Author Topic: Vacation  (Read 145343 times)

saltine

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1220 on: March 15, 2016, 12:48:28 AM »
I swear that little horse starred in an Amazon Prime ad I saw yesterday.  :D
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FifthCityMuse

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1221 on: March 20, 2016, 05:20:02 PM »
In June/July of this year, my partner and I will be visiting...

The US!

It's a bit of a short trip, only about 20 days (including the two 18 flights across the Pacific) and it's very... coastal elite? But I'm looking forward to it.

We'll be spending a few days in LA at the start and end of the trip, about a week in NY and 5 nights in SF. My partner has been to LA and SF before, but it's my first time to the states, and the first time to NY for both of us. It's lined up so we'll be in NY for Pride and SF for fourth of July.

I am open to suggestions for places to visit or things to see, let me know!

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1222 on: March 20, 2016, 08:15:21 PM »
For LA a visit to Venice Beach is well worth it. If you are into amusement rides, 6 Flags - Magic Mountain, north of LA is excellent, or the there is the tamer Knott's Berry Farm in Anaheim. Of course there is the classic of Disneyland, but those rides are all tame, still it is Disneyland. For museums either of the Getty museums, just note you will have to book to go. The booking is for parking, entry is free (parking may cost I cannot remember).

For eating out, lots and lots of choices, but a favourite of mine is a rib place called Naples Rib company (5800 E 2nd St, Long Beach), go hungry :).

I will have a little think about other stuff.

saltine

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1223 on: March 21, 2016, 12:43:53 AM »
I recently made these notes for an AUS friend:

NYC
To see the Statue of Liberty from the water, ride the Staten Island ferry over and back.  (Don't waste time on the SoL tour.)

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is a very good tour.  Shuttle is there, plus view across water to NJ.  Many aircraft on display including the Concord. http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/

Eat NY cheesecake wherever and whenever you can find it.  Also NY bagel with cream cheese is a must.  (Lox is fish like sardines, so beware of ordering that.)
Deli sandwich, best are at Carnegie Deli.  One sandwich will be enough to split.  They are huge and absolutely delicious.  (Counter servers can be very rude, but keep calm and carry on.)  It's a good place to get NY cheesecake too. Pizza, the one recommended to us as the best in NY, is Vezzo Thin Crust, "shrommtown and meat lovers."  It's in midtown.http://www.vezzothincrust.com/  But, pizza is on every corner.

Don't eat the street food.  It's tempting, quick and inexpensive, but don't eat it.

Natural History Museum and MOMA are worth doing. MOMA has many masterpieces.  Don't miss Van Gogh's Starry Night.

Walk in Central Park.  It's huge. 

For LA, my advice is not to over-plan.  You'll spend a lot of time in traffic if you divide your time among far-apart locations.  LA is a working town, not a tourist destination.  Where you decide to stay will probably determine what you're able to do in a short period of time.

For SF:
Take the half-day trip to Muir Woods.  It's actually close to SF and worth every minute you spend there.  Yosemite is however too far for a day trip.

If you want to go to Alcatraz, you must book far ahead.  We've been to SF three times and never made the boat to Alcatraz.  I hear the tour is worth the time. 

That iconic view of Golden Gate bridge from Vertigo is from Fort Point National Historic Site, easy to find on google maps.

Don't fall off the trolley car.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2016, 12:03:19 AM by saltine »
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jdc

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1224 on: March 21, 2016, 02:05:21 AM »
Why not eat the Street Food in NYC?  I find it nice. 

I can't comment on LA, I have been there a couple of times but don't know it well enough or like it that much.

For NYC, Pizza, Pizza, Pizza...  try a few place and buy by the slice.  I find it best to keep it simple.  Or course, lots of shows and musicals on to check out.

