Category Archives: Round Trip USA 2009

Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

Tagging Cadillacs

Posted by on October 26, 2009 at 10:38 pm.
Round Trip USA

Round Trip USA

Ok, I lied about the Big Texan being the only touristy kitsch thing to see in Amarillo, Texas. I forgot about Cadillac Ranch!

Even though it’s a tacky piece of “art,” I’d still recommend a visit if you’ve got a car and a few minutes to spare. It’s free to visit and if you’ve never tagged something ugly with something even uglier, then here’s your chance!

Be aware that the ranch has moved about 1 mile away from it’s original site and locals might give you directions to the old location. No worries though, because once you get to the old site, you’ll see a helium factory where they’ll give you proper directions to the new site. Follow their directions instead of your own perceptions of what might be a quicker route, because there are one way streets in this middle-of-nowhere industrial / farm area. Go figure.

Normally I wouldn’t stop at a helium factory for directions, but I had read that the Cadillac Ranch was created by a millionare who made his fortune selling helium. I figured the people at the factory would know about their boss’ weird art. We drove the car towards a group of men at the factory and before we said anything, one of the guys said “Cadillac Ranch?” and gave us quick and simple directions on how to get there. They get a lot of lost tourists their way.

There are a few stories floating around about what the Cadillac Ranch symbolizes. One says that it’s meant to represent the richness of America where expensive Cadillacs are a dime a dozen and can be buried in the ground as art. Another says that the Cadillacs represent the evolution of the car industry since each subsequent car in the line-up is a newer model of the one before it. Finally, the last story just says that the millionare who owns the property and the factory in the area is eccentric and that’s reason enough.

Tips for Travellers to Cadillac Ranch

  1. As mentioned above, the ranch has moved so if you find yourself in the wrong area ask the guys at the helium factory for directions.
  2. You can bring your own cans of spray paint, but if you only want to write a word or two you can find some cans on site with some leftover paint to use.
  3. Wear closed shoes (no flip-flops) — preferably with no traction. The area is super muddy and we ended up taking about a half hour just to scrape everything out of our soles.
Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

Ya’ll Will Think Everythin’s Bigger in Texas

Posted by on October 26, 2009 at 10:58 am.
I shrunk!

I shrunk!

Morten originally didn’t want to bother stopping in Texas because he had heard that it was just cattle country without much going on. When I was at Surfers Paradise (Australia), I got to talking with a woman who moved to Queensland from Texas and made the food sound so good. I wanted to go to Texas just to try some of the traditional grub! Cattle country = good steak, right?

Well, it turns out both Morten and I were wrong.  Texas was a lot of fun (we ended up staying for three days) but the food wasn’t as good as I thought it would be — not bad, but not great.

The Big Texan

The one tourist attraction in Amarillo (our first stop in Texas) is the Big Texan restaurant. Why? Because it’s home to the famous 72 oz steak — free if you can eat it with a giant shrimp cocktail, roll with butter, salad, and baked potato in under one hour, or $72 if you can’t. How big is a 72 oz steak? Well, you’re only supposed to eat as much meat as the size of your fist. The 72 oz steak is roughly six or  seven times the size of my fist, or the size of a small cat.

We decided we couldn’t eat that much so we ordered a regular steak for two, and a chicken fried steak to share between the three of us. With each order, you get two sides so we picked: fried okra (a very bland green vegetable), beef steak tomatoes with raw red onions, coleslaw, steak fries, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. Needless to say, it was still too much food. We didn’t bother to pack up the leftovers because most of it consisted of the chicken fried steak which tasted cheap (imagine a fast food copy cat of McNuggets in a larger form made with mashed beef that doesn’t taste like beef).

The 72 oz steak at the Big Texan

The 72 oz steak at the Big Texan

If you order a steak at the Big Texan, always order it one step rarer than you would normally order (ex. if you like your steak medium rare, order it rare). They warn you on the menu that due to their cooking methods, their steaks always come out drier and more well-done than other restaurants.

I wouldn’t recommend the place for the food, but I do think it’s worth a stop if you’re in the area just to feel like you’re living in a world of giants. You’ll find just about everything in giant form: money, cow, cowboy boot, chair, rice crispy square, Hershey bar, cake, steak, etc.

