USA Holiday 2, September 30 (I'm In Miami B*tch)

Had to get up at 5:30am for the plane to Miami. Looking back, I probably booked some of these flights an hour or two early - not so much my fault as it is the amount of time the public transport and getting through the airport requires. We left for the same bus stop by 6:00am and no less than 5 taxi drivers pulled over as we were waiting, to ask if we needed a ride - what service! Actually it's probably because noone is on the street as 6:00am as you might have guessed.

Strangely we had to go through a whole bunch of custom checks at the Toronto end before even getting on the plane, and then at Miami simply walked off the plane, picked up luggage and were gone. A little strange how that worked, but I liked it.

The best option over to South Beach was a taxi, which didn't take too long. We got dropped off at the location I gave but it just looked like a restaurant. It seems they've gone and put a restaurant into the bottom of the hotel building, almost at the expense of the hotel check-in, it's just tucked away in one corner. I'm not sure if it's just this hotel or a common thing at the beach, but there's a mandatory-room-surcharge of $20 to cover beach towels, optional early check-in, bottled water each day, wireless internet and a couple of other things. To me it's just ridiculous you're allowed to do that, to make the room seem cheaper is the only reason I can see for it.

Up in the room this wireless internet I'm paying extra for was dropping out - that's Boston, Toronto and Miami all with crappy internet that keeps falling over. Also the mini-fridge had a lock on it?? so I went back to the reception later and asked about it. The guy told me it's a mini-bar not a fridge (it's still a fridge idiot) but he didn't have any keys left. Great.

Walked over to Washington Street and then up to Lincoln Mall. About every second store on Lincoln Street is a restaurant / cafe for about 8 blocks in a row - and they actually fill up at night. Came back down Ocean Grove and since it was evening all the restaurants along here were doing their dinner service too. Almost as bad as Las Vegas, maybe worse, every restaurant has someone out the front trying to hand you a menu and tell you about their specials. It's just too much. Thankfully you can just cross over, which is better anyway because it's the park/beach side and you can also see all the art deco style hotels too. Sadly I had not watched Jersey Shore (in Miami) before going on holiday, so I did not know all the good clubs to go to.

Washington Street.

Lincoln Mall.

Ocean Drive.

Ocean Beach.

Lincoln Mall at night.

USA Holiday 2, September 29 (Thank You Cito)

Only one day to have a look around Toronto, so couldn't really fit everything in. Went down to Yonge & Dundas street, just an intersection of two busy streets in the downtown area, also probably the centre of the retail district. Took the PATH through to the Eaton Centre, although I still don't know exactly what the PATH is. The claim is that it is 28 kilometres long and "the largest underground shopping complex in the world". Firstly, noone wants to live underground. Secondly, noone wants to walk for 28 kilometres. I actually think the PATH is a connection of underground malls/walkways linking the office buildings and subway stations together, and that you actually have to regularly come up to ground level between these underground sections, but I could be wrong.

Old City Hall, probably.

Somewhere around Yonge and Dundas.

Also Yonge and Dundas.

Walked down Yonge past the Air Canada Centre to the riverside. From there you can get a ferry across to Toronto Island. There's an amusement park over there, but only open during summer, the rest is mostly park land, a couple of small beaches, places to hire boats and canoes and stuff like that. Surprisingly people seem to live over here on this small island. If you could get proper TV and internet reception, and can overlook having no shops nearby, it actually might not be so bad.

Home of the 20 win Toronto Raptors.

I'm on a boat.

Toronto skyline. Can you spot CN Tower ?

The other end of Toronto Island.

Real beach.

Back across to Toronto to the Rogers Centre and CN Tower. The CN Tower is so much taller than I expected, and it has some nice light effects at night, but I've got no idea what they actually use it for. The tour to the top was like $40 and perhaps it would have been ok, but I kind of set myself for a no-observation-deck holiday this time around.

Fake beach back in Toronto.

The CN Tower.

So back across the street to the Rogers Centre for the NY Yankees vs Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre (the Buffalo Bills also play a few NFL games there). This was the last home game for Cito Gaston (manager that won the 1992 and 1993 world series for Toronto) so there was this long celebration thing before the game that went for about 45 minutes. It was fine, except it probably went about 15 minutes too long.

Cito Gaston night.

