Another big day today. Our first stop was the Hershey chocolate factory in Hershey. It's big: much bigger than the Cadbury factory in Tasmania. We didn't go into the factory itself (like the Cadbury tour) but went on a kind of amusement park ride through a tunnel, with life size cow puppets singing, voice over commentary, and mock ups of all the stages of factory production. It was cute, and the quickest introduction to how chocolate bars are made that I've ever seen.
At the end of the tour we got two free samples, and then visited the shop. I couldn't stop smiling: all that chocolate! But I was very restrained (unlike some of my fellow tourists) and only bought some hot chocolate powder and one chocolate bar - and 5 chocolate marshmellow pumpkins on special after Halloween for 50 cents. There was a very cute denim jacket with diamante spelling out Kisses (Hershey are famous for Hershey Kisses) that I managed to resist.
Next stop, at York, was a Harley-Davidson factory. We did quite a long tour with a tour guide of the factory where the custom-built Harley motor cycles are built, and that was fascinating: alll the way from stamping out the basic parts, to laser cutting and trimming, to chroming and painting, to the assembly line, to testing. Too bad they don't give free samples there! In the show room there were several motor cycles that we could sit on and have our photos taken, and of course there was a Harley shop as well.
Next stop was Gettysburg, but it was getting late and so we just had half an hour at the museum - not enough time to visit the battlefields or see the audio-visual presentations. I had run out of books to read (had even reread the Da Vinci Code) so bought "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" which I'm enjoying immensely. I seem to remember reading "Oldest Living Confederate General Tells All" some years ago, and this is along the same lines but told from an old woman's point of view.
Then on to the hotel, take away for dinner, and the usual happy hour. I've managed to book a flight on South west airlines from Louisville to St Louis, and a hotel near the St Louis airport for Saturday night, and this blog is now up to date again, so it's all good.
(There's lots of stuff that gets left out of the blog because I can't remember it - after a couple of cocktails - but I think of it later. too bad.)
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Princess Di and Pops A Cappella
We left Boston at 7:30 am. Some of our good friends (including the Owens family, who are off to Canada) left the tour at this point - we hugged Mary goodbye.
It was a long drive to Philadelphia. We stopped in Philadelphia to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but there were no tickets left to Independence Hall so I decided to see the Princess Di exhibition which was on at the Constitution Exhibition Centre instead: $23 and half an hour to see it. Actually it was good value: lots of photos and film clips of Diana from when she was a child right through to her marriage, plus jewellery, The Wedding Dress, and several other couture outfits that she wore.
The highlight of the day - and one of the highlights of the trip - was visiting Pops A Cappella. they are a mixed a cappella group that toured New Zealand earlier this year and had joint shows with Waikata Rivertones. They put on a pot luck dinner for us, and performed for us, and invited the Rivertones to perform as well. They rehearse in business premises owned by Siemens, so we had to sign in as visitors and be escorted down to the rehearsal hall. Like the River Blenders they were delightfully friendly and hospitable people. I really enjoyed their singing: while they don't do the "synchronised swimming" choreo of Sweet Adelines, they were very expressive and had lots of interactive stuff going on between the men and the women, which was a lot of fun. They also had some very good soloists. It made me want to sing mixed a cappella too.
For this night only we stayed at a hotel called the Staybridge Suites in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where we five Aussies shared a two bedroom, two bathroom suite. Sue was banished to the sofa bed in the living room as she has a very fluey cough.
This netbook worked for a while and then wouldn't connect to the internet: very frustrating, as I need to book flights and accommodation to get me from Louisville to St Louis on Saturday.
It was a long drive to Philadelphia. We stopped in Philadelphia to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but there were no tickets left to Independence Hall so I decided to see the Princess Di exhibition which was on at the Constitution Exhibition Centre instead: $23 and half an hour to see it. Actually it was good value: lots of photos and film clips of Diana from when she was a child right through to her marriage, plus jewellery, The Wedding Dress, and several other couture outfits that she wore.
The highlight of the day - and one of the highlights of the trip - was visiting Pops A Cappella. they are a mixed a cappella group that toured New Zealand earlier this year and had joint shows with Waikata Rivertones. They put on a pot luck dinner for us, and performed for us, and invited the Rivertones to perform as well. They rehearse in business premises owned by Siemens, so we had to sign in as visitors and be escorted down to the rehearsal hall. Like the River Blenders they were delightfully friendly and hospitable people. I really enjoyed their singing: while they don't do the "synchronised swimming" choreo of Sweet Adelines, they were very expressive and had lots of interactive stuff going on between the men and the women, which was a lot of fun. They also had some very good soloists. It made me want to sing mixed a cappella too.