Oh, but if you’re a vegetarian or animal rights activist, steer clear of the place. :P It’s a steak house and every wall is covered with the work of taxidermists: elk, deer, moose, beaver, boar, bear… anything furry and formerly wild.

Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

Random Picture of the Day: Knitted Cape SuperMorten

Posted by on October 23, 2009 at 11:12 pm.

It's a bird! it's a plane! No, it's knitted sweater SuperMorten!

It’s a bird! it’s a plane! No, it’s knitted sweater SuperMorten!

We’ve been spending a lot of time driving and to prevent herself from falling asleep in the car, Ang took up knitting. Unfortunately, she can only knit straight lines so she ended up with a cape for Morten! Hahahaha

Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

Watch Out For the Hole!

Posted by on October 23, 2009 at 10:34 pm.
On the Edge of Meteor Crater, Arizona

On the Edge of Meteor Crater, Arizona

We left Solvang for Yuma on Tuesday, only to find that the one attraction in Yuma (the Territorial State Prison Park) was closed. Boo-urns. The original plan was to spend a night in Yuma to visit the prison, but since it was closed and there’s nothing else worth looking at there, we left to spend the night in Tucson, Arizona.

While we were en route to Tucson, we realized that we had almost missed a major Arizona Attraction: the meteor crater! Because Morten has wanted to visit the crater since he was a kid, we made a huge detour up to Phoenix so we could visit the crater and the Petrified Forest National Park beside it the next day.


The Meteor Crater

It’s a big hole. A really really big hole. It’s probably the biggest hole I’ll ever see in my life (it fits ~20 football fields, is 2,400 meters across, and 170 meters deep), but it’s still a hole. Ok, ok — I’ll admit it’s kinda cool that we got to see something that was made by a giant meteorite from outer space about 50,000 years ago. But still… :P

Meteor Crater is privately owned, which is why the admission price is more than most nationally funded attractions at $15 US per person. The admission fee includes a one-hour tour around part of the crater rim (1 mile), viewing of a short film about the crater, and admission to the little museum.

Want more stats about Meteor Crater? Check out their website HERE. I’m not going to talk about the history of the crater on my blog because if you read that before going, you’re going to be very bored on the tour.

Tips for Travellers to Meteor Crater

  1. Meteor Crater

    Meteor Crater

    If you’re going on the one-hour tour, don’t bother reading the poster boards in the museum beforehand. I did that while we were waiting for the tour to start, and there’s so much repetition between the museum, the movie and the tour that I got a bit annoyed.

  2. Wear closed-toed shoes if you want to go on the one-hour tour because it’s mandatory.
  3. Don’t buy petrified wood (or anything else for that matter) at the gift shop because the items there are ridiculously overpriced. You can get free petrified wood at random stops towards the Petrified Forest National Park (there are signs). You can also find desert roses cheaper at other souvenir shops in the states (it was over $35 for a small desert rose at Meteor Crater, compared to $8 at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque).
  4. There’s no such thing as a jackalope (jack rabbit with antelope ears). I’m so gullible that I actually believed the postcards and made a fool of myself by making a comment about them out loud. :P
  5. Eat before you visit the crater because the only restaurant around there is the Subway beside the gift shop and they charge more than normal (the same $6 sandwich at a Subway less than an hour away cost $8 at Meteor Crater).
  6. Take a look through the free telescopes at the Meteor Crater viewing area to see if you can find the cardboard space man in the crater. Very cute!
Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

Morten Was Stopped By a Wiener

Posted by on October 22, 2009 at 11:07 pm.
By the time Ang and I finished getting snacks, Morten became good friends with the hot dog

By the time Ang and I finished getting snacks, Morten became good friends with the hot dog

When you step into a Wal-mart, K-mart or any other something-mart, do you ever feel bad for the person at the door who has the mundane job of greeting you?

