We arrived in New York and dropped off our car, which had served us so well during the last 3 months. We drove about 10,000 miles in it in all kinds of weather without any hassles. In NY, we checked into a hotel called Yotel. The inspiration here is an airline, so the rooms are called cabins and are not that much wider than a plane, but have everything in it you need. Unfortunately for me the bed was really hard, so I didn't get much sleep, even with improvised softness.
We had a fair amount of things planned for our New York stay, and first on the evening of our arrival day was a trip to watch The Book of Mormon on broadway. Great fun, very R rated, there is a lot of swearing and adult content. We both enjoyed it.
The next day for sustenance we visited a local Indonesian place called Bali Nusa Indah:
Nasi Goreng
Satay
Beef Rendang
Wandering around NY we came across a little Christmas Market, with obligatory German food!
We met up with Morgan who was kind enough to give us a backstage tour of the Natural History Museum.
Specimens to be examined in Morgan's office.
In the "Global Kitchen" exhibit they made gingerbread houses and cookies to taste.
In the anthropology department, they examined/restored totem poles and many other Native American artifacts.
Visiting the ichthyology (fish) department: The ray below has been treated to remove all the skin. Really cool!
Cichlids!
Reptiles:
A little LoTR display in someone's office :)
One of the other highlights in NY was the NBA game between the Knicks and the Bulls. being a long time Bulls fan and having seen the classic Chicago - New York games in the 80s and 90s I was really looking forward to this one. Bulls dominated, much to the dismay of the other spectators around us :)
Another visit one day was to Alice's Tea Pot for lunch. Quite a nice little place, unfortunately on this occasion the food was not that good, even though it looked great :( It wasn't bad, but definitely looked better than it tasted.
Simone could finally fulfill her dream of skating outside in NY!
A visit to the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza.
Our Christmas Day lunch was at 230 5th Street, a rooftop bar that had a nice buffet going.
They also opened up the roof so we could check out the views.
A New York snowflake on boxing day.
Some of the food from our goodbye meal at the Hourglass Tavern with Morgan. My bourbon braised shortrib and fruit cobbler.
Las Vegas was our stop for the time over New Year's Eve. We had secured tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld and we were not disappointed. Great show, but short. He was only on for about an hour.
On the 29th we took a day trip to the Grand Canyon, via the Hoover Dam. Started at 7.30am and we got back at around 9pm. Lots of driving, but well worth doing. Great sights, great guide and we were in a small group of 9 people.
Hoover Dam:
A little stop on the way on route 66....
The Grand Canyon!!!
We had a great time at the Canyon. Following are shots from the 30th and New Year's Eve.
The Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar's Palace. It opened in September and apparently cost 17 million to develop and build. It's massive and you have to queue to get in. But they serve 500 dishes, including crab legs and a variety of delicious meats. The crab legs were cut in half for ease of eating!
We also went to a shooting range called American Shooters.I looked at the feedback the highly advertised ranges got, and a lot of people recommended going here. Less tourists, cheaper, friendlier.
And they were right. The staff here were friendly, showed us how to handle the guns and rifles properly. Below are photos of what we shot (taken from the web), after the shot I took outside the range.
Glock 19
Taurus Raging Judge Magnum 45
Heckler & Koch UMP 45ACP automatic rifle
LWRC M6A1 556 automatic rifle
Actual photos from the range. The Taurus Judge gun and ammo.
Not bad I think considering the recoil on this baby.
NYE food and photo:
Hot Iced Chocolate at Serendipity 3
The strip at around 8pm on NYE.
On the first of january we moved on to Los Angeles, then drove from the airport to Valencia where Six Flags Magic Mountain rollercoaster park is located. We had a meal at the Red Lobster nearby the evening before our visit to the park.
I didn't take any photos at the park, but suffice to say we went on almost all coasters (we skipped the wooden ones). By the end Simone felt a bit queasy, but she's also battling a cold right now so she's forgiven :) When we went in we wanted to go on the X2 coaster, but it was closed due to high winds. At the end the ride was open but Simone wasn't up to it anymore. Unfortunately the Superman ride was also closed for maintenance, it looked really cool!
I think Tatsu was one of our favourites. The seats actually fold back so you are suspended facing down and it makes you feel like you're flying rather than riding in a seat. The following photos and video are from the web.
So this ends our 6 month journey of the USA and Canada. We did so many things, met so many great people, saw so many wonderful sights. This blog will help to jog our memory in the future and hopefully also be of help or inspiration to others. Thanks to everyone who helped us, some people we have never met before opened their homes to us, which is just incredibly kind and we are so grateful. We had the experience of a lifetime for sure, yet even after 6 months we realised how many things we could not fit in. We have made many new friends and will hopefully see all of them again someday, maybe even in Australia!
