Day 52: Cape Cod

The napkin says: It's Time To Get Cracking!

Today we ate fresh lobster!!!
Check it out....

Fresh red lobster at $31!

Chris gets orgasmic with the taste of the fresh lobster.
We shared 1 lobster but he ate most of it.

A shot of some boats near our restaurant. More to come!

Days 45 & 46: Boston

- Backdated -

Boston is a lovely city, more laidback than New York City and prettier. We noticed how pretty it was on our way there by bus. The trees that hug both sides of the road were the greenest trees you've ever seen, some were red and some were yellow. Against the deep blue sky, the scene was just beautiful.

Boston has many memorials built for their early years when the British first stepped foot into this new land. We really learned a lot about America on our trip here. The early English that came to this new land were sorta rebels who wanted to leave England.

They settled here and then had a revolution and gained independence from England thus there was 'the Declaration of Independence' which was signed (the same one we heard about in the movie 'National Treasure 2'.

There are many statues built to commemorate their forefathers like Paul Revere and of course Benjamin Franklin. The statues look quite magnificent but after taking so many shots of them, I got bored and didn't include them below.

Boston is pretty but when I say 'laidback', I really mean laidback. Shops close at about 5pm (good life man) unless you're a big chain store. There are only 3 cinemas in Boston which I found out, only 1 in the city center. It was a little boring when it was night and the shopping there pales greatly in comparision to NYC.

Btw, we caught Indiana Jones on our last night there (just last night). Tickets were very costly - $10.50 (that's about SG$14) for 1 person. (Chris paid) hahaha.... They showed some lame movie info on past movies now selling on DVD, some movie trivial before the show and 15min worth of trailers at 9pm (which was supposed to be start of the movie). The experience was not much different from Singapore.

Pictures below.

Relection of the sky from an apartment window.

A little girl and her grandfather strolling in Boston Common Public Park.

This is the Boston Public Library, very old and beautiful with gorgeous architecture.

Chris, against a dark sky which I love. Great lighting.
Too bad I don't have an eager model.

This is a pair of non-significant buildings. But I just love the dark sky and late afternoon light cast on the buildings.

The sky is just so gorgeous in Boston. The weather was very good.

Newbury Street. Very pretty streets like this is not an uncommon sight in Boston.

Days 40 & 41: New York City

Here is a summary of visuals for these 2 days spent in NYC Manhattan.

Sharing our tiny burger meal at a fast food place near the apartment we were staying in.

A view of the city of Manhattan from our free ride on Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.
No pictures of the statue cos she looks too small in my pictures.
(For a free ride, you see her from afar. We're too cheap to pay for the touristy ride!).

A very pretty and quiet neighbourhood in Manhattan.

Taken inside the gorgeous Grand Central Station Terminal.

Grand Central Station Terminal.

Chris has the nicer shots cos he was using a wide angle lens.

A very moving memorial near the WTC site, dedicated to the firefighters
'who fell and to those who carry on across all cities and towns across all generations...'

Some of the names of those who perished on September 11, 2001.

FDNY 343

Manhattan at dusk.

Day 38: New York City

- backdated post -

We started the morning walking the Brooklyn Bridge. Very touristy. You've never seen so many tourists all at once, as if we're all on a major tour together.

Then we went off to Wall Street and stumbled upon some fireman action in town. In New York, hearing the sirens of a fire engine truck is as common as stumbling upon a McDonald's. Everyday you will hear it at least twice. For some strange reason, there seems to be lots of fire.

The FDNY (Fire Dept of New York) became instant celebrity heroes after the 911. You'll see many tourists (girls mostly) taking pictures with young firemen who are very obliging (with inflated egos yet acting like they're going all out just to let you have your picture taken). It's quite funny just watching them. But they're certainly not ugly.

Yellow cab on the Brooklyn Bridge (Manhattan Bridge in background).

The Brooklyn Bridge.

FDNY men are very proud of themselves.
You can totally see it when they strut the streets acting like heroes,
as if they were involved in the 911 (seriously, some of them
look like they joined after the 911!)

Day 45: Boston - Chris' Birthday

Today is Chris' birthday. It is still 23 May here in Boston.
No pictures for this entry cos I am lazy to transfer the files over now. Gonna head to bed soon.

Today we spent the day exploring Boston, lotsa walking. Chris led the way cos I gave him complete control of where he wanted to go cos it was his special day.

Apparently we walked about 50% of Boston today which makes my 6 nights booking here look stupid. But we will cover more grounds!

We had dinner at Salty Dog restaurant at Quency Market and it was okay. We had clam chowder and some seafood for main. I bought the dinner.

After we left, I started feeling hot in my face as if I had just drank alcohol. Then I started to itch at my neck and we realised rashes were popping up all over my neck and face. I immediately knew it was an allergic reaction from something I ate just now. I suspected oyster to be the culprit since Chris said there seemed to be oyster in the clam chowder and that was the only thing I've never eaten in my life.

