Hi Everyone,
Coming to you from New York City.
This is a crazy, chaotic and frenetic place, but I love it. Wasn't the culture shock that some here had suggested though. I have found the people here to be, for the most part, friendly enough. Except for the shopkeepers, they try to intimidate you into buying stuff, but fortunately, I am not easily intimidated. B&H Photo was awesome, but they were indifferent to serving me though. I wanted to buy a lens for my 60D, but they didn't seem interested in selling it to me. Couldn't find it anywhere else even close to B&H price either.
Anyway, the trip so far;
Los Angeles: The Californian Science Centre, The Natural History Museum and the Griffith Observatory.....awesome
The La Brea Tar Pits was also good, as was Santa Monica. But....as for the rest of LA....it sucks! Apologies to any LA'ians, but it just sucks, the place, not the people, who were ok. Met some really nice people there, and one in particular.
San Francisco: What can I say.......Loved it. It is just a beautiful city and loved the trolley cars and Pier 39. Didn't get to Alcatraz though, it was booked out, in the lead up to the America's Cup. The Science Centre was awesome, but quite expensive at $35 entry, but then they do have live animal exhibits in the rain forest dome. That was awesome. People were funny there, a big blue butterfly landed on my shoulder and everyone got excited. It sat there as I walked around. Apparently, they like hitchin' a ride and you have to brush them off in an airlock
Train trip: SF to Washington. This was an awesome 3 day trip up through the Sierra and the Rockies. Food on the train was pretty good to, as were the people. The changing countryside was quite varied, but the Rockies was so awesome. train travel is the only way to go, see much more than you can at 30,000 ft in a plane, just don't want to be in a hurry. No security crap either. And security here is tight. Even have to go through security to get into a library
I understand the paranoia, but I still think it is a little over the top. But, to be fair, I don't think we know how lucky we are in Australia.
Washington: Nice enough place, with way too much to see in 5 days. The Air and Space Museum was awesome, being so close to so much history is cool. The Steven F Adva Hazy Centre was also pretty good too and wasn't that hard to get to either. Their plane collection is impressive. The A&S help desk have a sheet with directions for buses. The natural History Museum in DC had the most amazing mineral and gem collection and some amazing meteorites, including some from Australia.
New York: The Hayden Planetarium show "Journey to the Stars" was awesome. But, don't go to the Natural History Museum on a rainy day. It rained all day when I went, seems like everyone ease had the same idea, over 15,000 people. I was lucky, I got one of the last tickets for the Planetarium show.
Next week: Stellafane!!! Yay, can't believe I am so close to this now, both chronologically and geographically.
Sadly, so far (been here for over two weeks), I have managed to see only 3 bright stars, either because of cloud or light pollution, which is way worse than Perth. So bad, you cannot see stars, even on a clear night.
Cheers Peter
Thanks for that mate , sounds like you are having a great time .
