USA Part 3 – Washington DC

Wed 26th – Sun 30th April

We travelled from NY to DC on the ‘Washington Deluxe’ bus. It was cheap, deluxe enough and even played two movies on the way. We were greeted by fantastic weather with clear blue skies and sunshine that lasted the whole time we were there.

We stayed at the Latham Hotel in Georgetown, which we had booked through hotwire.com as a mystery hotel. The mystery being that you don’t actually know what hotel you’ll be staying at until you’ve paid. You do know the price and general area so it’s not a total mystery.

The Latham gets some mixed online reviews but we were lucky and got a nice room at a good price. The king sized bed and ensuite was pretty luxurious after our shared bathrooms and plastic mattress protector nights in New York. Georgetown is a good area to stay in with lots of shops and restaurants and we ate well here too.

There is so much to see in Washington that it was a bit overwhelming. We tried to be strategic and prioritise things but mostly we just woke up when we woke up and picked something to head towards and from there we’d see where we ended up. It was a relaxed approach but we still saw quite a bit, including:

- The National Archives – Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Magna Carta – this was a really good museum. Not too big to see everything and interesting displays.

- The National Museum of American History – Highlights included Kermit the Frog and Dorothy’s ruby red shoes.

- The National Gallery of Art – this place is huge and we only saw a small section.

- The National Air and Space Museum – the last museum we visited, so it probably didn’t get the attention it deserved. There was an interesting video about the first 25 years of space exploration.

- The Holocaust Memorial Museum – we didn’t realise you need to get a ticket allocated to see the main exhibit here so by the time we got there the day’s tickets were gone. We did see some smaller displays which were interesting.

- The Renwick Gallery – just happened upon this gallery which concentrates on American art and crafts. The gift shop had a good knitting book section.

The good thing is that (unlike NY) all these museums are free! The worst part was dodging the hordes of kids on school trips.

As well as all this indoor stuff we did a lot of wandering around outside up and down the National Mall looking at the various memorials, monuments and buildings.

On our last day in DC we went for a walk by the river in Georgetown and came across some boat cruises. We had an hour and a half to kill before heading to the airport so we jumped on a cruise that was due to leave. We ended up being the only passengers so got a private boat tour along the river. A nice way to end our stay!

More pics here.

USA Part 2 – New York

Thurs 20th – Wed 26th April

From Boston we took the Lucky Star bus to New York’s Chinatown. Fifteen dollars each for a four hour bus trip. Bargain! These buses have been known to catch fire in the past but we were ok. From where the bus dropped us we were able to walk to our accommodation in the East Village. It was a gorgeous sunny day and a great welcome to the big city.

We spent our first four nights at East Village Bed and Coffee and would highly recommend it. It’s in a great area and is a good price. We had only booked four nights here as we weren’t sure how long we would want to spend in NY so for our last two nights we moved to the Larchmont Hotel. This place was ok for the price but they could have done without the plastic mattress protector that was noisy to sleep on.

So, what did we do in the Big Apple? Sight-seeing and eating! It was great. So much good food (especially Asian) that is so hard to find in Scotland. Thai restaurants, yummy gourmet pizza, a random Japanese dumpling place near Times Square (excellent!), freshly made sushi, and delicious brunch (pancakes with cinnamon yoghurt mmmmmmm.)

As for the sight-seeing we covered most of the major things, some we set out to see and some we came across by happy accident:

- Rockefeller Centre – we skipped the queues at the Empire State Building and instead went on ‘Top of the Rock’. No queue, no crowds, and a spiffy lift with a see-through ceiling. You get a great view across to the Empire State Building from the top.

- Staten Island Ferry – Free! Fun! Good view of Statue of Liberty.

- Metropolitan Museum of Art – we only had  time for a couple of hours here but you could easily spend days.

- Guggenheim – the building is fun.

- UN Tour – Dave loved this. It’s pretty interesting though was not free as the guide book said.

- Central Park – we came across the rowboats and at $10 for an hour this was a lot of fun.

So that’s about it. Loved it. Would definitely go back. More pics here.

USA Part 1 – Boston

First, apologies for the lack of action here. I’ve come down with the flu and we’re still on dial-up waiting for the broadband to be transfered so everything is going slowly.

Anyway…Boston! Seems so long ago now. This may be a rather random summary of things we did.

We were in Boston for six nights from the 14th – 20th April and it was a fantastic beginning to our trip. We stayed with Elizabeth and Roger (Mad’s aunt and uncle) who have lived there for five years and looked after us very well.

In Boston we mostly wandered around, which is easy to do as there is a painted red line (The Freedom Trail) on the footpath that takes you past all the main historic sites. Our knowledge of US history has come along in leaps and bounds.

We also wandered around Harvard (without a red line) and visited the Harvard Natural History Museum. Lots of stuffed things and amazing glass flowers.

Elizabeth and Roger took us on a Sunday drive to Cape Cod and we caught a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard for lunch. We were lucky with fantastic sunny weather and very few tourists as many things were still closed from winter. The pub was open though and we had a nice lunch.

We happened to be in Boston for Patriot’s Day and the Boston Marathon and saw some of the runners coming in. We noticed that they seem to have very skinny legs and so now Dave thinks he should be a marathon runner.

On our last day in Boston Dave got up early and headed off to a work meeting in a distant suburb. Yep. A work meeting, by choice, while on holiday. Elizabeth and I went shopping.

All in all our time in Boston was very relaxing and it was nice to be able to start the holiday staying with family before heading off for the Big Apple. Stay tuned.

Boston pictures are here.

We’re back

Just a quick post to let you know we arrived home from our USA trip yesterday 24 hours later than planned thanks to a missed connection. Photos and trip reports will be coming soon. For now, here’s a teaser:

The next big trip

Is booked! Yep, we’re off to the USA in April. Starting in Boston, finishing in Washington DC with New York in the middle and you never know what else. Only 10 weeks to go…