American Travel Story: Part 5

Previously:  I discovered that Washington salmon is delicious.  Seriously, that and sleeping on planes was about all I got up to.

An early start for the first day of university related activities.  Today's activities consisted of seeing many of Washington's monuments, which I was looking forward to, with the worst lecturer I have ever had as tour guide, which I most certainly wasn't looking forward to.  Another factor that we were coming to terms with was the combination of two very important truths: First, Americans put sugar in everything, and second, sugar makes you pee.  We were little worried that a day spent mostly on a bus before our bladders had adjusted to this diet could have become very messy very quickly.

The first stop on the tour was the Capitol, which involved us standing outside the security barriers in place for the presidential inauguration.  As we were there for nearly twenty minutes we also checked out the nearby statues of James Garfield and Ulysses Grant.

 Our lecturer/tour guide informed us that the statue atop the dome is "Lady Liberty" but Wikipedia assures me that it is the Statue of Freedom, confirming my belief that the Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island in New York after all.

James A. Garfield                                                                   Ulysses S. Grant

The bus then took us past the Washington Monument, which is still closed due to earthquake damage, and around Tidal Basin.  Despite stopping to take photos at several memorials the majority of what our tour guide had to say was how disappointing it was that we'd miss the Cherry Blossom Festival and how beautiful the Cherry Blossom festival is and that the Cherry Blossom festival is a great example of integration of cultures.  He did give us some information about Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr, but given the reactions of others on the bus I am assuming it was mostly incorrect.

 The Jefferson Memorial

 Apparently Jefferson single-handedly wrote the US Constitution according, once again, to our lecturer

 The Roosevelt Memorial is the only presidential memorial to feature a statue of a First Lady or Presidential Pet

I found it ironic that the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial was made from white granite but I was quickly informed that the type of stone used was one of the least controversial aspects of this memorial.

By this time my camera, which had been making weird noises all morning, decided that it didn't want to change focus at all so all my pictures had to be at exactly the right distance or they were completely out of focus.  I had plenty of time to try and fix this, though, as we drove to Mount Vernon.

After God knows how long of our lecturer randomly announcing a fun fact he'd obviously just remembered, and remembered incorrectly at that, we arrived at George Washington's house.  Having arrived we then got to wait in the tour bus while the lecturer went and booked tickets, because prebooking is not something to worry about when organising an international trip for just over 40 people.

Eventually we gained admission and were soon sitting through a 25 minute orientation film detailing the life of George Washington that everyone agreed we could have done without.  After the film we had roughly 20 minutes left before we had to be on the bus again which meant that by the time the last group had made it through the house itself we were already running late.

The house itself, no pictures were allowed inside unfortunately

As you can see my efforts to fix my camera resulted in it randomly giving a fish eye effect to almost all my photos

After our rush to get back to the bus we drove back into DC for lunch at the Union Station food court, apparently a must for our US cultural experience.  We spent as long in the food court as we had at Mount Vernon which seemed excessive but I find myself unable to complain about the stop as it included my first ever taste of Ben and Jerry's.

After lunch we headed out of DC again to visit Arlington Cemetery.  Yes, for those of you keeping score we traveled from Maryland to DC to Virginia to DC to Virginia.  Upon arriving we once again stood around waiting, this time for the bus that would take us to JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

 

I ended up at the back of the line for the bus back to the cemetery entrance and it was already full before I was able to get on meaning I needed to walk back to the entrance.  This walk turned out to be the most moving experience of the entire visit to the cemetery, not just because I got a much clearer idea of the scale of the place than I did from the bus but also because of the quiet and peacefulness of the grounds.

I feel like the contemplative experience is lost thanks to the fish eye effect

After Arlington, we headed back to DC once again.  Back, in fact, to within spitting distance of the Tidal Basin and the monuments we'd seen before heading to Mount Vernon.  This time it was to see the Lincoln Memorial and nearby Korean War Veterans Memorial and Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

 The Korean War Veterans Memorial

Every service and support role is represented pictorially on the sandblasted wall

 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

 The name of every soldier either killed or missing in action during the conflict is etched on the wall

The tribute to the women who served in Vietnam, mostly as nurses

 The Lincoln Memorial

         

The statue's hands make the ASL signs for A and L                  The Gettysburg Address is reproduced in full

We also found place where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous I Have a Dream Speech, but unfortunately the lighting wasn't conducive to my photos of the dedication there being in focus.

Eventually we headed back to the bus and on to dinner at a 'traditional' Italian restaurant where the meal included, confusingly, a Greek salad.  Soon enough, though, dinner was over and we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before our introduction to American education tomorrow.

Culture shock for the day:  Marinara pasta sauce.  In America this is equivalent to a napolitana back home and includes exactly zero seafood.  Weird.

Next time: More statues at the University of Maryland!

American Travel Story: Part 4

Previously:  A highlight of my final day in Hawai'i was seeing the place World War II ended, a lowlight was being abused by the English.

