We had to sit waaay up in the 'nosebleeds', but it was still noisy
There was some big air
and some big damage
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Monster Trucks
It was a cold day, so we decided to go into town, where the action was hot, and the engines LOUD!
We had to sit waaay up in the 'nosebleeds', but it was still noisy
There was some big air
and some big damage
We had to sit waaay up in the 'nosebleeds', but it was still noisy
There was some big air
and some big damage
Friday, January 18, 2008
Filler
Saw this the other day while surfing friends profiles in Facebook.
Hi Todd!
I'm sure a few people out there can relate...
Hi Todd!
I'm sure a few people out there can relate...
Saturday, January 5, 2008
NYC: Day 4 - Bye bye
The final day.
And some might say the best day.
We woke up early with the intention of doing everything we haven't had a chance to do yet.
Hah! Ok, we'll try and cover a few more things anyway. As my parents say, it's nice to have a few things left undone so that you have an excuse to come back. =)
We checked out of the hotel, and went to continue our 48 hour tour.
As they had been closed yesterday, we went up to one of the sellers, who went and got the boss, and we were told that our tickets were still valid, and if anybody asks "just tell 'em Bobby sent ya!"
So today's tour was uptown. The tour would take us up the West side, around central park, through Harlem and back down the east side.
It was the best part of the tour because it was the real New York. Realistic living environments, and a very interesting part of town.
Interestingly dog walkers make $25 per dog per walk on the west side, compared to $15 per dog on the more affluent east side.
Anyway, as Aimee and I shivered away in the near freezing temperatures on top of the double decker, we had a great time laughing at the guide's jokes, and ducking as traffic lights passed very close overhead.
Harlem was nowhere near as scary as people make it sound. It looked very nice, and according to our guide, all the people who back in the 80's were making a living mugging are now in the lucrative market downtown of selling fake Prada and Gucci to tourists.
As the tour continued around central park, Aimee and I got off at the MET. The Metropolitan Museum of art.
Very cool museum with lots of fancy sculptures and paintings, we even met Napoleon Bonepart.
After 2 hours in here carrying all our luggage, I was ready to leave and we made the very lovely walk across central park to the the Museum of Natural History - as seen in the movie 'Night at the Museum'.
I was very impressed with all the pieces on display, but disappointed not to recognize any scenes from the movie. None at all!
It looks like hollywood struck again, a fake museum was created then torn down once shooting was finished.
We did see the dinosaur skeleton which was in the entrance in the movie, now up in the dino wing on the 3rd floor.
Great museum; well worth the visit.
Now it was time to go home, so we flagged down a yellow cab from outside, and after a comfortable trip to the airport we were waiting with the other passengers for our flight back to Canada.
The weather in canada had laid out a lot of snow on new years day, so the flight in front of us was still waiting for their plane.
Fortunately ours was on it's way, and with only a 30 minute delay, we were back home in Toronto and in bed ready for a full day's work tomorrow.
And some might say the best day.
We woke up early with the intention of doing everything we haven't had a chance to do yet.
Hah! Ok, we'll try and cover a few more things anyway. As my parents say, it's nice to have a few things left undone so that you have an excuse to come back. =)
We checked out of the hotel, and went to continue our 48 hour tour.
As they had been closed yesterday, we went up to one of the sellers, who went and got the boss, and we were told that our tickets were still valid, and if anybody asks "just tell 'em Bobby sent ya!"
So today's tour was uptown. The tour would take us up the West side, around central park, through Harlem and back down the east side.
It was the best part of the tour because it was the real New York. Realistic living environments, and a very interesting part of town.
Interestingly dog walkers make $25 per dog per walk on the west side, compared to $15 per dog on the more affluent east side.
Anyway, as Aimee and I shivered away in the near freezing temperatures on top of the double decker, we had a great time laughing at the guide's jokes, and ducking as traffic lights passed very close overhead.
