Four score, 6 months ago....

I know...  I've been extremely slack with my updates....  Apologies and swiftly moving on...

Following our amazing week in New York, we hopped aboard a train with Jayden and Caz to Washington, DC.  Caz's brother Mikey kindly put us up for the final week of our American adventure so we could get some culture in the birthplace of democracy. 

A dramatic change of pace from the Big Apple, DC was no less a fantastic experience and must be equally as photographed.

1 - Political Landmarks
Obviously, this is a very broad umbrella term for a city with a history like DC's.  We tried to squeeze in as many of these sites as we could and, if I do say so myself, I think we did really well.  Just a few months after our visit, the US federal government shut down and all the monuments had to close, so phew. 

Here's a quick sample of the highlights:

Mount Vernon - George Washington's Virginian estate where he lived post-Presidency, including his tomb.  The view from the porch could easily have been NZ.

On the Post-Presidential Porch

Final resting place of George and Martha

The Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument - eerie.  You can almost feel Lincoln challenging you to do something meaningful with your life or encouraging you to be a better person.  The reflecting pool was filled with algae (unexpected) and Forrest Gump was nowhere in sight. 

I abolished slavery, what have you done???

At the time, the Washington Monument was covered in scaffolding after suffering damage in an earthquake.  Kind of looks like a massive (phallic) Meccano set now.

The White House - the building Hollywood likes to blow up the most, pleasingly intact.  A few days after our visit, we were watching the Obama's on the lawn taking part in the 9/11 Memorial Service on the news.  On the tv a few blocks away.  D'oh!  Not a win on the planning front.  But, at least we had an unobstructed view on the day we did go.

The Capitol Building - Amazing and beautiful building that oozes a sense of historical significance.  The air and the atmosphere seem to carry the weight of the important events conducted within.  And if you don't pick that up on your own, the guides, the art and the statuary will most certainly ram it home.  It was fascinating though.  A highlight was seeing Reagan's statue with crumbs of the Berlin Wall lining the plinth he's standing on.                                                                             

The National Archives - housing the original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution.  The DoI is pretty faded, but the guards had fun pointing out some of the interesting things about the documents - spelling mistakes, a handprint(which I was told by a straight-faced guard was absolutely not Nicolas Cage's) and the signatures of the giants of US political history, including the first to sign - John Hancock.  Say it with me now... OH!  So that's where that saying comes from....  Yes, yes it does.


And, arguably most important of all (to us), we got to visit the NZ High Commission, directly opposite VP Joe Biden's house and down the road from Hilary Clinton's pad.  You can't throw a stone in that city without hitting something note-worthy.  The thing that really amazed me was the nonchalant way Mikey would point these places out, i.e. "that's Hilary Clinton's house just there.  Don't stare too hard, that car over there is a Secret Service vehicle and they get twitchy if you gawp".  EEP!  Being arrested by the Secret Service is not on our bucket list, so it was eyes front til the end of the street. 

Kyle made a new friend at the NZHC

2 - Military landmarks 
We saw the memorials to the two world wars, the Vietnam War and the Korean War, but the one that made the biggest and most sobering impression on us had to be Arlington Cemetery.

Row upon row of white headstones as far as the eye could see from every major conflict and dating back from the Civil War right through to a few that were a just a few days old.  By the sheer number of stones alone, you couldn't help but be moved. 

Additionally, there was the eternal flame memorial for JFK as well as memorials to the Unknown Soldiers, constantly guarded by servicemen in full (blisteringly hot) uniforms, those lost in the Challenger disaster and in the events that inspired "Argo". 

3 - Food...
What blog would be complete without a section on culinary delights?  In this category, DC did not disappoint.  Even now, cough, 6 months later, certain meals stick out in my mind.  First up, Ben's Chili Bowl.  World famous to the locals and a favourite of Bill Cosby, this no frills restaurant serves up amazing smoked pork hot dogs, chili fries and buckets of ice cold milkshake....  Mmmmmm chili fries....  the true pity is, they only taste good State-side.

The other place I'll never forget is this pizza place Mikey took us to called "We, The Pizza".  Yep, no lack of a sense of humour there...  We gorged on delicious pizza (which they insisted on calling "pies") and hot wings with blue cheese sauce.  I was SO full afterwards.  But not too full to squish in some Ben & Jerry's on top.  

But what was truly lovely were the nights where we'd just cook in Mikey's flat and eat together round the table.  One night we played this incredibly inappropriate card game called Cards for Humanity with tears rolling down our cheeks and on another we watched Pitch Perfect.  Even Jayden gave up pretending he wasn't watching long before the end.  Good.  Times.

