Seattle- 15th till 19th February 2012

The Space Needle

We flew up to Seattle to spend five far too short days with my cousin Kiri, her lovely husband Glen and their adorable button of a daughter Holly.  Coming from New York and San Francisco, Seattle felt quite small and approachable.  It had a really lovely feeling to it, kind of a like a big Ponsonby, with lots of hills, lots of trees, nice houses and lovely shops and restaurants.

While we were there we saw a little bit of Seattle and evidently spent a lot of time taking self portraits of Kiri and I, if my camera is anything to go by!  We had some fabulous meals, a hell of a lot of good wine and a whole lot of fun!

Kiri and Glen live right near to the famous Pike Place Markets.  The seafood was incredible. 

Remember those battery powered singing fish? What happened to those? Anyway, I like to imagine this one singing 'Don't Worry, Be Happy'.

Glen, Morgan, Kiri and I at a fabulous wine store/bar which I forget the name of. The lady serving us was boozed.

Holly-chops in a rare moment of stillness!

Kiri and I- how we thought we looked in all of our photos.....

....and how we actually looked in most of our photos!  And you know this isn't the worst either!

The original Starbucks store is opposite the markets - note the original logo where the mermaid has boobs out for the lads.  This groups of singers outside were amazing- we even bought the CD.

At Uneeda burger.  Anyone who puts truffle salt on a burger is ok with me!  Nom, nom and nom.  Those gigantic things at the front are onion rings!

Water Buffalo Burger!!!!!!

Seattle by night.

Morgan braved the cold to take photos of the EMP building (a Frank Geary design)....

(whereas this one we stole from the internet- thanks!)

...and the space needle....

....while the rest of us stayed warm in the car. 

Kiri teaches me how its done.

We had dinner out at Lola, a fabulous modern Mediterranean restaurant.  The food was superb.

We did a bit of "divide and conquer" during our stay.  The boys went to Boeing factory and to the Air Museum, the girls had massages, did pilates (it hurts, it hurts) and rode the duck!  The "duck" is one of those amphibious tours.  I've never done one before and it was absolutely hilarious.  The drivers are total comedians and our tour was complete with music, chants and props!

On the monorail

The "Duck"

On the duck- Holly is trying to take her hat off again because children are impervious to the cold....

...unlike me- it was freezing!

The gum wall.  Yes, it's exactly what you think it is!

A new wall is born.. 

According to Morgan the Boeing Factory tour was ace. It is the main plant where they build the 747, 767, 777 and build/assemble the new 787 Dreamliner.  Some facts
 - It is the biggest building by volume in the world.
 - How big you say? It could fit the whole of Disneyland under the roof, including the Matterhorn roller coaster, as the building is 11 stories tall - AND have 4 acres left over for car parking. it is 1km long on one side and almost the same on the other.
- The tail plane on the 747 has the same surface area as the wings on a 737 - and a 737 fuselage is the same circumference as the engine on a 777.
 - A 747 will set you back a bit over 300 million US, NOT including the engines. You have to source those yourself, and they cost between 13 million and 18 million EACH. They put them on for free.
 - The planes are covered in a green vinyl protective coating, and only painted in the airlines colours when they final check has gone through. You pay in three instalments, and yes, they accept cheques.
  - During the airshow where they showed off the first wide body jet (the precursor to the 747), the test pilot decided to do 2 barrel rolls above the crowd, at 500 feet.

Of course - you can't take any photos inside the factory, so here are some unsatisfactory (ha!) ones from  outside.

Not so impressive - until you ponder that you can wheel out a 747 from any of those blue doors on the left.

A 747 in its fetching green vinyl wrap.

Morgan and Glen also went to the 'Future of Flight Aviation Centre'. Here is an illustration of how thick the fuselage of the new Dreamliner is - less then Morgan's fingernail.

The future - biofuel from algae.

18million dollars worth of engine.

The boys also went to the Flight Musuem.

The world's first fighter plane. They only built two, and here is one - in completely original condition.

There have been several 'space tourists'. One of them spent 20 million to go up in space with the Russkies, and come back down in this thing. Which he then bought. This holds three people and is probably about 3m tall. That big round window would actually have been a solid door.

