7 days to wheels up...

All hotels booked. Almost time to start packing (well, almost time for Diane and Lorraine to start packing anyway).

Accommodations:
7th Feb - New York - Grand Hyatt
10th Feb - Niagara Falls - Embassy Suites
12th Feb - Los Angeles - Westin LAX
13th Feb - Las Vegas - The Palazzo
16th Feb - San Francisco - Stanford Court
19th Feb - Big White Ski Resort - Stonebridge Lodge Unit 405A
29th Feb - Vancouver - Pacific Palisades
2nd Mar - Whistler Ski Resort - Woodrun Lodge Unit 403
9th Mar - Los Angeles - InterContinental Century City

Nice snow down to the village at Whistler. The dreaded 'r' word hasn't raised it's ugly head for a while, so this good solid base of the white stuff should be able to withstand all but the most severe rain events until our arrival.

Temperature links...

More links.

These links will give you current temperatures, weather conditions and forecasts for the day.

New York
Buffalo (Niagara Falls)
Las Vegas
San Francisco
Big White
Vancouver
Whistler/Blackcomb
Los Angeles

Today's the day we've waited 12 months for...

Well, the day has finally arrived for Diane and myself and we are enjoying our final cup of coffee, possible the last decent cuppa we'll get for 5 weeks, ready to be taken to the airport by Bob Snr.

My next report will be from the 'Land of the Giants', that's New York for those not au fait with the Superbowl.

A click on the weather link below shows we will be greeted with clear skies and a maximum of 7 degrees. The Swannies scarf has just been moved to the outside zipper, lol.

Thx all for words of encouragement and Clive and Lorraine, we'll see you next week.

Bye for now.

Greetings from The Big Apple...

7th Feb, 2008

Arrived safe and sound in New York, 28 hours from the time I locked the door behind me at Hoddle Place until we checked in at the Grand Hyatt.

New York is cold.

Found a great bagel place for breakfast with all kinds of flavoured cream cheeses to spread. I had Jalapeno flavoured cream cheese and Diane had Apple and Cinnamon, Mmmmm.

Went to the top of the Empire State Building today. We paid $7 for a hand held device, something like an oversized mobile phone. You enter numbers on the keypad as you come to the corresponding numbered sign on the Observation Deck and it gives you a couple of minutes narrative of points of interest at each point. Amazingly, only about 20% of people seemed to have them, but it was easily the best $7 you could have spent. It pointed out all the areas of Manhattan and a few historical facts as well. Fully recommend.

A few pics of the view from up top, though it was quite misty:






Did a fair bit of shopping afterwards at Macy's and a menswear shop.

Tonight we are off to the theatre to see Chicago and to have a post show dinner at Carmines.

Later.

More from New York...

9th Feb, 2008

Great night at the theatre last night. Chicago was good and a great meal at Carmines afterwards. We only had to wait 10 minutes for a table, but they were still streaming in at midnight. Frank wasn't lying when he said "a city, that never sleeps"

The theatre - great seats!!




A toast to Dulcie on Feb 8th, New York time.




The hotel, the room and the view (of sorts).






Finally, some sights around Times Square and Broadway.






Later.

Greetings from Niagara Falls...

11th Feb, 2008

Firstly, the good stuff.

All these pics were taken through the window of our room. We are on the 37th floor and though the pictures make it look like we are bit further away, we are less than 100 metres from the edge. The view is seriously breathtaking, even for a cynical old bugger like me. We are on the Canadian side of the falls. The border runs directly down the middle of the main river and dissects the Horseshoe Falls, Canada on the Northern bank, USA on the Southern bank. About 200 metres before the Horseshoe Falls, the river branches off to the right and comes down to form the American Falls which are solely in the USA.

Both falls, American Falls to the left, Horseshoe Falls to the right.



American Falls



Horseshoe Falls






From the lift lobby on the 37th floor, looking over suburban Niagara Falls




Now for the not so good. This picture of the plane we flew into Buffalo on gives you an idea of the weather. As you can see, snow is flying around all over the place, but it is all windblown, it wasn't actually snowing at the time. When I walked out of the terminal to meet our transport to Niagara, it was the coldest weather I had ever experienced, colder than anything Charlottes Pass had served up in my times there. But, it would get worse.....



From this picture, you can see that the casino is on the next corner.



We had a late lunch after we checked in, so decided to relax in the room, watch the view and have a nap because both of us have found it difficult to sleep, I've had about 4 hours each night. Around 9pm we decided to get dressed and go check out the casino. Unfortunately we just missed the shuttle which loops around Niagara and can drop you at the casino. No big deal, it's only a block away and we could do with the exercise.

Big mistake.

Well, if we thought it was cold at Buffalo, we hadn't felt anything yet. I had a skivvy, a jumper and my thick Swans 'bomber' jacket on and within 20 metres I was frozen solid. The wind and cold was totally insane. We made it to the casino, 150 metres away. My glasses were fogged/iced? over, I had the kind of 'brain freeze' headache you sometimes get when you eat an ice cream. It was madness.