4.  More Sports
This time, football.  We went to see the, ahem, Washington Redskins play the Philadelphia Eagles.  Apparently the argument to change their name is gaining momentum...

Interestingly, the home stadium for the 'skins isn't in DC, we had to go to Maryland.  Getting into the ground was...  interesting...  there were STACKS of people and, as I found out, you're not allowed to take a handbag in unless it's within certain dimensions and clear plastic...!  By the time we started the long climb up to our seats, right at the top, the 'skins scored a touchdown.  The whole arena erupted into this.  It was deafening.  The 'skins didn't win the day, but we had a great time.

5. Kiwis meet a Kiwi
Mikey has a friend at Washington Zoo who happens to be the Kiwi Keeper.  She let us spend an hour or so with Pip, a teenage boy kiwi.  Naw, he was so sweet!  We got to feed him...  worms and mushed up stuff that smelled.... unique.  The mushed up stuff was ok, but I left the worms to the others.  Such a sissy. 

After all that, it was time to say goodbye to Mikey and to Caz and Jayden and head back to the UK.  I'll leave you with the theme song from the trip (yes, it had one)...

Empire State of Mind

Wikipedia has a page dedicated purely to songs about New York and believe me, there are a lot on there.  I got bored of scrolling through them at the letter H (which includes the Harlem Shake - does that really count?).  Having now spent a week there at the beginning of September, we can kind of understand why.  There is so much going on!

Can you find Kyle?

Now, what did we get up to?  I could blather on about what we did in order and, to be honest, I did start writing it that way...  but it was BORING...  so instead, I'll stick to my penchant for lists and use the Lonely Planet for guidance because I'm essentially bone lazy.

So here you go, here's our countdown of the top 10 things about New York as experienced by us:

10.  Famous addresses
Madison Avenue, 5th Avenue, Trump Tower, the New York Times, Radio City Music Hall, Grand Central station, Wall Street, Harry Winston's, the studio where they tape Letterman...  They're all here.


9.  Living out quasi-Top Gun dreams
New York has an aircraft carrier that's a museum...  The USS Intrepid.  It's rather large, as evidenced by the approximately 42 planes parked on top, including an F-14 Tomcat.  Sadly, Iceman appeared to have the day off.  Boo.

Also parked on top was a space shuttle (the Enterprise - all hail Star Trek nerds!) and moored off the back is a submarine from the Cold War.  It wins the award for best name ever. 

And the staff get prizes for having senses of humour too.

8.   The High Line
The High Line was great - a former railway line for the transportation paraphernalia about the industrial part of town, now redundant, the locals had campaigned for years to get it torn down.  Instead, some enterprising individual came up with the idea of turning the ugly old tracks into a park.  So now it's replanted with flowers, shrubs and trees and dotted with sculptures and other art.  Our fav piece was a giant nose placed delicately in a wheelbarrow.

Better than that was all the attention to detail, the little railway-related things dotted about all over the place.  Not just the running rails still visible between the plants, but the deck chairs running on wheels along the rails that people were lying on to read their books and the sprinkler system that soaked the soles of your feet on a beautiful 30 degree plus day.  Fab idea.

See!  Rails!

7.   Brooklyn Bridge
The stroll over Brooklyn Bridge was lovely.  Busy, but lovely.  It gave a different perspective of the East River and a close up view of the iconic bridge itself.  Once on the other side, we explored Brooklyn Heights a little and stopped for lunch (more meat). 

Afterward, we caught the water taxi back to Manhattan, which provided good views of my fav hunk of metal, the Chrysler Building.

6.   Central Park and Times Square
We stayed in an apartment 5 mins walk from Central Park, so we headed there on our first morning.  Not only is it huge (I didn't quite appreciate it's size before we got in there) but it's jam packed with sculptures, buskers, runners and more.  We found the memorial to John Lennon in Strawberry Fields and sculptures dedicated to literary greats.

Chillin' with Hans Christian Andersen

After a decent walk through over half the park, we ditched the greenery and hit the streets.  Eventually, we made our way to Times Square.  It had all the hustle and bustle we'd been promised.  We got sold some tickets to a comedy show in the comedy hole where Seinfeld did his stand up bits in the show...  the comedy was bad but the drinks were strong... A fair to middling compromise.