This was a day mostly filled with not knowing what time it was.  I boarded a plane out of Honolulu at 9:30pm and flew to Seattle.  After six hours on the plane I arrived at 5:15 in the morning and having adjusted to Hawai'ian time my body was trying to tell me it was far too early to be waking up yet.  I don't know whether my stomach thought it was breakfast, dinner or something else entirely but I had a smoked salmon bagel with Washington Salmon at the airport.

   

My experience of Washington State: an airport with a surprising amount of fish artwork

Two and a half hours later I boarded another flight during which I tried desperately not to sleep because I knew that I would be arriving in the other Washington at the end of the day local time and the very last thing I needed before the first day of actually needing to be in a university work frame of mind was having my time zones completely muddled.

This was harder than it may seem as my body was still insisting that it was sometime before six in the morning and that I hadn't had a proper sleep in over 24 hours.  Being completely out of whack with sleep also makes waiting at airports less than serene, a fact which I discovered when the flight got in early but the luggage made it to the carousel late and again when the hotel shuttle company told me to wait in their competitor's bay.  In any event it took me over two hours from exiting the plane to leaving the airport.

Taken a little before midday, meanwhile my brain insisted it was closer to midnight.

I eventually got to the hotel and met up with Roomie, whose name has been changed to protect the innocent.  I felt that we'd get along pretty well from the start and he never complained about my snoring so that was a bonus.  A group of us got together and went to the Applebee's next door to swap stories about our trips so far and start bond as a group of displaced Aussies, specifically the horror stories of our plane trips, a topic that I was thankfully unable to contribute much to.

After dinner it was back to the room for a discussion about alarms, showers and all the fun stuff related to cohabiting.  All in all a fairly short day, I could probably work it out and I'm guessing it would come to, at most, two thirds of a standard day and most of that spent on aeroplanes.

I guarantee tomorrow will be more interesting.

Culture shock for the day:  I got talking to a fellow Australian on the trip from Seattle to Washington and he asked me what team I supported.  Now I was assuming that he was talking about AFL, seeing as he came from Adelaide, so I answered Hawks.  Strangely this made approximately half the plane adore me and the other half loathe me.  Turns out I was on a plane full of NFL supporters heading to DC to see the Seattle Seahawks play the Washington Redskins.  Turns out just because someone is an Australian doesn't mean they follow Aussie Rules, Rugby or even Soccer.

Next Time: All the monuments of ever and a train station food court.

American Travel Story: Part 3

Previously:  A beach, a volcano and a traditional dinner.

To start my final day in Hawai'i I awoke at 5:30 - a time I firmly believe is intended to be stayed up til, not got up by.  It's even harder when some part of your body is still desperately trying to tell you that it was a little after midnight.

The reason I got up so early was because I was told to get out to Pearl Harbor early because the USS Arizona Memorial books out by mid morning.  It was lucky I did get there early as I made it onto the first trip out and the second trip was the final for the day because of high winds.

The Arizona memorial can only be reached by shuttle ferry, hence the closure due to strong winds, and this was an enjoyable ride, both out and back, with the seaspray helping to make you feel alive and vibrant again after the sombre reflections on the memorial.  The memorial itself was incredibly beautiful and moving, I could barely believe how emotional it was making me even though I have no connection with this place or the people involved in its history.

The entire experience was amazing and awe inspiring

It had also started raining so I didn't spend much time looking at the various other memorials around the monument park.  Instead I looked at the USS Arizona Memorial Museum, accompanied by another audio tour (this time narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis) which I thought was surprisingly free of bias for the situation and provided lots of information about the intentions and motivations of the Japanese without making them out to be evil villains.  This didn't necessarily continue through to the other people in the museum as overheard a woman answer her daughter's question of “why did they attack us?” with “Because they were evil communists who didn't love Jesus and their empreror-king hates freedom.” - I worry for that kid.

Also at Pearl Harbor are the USS Missouri, USS Bowfin and Pacific Aviation Museum.  I decided to check out the Missouri an Aviation Museum first because I needed to head out to Ford Island to see them and I didn't want to get stuck there too late, especially as Ford Island is an active naval base.

The Missouri was first, it is famous for being the place where World War II ended. The ship was pretty impressive and a group offered free tours of the main deck with really interesting insight into the history of the ship including a devastating kamikaze attack as well as a detailed description of the power of the guns, which can hit targets obscured from those on board by the curvature of the Earth.

The USS Missouri 

 The view from her navigation bridge

                 

  One of the very first naval internet precursors                            The ship's library, both relaxing and educational

The very place the war ended

The Pacific Aviation Museum is only a short bus ride away from the Missouri and is housed in a pair of aircraft hangers.  As well as the aeroplanes on display there were films about Amelia Earhart's flights and about the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942.  The museum also housed a large restoration workshop and even though I had missed the last tour of this section, the volunteer at the door pointed out some of the more interesting things inside.

