Where We Have Been - USA - Arrival & New York
As opportunities have come along for us to explore places rich with stories, we weren’t quite sure what to expect from the USA—especially given it’s a relatively young country, much like our own. But it delivered a stack of uniquely American cultural experiences we enjoyed far more than we’d imagined.
Just as memorable were the people: unfailingly friendly and helpful, often intrigued by our accents and quick to tell us how keen they were to visit New Zealand.
Overall, we were pleasantly surprised—and are already looking forward to returning.
We thought Australia was big—and it is—especially once you head inland and the population thins out. But the USA is on an entirely different scale.
If you’d like to follow our journey more closely, here’s our route and where we stayed along the way: Dallas, Austin, Dallas, New York, San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Olancha, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon West, Grand Canyon South, Seligman, Las Vegas, Memphis, New Orleans, Lafayette, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Waco, Dallas.
We flew into Dallas and, once we reached the serviced apartment we’d booked online, discovered it wasn’t actually meant to be rented at all. The chap at the front desk tried to contact the owner but got nowhere. After nearly an entire day of travelling—around 16.5 hours in the air alone—we suddenly found ourselves standing on a downtown Dallas street with our luggage and no place to stay. Not exactly an auspicious introduction to the US.
To make things even more surreal, we ended up dragging our bags through the streets to get around a large parade (the first of three we’d encounter on the trip). Eventually we found a hotel that could take us. After a quick pit stop and bag drop, we went in search of a bar to have a drink, get our bearings, and work out a plan for the next day.
The bar we landed in reminded us of the one from the old TV series Cheers, with everyone gathered around a large central bar. American Football was playing on the screens and the Dallas Cowboys were on. We got chatting to a young British guy who patiently explained the rules to us—and casually mentioned he regularly flew from the UK to Dallas just to attend games. Now that is a true supporter.
The next day we picked up our rental car and—driving on the “wrong” side of the road for us—set off with a bit of trepidation. With a few slightly wobbly moments getting out of downtown Dallas (thank you, Apple Carplay), we finally found our way onto the freeway and headed for Austin to catch up with friends.
Carolyn & Lauren
Our first experience of driving wasn’t too bad—although we did end up getting diverted off the freeway, and what we saw next felt like a scene from a movie. An American pickup towing a huge, heavily loaded trailer came off the freeway above us, bumped at speed across the grass verge between the freeway and the road we were on, carried on down our road for a stretch… then reversed the whole manoeuvre to rejoin the freeway. All of this was, presumably, to get around whatever incident we’d been diverted to avoid. We just sat there in amazement.
After a night in Austin, we headed back to Dallas to fly to New York for a week—there to celebrate Carolyn’s special birthday.
In New York we did everything—including a horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park in the snow. We went up to the Top of the Rock, ticked off the Statute of Liberty, visited the 9/11 Memorial, and took a stroll along the High Line. We spent time with the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History, and we also made it to Time Square… which, if we’re honest, was a little underwhelming after experiencing the neon spectacle of Hong Kong at night. And that was only the start.
We also crossed into Brooklyn during the day for a wander past rows of beautiful Brownstone buildings, finishing with a walk through Prospect Park.
C & D & Carriage in Central Park
Lady Liberty
Brownstone Buildings in Brooklyn
C @ The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn
NYPD Budget Cuts
Grand Central Station
9 11 Memorial by Night
D & Mammoth @ Museum of Natural History
Chrysler Building
Manuscript – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Edward Bear (later renamed Winnie-the-Pooh)
Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Kanga, and Eeyore
Carolyn outside the Rose Reading Room
C’s Birthday Present
C with Audrey & her Present in Tiffany’s
We soaked up the best of the city’s Christmas displays, then ventured out to Dyker Heights in Brooklyn to see the famously extravagant light show spread across several residential blocks. It was gloriously over the top—in the very best way.
C & a Christmas Tree (one of many)
C & Saks, Fifth Avenue
C & a Christmas Tree (two of many)
C & a Christmas Tree (but wait, there’s more)
C & a Christmas Tree (get the idea yet?)
C in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn
David ticked off a few bucket-list items when we visited the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum—an aircraft carrier museum aboard the USS Intrepid. It’s packed with jaw-dropping history, including an “Oxcart” (an A-12—the CIA’s sleek predecessor and sister ship to the US Air Force’s legendary SR71 Blackbird), the Space Shuttle Enterprise, and even a submarine, the nuclear missile capable USS Growler. Unfortunately, the Concorde was away being refurbished when we were there.
USS Growler & Nuclear Missile
USS Intrepid (CV/CVA/CVS-11)
A-12 Oxcart on the Intrepid
From New York City we flew across the US to San Francisco, routing via Chicago. We’d already decided not to stop there—winter, and too many stories of weather-related flight cancellations convinced us it was wiser to keep moving west.
Carolyn and David in a Carriage in Central Park in the Snow
Tip: We stayed in New Jersey at the Homewood Suites by Hilton Edgewater as we found accommodation costs in New York itself very high by comparison. This accommodation was very close to bus stops where we could easy transit to and from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. It was a very short stroll from there to access trains on the MTA at the 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station.
Highlight: There were many and it is hard to pick one over the other. The carriage ride in Central Park as the snow fell, while possibly a bit cliché, was pretty romantic. While not the highlight the trip to the Top of the Rock was pretty impressive. They get you off the elevator at the top and do a five-minute presentation on the history of the Rockefeller Center. It has an AV display on screens that at the end show the skyline, they then retract to be replaced with the same view of the actual skyline.
Memory: Being “conned” by the street hawkers selling boat tickets to view the Statute of Liberty. We wandered down to catch the Staten Island Ferry where we were approached by a chap touting for a tour company, “much better views”, “much better …”. Well we purchased tickets and were then led a km or so to a bus where we queued for probably the better part of an hour. Once on the bus we preceded in heavy traffic back through the city to a dock where we were told the boat was full and we would have to wait at least an hour for the next one. Needless to say we, and the dozens of other people caught out the same were less than impressed. The tour operator simply didn’t give a toss as they already had our money. After quite some time we ended up getting our ticket stamped so we could go back the next day.
Closing Thought: New York—we’ll be back.
We’ve been lucky over the years to travel more than many—though nowhere near as much as we still aspire to. The world is a big place, and there are so many destinations left to discover: places we haven’t seen yet, places we want to explore more thoroughly, and old favourites we can’t wait to reconnect with.
Elsewhere on Crows on the Go, you’ll find:
• more about our travels and the places we’ve been
• our thoughts (and, in some cases, tips) on those destinations
• the places that have become “special” to us
• and more!