Posts under ‘USA’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHAmS7AC0aY

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is an annual stage show fetauring the leggy Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. The 90 minute show combines singing, dancing and humor in a christmas theme. The show is known for it’s spectacular stage settings, like in the video above that cleverly moves a bus around in front of a projection of New York’s city streets. The show is performed at Radio City Music Hall as well as at various locations around the US and Canada and is one of the most-watched live shows in the United States, with over 2 million viewers per year. The show was first performed in 1933 and generally runs from early November through to the end of December.

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Caesars Monuments

Caesars Palace is probably the best know of the huge theme hotel casino complexes in Las Vegas. Opening in 1966 as a 680 room resort the hotel now has over 3300 rooms and has nearly 15500 square metres of gaming area and has resident performers including Bette Midler, Elton John and Cher.The exterior and interior of the huge complex is themed in classical Roman style with huge statues, marble floors, triumphal arches, mosaics the whole works, its so easy for your mind to escape and think you are in Rome thousands of years ago- it is that authentic- except for the bling bling and ching of thousands of gaming machines.

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Paris Casino

It’s Vegas week here at Tripandom and we thought we’d start with one of our favorites the Paris casino situated on the Las Vegas Strip. The casino features a 5/8ths scale replica of the Eiffel Tower (they wanted to build a full size one but the airport was too close), a neon sign in the shape of the Montgolfier balloon, a two-thirds size Arc de Triomphe and a replica of La Fontaine des Mers. The front facade of the building imitates the Paris Opera House and the Louvre. The tower contains a french restaurant between the top of the legs as well as an elevator that takes you to the top of the tower for a fantastic view of the strip. The legs of the tower go down into the casino floor where a bar sits between them. The complex is home to around a dozen restaurants and cafes all with a French or European theme so it’s a great place to go if you want to get away from the American burger or Vegas buffet. Read the rest of this entry »

Navy Pier Chicago

Stretching 1010 metres onto Lake Michigan in Chicago is Navy Pier one of the city’s entertainment precincts. Packed with cafes, restaurants, theatres amusments and the Children’s museum Navy Pier is a popular destination especially on sunny weekends. The pier dates back to 1914 when it was built for freighters but today it is a tourist precinct being home to many of the city’s tourist craft and a huge meeting place. The pier was transformed in the early 1990’s and has undergone some major changes including the addition of a 46 m Ferris wheel and Imax, there are even plans afoot to give the pier a multi million dollar makeover with roller coaster, floating hotel, monorail and an even bigger Ferris wheel built around a huge water park. Read the rest of this entry »

Gondola ride in Vegas

You no longer need to travel to Italy to see the wonders of Venice they are all available in Las Vegas- there’s the Grand Canal complete with gondola ride, the Rialto Bridge, St Marks Square- the statues the artwork and even St Mark’s Campanile and Doge’s palace. The detail is just amazing and inside are just spectacular. As for the casino and hotel it is one of the biggest on the Las Vegas Strip. There are over 4000 suites and a new tower is under construction. The gaming halls have over 100 different games and there are 17 dining experiences, and we mean experiences with some of the world’s best chefs cooking up a storm. If it’s entertainment you want, well the Blue Man Group and Wayne Brady have shows and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s classic musical Phantom of the Opera also shows at the Venetian performed in a theatre to resemble the famous Palis Garnier in Paris. There’s nightclubs, bars, 5 acres of pools and decks and huge spa club and if that’s not enough there is nearly 2 million square feet of convention and exhibition space. An amazing building for an amazing city. Read the rest of this entry »

Replica of Henry Ford Building

Greenfield Village is in Dearborn, Detroit USA and was the brain child of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford. Recognised as a National Historic Landmark and is the largest outdoor museum in the United States. The area covers some 240 acres and is home to nearly 100 historic buildings, many of them once owned by famous Americans and moved brick by brick to the museum. Amongst the highlights are Thomas Edison’s Laboratory, The Wright Brothers bicycle shop, Henry Ford’s birthplace and the Logan County Courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law. The land has been turned into magnificent farmlands and park to reflect the USA of yesterday and many volunteers wear period costume and perform tasks of the day. Horse drawn carriages, vintage cars, trains and other machinery ride the streets beautiful tree lined streets. The most amazing part of this museum is there is no commercialism or advertising-even the gift shop is outside the gates. The park is part of the amazing Henry Ford Museum- we will do a feature on the Museum in coming weeks.

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Staten Island Ferry New York

You don’t get much for nothing in this world without a catch- well here’s one and the the catch is one of the best views in the world. The ferry carries some 20 million people a year between Staten Island and lower Manhattan, which is about 60,000 a day. The ride takes about 25 minutes and you get a very good look at the majestic Statue of Liberty and the amazing skyscrapers of New York City and New Jersey. Weekdays there are over 100 trips a day with a few less on weekends, avoid the peak hours for the journey. Bus and Train are easily available from both ferry terminals to explore more of either Manhattan or Staten Island. Read the rest of this entry »

A Big Boy Restaurant

Our big donut story the other day reminded us of another restaurant we recently visited that was also parodied in the Simpson’s. Big Boy is a chain of restaurants across part of the USA who’s signature burger is a bit similar to a Big Mac. The similarities with Mc Donalds end there with big boy having table service a salad bar and even a gift shop where you can by your own small version of big boy himself. In the Simpson’s Halloween special VI Homer steals a giant donut from a character who looks just like Big Boy but is named Lard Lad, the story of the episode is titled “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores” as giant advertising mascots wreak havoc on Springfield after Homer upsets Lard Lad. Read the rest of this entry »

The Big Donut

Randy’s Donut is a large donut atop a donut bakery located not far from LAX at 805 West Manchester Avenue in Inglewood California. The building and its huge donut must be one of the most photographed and filmed fast food restaurants in the US and has featured in dozens of movies and music videos and was even parodied in the Simpson’s episode “Marge vs the Monorail”. The building was built in 1952 as part of the big donut drive in chain but was later sold off to the family of the current owners. Being originally part of the big donut chain there are a few other similar big donuts around LA operating under different names but Randys has become the most popular with filmmakers. By the way, we tried a few of Randys donuts when we took this photo last week, and we must say they are very, very tasty indeed. Read the rest of this entry »

Papaya King Drink and Frankfurter

The Papaya King is a landmark New York restaurant that dates back to 1932. Originally located on the corner of Third Avenue and 86th Street the restaurant has since expanded to several locations across the city. The restaurant is best known for its Hawaiian themed Papaya Drinks and hot dogs that according to the numourous signs around the walls are tastier than Fillet Mignon. They must be doing something right as the restaurant has also spawned other similar papaya drink restaurants across the city and has been featured on Anthony Bourdain’s TV show “No Reservations” as well as being mentioned in “Seinfeld”, “How I Met Your Mother” and was also used as a location in the film “You cant mess with the Zohan”. If you are heading to New York and want to sample some Papaya King goodness make sure you head to the origional Payaya King location on 86th Street as this one has a cool 50’s charm about it compared to the other locations. Read the rest of this entry »