I embarked on a six week trip throughout the US to visit friends, family, enjoy a college football game, and attend a cousin’s wedding. It was my first time back in almost two years and I really enjoyed the trip.
From the Pacific to the Atlantic
The trip took me from the Southern California beaches of Oceanside, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach to the Atlantic beach town of Hampton Beach in New Hampsire.
The long, wide beach at Oceanside.
A surfer trying to make something out of small shore break wave and avoid the lines of two fishermen in front of him.
A view of the Palos Verdes Penisula from a neighborhood in Manhattan Beach.
Another view of the Penisula from Hermosa Beach.
A concert on the sand in Hermosa.
I attended my cousin’s wedding in Newburyport, Massachusetts and stayed at the nearby town of Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. The beaches there are just as wide and spacious as those in Southern California.
I took the Amtrak train from Union Station in Los Angeles to visit my brother in Oceanside. Here is one of the wonderful murals in Union Station.
Attending a Baseball Game
Baseball is a unique sport in America. It has a leisurally, almost pastural pace to it. It harkens back to a time when most Americans lived on farms and time wasn’t as compressed as it is now for us. Maybe that’s why it still holds a certain charm for many people in the US. I was able to attend a San Diego Padres game with my brother and two friends.
We started off having drinks at a rooftop bar across from the stadium, Petco Park.
Then we made our way to the game.
It’s a beautiful stadium right in the middle of downtown San Diego. Honestly, we spent most of our time drinking and catching up and really weren’t paying much attention to the game. Which was the way it usually is at these games!
But then one of the Padres got a double.
Then the runner moved to third base on a groundout and the next batter brought him home with a single. The Padres ended up beating the Detroit Tigers 3-0 and everyone went home happy 🙂
A Visit to The San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo is the most visited zoo in the United States. It was a pioneer in the concept of open-air, cage-less exhibits that recreate natural animal habitats, and is considered to be one of the best zoos in the world.
My brother is a volunteer at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which is under the same management as the zoo. So we got to go there for free one day.
The star of the zoo is its new Pandas. The two pandas were received from China just a few months ago and they are the first pandas to enter the US in 21 years. This one was so comfortable in its new surroundings it decided to do a little low level body scratching.
This tiger was getting some steps in.
I have no idea what this giraffe was doing, but it seemed to be something that was encouraged by the zoo staff, so it must have been some type of exercise.
Even the smaller animals were interesting, like this bright pink insect.
This leaf mantis was an incredible amalgamation of different shapes.
Some of the lush landscaping of the zoo.
The zoo is so large there is a cable car that goes from one end to the other.
It provides a great view of parts of downtown San Diego.
And of the unique buildings of nearby Balboa Park.
Southern California Fire Season
When temperatures go over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 celcius) in Southern California with high winds and dry brush, you can expect wildfires to start. When I visited my mother in the Victorville area, there were two large fires raging in the mountains nearby. The Bridge Fire near Wrigtwood (over 50,000 acres) and the Line Fire near Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear (over 35,000 acres) were both under 20% contained when I was there.
While these can create terrifying conditions for nearby residents, they created amazing sky shows where I was staying.
The view of the Line Fire as seen from a NASA satellite.
Visiting New Orleans
New Orleans is one of the most unique cities in the US. The culture, architecture and food are incredibly distinctive. I was going to the UCLA-LSU football game in nearby Baton Rouge and spent a couple of days beforehand in New Orleans ahead of time. Four of us then rented a New Orleans house for Friday and Saturday nights.
Below is an ode to some of the great jazz musicians in New Orleans’ history.
From Wikipedia: “The development of New Orleans famous ornate cast iron ‘galleries’ began with the two storey examples on the Pontalba Buildings on Jackson Square, completed in 1851. As the most prominent and high class address at the time, they set a fashion for others to follow, and multi-level cast iron galleries soon replaced the old timber French ones on older buildings as well as gracing new ones.”
The small sign below says it all. The question is what does “authentic” really mean?
An eclectic art shop in the French Quarter.
One of the famous blue dogs from artist George Rodrigue.
The famous landmark of Jackson Square with the Saint Louis Cathedral in the background.
Aaahhh, Bourbon Street at night. Where alcoholic stupidity can become a spectator sport.
I didn’t get a chance to see the really good live bands in the clubs on Frenchmen Street, but I did stumble into a great old school blues band one afternoon around 3pm on Bourban Street.
The band has a nice history and they were really fun to watch. From the New Orleans Blues Societ website : “Willie Lockett and the Blues Krewe has performed at The House Of Blues and B.B Kings in New Orleans, and Houston and has open edshows for Albert Collins, Ricky Scaggs, Fats Domino, just to name a few. These guys have worked Bourbon Street and clubs on the East & West Bank of New Orleans for over 20 years.”
One of my friends on this trip owns a very succussful bespoke wine business (https://www.reddcollection.com/). He knows his food and New Orleans became his playground both nights we were there. The first night was an amazing eight course meal at a restaurant called Maypop.
