hendrikch.com – Hendrik Christian Blog on Daily Life

It has been a crazy week of travelling. Today, we went to Washington DC via Philadelphia.

In Philadelphia, we visited the National Constitution Center, and the buildings where the Supreme Courts used to be, the building where the USA constitution were born. We also get the chance to see the Liberty Bell, the bell that was rang when USA declared their independence from the British empire on July 4, 1776.

After reaching Washington DC, the first place we visited was National Air and Space Museum. There were a lot of interesting items to see in there, among others, Moon Rock, a piece of rock from the moon donated by NASA to the museum.

The plane model used by the Wright Brothers to fly the first engine-powered airplane. That airplane left wing is a bit longer to accommodate the fact that the engine is placed on the right wing.

In there, we could also see the Rolls Royce airplane engine, used in the most recent Airbus A380.

The Mars Rover

Spheres to compare planet sizes. Can you find which one is Earth?

Earth is the small little blue sphere right next to my mom. See how small it is compared to the rest.

And command control of Apollo 11 Columbia.

There are certainly many more interesting things to see in the museum, but I could only see so much in that one short hour given. If given another chance to visit Washington DC, I’ll probably dedicate one whole day or maybe two days to visit all the major museums in Washington DC.

Next stop, US Capitol Hill, where US Senate and House of Representatives have their daily lives. The day we visited Washington was the day when the Senate were busy drafting a revised $700b bailout plan. It’s like we went from one hectic area in Wall St yesterday to another place having nervous breakdown in Capitol Hill.

This is the nearest I could go near the Capitol Hill without being bitten by security dogs or being shot by the Secret Service.

Not enough meeting Barack Obama and John McCain in the Capitol Hill, we visited George W. Bush in the White House. The house is not that fancy after all.

Yeah, that little house so far away is the White House.

From there, we went to Thomas Jefferson Memorial. In this memorial, there were a lot of interesting quotes said by US former president as well as the most famous line from the declaration of independence “All men are created equal”.

On the wall also written the line mentioned in the movie Pursuit of Happyness by Will Smith.

Oh, if you are a slow reader, we didn’t get to meet the current nor the future US president. After 9/11 attack, the White House and US Capitol Hill, as well as few other Federal buildings, are all closed down for public. Previously, we could go in and take a look, but not anymore.

From one memorial, we visited another memorial. Korean War Memorial and Abraham Lincoln Memorial. Abraham Lincoln Memorial has 36 pillars, representing 36 US states when he was president. However, the memorial was completed only in 1922, when US already has 48 states. In order to accommodate the new 12 states, they added the names of all 48 US states at the top of the memorial hall. It’s much simpler that way, than to add another 12 pillars, isn’t it? Guess which are the two US states now that were not mentioned in the memorial?

If your answers were Alaska and Hawaii, give yourself a pat in the back. You got it right. In front of Lincoln Memorial, there was a word on the floor, “I have a dream”, by Martin Luther King Jr. It is so not legible, carved on the floor, that most people wouldn’t even notice it’s there. Can you even read this?

Back to the Korean War Memorial, there was this famous line too “Freedom is not Free”. In order to get freedom, you need sacrifices, you need money spent to protect the freedom.

All these faces were crafted on the marble wall. They are superb.

That concludes the trip to Washington DC.

In our hotel, we get the most unusual hotel key ever.

Today, we went for one day Manhattan city tour. We started the day by visiting Ground Zero, the place where the twin towers of World Trade Center used to be.

Next up was the famous Wall St. one day after the Senate rejected the $700b bailout deal. As you would expect, there were lots of reporters around Wall St. as well as policemen patrolling the area.

If you want to know how those TV reporters looks like in real-life, here are some of them.

From the hectic area of Wall St, we proceeded to US Custom House, and then to one-hour Lower Manhattan cruise. The cruise brought us around the lower Manhattan area, passing by few bridges that connects Manhattan with the rest.

My GPS tells me I’m right there on the red dot

As always, a trip to New York city will never be complete without a trip to the Statue of Liberty.

All of us were then dropped for lunch at 7th Ave. The rest of our groups visited Madame Tussauds. We were not interested, so we walked from 7th Ave to the famous 5th Ave, and back.

Passed by New York Public Library.

Next, Central Park near Trump International Hotel.

After that was Rockefeller Center. Again, the rest paid $20, and went up the building to see Manhattan from the Top of the Rock. We were not interested, so we walked around 5th Ave instead. We walked from 50th St, where Rockefeller Center is located, all the way to 59th St, where Apple Store is located.

