Our American Odyssey

Homeward bound with some R&R in Tahiti

2009-05-15T12:32:00.000+10:00

Our American Odyssey is effectively over. We have departed American shores for the last time and are now on our way home ... except that we are currently enjoying a 3-day R&R stopover in Tahiti enroute to Sydney. In fact, as I compose this, I'm sitting in the spa on the balcony of our hotel looking at the resort's infinity pool (which Janet is currently floating around in) and the sea beyond ... what a life!

I had planned to see a bit more of Tahiti and the neighbouring island of Moorea while we were here, but it has been all too hard ... I think we needed this time to just chill out.

In any case, I'm not sure, if first impressions count for much, that Tahiti offers anything much different to what we saw in the Caribbean and indeed, to what we have seen and experienced in Fiji and Vanuatu ... and everything here comes at a high price too, like $45pp for the breakfast buffet (and a fairly ordinary one at that) here at the hotel; or $6.60 for a 1.25l bottle of Coke at a convenience store; or $21 in a supermarket for their cheapest bottle of wine. French Polynesia is certainly not a value holiday destination!

Inevitably, all good things, including holidays, must come to an end and after eight weeks, ours comes to a real crunching end tomorrow (Saturday) morning ... at 4am no less, when we get in a taxi to head to the airport. On the positive side though, we are really looking forward to seeing Jorja and and 3-month old Summer(she was only 5 weeks old when we left) and, of course, everyone else when we arrive back in Sydney on Sunday afternoon.

Venice Beach

2009-05-15T12:26:00.000+10:00

Wandering along the Venice Beach boardwalk will be one of the enduring memories of our holiday. I would love to have been there on a weekend when the crowd is at a maximum, but even on a Monday, the eclectic mix of cultures that this particular beachfront area attracts is amazing.

Surfers, skaters, bike riders, hippies, musos, artists, exercise freaks (basketball courts, paddle tennis courts and an outdoor gym are just an integral part of the Venice Beach streetscape), blacks, whites, yuppies and even the homeless all happily coexist and thrive along this 1 - 2 km stretch of what is a much longer and an otherwise fairly ordinary beach.

Adding to the mix were the hundreds of shops (and NOT your boutique chain variety, I might add) and market stalls that line the street, and the amazing murals and street art that adorn many of the buildings.

Never have I seen such laid back vendors (except for those trying to flog you a CD of their music) ... it was as if they are there just for the lifestyle and that their mind-set is one of “if I can make a few bucks on the side selling my art or playing music, then cool”. It was great not being badgered whenever I stopped to browse or listen for a few moments while waiting for Janet, so much so that I even enjoyed the “shopping experience”!

I don't think anyone could leave Venice without a good feeling ... it is a place I think that offers something for everyone who visits it ... and for some (Gaz, I'm thinking of you here ... indeed, I thought of you all the time we were there), it is perhaps nirvana.

Our day in Venice,which ended with a really nice dinner in The Cheesecake Factory (a restaurant chain we had discovered while in Waikiki a couple of years back) overlooking the beach next door to our hotel, was a fitting finale to our American odyssey. I think it captured, in just one day, much of what we had discovered and experienced about America and Americans over the previous seven weeks ... can't ask for more than that!!

Around the Caribbean

2009-05-10T07:21:00.000+10:00

At last, a chance to quickly update people on where we are ... at this moment, we are sitting (well I am sitting, Janet is still sound asleep as all sensible people are at 5am) in San Juan harbour waiting to disembark the Carnival Victory after our week cruising the Caribbean. It has been a very busy week ... each day a new island or city/town to check out and explore. The absence of sea days on this cruise has meant however that there has been little rest time (and therefore no time to write a blog or even transfer pictures from the cameras to the laptop) ... it's been good though, even if it feels like we have been staying in a mobile hotel rather than enjoying a week-long cruise.

Our jaunt around the Caribbean has taken us to an amazing diversity of islands ... some with British heritage/links, some with French, some with Spanish and even one with Danish. It's seems that after Christopher Columbus stumbled across the Caribbean back in 1492, a race began amongst the early European explorers to plant their flag on an island (maybe any island) and claim it for their country! First in got the spoils ... unless, of course, somebody else (other countries or pirates) tried to take it from you! And they did ... I think it was St Lucia, for example, that changed hands 14 times during the 16th century ... 7 times by the British and 7 times by the French. The irony is that while Europeans colonised the islands (and pretty much wiping out the native population of the islands in the process), their physical presence there has pretty much disappeared ... today they are mostly populated by descendants of the African slaves who were brought to the islands by the European colonists.

We boarded the Victory in San Juan last Sunday after staying overnight in a waterfront hotel in the Old City (we were lucky enough to get upgraded to a suite that had a wonderful view of the harbour and cruise ship pier into the bargain). San Juan is part of the US these days but it was hard to see evidence of America there, other than the usual collection of fast food outlets (which you find everywhere in the world anyway) and posters of Obama. The city still has a very strong Spanish feel and indeed, Spanish is the language used everywhere. We had a great time wandering around the cobbled laneways of Old San Juan ... many of the 300-400 year old buildings there have been restored to their former glory. It was interesting comparing Old San Juan to the largely unrestored old city area of Acapulco and the “yuppified” restoration of Cartagena's old city.

St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands was our first port of call. Some amazing views and beaches here so we decided to do an island tour ... unfortunately, unseasonally heavy rain meant we couldn't see as much as we would have liked so we bought a few postcards to remind us of what we didn't see.

We spent the next day in Dominica (not to be confused with the similarly named Dominican Republic, also in the Caribbean) which is described as the nature island of the Caribbean. Lots of tropical rainforests, waterfalls, etc here but rather than doing a tour of areas that looked very similar to North Queensland, we instead had a pleasant day wandering around the capital of Roseau taking in the local sights.

Next stop was Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados and this provided us with our first taste of a Caribbean beach. We rented a beach umbrella and a couple of beach lounges and enjoyed a few rum punches (included in the price) on the beach in between dips in the beautiful blue sea. Janet says it was the day she had expected to have every day in the Caribbean!

Next day was the very pretty island of St Lucia, where we enjoyed a full-day tour of the island, albeit in the rain. It was just us and a guide and a driver, who happened to be the owner of the tour company, so was quite an exclusive tour. We did lots of things including driving into into a drive-in volcano crater which was steaming (like in Rotorua) and having a dip in a warm mud bath, and enjoyed a typical Creole lunch in a restaurant with an amazing view.

Antigua, an island that boasts having a different beach for every day of the year, was our next stop so this meant another lovely beach day, but not before we spent a couple of hours wandering around the town of St John. We even found and wandered through Antigua's cricket arena, pretending to watch Viv Richards face up to Andy Roberts on their home ground.

Our final port yesterday was Bassitiere on the island of St Kitts. Here we enjoyed a scenic train ride around the island, then spent a couple of hours wandering around enjoying the town ... it was a good to watch all the locals doing their Saturday morning shopping and to finally see some examples of colonial architecture. Everywhere else we had been, there were just remnants remaining of the former colonial days so it was great to see the style of buildings put up by the English and French here.

I may add some more to this post later, but time now to disembark and head for the airport for a very long flight to LA via Miami. The trip is almost over ... we are homeward bound even though it will take a week to get back to Sydney.

By the way, I think we might be getting swine flu ... if starting to eat like a pig is a symptom. The food here on Carnival Victory was plentiful, like it is on all cruise ships, but it came in larger quantities than we are used to. Just as well we have been doing lots of walking in our ports of call ... although Janet would say too much walking!

