Took a look around, see which way the wind blow...

Sorry, couldn't resist the Doors' quote which seemed sort of apt for my day in LA.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the city - after years of hearing how you don't want to fly through the airport because it's so big and difficult to get around and the traffic in the city is crazy and the smog is a killer I had decided it was a place I really didn't want to visit - in fact I'd originally tried to get flights through San Francisco to bypass LA all together.

But the universe decided otherwise and LA it was. It even cancelled my original midday flight so I had 14 hours to kill.

Which is where Laura at Architecture Tours LA stepped in. We had arranged for me to take a 2-3 hour tour in the afternoon, meeting at the (unfortunately closed that day except for the gift shop) Museum of Contemporary Art. Just across the road from Gehry's Disney Hall (also unfortunately closed for tours that day except for the gift shop) which I had time to explore the outside of (and have a very fine lunch at Mendocino Farms which I highly recommend if you're looking for good food round MoCA.)
Originally we weren't sure if I was going to be able to see everything I had on my list as they were scattered from one end of the LA to the other. But Laura managed to get me round all of it and more, and even extended my time happily by an extra hour to accomodate it all. Even better, I didn't feel I was on a "tour" at all but rather hanging out with a friend who shared an interest with me - which made it a very enjoyable day indeed and caused me to completely change my attitude to LA. Yay to Laura!First (and possibly the most exciting stop for me) was the Eames House and Studio which was just a magic place. Unfortunately you're not allowed to take photos of the inside so I had to content myself with outside only. And those of you who know me well will be very pleased to hear I was very very restrained and did not collect a stone from the garden to add to the collection I have in the downstairs toilet! I did go a little crazy with the souvenirs though and bought the DVD set of Eames Movies I have been lusting after for a while, a couple of books (including a postcard book which had a photo of the Revell dolls house Eames had built a prototype of - which the women at the house says they are considering putting into production. My name is so on that waiting list!) And the lovely woman at the house gave me a limited edition Eames designed spinning top as a belated birthday present (possibly the best souvenir of the whole trip)

Back in the van I could have happily gone back to the airport feeling the tour was a worth it. But we were just beginning the afternoon's adventures.The next destination was Pasadena. No, not to pay homage to the Depeche Mode film 101 (which ended at the Rose Bowl) but to visit some Greene and Greene homes.

On the way we saw many interesting things, the most striking being the toilet where George Michael was arrestedand the other end of Route 66 (so I may not have driven the length of it but I saw both ends which has to count for something, right? I made sure to hum Depeche Mode's Beatmaster's Mix of the song while taking the picture). I first discovered Greene and Greene through articles in Nutshell News (a magazine about miniatures) about a couple called Noel and Pat Thomas who make the most breathtakingly exquisite 1/12th scale models of their homes. I knew the houses fitted into the whole Mackintosh/ Lloyd Wright arts and crafty area but not much more and was keen to fill in that gap.But as we drove up to The Gamble House the only thing I could say was "Isn't this the house?" which Laura finished off with "Back to the Future? Yes". And, of course, both the house and gift shop were closed for the day. Typical!Just round the corner was Frank Lloyd Wright's Millard House (La Miniatura) for which he invented a new system of concrete block construction which was exciting to see (and touch!) even if the view from the gate wasn't that extensive.Laura showed me and gave me the background to many other districts and buildings before dropping me back at the airport. Five stars and mucho recommendations to Laura and Architecture Tours LA!

Long wait at the airport for my flight - by the time I boarded I'd already been awake for 20 hours and by the time I got back to Sydney it was 33 hours with a couple of cramped naps on the plane. Do I need to mention I was still wearing the same clothes I'd climbed into 33 hours beforehand? Let me say I was very happy to see the shower and a fresh outfit!

(Blogger's picture loading has been playing up for the past 36 hours - I'll have pictures for this and all my other holiday posts up as soon as they sort themselves out...)

Final day in Chicago

Yeah, yeah, getting a bit behind here I know. I'm kinda thinking the last few weeks' worth of entries will be filled out and illustrated over the next week or so when I get home and download the (gulp) 356 meg of photos I have sitting on my CF cards...