But it didn't end there. I said to Diane we will get the last shuttle back at 2am because I have no intention of walking back in that weather. We agreed, but when we went to get Diane's coat from the coat check, it was closed and she had to go to the other end of the building to the 24hr coat check and, yes, you guessed it, we missed the last shuttle. The walk back was just ridiculous, how do people live in this weather??

We shivered our way back to the hotel and collapsed in bed.

When we awoke this morning and turned the TV on we were greeted with the news that it was currently -17!!!!, the wind chill was -40!!!!, there was a severe weather and wind chill warning and all schools from Buffalo to Toronto were shutdown for the day because it was too cold for children to leave their homes!!!!

Unfortunately, ALL our ski gear, jackets, gloves, balaclavas etc are in a locker at JFK. We left them there, along with one of our suitcases so we didn't need to lug them up here for 2 days. NOT HAPPY, JAN. I thought I had done as much investigative work that was humanly possible in arranging this trip, I just had no idea I would need to prepare for insane cold snaps like this one. I'm sure we'll laugh about it in years to come.

It's almost midday here (Monday) and we are rugging up as much as possible to go down to the edge of the falls. It is still -15 outside. I have no idea how long we will be able to stay outdoors, but we'll never forgive ourselves if we don't attempt to get a closeup view from the falls edge. All the major attractions are closed, as you can see from the pics the river that the Falls flow into is iced over in winter so some don't run anyway, but the 'Cave of the Winds' and 'Behind the Falls' walk is shut for obvious reasons.

Sorry for the novel, more later.

Cheers Bob and Di.

Spielberg be afraid, be very afraid...

12th Feb, 2008

A few short videos taken at high resolution (100MG+) and shrunk down to fit on the blog. The video quality is not too bad. The director/producer/cameraman on the other hand........

This is the Horseshoe Falls taken right at the edge of the falls



Next two are the Horseshoe Falls a bit further downstream




Finally the American Falls

Greetings from Las Vegas...

13th Feb, 2008

Well, we are all together and checked into our palatial suites in Vegas, eventually.

Diane and I took almost as long to get from Niagara Falls to LA as it took Clive and Lorraine to get from Sydney.

We were picked up promptly at 09:30 by the taxi to get back to Buffalo for the flight to JFK. A blizzard was due to hit in the afternoon so we were just happy to get out of Buffalo at 12:30, albeit 30 minutes late.

We were greeted in New York by a steady stream of light snow. I went to Terminal 4 to pick up our bags we left in storage, doh!!, so we checked in at 14:30 for the Qantas flight back to LA, due to leave at 18:40. With 4 hours to kill we had some lunch and I had a pedicure at a SpaExpress outlet in the departure lounge (yes, this is Bob typing!!!). I was unable to get internet access so it was just a case of waiting. Boarding time rolls around and it is obvious that this flight won't be leaving at 18:40. The plane hadn't even arrived from LA yet, although it was due at 16:30. The snow is getting heavier, cancelled flights are starting to dot the TV screens and we find out even if the plane arrives now, the pilot and co-pilot are stuck in gridlocked traffic somewhere on the streets of NY, ETA unknown. Eventually the plane arrives, the pilot arrives and although most flights are now cancelled due to the weather, we are still good to go. We board at 19:45, 90 minutes late, settle in and get ready, we should be airborne shortly.

Yeah, right.

The plane gives a bit of a jolt at the gate, moves a foot or so and comes to a stop. After 5 minutes the Captain advises that the tug (?) that pulls the plane away from the gate couldn't get traction because of the snow and had to leave and get chains fitted, delay about 20-30 minutes. Finally the plane pulls out and the Captain tells us that because of the time spent in the gate, we had to proceed to the de-icing hanger and get the wings de-iced and treated. We wait for at least an hour for a British Airways flight in front of us to get treated. We eventually pull in and they go to work on us. They appear to be finished but still we wait. Now the Captain tells us that the British Airways flight that was in front of us had to wait so long to get clearance that the wings had iced again and it was on it's way back. As such, they decided to redo our plane, so another hour wasted.

We finally leave the ground at a quarter past midnight !!! 4 1/2 hours on the plane and we are finally in the air. Dinner is served, Skybed reclined and we are both off to sleep. We get to LAX at 02:00 (gain 3 hrs with time change). I go to the counter and ask what is the ETA for Clive and Lorraines flight, due in at 06:30. At this point I'm secretly hoping it has been delayed so we can check into our hotel and get more than 3 hours sleep. The agent checks "Sir, you'll be pleased to know that flight is early, arriving at 05:55" Terrific.......

Clive and Lorraine clear US Customs at 07:00 and are met by their chauffeur, me, holding a sign "The RATS". It was clearly the most impressive sign among the many signs held by those poor souls who meet and greet tired and irritable travellers for a living.

