Despite my comments in defence of Vegas on this thread(merely because I thought it was getting unreasonable grief), I'm not that big a fan. I've been there half a dozen times and I've enjoyed some of the trips, but it's certainly not amongst my favourite places I've been and I wouldn't care if I never went again(my kids liked it more than me and it's description as Disneyland for adults is fairly accurate). In the US, I've been to Vegas half a dozen times, New York many times and Florida, LA and Denver. The place I'd most like to go is New Orleans, the place that I've been to that I liked most was New York(by a country mile), which is probably why I've been about ten times(I had am office on 7th Avenue and it was all tax deductible). Sorry ellewoods... I've also been to Montreal several times and I enjoyed it there, particularly in the Whisky Cafe. My lad is going on a trip later in the year, starting in the deep south, moving up through Washington and a few other places. He's been with me to Vegas a couple of times and to New York several times and I'm interested to see what he thinks of the other cities he visits.
A friend of mine did work with some kids in America in Detroit a few years back. I'm not sure that's a place I'd like to see though. I suppose the idea you get of America is that from the movies, or from talk shows. It's either yellow cabs and steam coming from manholes, or fat people being cut out of buildings. I want to see some of that, of course, but I would understand if that irked Americans as bit as not being a true image. Like I say though, such an enormous country, so many cities. Where to start?
I found NYC a bit weird at first. It's called The City That Never Sleeps yet I soon found, thanks to the jetlag that had me up at 6am every day, that literally nothing opens before 10am. I was underwhelmed on the first couple of days but then it 'got under my skin' and I loved it. When I go abroad I don't do any of the touristy stuff, I like to live like a local and when I went on my own about 6 years ago I ended up going on a Bloomingdales staff night out. Amazing.
Detroit is the US equivalent of Orchard Park. Though it does have the advantage of being the home of Motown, unlike OPE, which has no record labels of note(as far as I'm aware).
Seriously, I was sat in a bar on the lower east side on Friday around 5pm and a group of around 20 came in being rowdy. After a while the flightiest chick waved at me (It's the Steve Beaton effect), invited me over and as soon as I spoke with that knock-em-dead Ull accent they were putty in my hands. Had a blinding night with them, got wrecked and they invited me to some party the next night but I made my excuses. I bet they've never forgot that night.
Never been to the US. I've always been more interested in visiting the great plains, Rockies and Grand Canyon than any of the big cities. Suppose New York is worth a visit though.
Vegas is ace, so much to see and do, each hotel has its own attractions, OLM mentioned the Bellagio, they had the biggest train set I've ever seen all around in there, in fact someone was getting married with the model train passing overhead. Lions in MGM, although they have gone now, and if you are a petrol head then you won't see a better motor musem than in the Imperial Palace, now being refurbished and re-named The Quad. Formula One racing cars on show in the Luxor and boxing memorabilia, like Mohammed Ali's gloves were on show in THE HOTEL Mandalay Bay. A canal and and gondoliers in the Venetian, shopping to die for if thats your thing in all the hotels, Palazzo is just fabulous but Circus Circus is a tip, Butlins on speed with kids all over. But going to the top of the Stratosphere is phenomenal, 110 floors in about 15 seconds in the lift and the view from the top of the strip magnificent. The top of the Eiffel Tower replica at the Paris hotel also give fantastic views, well worth the $10. Then there is the old town of Fremont St with the video show every so often on the roof, groups on, and solo artists, great restaurants and only a bus ride away shopping malls with Levis and the like for £20 or so. I cannot understand anyone getting bored in Las Vegas, we have been a few time and the place just knocks us out each time. The hotel pools are something else to see, as is the carry on at Treasure Island and the battle on the ships, more like dancing these days. Wynn and Encore have their own free shows and as for the paid shows Love, if you like the Beatles and we were also lucky to see Celine Dion, don't laugh she was 2hrs of sheer brilliance, I didn't think much of her before seeing her show A New Day but after that first show, we saw it again a year later, I was totally smitten. Then on a lesser level were the Legends show in Imperial Palace (Quad) look a likes but good all the same and in the same hotel the Dealertainers, look a likes who got up to sing, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Billy Joel, Roy Orbison, Alice Cooper, then they went back to dealing on the tables. I could go on but you get the drift oh yes the flight over the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam awesome as was the helicopter flight up and down the strip at night along with the limo to get there and back and the bubbly before you got in the helicopter. Vegas is a lot better visually at night and even more so from the air, there is still much to see but as to going back maybe finance won't allow it now, mores the shame.
It's odd this accent thing, we were in Memphis, great place if you like music and the Gibson guitar factory well worth a visit as is the shop next door, some great Gibson/Epiphone guitars for sale. As I was saying my wife and our friends were just walking to Beal St, chatting away when I was aware of someone behind us for quite a while. We eventually stopped at one of those 'Don't Walk' signs and I turned around to see a man and woman at which point the guy said, "Hey don't worry we just loooooove to hear you Brits talk" so we just carried on walking, and being followed.
One trip I can recommend which my wife and myself did a few years ago, was we flew to Seattle (Business) and then hired a car and drove right down the West Coast as far as LA, on the way doing various places including San Francisco the Nappa valley (Ellewoods neck of the woods) then went inland to Vegas for 4 days, and then back to LA and then flew home. Took 3 weeks but saw a diverse side of American life a lot of which was at time Hill Billyish.
When I went over there to Levittown, the first week we stayed at a place called Wildwood in Jersey. It's a boardwalk resort with three piers coming off the boardwalk. At the end of each pier was a funfair and different shops right along the boardwalk, It was 2 or 3 miles long and I used to walk it first thing in the morning before breakfast. What really made it for me was, every morning between 10-30 and 11am, a shoal of Dolphins swam to the edge of the beach. It was brilliant to see them in their own environment and to see the happiness on the kids faces has they stroked the Dolphins.
God your a smug ****ing cock. Do you expect a thousand years of culture in America?? So what its America, and anyway the food is ****ing superb in Vegas. Feel for you Erik. Cloudy as **** all day every day, talking to the locals and they said its gonna be like this all the way through till October. So if any you lot booked Tenerife your ****ed. I´ve just supped two pitchers of Long Island Iced Tea and theres fanny everywhere **** culture
I'm sure it was Detroit that at the time was bragging about having got a film studio to come and make a film there despite it being set in LA. The only problem was that because of the publicity they made about having drawn them in someone later asked one of the senior production staff why they'd chosen Detroit. "When we were going round looking at different options we for locations we felt that making the film in Detroit would be the best use of the budget, Bladerunner was set in a post apocalyptic Los Angeles and Detroit most closely resembled the image we had in mind for that so wouldn't take as much set dressing".
Saw a couple of Cirque du Soleil shows last time we were in Vegas. One at Treasure Island and the other at the Bellagio. Great entertainment . I've travelled the States on both coasts, but nothing in the Mid Or South Regions. Also been to Canada a few times and have had brilliant holidays. It's not where you are, it's who your with that matters.
The guy that came up to me and my wife on Beale St scared the **** out of us. We just made our excuses and got the hell out of there pronto (it's weird that the centre of American cities are dead in the middle of the day). I loved Nashville though. Felt much more at home there than in Memphis. Went to visit John Firth in Louisiana and he took the wife and I out on Bourbon street. She ruined that night by complaining about being tired and curtailing it at about 12:30/1am.
