My USA Trip 2008

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My U.S. Trip!
27 Sept 2008 - SIN - NY
Finally here!!! I have been saving for 2 yrs in order to go on this trip, both cash and Krisflyer miles (240,000)

I was so excited we get to fly on the all new Business Class direct flight on Singapore Airline; and this made 17 hrs flights from Singapore to Newark a breeze. We count ourselves very lucky to be on it as SIA has discontinued redemption on this direct flight. I made my reservation since Oct 2007 before the new rule kicks in, and they honor it. (Kiasu has its advantage). The seats are huge! Can easily sit 2 of me! And the LCD is 15.4”! Shiok!

We had a good sleep, but I was almost stuff to death by food, they keep feeding you, course by course, so yummy I just couldn’t resist. So by the time I reach Newark, I put on 1kg!!!

Reach Newark at 5pm, took a train on NJ Transit ($15pp) to Penn station. Bought 7day Metro unlimited pass ($25pp) and took E train to Marriott East Side. Reception is ok, room is nice and clean, but the noise from the traffic is something we can never get used to. I had to wear earplug to sleep.

28 Sept 2008- 1 Oct 2008 4 days in NY
For the next 4 days in NY, we hop on and off buses to tour the city with our Metro pass. Its really very easy to get around with buses in Manhattan, all you need is the MTA Bus map and the unlimited pass!

We took bus most of the time, its slow but we get to see a lot of the streets without breaking our feet; also I was too cheap to pay $40pp to take the open top bus...hehehe... But we were so impressed with all the buildings/architecture, they are really HUGE!!! So majestic! Make you feel so tiny.

Even with the unlimited rides, still a lot of walking to stations/bus stops, because NY's blocks are so huge!1 block is as huge as Wisma to Mandarin Hotel! And bus stops at every 2 blocks! And with only 1 way traffic for every street, trust me when I say I can't feel my feet by 2nd day… at one point we didn't want to alight the bus and just let it took us for a ride...

We found our way to Kitz Deli for their famous Pastrami Sandwich, yummy! So yummy I have to bring David back again on the 2nd day!

Took Staten Island Ferry, see Statue of Liberty, close enough for a good view, and it’s free!

Enjoy the view of Brooklyn Bridge and the waterfall displays from South St seaport, and it’s free!

No queue form at Seaport TKTS yet so bought boardway tickets to watch Spamlot in the evening, (50% off), so happy about the deal but mistaken that the show starts at 7pm instead of 8pm, so missed 50% of the show, come back to square one!!! SHIT!

Love the Metropolitan Museum of Arts (MET), spend 1 full day there, still it is not enough time to finish all.
For entrance fee, it says there SUGGESTED donation is $20, we had a small budget so have to be thick skin and paid only $1 to enter The MET, but she accept it with no question asked.

We were at Wall Street when the congress refused to grant the $700b aid. Impressive army of media van! Jam up all the roads.

2 Oct NY-Niagara Fall-Boston
We had to take the 11am flight to Buffalo, so took a cab to JFK, $60, should have insisted to take the train, heartache! But consider the fact that we behaved on the spending and eating simple for the last few days, I thought I should not deprive him from a little bit of luxury, since he hates to travel on the train with luggage.

David got a rude shock from the airport security, he got to go thru the security gate like 10 times, 1st his belt, then sunglass, then coins, then boarding pass, then jacket, then his phone and shoes then I don’t know what else. He was so panic when the long line start to build up behind him.

Well, this sure is a good lesson for him, for the rest of the flight he became pretty good at it, and no more belt and coins! Hahaha…

Took Jetblue to Buffalo, very impressed with Jetblue, from the auto self check-in to the in flight staff, they are great! And the best part is my hubby left his iPhone in the toilet and only realize after he board the plan; and they manage to find it and return to him!!!! Amazing!!!

Guess it is the good karma from the good deed we did; we gave the Metro tickets to the genitor before we board the flight, as it is still valid for next 2 days.

Reach Buffalo, pick up rental car ($69), drove to Niagara Fall, cross the Canadian border, had lunch and enjoyed the majestic view of the Fall. Then it starts to rain! And freeze the hell out of me!

Drove back to Buffalo, took the 7.45pm flight to Boston, with Jetblue again. Reach Boston, took a train, $2/pax, 2 stops and we reached Long Wharf, and Marriott Long Wharf is right outside the station. Hotel is dated, but room is nice and clean, not so friendly staff. We slept well without the NY traffic noise pollution.

3 Oct Boston - LV
Whale watching ($40) at 10am, board the ferry right outside the hotel, 3hrs, see a few whales, fins only, and bloody cold.
Had lunch at ‘No Name Seafood’, took a taxi there, very near but I thought the meter was broken, cos it just ticks away like no tomorrow. 3km for $17!!!

