Guden visits The Great Satan!

[Guden Oden]

Yup. I'm destined for a trip to teh states in august, so I'm looking for some advice of what to do in the Palo Alto, CA area, and in New York as well. I'm going with my dad as my mum's 70th birthday present to us (!). She's too wobbly-legged these days to go on such long trips, it's hard enough for her to sit on a plane down to the canaries for four-five hours, the ten hour trip across the atlantic would likely kill her.

Anyway, as it's kind of a family trip, it's likely we'll be doing the usual sightseeing stuff in NY, but it would be helpful with any additional tips of what might be fun to do. Where to get the yummiest burgers, etc.

How easy is it to get from Palo Alto to San Fransisco? I have to endure a couple days while my dad partakes in a sports events for the more or less elderly, but we have a few days before that and also after where we'd like to experience California in general, and perhaps the SF area in particular. We might just rent a car and make it easy for ourselves, but if one was to use public transportation - if there's such a thing in California...

Of course, any witty put-downs centering on my general attitude towards the current US leadership and how I should not bother to come will of course be heartily accepted, laughed at, and generally enjoyed. But then, please offer some cool advice too on how me and me dad can enjoy this vacation as well. Thanks.

 

[epicstruggle]

Im not too sure about stuff to do in NY or Cali, ill suggest stuff to do in the middle:

Do you like roller coaster? If yes go to Cedar Point (sandusky, ohio), they have the best rollercoasters in the world.

Grand canyon is quite nice, and so is las vegas. A stop to washington DC might be something you look into.

What kinda stuff do you like to do/see?

epic

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

take your crippled mom to a hospital and try to get $1 million medicaid dollars! i hear illegals get it. HEAL!

dunno, nothin to see in america. just same ol stuff as anywhere.


san fancisco is beautiful place! (expensive though). if you like the whole wharf thing. maritime museums...old automata/games museum ( i liked it)

boston's nice too (2nd place)

NYC? i used to spend alot of weekends there. meh.

 

[blakjedi]

New York bring money and light clothes in august. Dont visit the Empire State building ... it is an absolute bitch to get to the top of (as compared to the late great World Trade Center) But do go to Battery Park and walk Wall street, see the location of the new Freedom Plaza where the WTC once stood, and take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty.

Swedes usually like the UN so visit that and you can take a wonderful water taxi (buy the all day pass) around Manhattan (literally) that can take you around most of the interesting sites in Lower Manhattan.

Walk 5th avenue from 34th street to 59th and gander at St. Patricks Cathedral, Rockefeller Center and the New York Public Library. Cool your heels at Trump Tower and have a drink at the bar on the ground floor lobby before crossing up to 59 th street where you can take a short Horse and buggy ride through Central Park.

End your day at Time Warner center at Colombus Circle (and dine at the most expensive restaurant in America Masa. "The new Japanese restaurant in the Time Warner Center only accommodates 38 people per night and flies its seafood directly from Japan every other day. The prix fixe menu starts at $350 per person." Ouch.

The next night take in a show on Broadway or dine in little Italy at Serafina. Or try Tao's mongolian or dance to music at the Rainbow room...

New York can be GREAT fun but hey I'm a New Yawka!

Bring your walking shoes and lots of bottled water.

Edit: Try to stay at the Millenium Hilton across from the Ground Zero (aka Freedom Plaza) The rates are fairly cheap, the hotel is very nicely appointed and you can to to any other location in Manhattan within minutes.

PM me for more info on the outer boroughs... (Brooklyn Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island)

 

[MrWibble]

SF to Palo-alto isn't too far - maybe 30 minutes drive? Only been there a couple of times...

Things to do:

Explore SF a bit - do the touristy things like drive over the GG bridge, go to Fishermans Wharf and Pier 39... consider seeing Alcatraz (I think you might have to book that in advance).

Visit Frys - it's geek heaven. There is a branch in Palo Alto, as well as several others in the general area.

Find the SCEA offices (they're near SF somewhere), break in, and steal all the PS4 secrets (hopefully PS3 won't be so secret by then, but steal that too if you need to)

Shoot guns. It's America!

If you have a car, drive down south a bit through the hills and then back up Route 1 - it's got some pretty cool scenery along that stretch (assuming it hasn't fallen into the Pacific since I was last there)

 

[ZoinKs!]

If you really want to see America, you should drive from NY to Cali. Better yet, take a cab. It'll only take about 50 hours of non-stop driving.

 

[Sonic]

Definitely check out San Francisco if you get the chance. Go to Union Square, Pier 39, Fisherman's Warf, Presidio, Nob Hill, Haights Ashbury, Lombard Street, Alcatraz. Telegraph Hill, Yerba Buena. There is so much to do in SF that it could take weeks until everything is finished.

Then you have Marin County with its beautiful nature. Muir Woods is breathtaking.

Go to Napa Valley and do some wine testing. It can be quite fun.

 

[Geo]

Hey, cool.

