Well, here we are on the final stop of our trip! The country bumpkins made it all the way from Geraldton to the Big Apple (although apparently New Yorkers never call it this). The City That Never Sleeps is a more apt description, as there is just so much going on here. It was a real buzz to be in such an iconic city and exhilarating to be caught up in the frenzy and excitement of such a huge concrete jungle just for a little while.
What to do while we were there? So much to see, so little time. This was the first visit for all of us, so we started with the obvious choices and figured we’d be back one day to experience some of the less touristy attractions.
As soon as we arrived, we headed to Times Square to soak up the atmosphere. This was every bit as scintillating and overwhelming as you might expect.
The next day we headed off on a tour to see The Statue of Liberty and the Immigration Museum. The museum was really fascinating, as it’s situated in the original building where immigrants were processed on their arrival into America. You can really feel the history in the walls! It’s a fascinating insight into the decisions of the past that have made America such a populous nation. America had a totally open immigration policy throughout much of it’s early history.
The kids especially enjoyed visiting the Statue and climbing up to the top of the Pedestal. They were disappointed they couldn’t go up into the crown, but you need to reserve tickets six months in advance for this experience.
After our morning tour, we made our way past the New York Stock Exchange (with a quick history lesson for the kids), and then onto the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. This was a very moving experience (I spent most of my time here fighting back tears). Some of the exhibits were quite confronting for the kids, but we felt it was important for them to know the truth about what happened.
Our next day started with eating giant pretzels and a visit to Central Park. This is a beautiful, relaxing oasis amidst the concrete jungle. It was nice to take some time out here to lay around on the grass, but if you ever visit DON’T feed the squirrels! Unfortunately Portia was bitten badly on the hand by one as she tried to feed it a peanut. It latched onto her finger and was hard to shake off.
Lots of blood later, a quick visit to the chemist and some googling to ensure squirrels don’t carry rabies, and we were off to watch a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. We caught the subway to the Bronx for this (an experience I found totally baffling, as all the stations are numbered rather than named). You also need to know if you want to go uptown or downtown and whether to take a local or an express train. There are lots of potential errors waiting to be made! Happily, Murray had it all under control.
It was a fun experience to watch the Yankees play the Baltimore Orioles and to soak up a bit of the culture of the game.
Our last day was spent visiting the Central Park Zoo (we have some animal lovers in our family) and also the Brooklyn Bridge. We treated ourselves to dinner at a rooftop bar for our last night and then we were off to see Aladdin on Broadway in a beautiful old theatre. We all really enjoyed the show.
Our homeward bound plane was leaving that same night at 1am. As we exited the theatre the heavens opened with a huge summer thunderstorm (the east coast of the USA gets a heap of summer rain). As we had a plane to catch, we had no choice, but to run the few kilometres back to our hotel in the torrential rain, with water squelching out of our shoes at every step. We looked like drowned rats when the doorman let us back into the hotel! We just had time for a quick shower, before being whisked off through the night to the airport with extra hand luggage bags of soaked clothes and shoes. I don’t think any of us will ever forget the experience!
And so ends my recount of our epic American road trip adventure. We loved it all (apart maybe from the squirrel bite), and can’t wait to return one day to road trip around the western side. I’ll leave you with one last photo of Reuben making himself at home on the trip, as only he knows how!
I’m taking a break for school holidays, but will return with some more kids’ party posts soon!
It was a dream come true to visit Mount Rushmore and it did not disappoint. I was amazed by the scale of it and the likeness to the four presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln). The Americans have a real reverence for their past presidents that is both touching and quite foreign to us as Australians. I was also inspired by the vision and nerve to take on a project like this and succeed.
We also visited the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is still a work in progress and when finished will depict the Sioux leader on his horse pointing to the horizon saying “My lands are where my dead lay buried”. The memorial is a moving tribute to the Native Americans’ dreams and plans for their land and their country prior to colonisation. Dreams which now will be difficult to realise.
As we were driving through the Black Hills a very loud flash flood warning sounded on all of our devices simultaneously and was repeated at five minute intervals. It was so loud it sounded like it was coming from a loudspeaker! This was very alarming as we had no idea how we should react to the warning. Should we stop the car or keep driving and where would we go? Not knowing what else to do we kept driving, except when the hail became so heavy we had to pull over!
The hail was so heavy and fell so fast that it looked like snow lying around everywhere. We were very glad we didn’t wash away in our car and managed to get back to our base in Rapid City safely!
After leaving Kansas City we headed northwest en route to Mount Rushmore. When my husband and I compiled our “must see” lists before deciding on our itinerary for the trip, Mount Rushmore came out on top.
Our last stop for the day was Wall Drug. When I first heard the name, I was really puzzled. What was this place – somewhere you could see drugs stashed in a wall, as some kind of peculiar and offbeat tourist attraction? It turns out that Wall is the name of the town and Drug is short for drug store (what we would call a chemist in Australia). Who would have known? Anyway, Wall Drug came well recommended by the guide books and did not disappoint. It was actually one of my husband’s favourite places on the whole trip. It’s a bizarre collection of outlandish and somewhat tacky, larger than life entertainment as well as a large shopping mall with a western theme. Somehow, it all works to create an enjoyable and fascinating experience. It’s also a good place to buy cowboy boots and other souvenirs.
Since arriving back home my kids have been inspired to read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. Did you grow up reading the Little House books? Who was your favourite character?
Boy this place was amazing! NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) really got under our skin and we could have parked up and stayed a while. We travelled here from Miami via the swamps and sink holes of Tallahassee (a place which has a pace the Lonely Planet calls “slower than syrup”). We were a little confused and thought this was the place Bobbie Gentry sang about in the famous “Ode to Billie Joe”, but that was actually the Tallahatchie Bridge which we crossed later in our trip through Mississippi.
Our next stop was the beautiful Mast Farm Inn in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. We chose to visit here as it had a great write up in the Lonely Planet Guide and was tucked away in the mountains, off the beaten track. We met some Americans holidaying here, and they were quite amazed that we had managed to travel halfway across the world and to stumble on such a cosy bolthole!
The countryside is spectacular and surprisingly for us West Aussies, very hot and humid in the forest. Back home I spoke to a Canadian who said she really misses the humidity when hiking in Australia – not me, give me dry heat anyday! Flowers which can often be found in our gardens (rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias), grow wild, making for a particularly beautiful hike when they are blooming.