We returned to the hotel, picked up Diane and finally all 4 of us are together for 'USA and Canada 2008' and headed for the US Airways terminal for our flight to Vegas. The plane was an hour late, only an hour...not bad, not bad...., finally touching down in Vegas at 14:30. The highlight of the flight was when a male crew member asked Lorraine and Diane if they were twins or just sisters. Considering Lorraine had just flown from Australia with little sleep, she was rather chuffed. We expect Diane to talk to us again sometime tomorrow, although I believe US Airways are off the agenda for future travel.

We jumped a shuttle and headed for The Palazzo. We were the last drop and as the door closes behind the second last drop at Flamingo, it snaps a hinge and falls on the ground!!!! Now we are about 300 metres from our final destination, all of us have been on the go for over 24 hours and we have to wait 30 minutes for a replacement bus to take us the last bit. Not sure if I'm down to my last or not, but there cannot be too many straws left!!!

Clive, always the engineer





We finally checked into The Palazzo. It is just superb.

This is one of the many fountains in the check-in lobby



The walkway off the gaming floor to the shopping arcade and link to The Venetian



And finally, the room......









More later....

Valentines Day in Vegas...

14th Feb, 2008

More pictures, slightly less editorial today......

The Palazzo external....


....and at dusk



Clive and I took the girls out for Valentines Day lunch and told them to eat ANYTHING they fancied. After all, if a girl can't indulge on Valentines Day, when can she indulge.

They both started with a Spaghetti Alfredo entree, a creamy white wine sauce with fresh field mushrooms, a hint of garlic poured over fresh al dente spaghetti. Diane then went for an Asian main, mouth watering beef in a spicy black bean sauce and a delightfully fruity Orange Chicken. Lorraine chose a more western creation, succulent lamb cuts, complimented by a gorgeously creamy sweet potato mash.

These meals were washed down with a refreshing iced tea before the piece de resistance...deserts. They both chose a wickedly sweet creme brulee' followed by large strawberries dipped in chocolate and a small section of banana, also dipped in chocolate and coated in nuts. Yummyyyyy.

The evidence...



That Clive and I, aren't we just the best !!!!!!

Yep, no doubt about it, that $15.95 all-you-can-eat buffet at Treasure Island is great value.



We then needed to walk off the calories, so headed down the strip visiting casinos as we came to them.

A couple of Valentines Day shots at the Mirage....




and a nice shot of the girls....



We didn't actually get to see too many casino gaming areas. With all the shops along the way in Caesars etc. it was painfully slow progress, certainly for Clive and I anyway.

Diane tried on a pair of $3,000 sunglasses.....


I was pretty safe in the knowledge that even Diane would understand they were way out of our budget. Clive on the other hand was looking decidedly fidgety and rather nervous.

One of the dozen, no make that dozens, of shoe shops that the girls just HAD to look inside. What is it with woman and shoes??



We headed back to The Palazzo via the Flamingo where the girls covered the weekly rent for some lucky clothing store. We then went through the Venetian where we saw the living statues....


....I'm sure those who have seen them are also amazed how they can keep so still for so long.

Finally, Clive and Lorraine came across a welcome sign, obviously unveiled for their arrival.....



In the evening we went to a dinner/show, Tony and Tina's Wedding at the Rio. Whilst not that bad a night, it wouldn't go down as a must see. Lorraine had seen the show previously and said that the cast and show had completely changed and she was very disappointed.

That's all for now, until later.......

Goodbye Vegas...

15th Feb, 2008

Well, we have left Vegas and have arrived in San Francisco.

After a nice buffet breakfast at The Palazzo Cafe, our final day in Las Vegas saw the girls take off to do some shopping, again, whilst Clive and I stood in a line for an hour to get some show tickets. We obtained tickets to see 'Stomp Out Loud', then we had to get to Planet Hollywood Casino where the show was playing to pick up the actual tickets and get seating. The whole process took about 3 hours, but as devoted husbands we didn't complain......much.

Both girls came back from the shops modelling new jackets/coats. Clive wanted to know why Lorraine needed a 'raincoat' and in his typical shyte stirring way has managed to slip the word 'raincoat' into every second sentence the past 24 hours. For those that know Clive, I'm sure you can just hear him saying it as you read. BTW, it's a lovely jacket and Lorraine has told Clive "It's called style Clive, you wouldn't understand".

'Stomping Out Loud' was brilliant. It ran for 90 minutes and not one word was spoken nor sung. It was a group of young dancers/musicians/performers that used everyday items to compose music and melody. It was just so well done.

After the show we had dinner at The Bellagio, watched the dancing waters show before casino hopping our way back to our suites at 2am.

A few piccies of the Vegas strip....

The Bellagio




Paris




Venetian





Wynn's



Caesars Palace...note the circular escalator







Mirage




Bellagio dancing waters show.....