I dropped by for a quick visit to buy the latest iPod Nano. The price is US$149 here, compared to S$248 back in Singapore.

Too bad the Ice Rink on Rockefeller Center was under renovation.

We also dropped by Disney Store that is pretty huge I say.

Since the Empire State Building was closed to public for today, we didn’t manage to climb up, so we ended the day early. It was still 4pm when we get out from Manhattan, so I asked the driver to drop us at the National Tennis Center, where last month’s US Open 2008 was held. The complex itself is very big, took me a full two hours to walk towards it, around it to find the entrance, and into it. Sadly, I was only allowed to visit the ground courts, but not the main courts, Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong Stadium. It was a pity.

We had dinner back to Flushing and headed back home.

After 5.5 hours flight from Los Angeles, we arrived at New York City 7.15AM local time. We stayed in Flushing Queens in my auntie’s house.

The nearest subway is Main Street station.

Anything to do with Barclays?

We spent our day in Chinatown, walking around and exploring the area. Need to relax from all the hectic days in the past one week you know.

After Hollywood yesterday, we visited Disneyland Park at Anaheim today. We took a shuttle bus from the hotel to Disneyland, and then we simply walked around the whole day, took some rides, until the main Disney parade started at 3.30pm.

Mickey, just do it.

Hi Pluto.

On the main street, at the roundabouts, they have this huge Halloween-Mickey.

Disneyland will never be complete with the castle.

or Donald Duck.

or princesses like Cinderella or Snow White.

Everything are made so cute here, even their toilets are labeled Prince and Princess.

By the time the parade started, everyone was gathered at main street to watch all Disney characters came out at the same time.

Beauty and the Beast

Little Mermaid

Lion King

Goofy

And of course, the one with all these were started, Mickey Mouse. As they said, It all started with a mouse.

After the parade, I spotted Linguini, the garbage boy turned chef with the help of Remy in my favorite Ratatouille.

From there, we went across to Disneyland California Adventure Park where they have more thrilling rides. Put it another way, Disneyland Park are the PG equivalent of cinema, while Disneyland California Adventure Park are the NC16 and above. We were lucky to arrive to the adventure park earlier, as there was another Pixar parade at 5.15pm.

Being Pixar, there are whole lots of different characters being displayed.

Cars

Monster Inc

The Incredibles

Ratatouille

Toy Story

We left Disneyland park by 6.15pm shuttle bus back to the hotel, and we were picked up at 7pm to Los Angeles LAX Airport for our 10.50pm flight.

Visiting Los Angeles will never be complete with Hollywood, and that is exactly what we did today. From our hotel, we had breakfast in McDonald’s then we visited Hollywood Boulevard, in where some sections of the pavement has stars, with stars names on it, no pun. They called it Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On them, you could see hand and footprints from big names like Steven Spielberg.

or the increasingly famous producer, John Woo.

On the stars names, how about American Idol’s host, Ryan Seacrest?

Drew Barrymore, Bruce Willis, Celine Dion, Robin Williams, Ricky Martin, Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner all have their own stars on the walk. Even pastor Billy Graham and virtual actors like Mickey Mouse and Godzilla have their claim on the Walk of Fame. 

On the side of the Walk of Fame, there were two buildings, Chinese Theatre, and Kodak Theatre, in where they hold some American Idols finals.

After we’re done with Hollywood Blvd, we were sent to Universal Studios Hollywood. Here’s me in front of the famous Universal Studios globe, carrying an auntie bag on one hand and another hand trying to cover any potential exposure to my tummy :p

Initially, I thought we will be dropped in the theme park and left alone to explore. However, our tour guide was kind enough to bring us around from one must-see attraction to another before everyone started queuing. Many times after we came out from one attraction, we saw the queue was already significantly longer than it was when we queued. That way, we maximized our time there to visit the important attractions.

We started with the excellent 45-minute Studio Tour, they brought us around the studio, showed us what, where, and how they did certain shows from certain movies. I lost count how many stages they had in there.

We could see scenes from oldies like Back to the Future or Six Million Dollar Man, and more recent movies, the humvee used in Jurassic Park, the car used in The Mummy.

This is the exact place where Peter Jackson filmed a boat scene in King Kong. If you’ve watched King Kong, this scene must have reminded you of the movie.

For TV series, we saw the houses filmed in Desperate Housewives and some props used in scenes in Heroes and CSI.

It was a very entertaining and interesting behind-the-scenes Studio Tour, and I would highly recommend everyone going to Universal Studios Hollywood to go for the Studio Tour the first thing you reached there.

