Take me out to the ball game!

A quick post to say we managed after all to see a ball game. So our list is complete.

And what a treat to save to last



We picked up some fabulous tickets from "ticket broker" Michael outside the gates to AT&T Stadium (formerly CandleStick Park) in San Francisco - arguably one of the best stadiums in the country (i read that). It is an intimate little stadium set on the waterfront. It was a superb evening.

we saw the home team san francisco giants beat the saint louis cardinals 5-1

I enjoyed the 7th innings stretch, having thought Hudsie was pulling my leg that everyone stands up and sings a song "take me out to the ball game" in every baseball game everywhere in the USA. Fancy that - that's a lot of bad singing


check out the photos

Signing out from NYC

Well as they say all good things must come to an end, and we have reached the end of our time in Manhattan.



The wish-list ended up with ticks beside all the boxes bar one. We managed to see and do everything we desired to except go and see a Yankees or Mets baseball game. Now as baseball is America's national sport I am sure they will still be doing this next time we venture over, so we can accept this ommission with good grace.

So what has happened since our last post? Just the usual, which in NYC can mean anything goes; like going to see the New York Knicks play (and win) at Madison Square Garden. Now this is to NZ Basketball as Jonah was to former All Black winger Terry Wright. The showmanship, athleticism and hooplah of seeing a ball game here is on a different stratosphere to at home. It really was a fantastic night out.

We also did an inordinate amount of shopping for both of us; 5 sets of shoes, 2 tank tops, 4 pairs of trousers, 2 dresses, 2 hoodies, 2 awesome bags, 3 belts, undies, socks oh and I have my first leather jacket for 20 years.

The Jacket reminds me of one my Father had, but which was too small for me across the shoulders, it fit's like a glove. I feel a peculiar connection to my dear old Dad when I wear it, which is very nice.

I keep wandering around humming the Chills tune "I love My Leather Jacket" which is more catchy when you actually have one. I have also noticed that you see more leather jackets around you, and the other wearers are all part of the secret leather jacket club. Wearing one is like driving a Holden or riding a scooter or motorbike - you become part of a mysterious unspoken club. Hopefully we will get a leather jacket for meggy soon so she knows this feeling.

We have also been to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is art on the grandest scale imaginable. Every era is plotted with the broadest brush. Temples, bits of pyramids, mummies, rooms from castles and hotels through the ages have all been shifted inside a purpose made building. All of this as well as a comprehensive collection of conventional artwork of every era as well.

Our highlight was Damien Hirst's Shark in Formaldehide, entitled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. It is a freaky thing to behold, looking real and fake at once. The notion that the shark is long dead and is still suspended literally for all time is both repulsive and strangely compelling at once.

The artwork has been hired from a private collector by the Met for 3 million dollars for 3 years - just thinking about that did our heads in as well.

We have also been to the Comic Strip Live on 81st St, where many big US Comics cut their chops (Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler...). This was a great, if pricey, night out. It is common here to impose a 2 drink minimum in Clubs, which sounds ok until you see the price of the drinks! But it was Laugh out Loud funny for 3 hours. The crowd was incredibly ecclectic to say the least. Irish/ English/ Brazilian/Italian/ Danes/ Dutch/Italian/ Sweedes and of course Kiwis. Yes there was a nationality missing, Americans! Actually this is not true, but the few Americans in the crowd of around 80 were totally outnumbered.

The comics soon found a lot of their tried and true material wasn't working too well, as a big portion of the crowd were oblivious to the references, so we were treated to a more improvisational set than you often see with regularly gigging comics. It was extremelly funny, I cried laughing several times.

We also walked across Brooklyn Bridge which was as spectacular as it sounds, and that Bridge is surely the prettiest of all the Bridges (except Jon, Daniel and Tracey). And we went to a fabulous Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village called Lupa, where we ate the tastiest duck either of us has ever eaten (sorry Winifred but it pipped your duck just at the post).

We also revisited some of our favourite spots (Cafe Brama, Dumpling Man, Amores Pizza) one last time. Today we fly to San Francisco, and then two days later back home. Being away for such a long time has made us both a little homesick from time to time, but we have found comfort in each others company and the prospect that we will see you all again soon.

Until then adios amigos.

Love
Hudsie

--------

Megan here...

Yep we've had a blast here.

We took the bus home yesterday instead of the Subway which afforded us one last look at the City. The streets feel like they're straight out of a movie; steam rising from the subway, yellow taxis, the long long avenues, people walking dogs, riding on bikes, skateboards etc etc

We're really thankful for all the great tips we've had from people for this place and indeed our whole trip. We've had fun getting lost and finding some of our own things too. Best tip from me is to travel with your sweetheart if you are lucky enough to have one and can go together. We've had a fabulous honeymoon.

We're now proposed daunting task of packing. Am sure it will all fit, but we have spread out a lot since we've been at our "Second Home".

Look forward to seeing you soon

Love megan

New York Lie In.

We love taking it easy, and this morning we have done just that.
Faced with the proposition of a huge wish-list of stuff still to do, and a reducing window of time left to do it, we perversely wrote off Sunday morning to recharge our batteries.

If you think this is lax on our part consider what we have been up to lately.

An invitation to Brooklyn for dinner with some locals, a trip by boat around Manhattan, a return visit to Moma, a trip to the Museum of Folk Art, dinner at a fabulous Moroccan East Village joint Cafe Mogador, another brunch at Cafe Brama (just as good as the first), a stunning exhibition at Solomon Guggenheim Museum, an afternoon in Central Park, an ascent of the Empire State building on foot (well just the last 6 floors), dinner at the famous Empire Diner, and lots more.

