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Published: March 10th 2007
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We eventually hobbled into South Dakota after two and a half days of driving and then straight to Walmart to get our driver’s side rear tyre replaced. After this slight setback we went to the famous Mt Rushmore to have a look at four of the president’s heads which are carved in stone in the Black Hills of South Dakota. After our initial shock that George Bush Snr or George Bush Jnr weren’t included we got down to some sight seeing. There wasn’t much to see other than the mountain. The presidents that make up Mt Rushmore are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. It is a very impressive American landmark and was probably just about worth the two and a half days drive. On our way out of South Dakota we stopped at Deadwood. This was the gold rush centre of America and housed famous historical characters such as 'Wild Bill' Hickock and Calamity Jane. It is now full of casinos so we stopped for a quick gamble before heading off.
Now to the one big space needle. Our first day in Seattle consisted of one of our patented walks. We started at the Pike Place
Markets, which is famous for fish throwing although we always seemed to miss it, after that we headed over to the first ever Starbucks. It was pretty cool to see where this disease which is taking over America started from. Next on our agenda was the Space Needle which separates Seattle’s skyline from any other in the world. It was originally built for the 1960 World’s Fair and now houses an observatory which you can go up and have a look at Seattle. We skipped that and walked up another bloody hill to capitol hill which sits next to the downtown Seattle and has a water tower. The reason I say this is that the water tower is free to go up and you can see the whole Seattle skyline from it, including the Space Needle. After we climbed the 214 steps up and down the water tower we walked back to downtown Seattle via the University. We were told to have a look at this by our Austrian friend, Heidi, who studied there. To our surprise it looked exactly like every other uni. We had a feed and then found another Aussie bloke, an English bloke and a yank
and went out to a few pubs. We started at the Whisky Bar which is a jazz bar. The live music was great and the $1 PBR beers were even better. After that we all headed to Cowgirl Inc which is very similar to Coyote Ugly. When I say similar, I mean exactly the same, not that any of us 5 cared. There was relatively well priced beer and girls dancing on a bar, what more could you ask for. After that we hit a couple of smaller bars, both of which were living in the mid 90’s when Nirvana were rocking out Seattle. We got tours of where Nirvana had played, stood, scratched their arses, if Nirvana had ever even spat on the bar then we got told about it.
The Boeing tour was our plan for today so we made the half hour journey to Everett which is just north of Seattle and took the one hour tour. Unfortunately we can’t show you any photos of the tour because no cameras were allowed, but there are photos of the future of flight gallery. On our tour we got to see a Boeing 777 being assembled. All the
parts are shipped in by Boeing and they just put it all together in the largest building (by volume) in the world. This building is 472 000 000 cubic feet which is rather large. It was cool to see a 777 being assembled but we wanted to see the biggest plane, the 747, getting put together. Oh well, not to worry, the 777 was still impressive. Following our tour we drove down to Tacoma which is about 45 minutes south of Seattle. The reason for this was to see where the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed about 55 years ago. This was a spectacular collapse and is readily available on YouTube for anyone who hasn’t seen it. The bridge which sits there now is an ugly off green colour and is rather unimpressive. After dinner Ian headed out to the Crocodile Club for some live music and to see where Nirvana kicked off the grunge revolution of the 90’s. The music was pretty good with four bands playing in a venue which looks like the Rosemount or the Hydey from Perth.
This end our travels through the United States of America as our next destination is Vancouver, Canada.
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Emma
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Love the Photos
Hey Ian I love the photos good picture of the house in Seattle. The stewies photo in front of Mount Rushmore is prob the best expect for Statue of Liberty. Love Emma PS Trim the beard, it looks UGLY.