Washington, DC
Wow, now I know what a couple hundred years of tax
dollars went to support. It may not be the center of the
world, but all in all it is pretty close.
Washington could be considered a "new" city by American standards dating from the late 18th century. By comparison the oldest building in Edmonton dates from around 1900. Unfortunately it was a bit later in the year and "the" fountain was turned off, actually almost all of them were.
Travellers Tip 1
Be sure to use a shuttle bus otherwise you will do miles
of walking to see everything you want to. I am not
exaggerating the 1st day I estimated I walked about 4 miles.
Travellers Tip 2
If you are an American citizen contact your member of
congress and senate, this way you'll have a guided tour
of the Whitehouse, plus you can see the Congress and Senate
chambers.
Travellers Tip 3
Use metrorail to go from places more then a mile or so,
Its not that expensive, didn't seem crowded even during rush
hour. By and large fairly safe. A bit of a pain though
every station seems to look almost the same, so you do
have to be careful to make sure you are getting off at the
right station.
New Jersey
Well the average perception of New Jersey is a toxic waste dump, yes it has more Superfund sites then anywhere else, BUT it is named the Garden State and it is a name that is well deserved, like most of the east coast it is very lush and green. I was also able to meet up with Luna121 for supper at a truly superb restaurant.
Travellers Tip
If you are not a resident, do NOT travel in the "EZ Pass"
lane of the turnpike, you will get a ticket (in 3 weeks or so
depending on the speed of a typical bureaucracy). You can
appeal the ticket, but once you are in that lane you can't put
in the change for the toll so you will get a ticket, no ifs ands or buts. I may have done
something right for a change either the bureaucracy is REALLY slow or they decided that
I really need to keep my money, but there has been no ticket in the mail ... yet.
Philadelphia
Much like Washington, DC Philadelphia is steeped in history,
around every corner there is the omnipresent Ben Franklin slept here.
However it does mean something different then
Arkansas' Bill Clinton slept here, here and here, and so on.
But it is interesting to see something real, you can go to
Disney(land/world/euro and whatever they call the Japanese
one) but they are ultimately fake. This is the real thing,
Ben Franklin really DID sleep here, John Hancock (no
relation to Herbie) really did sign his name here. Whether
Betsy Ross really did sew a flag, who knows, but she did live
in Philly perhaps not at "her" house, but somewhere near.
I also had the pleasure of meeting up with Frabjous. Who lives amid the history laden streets and is I would bet a MUCH better cook then Betsy Ross was a seamstress.
Travellers Tip
A definate must see is the Rodin museum , it is not large but for a suggested donation of $3 it is money well spent.
Mill Run, PA
Perhaps one of Franklin Lloyd Wright's best known and
perhaps best works is the Kaufmann house aka
Fallingwater
located in southwestern Pennsylvania. It is here
Lloyd expressed himself in a way he never did before and
perhaps never did again.
It is here that you see his true genius, definite must see.
Travellers Tip
Contact the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in advance to see the house, especially in the summer months.
Pittsburgh
I'm not really sure who decided on putting a Pittsburgh
where they did. I do think that their line of though was
along these lines... let's find the hilliest spot to put
a city and by gum we will build it there. And they did,
it seems to me 1/2 the city is bridges and tunnels, I am
exaggerating somewhat but not too much.
Hamilton and Niagara Falls
Thanks to sports the average Edmontonian (namely ME) knows
something about Hamilton. For two primary reasons;
1-Hockey, the Edmonton Oilers farm hockey team is in
Hamilton so a lot of the Oilers go to and from there to
develop their skills or rehabilitate from injuries and
2-Football, it could be argued somewhat successfully that
the Hamilton Tigercats could be called the Hamilton Eskimoes
due to the number of coaching staff and players that have
been traded two and from the two teams. So the net result
of this is the amount of knowledge that gets spread around.
Somebody I knew was going to Grand Canyon, they knew I had already visited it, and they asked me to describe it. What could I say? It is pretty much indescribable so I said the only thing I could... "it is big". If you ask me to describe Niagara Falls at best I could say is "it is big", sometimes words fail to describe anything that awesome adequately.
"Space, is big. really big. you just wont believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think that its a long way down the road to the chemist but thats just peanuts to space. listen..." -- Douglas Adams
That is a reasonable description of the size and power of Niagara Falls.
While I was in the area I was able to meet up with
Music
and
ska_johnny
for a while.
Detroit
Detroit is similar in the general perception as New Jersey, yes it has bad parts, yes it has problems. But that is not all there is to Detroit. It is a city that you can see improvements happening almost daily. Thank you ght_iii , for the time you graciously offered and the wealth of knowledge of the city that you so generously shared.
Cumberland, MD
After doing a mad dash from Detroit south nearer to my
departing flight on the aluminum tin can home, I was able
to meet up with 2thDoc and Josette4. While I was at the
house I noticed a plaque on the wall given to them as a
housewarming present by Taurusmoon and BriansDad it says;
"9 out of 10 dentists agree, Regular brushing would
prevented this plaque."
Thank you all for the hospitality.