The final Saturday

After this our shopping spree, we go to a skating get-together in some far-off location arranged by Emily. The cold, the ice, the blades – I missed you (I haven’t skated since high school). Danny learns to skate! I learn to twirl in one place on the ice.

After skating, the four of us return to Adrienne and Danny’s apartment and attempt to watch Battle Royale. Attempt turns to failure when the subtitles don’t working. We then watch Ice Princess instead, and try to eat the five pounds of macaroni left by Christina. By 1:30 am, we are ready to leave. This is it. Tomorrow, Danny and I fly back home, Adrienne will fly back on Wednesday, and Rob will fly back a few weeks later.

How quickly this term has gone by. I still remember how, less than four months ago, Danny, Adrienne, and I were tourists trying to get the maximum use out of our CityPass before our first day of work. Space Needle. Seattle Zoo. Boat Cruise. And now, after months of hanging out, going on road trips, making new friends, sight-seeing, dinners and birthdays – we’ve settled into life here in a way that’s comfortable. It’s a feeling that surely must’ve taken more than four months to achieve – years, maybe. But, no, less than four months. Now that’s something special.

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Wishful Travel

This looks like a pretty sweet deal.

City Pass, New York City - a look inside the city pass.

Not a bad deal, I reckon, at $65.00 for each adult. Then again, I have no idea how much the regular admission charges are for the included attractions.

An example of what you will find in NYC City Pass - first stop is the American Museum of Natural History; details include location of attraction and hours of operation, taxi and subways to get there, and IMAX showtimes.

The other five attractions in the city pass include: Empire State Building Observatory, Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The City Pass also includes information for the Tribute WTC tour, shopping at Bloomingdale coupons as well as for restaurants around town.

Yep, adding this to the travel journal.

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San Francisco City Pass

I get a lot of requests for things to do around San Francisco. If you haven't been to San Francisco before and want to see the sights I think it is really smart to buy the San Francisco City Pass. Unless you are going to be here at least four days it may not be worth it. Only $54 for an adult {although sometimes I see them even cheaper at Costco} the City Pass gives you:

-A 7 day MUNI pass for all Bus and Metro lineshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
-Unlimited Cable Car rides (usually $5 a pop)
-A Cruise around the Bay OR a Boat ride to Alcatraz
-Entrance to Aquarium of the Bay
-The de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor
-The Exploratorium
-California Academy of Sciences & Steinhart Aquarium OR Asian Art Museum
-Entrance to the SF Museum of Modern Art

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Note. I do not think the SF citypass includes Alcatraz anymore.

Another Side fo San Francisco

The city of San Francisco is trying to give a face lift to its Japantown neighborhood, and the folks there are nervous. A much-loved tourist destination for decades and a blessing to residents eager for Japanese restaurants and groceries, Nihon-machi (the Japanese term) is just about nine square blocks in the Western Addition district. Right now, it's on the verge, but nobody is quite sure of what.

The wildly successful Joie de Vivre hospitality chain of boutique hotels has moved in to buy and renovate the two biggest lodgings here, turning the venerable Miyako into the Kabuki (as of January 1, 2008) and the slightly less fancy Best Western Miyako Inn into the Tomo (which means friend). That, plus the recent upgrading of the cinema complex here, makes some people happy about the city's development plans, currently in the "advisory stage." Skeptics, however, don't trust the city to get anything right and are worried. Plans for the redevelopment of the area are to be announced late this year or early next, the city says. More information available online at www.sfgov.org/site/planning.

City Pass

I recommend buying the San Francisco City Pass if you want to visit several of the attractions it covers. Most important, perhaps, is the seven-day pass it gives you on the Muni, which includes subway, cable car, streetcar and bus transport. The other attractions include the De Young Museum and the Legion of Honor Museum, the Exploratorium, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Aquarium of the Bay, and cruises on the Blue & Gold Fleet. In addition, you can choose one of either the splendid Asian Art Museum or the California Academy of Sciences & Steinhart Aquarium. The Asian Art Museum has an amazing exhibition on Osamu Tezuka, the creator of modern manga (comics), such as Astro Boy, the first of its kind outside Japan, from June 2 through September 9. All these attractions and transport for $54, saving, they say, $50 from the $104 value the tickets represent. Children aged 5 to 17 pay less.