Harlem was nowhere near as scary as people make it sound. It looked very nice, and according to our guide, all the people who back in the 80's were making a living mugging are now in the lucrative market downtown of selling fake Prada and Gucci to tourists.
As the tour continued around central park, Aimee and I got off at the MET. The Metropolitan Museum of art.
Very cool museum with lots of fancy sculptures and paintings, we even met Napoleon Bonepart.
After 2 hours in here carrying all our luggage, I was ready to leave and we made the very lovely walk across central park to the the Museum of Natural History - as seen in the movie 'Night at the Museum'.
I was very impressed with all the pieces on display, but disappointed not to recognize any scenes from the movie. None at all!
It looks like hollywood struck again, a fake museum was created then torn down once shooting was finished.
We did see the dinosaur skeleton which was in the entrance in the movie, now up in the dino wing on the 3rd floor.
Great museum; well worth the visit.
Now it was time to go home, so we flagged down a yellow cab from outside, and after a comfortable trip to the airport we were waiting with the other passengers for our flight back to Canada.
The weather in canada had laid out a lot of snow on new years day, so the flight in front of us was still waiting for their plane.
Fortunately ours was on it's way, and with only a 30 minute delay, we were back home in Toronto and in bed ready for a full day's work tomorrow.
NYC: Day 3 - new years day
Happy New YEAR!
We had a bit of a sleep-in, as today was going to be a slightly relaxing day. Not a lot of things will be open, so we need to find our own entertainment.
The first stop was the subway, and a ride downtown.
Our impressions of the New York subways have improved now, although still markedly different to the Canadian trains.
As we passed through ground zero, the outside became light as the subterranean tunnel was momentarily in the open air; then back into the dimness.
When we got off, we walked back to the world trade centre site, and stood in quiet respect as we tried to imagine what it must have been like with those massive towering buildings standing there.
The area was mostly tourists, so we carried on southwards to the bottom of Manhattan. As we passed tunnels and bridges, we realised that the Americans seem to always want to build a city on an island or on a river, just so that they can come up with ways to get over or under it. There are so many bridges and tunnels going onto Manhattan.
We soon came across Battery park, and the long line of tourists wanting to get onto Liberty Island.
We looked at the line, and spoke to a guide who said it was about 30 minutes to get tickets, and another hour to get onto the boat.
As the day was quickly moving on, we took a photo in front of an artwork that was in one of the collapsed towers and moved on.
The next stop was the port where the ferry leaves to Statten Island.
Again with time limited, and wanting to have a good look around if we did go there, we watched one of the ferries unload it's mass of people, and continued walking up the eastern edge of Manhattan.
We found Wall st, and the NYSE before heading back to the South Street Seaport.
Kind of like Auckland's waterfront bar area, there were some 100 shops in here and a large foodcourt. We found a restaurant to have dinner at and for the first time in a long time, Aimee was asked for ID when ordering a drink with her meal!
After a photo of Aimee and the famous Brooklyn bridge, we were on our way back to Wall st, and the Wall St subway stop.
While studying the map as I regularly do, we actually met a real New Yorker! He kindly asked if we were ok, as he had also been lost in other cities of the world.
We got talking to him, and sadly he didn't actually work on Wall st but back up in Times Square.
We caught an express train back to times square, and decided to walk around a bit more.
We went to the Rockerfeller centre a few blocks east, and saw the big christmas tree and the ice skating rink.
Again the lines were over an hour long and skates $18 to hire, plus paying for ice time so photos were enough.
After a quick walk back, and a nosy in through the M&M gift shop, we were soundly asleep.
We had a bit of a sleep-in, as today was going to be a slightly relaxing day. Not a lot of things will be open, so we need to find our own entertainment.
The first stop was the subway, and a ride downtown.
Our impressions of the New York subways have improved now, although still markedly different to the Canadian trains.