For this night only we stayed at a hotel called the Staybridge Suites in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where we five Aussies shared a two bedroom, two bathroom suite. Sue was banished to the sofa bed in the living room as she has a very fluey cough.
This netbook worked for a while and then wouldn't connect to the internet: very frustrating, as I need to book flights and accommodation to get me from Louisville to St Louis on Saturday.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Boston
We're in Boston (or at least, in Andover near Boston) so it must be Tuesday.
Today our coach took us into Boston. In the morning we visited the JFK Library and Museum: a bit of a challenge for our coach drivers as there were roadworks, and I heard them saying to each other "what does your GPS say?", but we got there in the end after asking a policeman or two.
As JFK was the President who really made television his tool, there was lots of great archival footage, starting with Kennedy family home movies when he was just a gorgeous boy and then going to Paris when his father was Ambassador to France, and then various election campaigns and his victory speech, right through to the assassination. We only had an hour, and I wish we'd had more time to spend there, but we were running late.
We had a quick lunch at Quincy Market, which has some wonderful food stalls and a few interesting shops, and then picked up our onboard licensed guide for a tour around Boston. She was excellent: Swiss by birth, she emigrated in the sixties to the US.
Boston is very pretty, surrounded by water and with some wonderful parks and historic buildings. We visited Old North church (where the Sons of Liberty shone two lamps in the window to let Paul Revere know which way the British soldiers were coming: "one if by land, two if by sea") and sat in the enclosed pews that still had the names of the people who rented them back in 1794. We drove past Boston Common, where cows were grazed, and saw the land reclaimed from the sea that has been turned into park, and the statue of the duck with her ducklings: Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack, Pack and Quack.
And we visited USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides), one of America's first Navy ships after Independence.
It was bloody cold, so we didn't linger. After we dropped our tour guide off we headed back to Andover and had dinner at Crackerjack (another clone, but with even faster service). I discovered that blackberry cobbler is pretty much blackberry jam, served with icecream on top.
I"ve been wrestling with my ASUS eee pc netbook and in desperation followed some advice that I found when I googled the error message. It involved using Linux commands, which makes me very nervous, but seems to have part-fixed the problem. Mainly now I think the problem is that I don't have much memory, but at least I can move photos from my camera SD card to my memory stick.
Today our coach took us into Boston. In the morning we visited the JFK Library and Museum: a bit of a challenge for our coach drivers as there were roadworks, and I heard them saying to each other "what does your GPS say?", but we got there in the end after asking a policeman or two.
As JFK was the President who really made television his tool, there was lots of great archival footage, starting with Kennedy family home movies when he was just a gorgeous boy and then going to Paris when his father was Ambassador to France, and then various election campaigns and his victory speech, right through to the assassination. We only had an hour, and I wish we'd had more time to spend there, but we were running late.
We had a quick lunch at Quincy Market, which has some wonderful food stalls and a few interesting shops, and then picked up our onboard licensed guide for a tour around Boston. She was excellent: Swiss by birth, she emigrated in the sixties to the US.
Boston is very pretty, surrounded by water and with some wonderful parks and historic buildings. We visited Old North church (where the Sons of Liberty shone two lamps in the window to let Paul Revere know which way the British soldiers were coming: "one if by land, two if by sea") and sat in the enclosed pews that still had the names of the people who rented them back in 1794. We drove past Boston Common, where cows were grazed, and saw the land reclaimed from the sea that has been turned into park, and the statue of the duck with her ducklings: Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack, Pack and Quack.
And we visited USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides), one of America's first Navy ships after Independence.
It was bloody cold, so we didn't linger. After we dropped our tour guide off we headed back to Andover and had dinner at Crackerjack (another clone, but with even faster service). I discovered that blackberry cobbler is pretty much blackberry jam, served with icecream on top.
I"ve been wrestling with my ASUS eee pc netbook and in desperation followed some advice that I found when I googled the error message. It involved using Linux commands, which makes me very nervous, but seems to have part-fixed the problem. Mainly now I think the problem is that I don't have much memory, but at least I can move photos from my camera SD card to my memory stick.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Abyssinian Baptist Church
The wakeup call came at 5:45 am, an hour earlier than we'd asked, so the daylight saving change hadn't worked as well as we expected.
On the coach again at 8:30 am with all our bags packed, we travelled to Harlem to attend a church service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. We had pre-booked, which was a good thing because there was a queue of tourists stretching the whole block waiting to get in, and we got priority ahead of all of them. We still had to queue in the chilly New York morning air from 9 am to 11 am, and whiled away the time singing.
