Day 5 - 7 Top deck tour Memphis to New Orleans

Day 5 Topdeck - On to Memphis : The home of The Blues, giving us the famous Sun Studio with Elvis, Jonnie Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the location of Martin Luther King's assassination.  First stop Graceland.

So much to see at Graceland ... Too many photo's to show here.  In the evening we went to a great restaurant called Kinky Kanook, famous for its huge burger which defeated Man v Food guy, it was just too big for him, the owner showed us the size of the burger buns for the monster meal ...

Luckily we just had a regular meal, no food competitions for us !

Day 6 Memphis - we went to the Sun studios to check out where Elvis recorded his first record, then we went on to the civil rights museum where the Motel where Martin Luther King Jnr was shot.

The amazing rack of ribs at City Blues Cafe Memphis.

Day 7 Memphis to New Orleans - On the way we went on a swamp tour around the outskirts of New Orleans, where we saw some Alligators close up.

Getting a little wet on the swamp tour.

New Orleans French quarter.

Topdeck tour day 2 - Washington DC

Today we made our way round all the sights of Washington, first we caught the subway to the massive Arlington military cemetery, where we saw JFK's grave, the grave of the unknown soldier with the changing of the guard, this cemetery has the graves of soldiers from the civil war up to current day.  Then back to the sights of DC.  We returned to the massive statue of Abraham Lincoln overlooking the reflective pool and the obelisk towering over everything.  The memorials for the Vietnam and Korean wars and then on to the Smithsonian Museums, including among many the Museum of Air and Space.

 

We decided to go on a 3D flight simulator at the Air and Space Museum ...

Day 3 - DC to Whytsville ( just a motel stop on the way to Nashville)

Today was a big day of driving so we broke it up with a few quirky pit stops, the first was a massive Walmart store with everything you could think of, including a hunting section.

Then we stopped off at a strange little place called Foam Henge, which is exactly what it sounds like 

Then on to a tiny place called Whytsville, where we enjoyed an amazing southern fried chicken at the local Cracker Barrel.

 

Hanging out at the Motel in Whytsville with our "travellers".

Day 4 - off to Nashville

We arrived in Nashville and headed to the Country Music Hall of fame, then checked out the cowboy boots and hats.  

 

TOPDECK tour begins ....

From New York we began our TOPDECK  section of our trip, we will be traveling all the way down to New Orleans on a TOPDECK bus tour, stopping at Washington, Nashville and Memphis.

Day 1 topdeck tour - New York to Washington.  We drove until lunchtime to Philladelphia famous for the Rocky movie, and Philly Cheese Steak so we checked out the famous steps that Rocky ran up and all pretended to be Rocky, as you do, then we enjoyed a very tasty cheese steak at the place where they originated from.

Then on to Washington, where we enjoyed an evening tour of the sights of DC.

Washington by night was very cool, we walked around all of the famous sights, then went back to our accommodation back in the University town of Maryland, ready for a full day of sight seeing tomorrow around Washington in the daylight.

Washington Nails :

New York and beyond

So, our adventure to New York started with the trip back to San Fran international and figuring out bag check in. After a quick breakfast and pumpkin latte for Jas (her latest obsession is pumpkin everything!) we had an uneventful flight to Newark Airport. A shuttle ride and we were at our hotel/hostel accom facing the street an sounds of Upper West side. Yes there were many sirens and car horns, but hey its NY.

      Queue to get out of SF!

We had a big first day out, headed out on the subway to the Staten Island ferry where we saw lady Liberty in a slight haze of smog, but no where near as bad as San Fran.  We then headed into thefinancial  district and saw the Bowling Green, Charging Bull, Wall Street, Deutche Bank, the Trump Building, NY Stock Exchange, Trinity Church and Federal Reserve. We then wandered to the 9/11 site and since there was no queue we went into the now serene but sad sight of the twin towers. It has been 12 years since the towers were hit but I can still remember them live on TV collapsing. Its well worth a visit but even more so in 2014 when the museum is complete. 

                    9/11  Memorial

Still on the move we headed to Chelsea and the Chelsea Markets for lunch. Amazing Seafood sliders were had at the Lobster fresh food fish store/deli. Despite it being 33 degrees we powered on to the Highline railway garden that runs down the old railway  line near SoHo and Greenwich. We wandered into Greenwich and visited Magnolia Bakery made famous in Sex and the City. We headed back to the hotel for a rest then headed into Times Square, had dinner at Bubba Gumps (sooo good!) and then a stop at Sephora for a manicure before heading up the Empire State building for amazing view of NY. Tired reading this? We were shattered by the time we got home at midnight on the subway!