We stopped at K-mart yesterday in Phoenix, Arizona to get some snacks for the road. Ang and I got in just fine, but Morten was stopped by the door greeter dressed as a hot dog (she was promoting the store’s Halloween costumes). She wouldn’t let Morten in with his camera bag and he didn’t want to check it in at their counter so he had no choice but to stay at the entrance with the hot dog. Normally he’d argue about being denied access even though several women with large purses were being let through, but how can you argue with a frail woman in a hot dog costume!?

I’m fairly certain that the concept of a door greeter was invented in the states. I once watched a marketing video that talked about the differences between American and Canadian expectations while shopping. Americans like having someone greet them at the store entrance, and consider it to be good customer service when store attendees ask them if they need help finding something. In contrast, Canadians can almost find it an invasion of personal space to have someone greet them at the door, and prefer to be left alone while shopping; Canadians will ask for help when they need it. I think that in general, the video is correct.

Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

Detour to Denmark

Posted by on October 21, 2009 at 1:09 am.
Vinhus with wine and cheese tasting

Vinhus with wine and cheese tasting

Dear Denmark,

I think you’re missing a piece of your country! We were in California driving across some tree covered hills when the trees suddenly disappeared, flat plains of tanned grass took over, and a little Danish town called Solvang appeared.

The houses and buildings are made in traditional Danish style, the restaurants serve open faced sandwiches, sausages, meatballs, aebleskiver, and sour red cabbage. And oh-my-goodness the desserts! The desserts are real Danish desserts with flaky pastries and real egg cream and napoleons that look like they’ll fall apart to the touch. You couldn’t fake that! No sirree. I’m certain someone has stolen a piece of your country and hidden it in California!

If you’d like to reclaim your missing land, Solvang is located just 15 minutes away from Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch or two and a half hours North-West of LA.

Sincerely,

Anny Chih

PS Can I please get another custard filled chocolate pastry or a napoleon hat marzipan cookie as a reward for this information? They were Soooooooo good!

Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

Like a Scene Out of a Bad Movie

Posted by on October 21, 2009 at 12:04 am.
1. Fishing for my sneakers 2. I found them!

1. Fishing for my sneakers 2. I found them!

It’s been over a week since we left Vancouver, so it was about time for a load of laundry yesterday.

You know that scene in the movies where the laundry machine overflows because the main character puts in too much detergent and you think to yourself “yeah right, that’d never happen in real life. The instructions are written on the side of the box!” Well, I read the instructions on the side of the box and put the least amount of detergent in (bottom line of the scoop). Guess what happened? Yup, it overflowed with foam! The pictures you see are after I had put the wash through another cycle of plain water to try and rinse it out. Thank goodness I only had my sneakers in there!

And yes, you can wash sneakers in the machine. I’ve done it a few times before with this pair and have never had the machine overflow until now. And no, it doesn’t ruin your shoes.

Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

Going Hollywood

Posted by on October 19, 2009 at 11:36 pm.
Posing in front of the Hollywood sign

Posing in front of the Hollywood sign

LA has the scariest freeway / highway system I’ve ever come across (worse than driving in Russia!). We came so close to being hit by tailgaters, non-signalers, and crazy weavers in the six to eight lane concrete monstrosities that less than 10 minutes in, I knew I could never live in Los Angeles. We actually considered leaving LA right after dropping Kim off at his hotel for his conference.

The city of angels is stupidly large. It’s really a bunch of big cities meshed into one that takes two to three hours to drive across. I’m sure there are lots of people who love the hustle and bustle of LA, but I’m not one of them. The idea of driving through that concrete jungle to get to work each day is just sheer madness in my books. SHEER MADNESS!

Unfortunately, LA’s metro system isn’t the best in the world and when it takes over an hour to drive from one major attraction to the next, we weren’t about to spend even more time trying to commute it. Our AAA guidebook both warns of the dangers of driving in LA while saying that it’s the best way to get around in the same paragraph.

The crowd at the 4th Annual Taste of Soul in LA

The crowd at the 4th Annual Taste of Soul in LA

When we stopped at the AAA office for information, we stumbled across a street festival called Taste of Soul. Apparently it’s the largest street festival in LA so we were really lucky to have come across it. We may have stuck out quite a bit (Morten in particular since there was only one other caucasian person in the entire crowd) but no one seemed to care. Everyone was friendly and the food was uber-good!

