San Francisco

My last stop.  The left and arrived on time and my bag came too, how exciting!  After settling in to my very nice accommodation, I went for a ride on the cable car down to Fishermans Wharf.  Its very crowded with lots of shops.  Not that exciting. I walked along the waterfront then headed inland to the Coit Tower.  Lovely views across the harbour and over to the Golden Gate Bridge.  ON Day 2 I went for a bike ride.  The weather was perfect clear and sunny but not to hot.  I rode through Golden Gate Park which beautiful and enormous.  The highlight was the SF Botanical Gardens.  They are very well laid out and labelled.  A nice section on Australia but the highlight was the Redwood Grove.  Then onto the coast.  The beach is wide but no south coast beach.  Up over the headland to Lands End with nice views.  Then further up to the start of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Great to ride over.  Then down the hill to Sausalito a very quaint tourist village.  Then back to SF on the ferry.  I climbed up endless hills to Lombard St the famous windy street.

On Day 3 I went to the Cable Car museum and caught the ferry to Alcatraz.  Very interesting but I am glad I didn’t have to live there.  On my final morning I wandered round the UN Plaza, Union Sq and the city centre.  Unfortunately I found the Museum of Ice Cream to late to actually go in.

And that is the end of a great trip.  A few disasters with flights and bags (the flight back into Sydney was late so I missed the connection and got home 4 hours later than planned.  Ah well.  A lot of fun overall.

 

 

New York

Took a lovely train ride from Washington to New York.  You get an interesting insight into the underbelly of the US seeing things from the train.  Its very comfortable and left me with a short walk to my hotel.  I had come to NY to do five specific things and I did them.  Went up the Empire state (great view), walked the High Line Park (terrific to have a green oasis in so much high rise), wandered through Central Park (my favourite place in NY), went to the 9/11 memorial (well done with many moving stories about the people involved) and went to the Met (great to do on a rainy afternoon with some gorgeous art work).  Then got up at 3.30am to catch the train to JFK.

 

Gettysburg

If you are interested in the American Civil War, you can’t miss Gettysburg.  It was the turning point of the war and was the most expensive battle in terms of casualties (51000 men killed injured or missing).  Since I was last there in 1994 they have built an impressive new visitor centre.  One of the largest paintings in America is there.  Its 377ft by 42ft.  We went on a bus tour which explained the whole battle clearly.  We also went to the site of Lincoln’s Gettysburg addresses.  One of the great speeches.  A most enjoyable day.

 

A white out

Driving down the Skyline drive was going to be a highlight having seen some gorgeous shots from M&G.  Sadly it was raining and foggy all the way.  All we saw was white!  Then went to Harpers Ferry where John Brown staged what he hoped would be a slave rebellion.  It wasn’t (he got hanged) but it played a role in the prompting the civil war and the end of slavery.

What it looked like

What it should look like

Monticello

For something a little different – we went to Monticello.  This is Thomas Jeffersons house. Well worth visiting.  The presentation on the slave situation and the apparent contradiction of Jeffersons position as the author of the Declaration of Independence and a slave owner was interesting.  Finished the day with a tour of Woodrow Wilson’s Presidential Library.

Civil War stuff

Started the day at the Tredegar Civil Museum.  It does everything from three points of view – Confederate, Union and African American.  It was well done.  The on to the Confederate White House where Jefferson Davis lived as President of the Confederacy.  Had an interesting museum with it.  We drove a couple of hours through some lovely countryside to Appomattox Court House.  This is essentially where the Civil War ended.  Grant and Lee signed the Confederate surrender.  And to finish off another Civil War Museum.  Lucky Andrew seems to quite enjoy this stuff.

Richmond/Williamsburg

Andrew and I met up again for a road trip around Washington.  The order of the trip had to be reversed from the original order as we were worried about the effect a cyclone off the Carolina coast would effect the weather.  We headed of to Richmond.  On the way we visited Mt Vernon the home of George Washington.  From there we went into Richmond Capital of the Confederate Government.  But first we went to Williamsburg on Meryl and Glenn’s recommendation.  Beautiful weather and a very interesting day.  Learned a lot about colonial Virginia.  The most impressive thing was a talk by `Thomas Jefferson`.  The actor was brilliant and answered a lot of questions in character.  Really knew his stuff.

Washington Day 5

Started off in Arlington Cemetery on another overcast day.  I always find such settings very moving.  Walked back over the Memorial Bridge for another look at Lincoln (can’t resist), then the Vietnam Memorial, a statue of Einstein and the memorial to the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  I saw Forde’s Theatre where Lincoln was shot and the house he died in.  But most of the day was spent in the African American Museum.  It is incredibly well done.  It maps their history through slavery and the human rights struggle to now.  Very distressing how some people treat others but uplifting that there are many who are prepared to pay a high price to confront such appealing behaviour.  Well worth a visit.  And I happened walk past the USAID office and took a photo.

 

Out of Washington (Day 4)

Its Sunday.  Bill and Diana very generously offered to take me to Annapolis – a quaint place not far from Washington.  Sadly it was pouring with rain.  We had a wander round the State Capitol and had lunch.  We headed off to Baltimore so I could see Kiri’s (and my) friend Kait.  Had a marvellous couple of hours with her and her husband.

 

Washington Day 3

A dreary day weather wise but a delightful day for me.  Went to Hillwood with Bill and Diana.  It’s the former house of Marjorie Post (a very wealthy woman).  A surprising contrast of 18th century french decoration in the formal rooms and 1950’s America in the service areas.  Spent lunch and the whole afternoon with Bill and Diana and Lisa (another old AusAID friend) and their babies Ella and Sebastian.  A wonderful catch up.