                  Chelsea market

 

     Empire State Building at night- windy!

Day 2 was more sedate with some laundry, then out to Central Park for breakfast and a lovely stroll. It would have been more lovely if it wasn't so desperately hot... again! 33 Degrees and 80% humidity. Blisters and fatigue was rampant. We did hike around and saw the Guggenheim, then crossed the park again to check out Strawberry Fields....which is not a field but a seated courtyard area. Hot and tired we headed to Macy's for lunch to cool down and shop. Then on to The Rockefeller centre and Top of the Rocks. Ah-may-zing views peeps :) NBC tour of the Saturday Night Live set and then dinner at Tri-Tip we headed back weary for an early night.

                    Guggenheim 

                 Central Park

    Central Park from Top of the Rocks :)

     Empire State Building from ToTR :)

After a sleep in till 8am, we got up, had a Cronut experience and headed to the NY Public Library, Ghostbusters memories anyone? The NY public library was grand and really interesting to visit. We headed to the HBO store, Urban Outfitters and H&M before walking to the Chrysler building and Grand Central Central Station. Cupcakes by Melissa were had and lunch of Quesedilla and Yoghurt drink with peanut butter and banana! After a photo with New Yorks finest we headed to Bloomingdales and Macys for some more retail therapy and then the rain hit! On to FAO Schwarz, the toy store used in the movie 'Big' with Tom Hanks and the big piano!  We then qent on to dinner at Applebee's, souvenirs were bought then home to pack and change nails for the tour tomorrow!

                NY Public Library

             Grand Central Station

                   FAO Schwarz

Nerds anyone? Schweet section at FAO.

              Dinner at Applebee's 

                   Times Square

San Fran Round-Up

Thursday: Well we packed it all in, after 13 hours or so on the plane, we arrived  just before lunch and we went straight into the city to look around and check out what was on offer, later in the afternoon we jumped on a trolley ( tram to you non-locals) up the steep San Fran hills to fisherman's Wharf and looked around pier 39 and some of the less touristy piers, where we had our first Clam Chowder, which was very tasty, served in a sourdough roll.  Straight after dinner we hopped on the ferry over to Alcatraz where we enjoyed a very entertaining tour all around the prison including the hospital with its very own operating theatre, we heard stories of convicts escapes and our guide demonstrated the alarmingly lloud and fairly eerie sounds of all the cell doors slamming open and closed just to give us an idea of how terrifying it might have been on your first night in Alcatraz.

Friday: Today we went on a Woods and Winery Bus Tour, first stop was Muir Woods where we hiked up the walking route to see the sequoia trees and then we drove on to the first of three wineries in Senoma, first was Clines, then Larsons Winery ( famous also for their horse ranch where Sea Biscuit was trained) then onto the Senoma Cheese factory where we sampled pretty much all their cheeses and lastly onto jacuzzi winery.  (Yes it is the guy who designed the first Jacuzzi) We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and Jas ate a Mac and Cheese Burger ( only in America !)

Saturday: Today we had a very early start ready for our 4 hour bus trip to Yosemite National Park.  We drove through some beautiful Californian rolling yellow hills with Beef cattle grazing and windmills in the distance to power San Fran with electricity, before getting into the steep hills of Yosemite, still smouldering from the bush fires of the past few weeks, we drove above the smoke clouds and blackened trees of the outer edges of the National Park and then into the perfectly green untouched trees and grassland of the main part of Yosemite. Our bus stopped a few times to let us take photo's of El Capitain, then Half Dome and a few other spectacular views.  We parked at the lodge and walked up to where the Bridal Falls would have been cascading down only to see a tiny stream of water due to the dry conditions lately.  Whilst exploring the area around the lodge we found a beautiful spot called Sentinel Beach, with some water to swim or paddle around in to cool down.  Then back to San Fran after another 4 hours in the bus. A long day but well worth the 8 hour round trip.

Sunday : San Fran sightseeing today, we and most of the tourists in San Fran got on the Hop-on-hop-off bus taking in the sights and snapping away.  We got off at Fisherman's Wharf for lunch at Boudin's Bakery and then went on to Ghirardelli's chocolate shop and ice-cream store and enjoyed a massive ice cream cone.  We then hopped on the trolley hanging off the side as we moved up the steep hills of San Fran then got off at the famous Lombard street with its zig-zagging steep bends that have become a tourist attraction, before squeezing back on the full trolley back into Union Square. May have hit the shops of San Fran in the evening, as the sales were on.  Off to New York tomorrow...