USA.... Here I come!

[scarlett873]

Sounds like a fabulous trip!! I would love to be able to get away for a 6 week trip!! Close as I'll come is a 2 week trip to China to pick up our daughter when our adoption is final...lol.

I wouldn't worry a bit about being at WDW during the anniversary of 9/11. DH and I were married in Orlando and were on our honeymoon during the first anniversary of that day. Now that was a little freaky for me...but honestly, it was the best day there for us! (Well, aside from our wedding day, that is!) We saw lots of red, white, and blue and lots of smiles. The best moment that day still gives me goosebumps when I think about it. We were in Tomorrowland and it was 12 noon. Everything just stopped. No music...there was an announcement over the PA system about the anniversary and then silence. Everyone just stopped and bowed their heads or held hands or whatever comforted them at that moment. Some cried...I'll admit that I shed a tear or two...I was just so overcome with emotion at that point...I believe there was a patriotic medley played and then everything went back to normal. I was sad that DH missed it. He was in the old Alien Encounter attraction while chicken me waited for him outside. It was one of those completely surreal moments. Not sure if they will do anything this year for it or not...haven't heard! They also did a ceremony during the usual flag retreat in the late afternoon...some of the singers from the American Adventure in Epcot came over to sing for it.

I've been to Savannah for vacation before, but it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1996. I remember touring some of the old homes and walking around the riverfront area. I would love to go back!! We did one of those trolley tours around the area too. They pointed out a bunch of stuff that had been in movies...mainly Forrest Gump. I can't remember if that Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was out at that time yet or if they were still filming it...I remember something about that during the tour...but not specifics.

Enjoy your time here in the States!!

 

[AussieAngel]

Wow, thanks so much for all your advice and nice wishes, everybody!

This board has the nicest people ever!!

I have one question... is a trolley a bus?

In San Diego, apparently our hotel is near a trolley which goes downtown. I think that might be a train!

In Australia, a trolley is a shopping cart! You know, one of those big metal silver things with wheels that never go straight? That's a trolley!

So I get images in my mind of sitting in a shopping cart and being wheeled all over these cities in America...

 

[magicmirror]

No tips, just a comment. WOW!!! What an amazing vacation!!
Your trip sounds like so much fun! I'm sure you will have a blast!!
@ poohandwendy.

 

[magicmirror]

Around here a trolley is a bus.
But, then again, some of us Alabamians refer to a shopping cart as a buggy and some call it a shopping cart.

 

[DisOrBust]

Not from Cali but a trolley may be a REAL trolley like the ones in San Fran ...anyone know???

Did you consider overnighting in Yosimite?? It may be better then driving back and forth.

Are you planning on the San Diego Zoo? Don't forget their Wildlife park as well.

Are you planing on any shows in NY?

What are you seeing in LA? I just can't think of a reason to go there !

I hope your planing on the Grand Canyon as well.

 

[AmyJ of Ca]

Wow, thanks so much for all your advice and nice wishes, everybody!

This board has the nicest people ever!!

I have one question... is a trolley a bus?

In San Diego, apparently our hotel is near a trolley which goes downtown. I think that might be a train!

In Australia, a trolley is a shopping cart! You know, one of those big metal silver things with wheels that never go straight? That's a trolley!

So I get images in my mind of sitting in a shopping cart and being wheeled all over these cities in America...

In San Diego, This is more like a train or the trollies in San Fransisco. It goes all the way to the Mexican boarder and to most of the "tourist areas" near downtown.
If you have any ??'s about So. Ca I might help. We live 5 minutes from the beach (in Orange County) and 20 minutes from Disneyland. Sounds like a great trip!!!

 

[LukenDC]

What a wonderful trip! It will give you a good exposure to the USA, which is a large, diverse country with many distinct regional differences. Of the places you are visiting, San Diego is my hometown and I currently live in Washington, DC.

My suggestions for both cities are as follows:

San Diego

San Diego Zoo
Balboa Park
La Jolla and La Jolla Cove
Old Town
Sea World (if you have time and money)

Washington

Air & Space Museum
National Gallery of Art
American History Museum (might be closed for renovations)
Holocaust Memorial Museum
U.S. Capitol
Nighttime monument tour (buses leave from Union Station)
White House
Walk through Georgetown and/or Old Town Alexandria

I live right across the street from the Australian Embassy, so Aussies are a common sight in my neighborhood. They're good neighbors, too.

Please don't hesitate to ask for advice or assistance---I'm always happy to help when I can.

 

[diznygirl]

In Australia, a trolley is a shopping cart! You know, one of those big metal silver things with wheels that never go straight? That's a trolley!

LOL! Amazing that shopping carts in Australia have bad wheels just like the ones here!!!

Those little brown things with the bushy tails? Those are squirrels!