As we passed through ground zero, the outside became light as the subterranean tunnel was momentarily in the open air; then back into the dimness.
When we got off, we walked back to the world trade centre site, and stood in quiet respect as we tried to imagine what it must have been like with those massive towering buildings standing there.
The area was mostly tourists, so we carried on southwards to the bottom of Manhattan. As we passed tunnels and bridges, we realised that the Americans seem to always want to build a city on an island or on a river, just so that they can come up with ways to get over or under it. There are so many bridges and tunnels going onto Manhattan.
We soon came across Battery park, and the long line of tourists wanting to get onto Liberty Island.
We looked at the line, and spoke to a guide who said it was about 30 minutes to get tickets, and another hour to get onto the boat.
As the day was quickly moving on, we took a photo in front of an artwork that was in one of the collapsed towers and moved on.
The next stop was the port where the ferry leaves to Statten Island.
Again with time limited, and wanting to have a good look around if we did go there, we watched one of the ferries unload it's mass of people, and continued walking up the eastern edge of Manhattan.
We found Wall st, and the NYSE before heading back to the South Street Seaport.
Kind of like Auckland's waterfront bar area, there were some 100 shops in here and a large foodcourt. We found a restaurant to have dinner at and for the first time in a long time, Aimee was asked for ID when ordering a drink with her meal!
After a photo of Aimee and the famous Brooklyn bridge, we were on our way back to Wall st, and the Wall St subway stop.
While studying the map as I regularly do, we actually met a real New Yorker! He kindly asked if we were ok, as he had also been lost in other cities of the world.
We got talking to him, and sadly he didn't actually work on Wall st but back up in Times Square.
We caught an express train back to times square, and decided to walk around a bit more.
We went to the Rockerfeller centre a few blocks east, and saw the big christmas tree and the ice skating rink.
Again the lines were over an hour long and skates $18 to hire, plus paying for ice time so photos were enough.
After a quick walk back, and a nosy in through the M&M gift shop, we were soundly asleep.
NYC: Day 2 - New Years eve
Monday dawned to the sounds of traffic outside our window, and the maid doing the rounds of the rooms on our floor.
We headed out for breakfast, and went to buy some tickets for a tour of the city.
Most of the tours don't actually have an office where you line up, they just have a bunch of people in red jackets roaming the street with mobile eftpos terminals.
They push the hard sell on everybody walking past, so fortunately I had done some investigation from brochures picked up, and already decided on the tour we wanted. However the ticket seller reccomended an upgrade, and after some quick calculations we picked up a 2 day pass to New York, including double decker bus tours downtown, uptown, harbour tour and tickets to the Empire State Building.
The first stop on the tour was the empire state building. While our tour ticket included a pre-paid voucher, we still had to line up to collect our tickets. It was a 30 minute wait on the street to get inside, then another lineup for 20 minutes to go through security, then another 5 minute line to get the tickets and then 30 minutes wait to get into the elevator! Once on the 80th floor, we skipped the 10 minute line for the final elevator, and took the stairs with some breathless tourists up to the 86th floor viewing deck.
New York looks much nicer from upon high, we took some photos and enjoyed the views before heading down back to street level.
Once on the street, we had some time for a bit of holiday bargain hunting in Banana Republic, then jumped back on the double decker tour bus.
As we moved downtown, we saw Greenwich village and the first sign that Manhattan supports the growing of real trees. Also Christopher st - for those who don't want the straight route.
SOHO was a heavy bustle of people on the sidewalks and lots of shopping and honking of horns.
We got off the bus in Chinatown, and were surrounded by people selling DVD's, prada and rolex for cheap cheap cheap!
We found some dinner in a local Chinese restaurant, and went to get back on the bus. We waited for 30 minutes where it dropped us off, but no buses appeared. Because it is new years eve, the buses stopped early, fortunately Aimee and I are subway savvy, so we grabbed a coffee and headed back to our hotel.