All of it fabulous, save the ridiculous queues at every step up the Empire State.

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words, so we'll let the pix do the talking this time.

Oh and we have put pictures up for most previous blog posts now, so go back in time and see the whole story so far.

Your comments are always welcome too BTW.

Love from us - the ones with sore feet.

M&Mxxxxxx

If you knew Schrader like we know Schrader.

If you don't know Paul Schrader, you should - he is a prince among men.

The ultimate renaissance man, he is handsome, smart, sporty, funny, worldly and wise.
Sort of like New Zealand's answer to George Clooney, except he can't act.
Maybe our Keanu Reeves, but much smarter, and completely hooked up when it comes to food.

He and his business partner Kelda's cafe Nikau is our very favourite Friday night haunt. He and his wife Mary have always been on the leading edge of food, always.

In San Francisco we travelled to Berkeley at his behest to dine at Chez Panisse. It was a meal to remember.

So when Schrader hears you are going to NYC, and Schrader recommends you go somewhere to dine, then you heed the advice.

He said go to Momofuku, which just happens to be only about 400m from our home here, so tonight we Gomofukued - you bet we did.

Momofuku (Japanese for "little peach"):
http://www.momofuku.com/noodle/default.asp

It was teeming with people - a queue out the door and bursting with hubbub. It took about 1/2 an hour to get a seat, but it was interesting to eavesdrop on crazy New Yorkers - not the most demure of people.

Paul had said order the Pork Buns, and we think, that's not a particularly Schrader call. We love Pork Buns, but they are pretty similar all over the world - delicious, but hardly gourmet.

And out they came, individually assembled, delicious envelopes of steamed goodness. They are prepared to order, a perfect dough envelope is smeared with delicious hoisin sauce, hand cut cucumber and 2 slabs of Organically grown pork are placed in as filling, and the whole package is individually steamed and served within seconds.

They are perfect, the pork is tender, the cucumber keeps it all fresh, the dough is hot and sweet, the sauce a perfect tangy contrast. What a recommendation, what a guy!

This trip has been made so much better by the advice of our lovely friends. We had a great time today at a Folk Art Museum tipped to us by Tommy Honey. We ate beautiful Cuban food in Soho thanks to Ruth and Andrew. Jonny Rae told us about Chowder, and Mike Davison sent us to Manhattan's best burger.

It is dirty work, but we are proving to ourselves that our friend's are to be trusted.

Miss you lots

Hudsie

Do the Right Thing

Well in a town like NYC you constantly feel like you are in the movies, but this arvo it was the wrong type of flick.

If you've seen Spike Lee's classic race hatred wake up call "Do the Right Thing", then the scene will be familiar.

Setting

"Amore's Pizza" - Italian Pizza Joint, just around the corner from our 2nd Home on 14th St



Cast

- 85 yr old stately Italian Gent, slightly deaf, Pizza Store Co Worker (PSCW)
- 6 foot 5 slicked back hair Italian Buck, 35ish, looks a bit like Mobsta, but Italian and angry, Pizza Store Boss (PSB)
- Bluetooth Headset-Wearing Afro American Customer, 30 odd, dressed a little Gangsta (BHWAAC)

PSCW - Cuts the sub roll in half and fills it with huge delicious looking meatballs. To customer, "You wan any cheese on this?"

BHWAAC - "What a stupid question you know, I mean what kinda stupid question is that?"

PSCW - "I just wanta know. Do you..."

BHWAAC - "I mean I ordered a Meatball Parmigiano Sandwich, and you wanna know if I want cheese?"

PSCW - (adding cheese) "OK OK, you're getting cheese"

BHWAAC - "Ya know that's a fucking stupid question. CHEESE is what I ordered"

PSB, interrupting - "What are you busting his balls for, he's an 85 year old man"

BHWAAC - "I ordered a Meatball Parmigiano and he asks me..."

PSB - "I know what he said to you, he's 85 years old and you are talking to him like that. Why do you talk to him like that?"

BHWAAC - "Since when does anyone order a Meatball Parmigiano Sandwich and not want cheese. It's a Meatball Parmigiano Sandwich. I'm trying to teach him..."

PSB - "Oh you're gonna teach him? He's 85. Treat him with some respect. He's an 85 Year old man. (to PSCW about the offensive sandwich) Put that fucking thing down, he's not talking to you like that. (Back to BHWAAC) You can just fuck off, get the fuck out of here. Fuck off and fuck you"

BHWAAC - "Fuck you"

By this stage the two younger men are looking at each other with pure hate in their eyes, the exchange has risen in volume to full blown shouting. The old man melts to the back of the store. Amazingly the BHWAAC hangs around until another worker comes and completes his sandwich (about 5 minutes).

This drama took place on our way to the theatre - a Broadway production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (starring James Earl Jones as Big Daddy). The show was the best live theatre experience of my life:

http://www.broadhursttheater.net/

I will never forget the Pizza Shop argument either.

Love This Place

love hudsie

I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps...

If you read Hudsie's blog, you'll know this is my first time in NYC. I LOVE this place. Time is precious - some edited highlights below.

