry. Too easy.











But seriously.

We took a tour of the USS Arizona at Pearl
Harbour today. Interesting place, and a strange balance of emotions there too.

After a 30 minute documentary in a theatre at the visitor centre, we all hop on a boat  and cross over to the memorial next to Ford Island.






The memorial is a strange building, draped across the sunken ship like a solemn and gentle restraint, pinning it delicately to the bottom of the bay.









The reason I mentioned the Japanese is this...

The attack at Pearl Harbour was a defining moment for both WW2, and for America itself. As a result, there has been a distinct anti-Japanese sentiment in the USA  from those who lived through the war.

You would expect that sentiment to not only have persevered, but to be at fever pitch in Hawaii. After all, right on this spot was the first time when the US was not only publically caught with it's pants down, but also bent spread-eagled across the table.

And yet the whole time we were at Pearl, there was not a hint of racism, hatred, or even blame.

In fact, there were a number of Japanese tourists on the tours around us. Nobody made them feel anything but welcome.

Perhaps it's somehow cathartic, probably for all.

Good to see.

Daisy Duke

How many remember the Dukes of Hazzard? More specifically, how many remember Daisy Duke, played in the tv show by Catherine Bach?

Now for the really tricky one. Who remembers her shorts? I know, right?

They were the fashion for far too short a time (no pun intended). I guess there weren't enough legs around that could carry them. Certainly not where I grew up. 

Unfortunately, that era was replaced in popularity by what I call the "if it fits me it suits me" era. What everybody else calls Lycra. Stretch jeans, stretch tights, stretch everything. Yuck, yuck, yuck!

The guys at DuPont must be spinning in their graves. 

Anyway. 

Did anybody wonder where all those tiny shorts went to die? And those cut-off, frayed jeans as well?

I have the answer, people. 

Honolulu. 

They're everywhere, and it's AWESOME!!!!!!