We walked through the festival for a while before deciding on which food booth to buy from. As soon as I saw the booth advertising authentic Jamaican food, my mind was made up! I haven’t come across any good Jamaican food in Vancouver and I remember how delicious my first Jamaican patty was. It was my last semester at SFU and my professor for International Marketing (June Francis — sidenote: if you’re an SFU Biz student, take BUS 447 with her. Great class!) brought in a few boxes of Jamaican patties for us to try. I LOVED them but haven’t found anything that even comes close to their yumminess since. The Jamaican patties at Taste of Soul were less than adequate. But, we also ordered jerk chicken and it was ridiculously good. The meat was tender, the sauce was flavourful and the outside was perfectly barbequed and smokey.

Posing in front of the famous Kodak Theatre

Posing in front of the famous Kodak Theatre

After Taste of Soul, we drove over to Hollywood and did the Walk of Fame. It was over 30 degrees outside and I didn’t have any shorts so I was melting away under the scorching sun in my jeans and coated with SPF 85 sunblock. I couldn’t take it anymore so I bought a pair of shorts at Zara.

The Walk of Fame is a bit of a joke since practically everyone has a star (including Godzilla) and for the most part the star impersonators look like ordinary folk dressed for Halloween (the Marilyn Monroe we saw was about 50 years too old for the part) — we did see a good pirate and a decent Superman though. We did a bit of window shopping along Hollywood Boulevard, saw some unsuspecting Japanese tourists get mobbed by a group of Zombie walkers, took some cheesy photos, and left for Santa Monica.

Santa Monica pier looks a lot bigger in the movies than it does in real life. It’s still a nice place for an evening stroll though and a refreshing getaway from the traffic congested city. We had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and played Forrest Gump trivia with our waiter. The service there is fabulous by the way. Our waiter was very charismatic, funny and went out of his way to make sure we were happy. We tipped well. :)

Before we left the next morning, we made sure to visit a lookout point for the Hollywood sign to take one last dorky photo. Visit Morten’s post (when he gets around to it) for directions to the best lookout point.

Bubba Gump Trivia

Ang playing with the drink menu at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Ang playing with the drink menu at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

(Answers are on the bottom of this post)

  1. What was the colour of Jenny’s shoes when she got married?
  2. What is the name of Forrest Gump’s home town?
  3. Is Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. a real company?
  4. Other than running, name two sports that Forrest played.
  5. Forrest made two really good friends in the army. What are their names?

Tips for Travellers to LA

  1. A GPS is a must if you’re planning on driving in LA. LA has a complicated freeway system — so complicated in fact that AAA has a map just for the freeways.
  2. You can find cheap parking in Hollywood at the Kodak Theatre. It’s $2 for the first four hours with validation. You can get your ticket validated if you buy something at any of the stores and I believe the cheapest item is a piece of fruit ($1) from the coffee stand on the parking level one floor below the ticket payment office. They also sell coffee, cold beverages, and a few small snacks at the stand.
  3. The cheapest parking near Santa Monica pier is about a block before you reach it coming from Hollywood (just before McDonald’s on your right) — $3 flat fee after 6pm.
  4. It’s best to go to LA when you have a reason to go (ex. conference, concert etc). Although LA has many small touristy spots, they’re very far apart so if you don’t have another reason to be in that area, you may be disappointed at how little there is to see or how long it takes you to get from one place to the next.
  5. If you plan on going to any of the theme parks or major attractions around the area (ex. Universal Studios — which is fun; I went as a kid), check your hotel / motel lobby beforehand for flyers. They usually have coupons for up to $10 off per admission.

Answers to Bubba Gump Trivia

  1. Jenny wasn’t wearing any shoes at her wedding.
  2. Greenbow, Alabama.
  3. No. The restaurant chain was made after the movie and is Forrest Gump themed.
  4. Football and ping pong.
  5. Lieutenant Dan & Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue.
Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

Like Moths to a Flame

Posted by on October 18, 2009 at 10:31 am.
I won $24.30 off of a $1 at Bellagio! :D

I won $24.30 off of a $1 at Bellagio! :D

We had driven an entire day to get from Redding, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was exhausting, but at least we avoided the main highways by taking the mountain pass route.