For San Francisco, will you have a car?  You have a lot of wine country (Sonoma and Napa) North of the City.  You can drive down highway 1 to Santa Cruz or Monterey which are both nice places to check out.  You can find often pull over and find coves you can climb down to and have a small beach area to yourself.  Or maybe you find another couple of two sharing it as well.  If you drive down US1, you may want to take the shorter way back and cut over to the 101.  Carmel is also there which is a quaint little town (http://www.carmelcalifornia.com/).  Clint Eastwood use to be the mayor sometime back in the 80's

Otherwise, SF is a great food city, explore Chinatown, a raw oyster bar, crabs around the Warf.  You can also find good Italian,Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean food.  Some can be hip, modern joints doing California versions or hole in the wall places doing straight authentic versions. 

I'm biased, so I say spend more time in SF then LA but what ever you do, you would be able to have a good time
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saltine

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1225 on: March 21, 2016, 04:44:33 AM »
Agreed, SF over LA, always. Get out of LA as soon as possible.  It's a traffic nightmare.

NYC street food...could be harmless but one bad item can ruin your entire trip.  But, whatever, to each his own...
« Last Edit: March 21, 2016, 04:37:03 PM by saltine »
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ˇKeith!

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1226 on: March 21, 2016, 11:38:42 AM »
I'd add The Frick for NYC museums. Amazing that this used to be their home and right off the park.

Don't pass up Brooklyn! Chelsea Piers & the High Line. Dominique Ansel's bakery for the legendary cronut (plan on ordering before you leave or showing up crazy early), though even if you don't cronut, there's plenty there to tempt they eyes & stomach.

North River Lobster Company - free 45 minute cruises around the Hudson, they make up for it by over-charging for the food & drink but still a good time and great lobster tacos.

It will likely be very hot & humid in NYC the further into July you get.

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1227 on: March 21, 2016, 05:01:28 PM »
Thanks for the tips! Saltine, that list is amazing.

We're not planning on having a car at this stage. I don't drive, and while my partner does, I think it's probably a little too stressful. But we're pretty adept at making PT work. (Also, he's got some idea of the buses in LA, so that helps.)

We're probably going to stay in WeHo. LA is the one place we haven't sorted out accommodation. We're trying to work out where makes the most sense. I think most of the evening stuff we want to do will be around WeHo, and it's relatively easy to get from there to Santa Monica and Venice, and I think most of the touristy stuff we will do will be in that area. If we do a theme park it will probably be Universal. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter should be open by the time we get there.  ;D

LA is in a lot of ways a bridging city between flights. We went to Europe last year and on our return we ended up flying from Berlin to London to Dubai then Melbourne. I wasn't prepared to do SF>LA>Brisbane>Melbourne without a break somewhere in there. So we have about 2 days in LA at the start and again at the end. I think we'll actually spend more time in LA overall, but it'll be split into funny chunks. Both our flights out of LA leave at 2350 also, which means we'll have a full day to fill before heading to the airport each time.

saltine

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1228 on: March 22, 2016, 12:08:54 AM »
God, I hated that 2350 flight out of LAX.  So glad I can fly in and out of DFW now. (I don't sleep on planes because you never know when the pilot might need help flying that thing.)

Everyone likes LA a lot more than I do.  Just can't see why that city attracts.  The best view of it is flying over it at night, imo.

Have a great trip, Muse!

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jdc

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Re: Vacation
« Reply #1229 on: March 22, 2016, 12:27:32 AM »
God, I hated that 2350 flight out of LAX.  So glad I can fly in and out of DFW now. (I don't sleep on planes because you never know when the pilot might need help flying that thing.)

Everyone likes LA a lot more than I do.  Just can't see why that city attracts.  The best view of it is flying over it at night, imo.

ha...

I think LA is a difficult city without a car.  But I have used buses a couple of times but it is really spread out so makes exploring limited.

San Francisco is a friendly place to get around without a car.  The city itself is not very large so you can get around by buses, taxis or even walk quite a bit of the city.  I think from Union Square to Fisherman's Warf is just around 2 miles which would take you from the main shopping district, through Chinatown, to Little Italy/North Beach to the Warf. 
"Beer. Now there's a temporary solution."  Homer S.
“The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations” - David Friedman