robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

We have been spending the last few days at Uncle Bob’s place having a good relaxation session and feasting on all things bad for us. We have also been working on our tans (or lack thereof) and Rob has been counting the blisters on his hands after chopping up trees with an axe for Uncle Bob.

After spending the day listening to Average White Band on my iPod to gear up for the gig we are going to next Tuesday, I thought I would check my email. And lo-and-behold… an email from Ticketmaster saying the one and only gig in San Francisco has been CANCELLED!

Needless to say, we are absolutely devasted. The only way we could see them is to make a mad rush up to Seattle – but I don’t think thats gonna happen.

We went to an IHOP which stands for International House of Pancakes. So those that know me, know that… well… pretty much heaven. The food was certainly bigger and better than the diner meals we have had, and still very cheap. I wish I had taken a photo!! But maybe we will go back there before our time is up.

Next on our list is to go to McDonalds before we leave Texas. Because I have to get that pesky “Macca’s Challenge” out of the way – else I will never hear the end of it!!

Leeane

Tags: texas

For the past number of days we have been at Disney World, which according to every one we’ve spoken with in Orlando requires ‘at least a week’ to see everything. Well, let me tell you that those people are quitters and should be ashamed to call themselves tourists, we the self proclaimed super tourists did all four parks in two days…. BOOYA!

behold....Disney!

street view in Disney Hollywood Studios

It’s a tough couple of days though and the journey is plagued with wave after wave of children and backed up by an armoured division of strollers and motorized carts, nicknamed ‘fatty carts’ on the frontline. The endless march was plagued by blisters and the enemy unrelenting but the rewards were thrilling.

everest rollercoaster in Animal Kingdom

The parks themselves are leagues better than Universal Studios as there is heaps more to see and do to the point where you can’t actually see one side of the park from the other. The pretext for each of the rides is well thought out and is a good distraction when you are stuck in a line for 30 minutes. Thankfully for us we had a system going so our wait times were minimal.

giraffe ass

It seems we have picked the perfect time to be in theme park country, all the hotel rates have come down dramatically and the crowds in the various parks have been ‘low’ according to the cast members. The queue lanes for the most popular rides show just how busy they can get but thankfully the extended, winding lanes have all been sectioned off for the off-peak.

Leeane in the Magic Kingom

To summarise, Orlando has been great humid fun and we’ve seen some cool stuff and some of the largest people ever but it has been a busy week so we are happy to have a day off tomorrow and then head off to see Uncle Bob and Duffy some more.

Rob

Tags: orlando

We booked a tour of the Kennedy Space Center which is somewhat close to the theme-park crazed area where we are staying. After rising at ungodly hour (6am) we sleep-walked our way to the pickup point for a bus ride to our first stop on the tour – an airboat ride along the everglades!

We climbed aboard the airboat which comes equipped with ear muffs due to the deafening sound. Our captain took us for a 40min ride, where we spotted many alligators and even a bald-headed eagle. I have to admit though, the first time the boat headed straight for some green weeds I felt like turning around to the captain to make sure he was paying attention.

Lining up for our ride

Gator!!!

Good hair day

After that we continued on to Kennedy Space Center where we spent the rest of the day. First up was a bus tour where we got to see some smart people building modules for the International Space Center and also one of the launch pads – with a shuttle ready to go for next months launch. Everything is just on a massive scale – its quite incredible really.

Astronaut Rob reporting for duty

Launch Pad

Our day also included a “Shuttle Launch Experience” ride which is NASA’s answer to Walt Disney World’s rides. The build up to the ride was a bit concerning with the constant video tour guide asking “Are you sure you want to do this?? If you don’t think your body can handle it please put up you hand now so a staff member can lead you to the exit”. Thankfully the ride itself was bearable (especially after the insane rollercoasters and Universal Studios). It basically involves a lot of extreme shaking to the point that your cheeks ache from flapping about everywhere.

We also seen some pretty cool 3D IMAX films about the International Space Centre and Walking on the Moon – definitely very cool indeed.