The church is very efficient and had ushers (men in suits, ladies in white dresses and gloves) doing crowd control. At last they let us in and we took seats in the upper balcony. The liturgy was not too different from what I remember in the days when I went to church, and I was able to sing along with some of the hymns. The choir sat in the choir stalls up above, next to a very nice organ, and sang some Hayden. I was impressed that the Assistant Pastor was a woman, who spoke very well; but the highlight was definitely the sermon by Pastor Butts, who was a very powerful speaker. He welcomed visitors, mentioned us as Sweet Adelines from New Zealand, and had us sing a song (It Is Well With My Soul) which won us a standing ovation - heady stuff.
The congregation member next to me kept punctuating the sermon, about what it means to be a Christian, by calling out "Amen" and "Preach". There was also quite a lot of political comment as the Pastor reported on a recent visit to Washington and his support for President Obama.
During the offertory the choir sang a lively gospel song and everyone clapped. The service ended around 1:30 pm, and we got back on the coaches and headed towards Boston. We stopped at another Costco outlet for rest breaks, food (a very late lunch) and more shopping. I picked up some cardboard boxes from FedEx to post some of my surplus clothing home.
We got to Andover, Massachussetts, around 7:30 pm, had our usual happy hour and then retired to our rooms for dinner and unpacking.
On the coach again at 8:30 am with all our bags packed, we travelled to Harlem to attend a church service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. We had pre-booked, which was a good thing because there was a queue of tourists stretching the whole block waiting to get in, and we got priority ahead of all of them. We still had to queue in the chilly New York morning air from 9 am to 11 am, and whiled away the time singing.
The church is very efficient and had ushers (men in suits, ladies in white dresses and gloves) doing crowd control. At last they let us in and we took seats in the upper balcony. The liturgy was not too different from what I remember in the days when I went to church, and I was able to sing along with some of the hymns. The choir sat in the choir stalls up above, next to a very nice organ, and sang some Hayden. I was impressed that the Assistant Pastor was a woman, who spoke very well; but the highlight was definitely the sermon by Pastor Butts, who was a very powerful speaker. He welcomed visitors, mentioned us as Sweet Adelines from New Zealand, and had us sing a song (It Is Well With My Soul) which won us a standing ovation - heady stuff.
The congregation member next to me kept punctuating the sermon, about what it means to be a Christian, by calling out "Amen" and "Preach". There was also quite a lot of political comment as the Pastor reported on a recent visit to Washington and his support for President Obama.
During the offertory the choir sang a lively gospel song and everyone clapped. The service ended around 1:30 pm, and we got back on the coaches and headed towards Boston. We stopped at another Costco outlet for rest breaks, food (a very late lunch) and more shopping. I picked up some cardboard boxes from FedEx to post some of my surplus clothing home.
We got to Andover, Massachussetts, around 7:30 pm, had our usual happy hour and then retired to our rooms for dinner and unpacking.
Tourist attractions, New York
Saturday was another big day. The coaches left early to take us to a ferry terminal somewhere in the bookdocks (lots of swamp) to catch the ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island.
Ellis Island is where immigrants were processed. They had a very good audio tour of the building where new arrivals dropped their baggage, went upstairs for a 6 second medical check, waited to be questioned, and then were either free to go or were detained. Seems like not much has changed. I was surprised to find out that most immigrants were accepted, back then, and only 2% (or was it 6%) rejected. But it must have been a terrifying experience. The doctors checked for trachoma by turning back your eyelids with a button hook, and medical conditions were chalked in a code on your clothing.
We caught the ferry again to visit Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. Another audio tour: there was a 45 minute wait to climb up inside so most of us just walked around the perimeter, and that was interesting enough. She looks solid, but she's actually a thin layer of copper sheets over a structure designed by Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame. Here's a trivia question: what's inscribed on the book that she holds? It's July 4th (Independence Day) with the year in roman numerals that I couldn't quite read.
The New York skyline from the ferry was just beautiful: especially as we came into land, with the sun turning the windows to gold and silver.
The ferry dropped us at Battery Point and the coaches took us to the Empire State Building, where we caught a lift up to the 80th floor and another lift to the 86th floor where the observatory is. It was very windy, but we were able to walk right around and see a wonderful 360 degree view of New York below us. Most of the rooftops were pretty filthy.