The Rogers Centre. I liked the stadium, seats were pretty old though.

Since the Yankees had already secured a playoff spot they had nothing much to play for, so they started one of their supposed-to-be-good-but-actually-not pitchers who gave up a 7-0 lead and they lost 8-4 in the end.

Javier Vazquez. Thankfully the last time he played all season.

The CN Tower at night.

Joba.

USA Holiday 2, September 28 (The Falls)

First thoughts about Toronto: coloured money (great), one and two dollar coins (great), metric system (great), taxes added at the cash register (not so great). Not perfect but they made an effort at least.

Only got two full days in Toronto, and similar to Las Vegas using the first to visit the Canadian side of Niagara Falls (yay no customs), but the weather outlook was looking a little poor. Got picked up by another one of these small tour bus things, this time about 8 other people I think. Personally I'd prefer a bigger bus than that and a larger group. We made *so* many stops along the way I can't even remember them all: some pointless wine tasting thing, some Niagara town with a lake, some worlds something-est clock made of flowers, some worlds smallest wedding chapel, some place where people could take an optional helicopter ride, some kind of whirlpool river spot with a cable car. Took forever to get there, also we had to just wait around at the whirlpool place while some people went on their helicopter ride, not ideal.

Niagara Lake.

Niagara Lake Town. Not actually near the falls.

Some clock.

Cable car ride.

Kind of whirlpool thing, but not really.

Finally we made it to the Niagara Falls area. There's actually a surprising amount of stuff around, I thought it would just be the waterfall and a few overpriced fast food stores. Instead there's hotels and a street (Clifton Hill) with a whole bunch of restaurants, fast food stores, gift shops and attractions (haunted house, mini golf and stuff). When I first spotted the hotels I was wondering why anyone would want to spend more than a half day here, but I guess you could stretch it out a bit more than that.

Went out onto the boat that does a loop around near the falls and comes back. I didn't fancy getting soaked so didn't go up on the top deck, although a good amount of spray still comes in at the bottom deck too. It's a shame (but probably a good idea) you don't get to go right up to and under the falls.

Clifton Hill.

More Clifton Hill.

One half of the falls.

The other half.

I'm on a boat.

After getting back to Toronto we went to this place called Burrito Boyz for dinner. The burritos were pretty good, but the reason I mention this is because they were the first and only place I went to where their listed prices were set so they would come out right *after* tax. For example, a burrito might be listed at something crazy like 6.12 on the wall, but it will actually cost 6.50 when you get to the register. Brilliant! You just need to know what the approximate tax rate it (say 8%) and it's pretty easy to guess the real cost. You don't even need to be a qualified statistician.

USA Holiday 2, September 27 (The True North Strong And Free)

Final half day in Boston before flying out to Toronto (yay more customs). Got off at a train station in the north of the city, where the famous Boston Garden is. Surprisingly the stadium actually shares the same building with the train in the basement and lower level. Even though it wasn't a game day for basketball or hockey, you can't go to Boston without stopping by the garden.

The second most famous Garden arena.

Walked down Commerce Street, the guide book said there was some Computer museum somewhere around, but it appeared as though it was either replaced by or part of a childrens museum, so soon gave up on that.

Old School building, probably.

Went back to Fenway so I could visit the sports card shop that was closed on the weekend. They didn't have too much, but I was able to buy a box of Upper Deck 2009-10 for only $40, bargain. Spent some time in the Back Bay area afterwards, and I still think it's great. Stopped by the shops at Prudential Centre and then down Newbury Street (a cool tree-lined street with fashion stores and stuff) to Copley Square.

Copley Square.

Back across town to Quincy Market for some lunch after that, since it's got pretty much anything you could want, including cheese pizza bagels - three great things coming together for one great meal! I also tried a cinnamon flat tire, it was about as much fun as having a real flat tire.

Quincy Market hall.

The dreaded flat tire - bottom right.

Flew in to Toronto late at night and had to walk on the streets for 20 minutes with luggage, since the airport bus only stops at 5 or 6 hotels in the downtown area (and nowhere near the one I was staying at). Since we arrived so late we got a room near the front reception desk (seems like this place must allocate rooms based on when you turn up, not when you book) so that was a bit crap, but the bathroom had one of those fluorescent tube lights. When you turn it on it would buzz and the room would be kind-of blue for a split second before going to white, felt like I was in the bathroom from the first Saw movie!