Maybe you could do the flag ceremony at MK on September 11th. It's 5 pm, when they take the flag down from the flag pole. The national anthem is played. It should be pretty special on that day.

And drive by Celebration and come say hi!

 

[disneyfanforever]

Have a great time! It sounds like an incredible trip.

 

[MinnieM3]

Ha! I live in Canberra, Australia's capital... and also the most boring place in Australia! You really wouldn't want to!

Maggi May - we're going to Savannah because of 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'! I LOVED the movie, and I'm in the middle of the book. The old houses and stories in the movie charmed me so much, I just had to go! We're planning on doing a 'Midnight' tour while we're there!

And yes, we booked a cute little bed and breakfast place to stay, which is on one of the historic district squares. Thanks for your restaurant recommendation!

Well, there goes my idea for Charleston, SC!

Have a wonderful time in the USA! We loved doing the monument tour at night in DC. Also loved Union Station much more than we thought. Neat restaurant there you might like called "America" with dishes from every state on the menu! You can get a seat on the edge upstairs and people watche while you eat!

We just got back from NYC. Loved taking the Ferry and seeing the Statue of Liberty, Times Square at night, Phantom and the Opera on Broadway, Central Park, and just wandering aimlessly! We also had a blast a Madame Tussead's wax museum.

GRand Canyon was neat. See the big Lodge there. Can't remember the name. There was a Native American tribe that did tribal dances there every afternoon outside and it was awesome!

 

[Galahad]

Washington

Air & Space Museum
National Gallery of Art
American History Museum (might be closed for renovations)
Holocaust Memorial Museum
U.S. Capitol
Nighttime monument tour (buses leave from Union Station)
White House
Walk through Georgetown and/or Old Town Alexandria

Was just going to post something like this. This is a good list of "must sees". Sounds like a great trip. Hope you really enjoy it!!!!

 

[AussieAngel]

DisOrBust ... Thanks for your questions, now I'll answer them!

We're just doing a BIG day trip to Yosemite, with a coach tour. We know it's going to be a massive day, but we really don't have heaps of time in each city, which is why we're not staying o'night at Yosemite.

We hadn't planned on doing the San Diego zoo. Seaworld is definitely in our itinerary - it's actually my BF's birthday that day, and he chose to go to Seaworld, and dine with Shamu the killer whale. We still might go to the zoo, but I kinda think.... aren't all animals just animals? Is there anything really amazing at San Diego zoo that's not at the Sydney zoo? I know it's meant to be massive and cool, but we only have 3 full days in San Diego, and with one of them taken up at Seaworld, we want to do some general wandering around and sightseeing, too!

Shows in NY... Yes!! I LOVE musicals!! I'd see one every night if my BF would let me. Hheheee. We're going to book tickets for Rent (one of my favourites!), and then just see if we can cheap seats on the day for some other shows, like Beauty & The Beast, Phantom, etc...

As for going to LA... I just want to see it for myself, you know!? Everyone I know who's been there says, "It's awful, you'll hate it." And I imagine I probably will, but I just want to decide for myself! From here in Australia, it seems like in America, you're either a New York person or an LA person. Just like in Australia, you're either a Melbourne person or a Sydney person. I want to go to both and make up my own mind! Plus, I want to do all the cheesy touristy stuff like put my hands in Tom Hanks's handprint, and see Brad Pitt's front gate, and play at the Santa Monica beach, all that fun Hollywood stuff!

And yes, we are doing a Grand Canyon day trip too, from Las Vegas. It's a flight day trip. Ooh la la!

AmyJ of Ca ... thanks for your help with the trolley!
San Diego is sort of our fun, beachy part of the trip. As well as going to Seaworld, we plan on snorkeling and jet-skiing, too! Yes, we could do that in Australia, but we don't, because we're not on holidays!!

LukenDC... Thanks for your suggestions, too! Do you have any yummy restaurant suggestions for us, in either San Diego or Washington? We like anything (except seafood)!

Diznygirl... Nooo, little furry things with big tails are possums!!
And thanks for your idea about the flag on September 11 - that might be nice. I didn't even know about the taking down of the flag thing at Disney...

disneyfanforever... Thankyou for your nice words!!

MinnieM3 ... We really considered going to Charleston! I actually really wanted to. And my BF wanted to go to one of those weird civil war battle things. He's such a boy. But seriously, we just had to say to ourselves, "We can't do everything!" and we thought Savannah might be a bit similar anyway... I like the sound of "America" the restaurant, too! What are some of the yummy dishes, do you remember? We definitely couldn't do that in Australia!! Good one!

And lastly, Galahad ... thanks for reconfirming those DC ideas! Our list is actually very similar to that! I'm actually really interested to see the Holocaust museum, because I studied it a lot when I was at school, and there's nothing like that her in Australia. Is it very big? How long would we spend there, do you think?