Museum Of Modern Art

http://www.moma.org/

- teeming with people - great to see so many people engaging with art
- jaw droppingly, fabulous collection
- hit after hit after hit paintings including Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Picasso, The Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh. I could go on. You can see highlights of their collection on their website above. Have seen these images so many times, so it's a bit odd seeing the real thing - just there. You could touch it if you wanted to - not that you'd want to.
- interesting show on nano technology and design
- great show on colour with fabulous Andy Warhol painting by number paintings and Gerhard Richter paintings of giant colour charts. Just discovered there's a nice wee website with the works from the show. Check out:
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/colorchart/flashsite/index.html
- we ran out of time because there is so much to see, so will return for another look on Friday evening (free from 4-8pm) to spend some time with the Rothkos. You can't rush Rothko.

Dinner at 12am - because we weren't hungrier earlier in the evening and because we can

City Pass - $65 for a nine day pass to see each of the following greatest NYC hits - MOMA, Met, Circle line ferry, Empire State Building, Guggenheim,
American Natural History Museum

American Natural History Museum - This was surprisingly compelling. It is an old-fashioned-museum (pre Te Papa) with exhibits on animals, dinosaurs, space, people and artifacts of the world. The animals were our favourites. The museum is full of beautiful tableaux of wild and wonderful animals from the various continents. These all have exquisitely taxidermied animals posing for the scene, hand painted backgrounds and trees and rocks and props which would make a Kirk's window dresser proud. These exhibits are built into the rooms with wooden panelling surrounding each scene. We overheard a man saying in the lift as we headed to a space movie "I'm pleased to be looking at something modern - those exhibits haven't changed for over 40 years"....which is what we LOVED. Each animal had its name engraved in the wood stating who the benefactor was who donated it. While the benefactor was most likely to have given the money to fund the exhibit, I liked to think that Mr and Mrs Bloggs actually contacted the museum and said " Is that the American Natural History Museum? Well I have this lovely pair of African Elks for you".

Bryant Park where they hold NY Fashion week and of course the final of Project Runway - also saw Gotham Apartments where PR contestants stay. Okay this is probably only relevant for Project runway devotees

Cafe Habana - a cool little Cuban joint recommended by Ruth and Andrew. Delicious Mexican corn, Huevos rancheros and pork sandwich. Yum

Broadway - Pinter's "Homecoming". We saw this tonight. Great seats. Play about the ultimate dysfunctional family. For Deadwood fans, it featured Ian McShane who plays Al Swearengen.

Grand Central Station - beautiful building. Gorgeous roof.

Really fantastic food, in whatever form you want it. Vegans can eat out well here. I am not Vegan though. I am Megan

the big āporo

Wow, we are on our second morning here in New York City and have already had a blast.

So much so that we have had to cancel today's plan, in order for Megan to sleep off a nasty hangover... how did it come to this you ask? Read on.

We travelled from Las Vegas to NYC on Saturday morning. At the airport we had a fond farewell, a pleasant interlude and a rude discovery.

The farewell was to our beloved Mustang. We filled her up and I dropped one final squealy, utilising the mighty V8 for the last time. What a great car. We had become almost symbiotic with her after 14 days, 1500 miles and about $US200 worth of gas. She is sadly missed.

The pleasant interlude was with a young Hawaiian-based, Arkansas Golfer Danny Lee, who we met in an insane queue at Las Vegas McCarran Airport. What a nice guy. He is 20 and already a seasoned pro. He was flying around the USA conducting seminars, so he must already have a reputation as being good at golf. We told him to come play the NZ Open and he said "I might just do that". You may be wondering how we got to know him so well - I said it was an insane queue, and it brings me to the rude discovery.

The rude discovery is that the country that put a man on the moon, has NO idea how to get people to check in to catch a plane. American Airlines only had self-service terminals as an option for check in. Now most New Zealanders are familiar with these by now, and it a system which we handle well... here is how the Americans do it.

The terminals are almost hard up against the check in counter. There are only 8 of them and they are co joined in bunches of 4 making them very hard to access and maneuver around. People arriving at the terminal gravitate towards the machines, but can't get to them. Everyone is carrying at least one bag, most people have 2 (megs and I had 3 between us). In order to check in you must abandon your bag. The system (for want of a better word) is that you check in at the self-service terminal and inform it who you are and how many bags you have.

Now, the Airlines computer knows you are someone with bags to check. When your place in the electronic queue is reached you are paged by name and go to the counter, with your bags which are weighed and tagged. Then you need to carry the bags back across the terminal to security and queue to hand them in, then WAIT until they go through an X-Ray machine.

If this sounds laborious then factor in this - to get to any of these three points (the self-service terminal, the check-in counter, the security) you have to wade through hundreds of other suffering travellers (none of whom understand what is going on). To get your bags to the check-in counter and onwards you have to get them over or through all these people (in each direction). It is an absolute debacle.

As I said earlier Las Vegas is the 2nd most touristed place on Earth. The stupidity of this arrangement is gob-smacking.

Ok enough of that, we only have to go through it one more time - can't wait.

Since then, however, the Honeymoon has gone from strength to strength. Megan has never been to NYC before and this is my third visit, so to a certain extent I am showing her around.
We are staying in a converted apartment called second home on second ave.

http://secondhomesecondavenue.com/

We are staying in the Caribbean room for the first few days. It is lovely airy and large, has probably a hundred tv channels. We have free Wi-Fi. There is a kitchen with a fridge we can share with other guests. There is a free phone for local calls. We do need to go down a hallway to get to our bathroom, but it is locked and is only used by us. The only real downside is that the walls are quite thin, so our neighbours and us need to be careful about volume early in the morning and late at night.

