Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Travel Log - Day 17 (A kid in a candy-filled toy store)
At the start of the 17th day overseas, I was starting to feel a little over travelling. The air travel, poor meals (involving a whole lot of cheese), lack of sleep and general running around was starting to catch up with Bell and I. I was also starting to get a little bit homesick, though this feeling was lessened by the impending show-down between the Mighty Penguins and the lowly Avalanches.
Due to a previous planning issue Day 17 was also a schedule packed with "bumming around". We went into town, and stumbled upon a toy store. It seemed like a proper, old fashioned, not-too-commercial toy store, and was a welcome change from some of the other, more commercialised sights.
The toy store was 3 levels of fun which was quite a feat, as unlike space crazy New York, the toy store had three decent sized levels. The items that interested Bell and I the most was the Christmas decorations.
Being that we were coming close to Christmas at this time, it was understandable that some holiday decorations would be on display. But these weren't just decorations, these were to-scale model representations of various Christmas themes. There were heaps of different varieties, many different ways to enjoy the holiday period with collectibles (here's some examples). The most we would ever see in Australia is a modest nativity scene model, but I must admit we snapped up some pretty cool items.
My parents have something that look just like this, I used to love pulling off the moss
The M&M Christmas themed decorations we bought in Pittsburgh
Where the magic happens (I'll resist my regular pants joke)
This one is just awesome, and note the winter M&M tree in the background
Such great detail - Yellow obviously needs to be persuaded by Red
As Day 17 was another light-on day for content, I'll post some other pictures of M&M toys Bell and I bought.
Red's quite the ladies man...
... but seems equally enthused when his partner is a scared, peanut-filled yellow male. Fair enough I guess
Yellow spins Red right 'round baby (etc)
Due to a previous planning issue Day 17 was also a schedule packed with "bumming around". We went into town, and stumbled upon a toy store. It seemed like a proper, old fashioned, not-too-commercial toy store, and was a welcome change from some of the other, more commercialised sights.
The toy store was 3 levels of fun which was quite a feat, as unlike space crazy New York, the toy store had three decent sized levels. The items that interested Bell and I the most was the Christmas decorations.
Being that we were coming close to Christmas at this time, it was understandable that some holiday decorations would be on display. But these weren't just decorations, these were to-scale model representations of various Christmas themes. There were heaps of different varieties, many different ways to enjoy the holiday period with collectibles (here's some examples). The most we would ever see in Australia is a modest nativity scene model, but I must admit we snapped up some pretty cool items.
My parents have something that look just like this, I used to love pulling off the moss
The M&M Christmas themed decorations we bought in Pittsburgh
Where the magic happens (I'll resist my regular pants joke)
This one is just awesome, and note the winter M&M tree in the background
Such great detail - Yellow obviously needs to be persuaded by Red
As Day 17 was another light-on day for content, I'll post some other pictures of M&M toys Bell and I bought.
Red's quite the ladies man...
... but seems equally enthused when his partner is a scared, peanut-filled yellow male. Fair enough I guess
Yellow spins Red right 'round baby (etc)
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Travel Log - Day 16 (Worst NHL Game Ever)
I had originally made a huge plan for our honeymoon, the planes we would catch, hotels we would stay at, hockey games we would watch, tours we would take and the various tourist locations we would gander upon. I created it in HTML and hosted it on my website so I could make changes from work in the weeks leading up to the trip. After I added all of the staples (planes, games and tours etc that we had booked), I would add a few ideas of what we could do on our days without plans. The trips to the Bronx Zoo and the Disney Store were planned in my handy Honeymoon Itinerary before actually booking tickets. For each day we had free I would research the various things available and note down a few options. Unfortunately work got really busy leading up to the honeymoon, so I had only finished planning up to Washington. This all meant that Day 16 was essentially un-planned - and we didn't do much at all really.
But at the tail end of a very busy and exciting honeymoon, both Bell and I were ready for a bit of a change in pace. We were also a little sick of carrying a camera around everywhere we went - so this post will be lacking in photos. We've agreed that we'll have to buy Belinda a new, small camera for the next trip we take.
After waking up very late in the morning (or perhaps the afternoon) we had lunch at a very nice Chinese restaurant. It's a pity it wasn't closer to our house - because I'm sure Bell and I would eat there quite frequently if it were. Other than the very nice meal, we pretty much did nothing other than watch a hockey game - the Penguins vs Minnesota Wild. Speaking of which, here's the summary:
After the loss we went back to our hotel room a little dejected, but it did raise an interesting point. I had yet to see my favourite team win a game of hockey, and they only had one chance remaining. Against my (now) wife's favourite hockey team. Belinda had hoped that the Penguins would have won the Minnesota game so that I could get the victory out of the way, and lessen the blow of a loss against Colorado. Whatever happened - we would have a long time to talk about it, as our flight home was scheduled for the next day!
