USA holiday 2011 (Los Angeles - Las Vegas - Cleveland - Buffalo)
So I was in the USA for two and a half weeks in July (half a week spent mostly on flying halfway around the world). I took China Southern Airlines for about RM4200 return flight (it was summer time so a bit more pricey than usual) with a relatively short transit of 2-3 hours in Guangzhou to and fro. The flight was ok except that the flight attendants all kept speaking to me in Mandarin and I had to give the sheepish grin and say "I no speaka the Mandarin. Sollee!". Other than that, there was also the encounter with a US immigration officer with a bit of an attitude, coz' I didn't give him my customs card (only my immigration card since in most other normal countries I visit, the immigration officer checks the immigration card only and the customs people check the customs card) and I also filled in my immigration card a bit wrong (put 'Buffalo' under 'state' when it should have been 'New York'). So this immigration officer rolls his eyes when I apologize, with the look on his face like I'm some kind of moron, although he probably should have been a bit nicer considering the fact that I AM coming halfway from around the world, maybe not that familiar with the geography of his country, and also as a tourist am about to spend the next couple of weeks contributing to his country's failing economy, which by the way also contributed to the failing economy of the rest of world.
Sorry, I just needed to let that bit of steam off and hope any US Immigration Officers reading this get the message and not have such an attitude problem coz' I heard it's quite common among you guys. Lol.
Anyway, I spent the first week travelling around the west coast of the US with my brother and sis-in-law, who live in Buffalo, New York (that's on the east coast), before we flew to Cleveland, and then drove back to my bro and sis-in-law's place at Buffalo. Our was as follows:
One day in Los Angeles, visited Hollywood walk -->
Next day drove rental car to Las Vegas (watch the Beatles cirque du soleil show) -->
Next day drove to Grand Canyon, stopped by Calico Ghost Town and Hoover Dam along the way -->
Spend two nights at Grand Canyon -->
Travelled back to Los Angeles, and visited the Getty Centre (Art Museum) and Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum -->
Next day flew to Cleveland, visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (but didn't actually go in) -->
Next day spend the whole day at Cedar Point, the Roller Coaster Capital of the World!!! -->
Next day drove back to Buffalo, New York to my brother's place -->
Next one week was chilling at bro's place, visited Niagara Falls, watched Harry Potter 7 at a drive-through theatre and watched episodes of '1000 ways to die' on Netflix
So now that you have the runthrough, here are photos!
Day 1: Hollywood, Los Angeles
Me and bro and sis-in-law eating chicken and waffles, which I find a fascinating combination.
We saw Optimus Prime, we did!
The famous Sunset Boulevard, which are featured in a number of famous songs.
And this is to show we were on Hollywood road.
Hanging out at some shopping complex in Hollywood.
Can't see it in this pic, but the famous Hollywood sign is somewhere on the hill behind us.
There you go!
Some famous characters you might recognize.
The Kodak Theatre, where American Idols are born!
At Hollywoodland, a cute little souvenir shop where we bought an oscar for our parents. The award was for 'Best Parents', obviously!
Some famous Hollywood stars!
And at the famous Graumann's Chinese theatre.
Some dogs all decked out for a day in Hollywood. Yo, yo dawg!
Hey, that's King Kong!
Day 2: Calico Ghost Town and Las Vegas
We took a nice long road trip and found this quaint little cowboy ghost town along the way, so we stopped by to check it out.
After that, we were in Las Vegas, baby! Check out the neat hotels.
I especially love New York City (it's a freakin' hotel!)
Caesar's Palace...
The Venetian Hotel, which we went into and saw lots of nice artwork.
Then at night we went for the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show, which is a circus plus dance performance made according to Beatles music, which was pretty cool although I couldn't take photos of the show itself. Only of stuff outside the show.
We also visited a big Coca-cola store in Las Vegas the next day and took pic with the Coca-cola bear. I didn't know there WAS a Coca-cola bear! Anyway, the original pic had a green background, and I just edited it to add in a fake ice cave coz' that's what the photographers did and wanted to charge us USD25 for it. Nyeh nyeh, I did it for FREE. Eat that!
There was a huge M&Ms store at Las Vegas too.
I have never seen so many M&Ms in my life!!!
Then visited MGM Grand Hotel, and bought a mug for our dad. Coz' our dad likes lions. So we got him a mug with lions.
I tried to look like a lion.
And there were real lions there too! Who apparently don't eat people!
We also tried our hand at gambling, but really sucked at it.
My brother is really happy coz' he won 0.02 cents. Later on I was even more happy coz' I won 0.20 cents. That's ten times more than my brother, yo!
So after Las Vegas, we continued on with our roadtrip to Grand Canyon, and stopped by Hoover Dam. Which they apparently rebuild really fast after Megatron smashed his way outta there and told the world that "I am Megatron", which I thought was a pretty funny first thing to say after you were sleeping under a big dam for a few years.
I have no idea WTF my bro was doing...
Day 4 and 5: Grand Canyon
Hey, we finally made it to the big GC!
Still don't know WTF my brother is doing..
Oh, we saw some deer!
That's not a deer...
On the second day, we woke up super early to catch the sunrise over Grand Canyon. Awesome stuff.
Good grief!
Later on, after the sun was fully well and risen, we were off on a long 6 mile hike down and up Bright Angel trail.
Bro looked a bit tired...
A cute little citizen of Grand Canyon.
Just a little warning sign 3 miles down!
Ignore this photo!
Day 6: The Getty Centre Art Museum and Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium
Two museums in one day, one refined and another....not so much!
Not sure WTF we were doing...
My bro getting a drink...
And after the Getty Centre, I dragged my bro and sis-in-law to the horrifyingly horrible Ripley's Believe or Not Odditorium.
...where we saw, among other things, a nice replica of Bumblebee (not too horrifying yet)...
...replica of a man who survived cooking himself in a furnace...
...Genuine shrunken heads :S...
...musical instruments made of signboards....
....errr....THAT....
....a Malaysian beef bone dragon boat?...
...the King of Pop's face made of nothing but candy!....
... and my personal favourite weirdness of all time... mini basketball players and audience made of dead SOLDIER ANTS! Seriously, the guy who did this, way too much free time.
Day 7: Cedar Point, Cleveland
Ah, Cedar Point. This was the highlight of my entire trip for me, coz' I remember when I was a little girl visiting Knottsberry Farm (another theme park with my parents and brother) and I was too young to go on the big-@$$ roller coasters, I could only watch wistfully from below while my bro and mum would scream their heads off on the crazy coasters.
Cedar Point was my moment of redemption. The day of reckoning. My chance to finally prove that I was truly, finally... an ADULT.
Yes, screaming my head off at every ride was compulsory. Here are some vids just so you have a taste of the fun.
Day... something (didn't keep track): Niagara Falls
So after we were back at Buffalo, New York and had a few days to chill, we headed out for a day trip to Niagara Falls.
My camera still got a bit soaked. :P
And this is kinda what we looked liked after we got out...
And that's the rundown of my trip to the US. Hoped you liked. :)