So what have we done? We were settled in by 6pm on Saturday evening and we decided to walk around the local neighbourhood. This is known as the East Village, which is a booming part of town. Within 4 square blocks of our second home there would be more cool bars and restaurants than in all of Wellington, easy.

Our host Carlos recommended a Moroccan place to us. If you know us, you know we love Moroccan. It took half an hour of rambling to find it, only to discover that half of Manhattan were queueing for a table there (it was Saturday night after all). So we decided to wing it, and I saw a sign which tickled my fancy. DUMPLING MAN

http://www.dumplingman.com/

We both remarked that it looked like Nic Marshall had designed the Dumpling Man logo, so we bowled in, ordered up and squeezed into some spare seats in the corner. It is so cool. You watch a dumpling assembly line behind the glass. Inscrutable Chinese women work constantly assembling the entire dumplings from scratch. We watched them knead the dough and make the filling casings, then fill the dumplings - one by one. We really appreciated the craft and effort in every one. Look at the link on the site that says Dumpling TV - it is really something to behold.

When the dumplings arrived so fresh and hot it was time for the taste test. The proof of the dumpling is in the eating! Outstanding. Our favourite was the seared pork dumpling, with the steamed shrimp just behind. If there was a dumpling man in Wellington, I would soon resemble a dumpling (in fact I am starting to by now anyway).

We then went home for a great sleep... which lasted til 11.30 on Sunday. eeeeeek

we made up for lost time and bought the NYTimes Sunday edition ($4 as thick as a phone book) and went to another of Carlos's haunts, Cafe Brama

http://www.cafebrama.us/

At last after 2 weeks a great coffee - not Nikau but not far off. And an absolutely delicious breakfast. I had a beautiful omelette of feta, sesame, roasted tomatoes and avocado, enough to turn me into an Omelette Man. Megs had Brama Toast - French Toast with Omelette and Cheese on top served with Maple Syrup - sounds crazy but it worked.

Apart from the food the other best thing about breakie was the paper. Great Journalism, beautifully written stories about the world, and interesting features about everything. The book review would swallow a month worth of the NZ Listener's content. The magazine looks like it could be bought alongside Vanity Fair. It really makes you realise what a rag the Sunday Star Times is - if only we could get it at home!

We had a plan for the day. Explore the local area thoroughly in daylight. Winifred and David had given us a great deck of map-cards for walking trips around New York. We picked out the 5 walks closest to our second home. It was now 2 pm, we were off!

Walk one was the East Village walk it took in some of the same real estate we explored on Saturday night, but had a completely different feel by day. It was brisk, about 8 degrees Celsius, but was clear and calm. The city is alive. New Yorkers all go about their business at pace, but seem to be very friendly when they stop to talk. People bellow into cell-phones, you see folks of all persuasions; Emos, wrinkly old gents, bohemians, Christians preaching on the street, cool reggae dudes, bejewelled hip hoppers, people of every ethnicity and dogs - so many cool dogs.

We paused in a place called Tompkins Square Park, to watch New York Dogs at play. They have two sized runs, one for tiny dogs, one for the rest. The tiny dogs make sense in NYC - they are pint sized and easy to look after. They come in every shade of cute. It seems NOBODY has a bitzer mongrel dog here, they are all pedigree, and half of them have clothing. It is very sweet.
We also saw a farmers market and old historic cemeteries and churches on this journey.

Continuing on the next walk card to Lower East Side, brought us into a more Jewish community - not the people wandering about but the food. Kinishes and Bagels and Lox all for sale in amazing Delis bulging with customers and unusual looking and smelling treats. We regretted our big lunch, as it was hard to not need to try and taste these delights also. We went past a quaint looking place called TEANY owned by singer Moby, but he didn't seem to be there. Things were looking good it was about 3.30. 2 walks down 3 to go, but a refuel was in order. We stopped at a bar that looked as rough as guts, the stereo spitting out trash rock, the furniture looked like it came from a Dunedin flat, a sad faced Corgi flopped in the middle of the floor. We both enjoyed a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and a brief return to Cuba St. We made friends with a nice 38 yr old Tattooed chick who had spent time in New Zealand. We thought about staying longer but it was now 4pm and walks through Nolita (North of Little Italy), Little Italy and Chinatown beckoned. Heading West through the Bowery we passed a pub which made me smile. The Marshall Stack.

http://nymag.com/listings/bar/marshall-stack/

Now Marshall make musical amplifiers and legend has it that the only thing that sounds better than a Marshall Amp is a stack of them. The more Marshalls in the stack the better the sound. A Marshall Stack is better reportedly than the sum of its parts. Our friends Nic(Thump/Nanky) and Kate(Chubb) Marshall know this - they told me and produce their wonderful musical productions under the "Marshall Stack" name. We had to stop to get a photo of the bar's logo. While we were waiting a charming Black business man, finishing his cigar and curious of our accent tried to persuade us to join him inside. Night was approaching and we still had the walks to finish, but of course we went in.

3 hours and way too many drinks later and we are best friends with Justin Green who is having us on Thursday to his apartment in Brooklyn for drinks and Japanese, to meet his French wife Laurant and his 5 year old son Miles. His view (we saw it from his phone) is right across the Hudson looking at the sunset over Manhattan. We don't know how this friendship bloomed but it did, the event has been confirmed via text message and e-mail already.

Megan was now three sheets to the wind. I guided us home while we babbled to each other through the city streets. We stopped by a place which Paul Schrader recommended to us for the best Pork Buns and Japanese beer in the city. We didn't need the beer but wolfed down Pork Buns so transfixingly good they will get a post of their own once we photograph them.