But at the tail end of a very busy and exciting honeymoon, both Bell and I were ready for a bit of a change in pace. We were also a little sick of carrying a camera around everywhere we went - so this post will be lacking in photos. We've agreed that we'll have to buy Belinda a new, small camera for the next trip we take.
After waking up very late in the morning (or perhaps the afternoon) we had lunch at a very nice Chinese restaurant. It's a pity it wasn't closer to our house - because I'm sure Bell and I would eat there quite frequently if it were. Other than the very nice meal, we pretty much did nothing other than watch a hockey game - the Penguins vs Minnesota Wild. Speaking of which, here's the summary:
- Marc-Andre Fleury wasn't playing in net for this game, which was my first disappointment. This was very quickly followed up by another as the Wild scored the first goal just over a minute into the game. It certainly kept the crowd quiet.
- Crosby was held without a point in the game, but was definitely the best player on the ice. He seemed to be the only one trying.
- I was very upset by the way the Penguins were playing, they had few shots and were down 3-0 at the end of the second. But the behaviour of the other Penguins fans was unbelievably disgusting. I just cannot imagine a situation that would cause me to boo my own home team. Some of the fans were yelling out disparaging comments about our own players, and people were leaving the game from early in the third period (when Minnesota went up 4-0). I have trouble believing that any of the people booing their own team are true Pens fans. They really don't deserve to live so close!
- Even though the game was going terribly for the Pens (we were down 5-0) I was amazed with the crowd's response towards the end of the game (in a good way). There had been a minor scuffle earlier on in the game - but nothing I would call a real fight. With less than 5 minutes to go in the game, Brooks Orpik and Kyle Wanvig participated in the first NHL hockey fight that I had witnessed. The audience made the most noise I had ever heard as the Penguins defender clearly won the fight. Sure, most of the negative nellys had gone by this point, but the crowd just went wild. I guess it was a small victory considering, but it did put a slightly positive note at the end of the game.
After the loss we went back to our hotel room a little dejected, but it did raise an interesting point. I had yet to see my favourite team win a game of hockey, and they only had one chance remaining. Against my (now) wife's favourite hockey team. Belinda had hoped that the Penguins would have won the Minnesota game so that I could get the victory out of the way, and lessen the blow of a loss against Colorado. Whatever happened - we would have a long time to talk about it, as our flight home was scheduled for the next day!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Here to Stay (Hooray)
I've been following an NHL Ice Hockey team for quite a while now (don't know if I've mentioned it before). Lately there has been some uncertainty about the future of my Pittsburgh Penguins, I'll save you the incredible amount of ups and downs the Pens fans have gone through in the last 7 years. See this hilarious site for extra information.
Anyway - all's well that ends well - the Penguins are apparently going to stay in the great city of Pittsburgh. My plan to spend 8 months in Pittsburgh watching the Pens win the Stanley Cup in the 2008 / 2009 season continue!
The Penguins got the deal done!
The above comic came from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - link
Anyway - all's well that ends well - the Penguins are apparently going to stay in the great city of Pittsburgh. My plan to spend 8 months in Pittsburgh watching the Pens win the Stanley Cup in the 2008 / 2009 season continue!
The Penguins got the deal done!
The above comic came from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - link
Monday, March 12, 2007
Travel Log - Day 15 (A Day at the Musuems)
Well, I didn't finish off my Travel Log before the end of 2006 - but the main advantage of having a limited (read: no) readership is that no one cares when I'm late.
Day 15 was spent doing more touristy things in Washington and was pretty jam packed. We couldn't be bothered finding out if White House tours were available, or how to organise one, so we just took some happy snaps outside the gates. Initial fears that we would look like "dodgies" while performing surveillance on the official home of the President were allayed when we were just one of many people taking similar photos (and we were one of two couples that could have been crowned "Least Terrorist Looking" of the bunch).
The White House from the South - don't know why the flag was half-mast though
"L'homme blanc gelant ses seins"
Belinda modelling the latest edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Washington
After viewing the White House we high-tailed it to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We pretty much only visited this museum for one reason, to see a giant dinosaur skeleton, and it didn't disappoint in this respect. It did, however, disappoint by housing a rather comprehensive collection of diamonds and jewels. I won't bore you with the 26 photos (Bell took a pic of every jewel!) - but it was pretty cool to see the Hope Diamond in the stone.