I lost the rest of the Aussie contingent (not intentionally) and headed north towards the Museum of Modern Art. I'm not a fan of the newer stuff, but it was wonderful to see original Picasso and Mondrian and Klint that I'd only ever seen in art books. Monet's waterlilies were supposed to be there but I couldn't find them and was running out of time and energy.
My next stop was Central Park, and by sheer coincidence I ran into Sue, Jill, Jennifer and Mary on a street corner. They were on their way back from shopping at Tiffany's. We joined forces and walked up to Central Park together to take a horse-drawn carriage ride around the park. That was fun: Sue and I had an Irish coach driver who pointed out the sights. The ice rink had opened and people were skating.
Walking along 7th avenue we saw several people and children in Halloween costumes. There was a Halloween parade starting at 7 pm but it was the other end of town so we didn't get to see it. One cute baby in a stroller was dressed as a lobster.
Next on the schedule was going to South Pacific at the Lincoln Centre. It was very hard to flag down a taxi, so eventually we split up. Jill and Jennifer went off to pursue a taxi and Mary, Sue and I ventured into the subway at 59th street. Unfortunately the Halloween Parade and the New York Marathon (on Sunday) meant some subway services had been suspended. We caught what we thought was a subway to the Lincoln Centre but it turned out to be an express that didn't stop until 107th street, so we caught another express back to 59th street and walked the few blocks to 65th street along Broadway. We had a sort of meal at Starbucks, and then found Jill and Jennifer (who'd managed to flag down a taxi very quickly) waiting outside the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
South Pacific was wonderful. I'd never seen it before, so didn't know what to expect. It's based on short stories by James A Michener, and deals with issues of mixed marriages: between an American nurse, Nellie, and a French plantation owner; and an American soldier and a Tahitian girl. Great singing, wonderful music, fantastic scenery.
We caught a taxi home - not a licensed taxi, and he charged over the odds, but he was willing to take all 5 of us in one taxi and he was there, so it worked out okay. We were home by 11:30 pm, and it's the end of daylight saving so we got an extra hour's sleep (or should have).
Ellis Island is where immigrants were processed. They had a very good audio tour of the building where new arrivals dropped their baggage, went upstairs for a 6 second medical check, waited to be questioned, and then were either free to go or were detained. Seems like not much has changed. I was surprised to find out that most immigrants were accepted, back then, and only 2% (or was it 6%) rejected. But it must have been a terrifying experience. The doctors checked for trachoma by turning back your eyelids with a button hook, and medical conditions were chalked in a code on your clothing.
We caught the ferry again to visit Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. Another audio tour: there was a 45 minute wait to climb up inside so most of us just walked around the perimeter, and that was interesting enough. She looks solid, but she's actually a thin layer of copper sheets over a structure designed by Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame. Here's a trivia question: what's inscribed on the book that she holds? It's July 4th (Independence Day) with the year in roman numerals that I couldn't quite read.
The New York skyline from the ferry was just beautiful: especially as we came into land, with the sun turning the windows to gold and silver.
The ferry dropped us at Battery Point and the coaches took us to the Empire State Building, where we caught a lift up to the 80th floor and another lift to the 86th floor where the observatory is. It was very windy, but we were able to walk right around and see a wonderful 360 degree view of New York below us. Most of the rooftops were pretty filthy.
I lost the rest of the Aussie contingent (not intentionally) and headed north towards the Museum of Modern Art. I'm not a fan of the newer stuff, but it was wonderful to see original Picasso and Mondrian and Klint that I'd only ever seen in art books. Monet's waterlilies were supposed to be there but I couldn't find them and was running out of time and energy.
My next stop was Central Park, and by sheer coincidence I ran into Sue, Jill, Jennifer and Mary on a street corner. They were on their way back from shopping at Tiffany's. We joined forces and walked up to Central Park together to take a horse-drawn carriage ride around the park. That was fun: Sue and I had an Irish coach driver who pointed out the sights. The ice rink had opened and people were skating.
Walking along 7th avenue we saw several people and children in Halloween costumes. There was a Halloween parade starting at 7 pm but it was the other end of town so we didn't get to see it. One cute baby in a stroller was dressed as a lobster.
Next on the schedule was going to South Pacific at the Lincoln Centre. It was very hard to flag down a taxi, so eventually we split up. Jill and Jennifer went off to pursue a taxi and Mary, Sue and I ventured into the subway at 59th street. Unfortunately the Halloween Parade and the New York Marathon (on Sunday) meant some subway services had been suspended. We caught what we thought was a subway to the Lincoln Centre but it turned out to be an express that didn't stop until 107th street, so we caught another express back to 59th street and walked the few blocks to 65th street along Broadway. We had a sort of meal at Starbucks, and then found Jill and Jennifer (who'd managed to flag down a taxi very quickly) waiting outside the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
South Pacific was wonderful. I'd never seen it before, so didn't know what to expect. It's based on short stories by James A Michener, and deals with issues of mixed marriages: between an American nurse, Nellie, and a French plantation owner; and an American soldier and a Tahitian girl. Great singing, wonderful music, fantastic scenery.
