Highlights further down: San Juan Islands, New York.
You’ll see from her message below that we were too busy traveling to write anything this month, so I have split the relevant portion out of June and put it in here, so that I can inject the pictures into the narrative .
Before we hit the East coast, we did more road travel.
The Columbia River valley.
Crossing from Oregon back into Washington.
Past the Tacoma Dome.
Briefly back home.
Via the ferry system to the San Juan islands. (Next highlight: New York)
I can’t remember, but I think this was a tour.
Back into Friday Harbour.
Mt Rainier dominating the skyline at work.
Doris writes:
| Hello wonderful friends,
Well we are back in Seattle after nearly three weeks on the east coast. We’ve actually been back for a few weeks, but we have all been getting over a mild dose of the flu (yuk). We chose to go in early June to miss the summer vacation traffic. What a good decision that was. Firstly we did not have too many problems with long lines at security, only about ½ hour. Buffalo airport was the only place where the computer spat out a “sss” on our ticket, which meant we were chosen at random to have a full security search of person and bags. By this time, I had gotten smarter and had taken all my jewellery off, so that was cool and Rod did not wear his walking boots that have some metal in there somewhere. They make you take your shoes off and send them thru separately. What fun, I wonder how many socks with holes they get to see!! As the summer vacation time came on, Seattle International Airport found a great way to piss travellers off, by making them wait in long lines, take two hours to get thru security and for some, miss their planes all together, needless to say the place has had a battering in the press. This coming 4th July holiday they are “importing” security people from elsewhere. Glad we are not travelling now. The days of airplane food no longer exists, except for the first early flight from Seattle to Cincinnati, where you got a “paper bag breakfast”. All other flights only serve drinks and pretzels. Did you know you can get too much of pretzels? We certainly did! We also became adept at asking for the exit seats, which give you a bit more room. And we figured out that you need to buy your food at the airport before boarding the flight. Despite all the stuff over here about possible terrorist strikes over the Memorial Day weekend (we were in New York that weekend) the planes were quite full … drat! New York was just awesome (a favourite American word, pronounced aaarsome), we chose to take the bus and then the subway (silly us with our bags) to our hotel, which was just off Broadway Avenue, not far from the middle of Central Park. We did all the tourist stuff, Empire State Building, Museum of Natural History, Ellis Island and “the Statue”, even stayed on the train out to Coney Island. Security was a bit of a drag because of Memorial Day weekend and the Navy Fleet being in town. If you are a person who likes a man in uniform … it was smorgasbord time !!!. For each place you went it was the line and the metal detector and bag check stuff. We found going early made a difference. At the Guggenheim Gallery … the exhibit they had on was weird and distressing, so we did not stay very long, the bucketing rain outside was a better option! Wall Street.
NY Stock Exchange. Way too expensive. The shopping in NY is to die for, put a limit on your credit card, all the retail therapy your heart desires!!! Get rid of your therapist and come shopping!! The outlet stores are just something else. Here each season has “a look”, and it changes each season, so there is a lot of stuff in the outlets at 75% off. Times Square was everything you expect it to be !! All the colours, lights and buzz you see on TV, right down to the giant Toys’R’Us on one of the main corners – it has a mini Ferris Wheel about 2 stories high, in the foyer. The Rockefeller Center was also fantastic, you can look in the window and see them produce the CNN News, and just off this street is another danger zone for credit cards … The Diamond Street, where all the diamond traders are, it was almost too much for a girl to take. No, I was good, no purchases, but boy it was hard.
Street market on Broadway.
Empire State Building.
Long Beach Boardwalk.
The World Trade Center site, known locally as Ground Zero, was a sobering experience. We even had to go back for a second look, because Rod was so blown away the first time that he forgot to take any photos. Fortunately, the site has not been “improved” in any way, with a simple wide footpath and high chain fence overlooking the construction works. Very low key and no vendors on that side of the street.
Security was pretty tough. The US has a 5-level threat alert system – low (green), guarded (blue), elevated (yellow), high (orange) and severe (red) – website. The whole time we were away, it was at orange, although we had reason to believe that during the Memorial Day long weekend, it had been raised to red, but the public hadn’t been informed. It remains at yellow at present and is unlikely to go below that. Rockefeller Center. They don’t get many long weekends over here, for that matter they don’t get many public holidays – only about 4 a year. The next big one is the 4th of July, when it seems the whole country takes to the road. |