Had Boston Lobster, nothing fantastic, except we were surprised that the shell is soft and so red, and look like a rubber toy… cost us? $75!

Walk the freedom trial, visit the Market, make our way to airport and take the 7.45pm flight to Las Vegas, with Jetblue again! But this time, bad timing, they were having their Baseball game and the plane shakes every time they hit a home run! All of them were screaming and jumping on their seat! 5hrs of nightmare!

Reach Las Vegas at 10pm, checked into Renaissance Las Vegas. Nice and quiet, deco is a bit dated, but it is clean, and staffs are very friendly.

4 Oct LV
We booked a Helicopter Tour to the Grand Canyon ($294/pax) with PAPILLION 3 weeks before our trip from Singapore. As requested we call them and confirm 24hrs prior to our trip; and was told to top up another $40 per person for Fuel Charged. They were supposed to pick us up at 12noon.
At 8am, they call me and told me all flight has been cancelled, and the next day weather will be worse than today.
We were so disappointed, we decided to fly across the continent just because we wanted to visit the GC; otherwise, we would have stayed on to explore the East Coast.

But we were lucky as we went out to lunch and saw this tour booth and met this lady Christine.
We were shocked to hear from her that no flight to GC is cancelled, and I can book and be on the next Heli out to GC!
She told us that Papillion is famous of overbooking with ridiculous price and then bum people off the flight at the last minute. Definately would not recommend Papillion to anyone!
We were so upset but were very glad as we get to visit GC after all. We end up paying $350pp for a Heli + Ranch lunch tour on 5 Oct.

We were at Mirage and bought a Woody Alan Pastrami Sandwich from The Carnegie, and we were greeted by 2 POUNDS of beef!!! We immediately regetted it... have to leave a note for the chamber maid to take half of the sandwich!


5 Oct LV- GC
We were picked up at 9am, and were on the Heli by 10.30, guess we are lucky to be seated in front next to the pilot and we enjoyed the best view.
We flew an hour over Hover Dam, Lake Mead, and the view of GC is just magnificent, no words can descript it, you really have to be there to see it for yourself.
It is worth every cent! Except for the Ranch and the lunch, it’s just a boring chicken meal, with lousy service and always pushing you to go for the horseback riding. ($40)
We were at the Ranch for 1 hr and were so bored there… they pick us back to Vegas and it only took 20mins, and they fly pass the strip before landing us back at the airport. We were back to the hotel by 2pm.

We got ticket to watch ‘O’ at the Bellagio 10.30pm. We visit the largest hotel MGM, had dinner there, and walk down the strip towards Bellagio for the famous fountain before our show start. David was so impressed with Las Vegas, although we do felt that everything in LV is so unreal. Like a wonderland, for adults.
It reminds us of the huge houses in Surabaya, Indonesia, now we know where they got their idea from.

‘O’ is just so magical and out of the world, although this is my second time watching it, I am still so amazed by it.
We were very lucky to buy the cheapest ticket ($106pp) but seated at the same row as the most expensive row ($160)

Today is an eventful day, with so many great experiences! We are both very happy.

6 Oct LV-San Jose
We took the 11am flight to San Jose, this time with US airway, totally different from Jetblue. They are OLD and boring… but the flight was on time, so nothing to complaint about; except for the $15 surcharge for checked in luggage. Jetblue allowed 1 check in luggage, they charge for every one of them…

Anne picked us up and we were glad to see her after almost 2 yrs. And we were about to meet the most beautiful children on earth.
Sophia & Trevor, they make me change my mind about having children. I will have children if I can get the same duplicate pair.

Check into Marriott Residence Inn, Palo Alto Los Altos, very nice little hotel, free internet, free breakfast, at last!

7 Oct San Jose, Monterey Bay, Gilroy
Anne drove us to Monterey Bay Aquarium ($25pp), I was here in 1995, everything seems to be smaller now, I was so impress during my 1st visit, but now, not very impressed…

David was sitting with Sophia at the back seats, for 2 hrs, and Sophia had him. He has not stopped talking about her since then, even after 3 weeks we returned from the trip! I think he is head over heels with Sophia. And he is seriously thinking to rent Sophia from Anne...

Hit Gilroy Premium Outlet and start real shopping! But I didn’t buy much, maybe not in the mood after the financial crisis. David was so surprise to see an outlet actually look like a normal store! He was not very keen to go to outlet shopping because he though that we have to dig the clothes from piles of clothing… and he starts to shop and shop, and bought lots of branded clothes all at ridiculous price.

He was happy.