A "quiet" week in Florida

2009-04-30T19:00:00.028+10:00

Putting a camera in Janet's hands is dangerous ... she just clicks way with gay abandon. If she sees something interesting, she just goes click, click, click ... no setting up shots for Janet; she takes 3 or 4 or even 6 shots, figuring that at least one will turn out OK. Surprisingly, since most of the shots she has taken here in Florida have been from a speeding airboat or a car doing 65mph along the freeway, a hell of a lot of them have turned out well! Maybe there is something to her approach to photography ... the downside, however, is that it leaves me with so many photos to sort through and decide on the "keepers".

This was supposed to be a "lay around the resort" week, but has turned out to be just as hectic as every other week of our trip. So far, we have:

hunted for alligators on an airboat in the Everglades (really good fun, even if we got sprayed with mud and hit in the face by sawgrass as we motored along ... the downside of sitting up front on the side of the boat);
trawled South Beach in Miami (full of beautifully restored art deco buildings);
driven the Florida Keys (over 100 islands stretching over 200km and linked by 62 bridges, the longest 7 miles long and highly featured in Arnie Schwarzenegger's "True Lies");
water taxied up and down Fort Lauderdale's waterways (the locals are very proud that their "Venice of America" has more miles of canals than Venice does ... by the way, Ian, their water is far cleaner too); and
browsed through innumerable shops (Janet must be nearly shopped out now ... I wish!)

Here's a few photos recording a really good week. Firstly of us whizzing through the Everglades over just a few centimetres of water and sometimes over mud. Also, our first (and only) sighting of an alligator ... not a great view but at least this gator was more active than the crocs in Costa Rica and indeed North Queensland.

A couple of shots of the art deco street streetscape in SoBo, as it is called by locals ...

Here's just a couple from our drive through the Florida Keys ... the first was taken as we drove over one of the many bridges separating the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico and the second is one I took from the southern end of the Seven Mile Bridge looking back between the bridge and the old railway bridge (now a very long fishing pier) towards the island on the other side.

I think what grabbed our attention the most during the drive was how blue and how clear the water was ... I took this otherwise boring photo of the water hoping it would show the colour of the water, and it pretty well has ...

The freeways here make ours at home look like back streets ... this one had 6 lanes each way most of the way and more at some points. The freeway interchanges here, and particularly the stacked ones (that the locals fittingly call "spaghetti bowls") are huge too, even bigger than those we saw in the freeway capital of the world, LA ... I wanted to take a photo of one but it was impossible to take one at ground level that would capture its enormity.

And then there's the Port Lauderdale waterways and canals ... miles and miles of multi-million dollar houses and multi-million dollar boats ... it all got a bit boring after a while! Here is just part the largest home (owned by the founder of Wendy's burger chain, who also built one around the corner for his daughter, Wendy) and one of his yachts (a smaller one is docked in front of this one, and he also has a bigger one that won't fit in the canal). There are still opportunities to get a cheapie here though ... ... the "project" on the right is on the market now for just $5 million or so ...

As you can see, Janet was enthralled by all the opening bridges we passed under (here there is a road bridge in the foreground and a rail bridge behind), but she did spy a bar/restaurant that had a name she thought Jorja would like, if only she could read ...

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Our time here is now almost ended ... on Saturday, we fly to San Juan, Peurto Rico, for a quick look-see before embarking on our Carnival Victory cruise on Sunday night. Watch for my next post from somewhere in the Caribbean.

A quick reflection on our cruise

2009-04-25T16:02:00.021+10:00

Now that our cruise is coming to end, here are a few stand-out moments and the highlights of our past two weeks on Infinity and in our ports of call ... and a few photos as well, since I still have lots of minutes left on my internet package to use before we dock tomorrow morning

Cabo San Lucas ... for Janet, the stand-out moment was me offering to buy a ring she was longingly looking at in one of the many diamond/jewellery stores. The highlight of our stay of course was getting the ring. For me, the best thing about Cabo was leaving ... and with a lighter wallet to boot! Here's a typical street shot to show why "loved" Cabo.

Acapulco ... Janet says her stand-out memory would have to be of the cliff divers but she will long remember trying to buy Jorja an outfit in a store in the old town where no one spoke English and only pesos (which we didn't have) were accepted. For me, the highlight was the vibrancy of the Old Town ... but I also won't forget seeing so many VW bugs in just one place, and mostly being used as taxis. Just as well there were only 2 of us catching a taxi to the cliff divers!

Next stop was Huatulco ... Janet's most memorable moment (but hardly a highlight of her day) was “the sight and smell of stinking meat on the counter uncovered in an open air butcher”. She says her other standout memory is of having to hang on for dear life in a taxi going from the port to La Crucecita. My lasting memory, on the other hand, is of having a few cold beers sitting on the beach in a comfy beach chair under a big umbrella, while Janet had her beach “fix”.

In Puntarenas, nothing really stands out for either of us, although we both enjoyed our short Costa Rica experience, and it was ironic that we saw more crocodiles here than we did in North Queensland. What I probably will remember most is not Costa Rica itself, but rather the view of how the other half lives on the very upmarket The World. Janet says, on reflection, that she will probably most remember the heat ... so hot in fact that she did half the flea market at the pier/beach before heading back on board for a swim! It was even too hot to sit on the beach and have a beer, like in Huatulco!

Our Panama Canal higlight ... for Janet, it was the surprise of enjoying the entire transit, not just the first lock. For me, the Canal itself was the highlight of the day and of the entire cruise! Here's just one of several hundred photos we took.

Cartagena ... for me, the colour and vibrancy of the Old Town stands out. Janet agrees wholeheartedly. She also has a Colombian emerald to remind her of her day here, but it was at the expense of time to browse in other stores!

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Of our time on Infinity, the best thing for me was having sea days in between port days and port days in bbetween sea days ... an ideal mix of land and sea. Janet will remember the huge balcony we had on our aft stateroom, as this is where she spent much of her days at sea. Janet will also remember the prices she had to pay for “maintenance” in the AquaSpa.

The high point for both of us was our 35th anniversary dinner in the SS United States restaurant.

A truly memorable dining experience, as good as one gets in the best restaurants in Sydney or Melbourne and at a fraction of the price!

Janet says the low point of the cruise is tomorrow morning!

Cartagena ... a city of riches

2009-04-25T15:58:00.000+10:00

The city of Cartagena in Columbia was a complete surprise. I knew it was an old Spanish stronghold during the 16th and 17th centuries, and the place where the treasures they had “appropriated from the locals during their “explorations” of South and Central America were held prior to them being shipped backed to Spain. I knew that many of the fortifications they had built to successfully protect the city from marauding pirates were still in place. I knew that the city had a strong Spanish heritage and culture. And I expected to get a taste of all this during our day in Cartagena.

What I didn't expect and was therefore surprised to see was such a modern metropolis (complete with lots of high-rise offices and condos) and at the same time, an “old city” that has been restored to (and perhaps better than) its former glory days ... it was a delight to wander around the streets and take in a streetscape that has been so beautifully restored ... clearly there is a lot of new money in Cartagena.

