After the sale of the business ( http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21229&highlight=kevin+hockey+national+sold ) we decided a holiday in America was a good idea, there was so much there I wanted to see and Adele and I had set ourselves a goal of taking the boys to Disneyland since they were very small and now was as good a time as any. We began planning the trip and decided on Disneyland, New York and a beach as destinations we wanted to visit and Hawaii was decided as the last leg.
We visited many places and landmarks including :-
Los Angeles
Disneyland
California Adventureland
Santa Monica and it's famous beaches
Hollywood
Universal Studios
Rodeo Drive
Sunset Bvd
New York incl Manhattan, Brooklyn
We crossed the Brooklyn Bridge
Hudson River
Central Park
Times Square
Empire State Building
Statue of Liberty
The Twin Towers site form Sept 11 2001
Ellis Island
We saw Lion King on Broadway
we stayed on Broadway
Madison Square Gardens
Waikikki Hawaii
Pearl Harbour
There was so much more but those are most of the primary places. We saw the homes, property, restaurants etc of famous Hollywood stars and locations of many infamous landmarks incl. the cafe in which Million Dollar Baby featured (where Hillary Swank worked), where Hugh Grant was caught with the prostitute, where John Lennon was assassinated on his front doorstep and many many more.
We can tell you that :-
They drive on the wrong side of the road ...but you know that
The light switches are opposite to ours. Push the switch down to turn it off.
The toilets are wierd. They fill up around 2/3rds full. Not going into detail here but.......eeewwwwwww
Didnt get dark until around 8pm
Wages are low and they expect tips. They are taxed on the basis of an expected income which includes tips. Tips are usually 15-20%.
When you buy anything it does not include tax. We would often get to the counter with the correct monies and forget about the tax.
There is 17,500 taxi's in New York alone.
The smog in LA and NY is horrendous. See line above
Everywhere you go it is by freeway. Sometimes the freeways can be up to 14 lanes and sometimes the freeways are stacked on top of each other, up to 4 high we saw.
The streets have the old newstands where you put in your coins and lift up the lid to get your paper.
Petrol is a lot cheaper. Around $2.65 per gallon. About $35 to fill up.
In some places you are allowed to turn at lights even on a red light. This is only if you are turning right, which is like turning left in Oz.
Security is on high alert. We saw police with machine guns in the subways and at Central Pk. We passed thru so many metal detectors, not just airports either.
No public toilets. Few restaurants have toilets.
Many shops do not have change rooms for trying on clothing. We had to put it on over our existing clothes and see if it fitted.
I saw no ants or mosquitos during the entire trip.
In NY and Hawaii they would have a movie night for everyone to attend on a giant screen. People would flock to the park or beach to watch a movie with hundreds of others.
Different words used are:-
Thongs = Flip flops
Shopping centres are malls
Hello is Hiya all
Petrol is called Gas
Chips are fries
Soft drink is Pop or Soda
Overall the Americans were fantastic. They are very friendly and love us Aussies. Whenever we got talking they would ask so many questions and always say they wanted to come to Oz to visit. On bus tours etc when the guide would ask where we were from, everyone would want to talk to us. Both the boys made friends there. A group of kids about 20years old were having a great time with Cam, asking him questions about here and then started throwing stuff at him over brekky. It was very funny. They high fived him as they left. Some girls walked past Adele and I in Hawaii saying how cute Cam was on the beach and took his photo. Matt spent hours talking with the local kids when swimming.
Our holiday was an incredible experience which has provided us many memories. There is so many more stories such as Cameron going missing for about 4 hours, Matt and I riding the same roller coaster 2 days before they crashed injuring 14 people, flying to Canada the same day the French plane crashed, being sprayed with capsicum spray or something similar in a Subway store at Madison Sq Gardens by the owners and the list goes on. All these events are in my diary I kept of our trip.
We are happy to be back now, ( I ran out of undies ) and can highly recommend the USA as a holiday destination.
Kev Adele Matt and Cam
We visited many places and landmarks including :-
Los Angeles
Disneyland
California Adventureland
Santa Monica and it's famous beaches
Hollywood
Universal Studios
Rodeo Drive
Sunset Bvd
New York incl Manhattan, Brooklyn
We crossed the Brooklyn Bridge
Hudson River
Central Park
Times Square
Empire State Building
Statue of Liberty
The Twin Towers site form Sept 11 2001
Ellis Island
We saw Lion King on Broadway
we stayed on Broadway
Madison Square Gardens
Waikikki Hawaii
Pearl Harbour
There was so much more but those are most of the primary places. We saw the homes, property, restaurants etc of famous Hollywood stars and locations of many infamous landmarks incl. the cafe in which Million Dollar Baby featured (where Hillary Swank worked), where Hugh Grant was caught with the prostitute, where John Lennon was assassinated on his front doorstep and many many more.
We can tell you that :-
They drive on the wrong side of the road ...but you know that
The light switches are opposite to ours. Push the switch down to turn it off.
The toilets are wierd. They fill up around 2/3rds full. Not going into detail here but.......eeewwwwwww
Didnt get dark until around 8pm
Wages are low and they expect tips. They are taxed on the basis of an expected income which includes tips. Tips are usually 15-20%.
When you buy anything it does not include tax. We would often get to the counter with the correct monies and forget about the tax.
There is 17,500 taxi's in New York alone.
The smog in LA and NY is horrendous. See line above
Everywhere you go it is by freeway. Sometimes the freeways can be up to 14 lanes and sometimes the freeways are stacked on top of each other, up to 4 high we saw.
The streets have the old newstands where you put in your coins and lift up the lid to get your paper.
Petrol is a lot cheaper. Around $2.65 per gallon. About $35 to fill up.
In some places you are allowed to turn at lights even on a red light. This is only if you are turning right, which is like turning left in Oz.
Security is on high alert. We saw police with machine guns in the subways and at Central Pk. We passed thru so many metal detectors, not just airports either.
No public toilets. Few restaurants have toilets.
Many shops do not have change rooms for trying on clothing. We had to put it on over our existing clothes and see if it fitted.
I saw no ants or mosquitos during the entire trip.
In NY and Hawaii they would have a movie night for everyone to attend on a giant screen. People would flock to the park or beach to watch a movie with hundreds of others.
Different words used are:-
Thongs = Flip flops
Shopping centres are malls
Hello is Hiya all
Petrol is called Gas
Chips are fries
Soft drink is Pop or Soda
Overall the Americans were fantastic. They are very friendly and love us Aussies. Whenever we got talking they would ask so many questions and always say they wanted to come to Oz to visit. On bus tours etc when the guide would ask where we were from, everyone would want to talk to us. Both the boys made friends there. A group of kids about 20years old were having a great time with Cam, asking him questions about here and then started throwing stuff at him over brekky. It was very funny. They high fived him as they left. Some girls walked past Adele and I in Hawaii saying how cute Cam was on the beach and took his photo. Matt spent hours talking with the local kids when swimming.
Our holiday was an incredible experience which has provided us many memories. There is so many more stories such as Cameron going missing for about 4 hours, Matt and I riding the same roller coaster 2 days before they crashed injuring 14 people, flying to Canada the same day the French plane crashed, being sprayed with capsicum spray or something similar in a Subway store at Madison Sq Gardens by the owners and the list goes on. All these events are in my diary I kept of our trip.
We are happy to be back now, ( I ran out of undies ) and can highly recommend the USA as a holiday destination.
Kev Adele Matt and Cam