Inside a Concorde. Glen is pretty tall, but the inside is still very cramped.

Inside an old 'Air Force One'. Morgan says he really, really wanted to sit on the seat.

The President's stateroom - no signs of Harrison Ford.

The safes that would have held the nuclear codes.

The Albatross - a pedal powered glider. This successfully made it over the English channel.

Another SR-71 Blackbird. They built 2 of these for the CIA - that thing on the tail is a drone. On trialling the other plane, the drone launched, then crashed into it, thus demonstrating that it perhaps was not such a good idea.

I want one #1. A flying car - the wings have little wheels on the bottom and can be towed thusly, or detached and form their own trailler. They then snap into place with a few pins at the airfield, and off you go. The inventor modelled the car on a Jaguar E-Type - kind of.

I want one #2. This is basically a flying chair. It has a turbofan engine pointing straight down, and it comes up pretty much to groin level. 

We had an absolutely fabulous stay- there's just nothing like time with family!  Thank you so much to Kiri and Glen for having us and showing us such a great time. xxxxxxxxxxxxx

New York- 30th Jan till 13th Feb: Part 2

The Chrysler Building from the river - the story goes that Chrysler (the car company) built this to force GM (another car company) to build the Empire State building higher than they wanted to. It almost worked, the Empire State Building was finished just before the Stock Market Crash, and with only 12% occupancy it almost sunk GM. The only thing that kept the building solvent was the viewing gallery, which was added as an afterthought.

So to recap on Part 1- we came, we saw, we ate.  Here's some more of the same!

*Circle Line Tour- we did a great 3 hour boat tour which circumnavigated the island of Manhattan.  It was a beautiful freezing day and we got lovely views of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges and the classic view of the downtown New York skyline.  The ferry we were in was also one of the first vessels to come to the aid of that plane that landed on the Hudson River.
*Brooklyn- we spent a lovely day wandering around Brooklyn, through Park Slopes, Prospect Park, under and over the Brooklyn bridge.

*The World Trade Center Memorial - very touching, although laughing tourists make me angry, particularly when they are standing within 10m of a crying old lady.

*The Wintergarden and Wall Street

The arch outside Prospect Park in Brooklyn.  The park is bigger than Central Park and was considered by it's designers to be superior.

We saw a film being made in Brooklyn.  Very exciting-ish. Overall, a depressing lack of car chases and shoot outs.

Manhattan Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge- a little bit under renovation at the moment - the walkway is in the middle of the bridge and above the traffic, so the view is still pretty amazing. 

Mmmmm- bagels with cream cheese and lox from Ess-a-bagel.  The food was delicious and came with entertainment- listening to every second person walk in and ask "do you do sandwiches??"! This also illustrates that, while fantastic, the food can be expensive. This is a $30 or so breakfast.

View of western lower Manhattan from the Circle Line Ferry.

The building under construction in the middle is the new World Trade Center 1- when it's finished it will be one and a half times as tall as the Empire State Building.

Morgan and some  french chick. Note: jacket + hat + hood combo because of the cold.

Brooklyn Bridge from the water

The Empire State Building. Today it appears to be on a slight lean.

Harlem as the sun goes down.

Cuban!  That's a plate of delicious pulled beef in front of me, lime pork chops in front of Morg and fried plantains in the middle.

Pork chop happiness. Not sure where this T-shirt came from, but we think it is Pete's, and possibly previously Hilton's. 

The Wintergardens 

The Tara- the research vessel upon which Sir Peter Blake was murdered 

It was pretty cold but Morg came up with an ingenious method of keeping my nose warm!

*MoMA- the Museum of Modern Art is gorgeous and definitely worth a look.  We went on the free Friday afternoon which was madness!
*Fondue!!!!- we met up with the lovely and generous Kiri M (East coast Kiri) and Guy who took us out for fondue!  It was so lovely to see them and I've always wanted to try fondue.  There are no pictures because I was too busy eating!  I can't decide whether my favourite was the savoury dishes or the sweet fondue which had two different kinds of molten chocolate separated by a wall of cake!  OMG.
*Shopsins- this place, recommended by Kiri M, deserves a blog of it's own.  It's a tiny wee cafe in the corner of an indoor food market.  There are, apparently, over 400 items on their incredible menu, which includes such gems as Mac 'n Cheese stuffed pancakes!  I went for the somewhat more sedate ricotta, nutella and butterscotch stuffed french toast and Morgan had the cajun Blisters on my Sisters which was just all kinds of delicious on corn bread.  Nom nom and nom.