It was now about 11pm, the day had disappeared in a blurry smiley haze. We love New York. Megan has a sore head, but seems to be rising now, it is noon, looks like we are set to start again.

Miss you all

Love Hudsie

Two Go Mad In Vegas

Well not as mad as all that.

I pointed out to Megan the irony of honeymooning in Sin City, where you can scratch any itch you care to mention, when putting her and I together is like joining "home" and "body".

We aren't really stay out all night partying people, but we did our fair share of gawping.

Impressions

... the scale of Las Vegas is out of control, we decided not to go into Caesars (sic) Palace as we had been tramping through a good number already... walking around this one casino took 20 minutes of negotiating, which brings me to point 2

... it is teeming with people, apparently second only to Paris in terms of visitors per annum. And they all go to the same places at the same time, night time which makes it a little spooky. They take the same photos of the same subjects in an endless succession, the film companies must be kicking themselves for allowing digital cameras to come along, because they are losing soooo much money here.

... it is the ultimate in bling, I have never seen so much neon in my life, when we emerged from the New York New York casino (whose facade consists of several buildings and the statue of Liberty and mini Brooklyn Bridge) through the front entrance, we felt a palpable heat from the thousands of lights in it's sign. It was like being under a heat lamp.

... it is full of sad people, sitting like robots playing slot machines, which don't even have handles to crank these days, mindlessly pressing a button, mostly putting a dollar (or a quarter, or $5) into the casinos coffers with each press every 20 seconds. Megan was quite sad watching one lady sitting at her pokey machine shaking uncontrollably, I think she was experiencing the DT's. You can tell the casinos most valued customers (addicts), they are the ones who are given free drinks at their posts, so that they aren't distracted from the button pushing.

... it isn't all bad, The Bellagio for instance was a seriously classy joint, with a stunning glass artwork hanging over its foyer, and it's full of fresh flowers, smelling deliciously perfumed, with the most stunning water fountain display showing very 15 minutes in the 8 hectare man made lake out the front. Absolutely mesmerising, absolutely surprisingly tasteful and beautiful.

... the old Vegas is very different from the new, downtown around Freemont St, the original Casinos of yesteryear are still going strong, oozing serious credibility and not as many frills, this area was our preference (and everything is much cheaper down there to try and lure trade). The Poker room at the Binions Casino spawned the World Series of Poker and is seriously old school and extremely cool. Apparently very few visitors go down there which is a bad mistake.

We loved the Freemont St Experience which happens every half an hour in the old district, it is an overwhelmingly impressive sound and visual extravaganza which played in the roof above our gawping upturned heads.

We played Poker, in a tournament at the Stratosphere where we stayed, $60 buy in, and loved it. Megan did better than I did placing 10th and earning a seat at the final table! She was the only woman in a field of 26, and her play drew many compliments. I came 13th, and found it a fantastic learning experience. In the two hours I survived in the Tournie we would have played twice as many hands than in my monthly 4 hour game. There is little banter, and never at the expense of play, everyone is very disciplined and aggressive. It feels great to win a hand or two in Vegas I gotta say.

That's about it for Vegas, Megan and I concluded that we weren't really Vegas people, but that is not to say we didn't like it, just that it would most suit crazy younger single people. But anybody thinking of going should. You gotta see it to believe it.

Hudsie

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada

It was the final and longest stretch for our Mustang yesterday - from Palm Springs to Vegas. Clocking over 300 miles, we were travelling for about 5 hours through enormous desert. If it weren't for the quirky Joshua trees, and the 2-3-4 lane freeways you could have thought at times, you were travelling through parts of the Mackenzie country, or the desert road....

Before Vegas, four tributes:
1. Palm Springs - truly a special place. The concentration of modernist buildings is extradorindary. We could have spent days more travelling round the suburbs looking at the houses alone. The Orbit In was the perfect place to stay. Their nightly "Orbitini Hour" meant you met the people who were also staying there.

2. Mustang - our red mustang has been fantanstic. We went for a hard top one in the end, and it was a good decision. It was safer,and meant our car could be a giant suitcase to throw things into if need be. It's a grunty car. The V8 is a delight.

3.NavMan - is our friend. Dial in the address and it will guide you there the fastest way possible. Negotiating these spaghetti highways with paper maps would have been truly frightening.

4. Husband - My darling has driven this whole trip. I realised pretty early on that I was a fradey cat an the prospect of driving these highways really scared me. Hudsie has driven with calm, poise and grace...apart from in the early days in Mendocino when he pulled over onto a gravel turn-out to "drop a patch". Calm and grace except for that.

Now to Vegas...

We have three days here and are staying at the Strosphere which is reknowned for its sky tower. Really Auckland's could try a bit harder. Sure you can bungy jump off, but the Stratosphere has the choice of three rides on top of the tower. We're heading up the tower shortly for lunch.

It is nuts here. Our guide book sums it up - the city demands a suspension of disbelief - the moment you start taking it seriously you totally miss the point. With this guiding principal in mind, we'll try and pack in some of the following over the next few days:

> Mirage's tiger habitat and faux volcano
> Bellagio choreographed Lake Como fountain show
> check out the gondola rides at the Venetian
> MGM Grand's largest bronze statue - a 100,000 pound lion (45 feet tall)
> Paris - Paris on a min scale including Eiffel Tower, Arc de triomphe
> New York New York - Disneyland version of the big apple
> 30 story pyramid at the Luxor

Not to mention a few slots and a tournie of poker (or two). All in the middle of the desert

It's going to be a busy few days

Megan xx

Hudsie just briefly here, we can't get a cheap room here on Friday night, and have to be at the Airport at 6am Saturday anyway, so we are going to stay up Vegas-ing all night. So we will be packing as much in as we can. Catch you in NYC.