Unlike other cities that we explored on our own, here we undertook a guided tour with 3 other couples that were sailing with us and who we had met online (through a cruising forum, CruiseCritic) prior to the cruise. What a diverse group we were ... two Aussies, four Texans, one Swiss (not sure what a person from Switzerland is called ... Swissman or Swissegian maybe ... nah!), and one Chinaman (woman actually), led by a Colombian called Billy. We all had a great day exploring the old city, the Fortress of San Filipe (the biggest of five built by the Spanish in Cartagena to protect their treasures, and one of the biggest they built in the new world) and LaPopa monastery (which also has the best views) and afterwards sampling the local cuisine for lunch ... thank goodness we had an air conditioned mini bus to return to though, as the heat and humidity in Cartagena is quite draining. Thanks Kenny for organising such a great day.

Reflecting back on the very diverse group of cities/towns we have seen on this cruise itinerary, I have to say that Cartagena was my favourite and the one I would most like to have stayed in for a few days more. It seemingly has so much more to offer from an economic, cultural and scenic perspective than a tourism focussed city like Acapulco has, and I leave feeling as though I have only just scratched the surface.

Our cruise is now almost at an end ... we are currently sailing along the northern shores of Cuba and arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tomorrow morning. We've really enjoyed this cruise ... a perfect mix of sea days and port days on a ship that is as good as we have been on.

Now for the next phase of our American Odyssey ...

Panama Canal - a wonder of the modern world

2009-04-22T11:16:00.000+10:00

Normally on a cruise, the only people on deck around dawn are insomniacs, inveterate walkers/joggers intent on doing their laps before breakfast, and people like me, whose body clock refuses to recognise the difference between a work day and one of leisure (even after a month). This ship is no different. But not so today! By 6:30am, hundreds of people had already breakfasted and found themselves a prime viewing position at the bow of the ship for what promised to be the highlight of their cruise ... going through the Panama Canal.

Did the day deliver? For us, it certainly did ... surprisingly, just as much for Janet as for me! It was an awesome day that exceeded my high expectations, and was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Over the course of the day, I think we probably took 500 photos from every vantage point available on the ship (even from the helipad at the very front of the ship that is normally a no-go zone) but these cannot really capture the enormity of what we saw. The Canal has been described as an engineering marvel and as one of the wonders of the modern world. I'll leave such judgements to others more qualified than me but, from all we saw, I'm certainly not going to question the enormity of what was achieved a 100 years ago without the benefit of modern technology. Suffice to say that the expansion program currently being undertaken to increase the Canal's capacity will take 7 years to complete, almost as long as it originally took to gouge out the Canal, build the then world's largest dam, and to build the locks to raise ships 85 feet above seal level.

It's now the morning after and we are in the Atlantic Ocean, currently steaming at an incredible four knots towards Cartagena in Columbia. I guess the ship is just dawdling along because we're already about half-way from Panama to Cartagena and not due there for another 24 hours ... either that or we've broken down! Infinity's sister ship Millennium did just that on an Australia/New Zealand cruise last month and had to limp back to Sydney where it spent a couple of weeks in dry dock getting repaired, so we hope it is a very leisurely sea day and not history repeating itself.

That reminds me ... everything seems to happen in slow motion during the 50 mile Canal transit. It takes at least 8 hours to get right through (and a couple of hours more for us as we had to anchor in the lake for a time to let off passengers going on a shore excursion) but it is in the locks that things happen very slowly ... it seems to take forever for each chamber to fill/empty with water to raise or lower the ship (and to be then towed through to the next chamber by a set of “mules”), but considering that nearly 200 megalitres goes into and out of each lockage during a transit, the process is actually quite speedy. By the way, for a ship our size, there is not a lot of room left in each chamber once we get in ... we had less than a half metre on both sides and not much more in front and behind ... and the tug boats and mules had to do some very precise manoeuvring in order to get us in.

A bit of interesting trivia ... it's not cheap to make a transit. The price charged by the Panama Canal Authority depends on the load carrying capacity of the vessel going through ... our ship had to pay about $281,000 (that's nearly $150 per passenger), and the fully laden container ship that went through the Gatun Lock before us paid just over $300,000. The highest toll paid to date was about $350,000, by the Norwegian Pearl just recently, and the lowest ever collected was from some foolhardy person who swam the length of the Canal in 1928; he paid just 36 cents ... we were told his load carrying capacity was deemed to be negligible as he was a fairly small guy!

Incidentally, we were also told that the Canal is running at almost full capacity, hence the need for the expansion program ... a new set of locks on both sides. I was therefore surprised at how little traffic there was going through the Canal yesterday ... there was nobody behind us, for example, during our 2 hour descent through the Gatun locks (although there were two small ships going through the adjacent lock at the same time) ... maybe it was slow day! But surprisingly, there were lots of ships anchored and waiting their turn to go through on both sides of the Canal and in the Gatun Lake ... hard to figure out the Canal Authority's operational logistics.

Another bit of trivia ... as strange as it sounds, we travelled west to go east from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. The Canal goes in roughly a north-south direction and the Pacific side is actually further east than the Atlantic side ... we were therefore roughly on a north-west bearing going through the Canal. It was weird yesterday morning seeing the sun rise yesterday morning from our balcony at the aft of the ship when logic said we are travelling east and that the sun should rise over the bow.

If it's Sunday it must be Costa Rica

2009-04-20T15:45:00.001+10:00

One day just keeps rolling into the next ... I keep having to check the daily program to find out what day its is! Today (Monday) is another sea day today after a 12 hour stay in Costa Rica yesterday.

Puntarenas, where we docked, is primarily a fishing port on Costa Rica's west coast but on a Sunday, it is also very much the place where families from the country's capital and major city, San Jose, come for a day at the beach. Lots of both market stalls (not sure whether they are there every Sunday or only on days when a ship is visiting, but the locals were certainly wandering along shopping at them) and bars/restaurants (they are definitely there for the locals) line the promenade along the beach, and the locals all seemed to be having a ball ... and certainly moreso than those cruise passengers who were suffering from the heat (mid-30's) and high humidity ... but still had to have their shopping fix!

From my research I had figured that there wasn't much of appeal in Puntarenas itself (and there wasn't, particularly on a Sunday), so we took a coach, train and boat tour of the region's countryside and saw some of its dry rainforests and wildlife (including more crocodiles than we saw in the Daintree in North Queensland a few years back). While I'm not a fan of organised tours, this one was pretty good and we had a good guide who was able to provide some interesting insights into Costa Rica and its people. Unlike most Latin American country it enjoys a very stable government that has been able to set up good education and health systems.

An unexpected bonus to our visit - docked across the jetty from us was The World, the world's first condominium resort ship (you buy an apartment on the ship and can use it whenever you want during its meanderings around the world). The birds-eye view we had of the ship's facilities could only make us envy the upmarket style of living that some people enjoy!

We are now heading towards the Panama Canal and are due to arrive there at 6am tomorrow morning. What is different today from every other sea day we have ever had is the number of ships we are seeing ... every time I have looked out the port or starboard side of our ship, I have seen other ships ... it seems that all “roads” here lead to and from the Canal. We've been told traffic jams are common during the transit (meaning we will be anchored for at least a couple of hours waiting our turn to go through the biggest lock, on the Atlantic side)... if today is indicative of likely traffic conditions, I won't be surprised.

Done with Mexico ... now for Central America

2009-04-18T17:00:00.000+10:00

As I write this, it's Saturday morning (I think) here on board Infinity and we are enroute to Costa Rica, having left Mexico behind us. Each of the four places we've been to in Mexico (Tijuana, Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco and Huatulco) has been very different but each, in their own way, leaves us with some lasting and good memories of the experience.

