Hop, Step and Jump in USA in 2019 - Part 1

 Hop, Step and Jump in USA in 2019

Part 1

(Travel Story Series @ Hon Too Fang 2021)

The two of us, joined by old friend CL, went to the USA in May 2019 after our visit to Vancouver and the Canadian Rockies (that is another story). We did a hop, step and jump to cover 3 American cities: namely Seattle in the state of Washington, Las Vegas in Nevada and San Antonio in Texas. 

Seattle
We crossed from Vancouver by bus to Seattle, the capital city of the state. Seattle has a city population of 610,000 and a metro population of 3.7 million. 

Seattle: downtown

The downtown area is represented by the Pioneer Square where the European founders first settled in 1852. The Union Station, 1st photo, is a former train station, now an administrative office. The new station is the King Street Station, 2nd photo, just nearby. The new landmark here is the multi-purpose stadium called Century Link Field, completed in 2002. And their city bus could carry your bike.

(Note in 2021: The stadium is now named as Lumen Field because of a new sponsor called Lumen Technologies)

A few interesting structures in downtown include the 44-storey Rainier Tower with an 11-storey pedestal base tapering towards the ground level, the unusually shaped Seattle Central Library and the Chinatown Gate at the International District.

We also visited the St James Catholic Cathedral of Seattle, completed in 1907. Very dark inside

Seattle: seafront

Seattle is a port and there are many peirs. It is a gateway to the popular Alaska Cruises. Shown scenes near Pier 54. Many seafood restaurants here. The famous status in the 4th photo is called “Ivan Feeding the Gulls”.

The famous place at the seafront is the Pike Place Market, open in 1903 and one of the oldest farmers’ markets in the country. Shops here cater for fishmongers, fresh produce, crafts, antiques, collectables, restaurants, etc, typical of a market with many tourists. The last photo shows the 1st store opened by Starbuck worldwide, in 1971, right at Pike Place. Of course Starbuck is a Seattle company.

The Olympic Sculpture Park is an outdoor sculpture park on the northern end of the seafront created and operated by the Seattle Art Museum in 2009. The red sculpture is the “Eagle” while the man is part of “Father and Son”.

Seattle: the Space Needle

The icon of Seattle is the Space Needle, in service since 1962. Queuing time 40 minutes, the lift takes about a minute to go up to the observatory deck, 158 m high, 360 degree all round view on a sunny day.

Seattle: Ballad Locks Cruise

We joined a 2+ hour cruise marketed by Argosy Cruises. The 2nd photo shows the Edgewater Hotel where previously guests (including the Beatles in 1964) could fish from the windows.

The highlight is experiencing the locking of the cruise ship. The 3rd photo shows it inside the lock (9 m by 46 m, smaller of 2 locks) with water filling up the lock to raise the ship to a level about 3 m higher to continue cruising in the river. It is in fact moving from sea water in the bay to fresh water in the river. The locking operation started in 1917. The last photo shows the spillway with 6 gates.  

Seattle: Museum of Pop Culture

Next the Museum of Pop Culture, a non-profit museum dedicated to contemporary pop culture founded in 2000. Exhibits include those in the art of music, fantasy, horror cinemas, video games to science friction literature, costumes from screens and stages, etc. 

The building itself is most unusual, based on the image of a badly smashed guitar, featuring a fusion of textures and colours. It was described as a sea monster came onto shore, overturned and died. Unfortunately we could not shoot a complete view of the building at ground level. The 1st photo shows a part of it.  The 2nd photo shows the ceiling of the main hall called “Sky Church”. Other photos show the unusual setting and exhibits. 6th to 8th photos - a decorated staircase, an optical illusion set (the surface is flat) and the famous guitar pile with more than 500 musical instruments

Seattle: Chihuly Garden and Glass

The Chihuly Garden and Glass is an exhibition site showcasing the studio glass of Dale Chihuly, opened in 2012. The glasses on display are simply breath-taking. A combination of colour and light never seen before.  Showing a shot in the exterior garden, next at the corridor and the next 3 shots in the interior garden, at the collection called Mille Frori or "A Thousand Flower". The last two from the collections called Macchia Forest and Persian Ceiling respectively.

Seattle: Bellevue Botanical Garden

This is a public park and our cousin Sean who is a resident of Seattle took us there for slightly over an hour. The park has gone high tech: scanning the QR code will reveal info about the flora around that locality – 2nd photo.  The purple flowers are the foxgloves or digitalis, and lastly the poppy is also a flower.