We caught a taxi home - not a licensed taxi, and he charged over the odds, but he was willing to take all 5 of us in one taxi and he was there, so it worked out okay. We were home by 11:30 pm, and it's the end of daylight saving so we got an extra hour's sleep (or should have).
New York, New York
Now it's Friday. (Well,actually it's Sunday but I'm a couple of days behind with this.)
We're staying in Newark, New Jersey near the Newark International Airport. There are a bunch of hotels on the New Jersey Turnpike, near the airport, a long way from anything else: I guess they're handy for commuters.
We took both coaches into New York and picked up our on board tour guide, Martha, who's a born and bred New Yorker. We wished that we'd had a map of New York to trace where we went, as it got very confusing. There are 5 boroughs; there's"uptown" and "downtown" (handy when catching subways); the avenues and the streets are numbered, and the streets are either East or West of 7th avenue (I think). We had a brief walk in Central Park, and the rest of the time we were on the bus. Lunch was at the Rockefeller Centre, where there's an ice skating rink and a lot of shops.
Some people chose to stay in the city after the tour and make their own way home, but we caught the coach back and settled for Lean Cuisine in our room.
We're staying in Newark, New Jersey near the Newark International Airport. There are a bunch of hotels on the New Jersey Turnpike, near the airport, a long way from anything else: I guess they're handy for commuters.
We took both coaches into New York and picked up our on board tour guide, Martha, who's a born and bred New Yorker. We wished that we'd had a map of New York to trace where we went, as it got very confusing. There are 5 boroughs; there's"uptown" and "downtown" (handy when catching subways); the avenues and the streets are numbered, and the streets are either East or West of 7th avenue (I think). We had a brief walk in Central Park, and the rest of the time we were on the bus. Lunch was at the Rockefeller Centre, where there's an ice skating rink and a lot of shops.
Some people chose to stay in the city after the tour and make their own way home, but we caught the coach back and settled for Lean Cuisine in our room.
Washington to New York via Baltimore
Today was a travel day, so there's not much to report.
We loaded all our luggage (getting heavier every day, with all our shopping) on the coaches and our first stop was just down the road at the Manassas Super Walmart: the new one, that had just relocated from the one we visited a day or so ago. More shopping.
Our lunch stop was some hours down the road at Costco. It's a cooperative wholesale outlet intended for small business, but luckily Joe's a member so we were able to shop. I escaped with wallet intact, but wandered over to J C Penney's across the car park where they were having a sale, and found a few things to buy. We're doing our best to stimulate the US economy.
We got to New Jersey late afternoon and booked into our next hotel, which is near the Newark International Airport. Staying out here in the boondocks is much cheaper than staying in New York, and theoretically it's only 30 minutes drive into the city. For dinner there was a choice of take away, microwaving an instant meal from the hotel shop, or walking down the road to another Marriott hotel's restaurant. We took the last option. I think they were a bit overwhelmed by the influx, as the service was remarkably slow.
Travellling seems to be a lot about food and shelter and shopping. I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods and it's the same with him (but he's much funnier to read) - except for the shopping.
We loaded all our luggage (getting heavier every day, with all our shopping) on the coaches and our first stop was just down the road at the Manassas Super Walmart: the new one, that had just relocated from the one we visited a day or so ago. More shopping.
Our lunch stop was some hours down the road at Costco. It's a cooperative wholesale outlet intended for small business, but luckily Joe's a member so we were able to shop. I escaped with wallet intact, but wandered over to J C Penney's across the car park where they were having a sale, and found a few things to buy. We're doing our best to stimulate the US economy.
We got to New Jersey late afternoon and booked into our next hotel, which is near the Newark International Airport. Staying out here in the boondocks is much cheaper than staying in New York, and theoretically it's only 30 minutes drive into the city. For dinner there was a choice of take away, microwaving an instant meal from the hotel shop, or walking down the road to another Marriott hotel's restaurant. We took the last option. I think they were a bit overwhelmed by the influx, as the service was remarkably slow.
Travellling seems to be a lot about food and shelter and shopping. I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods and it's the same with him (but he's much funnier to read) - except for the shopping.
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