Acapulco is a city of about 1 million residents and is known, even in Australia, as a major tourist destination. Even so, I was struck by the number of high rise hotels lining the beachfront (and it is a very long beachfront) as we sailed into Acapulco Bay ... it actually reminded me of Waikiki. We therefore didn't hold out much hope of finding Mexico here but to our very great surprise, we did ... in the Old Town.

For hours, we wandered around an area of the city that is many hundreds of years old, is poor, shabby (some parts looked like nothing had been spent on maintenance over those hundreds of years) and even dirty ... but it was alive and buzzing with local residents going about their normal lives ... shopping, banking, socialising, etc. Once we got away from the Zocalo (the town square that also houses an awesome 800 year old Cathedral), we saw few tourists and even fewer English-speaking Mexicans (so this made for some very interesting exchanges when Janet spied something in a shop that interested her ... but commerce has its own language in such situations, and buyer and seller were therefore able to come to an amicable agreement) but we never felt unsafe or out of our comfort zone. Naturally, we detoured from our exploration of Old Town to see the famous cliff divers of La Quebrada ... it's just one of those things you have to do when you come to Acapulco. It's quite a spectacular sight although probably less dangerous than it appears ... all the same, you won't ever catch me jumping off a 50 metre cliff into the sea!

By comparison to the the very old and urbanised Acapulco, Huatulco (pronounced war-toolco), is just a baby ... it is a "new" eco-tourist area on Mexico's south eastern coast and is only 20 years old. We spent yesterday morning wandering around Huatulco's main town (that's exaggerating, it's really only a village) of La Crucecita, and got a similar buzz to what we experienced in Acapulco, albeit in a more village environment. Even so, it still had a big ornate Catholic church that sort of shows how seriously they take their religion here in Mexico. Some of the sights around town were, to say the least, interesting - like the butcher shop that had its meat displayed on the front counter ... no display refrigerators here. Janet was strangely reticent about choosing a meat dish when we later went to a local cafe to try some regional Oaxacan food!

We went to one of Huatulco's beaches (actually one that was literally next to where we docked, so the water got deep very quickly) in the afternoon, and can now therefore boast that we have swum on both sides of the Pacific. We actually spent more time though sitting at a table under an umbrella on the sand enjoying a few drinks ... that was the price for sitting under an umbrella instead of on the sand, but it was cheap (half the prices we pay on board). If we had wanted, we could have also bought food (cooked) or souvenirs while sitting there from one of the many sellers that wander along the beach hawking their wares. I suspect that this beach experience will not be our last ... I think that is typical of most Caribbean beaches.

Incidentally, we are now well and truly into the tropics (currently at 12°11'N to be exact) ... but I knew it when I stepped out onto our balcony the other morning and it was already over 25°C ... at 6am and before sunrise no less! While it's hot in the direct sun and quite humid too, we haven't found it too oppressive ... yet. But certainly hot enough for me, surprise surprise, to have got in the ship's pool a couple of times after our onshore explorations!

Tomorrow, we're looking forward to seeing a bit of the country in Costa Rica, since our explorations have largely focused on urban landscapes to date.

In search of Mexico

2009-04-16T07:08:00.001+10:00

We visited Cabo San Lucas today (Tuesday 14th). Cabo was probably once a lovely fishing village in a rugged and very remote area at the very southern end of Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Then it was discovered by American game fishermen and probably not long after by resort developers. Cabo today is therefore a town overtaken by resort complexes, a huge marina filled with million dollar fishing yachts, lots of American tourists and loads of local Mexicans trying to cash in on the tourism boom and relieve wealthy Americans (at least more wealthy than them, and that wouldn't be hard) of some of their money ... and this is particularly apparent on a day like today when more than 8,000 cruise passengers from 3 different ships have all descended on town to get their duty free shopping fixes. Every metre along the boardwalk from the pier into town was lined, on both sides, by market stalls (which sometimes were just blankets on the concrete) offering every concievable form of "Mexicana" possible. And then down the main street and in lots of "plazas" there were interminable duty-free jewellers, souvenir shops, bars and restaurants and, of course, chemists selling prescription medicines over the counter (but thankfully, not as many as in Tijuana).

Probably, the two most common sights today around Cabo were (a) women armed with retailer coupons offering a free gift to people who spent $x or who even just came into their store and (b) bored men like me who stood patiently outside or just inside shop doors waiting for their wives.
Must admit though that this provided plenty of time for people watching, something I enjoy doing as it offers some interesting insights ... I wonder how many people noticed, for example, the armed soldiers standing around on the dock just keeping an eye on things, or the local buses whose routes (to such well-known Cabo suburbs as Walmart and Costco) were painted on their front windows.

I am sure that somewhere in Cabo there remains something of a typical Mexican town ... unfortunately, in just 7 hours, I didn't have time to find it. I'll continue the search for Mexico when we get to Acapulco but I think my chances will be betther when we get to Huatulco, an area that has apparently only just found tourism ... time will tell.

We made sure we made our own contribution to the local economy while we were in Cabo ... we had a couple of Tequila-based cocktails (as you do) plus a very tasty fajita for lunch (which was more spicy than hot and made me think that Aussie Mexican must be more Tex-Mex than Mexican) at one of the many bars/restaurants and we bought a diamond ring ... this earnt me a lot of brownie points into the bargain.

At sea ... and at rest

2009-04-15T11:02:00.000+10:00

Our first day at sea ... at last, after 3 weeks, a day when there is nothing for us to see or do. Oops, I tell a lie ... I looked at the today's activity calendar and discovered a plethora of ways that can help us occupy our day at sea ... I can learn how to tie (or is it make) "beautiful ribbon bows", attend an acupuncture seminar, display my golf putting talents, learn how to do the cha-cha-cha properly, and even show off my trivia prowess ... and all that, and more, before 11:00am. So, what are we doing? None of the above ... we are just "chilling" and thoroughly enjoying doing nothing.

We were on board Infinity yesterday by noon and if first impressions count, I think we will enjoy the ambience of this ship. Its decor is clean and refined and certainly not "in your face" (unless of course you're in the casino which incidentally is the biggest we have seen on a ship). Similarly, with service from the staff ... it has been there when we want or need it. Our stateroom (a concierge class cabin that comes with a few perks) is nice ... a bit on the small side but then it does have a couch that provides somewhere other than the bed to sit and relax inside. But the biggest plus of our cabin, which faces the aft, is the balcony ... it is well over 5 metres in length and comes equipped with 2 loungers, a table and 2 chairs ... we're likely to spend a fair bit of our cruise here, I think.

Today is of course our anniversary, so we plan to dine in the SS United States, the ship's specialty restaurant, tonight. If everything I have heard/read is true, it promises to be a special experience.

I will be writing the blog offline during the cruise so by the time you read this, it may be tomorrow or even the next day. At 38 cents per minute (about $0.55 in our money) for internet access, my pockets aren't deep enough to do it online. The blog will probably be bereft of photos too since it takes much satellite time (and $$s) to upload them ... I will however try to add some later if I haven't used all my internet package time ... so keep an eye out.

...

Since I haven't uploaded this yet, I can now report that our anniversary dinner well and truly lived up to expectations. It was a wonderful dining experience with top-notch food and service. The highlight for both of us was a toss-up between the goat cheese souffle and the perfectly cooked eye fillet steak (they called it a filet mignon but since it wasn't wrapped in bacon, I won't) that was accompanied by a truly wonderful truffle sauce that we were told took some poor cook 6 hours to make. We mentioned to the maitre d'hotel during the evening that it was our anniversary and later, after we had left the restaurant, he searched us out to present us with an anniversary cake that they had made specially for us ... it was a real surprise and a very nice touch. It's now in our cabin fridge to enjoy over the next few days.