Definitely do Napa Valley --only an hour or so away. Great wine tastings. I recommend Robert Mondavi winery, Sutter Home, and Beringer. But there are tons more.

For something kind of funky, do the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. Built by the widow of the Winchester gun fortune pre-Great Quake.

Consider Muir Woods if you want to see some big trees. Consider The Avenue of the Giants even further north if you want a whole lot of big trees.

If you have a day to spend, consider renting a car and going to Monterey on Hwy 1 and seeing the aquarium there. First rate, with the HP fortune having made a significant contribution. If you've ever seen many American car commercials, the ones where the cars are hanging over a sheer twisty drop to the pounding sea below? Yeah, that's Hwy 1. :smile:

Pebble Beach is right there as well, and the 17 mile drive (13? I forget) at Carmel/Pebble is very, very nice. And the clubhouse at Pebble is open to the public, so you can stop in and have a drink as well.

Keep going south another two hours and you get to one of my very favorite things in California --Hearst Castle at San Simeon, the "ranch" <kaff!> of William Randolph Hearst. You euros can visit many of your looted treasures there. As they proudly announce, they are the second most visited publicly-owned site in California, right after a certain parking lot at Venice beach. And if you do a double-take near there and say "was that a zebra I just passed?", then the answer is probably yes.

 

[pascal]

Napa Valley, Carmel, San Francisco,... Many things to do. Have fun

 

[Geo]

Of course, any witty put-downs centering on my general attitude towards the current US leadership and how I should not bother to come will of course be heartily accepted, laughed at, and generally enjoyed. But then, please offer some cool advice too on how me and me dad can enjoy this vacation as well. Thanks.

Dude, stick to ranting on the Bushies rather than "great satan", and you'll get along famously in NYC and San Francisco! No problem. You can even go so far as blaming the Bushies for the common perception in the world, etc. A Republican presidential candidate hasn't carried NYC or SF since roughly. . .oh hell, Teddy Roosevelt maybe? Everyone you meet will then tell all their friends, "Yes, I met this nice Swedish boy and he confirmed everything we've been saying about how the Republicans are ruining our reputation in the world!"

 

[Guden Oden]

Geo: the "great satan" bit is obviously tongue-in-cheek (though I don't understand how anyone's supposed to talk that way! ). I wouldn't go to another country and start criticizing their leaders with them, unless they perhaps brought up the subject. I save that for internet discussions/bickering!

Thanks for all the suggestions so far guys, any tips on where to do some electronics/gadgetry shopping? I feel like buying myself a new G-Shock watch, I have to do that every couple years and it will be like 4 years since last time by the time I go stateside.

 

[Brimstone]

Lick observatory offers an amazing view of Silicon Valley. The drive up is pretty extreme though.

Berkley has the famous Sci-Fi/Fantasy book shop Dark Carnival.

 

[SugarCoat]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far guys, any tips on where to do some electronics/gadgetry shopping?

Brookstone http://www.brookstone.com/world.asp
JFK International Airport
16 West 50th btwn 5th and 6th (Rockefeller Center)
18 Fulton Street (South Street Seaport Marketplace),
20 W. 57th Street



The Sharper Image http://www.sharperimage.com/
4 West 57th Street between 5th and 6th Ave
900 Madison Avenue between 72nd and 73rd Streets
89 South Street Seaport @ Pier 17

are a couple places, and if your into goofy james bond type gadget stuff theres

Quark Spy Centre @ 537 3rd Avenue

all 3 in NY obviously

pastry shops and pizza while in NY as well. I'd personally avoid the subways on my stay but thats just me.

 

[TheMightyPuck]

Used to be a pretty good place to score dope at 16th and mission in SF. Hell, I bet you could slam it in the back room of Dalva a couple blocks west on 16th. If you like nature, Point Reyes National Seashore is awesome (hour or two north of SF, nice drive on highway one and you can stop at Muir Woods on the way and see the giant tree prison ) McClure's beach is awesome and remote but a bit of a hike to get to. Also, you can hike to Bass lake from just north of Bolinas (THE BIRDS!!) and hang out with a bunch of naked hippy types. There used to be an awesome rope swing there--gerrrronimoooo. Keep hiking and you are at a waterfall that hits the ocean. Very pretty. South of Palo Alto you've got Santa Cruz and Monterey and Big Sur. There is a cool aquarium in Monterey as well as a language school for the CIA. I think you can get tickets for the former. August is baseball season so try to get some tickets to see the Giants play. Bring your gameboy. NY I don't know too well but every time I go there I walk around a hundred miles. San Francisco is less walky so a car is ideal. Pay extra for the collision damage waiver. People can't fucking drive in that town. Both NY and SF are so awesome that the only way you could fuck up a trip to either is to talk about bombs on the plane ride over. Or look sort of like a terrorist. Have fun.

 

[nelg]

San Fran; Alcatraz; Grand Canyon; Vegas.