Palm Springs Wind Up

Oh well, all great things must come to an end and we have reached our final night at this Desert Oasis. It really is the most stunning place and would be worth a return trip at some stage.

The silver lining of course is that with every day which passes we get closer to coming home to see our family, friends and perfect little cat. And also to meeting Fran and Ben's new born son Leo, congrats again guys.

We must acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Mobsta today. Somehow he found out that the Palm Springs Museum was hosting an exhibition of Architecture photography by Julius Schulman. This guy is the most renowned Architectural photographer in history, and the exhibition was fantastic. The scope was his photography in Palm Springs, so it provided us with an invaluable insight into many of the homes we glimpsed in our Whirlwind tour yesterday.

Also on display were many Architectural plans and models of these stunning homes. We thought of Mobsta,Mary,Tommy,Cameron,Ken and our many other architect friends who would be green with envy at this fantastic opportunity.

I would go so far as to say it is worth lobbying the City Gallery to see if they could host the exhibition in Wellington, it is that good.

Following this exhibition Megs and I hit the tarmac on the retro style cruiser bikes provided free of charge to Orbit In guests. Our plan was to ride to many of our favourite architectural spots from yesterdays tour and dwell a little longer and take pictures, good plan aside from the 95 degree heat (I think this is about 33 celcius).

In the end we got as far as the Kauffman house and were so hot and bothered by then that we bailed on the plan. But we really got a much better look at this wonderful place, bravely ignoring the "No Trespassing- Armed Response" sign, we snuck up to the front gate, and got a glimpse of the famous pool and a much better look at the house.

Then it was back to the pool for Orbitini Hour and much pleasant conversation with the other extremelly convivial guests.

Right O time to turn in now, a 380 mile drive to Vegas is on the cards tomorrow so I need my beauty sleep.

Go young black cap Tim Southee who today can be proud of his individual effort in a dismal team performance.

hope this post finds you all well

love hudsie

Palm Springs Anniverary

Well since we last blogged, there has been a very important event, Megs and I have now been married a year. And what a great year we have had. Thank you to Aya, the Faheys and Daniel and Nikki who joined in with the chorus of well wishers marking this important milestone.



I'm not sure how future anniversaries are going to stand up to the Palm Springs one? This place is FABULOUS. We took a pricey architectural tour this afternoon and were blown away time and again by the beautiful design we were exposed to.

The Americans refer to the primary style of Architecture here as "Mid-Century Design", this is the style known to most kiwis as "modernism", whatever you call it, the purity of line, simplicity of design, high regard for functionality and the environment, honesty in building practise and integrity of expression is something to behold. Palm Springs is said to have the highest concentration of "modernist" architecture of any place on earth, and having done the yards today I'd be amazed if anywhere else can top it.

Included in the tour was the Kauffman house by Richard Neutra, the same clients who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water". It is breathtakingly beautiful.

How lucky were the Kauffman's that their two homes happened to be the two most desirable residences in the USA?

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Orbit In continues to impress as the nicest home away from home a pair of honeymooners could hope for.

The only negative aspect of the day, was yet another capitulation from our Cricketers. On a positive note, our Internet browsing today revealed this favourable review for the Undercover series by the NZ Listener.

http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3542/tvradio/10773/secrets_and_lies.html

Anyways that is the update... I can only hope that subseqent years with Megan will be as perfect as this one was.

Let's all pray for a miracle in tomorrow's cricket or at least a decent thunder storm!

love hudsie

Palm Springs Bliss

We have arrived in Palm Springs, and as wonderful as our journey has been so far, this has topped it all!

But before I start my gloating, a brief catch-up. We had an appointment this arvo at Brian and Maureen Bull's home. Brian is a cousin of Megan's father David. We were almost on time at Loma Linda where they live, and were treated to a home cooked meal, which hit the spot perfectly after a diet of restaurants and diners! Green Godess Soup, which is composed of Pea, Avocado and Asparagus, it was a deep delicious green and was wolfed down in no time.

The direct connection between our Bulls and these Bulls was David's Father Frank. Frank was Brian's Uncle, but there was considerable confusion, as he only knew his uncle to go by Herbert. It took quite some explaining that Megan's grandfather Frank was one in the same as the Herbert who left the UK in the 50s.

We also met Brian's sister Beryl, her husband Ralph and one of Brian and Maureen's Daughter Beryl, and grand son Austin who was 4 months old with lovely blue eyes. It was nice to renew a family connection with these Bulls who haven't had direct contact with the NZ family since a visit to David and Winifred in 1988.

Texts from Bex and KT, and e-mails from Janice, Winifred and John Mayo were all reminding us though that we were on Honeymoon and that our one year Aniversary had begun in NZ and was impending here, so we had to dash to our honeymoon suite at the Orbit In in Palm Springs.

We were forced off the freeway by someone else's accident(nothing to see here), some distance from Palm Springs and had to proceed to our destination via various backroads, trusty Sat Nav lead the way.

As we drew nearer to our home for the next 3 days, I started exclaiming Wow this place is so cool, I wonder what it is called, only for Meggy to sweetly remind me that we had reached Palm Springs and were about to hit Honeymoon mode.

