Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Cleveland OH




The train run to Cleveland took just a day but it was a pretty day. We went past lots of woods and this time of year the leaves are such pretty colours, it was a bright Autumn day. Hard to catch on camera and do it justice though. It is the sort of day when I really miss my dog, not that we could go walking in the forests we passed but it made me miss her more than I usually do. I'm counting down the days till I see her again.

So what can I say about Cleveland, not a lot really. We really didn't do much with our time here, the weather has changed making you less like to go out and just explore, though I'm sure if we had we would have found something of interest. It seemed like an OK place. The main attraction here is The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which lots of people from the show went to and enjoyed.

The arena is Downtown and this area looks quite nice and close to the mall which seemed OK till I walked past a couple who 'really' should have got a room! There were a few interesting buildings and monuments around. The Tourist information is also Downtown, and it is the most helpful tourist place I have been in, so thank you to them and I ended up getting 'the zhu zhu hamster' from Amazon.

So we didn't do much in Cleveland worthy to blog about, lets hope next week has something more blog worthy. Though looking in to the next city I'm not going to hold my breath, but fingers crossed it will be one of those places where you don't expect much so it exceeds your expectations.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

St. Louis



So it was a fairly uneventful 2 day train run to St Louis which is fine as it gives Tweedy a chance to recover from the six pack weekend. I may not work now but I can still remember how tiring it can be to do shows back to back trying to find some time during the day to actually eat, knowing that you can't actually stop for a second because you know that would be the end of any energy you actually have. I am so pleased we don't drive. With the weather changing and the views not being that striking on this run less time was spent of the vestibule, though that doesn't mean it wasn't a good journey. I love train runs for so many reasons.

The season has definitely changed and we arrived to a wet, muddy train yard. It almost feels like we are back home. I wish the weather had been better as St Louis seemed to have a lot going for it and I think if it had been nicer weather we may have done a bit more, like go to the park with a free zoo and science museum for starters.

One of the must see tourist things to do in St Louis is 'The Gateway Arch' and since it is so tall (America's tallest man made monument in fact) it isn't actually that hard to see it. You can take a tram ride to the top of the arch but we didn't bother as there were days when you couldn't see the top because of the fog so thought we probably wouldn't get the best views. We did visit the Museum of Westward Expansion beneath the Arch though so even though we didn't go up it we did go in it.

The architect is very odd in this city, interesting but odd all the same. It seems a really mish mash pickle all layered on top of each other. You would turn a corner and some amazing building would be just sat there among all the others.



The City Garden was quite nice with loads of sculptures, water features and art dotted around. On one of the walls is a large TV that shows short films. The one we watched was called 'The Way things go' which was a chain reaction film using fire, water, chemicals and gravity. It was very odd sat in a chilly park watching TV.



The City Museum, is not really a museum, it is an artistic playground mainly for adults, made from recycled things collected from the city, including a couple of airplanes and a school bus. The building use to be an old shoe factory and there is still evidence of this today and you can slide down one of the original shuts after you have climbed the seven store high windy staircase. There are caves made from the skeletons of dinosaurs and some holes so small even Willow struggled not to get stuck. The ball pit is filled with real balls of various sizes, the sort you kick not the small plastic things ball pits are usually filled with. There is the roof top with a Ferris wheel, a fire pit for marshmallows, a bar to drink, live music to listen too, the list goes on and on and on Friday and Saturday night open till 1am. If I lived here I would be a regular that is for sure, no words can do this place justice. If you are even just passing through St Louis and you do nothing else you must go here.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Denver – The Mile High City

The train yard is pretty much what we have come to expect, dirty and dusty and is quite big. There is a play park not far from the train which was good as we where here for a couple of weeks instead of the usual one and a supermarket, sorry a King Soopermarket which is obviously better as it is sooper not super. Actually it wasn't bad, maybe even sooper. There is a light rail station very close by so that means you can escape and go else where to explore Denver and it isn't that far to walk to Downdown Denver which is really nice. The main shopping area Downtown was 16th Street Mall. They had to call it a name with Mall in it so people understood that's where the shops are. They also had a free bus service that ran the length of the street, we never used this though as it was only a mile from one end to the other.