The second night, after coming down from the hot, humid football game in Baton Rouge, he selected a more relaxed restaurant called Cochon. It “…is a tribute to Old-World butcher and charcuterie shops. Our five, full-time butchers make all of the cured meats, sausages and fresh cuts that we serve on our menu.” We came in near closing and some of the daily meats had run out, but there was still plenty for us to sink our teeth into.
Our friend brought down an almost 30 year magnum of Barbour cabernet sauvignon from California. He worked with the restaurant manager to make sure this well aged bottle was opened correctly. As can be seen by the cork below, it was. I’m not a wine connoisseur and probably can’t appreciate the full complexity of its taste, but it was incredibly smooth.
The highlight of the night was when, because of the interaction the restaurant manager had with our friend, she offered all of us a taste of a 20 year old Pappy Van Winkle bourban. My friend estimated the bottle was worth around $2,500 and each of our pours was worth around $150. It was an insanely complex yet incredibly smooth taste. And an amazing gesture on her part.
I took this picture after I had already very slowly sipped about half of my pour.
The National World War II Museum
One of the more recent, and most popular, tourist attractions in New Orleans is the World War II Museum. From Wikipedia: “Founded in 2000, it was later designated by the U.S. Congress as America’s official National WWII Museum in 2004. The museum is a Smithsonian Institution affiliated museum, as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s outreach program. The mission statement of the museum emphasizes the American experience in World War II.”
And it does an outstanding job documenting that experience. The highlight of the visit is the one hour award-winning 4-D film, Beyond All Boundaries, which is narrated by Tom Hanks.
There are multiple buildings in this complex, each with its own theme.
Here the museum is trying to recreate the feeling of the fighting in the Pacific.
There was a very emotional section on The Holocast.
They even had an exhibit on the Monument Men, the group of experts that spend multiple years trying to recover all the art the Nazis stole.
College Football In The South
As I mentioned earlier four of us went up to Baton Rouge for the day to see the University of California, Los Angeles play Louisiana State University in football.
College football in the US, especially in the SEC (Southeastern Conference), is the closest American sports comes to the insane, over the top, passion of soccer in many countries in Europe and Latin America.
The LSU football stadium seats over 102,000 fans. Usually games there start at 7:30pm and to get a bunch of crazy fans who have been drinking all day can be a pretty entertaining experience. Unfortunately our game started at 2:30pm. It was so hot and humid that many of the fans (from both schools) spent a lot of time in the concourses in the shade.
The tailgating was extensive. We constantly got called “tiger bait”. But it was all in fun and the fans were great to talk to.
Before the game the LSU band came through part of the crowd on the way to play in the basketball stadium. They were led by LSU’s NCAA championship womens gymnastics team.
Some of the unique college football pageantry before the game.
There was a nice pep rally in the basketball stadium before the game.
The band spelling out LSU before the game.
Some of the fans beating the heat in the concourse area.
The view of campus from high up in the stadium.
UCLA is having an historically bad season so far. While we were tied with LSU at halftime 17-17, LSU scored 17 straight points in the second half and ran away with the game 34-17.
Here is one of the many sacks LSU had against us. Yeah, definitely “Tiger Bait” on that one.
And one of our many incomplete passes.
A nice run by our quaterback to avoid the pass rush pressure.
Oh wait, we actually scored a touchdown!
United Soccer League Pittsburgh Riverhounds
On this trip I saw a baseball game and a college football game. Why not see a USL soccer match? I was visiting my cousins in Pittsburgh. Both the Steelers and Pirates were out of town that weekend, so four of us went to a Pittsburgh Riverhouds match.
The United Soccer League is the largest professional soccer league in the US. It doesn’t have the TV contracts or other financial backing of Major League Soccer, but it’s still a way for smaller cities in the US to experience a level of professional soccer. The games aren’t great by European international standards but the match I saw of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds vs the Birmingham (Alabama) Legion FC was as good as the two matches I saw in Peru’s top league.
The Pittsburgh stadium only holds 5,500 fans, but it has a great location across the Monongahela River from downtown Pittsburgh. One fan told me they have plans to expand the seating to 15,000.
In a stadium this small, there are no bad seats.
A corner kick, then hitting the goalpoast, then a bicycle kick attempt.
In this sequence there’s a nice mulligan through the referee’s legs.
Visiting Boston
I was attending my cousin’s wedding in Newburyport, Massachusetts so I spent part of an afternoon walking around nearby Boston. I was staying in the Back Bay section of the city, which is a wonderful place to walk around.
Looking out at the Charles River.
The dome of MIT from across the Charles.
A Short Visit to Providence
I had never been to Rhode Island, so I took a train down from Boston and spend a few hours in Providence. It’s the capital and largest city in the state. It has a relatively small downtown area, but has a lot of great New England architecture.
There’s a nice little river that winds around the city and there was actually a gondolier taking a couple down it.
Brown University is up on a small hill above the city. It’s one of the top academic universities in the US and has a wonderful campus and surrounding neighborhood.
Newburyport, Massachusetts
Newburyport is a beautiful city of about 20,000 people with a rich history starting as one of the most vibrant trading ports in the original British colonies.