Houston.. we have a problem

An orbiter/shuttle

ridiculously large solid rocket boosters and fuel tank

The next day we visited the local mini-golf place which has 36 elaborate holes to play. It was good fun.. and… *cough* I won.

The technique is ALLLLL wrong!

Winning by so much I stopped for a break by the picturesque falls

In an update to Rob’s attack on me the other day about complaining to Universal Studios and being a “typical Scot”, I am happy to report that I scored two free tickets to return to the parks and hopefully go on all the rides which were closed on our first visit. It pays to complain I guess.

So we still have Walt Disney World to do here in Orlando – we will be doing that in a couple days as we want to avoid going there on a weekend.

Our plans are to leave Orlando on the 25th and head back to….. Texas! Yes we decided to skip New Orleans and head straight for the low-beer prices of the cowboy state. Uncle Bob, Duffy and Clyde thankfully said they would put up with us again and we will hopefully catch up with Matt and Lauren again too. So we will be spending a bit of time there before heading back to San Francisco (and an Average White Band gig – very exciting) before our flight to Japan.

Leeane

Tags: orlando

Orlando is like Las Vegas for families where instead of paying through the nose at the pokies, you pay through the sweat glands with the saturating humidity. There’s nothing like stepping out of your nice, air conditioned hotel room at 7:30 am to the smell of water in the air thanks to the 110% humidity.

Leeane appropriately standing where Australia roughly is

We made our way down the road to Universal Studios today, which actually consists of two separate parks one of which concentrates more on the ‘theatrical’ rides. Theatrical rides seem to be a bit hit and miss as some of them turn out to not be ‘rides’ at all but rather a handful of d-grade actors leading you around a few darkened rooms. Others have the same elaborate build up, but they pump you into a roller-coaster at the end of it for a quick getaway. I’m probably being too critical but when you line up for 20 minutes in the stinking humidity you kind of expect more.

You can see the humidity

Fortunately there are some awesome thrill rides scattered around the parks which don’t disappoint. Some of the stand out rides include, ‘The IQ Dropper’, ‘The Up Chucker’ and ‘The Potential Lawsuit’ all of which jerk you around like a killer whale tenderising a seal pup. Maybe we are both getting old or maybe the rides are just getting more insane but we definitely felt like we had sea legs after each ride and had to take a couple minutes to let our lunch settle between rides.

the spaghetti loop roller coaster

Back to the Future - delorean

All in all Universal Studios was mostly crowd-free so getting onto all the rides was more or less painless, the only bad point was that a bunch of the rides were closed or under repair. Needless to say Leeane did what Scot’s do best and lodged a complaint with them.

Simpsons Ride

wooooo

We are off to Kenndy Space centre tomorrow and an airboat tour over the Everglades, it should be a hoot. Apparently they have a Launch Simulator which should really push our internal organs into strange new places. Lawyers on standby…

Rob

Tags: orlando, theme park

We have spent the last couple of days exploring Washington D.C. – which is mostly museums and memorials.

First up is the Capitol Building. Pretty impressive and it looks a bit bigger than the one in Austin which we seen.

Capitol Building

We also went to the Museum of Air and Space which Rob enjoyed a lot. It wasn’t too “kiddified” and it was free admission which made it all the more enjoyable.

The Moon Lander!!

Second-up was our third Museum of Natural History which we have seen in USA. It was pretty good, but I think the one in Chicago was by far the best one we have seen. The one in D.C. did have the Hope Diamond though (along with dedicated security guards) which was nice to see.

Hope Diamond

Next up was the Vietnam War Memorial. It is a big wall with the names of all of those killed or missing in action. What makes it more interesting is that people leave things next to the wall (medals they have left over from one of their relatives that died, photos etc) and they just leave them there until some official goes around and collects them every night (they take them to the Smithsonian Museum).

The Three Soldiers

Vietnam Memorial

The reflective wall of the Vietnam memorial

Lastly was the Korean War Memorial which is made up of numerous soldier statues in a staggered pattern. It’s quite an amazing sight.

Korean War Memorial

So we are all done in Washington D.C. now – heading to Orlando for some theme park fun tomorrow.