Approaching Vegas was overwhelming.You drive through miles of desert nothingness so dark at night that you can see the milky way and stars litter the skies like icing sugar on a chocolate cake. Then, you begin to approach a city of lights so bright you wonder if something is going to short circuit. The city gets bigger and bigger, and so do the buildings and towers. Suddenly you’re driving (or rather inching) along The Strip and your senses are overwhelmed by the stench of hundreds of people, the sounds of commercials and outdoor performances playing one after the other telling you that “Leanne Rhimes is performing at the Luxor” “Watch the #1 musical performance..” “Rated #1 show in all of Las Vegas” etc. as if you were on the set of Minority Report, and the bright lights twinkle, flash, and move across the buildings around you all trying to entice you to spend money at their resort. It’s an epileptic person’s worse nightmare.

I can’t say I was keen on staying in Vegas when we first arrived. I normally avoid big cities when I travel. But, by the end of two days, I wished we could’ve stayed at least one more night because there was so much to do and too little time to do it all.

This was my second visit to Vegas as an adult. The first trip was in 2007 for five days and that was just the right amount of time to see some shows, shop at the outlet mall, and go through all the hotels on The Strip. Two days is not enough time.

Sidenote: Please don’t take your kids to Vegas. I went once as a kid and hated it because I wasn’t allowed to step into any area that had gambling (including restaurant seats that had gaming screens), which pretty much meant I couldn’t go anywhere because there are machines everywhere! It’s also not a good idea to bring your kids because there are dozens upon dozens of people along the streets handing out graphic stripper and prostitute cards to anyone who walks by. Even if you avoid them, the cards cover the sidewalks like confetti after a New Years Eve party.

Worthwhile Things to Do in Vegas

  1. 'Tastes of the World' at the Coke shop is also worthwhile. It's $7 for 2 trays of pop from around the world or $8 for a tray of floats.

    ‘Tastes of the World’ at the Coke shop is also worthwhile. It’s $7 for 2 trays of pop from around the world or $8 for a tray of floats.

    Spend an entire afternoon walking down The Strip and visiting all the different hotels. It may look like a small street, but it takes a really long time to walk from one end to the next. Each hotel has an underlying theme and most have free daily shows (ex. Bellagio’s water show outside, Treasure Island’s Siren’s show, Caesar’s Palace afternoon show etc.). There are tons of cheesy photo opportunities and fun to be had.

  2. Take in a show. I would go to at least one major show like a Cirque du Soleil performance, and maybe one of the smaller burlesque shows for kicks. Ticket prices may be high for a Cirque show, but it’s worth it.
  3. Devote an afternoon to shopping at the Outlet Mall. Like everything else in Vegas, the Outlet Mall is oversized and will take an afternoon to get through.
  4. Try a buffet and don’t skimp on it. Avoid the ones that are $7.99 and treat yourself to a nice one — budget $20 for lunch or $30 for dinner.

Tips for Travellers to Vegas

  1. Book your hotel room online and ahead of time! Booking your Vegas hotel room online is always cheaper than booking a room in person.
  2. Be aware that the hotels have begun charging an extra “resort fee” that range from $10 to $25 per night. This may make your cheap room more expensive than the nicer room at the more expensive hotel.
  3. Prices for rooms change throughout the day, so if you have the time, check the prices a few times over the course of a couple of days to get the best deal.
  4. If you don’t know what show you want to watch, visit places like Tix4Tonight at the Coke store for discounted tickets. Be aware that they charge a $5 fee so it’s worth it to buy tickets for expensive shows but not so much for the smaller shows.
  5. If you want to catch a Cirque du Soleil performance, you might have to purchase them online ahead of time for good seats (depending on the show). Ka and Love usually have discounted day of tickets, but O is usually sold out by the day before.
  6. If you want to get a discount on Cirque du Soleil performances and don’t mind sitting on your own, you can get discounted single seats at the booking desk. There were only ‘limited vision’ seats left when we got there so we bought individual seats scattered in the nicer sections of the theatre that were much cheaper — the ‘limited vision’ seats cost about $120 while the seats that we got that are normally worth around $170 only cost us around $120. You can’t talk during the performance anyways and you won’t want to look away from the stage to look at your friend / partner either.
  7. If you want to change your seat, you can always try to go to the booking desk an hour before a performance to check if anyone has refunded their tickets last minute.
  8. CSI: The Experience - Worst Vegas attraction EVER.