5.  Sporting Events
We took in two sporting events in our week in NYC.

The first, the US Open.  We had the good fortune to see Serena Williams completely obliterate her quarter final opposition (she wasn't on the court long enough for us to learn anything other than that she's Spanish) and Andy Murray defeat his round of 16 opponent (his final win for the tournament).  Great atmosphere and fun, plus, Boris Becker walked right past us!  I was a bit too starstruck to think to ask for a photo though.  Pathetic.

Hey Boris, we saved you a seat!

The second was evening taking in America's favourite passtime.  Baseball.  At Yankee Stadium.


We got tickets to see the ultimate grudge match.  The New York Yankees vs. The Boston Red Sox, recently freed from the curse that struck when they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees back when photos were still black and white. 

As someone who grew up on baseball movies (it was Robert Redford and Glenn Close who forced my parents to tell me about the birds and the bees) this was magic.  We saw foul balls, stolen and loaded bases and home runs.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been for the announcer to yell out "Goodbyyyyyyyye, Miiiiiister Spaaaalding" or a home run that smashed out the floodlights. 

The Yankees didn't win that night, although they gave it a good nudge in a thrilling 7th inning which forced some overtime.  But at one point it really was bottom of the ninth and the scores were tied...  Regardless,  baseball gained two new fans that night. 

Take me out to the ball game....

4.  Statue of Liberty, by day and night
The Statue of Liberty was something we were both really looking forward to seeing.  Our first look was via the Staten Island Ferry, which we caught with some guy called Bill de Blasio.  Later, we found out that he's tipped to win the next NYC mayoral election.  Good luck, Bill!  Anyway, yet another beautiful New York afternoon, Lady Liberty was resplendent.  No one played any Jackie Wilson though, so she stayed put.

Your love keeps lifting me...

We came back for a second look by night after booking an evening sail on a schooner up the Hudson River.  I have to say, the skyline and the Statue are gorgeous at night. 

That's Lady Liberty in the back, honest.

3.  FOOD!  Had to be in there somewhere...
My god, when I think of all we ate on this trip...  the number one most amazing thing has to be the Philly Cheesesteak we had at Yankee Stadium, of all places.  If I never have another one in my life I'll be quite disappointed...  Kind of spiced sliced steak in a hot dog bun with cheese sauce and onions - it's deliciousness wrapped in goodness soaked in happiness.  I WANT MORE!

We also stopped in at Spice Market after we'd finished walking the High Line.  Upmarket south east asian street food, this place was divine.  We sat inside and sipped cocktails while we cooled down after our walk in the sun.  Highly recommend the pork buns and the shrimp with sun dried pineapple.  Om nom nom.

Pork Bun of awesomeness

Another stop worth mentioning is Katz Deli.  I had about five different people tell me we had to go there.  Then, one of them said it's where they filmed the "I'll have what she's having" scene in When Harry Met Sally.  Sold!  Sure enough, there's a sign above the relevant table.  More importantly, perhaps, they sell pastrami and brisket sandwiches fatter than your fist and served with their own delicious pickles.  Kyle and I shared the brisket but, if we go back, I'm going to go completely starving and have a crack at the pastrami on my own.  Protein requirements = sorted.

Tucking in with gusto.  And a pickle.

We also sampled other traditional American fare like buffalo wings, ribs, bagels (good, but lox is disgusting...  seriously, what the hell is up with that stuff????), brisket, sweet potato with brown sugar (sounds good, but isn't) and, of course, New York style pizza.  Oh and gelato.  Of course.

2.  Skyscrapers, old, new and remembered
Of course everyone goes on about the Empire State Building.  We went up to the Top of the Rock (the top of the Rockefeller Center) to see it in amongst the NYC skyline.  We spent a good few hours up there watching the sun go down and the lights on all the buildings come up.  Not bad at all. 

Night falls on Manhattan

My personal favourite, however, and the first one we saw on arrival, is the Chrysler Building.  It's gorgeous.  Day or night.

The obvious new addition to the NYC skyline is the almost complete so-called Freedom Tower.  Rising up above ground zero, it's a giant monolith standing 1776 feet high (the year of Independence...) and is best viewed either from a schooner (as above) or from the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial.  We overheard a guide saying they're having trouble selling the office space above the 40th floor.  No one seemed particularly surprised.

The 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial next door is, naturally, a very sombre visit.  Recently opened, there are two reflecting pools, each built on what were the footprints of the Two Towers.  The names of those lost, at ground zero, the Pentagon and from Flight 93, are carved into the sides of the pools and on those people's birthdays, the volunteers place a single white rose inside the carving of the name.  Seeing the names of each loved one lost made it all so much more real than just a number.  Very moving and very sad.  The only uplifting thing about the site is the tree that survived the attack, which has been nurtured back into life and replanted within the memorial. 