Our final day in Chicago was very satisfying as we ticked off all the things we'd been wanting to do. Had a great breakfast at a little cafe round the corner from the hostel called Gourmand before heading off to find the free trolley bus to Navy pier with supplies picked up from Seven Eleven on the way,

First stop at Navy pier was the ferris wheel where we took great delight in eating our bags of Cracker Jacks while at the top.If this wasn't enough excitement for the morning, our next experience was the 75 minute speedboat ride and architectural river tour on the SeaDog with very entertaining commentary from a chap called Chris.
We staggered off the Seadog and onto the trolley back into town for a photo stop at the Gehry music pavilion in Millennium Parkthe Anish Kapoor cloudgate sculptureand the Parisian Metra entrance way which handily happened to be the place we needed to be to catch the train out to the final stop of the day - Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle at The Museum of Science and Industry.We were very fortunate as originally we had planned to visit the Fairy Castle first and do Navy Pier in the afternoon but changed our minds at the last minute and switched them around. Halfway out to the museum on the train, the heavens opened and there was torrential rain - perfect timing for a trip inside!

By this time we were completely stuffed so it was back to the hostel to collect our stuff and into a taxi out to the airport hotel which we'd booked for our final night in Chicago. The place was like the Marie Celeste - none of the restaurants were open, nor was the nightclub. We discovered that the hotel had a capacity of 500 guests and there were (wait for it) 20 of us staying that night! No wonder nothing (except the bar with a very bored looking bartender) was open.

So for dinner we ended up having takeout Chinese on our (lovely comfy) queen sized beds, washed down with a bottle of plonk from the bar and followed by free Krispy Cremes they had in the (closed) cafe.Even better we discovered a 2 hour Sex and The City special on TV which we watched. So the evening turned out to be rather excellent, if not what we had originally expected.

Of course, I woke up at 2am worried I'd overslept and missed the plane. And it was actually a good thing I did as I rechecked my flight details and discovered I was flying at 7:05am not 7:50am as I had thought. And I hadn't repacked. So even though I reset my alarm and went back to bed I couldn't sleep until I finally gave up at 4am and got up and packed. A great start to a very long haul back to Australia...

Chicago!

I think I've reached that point in my trip where my feet hurt from too much walking (let's not even talk about how they smell, shall we?), I'm sick of the sight of my clothes (and am starting to get confused as to which are clean, which are "airing" for potential second wearing and which need to visit a washing machine desperately), my eyebrows are starting to resemble early Brooke Shields and I'm having cravings for a time where I don't have to live out of a suitcase any more.

Which is a bloody good sign that I'm having a fab (if a little full on) time. Have been running round Chicago like a mad thing trying to fit everything in. Booked a Highlights by Bus architectural tour yesterday morning but they overbooked for the first time in forever so I volunteered to be bumped and got a refund and two free tours to make up for it. I know I wanted to be bumped on this trip but I really was meaning airplanes...

So I did the Historic Skyscraper walking tour instead then wandered across the road to oogle at The Thorne Rooms. Met up with Princess B and we spent the afternoon checking out the Chicago Public Library (the biggest public library in the world, apparently) where we took advantage of their free internet for travellers. Gotta love that.

Wandered up to check out The Magnificent Mile and were most restrained. Then we had a look at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Store (didn't bother going inside as there wasn't time and we saw the Warhol exhibition they are showing when it was at the Sydney MCA) and walked across to the lake to find a cinema. To see X Men III. Yay!

Picked up some dinner and then headed to Navy Pier to see the fireworks(and do some more culture as we stumbled across a stained glass museum on our wanderings).

Today was full or architecture with the delayed bus tour in the morning then I headed up to Oak Park for a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio. I think I've had my full of architecture - my head is buzzing with images and information and even two bottles of Woodchuck Cider and a fine dinner at Bar Loius didn't help clear it.

Next time in New York...

There were many many things we didn't get to in New York. Amongst them were The Empire State Building (although I saw it from afar many times), The Flatiron Building, The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Coney Island (which I believe isn't actually open for the season yet anyway).On our last day in New York we (of course) had breakfast at the Wholefood Market to fortify us for the walking ahead then caught the subway to The Rockefeller Center so I could at least imagine I was iceskating there (I've always wanted to iceskate at the Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve for some odd reason).Nearby was apparently the New York branch of Mary Quant but it mysteriously disappeared and we couldn't find it. Other places we didn't get to visit were the Museum of Arts and Design (which had a very fine looking exhibition on the Eames Armchair which I could see from the gift shop) and The Museum of Modern Art (which had an excellent gift shop with a Canberra made Fink jug for saleand a very small range of Muji products). We really were planning to actually visit MOMA but the queue was a terrifying length so we ran away.