Today, we are in Cabo San Lucas at the foot of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico ... we plan to just explore town and find somewhere to have luch so that we can try some real Mexican food ... I suspect it will be quite different to Aussie Mexican! Watch for my next post.

In San Diego to go on a cruise

2009-04-12T22:51:00.005+10:00

We've spent the last two days in San Diego doing the same as we have done almost every day for the past 3 weeks ... walking. But the reason for us coming to the USA has now arrived ... we board Celebrity Infinity later this morning to embark on our 14-day cruise to the other side of America, via the Panama Canal. In around 11 hours, we will be sailing out of San Diego Bay towards the setting sun ... then veering left and heading for Mexico and much warmer weather.

It's Easter Sunday here in the USA, the only day on which they actually celebrate Easter ... Good Friday was just another working day. It all seems a bit weird to us Aussies who enjoy a 4-day weekend over Easter.

vvv

We have enjoyed our time in San Diego. It's a somewhat unusual city as the downtown area seems to be more a place for living than for business. There are residential buildings, both high rise and low rise, everywhere, with lots of new ones also being built. Indeed, it seems that there are more high-rise apartment and hotel buildings than there are office blocks. The downtown area also doesn't seem to have the same amount of traffic and congestion as other cities, and this probably enhances its residential appeal. The city appears to be going through a major urban renewal phase ... very few of the buildings along the waterfront area, for example, are more than about 10 years old, and I was surprised at how much vacant land there is around the city that is just being used as parking lots ... it seems that at some point, all the older buildings were knocked down in readiness for future residential/commercial development that is only part of the way to fruition.

The downside of San Diego, which is probably strikes us moreso having just come from a place like San Francisco, is that much like many "new" towns, the city seems to have not yet developed a sense of its own character or identity. I thought I might have seen something of what makes San Diego unique in the much vaunted Gaslamp Quarter, but all I saw was a lot of restaurants and bars ... there was nothing special about the place that gave me a sense of being in San Diego. Hopefully, this will come in time. That said, I like downtown San Diego and it appeals as a great place to live if ever I was to move to Southern California ... but it would compete with Coronado Island, which probably wins the prize as the place in San Diego that I would most like to come back to see more of. I loved its seaside village atmosphere.

I'm not sure how regular I will be able to post or upload photos to my Picasa album from here on ... I've been spoilt with unlimited high speed broadband internet access thus far in all our hotels/resorts. Things will change on the ship ... I've been told I can get wi-fi but that it is slow and expensive, so uploading pictures may be a no-no ... time will tell.

vvv

Cheers until next time, somewhere on the high seas ...

Into another world

2009-04-10T04:28:00.015+10:00

Yesterday, we headed over the border to Tijuana for our first taste of Mexico ... and what a contrast it was to the places we've been. You certainly know you are at the border when you see a huge fence separating the 2 countries and soldiers on duty as you go through the gate ...

Our first impression of the city, which I think is actually bigger than San Diego with around 1.5 million residents, was one of age and shabbiness. As we headed towards the main drag, though, a couple of other words came to mind ... eclectic and even quaint ... still old and shabby, but attractive in its own way.

For Janet, those first thoughts soon turned to "I'm in heaven" ... streets filled with stalls and shops selling everything from clothing, jewellery and leather products to souvenirs ... and drugs. It seemed that every second store was a chemist selling prescription drugs over the counter without a prescription and at heavily discounted prices. And the most popular. or at least most heavily promoted product was ... viagra. Here's just one of the many posters that caught our attention. No wonder the place attracts so many college students on spring break ... that and the cheap grog!

Wandering along the street looking at what the shops have on offer is not easy though ... the Mexicans are very aggressive in hawking for business and truly make the Indian merchants we've previously encountered in Fiji look like rank amateurs. At the same time, they are friendly ... it was funny though to be greeted by so many shopkeepers as honeymooners (can only assume this is because we were holding hands) and to be remembered from our visit yesterday. They were also polite ... if you said "no thanks" and kept walking, they generally left you alone and turned their attention to the next person walking by.

The problem came when they got you into their store ... then the hard sell started and it was hard to get out, but it was then the prices started dropping. The best example was "gold" ear rings offered to Janet after she had bought a t-shirt (lucky Jorja) for a very special price of $65 ... eventually they came down to $5 ... Janet thought this was still to much for what they were!

It was all good though ... we enjoyed our first taste of Mexico and its people, and Janet didn't even spend much money ... she just enjoyed getting in some practice for the cruise ports to come.

Tijuana also provided me with my first experience of having to pay to use a public toilet, something I know is not all that uncommon in other parts of the world. For the price of admission (3 pesos or 30 cents) though, I was given 2 sheets of toilet paper ... just as well I didn't go in there for a sit-down job!

Getting back into the US was much more tedious than going into Mexico, where we just walked through the gate, albeit under the watchful eyes of armed soldiers. Getting out involved queuing up and going through the same screening processes one gets at LAX. We just made sure before we left US soil that we could get back in without additional paperwork, so just had to go through the passport control and not via the Consulate which had an even longer queue. It was much easier though for us than for those driving through ... they also get hassled by hawkers while waiting in the traffic queue, which apparently extends back for several kms!

Oceanside and other thoughts

2009-04-08T17:21:00.002+10:00

One can only imagine how busy SoCal beaches must be in summer! I've been sitting at the beach here in Oceanside this afternoon while Janet had some pre-cruise maintenance work carried out, and there are heaps of people sun baking and swimming. The temperature today only maxed at 18 degrees (and a breezy one at that) and the water temperature is not much more than 15, but still they came to sunbake and swim. It's as though people say it's spring and we're on vacation after a long cold winter,, so therefore we must swim. Ironically, though, there were almost as many people walking along the beach in jumpers/jackets!

I have also taken a walk through downtown Oceanside, which is one of a continuum of holiday and commuter towns along the coast to the north of San Diego. Oceanside is about 50km from San Diego and has about 160,000 people. If Oceanside is indicative of American malls, then it is clear that the shopping mall has well and truly killed the downtown shopping centre/strip. While there was certainly a diversity of small shops here, what amazed me was that I probably saw more barber shops (and old fashioned ones like we have seen on TV and in the movies) than any other store, including bars. This might possibly be because the US Marines' biggest base, Camp Pendleton, is here at Oceanside, but I'm sure they have plenty of barbers there anyway.

We've probably seen (but thankfully not visited all) 8 or 10 shopping malls/plazas in Oceanside alone. There are even 3 Walmarts in the area (as well as every other large retail chain under the sun), and the one we went to is so huge, you literally cannot see one end from the other. Think Bunnings and add 50% to the length and width and we might be getting close. Walmart prides itself on being cheap (and cops a lot of criticism because of the cost cutting practices it adopts to keep prices down, i.e. it screws its suppliers and staff) and it is cheap although I have been surprised to find that many things in Australia are actually cheaper than here in the US, even at Walmart.

Now that I'm on the subject of shops, I had to check out a Costco warehouse store since we are about to get our first one in Sydney. I was amazed at both the quality and prices of what was on offer - They had, for example, Polo Ralph Lauren polo shirts (firsts not seconds) for less than $45 and new release books were 50% below the publisher's price for (even Walmart only had them 25% off). While we didn't go there intending to buy anything (it was simply a study tour), the prices were so good we couldn't help but buy a few things ... except that we were refused service at the checkout because we weren't members ... you have to pay $50 per year "club" membership to shop there ... clearly this is how they are able to keep their margins so low. Bottom line, though, is we'll be joining up when they open in Sydney!