When we got off at the 42nd st stop, Times square had been shut down. Police had closed the subway stops and all streets going into Times Square. This allows them to control the number of people in the area, however keeps out unknowing tourists like us.
Aimee and I could not believe that we had come all this way only to be stuck on a side street... so close but so far away.
On advice from the police we began to walk uptown to the streets where they were still letting people in... From 46th, we tried 49th, 55th, 57th and finally headed in with an ever increasing crowd at 59th st.
[Sarcastic] Yay, the only view we had was a big screen 6 blocks away replaying the action.
Feeling pretty let down, we decided that even if we couldn't see it, we could at least hear the celebrations by waiting at 46th street by our hotel.
After telling our sob story to a few officers and getting shoo'd away, one kind rookie must have seen the tears welling in Aimee's eyes, and escorted us into the celebrations!
So here's a tip for those travelling to times square for a new years party; get to times square by 6pm before they close the streets, and stay there.
That way you can avoid the disappointment of possibly missing out, and won't have to beg and plead to get let in.
So the party in times square was amazing, 1 million people partying, lights and music everywhere, and of course the continually increasing number of people, without actually being squashed in.
Our view was fantastic, we were right in the middle of the X shaped square, being on 45th st and the ball dropping from on top of a building on 42nd st.
The music stages we're right behind us on 47th st, and MTV had a stage only meters from where we stood.
At the top of every hour, we had a 'practice' countdown which turned out to be the stroke of midnight in another timezone. When the ball dropped for the new York midnight, the crowd went wild, the fireworks exploded and masses of confetti rained from the sky.
After midnight, most people went away soon after 12, and by 20 past the cleanup crews were in full swing; according to the news 1 metric tonne of confetti was cleaned off the street the next day.
After breathing in the last of the atmosphere, Aimee and I took the short walk back to our hotel, only to find that the lobby had become a VIP only party, and about 30 guests were crowding the doors trying to get up to their rooms.
Being held back while party goers entered unopposed made some guests rather angry, especially after hearing feeble excuses as management tried to delay our entry while they made preparations to ensure we didn't enter or damage the mood of the party...
So while people were yelling at the bouncer, they got progressively more angry, until eventually a few were let in. One older lady was separated from her group as the bouncer stopped too many people from going in, and her daughter pulled her through. Another British guy was left behind from his wife, and swore angrily at the big guy as only the brits know how, pushing his way past.
By this point the bouncer was pretty upset, declaring 'I've had enough of this!' And tore out his earpiece, going after the British guy. Fortunately the wife and the night manager stepped in, and balance was restored before and punches were swung, and the rest of the crowd was ushered in; much to our relief.
Once in our room, sleep soon took over.
We headed out for breakfast, and went to buy some tickets for a tour of the city.
Most of the tours don't actually have an office where you line up, they just have a bunch of people in red jackets roaming the street with mobile eftpos terminals.
They push the hard sell on everybody walking past, so fortunately I had done some investigation from brochures picked up, and already decided on the tour we wanted. However the ticket seller reccomended an upgrade, and after some quick calculations we picked up a 2 day pass to New York, including double decker bus tours downtown, uptown, harbour tour and tickets to the Empire State Building.
The first stop on the tour was the empire state building. While our tour ticket included a pre-paid voucher, we still had to line up to collect our tickets. It was a 30 minute wait on the street to get inside, then another lineup for 20 minutes to go through security, then another 5 minute line to get the tickets and then 30 minutes wait to get into the elevator! Once on the 80th floor, we skipped the 10 minute line for the final elevator, and took the stairs with some breathless tourists up to the 86th floor viewing deck.
New York looks much nicer from upon high, we took some photos and enjoyed the views before heading down back to street level.
Once on the street, we had some time for a bit of holiday bargain hunting in Banana Republic, then jumped back on the double decker tour bus.
As we moved downtown, we saw Greenwich village and the first sign that Manhattan supports the growing of real trees. Also Christopher st - for those who don't want the straight route.
