Off to San Fransisco

Today is Thursday the 15th, about 9am and today we fly to San Francisco!

We are feeling tired as there is little time to sleep, and the sleep we do have is broken, the hotel is very noisy and their pillows are crap.  1 pillow is not enough, 2 is too many, you need the air conditioning on but its noisy, the doors of other rooms slam shut and you have rappers outside your door at 2am giving random demos of their talent.

Tuesday, we were up early to venture across town to go to a 911 museum tour.  The museum was small and featured photos and stories from the only authorised photographer during the 911 recovery.  The tour was narrated through a headset and each photo told a story.

It was a very emotional time even for those who were visiting.  Although they do not show pictures of the actual planes that hit the world trade centre, they certainly focus on what happened after, the recovery and the human stories of the 2,700 odd people who lost their lives. Without even considering the loss of life that has occurred in the war that has followed…

We have heard stories about the fire-fighters and others that got sick soon after the recovery started, many now have cancers and the police/fire dogs that search for people, many who have also since died, admittedly its 10 years down the track for dogs but they said many got prematurely sick.

They believe now that the illness came from the toxic fumes from the burning metal, that it was absorbed by the body's fatty tissue.  They said many people were sweating blue dye.

There was the story of the Deutsch bank who would not let recovery staff into their bank building next door to the site… bodies lay in that building for 4 years before they were allowed to be buried, let alone their relatives have closure.

There was a clock that stopped at the time the plane crashed into the building, a very chilling reminder that so many lost their lives at that time.

After the museum tour we ventured into Soho, one of the shopping areas… it was difficult to find some of the shops we were looking for and at times to know which way the trains and busses were heading.  A couple of times we hopped onto a train going the wrong way but we soon worked out where we had to go.

We also found the World Trade Centre site, where the memorial is.  You need tickets to get in to the memorial and we tried to get tickets before we left home but they sold out.  From the outside you can't really even see in.  They have started building the replacement building, there will only be one instead of the 2 that were previously there.

We're getting tired… and a bit grumpy, nothing the Lion King won't be able to fix.  More lining up… we had great seats and the performers were fantastic…  We headed back to the hotel for some sleep only to find that 20 odd school children were occupying adjacent rooms on our hotel floor…  Damn, they also got up early at 0630 slamming doors and yelling out…  Guess you don't come on holiday to sleep….

Times square is always busy, we've never seen so many people in the one space and you are always being harassed to buy tour tickets or comedy show tickets… think Marion at Christmas… but the size of Rundle Mall. We are struggling with how rude people are… it was almost fun for the first couple of days – but now it is just plain annoying. Our best strategy for dealing people who are too absorbed in their phone to watch where they are going is to just stop and let them walk in to us… this is generally followed with a disgusted look as they keep walking around you… no 'sorry', 'excuse me' or anything vaguely polite… just the look that says – 'why did you not get out of my way?'

People tend to get paid on commission here so really they are just trying to earn an income but it's annoying… Despite all of the people – and being half way across the world – Darren was spotted getting on to the ferry by one of the Administrative staff from ICCU… seriously, the world is a very small place… queue the music… and back to Disneyland –' it's a small world after all…'

We found a little café next door to the hotel that makes great coffee and hot chocolate… they also have free Internet so they are our new favourite place.

We Visited the Rockefeller centre – and the 3 of us went up to their observation deck on the 69^th floor… the views were sensational, and better than what we could see from atop the Empire State building. The security screening for everything here also seems to be a bit excessive… airport style scanners to go to any of their attractions. If they don't have scanners – they will pat you down instead…

As we were on 5^th Avenue, there was a need to head back to Tiffany and Co… needless to say that the Minister of Finance has since issued a severe credit warning!

Other than that – we just browsed the sights, and have been picking up a bit of shopping along the way! It has been quite fun to go searching for stores that we know exist as we go… as it has taken us to some places that are a bit off of the beaten track! We went to the most amazing Camera and Electronics store – they had a claim about being the biggest camera store (but we can not remember the rest)! The section that they had for studio lighting was as big as I have ever seen a whole store anywhere else! They also had the most sensational electronic cart / track set up that they used to get the goods from one of their helpdesks to the check out area… so you did not need a trolley or hand basket… the goods met you at the end of your shopping experience – all bagged up and ready to go! Shane had a bad shopping day… everything that he wanted was not there… however we have identified online shopping options to get what he needs if we cannot find it before we get home!

We stopped in the Foyer of the Museum of Modern Art – would have loved to have gone in… but really did not have enough time… Same story for Madame Tussards. We did stop in to the Ripley's Believe it or not Museum… fascinating stuff in there.

We discovered that the alternative to doing laundry is just to buy more stuff!! We visited Macy's to prevent an underwear crisis…

We have also had a few slips, Trips and Falls… there is potentially a need for admission for investigation of such. So far… we have damaged 4 ankles, 2 knees and a wrist. Here is hoping that we actually manage to get home safely without breaking anything!

We managed to find ice cream after a few days of looking… so that was bit exciting! For dinner, we went to the Hard Rock Café – a sensational place! The atmosphere was great and the food even came with Vegetables… it had been over a week since we had seen them! Quite excitingly, Darren was asked for ID… while this has been common practice for everyone to ask everyone all of the time – this was not the case on this occasion… he just wanted to check that Darren was over 21… although – according to Luke, people will often pick some old tragic in an attempt to make their day…

We are now off early to the airport as we figure it will take a while to get through their security.  We fly from JFK airport to San Francisco and arrive there about 1750.  The place we are staying has free Internet so at least we don't have to search for free Wi-Fi…

Until the next post, take care!

The Tired Trippers!