Seattle: Museum of Flight
The last place visited before we fly off is the Museum of Flight, located near the airport. This is a private non-profit air and space museum established in 1965. It is said to have more than 150 aircrafts. The big ones are in the open field and the small ones, mostly fighter planes, are housed within a huge gallery structure. We mistakenly gave ourselves too little time for the visit so we were confined to look at the small ones only.

The 1st photo shows a model of the first plane made by the Wright brothers, the 1903 Flyer, then a poster advertising an inter-city commercial flight in 1925.  Two fighter planes - the Italian-made Caproni Ca 20, the first fighter plane in the World, debuted in 1914 and the only one ever made, and the popular Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, a WW2 war plane.  And planes in the gallery.

Las Vegas

From Seattle we flew to this resort city famous for its gambling and nightlife, greeted by rows of jackpot machines at the airport. Flying time was about 2 and a half hours. The population of Las Vegas is about 640,000.

We stayed a week at the holiday-exchange apartment next to and run by the Flamingo Hotel group, the hotel itself first opened in 1946 and the oldest hotel still in operation. Located right at the centre of The Strip, the main street. 

Las Vegas: church service and shopping

The next day was a Sunday so we attended a mass at the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer. Consecrated in 1993, it is the largest Catholic church in the city, with some 2,000 seats. Attendance for the day: about 80%

Most of the day was spent at the Premium Outlet North Las Vegas. See the smiling ladies. 

Las Vegas is of course famous for its gambling and entertainment. Most of the major hotel and casino groups have their main hotels designed based on a certain theme. We would look at some of the famous ones. 

Las Vegas: Paris Las Vegas
The nearest to where we stay is the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, built in 1999 and with 2,900 rooms. The design theme is of course Paris. It has a half-size replica of the Eiffel Tower as well as replicas of the Paris Opera House, the Arc de Triomphe, etc. Very impressive. The interior is special too. Gaming halls and shopping arcades have a “painted” sky over them. The metal structures in the last photo are legs of the Eiffel Tower.

Las Vegas: Bellagio

Opposite the Paris Las Vegas is the Bellagio, famous for its dancing fountains and the Conservatory. Bellagio is a town in Italy. It was open in 1998 and has 3,950 rooms. The musical fountain has 1,200 nozzles and 4,500 light points. The current decoration at the Conservatory is "Spring in Japan" featuring a replica of the Osaka Castle. It also provides the home stage to the Cirque du Soleil, the World’s largest contemporary circus production house. The permanent ceiling is by Dale Chihuly (remember him: the Chihuly Garden in Seattle?)

We rank this hotel the best decorated internally of all the big hotels we visited.

Las Vegas: Caesars Palace

This huge complex with 3,960 rooms was founded in 1966 and designed based on the Roman Empire theme. It is next to the Bellagio. Celine Dion is currently performing here. Average ticket price about RM 1,400. 

Las Vegas: the Venetian

The Venetian, founded in 1999 with 4,050 rooms, has architectural details reminiscent of Venice, Italy, including replicas of landmarks like St Mark's Square, etc.  And canals and gondolas too. The 3rd photo was shot in sepia.

Diversion from Las Vegas: the Grand Canyon

From Las Vegas we made a day trip by bus to Grand Canyon (south rim) located in the state of Arizona. The road distance is 450 km and it took some 4+ hours each way. First 2 photos: a photo stop at Mead Lake and the Memorial Bridge over the Colorado River at Hoover Dam, the biggest reservoir in the state, constructed in 1936. 

The Grand Canyon with the Colorado River at the valley is well known for its size and its intricate and colourful landscape. It is almost 450 km long, 30 km wide and up to 1.6 km deep. Simply immense and overwhelming in size. 

We had a 3 hour walk along the south rim, about 5 km in distance. The rocks here are sedimentary, with several types of limestone. See the typical stratification in the 6th photo. 

Trees, mostly pines and spruce-firs, are stunted due to the high wind. Quite a few are burnt and skinned by lightning. Last 2 photos show some daredevil but stupid tourists looking for better spots for selfie. On the average about 12 people died while at the park each year, some due to natural causes, and about one-third due to falls from the edges of the cliff because of photo shoots. This is our 2nd visit. We were here before in 1982.

To be continued