SOHO was a heavy bustle of people on the sidewalks and lots of shopping and honking of horns.
We got off the bus in Chinatown, and were surrounded by people selling DVD's, prada and rolex for cheap cheap cheap!
We found some dinner in a local Chinese restaurant, and went to get back on the bus. We waited for 30 minutes where it dropped us off, but no buses appeared. Because it is new years eve, the buses stopped early, fortunately Aimee and I are subway savvy, so we grabbed a coffee and headed back to our hotel.
When we got off at the 42nd st stop, Times square had been shut down. Police had closed the subway stops and all streets going into Times Square. This allows them to control the number of people in the area, however keeps out unknowing tourists like us.
Aimee and I could not believe that we had come all this way only to be stuck on a side street... so close but so far away.
On advice from the police we began to walk uptown to the streets where they were still letting people in... From 46th, we tried 49th, 55th, 57th and finally headed in with an ever increasing crowd at 59th st.
[Sarcastic] Yay, the only view we had was a big screen 6 blocks away replaying the action.
Feeling pretty let down, we decided that even if we couldn't see it, we could at least hear the celebrations by waiting at 46th street by our hotel.
After telling our sob story to a few officers and getting shoo'd away, one kind rookie must have seen the tears welling in Aimee's eyes, and escorted us into the celebrations!
So here's a tip for those travelling to times square for a new years party; get to times square by 6pm before they close the streets, and stay there.
That way you can avoid the disappointment of possibly missing out, and won't have to beg and plead to get let in.
So the party in times square was amazing, 1 million people partying, lights and music everywhere, and of course the continually increasing number of people, without actually being squashed in.
Our view was fantastic, we were right in the middle of the X shaped square, being on 45th st and the ball dropping from on top of a building on 42nd st.
The music stages we're right behind us on 47th st, and MTV had a stage only meters from where we stood.
At the top of every hour, we had a 'practice' countdown which turned out to be the stroke of midnight in another timezone. When the ball dropped for the new York midnight, the crowd went wild, the fireworks exploded and masses of confetti rained from the sky.
After midnight, most people went away soon after 12, and by 20 past the cleanup crews were in full swing; according to the news 1 metric tonne of confetti was cleaned off the street the next day.
After breathing in the last of the atmosphere, Aimee and I took the short walk back to our hotel, only to find that the lobby had become a VIP only party, and about 30 guests were crowding the doors trying to get up to their rooms.
Being held back while party goers entered unopposed made some guests rather angry, especially after hearing feeble excuses as management tried to delay our entry while they made preparations to ensure we didn't enter or damage the mood of the party...
So while people were yelling at the bouncer, they got progressively more angry, until eventually a few were let in. One older lady was separated from her group as the bouncer stopped too many people from going in, and her daughter pulled her through. Another British guy was left behind from his wife, and swore angrily at the big guy as only the brits know how, pushing his way past.
By this point the bouncer was pretty upset, declaring 'I've had enough of this!' And tore out his earpiece, going after the British guy. Fortunately the wife and the night manager stepped in, and balance was restored before and punches were swung, and the rest of the crowd was ushered in; much to our relief.
Once in our room, sleep soon took over.
NYC: Day 1
The trip to new York got off to a good start. After finding that the Toronto subways don't start on Sundays until 8am, we caught a cab to the airport.
No traffic holdups later, we were one and a half hours early for our 9am flight.
The flight left 10 min early as it was only 2 thirds full, and a tailwind put us in La Guardia airport, almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
The yellow cab ride was no different from most others, but did seem a little faster, and closer to the car in front. Also the cab had a screen with advertising and a GPS map so we could see where we were.
As soon as we were on Manhattan island and going across town, things of course slowed up, but we soon arrived at Macys on 34th and Broadway.
Unfortunately for us, they had just packed up their Christmas display, but we had a good look around the 'worlds biggest store' for an hour or so.