Leeane

Tags: washington

Washington D.C reminds me of Austin for some reason, maybe it’s because one of the first things we saw was a nice pub with close to 200 beers available – three of which I have now tried.

That’s what we did at the end of the day though, I probably should mention what we did and saw after getting to the hotel but it’s hard to recall since it was so hot and muggy today that I think my brain melted. Luckily, Leeane took pictures to jog my memory.

First things first, we went to check out George W.’s place and his small army of police (both secret and normal) that surround it.

George W."s place

He’s got a massive backyard but suprisingly no Hills Hoist to dry his undies.

The Washington Monument is the logical next choice to go see as it towers over the horizon and is easily the tallest thing in the city.

Washington Monument

The sights are all nicely connected so we couldn’t help but check out the Reflection Pool. If it wasn’t so algae ridden it would have been a nice day to take a dip. In fact I’m surprised the pool even reflects with all the stuff growing in it.

Reflection pool

Reflection pool 2

As we’ve seen so many times in movies, there was a political rally happening at the base of the Honest Abe’s memorial, in this case an Obama rally. We happened to bump into the old fella and get a happy-snap with him.

Me and Obama, just hanging

Of course, Honest Abe was overlooking everything that was going on from his throne at the top of the steps.

Honest Abe

Abe"s view

Rob

PS – And Braden, in case you are wondering his head IS filled with carmelly, carmelly corny corn and there ARE nose goblins under his chair.

Tags: washington

We went to the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday to check out the view. I’ve gotta say that once you’ve been over the Golden Gate in San Francisco then other bridges seem like fallen logs over a river. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great bridge, just not the best we’ve seen on this trip. Perhaps there’s a tip in there for anyone planning a United States bridge seeing tour…

Bridge Baby

The rare, "bridge wallaby"

Then I did something stupid… Remember a similar picture to the one below?

Gettin funky

Well, I went ahead and bought this bass with the idea that I would ship it back to Australia for a couple hundred bucks, saving over a thousand Aussie dollars in the process than if I bought it back home.

All well and good in theory yeah? Well the salesman was a pushy bastard ( yes Ron at Guitar Centre, Union Square I mean you ) and he assured us that it would only cost a couple hundred to send as he used to do it all the time until Guitar Centre changed their policy on shipping.

The deal was done, he put it into a box for us and we carted the thing a block around the corner to the shipping store only to find that it would cost $550 US. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge!

We lugged it back to the guitar shop and explained the situation to the salesman, who consequently couldn’t really care less after he made the sale. However he quickly, when threatened with the possibility of a refund grabbed a phone book for us so we could try and find a sane shipping price. No go unfortunately, however we were able to get a refund without any problems.

In the end it’s probably for the best as the dollar slipped down to 80 cents the other day which really undoes all the benefits of the buy-n’-ship-home method. Oh Well.

Some people might think, ‘why not cart it on as carry on luggage’. Not really practical with one and a half months left of holiday including one month in busy, packed bullet train Japan.

I’m over New York now after that, bring on Washington D.C tomorrow!

Rob

Tags: new york

I have to clear up a couple stigmas attached to New York City before I get into the meat and potatoes of what we’ve been up to lately.

Firstly, the city drivers (in particular the taxi drivers) aren’t THAT crazy. In my opinion Chicago has the worst drivers and driving conditions hands down. Secondly, New Yorkians aren’t the bunch of jerks that everyone makes them out to be, it is the tourists that are the jerks.

You’ve probably already seen the Midget Jackson video by now which I think should be essential viewing for any potential busker in Perth however the New Yorkian buskers’ have figured out something more devious. If you have a captive audience, then your audience will be captivated! What the crap am I talking about? Well, the buskers here use the trains to force an audience to listen to them and it’s not just restricted to a guitarist or saxophonist. Religious weirdos use the transit time to talk about the extra 32 psalms they have written for the Bible, or hand out pamphlets on how to survive second death…. it’s all really fascinating really.