And she was right. The hotel is a blast from the past (1957) with beautiful modernist lines, exquisite decor and a host Kevin as convivial as possible(without having him staying in our room)

http://www.orbitin.com/

After hurriedly unpacking in our Eames Suite, we have spent the afternoon poolside enjoying views of rocky desert cliffs and enormous Palms, 92 degree heat, and the most delightful pool and complimentary Orbitinis.

Yes I am gloating. So sue me!

Hudsie
-------

Our place is AMAZING. It's balmy, but the pool is the perfect temperature to cool you down. It is a picture.Tall palms surround us. Gorgeous dog "Blue" (who resembles Kate's Monty) keeping us company. Tomorrow, we might take the Cruiser bikes for a ride. Though built in 1957, we're typing this pool side. Gotta dash - Orbitni hour!

Megan

Carpenteria (santa barbara), Pasadena and LA

We were staying in Carpinteria (just South of Santa Barbara) less than a mile away from the beach... so decided a beach day was in order.

we had all the components for a great beach time (togs, suncream, books). The sand was white, the sun blazing and just like a Wellington beach experience, the Pacific was FREEZING. Unlike a Wellington beach experience, there was hundreds of annoying beach flies. Which proved to be quite pesky for our couple of hours on the sand. The South was calling anyway.

We had our final coastal drive as we drove from Carpinteria to Pasadena (just East of LA). It was quite sad to bid adeui to the Pacific, next time we see it will be back in San Fran in 3 weeks.

Pasedena is lovely - manicured to within an inch of its life. We found a great little eatery thanks to Frommers. Hudsie had a delicious beef Kobe burger. I had soft tacos (one fish, one chicken). Great value. very delicious

We weren't keen on spending a lot of time in LA this time round so thought a quick drive into Hollywood would sate our appetities given we are staying so close. Quick drive? I guess we had an "LA experience". Freeways at night are even worse than during the day. We drove down Sunset Blvd, and Hollywood Blvd and into Rodeo Drive Beverly Hills. Loads of neon- look forward to more of that in Vegas - heaps of people and crazy big cars (stretched hummer limos etc), which are now becoming quite common

It's easter weekend. It seems quite a big holiday here - lots of bunnies in the shops, easter treats but haven't seen any hot x buns.

Tomorrow to Palm Springs! Yay. Going via a town called Loma Linda to meet a cousin of Dad's for lunch.

The evening news tells us that we are in an unseasonable heatwave, and LA will reach 92 degrees tomorrow. Lord knows what we should expect in the desert?

So in summary - it's very hot, we're still having a great time even when there are flies on the beach, the mustang is fantastic (a new point which shouldn't have been added in a summary), driving in LA is scary and our sat nav is our best friend (apart from each other of course).

Megan xxxx

Hearst's Ranch

Well I must confess to great surprise.

I had expected William Randolph Hearst's "castle" at San Simeon to be a pompous and overblown demonstration of garish wealth combining with no taste.

Instead I think the opposite applied, the Ranch as he referred to it, is most certainly excessive in terms of the spend to create it (400 million is the modern day estimate), and the labour involved (an army of workers beavering away furiously for years to build it), but it is actually an incredibly pleasant place to be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearst_Castle

It is certainly a bit of a hodge-podge in mixing up architectural styles, but the overall effect is very satisfying. It is, if you like, a magpie's castle. Hearst, we found out, represented one quarter of America's European Art Market while alive. That is he spent one in every four US dollars used to purchase European treasures. So he already had the wooden ceiling for the main lounge of his home, it was from some early European dynasty. And he had his architect design the house around these treasures.

This would have been a most vexxing project to try and build the house from a grab bag of stuff, none of which necessarily related to the other. Therefore each room is themed and the styles change between rooms.

One amazing story is that Hearst wasn't happy with the Renaissance ceiling of his dining room and required the architect to attach it so it could be easily replaced when he found the right one at a later date!

We could have stayed there for hours, and the prospect of being able to swim in either of the extraordinary pools will become a dream from now on.

Hudsie

HOWDY FROM MONTEREY

Hey there folks.

It has been a magical and mysterious time since our last update.

We have had a whale of a time.
The drive back toSan Fran was a long one.
Stopping at the winery with the view of views will hold things up a tad. Esterlina Vineyard is up a veritable goat track, and overlooks Californias premium Pinot Noir growing district. Their wine was pretty good, but the view and the company of aimiable host Dan (and his 3 dogs Juno, Angel and Bear) was even better. We chalked up about an hour and a half of relaxing tasting.

http://www.esterlinavineyards.com/

We then saw some bloody big trees, that possibly dwarfed Tane Mahuta, and sampled GoldenEye Pinot Noirs, which are supposedly the best Anderson Valley Pinots (although maybe not quite as good as David and Winifred's). After expressing interest in the mobile bottling plant we recieved a whistlestop tour, which was pretty cool, but even cooler when we were slipped a bottle of the 2006 GoldenEye Pinot Noir. A US$55 bottle, which will be good at a future annivesary.

www.goldeneyewinery.com/

Then with time ticking we made a move back south and crossed the Golden gate Bridge in Golden light. We stopped and walked the bridge, which was fabulous though Megan found a little scary being so high up....[megan typing now]. Yes I did find it a bit scary. We haven't seen much of the famous San Fran fog and our bridge walk was no exception - we had views as far as the eye could see.

We were starving and asked our sat nav to take us to some delicious Dim Sum in San Fran that we had enjoyed before. Bad decisiion. Dim Sum closed. No pork bun for us, so instead decided to head south to Monteray where we are now. Nighttime driving on the freeway is a little pretty full on. Hudsie did very well.

