robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

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

Just a quick one today. We managed to tackle the subway system with success and made it into Manhattan for the first time. We spent most of the day at Times Square which is a pretty crazy and busy place. We will have to go back there at night time to get some better photos.

Times Square in the middle of the day

Times Square in lined with overpriced souvenir shops and also the odd interesting thing. Such as…. a gigantic Toys R Us store which has a 7 story Ferris wheel inside. Ofcourse, Rob insisted he go in.

Ferris Wheel in Toys R Us

There was also a Hershey’s chocolate store which sold a whole bunch of branded merchandise. Oh and they sold a bit of chocolate too…. I took the time to pose while holding the Worlds Largest Hershey’s bar.

Maybe its a normal sized chocolate bar and I have just shrunk...

After working up a sweat walking around everywhere, Rob spotted a little micro-brewery which we went in to check out. He ordered the taste-tester plate of 8 of the brewery’s beers. Mmmmm…. by the end he was almost about to vomit because each beer he tried seemed to be worse than the one before. Note to any other visitors going to NYC – don’t visit Heartland Brewery.

The eagerness to try the beers soon faded after this photo.

So far so good in NYC. The streets seem safe enough and we should be able to handle the subway system from now on. I think it is going to rain tomorrow so we might take the opporunity to go to a museum or two so that we can be indoors.

Leeane

Tags: new york

It was hard to say goodbye to Uncle Bob and Aunt Luci and the Piersons after we had grown quite close over the past month, weeks and days however we had to leave sometime and just like the dog poo on the side walk in New York, the longer you leave it, the harder it becomes.

I swear the airport security checkpoints are becoming more and more convoluted every time we go through one. The one in Rochester consisted of the usual conveyor belt, x-ray machine however in addition you had to step into what I can only describe as a claustrophobic, body odour analyzer. Essentially you step into the coffin shaped machine and jets of air are fired up your trousers. You then stand there for a minute and notice that little cameras are strategically placed at every possible angle around you until after a 30 seconds or so you are prompted to step out of the coffin and then begin the usual metal detector drill. I have come to 4 conclusions about this machine.

1. The airlines are finally cracking down on letting smelly people onto planes now.
2. It is an expensive replacement for sniffer dogs which could probably sniff out 10 people in the time it takes to electronically ‘sniff’ one person.
3. This machine is somehow able to smell terrorists.
4. It uses captured 3D images and scents of people to create clones.

My bet is ‘all of the above’. At any rate, I’ve mentally noted not to wear mini-skirts through airport security anymore lest I want to do a bad Marilyn Monroe impression.

On a less jaded note, we are staying at the Pan American Hotel in Queens. The US open is right down the road and far more interestingly is the Wendy’s restaurant which played host to McDowells in the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America.

The Golden Arcs

Instead of the ‘Big Mick’ though, Wendy’s has the Baconator. Two quarter pounder beef patties and six, count them six strips of bacon. Should make a fine breakfast tomorrow.

Rob

Tags: new york

When we first arrived in Texas, Uncle Bob knew that he was coming to Chicago with us however what he had only found out was that our cousin Kim had stumbled upon a real estate listing of the original family farm in Scottsville, New York. Uncle Bob made contact with the owners – Bob and Nancy Pierson and before long they had invited us to come stay with them at the farm.

What can we say, it was an astounding feat of generosity and hospitality on their part but furthermore they had oodles of Miller family history to bestow upon us…. needless to say Uncle Bob and Aunt Luci were completely gob-smacked and years of unanswered questions were FINALLY put to bed thanks to the memorabilla that Bob and Nancy had saved and combined with the the historical places in Scottsville which often had tributes to the original Millers for what they had contributed to the town.

First up, the house is magnificantly restored and maintained and where possible the original furniture and decorations have been used.

The front porch

on the front porch

view from where the windmill used to be

The side, below the "best room in the house"

The sun room again...

Interestingly there is a hops bush located across the street. We aren’t sure if that’s something the Miller family planted but Uncle Bob is going to take some of them back to Texas to plant and hopefully find a way to get it to me back home so I can make a brew out of it.

The hops bush across the street

Hops!!

The garden and the view to the neighbors property is stunning as well.

The restored pergola out the back

The orginal barn

We visited the family plot where 8 of the ancestors are buried.

The Miller monument at the family plot

The headstones. Still in reasonable condition

Aunt Luci, Uncle Bob and Nancy pouring over photos

We have also seen the original Miller house before they moved into Fraser Farm.

Original Miller house

The North Road Farm

The old schoolhouse where Aunt Laura taught

Out to dinner with the Piersons

inside the school house

This post is a little rushed as we are about to go to the airport, but we would like thank the Piersons immensly for having us in their home and letting us eat their delicious food.

Rob

Ma & Pa, we will email you more pictures when we get to New York City, we need to organise them a bit as we have heaps! Hopefully this blog post will keep you happy until then.

Tags: family, new york

Oh boy what a day we had yesterday!!

We have been staying in Rochester, New York which is a beautiful place. Rob will tell you more about that in his post soon about the Miller family history.