I thought I had my medicine back at the B&B but found out it was not there. But by then my face felt better and the rashes were easing off. It's now gone down but I know it's still not totally gone. I hope it will be A-OK tomorrow.

No more oysters for me. But I really am curious if oysters were the culprit cos we are not certain if the clam chowder had oysters.

Day 38: New York City

- backdated entry -

Our official first day in New York City was a wet and cold day. It was raining right from the start and did not stop for the whole day. We spent the day shopping and went straight to SoHo. The shopping in NYC is excellent. We bought so many things on our first day. We got a large floor rug which we will use as a carpet in our study room and it cost only US$20 (on sale from US$70-80+) at Urban Outfitters.

And I bought myself the ultimate Kate Spade bag that I had dreamed of for so long - the white poppy canvas and boy was it a steal! There was an additional 25% off on top of the sale price. And I bought it at the boutique, not the outlet store.

Then we had dinner with my Aunty Amy's sister, Aunty Fanny and her husband Uncle Victor. They took us to a posh Korean restaurant and below is a picture of our first appetizer which cost about US$15-18. Yup... I was so marvelled by it that I had to take a picture for you all to see how BIG it was.

Then there is a picture of us below.

Day 37: Reaching New York City

We travelled by Amtrak from Niagara Falls, Ontario to New York City (Manhattan). We tried to find an alternate way to travel to NYC because of the train's consistent delays but were unable to find one close to the train ticket price.

So we enjoyed the Amtrak which was nice, I really liked it. The delays along the road were made less painful with my addictive play of the Sony PSP game 'Patapon'. It's amazingly addictive once you go past 3-4 stages and got the hang of the game.

The train reached NYC about 1.45hrs late. Sigh.... We were debating to take the subway to the apartment or to grab a cab. Once we reached, the subway seemed to be still quite 'alive' with people plus the ticket booth was still open at that late hour. So we bought our 7 day pass and boarded the train after figuring out which line to take.

It was a good choice taking the subway for the street the apartment was on is actually quite safe. There weren't creepy people hanging around and it was okay.

Day 35: On the Way to Niagara Falls, Ontario

This was a post I wanted to put in before I splash the photos of Niagara across my blog.
Wanted to gripe about how horrible our day 35 was.

We reached San Diego International Airport on Day 34 quite early (about 2 hours before our flight) but we had no qualms about that. It was a red eye flight and I was looking forward to the free juices on this budget airline TranAir and how I could use some shut eye on the way to Buffalo.

When we were in the plane and on the way there, I realised the flight time was a lot shorter than I had thought cos they calculated the time of arrival to our transit stop in Atlanta based on Atlanta's time which is 3 hours ahead of San Diego's time. That meant we were cheated 3 hours of sleep!

So we reached Atlanta with only 1-2 hours of sleep and had to wait at the boring airport for another 3 hours before boarding our next transit flight to Buffalo. So we tried our best to sleep on the row of chairs in the airport. I've never ever slept at the airport like that but it was an experience. It was hard to sleep because the TV was on and was loud and you get a little paranoid about people stealing your bag.

In the end, we had a bit of restless sleep for about 1 hour maybe. I awoke seeing a lot of people sitting around in those waiting chairs. On the plane we only managed to sleep a little since the flight was just 2 hours.

So we reached Buffalo and had another 3.5 hours to kill since our Amtrak train to Ontario, Canada leaves only at 3.15pm and we reached the station at about 11.40am. We left our bags at the station's room and went off for lunch.

Buffalo is filled with maybe 80% African Americans. It was a little scary looking at the places you travel in the bus and on the street cos the place was old, kind of on the dilapidated side. The city area was slightly better but there were lots of weird crazy people, we call them 'xiao lang' (in hokkien) since they don't understand. :) Some xiao lang will just shout or make funny loud noises while walking on the road. Then a couple of times, after I caught sight of some strange homeless/shady looking character, we felt them following us. We walked fast and into crowded areas and they probably lost interest.

After lunch we returned to the train station and was given the bad news that our train would be 2 hours late. TWO HOURS! We're been waiting since 11.40am which was 3.5 hours before schedule and now with the additional 2 hours, it meant we were waiting for this train for 5.5 hours.

We calculated the possibility of taking the bus instead but in the end, decided to wait for fear we wouldn't get the bus plus refund was a hassle and had a fee. The train basically was held up because of freight trains along the way.

In the end, the train came about 2 hrs 10min late. We boarded and was quite impressed at the comfort level of our seats compared to plane seats. It was spacious and comfy and great views. Unfortunately upon reaching Niagara, customs came up to the train and took another 1-1.5hrs to clear us. They wouldn't let anyone go until ALL were checked. Plus there were 2 guys who got pulled out of the train to the immigration room.