If you look carefully, you can see Ben Stiller in the background preparing for a movie role
Crappy photo, but I had to add a pic of a T-Rex
When reviewing these photos I've come to the conclusion that I've turned into my father
Some of the rocks did look pretty cool
The Hope Diamond
Just down the road was the National Air and Space Museum which I was really looking forward to. We saw lots of air and space related exhibits, and had a quick ride in an aeroplane simulation (which was awesome!). I must say one of the highlights was seeing space-candy and space-Coke! We were running out of time, so had to rush through the second half of the museum, but it was a lot of fun.
Doesn't look that difficult
The Wright Brother's plane, they are from a seven child family. The most that my six siblings and I could produce was a healthy dose of repressed mental illnesses resulting from concentrated teasing. So I guess both the Wrights and the Dixons achieved something in their own small way
The money shot - space M&M's. I can't wait to travel to Las Vegas to check out even more candy goodness!
Pretty funny that they made both space Coke and space Pepsi. Some food joints only offer Pepsi - space has a wider array of soft drink
I reckon I could wing it
We had organised tickets for the Capitals-Predators game, so we decided to grab some Hooters for dinner. Unfortunately there's no more photos though - as the area of Washington we were staying in was not the nicest (felt it was safer to leave the camera at home). Hooters had nice food - but I'm pretty sure most of the patrons were not really there for the food. Our waitress was quite rude, probably because she thought a couple would not tip her as well as a table of drunk college kids (she was probably right). Wasn't the nicest meal we had whilst in the US - but I'm happy I've had a Hooters experience.
As we hadn't planned to watch a game while in Washington, and we weren't that interested in the result, we choose to purchase cheap tickets in the "nose bleeds". I was really struck with the lack of crowd - sure it was mid-week but there was almost nobody there. I got to see rookie phenom Alex Ovechkin score a pretty sweet power play goal, and a damn potent power play unit from Nashville.
After the game we went back to the hotel to pack for the next day, and got lots of sleep!
Day 15 was spent doing more touristy things in Washington and was pretty jam packed. We couldn't be bothered finding out if White House tours were available, or how to organise one, so we just took some happy snaps outside the gates. Initial fears that we would look like "dodgies" while performing surveillance on the official home of the President were allayed when we were just one of many people taking similar photos (and we were one of two couples that could have been crowned "Least Terrorist Looking" of the bunch).
The White House from the South - don't know why the flag was half-mast though
"L'homme blanc gelant ses seins"
Belinda modelling the latest edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Washington
After viewing the White House we high-tailed it to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We pretty much only visited this museum for one reason, to see a giant dinosaur skeleton, and it didn't disappoint in this respect. It did, however, disappoint by housing a rather comprehensive collection of diamonds and jewels. I won't bore you with the 26 photos (Bell took a pic of every jewel!) - but it was pretty cool to see the Hope Diamond in the stone.
If you look carefully, you can see Ben Stiller in the background preparing for a movie role
Crappy photo, but I had to add a pic of a T-Rex
When reviewing these photos I've come to the conclusion that I've turned into my father
Some of the rocks did look pretty cool
The Hope Diamond
Just down the road was the National Air and Space Museum which I was really looking forward to. We saw lots of air and space related exhibits, and had a quick ride in an aeroplane simulation (which was awesome!). I must say one of the highlights was seeing space-candy and space-Coke! We were running out of time, so had to rush through the second half of the museum, but it was a lot of fun.
Doesn't look that difficult
The Wright Brother's plane, they are from a seven child family. The most that my six siblings and I could produce was a healthy dose of repressed mental illnesses resulting from concentrated teasing. So I guess both the Wrights and the Dixons achieved something in their own small way
The money shot - space M&M's. I can't wait to travel to Las Vegas to check out even more candy goodness!
Pretty funny that they made both space Coke and space Pepsi. Some food joints only offer Pepsi - space has a wider array of soft drink
I reckon I could wing it
We had organised tickets for the Capitals-Predators game, so we decided to grab some Hooters for dinner. Unfortunately there's no more photos though - as the area of Washington we were staying in was not the nicest (felt it was safer to leave the camera at home). Hooters had nice food - but I'm pretty sure most of the patrons were not really there for the food. Our waitress was quite rude, probably because she thought a couple would not tip her as well as a table of drunk college kids (she was probably right). Wasn't the nicest meal we had whilst in the US - but I'm happy I've had a Hooters experience.
As we hadn't planned to watch a game while in Washington, and we weren't that interested in the result, we choose to purchase cheap tickets in the "nose bleeds". I was really struck with the lack of crowd - sure it was mid-week but there was almost nobody there. I got to see rookie phenom Alex Ovechkin score a pretty sweet power play goal, and a damn potent power play unit from Nashville.
After the game we went back to the hotel to pack for the next day, and got lots of sleep!