    CSI: The Experience — Worst Vegas attraction EVER.

    Do NOT go to CSI: The Experience. I seriously want a refund!! It was $30 to go in and it’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever paid for. It’s supposed to give you the experience of solving a crime on your own. I thought that at the very least the crime scenes would be detailed and realistic like they have in the show. But no. The crime scene looked like the set of a high school’s haunted house and the “experience” consisted of going through a few rooms and filling out a form with information that’s hand-fed to you on posters and interactive computer screens. I actually felt like they should be paying ME to go through it. At the end of it I actually did ask for a refund but the guy said he couldn’t do it. He also said that lots of people complain about it being crap, after which I thought “then why the hell didn’t you tell us not to go in!?!” Ugh.

  9. If you want to gamble a bit, take out $x from your wallet (the amount you’re willing to pay for the experience of gambling) and put your wallet away until you’re out of the casino. This helps to prevent overgambling.
  10. If you want free alcoholic drinks, just sit in front of a slot machine for a while and bet a few cents every minute or so. Waitresses will come around and ask if you want something to drink. It’s complimentary and a really cheap way to get buzzed before you hit the clubs. I’ve heard this works better if you’re female with a female friend (men don’t get as many drinks). Be aware that the drinks contain much more hard alcohol than you may be used to. You can also order non-alcoholic drinks.
  11. I’ve heard that you’re more likely to win on a slot machine that’s closer to a casino entrance because they’re programmed to have higher chances of wins so that people walking by the casino see others winning and are enticed to enter. I haven’t found out whether this is true or not.
Round Trip USA 2009, Travel

From One to Four

Posted by on October 14, 2009 at 2:02 am.
When you travel with friends and family, you get to take dorky photos.

When you travel with friends and family, you get to take dorky photos.

This isn’t travelling. To me, travelling is when you have to constantly push your boundaries and don’t allow yourself the luxury of becoming complacent. It’s a learning process where you experience everything for the first time without the influence of others so that you can discover what you really love and hate. It’s a means of discovering yourself and learning to modify your habits and ways of thinking to become someone better than the person you were when you left. This is a vacation.

I’ve gotten used to having to figure out where I should go next and how to get there by myself, getting to the next destination on my own, eating at a table for one, sightseeing by my lonesome, and talking to myself. Now I have three other people to talk and laugh with, take dorky photos with, order and share food with… etc. One person drives while a second looks up the cities on the map, a third figures out which hotels are viable options at each destination, and a fourth distributes car snacks. I don’t think it could get any easier! It could be comfier (we’re pretty crammed in the Prius), but not easier.

Oregon Caves

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Today we visited the Oregon Caves under typical West Coast weather: rain, rain and more rain. I don’t have proper hiking boots so I wore my runners. My shoes and socks were soaked right through. Poor Kim didn’t have a jacket with a hood or proper walking shoes so he wore an emergency poncho and was soaked from head to toe by the end of the tour.

Oregon Caves is definitely worth a stop in my books. It’s only $8.50 US per person for an hour long tour of the caves and you get to go really far down the caves and up the mountain from within. You get to see calcite deposits and structures that are hundreds of thousands of years old as well as the remains of the markings made by tourists back in the 1930s which are now permanently embossed under a layer of limestone.

My favourite part of the tour was probably the damp cave called Paradise Lost. It’s a small area with a high ceiling covered in these giant limestone structures that look like “claws” (if you’re Ang), “jellyfish” (if you’re Morten or Kim), or “the Grinch’s hands from Dr. Seuss” or “parachuters” (if you’re me). You get dripped on quite a bit in here especially since you’re facing upwards to look at the structures, but it’s worth the look.

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