After Macy's it was time for lunch, so skipped across the road to a pizzaria for a new York slice.
Feeling better after a bite, we wandered down to the end of the block to go up the Empire State building, but after seeing the queue stretching down the road and around the corner, we decided to come back later.
So now we needed to get from 34th st to our hotel on 46th st, and what better way than to use the subway.
Well, what a trip. It was only 1 stop to our destination of times square, but after using the subways in Vancouver and Toronto we were just shocked. I'm never going to complain about the Toronto subway ever again.
While the station with its 3 levels and multiple train routes on one track does make things confusing, it just didn't feel right. Dirty, dark and downright weird.
So anyway, we came out at the 42nd st times square stop, and fought our way through the masses of people on 7th avenue. I have never seen anything like it, it was like coming out of a rugby game at athletic park, but the exit is 4 city blocks long and there are people on the side selling things.
We checked into the hotel at around 2:30pm, and found the room on the 9th floor. It was at the end of the corridor and in the right place for a nice view over times square, but instead walked into a broom closet with a double bed! Wondering where the rest of it was, Aimee and I found the equally sized bathroom, but that was all there was.
Hmmm, 3 nights in this? Hopefully we'll not be spending too much time here anyway, and it doesn't matter how big the room is when you're asleep.
After a revitalizing nap, we went out for some dinner at planet Hollywood in times square, and had a bit more of a look around before retiring for the night.
No traffic holdups later, we were one and a half hours early for our 9am flight.
The flight left 10 min early as it was only 2 thirds full, and a tailwind put us in La Guardia airport, almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
The yellow cab ride was no different from most others, but did seem a little faster, and closer to the car in front. Also the cab had a screen with advertising and a GPS map so we could see where we were.
As soon as we were on Manhattan island and going across town, things of course slowed up, but we soon arrived at Macys on 34th and Broadway.
Unfortunately for us, they had just packed up their Christmas display, but we had a good look around the 'worlds biggest store' for an hour or so.
After Macy's it was time for lunch, so skipped across the road to a pizzaria for a new York slice.
Feeling better after a bite, we wandered down to the end of the block to go up the Empire State building, but after seeing the queue stretching down the road and around the corner, we decided to come back later.
So now we needed to get from 34th st to our hotel on 46th st, and what better way than to use the subway.
Well, what a trip. It was only 1 stop to our destination of times square, but after using the subways in Vancouver and Toronto we were just shocked. I'm never going to complain about the Toronto subway ever again.
While the station with its 3 levels and multiple train routes on one track does make things confusing, it just didn't feel right. Dirty, dark and downright weird.
So anyway, we came out at the 42nd st times square stop, and fought our way through the masses of people on 7th avenue. I have never seen anything like it, it was like coming out of a rugby game at athletic park, but the exit is 4 city blocks long and there are people on the side selling things.
We checked into the hotel at around 2:30pm, and found the room on the 9th floor. It was at the end of the corridor and in the right place for a nice view over times square, but instead walked into a broom closet with a double bed! Wondering where the rest of it was, Aimee and I found the equally sized bathroom, but that was all there was.
Hmmm, 3 nights in this? Hopefully we'll not be spending too much time here anyway, and it doesn't matter how big the room is when you're asleep.
After a revitalizing nap, we went out for some dinner at planet Hollywood in times square, and had a bit more of a look around before retiring for the night.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Welcome to 2008 everybody!
We're back from New York, and have happily returned to Toronto, only to find it buried under 15-20cm of snow.
I had a little downtime while we were away to jot down some notes about our travel, so watch this space for a 4 (or more) part series on our little new years getaway:
We're back from New York, and have happily returned to Toronto, only to find it buried under 15-20cm of snow.
I had a little downtime while we were away to jot down some notes about our travel, so watch this space for a 4 (or more) part series on our little new years getaway:
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