Japanese Zero

Cobra Helicopter                                                                                                                                         Antiaircraft Gun

Although allowed, sitting on the seats inside a museum exhibit feels somehow wrong

By now I was both out of time and out of camera charge so I caught a bus back to the hotel.  This lead to one of the most interesting conversations I had all trip because the driver was interested in travelling to Australia and discussing all things similar and different between Australia, Hawai'i and the rest of America.  It certainly made me decide to chat to more bus drivers during the trip, made me want to chat to them back here as well but that is prime reading time.

Finally I headed out to the airport and boarded my next flight.

Culture shock for the day:  A British culture shock today, as I met some pommies on the bus.  The one thing they could think of about Australia was that I should be ashamed of myself about the situation with the Indian nurse who committed suicide because of the stupid Australian radio hosts who called her up pretending to be the queen.  They were quite rude to me because of this, even though I'm fairly sure I had absolutely nothing to do with that situation.  All in all not such a nice way for Australia to be viewed by other countries just at the moment.

Next time: Changing flights, states and times.

American Travel Story: Part 2

Previously:  I arrived in America, learnt Merry Christmas in Hawai'ian and was confused by street signs.

It became obvious very quickly that I made the right choice going to the indoor stuff yesterday.  Even though it was still raining most of the day, there were very few clouds and it was much lighter, almost a mist rather than actual rain.  Anyway, I started the day with breakfast at a lovely little place with a longboard over the bar, the food was really quite good too.

Pretty much the entire reason I chose to eat there.

After this I wandered down to Waikiki Beach and spent pretty much the entirety of the time it wasn't raining while I was in Hawai'i relaxing on the beach.  I was going to go for have a swim but I couldn't easily find a spot to lock up my valuables and as I passed many people with metal detectors coming the beach and a woman furiously digging in the sand and asking people on towels nearby if they had seen her room key I thought I might give it a miss.

After this I took the Waikiki Trolley to the aquarium which was small, but interesting and I once again availed myself of the audio tour because it was free and, like the one at the palace, was pretty interesting and together they got me on the path of considering 

A reef exhibit

       

       All the kids at the aquarium were thrilled to see Dory      Jellyfish posing for one of the better shots I took all trip

The highlight here was holding a hermit crab in my hand and feeling it scuttle across, a strange sensation that made me think of being gently prodded with small needles.  I also found the monk seals entertaining, one of them anyway, the other was doing it's best impression of an overweight tourist, lying by the water and scratching itself.

 Interactivity at its finest.

Also taking advantage of the good weather to sunbathe by the water.

I followed the visit to the aquarium by having lunch in a beachfront cafe where they served all meals with a hibiscus on the plate and again I just sat around and enjoyed the afternoon.

After lunch I once again boarded the Waikiki Trolley which took us along the coast past the Diamond Head Lighthouse which is  and a memorial commemorating Amelia Earhart's solo flight from O'ahu to the USA.


I got off the trolley in the crater of Diamond Head, along with a young family of four from Canberra, and the trolley driver informed us that it was vitally important that we were ready to go back to town in an hour because the last trolley would be leaving then.  The climb to the lookout on the summit was supposed to be particularly difficult but although it was a bit tiring it was no more so than any other brisk walk of a little over an hour.

The thing that shocked me the most about Diamond Head was the difference in vegetation inside the crater to what I'd seen elsewhere in O'ahu.  It was a wonderful walk and part of the path was through WWII defense installations.  It was one of the most beautiful areas I went to while in Hawai'i.

The steps leading to the defense tunnels.

                                      

                  Military defensive structure circa 1930s                              View from the top of Diamond Head looking East

And the view back towards Waikiki and Honolulu to the west of Diamond Head

When I got back to Waikiki it was almost sunset so I headed back towards the beach to properly enjoy it.  The torches along the beachfront were lit and then

This photo contains at least seven Hawai'ian stereotypes

Finally I had a traditional Hawai'ian meal, but to find this I had to head well out of the Waikiki area and up to  Ono Hawaiian Foods.  This meal consisted of poi, tomato, onion, pork, jerky and chili sauce and was fairly delicious, although I discovered that it is vitally important to not have too much poi at once because it is bland but can still easily overpower the other flavours and leave you with an entire mouthful of bland.

Looks tasty, yeah?

Apparently I'm not the only one who thought the food was pretty good.

I went back to the hotel for an early night as I'd been told to get up very early to go to Pearl Harbor the following day.

Culture shock for the day:  I was mistaken for an American twice today, first by a couple from New Jersey who assumed my accent was Hawai'ian and then by a Hawai'ian who thought I was from Montana.  I have decided therefore that all Hawai'ians and Montanans sound alike - surely that's politically correct and stuff yeah?

Next time: I find out the importance of getting up early and talk to a bus driver.