We found a book store at the bottom of 16th Street Mall with a great name 'Tattered Cover Book Store' and even though it was nice there were no second hand books which I think are really required for a shop with a name such as this. Even just small section would be good.

We hung out at the civic centre park at the top of 16th Street Mall for a while which seemed to be swarming with squirrels, I think they must get fed by people quite a bit as they all seemed pretty tame.




There were a few things close to the park, The State Capitol which was modelled after the US Capitol in Washington, The Colorado History Museum and the a pretty big library, all of which are free.





On one of the dark days we went out to celebrate the Boss Clowns birthday early, and went to Casa Bonita. What a place! Seriously if you are ever in Denver you must go here, it really is an experience that I can't do justice in a blog or with pictures. It was so tacky it was wonderful and there really is no hint of sarcasm there. It boasts strolling musicians, daring cliff dives (though the most daring of the night was not preformed by one of their cast), exciting gunfights, hilarious puppet shows (hilarious for all the wrong reasons) and dancing monkeys in costume. Though the latter one I think was printed wrong as we only saw someone in a monkey costume. Oh and not forgetting the haunted caves.



There was a rather chilly Punch party to say goodbye to one of the sound guys. Well it seemed cold at the start of the night. It seemed to warm up by the end though, funny how that happens.

The building isn't that nice and is old, very old. Apparently the Beatles played there when they first came to the US and it was old even then. So in American standards of old it is ancient and apparently even has a ghost! Once upon a time there must have been rodeos here as they still have the old stalls for the horses out the back. Before it was an arena it must have been an aircraft hanger. There wasn't much around it either, a McDonald's, a gas station and a small Mexican market.

And we had snow!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Salt Lake City

Yet again we had an amazing train run. I wonder how long you need to be here before you get bored of the sights from the vestibule.



We were parked in three cuts not far from the building at all which is great as it meant you could walk to downtown. Though being close to civilisation is good in some ways it is not so great in others and one night loads of people had their bicycles stolen. It is slightly unnerving knowing they must have been going up and down the train right under everyone's noses in the dead of night.

On the day the show opened there was a parade around town which seemed to be well received and it 'looked' like everyone had fun, there were even motorcycle police with clown noses getting in the spirit.




Right opposite the building (Energy Solutions Arena) was the Gateway, an open air mall. It definitely had more going for it than the usual mall.
There was The Discovery Children's Museum that the school went to on a field trip. It was great that Willow got to go with other children that she could play with instead of just being stuck with me, which is the norm for us in these places. Willows favourite bit was building parachutes.
The Clark Planetarium was at the entrance to the Gateway and included an IMAX Theatre and Dome. There was also lots of free exhibits which were really good, especially as Willow is quite into astronomy at the moment. She especially liked Newtons Daydream, we have seen lots of sculptures like this one at various museums but this one was the best so far.



One thing you can not miss in Salt Lake City is the Mormon influence everywhere including the attendance to the Sunday performances of the circus. There seem to be dozens of magnificent building's which usually turn out to be temples, churches or cathedrals . Now we have left I wish we had visited a few more. We did go to Temple square which seemed to house quite a lot in its 35 acres. Along with all these 'old' buildings there also seemed to be a lot of construction going on.



I liked this part of America but it doesn't like me much and the altitude affected me quite bad, with so many nose bleeds I lost count and a permanent fuzzy head. I have been told the next couple of weeks will be no better in Denver. So even though I like it here I'm looking forward to getting to a lower altitude.

And what has happened to the weather, I thought we were heading into Autumn but it seems like Summer is reluctant to let go as it has been pretty hot again.