1.  Catching up with good mates after more than 18 months
The best thing was catching up with Jayden and Caz from back home.  We hadn't seen these guys in over 18 months, so that was truly excellent.  It took us all of about 12 minutes to slip back into the usual routine.  Brilliant.  Miss you guys already!!!

Cazzy.  Keeping it serious.

The gang all together again.

And still juvenile.

Pretty bloody epic, but our American odyssey isn't done yet...  From NYC we caught a train to Washington DC.  But more on that next time.

Until then, I leave you with this classic ear worm.

Good night everybody!
M&K

Search for Sunshine

Ugh, so my record of failed New Year's resolutions stands...

2013 has been an interesting and busy year so far.  Both Kyle and I have started new jobs and we've learned that there are two key ingredients required for a successful trip:  sunshine and good food.  I hope you were sitting down for that one, because I bet it came as a total shock...  Suffice to say that in both cases, this year has not been as successful as last year, but then we always knew 2012 would be tough to beat.  It was, after all, the awesomeness.

Not that we haven't had our fair share of highlights.  Let's do a quick recap of things we've learned.

1.  Snow on the beach is crazy...  and there is a really good reason why Brighton is a summer destination... We popped down for the weekend for our anniversary in January, which coincided with a decent dumping of snow across the UK.  Well timed, Team Reid, well timed.  So we mostly stuck to inside activities - the Pavilion is gorgeous and looks fab lit up at night.

On the beach...  no, seriously.

After that, we hibernated, apart for a day trip out to Greenwich...

2.  They're not kidding about Venice sinking!
We saw for ourselves on Kyle's birthday over the Easter long weekend.  I think we covered pretty much the whole city on foot and it was pretty great wandering around and never having to watch out for cars or bikes.  We got a bit of surprise when we came out of a restaurant one night and the pavement was calf deep in water...

You can only really buy four things in Venice: glass, masks, bags and tat.  After a water logged trip out to Murano, the sun finally came out and then you can really start to understand why people love Venice.  Beautiful.

Sunshine and gelato - now we're talking!

3.  Belfast is a really friendly place (at the right time of year)
Another jaunt over a long weekend.  We learned a bit about the politics, saw where the Titanic was built and visited the Giant's Causeway to marvel at the natural rock formations (or construction prowess of the local giant, depending on who you believe).  It seemed to us to be a city really trying to pull it's socks up and put it's troubled past behind it, although the news lately would seem to suggest otherwise.

 

4.  Scotland and the South Island of NZ were separated at birth and Kyle is speedy!
Setting out from Inverness, we spent a week traveling past Loch Ness to the Isle of Skye, down the west coast of Scotland, through Glasgow, then on to Edinburgh via Stirling.

Scotland?

Or South Island?  You decide.

Someone, who will remain nameless, ran the Edinburgh Marathon in 3hr 28m.  Speedy Gonzales.

Before

After

  

















5.  It is freakin awesome to catch up with mates from home
That's not really a lesson, we knew that from seeing Sarah and Will last year, but it was so good it bears repeating.  We caught up with Jenn and Paul in Belfort at the end of May.  Never heard of it?  Never mind.  It's on the French side of the Franco-Swiss border.

Paul is a bit of a clever clogs.  Not content with "just" being an IronMan, he went and got himself selected for the National NZ Long-Distance Triathlon team...  competing in the world champs in good old Belfort.  How impressive is that!?!  We shot over for a quick weekend with Pip to see them, with our flags.

Finishing strong

Just like old times...

6. Getting older is still ok (for now)
After three trips in May, we needed a rest...  so there was nothing else until the end of July, when we soaked up uninterrupted sunshine (finally) and quaffed sangria in Majorca for five days.  Bliss.

For my birthday, Kyle took me to this A-MAZ-ING restaurant called Es Moli d'en Bou for a 12 course degustation dinner.  Can't believe we forgot the camera...  the food was as much art as anything else.  Absolutely incredible.  Not only that, it was very quiet in there.  There was no music and the wait staff spoke almost in a whisper, which made the diners speak more quietly too (even me), so the senses were more focused on the food.  Best meal we've had in a long time, it'll definitely stick in the memory.

So there you go.  Next weekend, we're off to take a bite out of the Big Apple and visit Obama with two of our fav peeps, Jayden and Caz.  Seriously, can not wait.

Peace out, yo.
M&K