Since I mentioned Bunnings, I checked out a Home Depot when we were in LA (I have to occupy myself somehow when Janet is busy in dress and baby clothes shops) and thought I was in Bunnings! Except for colour (orange instead of green), they are identical even down to the garden/nursery at one end and the indoor timber (they say lumber though) yard at the other. Not sure who copied who, but felt right at home!!

I'm getting quite used to driving on the wrong side of the road after driving stints now in LA, San Francisco and San Diego; it's almost second nature now. I'm still trying to come to grips with some of their road rules though ... it seems for example that there is no giving way to the right for example - most intersections have stop signs and it appears that first to stop is first to go. Might have been a good idea if I had looked up and read the road rules before getting here so that I would know!! I need to be careful in future as Janet was told today that the California Highway Patrol is pretty vicious and that fines start at $300. The girl said she got caught recently for not completely stopping at a stop sign (something I know I have been guilty of many times so far) and she copped a $500 fine and had to attend a full-day driver training class on a Saturday.

Flying to San Diego

2009-04-08T16:32:00.006+10:00

Our flight from San Francisco to San Diego was on Virgin America, which is a really good airline with spacious leather seats, mood lighting, friendly service and a really great "in-seat" entertainment system ... could even use my laptop, listen to music and watch the map of our flight on Google Earth, all at the same time. The flight itself was quite scenic following the coastline for the most part.

Here is our first view, from the air, of Oceanside Harbor, which is our home this week. Our resort is just behind the lighthouse in the harbour marina.

Then, as we flew into San Diego (the airport is only about 2 km from the CBD, so we were pretty low at this stage), I managed to get this shot of a Holland America ship at the berth we will be embarking from on Sunday ... it made us realise our anniversary cruise is almost on us.

A photo tour of San Francisco

2009-04-08T10:01:00.041+10:00

One of the first places we visited was Coit Tower and it provided a great vantage point from which to get an overview of the Bay and city. The problem is that it was one hell of a climb to get up the hill ... and one that Janet did not enjoy at all. We took this shot when we got back down and it shows lower part of the steps we came down as well as highlighting how steep the hill is. Most of the houses on the hillside don't have vehicle access.

Below are a few photos from the top ... the first two across the Bay to the Golden Gate and to Alcatraz, and the next two across the city, or at least parts of it. The second of these shows the world's hilliest street (part of Lombard Street), which we later walked and drove down ... as you do!

Fisherman's Wharf has always been one of San Francisco's tourist icons but to be honest is not really worth visiting ... it is just a tourist trap! Its only redeeming feature is the colony of sea lions that have made it their home, forcing the fisherman using that part of the marina to relocate their trawlers.

I think we most enjoyed San Francisco's historic cable cars - they travel on some of the steepest routes and really highlight how hilly the city is. Here is a shot of one being pushed around the turntable at the terminus in Powell Street in the city centre. Apparently, the idea of cable cars came from a cable manufacturer who saw a horse fall down a hill dragging its buggy and the passengers down the hill with him. Janet went mad snapping photos as we went up and down the hills ... these are just a few of the shots she took.

Naturally, we went and had a close up look at the Golden Gate Bridge (lots of photos but here's just one). It was very impressive sight at the entrance to San Francisco Bay, but I also liked the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge, which is much longer and goes through an island in the middle of the Bay. It also has two levels - one for traffic heading north and one for south. Incidentally, San Francisco Bay is huge, covering an area probably double the size of Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, but actually getting smaller as lots of it, particularly down the southern end around the airport and towards San Jose, seem to be being reclaimed for residential and commercial development.

We were told about a spot where you can take spectacular photos of the sun setting under the Golden Gate Bridge, so naturally we went there . The guy who told us this may have been right but clearly it doesn't happen at this time of year ... maybe I need to go back in mid-summer. I took a photo (or so) of the sun setting anyway ...

We walked and later drove down the world's supposed windiest street I mentioned earlier ...

We had a very enjoyable morning on Alcatraz Island and the tour of the jail building was certainly an eye opener. Even Janet (who figured going there was one of the compromises she had to make) enjoyed it, which probably says it all. One thought I came away with ... the living conditions might have been tough, but what a view when they did get out into the yard!

There are so many other photos from our travels around San Francisco that I could post but space is at a premium, so I will leave you with a few random ones of some of the buildings around town that obviously took our fancy.

Apparent downsides of San Francisco

2009-04-05T01:31:00.005+11:00

We've noticed that there seems to be a relatively high level of homelessness here in San Francisco, much more so than in Sydney or in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, at least in the areas we have frequented. We have seen so many people lugging blankets and whatever goods and chattels they possess around the city streets.

Also, there is a high prevalence of begging on the streets, something that also struck us in Las Vegas. There are just so many people putting their hand (or a Starbucks cup) out for money or even just your cigarette butt. It is hard to walk a block anywhere without being approached, or sometimes accosted, by someone.

Sometimes it is not so bad though ... one guy approached us when we first bought out Muni pass and were busying studying a map, and he gave us a lot of really useful info on where to go ... Janet thought he was a tourism volunteer/ambassador but what he was really after was a tip so that he could go and have another beer. We obliged, although I think I probably short changed him because the info he gave us was so good. The thing that got us was that they tend to be more aggressive in the sense of being more forward in their approaches than we are used to. The fact that we didn't know that the guy offering tourist advice was actually looking for a tip. And when I was putting petrol (I mean gas ... I'm in America) in the rental car the other day, a bloke came up and cleaned my windscreen without asking (as they tend to do first in Oz) so I had little choice but to pay for the pleasure ... I wasn't game not to!

peaking of petrol ... something quite different to what we are used to in Australia, you have to pay for your petrol upfront ... a bit disconcerting when you don't know how much it will cost to fill the tank. It was OK though, the attendant gave me change.

There is also an amazing number of people just hanging around the streets as if they have nowhere to go ... perhaps unemployment is a big issue here, which may also account for the begging mentality. I'm not sure but I don't think social security benefits here are anywhere near as generous as they are at home. In Las Vegas, it struck me though that they may have come up with an innovative job creation program - on many city blocks, we had to walk past a long line of people (perhaps 20 to 30 of them) handing out "girls for sale" fliers ... there must be more people hawking girls in Vegas than there are working girls

Cheers for now - back soon.

San Francisco

2009-04-04T23:33:00.005+11:00

It's early Saturday morning here as I write this, so our time in San Francisco is almost at an end ... we fly to San Diego later this morning. We have spent much of the past five days exploring San Francisco and seeing its various attractions, but also getting a feel for what makes San Francisco such an attractive place and so so different from elsewhere.

The best purchase we made (actually the second best, I'll explain why in a minute) was a 7-day Muni passport which allowed us unlimited travel on San Francisco's transit system, which is made up of cable cars, trams on rails, trams not on rails and buses that criss-cross the city and link the various various neighbourhoods that make up the city. It also allowed us to avoid having to walk up and down all the steep hills, and believe me, they are steep!! We couldn't have seen as much as we did though without a map showing all the routes, so a Muni Street & Transit Map was actually the best thing we bought here.