USA Holiday 2, September 26 (Foxborough)

Off to Foxboro to see the Patriots, there's only one train so you want to make sure you don't miss it. The train is this massive old style coach thing, kind of like a much bigger version of a V-Line. The train was going along fine for about half an hour, then we just came to a stop. There was a broadcast saying we'd be about 15 minutes late (despite no signs of congestion or other problem) then we started going in reverse. Seems this must be the normal method, because after going backwards very slowly for about 10 minutes we finally arrived. More accurately, the train stopped and everybody just got off and started walking along the train tracks - I don't know why they can build a massive stadium but not provide adequate public transportation. After walking up the very flat ramps - meaning you have to do about 10 loops to get to the top level, we had to walk all the way around to the opposite corner of the stadium and made it with about half an hour before the game was due to start.

State of the art stadium with state of the art train platform.

Gilette Stadium.

The view from the top deck.

The view from my seat.

The game was pretty good, the Patriots defense was pretty poor in the first half, and Buffalo played alright, so it was always close. The Patriots got a comfortable margin in the second half and held on for the win. The only train back to Boston leaves half an hour after the game, so we had to run back for that, meaning I did not get to visit the team store and load up on merchandise, which was quite sad.

It's Tom Brady !

It's BenJarvus Green-Ellis - that's just one person.

Went to dinner at Eagles Deli which is on one of the Man vs. Food episodes. They have all kinds of massive burger combos, I think the largest is a 5 pound burger with 5 pounds of fries on the side. Took the Red/Green Line trams out to the Back Bay / West Boston area to get there, which seems like a really nice area - I believe it was reclaimed or partial swamp land that was developed some time after the downtown area. Anyway, there was this light on the tram that kept lighting up for the next stop, and I must have spent at least 10 minutes working out how it worked. Turns out they have these really obscure yellow plastic strips on the wall, which don't look like anything at all, and you just press them.

Not far off was the Paradise Rock Club where by luck Mates Of State were playing. There was maybe a little over 100 people in total there, which was surprisingly few but also pretty cool. Unfortunately they played some songs from their upcoming/unreleased album but the rest were great.

Mates Of State - the two at the front.

Kori.

Kori again.

USA Holiday 2, September 25 (The Green Monster)

Took the train (Amtrak) from New York up to Boston. Amtrak at Penn Station was just stupid. They leave you just waiting around in the foyer until about 10 minutes before the train is to depart, and only then they tell you which platform to RUN to. Because there's so much of a crowd around, you just have to be lucky to be near the one-person-at-a-time escalator to get down to the platform - which we weren't. As the time to depart is fast approaching, and the line is still not cleared, they finally announce a second escalator that can be used - great timing.

So I get down to the platform and ask which carriage to go on, and you can just go on anything except for the business class one. All good, except people across America on public transport (it might be the same in Australia and I just haven't noticed), both trains and buses, like to sit in the aisle seat with a vacant window seat, to prevent anyone from sitting next to them. Fantastic. Even better, the person usually doesn't move across to the window when asked, they just have you climb across them to get to the window.

I slept for a lot of the ride up to Boston again, through Connecticut and Rhode Island I think. About 4 hours in total, and a lot more comfortable than getting on a plane - plus all of the frustration associated with travelling to and from an airport, and getting to the gate.

Took the local transport (the T system varies, one line is a train and another is a tram - similar to the BART) out to Fenway. There was some food festival in the streets where everyone was wearing purple, but still got to walk around the outside of the stadium - it was a lot smaller than I was expecting.

The road to Fenway.

Lots of purple people.

Outside Fenway.

The other side of Fenway.

Then back to downtown Boston where there is the "common" garden and the start of the freedom trail, a trail of red bricks through the city, over to Faneuil Hall and then ending up in Charlestown - if you wanted to go that far, and I didn't.

Boston Common.

Freedom Trail.

The State House.

Navigating the streets of Boston isn't much fun, the streets aren't in a grid, not even close. Made it to Faneuil Hall / Quincy Market only because I had the freedom trail to guide me, the market had a crazy amount of food places, and some interesting local favourites like clam chowder and lobster.

I think this is the Old South Meeting House ?

I think this is Quincy Market.