 

[DemoCoder]

How easy is it to get from Palo Alto to San Fransisco? I have to endure a couple days while my dad partakes in a sports events for the more or less elderly, but we have a few days before that and also after where we'd like to experience California in general, and perhaps the SF area in particular. We might just rent a car and make it easy for ourselves, but if one was to use public transportation - if there's such a thing in California...

Renting a car is definately in the cards. Palo Alto to SF is about 30-50 minutes depending on traffic. It's an easy drive too, straight down Highway 101, take the University Ave exit. I just drove from San Jose to SF today in fact.

Without a car, you're missing the drive down the beautiful coastal highway US-1, from SF down to Half Moon Bay, Monterey, 17-mile drive, Carmel-By-The-Sea, Big Sur, et al.

You also won't easily be able to get to Point Reyes, Sausilito, Muir Woods, etc.

One hint: don't rent a car until you are ready to leave the city and venture south. There is little parking in SF, and hotels charge outrageous overnight parking fees.

BTW, Northern California has lots of public transportation: BART, Caltrain, MUNI, VTA, and, haha, Street Trolleys. And while this is sufficient to get around the city to work, I don't think it is good for seeing the natural beauty of CA, which definately necessitates driving twisting mountain roads on the coast.

As for Gadget stores, Brookstone and Sharper Image are for JUNK that you can buy at airports or via Skymall. If you're looking for consumer electronics gear, head to Frys Electronics. If you're in the city, check out the Sony Metreon complex.

PM me if you need help.

 

[SugarCoat]

Renting a car is definately in the cards. Palo Alto to SF is about 30-50 minutes depending on traffic. It's an easy drive too, straight down Highway 101, take the University Ave exit. I just drove from San Jose to SF today in fact.

Without a car, you're missing the drive down the beautiful coastal highway US-1, from SF down to Half Moon Bay, Monterey, 17-mile drive, Carmel-By-The-Sea, Big Sur, et al.

You also won't easily be able to get to Point Reyes, Sausilito, Muir Woods, etc.

One hint: don't rent a car until you are ready to leave the city and venture south. There is little parking in SF, and hotels charge outrageous overnight parking fees.

BTW, Northern California has lots of public transportation: BART, Caltrain, MUNI, VTA, and, haha, Street Trolleys. And while this is sufficient to get around the city to work, I don't think it is good for seeing the natural beauty of CA, which definately necessitates driving twisting mountain roads on the coast.

As for Gadget stores, Brookstone and Sharper Image are for JUNK that you can buy at airports or via Skymall. If you're looking for consumer electronics gear, head to Frys Electronics. If you're in the city, check out the Sony Metreon complex.

PM me if you need help.

Frys is like a craptastical amazon.com/walmart or target for anything but computer stuff, sorry but its true. Frankly, i doubt he wants to shop for computer components while overseas, or is that something you see as a fun time? Personally i see nothing wrong with either place (sharper/brookstone). Both have been in business for quite some time selling "junk" as you put it, and while there are some very limited higher quality places across the country that may be more specifically tailored, those are two chains that come to mind as someplace you can hop in and mess around. Frys is shit for odd/unique general consumer gadgetry. I wasnt even aware they sold watches of any type which the OP asked about as well.

 

[Kanyamagufa]

New York, eh? Simply incredible city, and you'll never be bored. There's always something going on.

Times Square is always a must see, simply because it's a technological dream. I suggest walking through it on the way to somewhere else, if possible, because you may just find yourself standing still and looking all around you for hours if you don't have somewhere you need to be.

Depending on what you're up for, maybe going to a show (on Broadway) is in the cards? Spamalot and the Lion King are brilliant, but there are also the musicals.

I'm in Brooklyn meself, which can be both beautiful and sketchy at the same time.

New York is one of those cities where the question is more, "What would you like to do?" because you can do anything there.

 

[DemoCoder]

Well, sure, if you want to buy clothes, don't go to frys, but Brookstone/Sharper are the RonCo of gadgets, their walkin stores are unimpressive and sell lots of cheesy junk. But I guess, some people like vibrating foot massengers, automated tie racks and pill dispensors, robo-dinosaurs, and air ionizers.

Most of their gadgets can be found in the EU too, especially since they proudly proclaim something is "European" if the product started there, like Euro-skin/spa treatment devices.

Frys is essentially CostCo. A warehouse they stocks whatever they want to shelve. When I was in the market for high end camcorders, NONE of the normal stores (Circuit City, BestBuy, etc) carried Pro-sumer models. Everything was these cheapass chinsy 1-CCD miniDV pocket camcorders. But Frys stocked the highend Sony and Canon as demos when they first came out, as well as the HDV.

And what other store in the bay area lets you recharge 100% electric cars at induction nozzles in front, and used to carry (for a short period) Segways?

 

[Geo]

Try to find one of the Fry's that used to be a Tandy's Incredible Universe (or something like that), rather than one of the older stores. They are quite a bit bigger, with most of the difference going to other consumer electronics and expanded DVD selection. At least that's my impression.

I can tell you how to find the one in Sacramento, but that is a bit out of your way.