8 Oct San Jose - Napa Valley
We drove up north to Napa Valley, drove through the Golden Gate Bridge, visits Sonoma, a little town west of Napa, beautiful! This time we did not drink at all, strange right? Visit vineyard and never drink.

We were actually concern with the driving, and we are trying to get use to the Wrong side of the road, so if we start drinking, we may end up driving on the RIGHT side of the road which is the wrong side. Anyway to be fair, we decided we will not do the wine tasting, since we had done it so many times before.

We were not familiar with the road culture here in the States, where we came from, at any cross junctions without traffic lights, there will always be a main road with the right of way, but here, all the 4 sides will have to stop! We were so confused when we 1st started driving, don't know which way to give way to. First we gave way to the right, and we were horned at; then we decided to give way to the left, and we were horned at again! Finally we figured out later that the correct way is to give way to whoever come 1st... took us a while to understand this logic.

I planned this Napa trip because I just like to visit the country side, see the rolling hills, and get away from the big city for a change.
We check into Renaissance The Lodge at Sonoma, very nice hotel, very comfortable and we had a good rest.

Anne recommended us to have dinner at CIA, The Culinary of American, had a very nice dinner in the beautiful building.
Cost - $160

9 Oct Napa - San Francisco
We wanted to visit a few vineyards before we drive back south to SF, but end up in Napa Premium Outlet for more shopping. Sigh…

Drove back to SF via the BAY Bridge, (I like bridges), finally in SF, make a right turn on Powell St and we were met with a very steep slop in front of us, quite a bit of shock, and with the cable car ringing at you non stop, it can be nerve breaking!

We followed the GPS and make it to our hotel at The Stanford Court by Renaissance on California and Powell St., we left our luggage with the bell boy and went to hunt for cheap garage. Our hotel is charging $50/day for car park. We manage to find one 3 streets away for only $20/day. I didn’t do my homework on SF and for that we had to walk up the 3 very steep slops to get back to our hotel, very tiring! I was worried how I was going to handle all the very very steep hills without wheels. Then I managed to find out later I can buy a day pass for $11 and we can hop on and off any bus/Burt/Cable car, and we are very lucky that there are 2 cable cars line serving our hotel, right in front of it. We bought the 3 day pass ($18) and we never need our car for the next 3 days.

Riding on the Cable car was fun, bus will stops at every block, we don’t have to walk very much, except for shopping. And most shop is on sale, bad economy!

The Stanfort Court had just undergone a major renovation and it is really nice and new! And the bed is so comfortable! Like this hotel the most!


10 Oct SF

For the 3 days in SF, we visited the fisherman wharf, and hit all the other tourist spots, had very good Vietnamese dinner, and a very bad Chinese dinner, I almost want to throw the dish at the chef face!
After seeing New York, San Francisco seems so little… but we like SF, people are not as uptight as in NY.
And we love all the little houses in SF. They are so beautiful!

11 Oct SF - Mountain View
We pick up our car and start to explore the city, drove down the Lombard Street (Crookedest St) and followed the scenic route a bit before we head back down to Mountain View. I was not feeling well and I know I am coming down with a bad cold.
We drove back to Marriott Residence Inn, Palo Alto Los Altos and rest for the day.

12 Oct - Mountain View - SIN
We had breakfast, and went back to sleep again till noon, meet Anne for lunch and drove around Stanford University, went to a flea market, wanted to buy some thing but was out of cash, lost our way to find an ATM and never make to the flea market again.

Jeff and his wife came to joined us for dinner, we were so glad to see Jeff again after so many years.

Brent is an angel, made us BBQ dinner and sent us to SFO airport, we feel so bad that we have to trouble him.

Flight home was not as nice, old plane, but the SQ stewardess was a god sent, I had bad cold and my throat is killing me! I wished I can jump out of the plan and die… she just keep sending me Chamomile tea with honey, I had like 20 cups over the 16hrs flight.

Transit at HK airport, nice tim sum and porridge, had a shower at the business class lounge, feel much better after that.

Finally reach home after 20hrs of Traveling! I don’t think I want to do this again without flying business class….

Overall, we spent a total of US$4400 for all the food, transport, domestic flights, tours, shows, airport tax on SQ.

Not including hotel (Marriott Rewards Point) and Airticket (Redeemption), and of course shopping!

Not too bad for a 18days trip! This is by far the most budget trip I have ever been on, count every cent, and for the whole trip I had make up fancy excuses to coax David into taking Trains/bus and not eating in nice restaurant or order ROOM SERVICE!!! What to do, blame it on the bankers!!!

I guess I am grounded for the next 2 years before my next big trip... sigh...

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Photos

Sandwich from Carnegie
I lost all my apetite just by looking at it...