From there, we were brought to watch Shrek 4D, animated film that I’ve already watched in Movie World Brisbane two years ago. After that was House of Horror, a walk in a haunted house, complete with real performers dressed up like ghost or vampire or monsters that will send some guys shocked and many girls screaming.

Our tour guide then rushed us to watch Water World, he certainly has the experience to know which attraction has the least people so we won’t have to queue so long, yet managed to catch all these shows at the right time.

Water World is …. I think I’d better keep the surprise for myself, but fair to say, if you sit in front, you WILL get wet. Another highly recommended show to watch. After Studio Tour, this Water World is a show you wouldn’t want to miss. The performers were stunts from shows like CSI Miami, CSI New York, and some other shows.

Notice the person who jumped from the platform like 15 meters high?

Despite its name, Water Show has lots of fire and explosives.

Next up before our tour guide left us to explore on our own, we went to Terminator 2 – 3D. Another excellent 3D-viewing that blends reality with live performers with scenes and 3D movies filmed with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A visit to The Simpsons family.

For lunch, I chose Doc’s Chicken (Doc is a character from Back to the Future). Nothing fancy about the chicken, it’s just another fried chicken.

After lunch, we managed to catch 2.40PM Animal Stars show. Another highly recommended show where you’ll see the animals, birds, dogs, cats, pigs, monkeys, and mice trained and starred in Hollywood movies. I’m not sure if I missed any animals but there wasn’t any King Kong or Godzilla on show. How can it not be interesting when the MC who started the show was a monkey? The monkey walked on stage, to the mic, and started “addressing” the crowd. One of the most challenging movie for these animal-trainers was Evan Almighty with so many different animals to be brought to the Ark. The human-MC even appeared in the movie, albeit for a second in the midst of a crowd in the movie. I’ve seen people trained dogs and cats, but this is the first time I saw pigs and mice who could follow orders. Weird eh?

To finish the day, we walked around the theme park. Universal Studios Hollywood is the exact opposite of the one in Florida. The one in Florida has a huge, huge theme park with a small studio. The one in Hollywood has a huge, huge studio, with a small theme park. It’s the exact opposite.

Spot Dora while walking around, and took picture with her.

By 6.15PM, we reached back hotel for shower and dinner.

After exploring a bit of San Francisco, we are on our way back to Los Angeles again, but this time we went through a different route, via Monterey Bay, Pebble Beach with its 17 miles drive. Over the route, we could see the Pacific ocean that well, gets boring after a while. Pebble Beach has a big golf course, and in some years, US Open PGA Golf Championships are held here.

All over the lodge, you could see US Open 2010 sign hung over the walkway. They certainly have planned it FAR ahead of schedule I think.

By evening we were back to hotel, this time we stayed in Anaheim area, which is about 15 minutes drive from Disneyland Park.

We started the day early in the morning 7AM by heading to Chinatown for Dim Sum. The taste was not that great, and the price was extravagant. A simple 4 person dim-sum turned out to be $40. Avoid this Pearl City Restaurant in San Francisco Chinatown at all cost. It’s a rip-off !! According to Gus, $40 is about the right price. Still, I feel it’s too expensive, but it may well be the standard price over there, what do I know anyway?

From there, we went to Lombard St., that is nothing but a garden up the hill, where you have to exercise your walking skill up the slope.

It’s not very obvious from this picture, but if you notice immediately on the right of my head, you can see the down slope from where we all walked up.

And all the effort walking up was just to see this garden !!

You be the judge if it’s worth the walk up.

Next stop was Palace of Fine Arts, but all I saw was construction structure, so not sure where are the fine arts.

After that, our next stop was none other than the famous Golden Gate bridge, the orange-color bridge that’s more famous than her sister, Bay bridge not far further up.

The view on the other side of the bridge is very nice too.

We then proceed to Napa Valley to taste some wine produced in this area. I tasted white wine, red wine, even pink wine.

Can you spot me? There, the only person more aware of a camera than the person talking in front hehe….

The journey back from Napa valley was an hour, and we dropped by Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39 for sightseeing and dinner. I had clam chowder and mini donuts for snack. We then took a cruise around the San Francisco Bay Area, going under and around the Golden Gate bridge, then visit the notorious Alcatraz, where only elite prisoners used to be locked up, and with cold water, wind, and strong current, made it virtually impossible to get out of Alcatraz alive.

The skyline of San Francisco from the cruise ship.

The famous Golden Gate Bridge down under.

In the evening, we went for a city tour, went to Two Peaks, from where you could see the whole night view of San Francisco.

We also spent a bit of time to visit the City Hall of San Francisco.

After dinner back at Chinatown (again), I’m back at hotel.