Ireland / USA Trip -1999

...   Back to the Main Menu
         
      Dad took us down to Roberts Cove while it was being battered by a bit of a gale. The waves were pretty large outside the bay. When they crashed against the cliffs the mist they threw up was blown over the cliffs and into the cove.
       
      Robert in front of Blarney Castle. We climbed to the top where Rob kissed the Blarney Stone. The weather was a bit kinder to us here than it was in Roberts Cove and the view from the top of the castle was really nice.
       
      Brian and Robert at the Titanic Memorial in Cobh. Well it's either the Titanic or the Lusitania memorial (the Titanic left on its maiden voyage to America from Cobh).
       
  View FROM the Statue Of Liberty. It looks sunny and warm here but it was not. It was freezing. The lake in Central Park was frozen over.  Who would ever have thought that this would be a sad photograph.
 

 

  
    View INSIDE the Statue Of Liberty. I was pretty stiff from climbing down the statue. We got as far as inside the crown. Unfortunately the hand torch is not open to the public anymore.
       
    Here I'm commanding a remote control Lost In Space robot in mega toy store FAO Schwartz. We spent well over an hour in that store.
       
    Now this is something else. The Hollywood Tower Hotel in Disney-MGM studios. Based on The Twilight Zone - this is a free fall ride in an elevator, in darkness. To hear us scream in total fear click this RealAudio file (60kb) or try to see what you can (its not all in darkness) try this Real Video file (126kb).
       
    And this is the picture we bought afterwards. We may look like we were just laughing, but we really were terrified.
       
    And this is something completely different. A 300 foot bungee swing. Here we were attached to the end of a 300 foot rope suspended from a tower above us, then we were pulled back towards another tower until the rope was horizontal (i.e. we were 300 feet up by now). Then we had to release ourselves. Here is a black and white Real Video (106kb) of the jump. Thats Robert screaming, honestly! It's black and white because my video doesn't play American tape very well.
       
 

  Mary leaving the White House, much like Monica Lewinsky would have done in months past.
       
    A self timer photo of the three if us, at Arlington Memorial Cemetery, the resting place of J.F.K. and Jacqueline Onassis.
       
 

  We took a trip out to Lake Tahoe because everyone who had been there told us it was fantastic. And it was. The skiing was long and soft and unlike the Australian ski fields there were no queues at the chair lifts. Mind you it was the weekend of the Super Bowl. This picture shows Lake Tahoe, sand on the beach of the lake, and snow on the sand.
         
      A view from the road around beautiful Lake Tahoe, showing a little island. It doesn't show very well in the photograph but there is a house on the island.
         
      On the road from Lake Tahoe to Los Angeles, there is an old Spanish Monastery, I think it was called San Simian. Again the photo is reduced in size here, but this is a great shot.
         
      On the road again. Rob thought he was looking at a beach full of rocks as we drove by at 70 m.p.h. until he saw one of the move. It was a beach full of wild sea lions. We parked and walked right up to them.
         
      Up to the top of Stratosphere Hotel Tower, outside to the roof of the tower which is 921 feet high. Strap yourself into a seat, and Big Shot shoots you at 45mph to a height of 1081 feet. Scare-E!
         
      On the way to Muir Woods we stopped to take this uncomfortable looking photograph in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
         
      And on to HAWAII. Here is a picture of the Diamond Head volcano crater. It was quite a walk up to the top, nice view once you get there though.
         
      Here we are, there.
         
      And this is the view.
         
      We visited the World War II memorial in Pearl Harbour. The bombing of Pearl harbour turned Hawaii into one large army camp. No attempt was made to recover the bodies from the wreckage of all the sunken warships. Nobody seemed surprised at this. The memorial itself is built atop one of those ships in water so shallow that the wreckage sticks out of the water at low tide, and is still visibly leaks oil to this day.
         
      Our last stop before Los Angeles was Hearst Castle. Randolph Hearst was the inspiration for Orson Wells "Citizen Kane". The Rupert Murdoch of his time he was not content with owning as many newspapers as possible, he also was never content with his ranch, a few hours north of Los Angeles.
         
      As you can see, his dining room was rather grand. Not many people have room enough to drape flags on their dining room ceilings.
         
      And so we get to our final destination in America. Los Angeles. We were able to visit Warner Brothers (you know there is now a studio called Warner Sisters!) as well as Universal, pictured here.
         
      Mary, with two university degrees and a masters in environmental science, pounces on Alvin the Chimpmunk!
         
      There we were at Universal Studios, enjoying the "WaterWorld" show, when all of a sudden a life size water plane flies towards us and crashes into the pool in front of us!! All part of the show.
         
   
 

Finally, here's a shot of Capitol Hill in the snow.
 

   
           
          Back to the Main Menu