Shopsin's.  They also have a reputation for swearing like crazy and throwing out anyone they think is "stupid"!  We found the owner, who came out and chatted for about half an hour, to be quite personable!

The menu at Shopsins.  Google it and have a look.

The courtyard at MoMA

Is that Darth Vader?

Free lollies....

...and shoes!  Now that's my kind of modern art.

Sliders, which we discovered were burgers.  This not inconsequential amount of food was an appetiser, which we discovered was an entree.  As opposed to an entree, which is actually a main.  Get it?

We had a few good diner meals in New York, complete with the typical coffee refills.

Banana chocolate chip pancakes, oh yeah.

*The Natural History Museum- old bones, stuffed flying animals and shiny things- who could want more?
*The Intrepid- this decommissioned aircraft carrier now sits in one of the piers on the western side of Manhattan and houses a whole bunch of planes, a submarine and (way cooler) a Lego model of the whole thing!  Actually found out what "call the ball" means too!
*Tryon Park- a lovely wooded park at the Northern end of Manhattan.  It was given to the city by Rockefeller, that generous guy, and is the only remaining hill that wasn't flattened for development back in the day.  It contains the Cloisters, which houses a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Someone was a little bit excited and had to have a small sit down before he was allowed on the big boat.

An old nuclear missile carrying submarine. 

......with very limited room. Sod being on one of these for three months at a pop.

We did get some good ideas for the motor home - like these tables inlaid with game boards. And torpedo tubes.

Comfy.

Lego model!  

The 'meatball' - the series of lights that guide a plane onto the deck of the an aircraft carrier. The 'ball' is that orange light, and if you can see it, it means you are lined up. Which is 'calling the ball' as per Topgun.

We did a flight simulator.  Here we are before...

...during...

....and after!

Quite amazing to see this view with New York in the background.

That sign says 'Beware jet intakes and props' (propellers.) Quite. 

I spent the whole time humming the Topgun soundtrack.

Breakfast at Balthazar's.  A gorgeous old french style dining room and amazing service. Although being asked how your meal is going 5 times is a bit over the top.

At the Natural History Museum. That is  Willemite Meterorite, which is a massive iron lump.  Sacred to the local Native Americans, so of course some dudes pinched it and put it in a museum.

The moon- I thought it would be bigger. Nice hat though.

Minerally. They all look kind of fake.

It is amazing being able to see stuff like this. Here is 'Lucy', a 3 million year old hominid skeleton that was instrumental in informing where 'we' came from.

Tryon Park from the Hudson River

I don't think he is peeing on that tree....

The Cloisters - these are actually several different 15th century Italian cloisters that were bought and reassembled in to a sort of 'made up' renaissance building.

Morgan is looking so happy because this park is full of squirrels. They look a bit like his beard.

That's right, these guys.  Not shy.

And I'll finish with a few random bits:
*China Town- apparently China town has the largest concentration of Chinese people anywhere in the world outside of China.  It certainly was like walking into another country- as soon as you crossed the "boundary" into China town the language, people and shops completely changed.
*Little Italy - where, unfortunately, we had our one dud meal.  The tumbleweeds should have given us a clue.

Yay!

A beer and a shot- as inspired by "The Wire"

Vampires!!!!!!!!!!!

The waiters at Shanghai Joe's were so "efficient" they were trying to take the chopsticks out of my mouth as I was still eating.  I kid you not.

Ribs!!!! Note completely pointless sides. We gave the leftovers to a very pleased homeless guy.

Burgers from the Corner Bistro.  So good we went there three times! This is a classic example of a restaurant doing one thing really well. They only had 6 or 7 things on the menu.

So overall, New York did not disappoint (massive understatement!). This fortnight has been a real highlight of our year, and a complete contrast to motorhoming in Europe - which was just what we wanted.  Now it's off to the west coast and the promise of slightly warmer weather?  Stay tuned.