We almost went on a sightseeing cruise but the times were bad for us so instead as a final New York experience we jumped in a taxi (unfortunately not The Cash Cab) and headed for The Magnolia Bakery to pick up cupcakes for Nancy. None for us as we were all caked out by then...Wandered back across to pick up our bags which we'd left a the hotel and got sidetracked in Kiehls which was just round the corner. Princess B found some lovely new skincare products to take home and we both discovered rather acceptable coffee at the inhouse cafe, Mud.Even better, the coffee was free as we were browsing!

From New York we bounced back to Philly for the night where I had to try and fit all the crap wonderful souvenirs I had collected into my suitcase and we had to fit that, the dollshouse, Princess B's bag, me and Princess B into Joe's car for the trip to the airport. Eek!

On a random note, you've heard about that book where a guy travels round Ireland with a fridge? I'm thinking I could do similar and call it All over America with a dollshouse except I'm not sure it would have quite the readership...

Anyway, here we are in Chicago which is a whole new story in itself. Still no way to load photos which I'm sure is frustrating you with lack of interesting things to look at as much as me not being able to share them.

New York Stories

So, finally, here's how we spent the rest of my birthday in New York after we got Spamalot tickets:

From Times Square we headed over to the New York Public Library which wasn't open yet, so popped off to visit Grand Central Stationand the Chrysler Building to fill in time. Back to the Library where B got a reader's card to add to her collection and we supported the Library by purchasing at their gift shop.

From there I visited M&J Trimming and another nearby button shop where I was very very restrained after realising I could order online.Birthday lunch was in Byant Park behind the Library - a beautiful park with lots of people-watching opportunities to be had.

By this time it was time to toodle back up to Times Square for Spamalot which was a riot (and I have the T shirt to prove it!) As a little aside, as we were walking up to the theatre there was a chap with a film crew walking in front of us blocking our way - turns out it was Taylor Hicks who just won American Idol.Birthday drinks were in order afterwards so it was back past The New York Library, up Library Way to (of course) The Library Hotel and up the lift to Bookmarks, the rooftop bar on the 14th floor for a Pageturner (me) and a Bookmark (Princess B).

Dinner was at The Empire Dinerchosen because a) it was a diner and b) it was black and white. My meal was very very yummy and washed down by a fine bottle of cider.And finally I ate a birthday cheesecake from Wholefoods Market in bed back in my room while watching crap TV. Which ended the best birthday ever. Big hugs to those who made it all possible: Princess B, Nancy & Joe, Sis and Mum and Dad.

Now and then...

To celebrate my birthday (and make up for the recent lack of pictures round here) let's go for a stroll through the decades... 10 years old and a typical "Pears Girl".10 years later at 20 with my pet rat Rodney (who had a name change to Rodnella when we discovered he was actually a she). Obviously I hadn't quite entered my black and white phase quite yet... And doesn't that hair style look strangely familiar?At my 30th birthday party which was an "A" party. I'm Aphrodite and next to me is Annie Oakey.

(New York was fabbo - too tired to describe it all right now!)

I will sing, sing a new song...

Just a quick post from the heart of Times Square where I have just bought two tickets for this afternoon's performance of Spamalot. Just don't ask how much they cost - I'm using creative accounting (birthday money + birthday money + birthday money + casino winnings = tickets that aren't really as outrageously expensive as they seem at first glance.

With two minutes of free internet remaining here's the expurgated version of yesterday: Central Park, Metropolitan Museum of Art (gift shop only), Guggenheim (yay! but boo that I couldn't see the outside)Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Central Park again, FAO Schwarz, Crate and Barrel then a stagger back to our neighbourhood where we found a Wholefood Market, picked up supplies and had dinner at the little dining table in our room overlooking the streetbefore climbing into our PJs and collapsing embarrasingly early...

Today I think we're sticking round midtown - MOMA, Empire State Building, NY Public Library, Flatiron Building and a little ribbon and trim place I've heard about.....

So far 40 isn't too bad ;-)

Corrupting the innocent

On the eve (of the eve) of my 40th birthday I did two things I've never done before. Well, actually quite a few more than two if you count going to Atlantic City (or "To the Shore" in local terms)and eating a funnel cakebut I digress.

While at The Tropicana I *gasp* gambled for the first time in my life. I used to have a real anti-gambling stand, so bad that I wouldn't even set foot in a casino but that got gradually whittled down over the past few years when I discovered a cruise ship is basically just a casino with added extras.

This weekend I decided I needed to embrace the whole Atlantic City experience and Nancy gave me $5 while suggesting that it didn't really count if it wasn't my money (I didn't inhale, really!). I walked away from the slots with $50!Maybe I need to reassess this gambling stance....