We naturally checked out all the San Francisco must-sees along with the thousands of other tourists, eg Fishermen's Wharf (over-rated except for the colony of sea lions that are "squatting" in the marina), Alcatraz (an amazing experience that Janet even enjoyed), the Bay and Golden Gate Bridge.

What was more fascinating though was wandering through neighbourhoods like Haight-Ashbury, Castro, Mission, Chinatown, Nob Hill and Japantown. Each of these precincts (about 40 of them in total, I'm told) has its own unique character and identity, which is quite amazing since they all sit in an area that is probably about 10km long and about the same wide. Possibly it is San Francisco's very high population density (funnily enough, there seem to be very few detached single story dwellings in San Francisco) and its diverse multicultural makeup that has engendered such a strong sense of community identity within the various neighbourhoods. What was also great was walking down a neighbourhood shopping street and seeing more cafes than fast food outlets ... never thought I would be able to say that about an American street!!

I'll come back here later and post a few photos of our time in San Francisco.

We had one day out of San Francisco this week. We hired a car and went for a drive down the coast to Santa Cruz, Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea (this is the town that Clint Eastwood became mayor of to prevent developers coming in and destroying its "village" character ... indeed, there is not one fast food shop in the town).

The highlight of the trip was the drive along the Cabrillo Highway (part of State Route 1 that runs along the pacific coast from south of LA to north of San Francisco), which for the most part hugs the coastline. It was very scenic (see pic below) and had little traffic ... I gather that Americans tend to avoid travelling this route since it is a somewhat windy two-lane highway but from our perspective, it was a superior drive to many of the rural "highways" we have in Australia.

Bob's Marvelettes

2009-04-02T10:44:00.008+11:00

My stars shone last Friday when I was invited onto the Sahara stage to join the Marvelettes, a 1960's Motown group (or at least a 2009 version of them), in performing their 1966 #1 song "Don't Mess With Bill".

The girls loved me ...

And the audience loved me ... at the end of the night, I was mobbed by the crowd ... they all (well at least half a dozen of them) wanted to congratulate me and shake my hand, and lots (OK, two) wanted me to be in a photo with them.

Nobody wanted my autograph though. Fame is certainly fleeting!

Despite getting caught to go on stage, the night was a real blast with the Platters, the Coasters and the Marvelettes giving us a great trip down memory lane.

Walking the streets of Vegas

2009-04-02T00:47:00.020+11:00

We (and particularly Janet) had little realisation before we left home just how much walking we would be doing when we hit the US. Janet wasn't too happy on our first afternoon in LA when we walked a mile each way to Disneyland just to get rid of the cobwebs. But little did she know then that it was just a warm up for the Las Vegas Strip!!

The only way to really appreciate the Strip is to walk it and so we did, for 3 afternoons and evenings. It's about 4 miles (or about 6.5 kms) from one end of the main drag to the other (for those that know, from Mandalay Bay in the south to the Sahara and Stratosphere in the north) ... so that means we hiked the best part of 20 kms along the Strip alone. In that distance, we saw so much of the world, or at least Las Vegas' version of the world, and went to places like Paris, New York, Venice, Egypt and even ancient Rome (just a bit of time travel thrown in) in that 20 km.

How to describe the Vegas strip? Some words/phrases that jump to mind include:

spectacular;
over the top;
in your face;
awesome;
gawdy;
lights and more lights;
a construction zone;
slots (that's their word for pokies) and more slot machines, everywhere from the airport to convenience stores; and
tacky

It is all these things and more. But boy, did we enjoy the experience!

The theming of some of the newer casinos/hotels was a sight to behold and testimony to (a) what you can do when you have plenty of money to spend, (b) how much operators have to spend to attract business, and (c) how much money the casinos make to be able to justify this capital expenditure!

We particularly liked the Venetian (with Venice's canals, gondolas and streetscape), Paris (with the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Palace of Versaille and more) and New York New York (with its depiction of Brooklyn and the Statue of Liberty).

We were also blown away by the Fremont Experience, a spectacular light and sound show where images are thrown on to an overhead roof built over about 3 city blocks. It was a fantastic way to experience Queen. Here's a couple of photos of the images that came up on the overhead screen to sync in with "We Will Rock You".

We also went to great show at the Sahara, but you'll have to wait for my next post to hear about my brush with celebrity status.

Grand Canyon - an awesome experience

2009-04-01T15:32:00.016+11:00

The slogan of the company we used for our tour to the Grand Canyon last Thursday is "Don't see the Grand Canyon ... Experience it!" And experience it we did, in some of the strangest weather conditions I have ever seen. One minute the air would be still and the next an icy wind would be blowing. One minute the sun would be shining and the very next it was snowing, albeit lightly but snowing all the same ... indeed, a couple of times, it was snowing while the sun shone!

Here is a proof of the snow falling as we arrived at the Canyon.

Did the weather dampen our enjoyment of what is without doubt, one of the natural wonders of the modern world ... no way!

What can one say about the Grand Canyon that others haven't said before? Not much I think so I won't try, but what I will say is that anyone who doesn't find the Canyon to be an awesome, mind blowing experience is kidding themselves ... or isn't easily pleased.

As we hiked along the South Rim for a couple of hours (this was one one of the different things our tour offered over those of other companies), we took a couple of hundred photos (mostly of the view but also a few of the wildlife ... elk, squirrels and deer) and all are so very different. When I downloaded them to the laptop the next day, I almost fell into the trap of thinking "here's more of the same". But the reality is that the different angles and the ever changing cloud shadows on the rocks makes every shot a very different one. Culling the photos down to a manageable size for the holiday photo album when we get home is going to be a tough job!

Visiting the Canyon can, as I have said, only be described as an awesome experience. The funny thing is, though, that I left the Canyon thinking about our Blue Mountains and indeed a greater appreciation of how good they actually are. I'm not directly comparing the two ... it's just that seeing the Canyon made me realise how much I (and no doubt other Sydney-siders) tend to underrate just how good the views from places like Echo Point are.

The day was a very long one (15 hours from pick up to drop off) as it is a 400+ km drive each way from Las Vegas. While the Grand Canyon was certainly the centre piece of the day, it wasn't the only highlight. We stopped at Hoover Dam for a look-see (it actually seems smaller than it appears in movies etc, but big all the same) and on the way home, called into a little place called Seligman in Arizona, which used to be on the famous Route 66. The people of Seligman actually lobbied Congress to recognise Route 66 as a National Historic site after the closure of the road and have done a lot of work restoring the town to what it was in its "glory" days ... so much so that there was even tumbleweed blowing across the road while we were there!! For those who have seen it, Seligman was actually the inspiration for the Disney movie "Cars". The movie's writer and producer spent quite a bit of time there after the townspeople had lobbied Congress and he based many of the characters on real people from Seligman.

A few other random shots from the day are at http://picasaweb.google.com/bob.moes/GrandCanyon26March2009.

Making up for lost time

2009-04-01T15:00:00.003+11:00

Janet has been giving me a hard time because it's a week since I last blogged. My excuse, however, is that we have been so busy making the most of the new places we are seeing that the last thing I feel like doing at night when Janet goes to bed is to sit down at the computer and reflect on our adventures that day. But, I'm now sitting here at the computer with a strong coffee in hand with the intention of making up for my shortcomings of the past week ... and to make sure I don't get further hassled by Janet tomorrow morning!

We have now been in San Francisco for 2 full days but before I can put down my thoughts on this wonderful city, I need to go back and talk about our time in Las Vegas and also our side trip to the Grand Canyon last Thursday. I think l will do them in separate posts, so stay tuned for the first one, our Grand Canyon adventure, coming up real soon ...