Thanks again everybody!!!

 

[JPN4265]

WELCOME!

 

[AussieAngel]

WELCOME!

Yay! I'm not quite there yet... but thankyou!!

I'm so excited about our trip! I can't think about anything else, which is bad because it makes the weeks go so slowly!

3 months and 9 days until we leave!

 

[CheshireVal]

Hey AussieAngel,

My husband is an Aussie (a Melbourne person ), and when his family came over for our wedding last year, they also toured the country for about 6 weeks. Their itinerary was very similar to yours!! I'll show DH this thread tonight and maybe he'll have some advice for you based on what his family told him about their trip.

What fun!

 

[AussieAngel]

Hey AussieAngel,

My husband is an Aussie (a Melbourne person ), and when his family came over for our wedding last year, they also toured the country for about 6 weeks. Their itinerary was very similar to yours!! I'll show DH this thread tonight and maybe he'll have some advice for you based on what his family told him about their trip.

What fun!

Excellent, thanks CheshireVal!

I'm a Melbourne person too! Well I used to be, before I moved to stinkin' Canberra!! Teheee.

 

[LukenDC]

LukenDC... Thanks for your suggestions, too! Do you have any yummy restaurant suggestions for us, in either San Diego or Washington? We like anything (except seafood)!

Good restaurants in DC include:

Old Ebbitt Grill
Mimi's American Bistro (singing wait staff!)
Anna Marie's (Italian)
1789 (expensive)
Pizzeria Paradisio


San Diego Restaurants

Nine Ten (La Jolla---great breakfast)
Inn at the Park (near Balboa Park)

 

[Chilehead Too]

6 weeks!! WOWZERS!! Have a great time!

What he said.


Boy what I would give to visit your country for 6 weeks.

 

[roger_ramjet]

So on 20th August, my BF and I are flying from Australia, and heading to the USA! Yayyyy! We've been planning this trip for over a year... and now it's just over 3 months away! Yahoooo!

We're staying in the US for 6 weeks, and heading to...

* San Francisco (4 nights)
* Los Angeles (4 nights)
* San Diego (4 nights)
* Las Vegas (4 nights)
* Disney World (7 nights - yay!)
* Savannah (3 nights)
* Washington DC (3 nights)
* New York (5 nights)

And then heading to Canada for...

* Toronto (3 nights)
* Montreal (3 nights)

Now, because we're going for 6 weeks, we can't do everything! We would have loved to do Chicago, Hawaii, and some other places, but we can't do everything! Some places we just had to chop out due to time, unfortunately.

So... this board has been SO fantastic when it comes to our Disney planning, I wonder if any suggestions can be made about other places we're staying!

We've booked our accommodation at each place, and have a rough idea of what we want to do (including day trips, like Grand Canyon from Vegas, and Yosemite from San Fran), but if anybody has some other hints about things to do, places to eat, shops to go to, hints about visiting the USA.... anything!! That would be fabulous!!

Thankyou!!

G'day Aussie Angel, hope you have fun over here! I am the aforementioned Melbourne person I am not sure how much advice I can give about touring places, since most of the locals will know better (though, having been to Yosemite, I have reservations about taking a day trip there. It's a long way, but it is an absolutely awesome place so it should be worth it).

However, I might be able to offer some general tips. Most Americans will understand you, but some wont, so be prepared for some confusion, especially with regards to different words. Don't be surprised if you ask for Coke and nobody knows what you're talking about - first few months here, no one could understand the way i said it!

Be careful on the roads in LA. The freeways will be nothing like you've ever experienced, even in Melbourne, so be super watchful. Traffic goes fast and there is a LOT of it in LA. Also, the windscreen wipers and indicators are swapped. This is bloody confusing the first few times

Also, be sure to try many of the regional delicacies. The South has some wonderful food, such as traditional barbecue, as well as decent seafood. It will be much different from Aussie seafood so give it a go. My wife recommends Bernies in Savannah for good prawns, which will probably have that distinctive southern 'shrimp broil' taste.

I can't really speak for the rest of the country. However, when you're in Southern Cal, try some authentic mexican food - you won't regret it, it's really good. I wasn't sure myself the first time I tried it, but now I love it.

That's all for now, but if I think of anything else I'll be sure to pass it along! Have a fantastic time

 

[AussieAngel]

LukenDC ... Thanks for your food suggestions!! I'll have to try and remember them!

roger_ramjet ... Thankyou for your USA tips! We'll be sure to pronounce coke with an American accent! How funny!

My BF is so excited about Bernie's in Savannah. He loves good prawns! Is it just a seafood restaurant, or other stuff too? I'm not a seafood fan, I'm afraid!

Thanks again!