Not to mention that the subways themselves are in any way dull or uninteresting. Today on our now very familar subway trip into Manhattan the doors opened at a station only to show paramedics and a cop trying to resucitate someone. Strangely though, it seemed that only Leeane and I were concerned with this, even some of the passengers that got on at the same station just grabbed a seat and opened up their latest Robert Ludlow novel.

From the dark humid arteries of New York to the dizzying heights of the tallest buildings, the city really shows just how big it is from 66 floors above street level.

view from Rockefeller

another angle from the Rockefeller

Empire state with twin towers light in background

From L-R: Leeane, Rob, Empire state building

Uncle Bob described Times Square at night as a condensed Vegas. It is easy to see why, massive billboards and blinding lights everywhere over 4-5 blocks. Stunning at night.

Leeane in Times Sq.

Me in Times Sq.

Despite the massive cleanup in recent times of Central park, we still weren’t game enough to explore it during the night. During the day however it is a completely different story, heaps of people exercising always with the city skyline in the background.

on top of a rock in central park.

view from a rocky outcrop

We caught the train down to Grand Central Station on our way to Chinatown and Little Italy, it certainly makes Perth train station look like a crime-infested tin shed – which it is.

grand central, complete with patriotism

Next up China town, rows and rows of identical shops selling belt buckles and handbags and people asking you if you want to buy a Rolex. It’s fun for a block or two, but fortunately for us we stumbled upon Little Italy which is very similar but instead of rows and rows of knock off shops, you have rows and rows of pasta restaurants.

little Italy

So that’s what we have been up to lately. If I sound a little annoyed in this post it is because Leeane got felt up by a muscly 40 year old in slug-huggers – I guess I’m just a little jealous!

Rob

Tags: new york

So I wasn’t going to let Rob have all the fun with his Hooters girls.

There’s a semi-famous character called the Naked Cowboy who sings and plays guitar in the middle of Times Square – wearing… not much.

We stumbled upon him today whilst walking around Times Square. Ofcourse, I couldn’t resist getting a few snaps with him.

Afterward, Rob accused me of “not getting into it” enough when posing with this guy. But I had to explain to him that this cowboy could do with a breath mint or two… and that he was so sleazy I was afraid of catching an STD just by touching him.

Hahah OK maybe not that bad, but being groped in the middle of Times Square made me feel a little self-conscious.

I think Rob and I are even now.

Leeane

Tags: new york

We have spent the last couple days exploring more of Manhattan. And there’s heaps more left to go as well.

First, let me get your attention by showing you a video we took in the subway of what else… but a midget impersonating Michael Jackson. Yes.. it seems obvious now doesn’t it? This guy drew a huge crowd in the incredibly humid conditions – I felt sorry for him dancing in that kind of heat. Everyone also wasn’t sure if it was OK to laugh at him… but in the end we couldn’t help it. He was actually pretty darn good.

I uploaded a longer video now – enjoy!

We went to the American Museum of Natural History where we spent a good 5 hours wandering around and checking everything out. I think we were quite spoilt by going to the Chicago museum first – but this one was still really good and had heaps better space-exploration related exhibits than the Planetarium in Chicago.

Robbo in the rock and mineral exhibition

One of the cool animal diorama things

Me ... in one of the exhibitions..

All the museums are beautiful inside

Next up was the World Trade Center site which was… not what we were expecting. I thought there would be some sort of memorial or something. But all we could see was cranes and construction, all hidden behind big barriers. So we didn’t stay there very long at all.

WTC site

We then took the free Staten Island Ferry across the river. It was great because we got a free view of the Statue of Liberty and the city skyline which was impressive. There didn’t seem to be all that much in Staten Island itself so we hopped straight back on the ferry for the return journey.

Robbo with the NYC skyline

Me on the ferry

NYC Skyline

Miss Liberty herself

Lastly we went to Union Square which is a shopping mecca. Rob found a guitar store where he tempted himself to the brink at buying a bass guitar. In the end he decided to wait.. and agonise over it more and more no doubt.

Just buy it already! Rob with a USA made Fender 5 string Jazz bass.

Leeane

Tags: new york