So Santa Cruz - pretty town. We walked along the boardwalk which is an old beachside amusement park. We decided the best ride to do was the Big Dipper - the wooden rollar coaster built in 1924. it was great fun, but the fact it was so old and, um, wooden, did prey on our minds....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXwYGuHIovE

[back to Hudsie] The boardwalk is of course not constructed of boards, but we seemed to be the only people who noticed.
We are in economy mode for the next little while staying at Motel 6 motels for the next few nights. You get what you pay for, and you don't pay much (US$50 tonight in Monterey), which takes the pressure off the Amex a bit.

http://www.motel6.com/

Oh we also drove the 17-mile Drive which winds down from Carmel into Pebble Beach, there are homes there on the grandest scale imaginable, and the golf courses and beaches are simply breathtaking. Cute seals too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_Mile_Drive

Culinary highlights of the last few days are the BEST calamri ever (Tonights entree at Monterey restaurant The Fish Wife) and the best burrito ever at a Mexican joint in Santa Cruz which has been operating since 1953 and run by the same family for the last 33 years (better food than I ever tasted in Mexico)

In store in the next few days are a visit to Monterey Aquarium, drive down thru Big Sur and a visit to Hearst Castle.

Until then peace and love from us

M&M
xxxxx

Mendocino

Hey there,

from the title of this post you can probably guess we are in Mendocino, Cal.
It is remarkable and is also as far North as we are coming on this journey.

We have discovered that it was used in the show Murder She Wrote to double for Cape Cod and it is easy to tell why.
The fog rolls in off the ocean and it is quite mesmerising, and spectacular.

The journey in, courtesy of sat nav was straight out of deliverance, the road (which was 2 way) kept narrowing and narrowing so that it finally resembled a goat track. It made the Akatarawa valley road look like the intersatate in places.

We think both Brian and Sonia would love to do the drive though despite the risks.

Upon arrival we checked into our Moonstone Room at Agate Cove Inn

http://www.agatecove.com/

You will note on the website that the place boasts of having "unparalleled views", and there is no denying that the view is spectacular, however there is another accomodation option right beside the Agate Cove, called the Sea Rock, and yes they too boast "unparalleled views". However I am sure the people staying a stones throw from us have a parralel view to ours. This sounds churlish I know, but you must admit it is comedy gold.

One of the rooms was called Obsidian, but regretably it was already taken,

We read in our trusty guide book that you could get the best burger on the north coast at a hard to find place caled "Mendo Burgers". It was quite possibly the best burgers we have both ever eaten. They pride themselves on fresh, pure ingredients. It was perfectly cooked too. We washed down with a shake

To walk off our burgers, we went for a stroll around the coast. Michael picked up some "binochs". On a good day you can see the whales which are on their migratory path back up to Alaska. We didn't see a whale but we did see a seal, which reminded us of Zizou. We dubbed the seal Sealzu.

Megan picked up a dashing red cowgirl hat at Mendocino Hats (the largest hat store in Northern California)

We rounded out our day with a very long soak in the hot tub, enjoying our unparalleled view.

If all of this sounds like bliss, well it is. A faultless day, on an already memorable trip.

We are missing everybody at home of course, but we will keep grinning and bearing it for the mean time.

Heading back to SF today via the Andersons Valley, where we hope to see some enormous redwoods and taste some Californian wine.

lunch at chez panisse

Berkeley



(talking here about lunch at Chez Panisse (nikau's sister restarant)

With my Lunch, if I had closed my eyes I could have imagined it was at Nikau, beautiful pork loin, sliced thinly served with a delicious creamy spinach and parsnip chips. YUM
Megan's probably wouldn't be served at our favourite Wellington eatery, bountiful lettuce salad with croutons and oven fired baby squid with a delicious aioli on the side. Very tasty but I preferred mine.

Both deserts would have graced Nikau's menu, Megan had fresh ginger cake served with sour cherries and creme freiche. And mine was buttermilk panna cotta with Mexican wedding cookies and the most delicious blood oranges.

It was a highlight of an already world class trip, and the service here is quite phenomenally good.

The Mustang is awesome, pure muscle car, we sit low peering out over a loaded bonnet, and the V8 growl is only ever a stab of the foot away.

I would recommend it to anyone.

Hudsie

San Frantastic

Hey all,

just to let you know we are having a blast so far.
The tips from everyone are coming in very handy, but also having the flexibility to make stuff up as we go along suits Megan and my style.

We are loving hanging out together...

in roughly chronological order here is some stuff we have done...
walked into Union Square
munched on delicious pork buns in Chinatown
drunk margaritas and chatted with an insane Iranian bartender
crashed a private party at sax 5th avenue and helped ourselves to free bubbles
rode the old school cable car
ate a slice of pizza washed down with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
slept the sleep of a thousand Arabs
gone to alcatraz and had an unexpectedly great tour
ate delicious clam chowder out of a disappointingly hard bread roll cup
rode the old school tram up Market St
Saw the amazingly cool Apple store, which has made us even bigger believers in Jobs
Shopped for Bargains at a huge Virgin megastore
Were blown away by SFMOMA
and ate oysters and Chicken and Bread Salad at Mobsta's favourite restaurant Zuni.

Tomorrow we pick up our Mustang and have a lunch reservation at Kelda's fav restaurant Chez Panisse.

YAY.

Lot's of love from us, we recieve texts and love hearing from home when we can.