The wedding was held in the city’s central square and the reception in Dalton House. This is a private club and, as the sign below describes, it has a rich history. One interesting fact is that much of the original Dalton house was built from wood planks stolen from inventory set aside by the British to build new battleships.
Because of all the extensive historical artifacts in the Club, we weren’t supposed to publish any pictures of the interior. Needless to say, some of the rooms would have made a nice historical museum. The living room is supposedly where George Washington was approached to become president.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the Club was the fact that over 100 years ago a small bowling alley was built into the basement which actually extends under the street in front of the building.
They had some serious looking bowling champions back in 1915.
We, on the other hand were randomly bowling in our wedding suits and dresses after liberally partaking in the open beer and wine bar of the wedding. It was a lot of fun!
New England Fall Foliage
I had not spent much time in New England before. Since I was going to be there in early October for the wedding, when the leaves were changing, I decided to rent a car and drive through parts of New Hampshire and Vermont.
The Kancamagus Highway
Winding through the New Hampshire side of the White Mountains, the 33 mile Kancamagus Highway is one of the most famous places to see the fall foliage in New England. It was a drizzly day when I drove throught it, but the colors were still pretty dramatic.
The Albany Covered Bridge was built and 1858 and then restored in 1970. You could either walk or drive through it.
As you can see in the above pictures there were a number of wonderful places to stop and check out the scenery. But, as the video below shows, even the basic drive itself was incredibly colorful.
Green Mountain Byway
I spent the second day driving through the Green Mountain Byway in Vermont. It wasn’t nearly as spectacular as the Kancamagus Highway, but it was still very pretty in its own right.
Every stopoff with any trail was completely packed with people, so I just kep driving through one of the most scenic sections. But I still enjoyed the whole experience.
At the beginning of the Byway was the main plant for Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. It was very crowded. The plant tours were booked and the line to buy some ice cream was 50 people deep.
But I did walk up the small hill behind the plant to see their “Graveyard”.
The poetic descriptions of each of these retired flavors were fun to read.
Burlington, Vermont
At around 45,000 people, Burlington is the most populous city in Vermont. One of its claim to fame is that it is the least populous city in the 50 U.S. states to be the most populous city in its state.
There is a wonderful amount of Victorian era homes throughout the city. Wikipedia explans why: “The town’s position on Lake Champlain helped it develop into a port of entry and center for trade, particularly after completion of the Champlain Canal in 1823, the Erie Canal in 1825, and the Chambly Canal in 1843. Wharves allowed steamboats to connect freight and passengers with the Rutland & Burlington Railroad and the Vermont Central Railroad. Burlington became a bustling lumbering and manufacturing center – for some time the third largest lumber market in the world – and was incorporated as a city in 1865. Its Victorian-era prosperity left behind much fine architecture.”
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is a former mayor of the city and it has an extensive history of very progressive policies. Unfortunately it also has a small and expensive housing stock and is therefore battling a current problem with homelessness. They were a constant presence as I walked around the city.
The views of Lake Champlain.
I stayed in a hotel that was a beautifully refurbished Victorian house which the the owners both managed and lived in.
Washington, DC
I was supposed to end this trip in Tampa and it ended up being less expensive to fly to DC first before flying to Tampa than to fly there directly. So I was able to spend a full day walking around the city.
Georgetown
Georgetown is one of the oldest sections of Washington, DC. There are scores of wonderful streets to walk through in this area.
In early October many people already head their Halloween decorations up.
The US Supreme Court
I made a quick stop into the building housing the US Supreme Court. There a couple of hallways with nice exhibits on the history and the structure of the court. Since they were not in session, I was also able to check out the actual courtroom.
The Hirshhorn Museum
The Hirshhorn is the primary modern art musuem of the huge, sprawling Smithsonian Musuem complex. Since I hadn’t visited the museum in probably 20 years and it was a relatively small musuem, I decided to check it out.
The Osgemeo Exhibit on the third floor was the highlight of my visit. From the actual Hirshhorn website: “The Hirshhorn Museum presents the first US museum survey and largest US exhibition of work by identical twin brothers Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo (b. SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil, 1974), known globally as OSGEMEOS—Portuguese for “the twins.” The yearlong, full-floor presentation brings together approximately 1,000 artworks, photographs, and archival materials to highlight the trajectory of their collaborative multidisciplinary practice, including the roots of their fantastical artistic language, inspired by their upbringing in urban Brazil. OSGEMEOS: Endless Story spotlights the artists’ playful combination of universal themes with magical elements drawn from their heritage, urban art and graffiti traditions, and shared imagination.”
One of the other exhibits on the second floor was also pretty unique.
The escalator leading down to the basement floor.
Hurrican Milton
My final stop was supposed to be in Tampa to visit a good friend of mine who used to live in Hermosa Beach. But Hurrican Milton decided to make an appearance and wreck those plans. Arrving in Tampa less than 48 hours after it was expected to be hit with a category 3 hurricane wasn’t the best idea. So I ended up leaving the US and heading down to Playa del Carmen three days early.
Hurricane Milton