Las Vegas - first impressions

2009-03-26T05:12:00.021+11:00

Seeing Las Vegas for the first time from the air was an eye opener ... a huge city in the middle of nowhere. Why there is such a city in the middle of a desert defies logic but I guess they figured that it didn't matter where they built a place for people to gamble, they would come anyway.

Our girl from Garmin delivered us safely to Long Beach airport in plenty of time for brunch and our flight to Las Vegas. There is no comparison between LAX and and the very much smaller Long Beach airport ... with only 7 or 8 departure gates, it makes even Canberra airport look big! It was therefore a breeze to get through, except for having to produce our ID 3 times between check-in to the departure lounge ... I guess we'll have to get used to that! The terminal building, which has retained the art deco character it was built in, reminded me of the original Kingsford Smith airport terminal building in Sydney before they knocked it down to build separate terminals for Qantas and Ansett as well as a separate international one ... I'm showing my age here, this all happened about 1970!

We flew with JetBlue and this is an airline I can recommend - great service and entertainment options, even on a 45 minute flight, and probably the most comfortable and spacious domestic seating around. We spent the flight however looking at the view - first the sprawl of LA, then snow capped mountains, followed by the barren and quite awesome Mojave desert and then finally, our first glimpses of Vegas ... and all this in 45 minutes! Here are a few shots taken out the plane window, so please excuse the quality - click on the photos to see them full size.

Our resort is a little off the beaten track (about 2 miles south of the Strip), but it is huge with over 400 rooms and some lovely and expansive pool areas. Janet is down there at the moment getting in a little sun and relaxation time before we head for our first trek to the Strip. Looking forward to seeing the world all in one street!

LA ... an interesting experience

2009-03-24T15:02:00.014+11:00

It had to happen, I just hoped it would be later than sooner. One of the reasons I decided to do this blog was to give me an excuse not to go clothes/shoes shopping with Janet, but on our way back from Newport, Huntington Beach and Long Beach areas today, we ended up at a shopping mall. It could have been worse ... at least there was a Borders and a Home Depot (America's version of Bunnings, down to a plant nursery at one end and an indoor lumber (that's American for timber) yard at the other) for me to check out.

Watching the passing parade was also instructive in terms of providing me with something of an insight into middlle class American culture ... a culture that I must admit is not too much different from what we see everyday in Sydney.

The LA area is as big and sprawling as everyone says. We've done hundreds of miles driving around over the past 2 days, checking out "must visit" places like Hollywood, the Hollywood sign, Beverly Hills (Rodeo Drive is like Double Bay on steroids) and all along the coast from Santa Monica in the north to Newport Beach in the south. The maze of freeways criss-crossing LA, with up to 6 or 7 lanes each way and nobody doing less than 60 mph, was an experience in itself but we also traveled on some of LA's secondary roads, which make Parramatta Road look like a dog track, and other streets. My girl from Garmin kept getting annoyed though when I deviated from her preferred route ... she kept telling me how to get back to the freeways!

We also had a wander around the original Queen Mary cruise liner, which these days is permanently berthed at Long Beach, operating as a hotel and function centre. As large as it was in its heyday 50 years ago, it is quite small by today's standards. This was accentuated this morning when we saw one of Carnival's smallest ships berthed next to it.

We had our first unexpected experience of tipping yesterday when Janet met Dora the Explorer (Jorja's favourite TV character) outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. After having her photo taken, Dora put out her hand and Janet shook it saying "thank you, my grand daughter will just love this photo". Dora's response was " we do this for tips ... do you think we dress up like this for the fun of it." She got her tip!!

We head for Las Vegas tomorrow and as we leave, I have to say that LA far exceeded our expectations. For a place we originally had intended to bypass (and would have if not for flight schedule changes), it provided us with 3 great days, with another one to come in Venice Beach and Santa Monica on the way home.

We've arrived in LA

2009-03-22T10:22:00.004+11:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know we've arrived in LA safe and sound after a looooong flight. Flew in to a dull, drabby day in LA (not sure yet whether it's the weather or the smog, but locals are dressed in jeans/trousers and sloppy joes, etc which might be instructive). Getting through the airport was a breeze and then a lovely lady from Garmin directed us from the rental car pick up counter all the way to Anaheim without missing a beat ... my first experience of GPS navigation and I like it. The Garmin girl is a much better navigator than Janet!!

We took a walk down to Disney town for a look (needn't have bothered but at least we can say we have been to Disneyland, sort of) and are now sitting on our verandah enjoying a quiet glass or 2 of a nice (for the price) Californian pinot grigio. We're both pretty tired, so likely that the wine will put us over the edge and we'll be in bed pretty early tonight.

Our itinerary

2009-03-11T23:08:00.008+11:00

We start with three weeks on the US west coast before boarding Celebrity Infinity for a 14 day cruise through the Panama Canal to Florida, visiting Mexico (Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco and Huatulco), Costa Rica and Colombia along the way.

After a week at Fort Lauderdale, we hop over to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to embark on a 7 day Southern Caribbean cruise on Carnival Victory, visiting St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, Dominica, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua and St Kitts.

From there we head home, but not before spending a couple of nights at Venice Beach in LA and three days in Tahiti.

Here's our itinerary:

Sat 21 March - Sydney to Los Angeles (3 nights at Anaheim)
Tue 24 March - Los Angeles to Las Vegas (5 nights)
Sun 29 March - Las Vegas to San Francisco (6 nights)
Sat 4 April - San Francisco to Oceanside, north of San Diego (6 nights)
Fri 10 April - Oceanside to San Diego (2 nights)
Sun 12 April - Board Celebrity Infinity for Panama Canal transit

Sun 26 April - Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Sat 2 May - Fort Lauderdale to San Juan, Puerto Rico
Sun 3 May - Board Carnival Victory for Southern Caribbean cruise

Sun 10 May - San Juan to Los Angeles (Venice Beach)
Tue 12 May - Los Angeles to Papeete, Tahiti (4 nights)
Sat 16 May - Papeete to Auckland to Sydney
Sun 17 May - Home

We will be 15-18 hours behind Sydney time for most of our holiday so to make life easier, I have just added a world clock showing our time and Sydney time to the blog. When we arrive in LA on Sat 21st, for example, where I likely will make my next post, it will already be Sunday 22nd in Sydney.

Cheers for now, Bob

Why?

2009-03-09T14:57:00.011+11:00

Why am I doing this blog? I suppose the simple answer is that it's something I want to try. I've always talked about maintaining some sort of diary/log of our holiday trips, but have never got around to actually doing one. Since this is a longer trip with more time available, I thought "it's now or never", so here it is.

There are, of course, a few other compelling reasons to do "live" blog of our travels. It will:

let family and friends keep track of where we are and what we are doing;
provide us with some great memories to look back on in future years;
possibly (and I stress possibly) save people from having to endure the inevitable "look at our holiday photos" sessions when we get home (I intend to include in the blog some of the many photos we will inevitably take while we are away, as well as putting a broader selection on picasaweb for people to look at); and
occupy me during the hours I don't want to spend hanging around a pool or outside a shop with Janet!!

I plan on doing updates every day or so. Time will, of course, tell whether I have the time or inclination to maintain this discipline. If I don't, I will probably blame it on being unable to get internet access at all or a cost effective price ... which might well be actually true!!

Anyway, let's see how we go. First up, will be our itinerary. That way when people ask where we are going, I can tell them, "just have a look at my blog!"