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Seattle Update

My wife reached Seattle in the first week of June. I had postponed all my plans to visit the tourist attractions in Seattle till she was here. Now that she is here, I have been looking forward to visiting some place every weekend. My Garmin Streetpilot i2 GPS has proved to be a great buy since it is too easy for a non-Seattleite to get lost here while traveling. City-Pass is a great way for people who are new to the area to visit some attractions in Seattle. We used it to visit Woodland Park Zoo, Pacific Science Center, Seattle Aquarium, Museum of Flight and Argosy Cruises. The most boring out of them was Pacific Science Center and the most interesting would have to be Woodland Park Zoo. The flight simulator at the Museum of Flight was quite thrilling and I would recommend trying it out to everyone. The hour-long Seattle harbor cruise on Argosy Cruises was very informative and presented great photo opportunities. Speaking of photos, here are some photos that we took. Enjoy!

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CityPass and The Hancock Observatory

Time to go to Hancock Observatory. I was in the middle of Magnificent Mile on the Michigan Ave. About half of the Mile (or a quarter one side only) is the Hancock Observatory. Before I went up, I stopped in Water Tower Place and had a quick dinner at "Wow Bao", which is a fast food restaurant serving Chinese style buns. Beside traditional; BBQ pork, it has many different stuffing like Thai Curry Chicken. It's a good alternative to burger.

Citypass can help you avoid the ticket line up but not the elevator one that I waited for around 15 minutes. The observatory is at 94th floor and it takes 40 seconds to go up. By the time I was up there it's sunset. Beautiful. Yet, it would be better if there were no clouds. At that height, it's not significant how many floors Sear Tower is higher. Plus Hancock is closer to the lake. So it's trade off between being highest building in Chicago and lake view (+ CityPass ;) I mind as well stayed for the night view.

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CityPass Examples

Examples:
In NYC, an adult citypass to 6 attractions costs $65 (they say it's a $127 value), kids $49, and includes:
Each ticket reveals tips, maps and transportation information so you can plot your course to: the Empire State Building Observatory; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in midtown Manhattan; Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side; American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side across from Central Park; and an unforgettable Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise for views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, bridges, and the city you couldn’t see from a taxi. What’s a trip to the Big Apple without shopping and dining? A special offer gives you a discount and special attention at Bloomingdales, and 12 New York City restaurants.

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Tips from Laura and Dan

1. Take the train! It might take a little longer than driving, but (for us) fare is cheaper than gas, no security crap, and no parking fees in the city.

2. Stay in the theatre district. We recommend the Hotel Allegro. Close to entertainment, shopping, lots of good food and CTA train stations. Excellent service, Good neighborhood too.

3. Be prepared to walk. You can't really experience the Magnificent Mile by bus, nor get up close to Lake Michigan from the train. Plus, if you need a CVS/Walgreens/Starbucks/Macys it will be at least a block from where you are.

4. Bring it with you! See #1 - trains let you carry more baggage. If you forget anything you can definitely buy it, but be prepared for sticker shock.

5. Buy a City Pass. We only used the Aquarium, Planetarium, Observatory and Field Museum tickets, and figured we saved enough $$ for all of our train fares, plus several Starbucks visits.

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Skipping the line at the MOMA

When we got to the MOMA about fifteen minutes before it opened, we saw a long line stretching outside. "Uh oh," we thought, dreading the thought of waiting outside in the rain.

When we reached the end of the line, a MOMA employee told us Citypass holders could skip the line and pickup their tickets at the specified desk. Score!

We turned in our passes for tickets and we were one of the first ones to get in when they opened.

We grabbed a free audio pass and made our way up -- MOMA is six floors, we figured we'd start at the top and work our way down.

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