I also had my first ever Starbucks coffee. Princess B and I were desperate for a decent coffee and thought maybe Starbucks would deliver. But, even with a double shot, our lattes were very very average. Not really worth breaking my self imposed Starbucks boycott for. I had been warned about the state of coffee in the US but somehow didn't believe it could be so dire. I went to a place for brunch earlier in the week and when they asked if I wanted a coffee I asked for a skinny latte and the waitress looked very confused and said "we don't have that stuff here".

With this run of unusual behaviour maybe next I need to also smoke a joint and have a large steak? Seriously though, we had a fun time and caught up with Andy and Kelly and Kelly's Dad Bill over drinks, dinner, then black and white birthday cake and bubbles. I'm not even 40 yet and I've had two birthday parties and one birthday afternoon tea so far. How lucky am I??

How to miss Philadelphia in one day

Today Princess B and I made it into the middle of town to see the important sights of the City of Brother Lee Love Brotherly Love.

First stop was the City Hall followed by a tour of the jumbo sized monopoly pieces across the road including princess B's least favorite thing: The Iron.We also visited the jumbo dominoes (which The Shopping Sherpa tried to take home for her front lawn)the Love sculptureand the giant clothespinwhich TSS also wanted to steal and take home.

Then we went for a walk and got a bit lost so after asking a couple of friendly policemen we finally found the Information Centre and discovered (luckily) that the tickets for Liberty Bell and Independence Hall had all been taken. So we went and got some culture at the shopping centre in town then took the Phlash on a loop up to try and find the animation exhibition which we discovered wasn't going to open til after we left town.

So we gave up on the culture and took the Phlash back into town where TSS visited the temples of H&M and The Gap before we strolled down Avenue of the Arts to South Street, a funky groovy area of town where we found a wonderful Wholefood supermarket with real food which caused much jubilation after a diet of brown brown and brown (of the wrong sort)

Princess B was after shoes but when we finally made it to the shop we discovered they were cheaper in Australia so we headed back into town past Library Street and onto the train back home.

Souvenirs purchased: 1 black cord hat, black beads, Princess tiara and sash(TSS). Princess tiaras (x 3), dark chocolate covered almonds and health bars (PB). Postcards: 0.

Back to life, back to reality...

Boo hoo hooo here I am back on dry land. Nancy and I wanted to sit on the floor, wrap our arms around one of a cruise staff member's legs and hold on for dear life wailing "We don't wanna leave" at the top of our voices as they dragged us off the shop. But we were good girls and didn't...

Yes, it was a nice cruise. (Glad you asked) We had a cabin with a window overlooking the Royal Promenade, an inside "street" with shops and bars and a cafe which was pretty much the heart of the ship. We had a pretty laid back time - slept in, didn't do a heap of activities each day and generally just hung out. I was fairly well known on the ship from Day One when I arrived with a pirate's hat on which I didn't take off all day. Even my security picture at the boarding machines had me with a hat and it was great fun seeing the double take on the operator's face when they saw it as I left and boarded in Bermuda.

Bermuda was pretty. We went "outside" (shipspeak for off the ship) the first day we were there.Spent the morning exploring The Royal Naval Dockyard where we docked and chatting with a lovely Turkish chap in one of the stalls in the shopping precinct there. Then we took a local bus into Hamilton. At a cost of $4.50 this 45 minute trip has to be one of the best ways to get a cheap looksie of the island.In Hamilton I discovered a Marks and Spencer so had to see if they had the Extremely Chocolatey Biscuits Yarnstorm has been raving about. And they did (just don't ask how much they cost, OK??). While in Hamilton I also picked up a pirate T to go with my hat (Arrr me hearties!) and that was about it.

Took the ferry back across to the ship, had lunch on board then headed out for a locally brewed beer sampler pack at The Frog and Onion pubbefore checking out the (rather lame) onshore carnival that night. And getting a lovely temporary pirate tattoo to complete my transformation to Mad Pirate.The following day the weather was a bit iffy so we stayed on board, hung round reading, ate a bit, had a drink or two. You know, the usual...

Yesterday we were at sea all day so did an art workshop in the morning and in the afternoon we went to the ice showfollowed by a tour of the onboard oceanographic and atmospheric labs on board.Then we had to (waaaaaaah!) pack.

And all too soon it was over and we were deposited back on the dock.

B arrives this afternoon to join me for the next leg of my adventures.