We all took a break from the genealogy and went on a day trip to Niagara Falls which is a 1.5 hour drive West of Rochester. There was also a bonus to going there as I would also get to meet my second cousin who I didn’t know existed until we started planning our trip to the USA.

After getting the 3rd degree from the Canadian Border Patrol Officer as we drove over the Rainbow International Bridge, and we were in Canada!

We had then arranged to meet up with my cousin, Maureen and her husband Norm. They very graciously endured a 3.5 hour drive from Stow, Ohio (south of Cleveland) to meet up with us. The original plan was to go to their house to stay with them for a bit, but unfortunately getting to their town was impossible without a car of our own (and we are still too apprehensive to drive around ourselves in America). So, I was really glad that they were willing to drive to the Falls to meet us.

Maureen and Norm were great people and it was fantastic to hear the Scottish accent again! The only downside of them having such a long drive was that we were only able to spend an hour or so with them over lunch. But hopefully we can catch up with them again in a family reunion they are having in the South of France in 2010!!

Eating our Lunch by the Falls. Left to Right: Leeane, Maureen, Norm, Uncle Bob and Aunt Luci

Maureen and Me

Posing by the Falls

Next up was the Falls. And gee-whiz, they are incredible!! The noise, mist cloud and sheer volume of the water rushing over the cliff is just awe-inspiring. They also have a natural rainbow which you see in the middle of the waterfalls which is marvelous.

The Rainbow on the American Falls

The Horseshoe Falls - amazing!

American Falls and the Rainbow Bridge

By the mist

Lastly, we went on the very famous Maid of the Mist boat tour which stupidly takes your right into the belly of the Horseshoe Falls – in the middle of the mist cloud. It is really gusty in there and we got soaked even with the raincoats on – but we all had such a ball.

Before: Lining up to get on the boat

After: The Drowned Rats

That little boat is where we were headed

So all in all, a very memorable day for all of us – but I think particularly for me as I got to meet my cousin – really special!

Leeane

Tags: family, new york, niagara falls, rochester

Sadly it is time to say goodbye to Chicago and the family connection here. I wish we had a few more days here but I could easily say that about every place we’ve been too. On the upside our next destination is Rochester NY and Niagara Falls which should be a corker, the place is loaded with family history and we are actually staying in the original ‘Miller’ family farm. Furthermore, there’s talk that it might be haunted so its a good thing I brought my ghost-busters shirt to the states with me!

The past few days since the last blog post have been swollen with fun, much like my foot when I got gout after the weekend. In that case ‘fun’ was more akin to ‘agony’. Oh yeah!

The Natural history museum of Chicago looks like it could well be the main rival to the New York equivalent we are yet to visit. It is MASSIVE, we spent the best part of an afternoon there and still only managed to see about 50% of the exhibits before succumbing to muscle fatigue.

Natural History Museum

Much to the museum’s credit, the amount of ‘kiddy-fication’ is minimal and the exhibit presentations are unreal.

Animal Pic 1

Animal Pic 2

spot the monkey...

The artic is now in Chicago apparently...

Leeane and me

sue the t-rex

Even the view from the museum window kicks ass….

view from the museum window

That night we stayed in downtown Chicago so we could have a full day to explore the city and the sights.

Navy Pier is just down the road from the hotel, on the downside a thunderstorm was brewing so it started to rain as we were walking to the pier. On the plus side the rain scared off most of the people so we had the place to ourselves.

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel

Using all my sensibility, I figured the safest place to be with a thunderstorm warning looming was 30m (100 ft) in the air, in a super-massive metal structure. Good view though…

view from the "lightning rod" wheel

Leels on the pier

I had it in my head that the Planetarium that we didn’t have time to see yesterday would be the best thing in the world….WRONG! Well, to be fair I’m sure it is for anyone aged between 8 and 12, unfortunately that wasn’t mentioned in the brochure. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the 5km (3 mile) walk to get there, that wouldn’t have been so bad either had it not been for the gout that I was still going through.

It did give us an ample oppurtunity to see the cool sites of Chicago on the way though…

Riverwalk

In Grant park we saw what looks like a giant liquid-metal terminator re-forming – The uber T-1000!

Shiny metal thing

About half way down to the Planetarium is Buckingham Fountain.

Buckingham Fountain

The following day Uncle Bob picked us up from downtown and we visited another nice pub.

From L-R: Windmill, Uncle Bob, moi

That night we chilled with Aunt Jackie for a bit at her bar and introduced her to something uniquely Australian…

Vegemite on Toast, Honey!

… and she liked it!

From L-R: Vodka, Aunt Jacky, Miller Beer, Beer drinking Miller

We loved Chicago and the family we have here and thank everyone heaps for their extremely generous hospitality and all the good times we had. Hopefully we can come back soon or perhaps some of the Chicago mob can come to Perth one day and have someone laugh at your accent for a change!

Rob

PS – might be out of internet range for a few days whilst in Rochester.

PPS – what the hell happened to the Wallabies on Saturday!!! Christ!

Tags: chicago, family