All in all, our entire journey to Niagara Falls provided us with a grand total of 2+3+3.5+2+1.5=12 Hours of waiting time! I've never waited so long ever before. It broke the last record held by Chris when I waited him for 3 hours at Tiong Bahru Plaza for a movie.

Days 35-36: Niagara Falls Otario, Canada

Another backdated entry since we're now on our 38th day in New York City.

These are pictures taken when we were at Niagara Falls in Canada.

Taken when we arrived real late on our 35th day. This was taken during sunset.

We woke up at 4.30am the next morning and hurriedly went off
to catch the sunrise shots.

This is Bridal Veil falls.

And this is the famous Horseshoe Falls. It's spectacular.
The power/force of the massive water gushing down was magnificent.

Tried out the feathery effect of the water with slow speed
and a small aperture, without a tripod.

Day 30: Big Sur

Another backdated entry. Oh well... better than no updates!


So Big Sur was probably one of the most exciting/enjoyable places for me on our trip here. Big Sur is on a coastal drive on Highway 1 which we started from Santa Maria to Santa Barbara. The views from the highway was just astounding. We stopped so often till we ended up reaching Santa Barbara only at night at about 9pm.

Chris said that driving to Santa Barbara when the sun went out shortened his life by a few years. I guess it was quite stressful for him since there were no lights on the road and he is not a very experienced driver plus we were on right hand drive though I think the latter wasn't a key reason.

Oh yes back to Big Sur.



We stopped over to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to check out the famous McWay Falls which was apparently "the perfect beach". It was nice but I don't think it would be the "perfect beach" as one would claim. But it was nice. The waterfall as seen in the picture on the right is a very small one but it's interesting to see it on the beach, making it a mix of fresh and salt water.



The highlight of the journey was stumbling upon the numerous elephant seals on the beach near San Simeon. It was amazing. I've never been so close to a seal before, much less elephant seals! They were so cute and so noisy and smelly. Both of us really enjoyed that.

Enjoy more of the pictures of our trip to Big Sur below. Big Sur is a great place to go. It's not a commercial tourist place because you don't see big tour buses going there but you see many people driving there to see the sights. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Another scene from Big Sur.
This was taken at near McWay Falls at the park.


One of the man-made highlights along Highway 1.
Not sure if this is the Bixby Bridge cos we ended up seeing about 3 bridges
and weren't sure which one of them is the Bixby Bridge.

Just a colorful scene along the road on our way to San Simeon.

Chris, posing like an Abercrombie model.
This sweater is his birthday present from me.

Elephant seals in abundance.
Notice the seal in the middle was looking straight at me.

These ladies can be very aggressive.

I think they get annoyed at each other cos they keep climbing on top of the other.

I love this shot. It's my NatGeo moment.

They make lots of noise and are not shy of it.

We learned that these (about 100+) seals all belong to 1 male seal.
We only caught a glimpse of the alpha male dipping into the sea.

Days 26-29: San Francisco

- backdated post -

So we spent 4 nights in San Francisco and pretty much explored almost all the sights worthwhile to see. The city is quite scary at night especially at Civic Center. You can feel the vibe even when you pass by the area. Da hood is everywhere and homeless people roam the streets. We actually got out at the wrong bus stop and ended up right there. Thank God no one bothered us and we managed to go about the shopping area and then back to the hotel.

San Francisco is a beautiful city but a little scary at night. We got the 3 day Muni pass which allowed us to travel by bus and cable car unlimited and that was nice. We explored the postcard row at Alamo Square which is not very touristy as well as Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street and Golden Gate Bridge with a brief detour to Palace of the Fine Arts. San Francisco is cold. Very cold. We wore minimum 3 layers.

We each pose at our favourite brand in Market Street area.

Alamo Square often called 'The Postcard Row".

This is Chinatown.
We only went there to eat lunch (I missed Chinese food)
but this was taken when we were passing through.

The famous Golden Gate Bridge at sunset.

Day 24: Phoenix enroute to Camarillo

- backdated post -

We did a detour after departing Grand Canyon and headed south towards Phoenix just to see and take a few pictures of the giant cactus my Uncle told me about. He said it was taller than the lamppost which I found a little hard to believe. I've seen cactus but not that tall!

Oh yes he was right and I was actually not standing beside it
but in front of it by at least 2 metres (paranoid that there'd be rattlesnakes)
so it definitely is taller than it looks.

and the stupid thing to do is to...

... leave your car keys in the car and lock the door.

Great.

Chris just did that very thing after coming back from Napa Valley.
Now we need to get the keys out before we can go on to Golden Gate Bridge.

Day 23: Grand Canyon

Some pictures I took of Grand Canyon. Precious moments before sunset.