Jump to content
Forums are back in action! ×

Americans: I need your advice and recommendations


SAficionado

Recommended Posts

Most of the attractions in the San Antonio area are touristy - the Alamo and the Riverwalk are the top two sites; there's some vineyards and wineries in the area between Fredericksburg and Austin; there's also Gruene Hall (in Gruene/New Braunfels) and Luckenbach (outside of Fredericksburg). Again, they're a bit touristy, but are a large part of the Texas music scene.

Race: Human / Level: 1 / Current Class: Adventurer / Goal Class: Ranger


STR: 2.5 / DEX: 2 / STA: 3.5 / CON: 3.5 / WIS: 4 / CHA: 4.5


My Background / Facebook / GoodReads / Flickr / Fitbit


~ Take Care, Live Life, and Pray Hard ~


 


"Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing, that nobody in the universe can do what we're doing."


- Patrick Troughton (Doctor #2)

Link to comment
I would be very keen to check out Death Valley, will have to see how we are for time. The plan is to head from Vegas up to Lake Tahoe which is a pretty big haul.

If you're headed from Vegas to Tahoe and then over to Napa -

You can easily slip into Death Valley through Barstow. I'm not sure what month you'll be doing that drive but November+ you're likely to find some closed roads in Tahoe headed through Sacramento and into Napa Valley...or bring chains. There may even be snow closures as late as April/May. We had skiiing in June once.

Death Valley is magnificent. I haven't been to Scotty's Castle but the scenery and the tarantulas crossing the street - spectacular. If you come during summer months, bring a case of bottled water.

Napa Valley - if you want touristy, go there. But do your wine tasting in the a.m. because it is super crowded. And get a map of the silverado trail (it's a paved road) for getting around the traffic. ONLY do wineries on your right. It's too hard to turn left with all of the traffic.

If you like scenery go to - Rombauer (silverado trail). Very laid back and areas to walk with your wine. Go before 1 p.m. V. Sattui - has a great picnic spot but is very busy. Cakebread - delicious wines but you need to make an appointment for the best service. Del Dotto - fountains, italian tiling. beautiful photo opps. you can take pictures if you're a paying customer. Cave Tours. Make an appointment. For food, definitely eat at Tre Vigne.

If you don't want touristy and you want a California winery secret - go to Sonoma instead. Mountain roads, hidden wineries, small family owned wineries. Just awesome. If you like bordeaux blends - go to Mazzoco. If you like Zinfandels - go to Bataglini's (tiny little winery, hidden in a neighborhood). If you like syrah or merlot - go to Yoakam Bridge. Ferrari has a winery there too.

In SF - if you want to travel north and cross the Golden Gate, there's Muir Woods where shots from Return of the Jedi were filmed and cute little coastal towns covered in fog. Pt. Reyes Lighthouse is a workout climbing up the 300+ steps coming back from the light.

Wow, I've just been looking at the Big Sur. Looks amazing! It's somewhere I hadn't heard about or considered. Just the kind of place I'd hoped this thread would turn up, Thanks!

If anyone has any recommendations for eateries or things that must be tried. "You gotta get a roast pork sandwich from DiNic's in Philly" etc, I'm all ears.

In Half Moon Bay (south of SF) there is a cute little English Pub restaurant called Cameron's Inn. South of that is many spots to park right next to the beach and walk into the ocean. There's also Pigeon Point Lighthouse (and you can spend the night in the officer's quarters) and the Elephant Seals to watch (3 mile trek on flat land), both south of Half Moon Bay.

My motivational, yet sarcastically awesome, sig.

 

Link to comment
Wow, I've just been looking at the Big Sur. Looks amazing! It's somewhere I hadn't heard about or considered. Just the kind of place I'd hoped this thread would turn up, Thanks!

If anyone has any recommendations for eateries or things that must be tried. "You gotta get a roast pork sandwich from DiNic's in Philly" etc, I'm all ears.

Cline covered a lot of it. For food, if you're going somewhere, you pretty much posted my recommendation. Since you won't be alone, I'd recommend one person getting the roast pork sandwich and another getting a cheese steak and you each have half. Can't go through Philly without getting a cheese steak and everything DiNic’s has is awesome. It's also located in reading terminal market which is a cool place to see and it also has a lot of different foods from around the region. If you go to a diner for rbeakfast, order scrapple, it's a local breakfast meat side dish that is awesome. I recommend it with maple syrup.

Massrandir, Barkûn, Swolórin, The Whey Pilgrim
500 / 330 / 625
Challenges: 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 31 32 34 35 36 39 41 42 45 46 47 48 49 Current Challenge
"No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. " ~ Socrates
"Friends don't let friends squat high." ~ Chad Wesley Smith
"It's a dangerous business, Brodo, squatting to the floor. You step into the rack, and if you don't keep your form, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." ~ Gainsdalf

Link to comment
If you don't want touristy and you want a California winery secret - go to Sonoma instead. Mountain roads, hidden wineries, small family owned wineries. Just awesome. If you like bordeaux blends - go to Mazzoco. If you like Zinfandels - go to Bataglini's (tiny little winery, hidden in a neighborhood). If you like syrah or merlot - go to Yoakam Bridge. Ferrari has a winery there too.

My wife and I did the wine touring thing a little bit ago, and I agree - Sonoma was amazing, especially the people. Everyone was so nice, to the point that I thought it was creepy at first, because nobody is ever that nice to me without trying to sell me something, but everyone was just genuinely nice there. Not that everyone in Napa was a bunch of assholes or anything, but it wasn't the same.

Link to comment

Hi Everyone, Apologies for letting this thread die, the suggestions made have been really helpful. We are currently in Boone NC for the night as we make our way down the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had amazing weather for the Skyline Drive but got totally clouded in today. Heading off to the Gamekeeper as recommended tonight for some wild eats. If anyone is interested, we have been keeping a bit of a blog. It's mostly for our own purposes to reflect on later but anyone is welcome to check out what we've been up to. www.4kiwis.blogspot.com Time is really flying by and we aren't able to see or do absolutely everything we wanted to but we are having an amazing time.

Link to comment

found your blog and will be following along. Looks like a great vacation start (you escaped from New York).

Warriors don't count reps and sets. They count tons.

My psychologist weighs 45 pounds, has an iron soul and sits on the end of a bar

Tally Sheet for 2019

Encouragement for older members: Chronologically Blessed Group;

Encouragement for newbie lifters: When we were weaker

 

Link to comment

Hey! Thanks for the link to your blog. Will definitely be following your adventures!

"Enthusiasm is the great hill-climber." - Elbert Hubbard
Human Adventurer

I want to be fit and healthy so I can explore and enjoy all the beauty the outdoor world has to offer, in all kinds of weather, all the days of my life.

2024 Battle Log2023 Battle Log2022 Battle Log2021 Battle Log2020 Battle Log2019 Battle Log2018 Battle Log2017 Battle Log2016 Battle Log

 

Link to comment

I'm commenting all over your blog, really enojying it.

Massrandir, Barkûn, Swolórin, The Whey Pilgrim
500 / 330 / 625
Challenges: 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 31 32 34 35 36 39 41 42 45 46 47 48 49 Current Challenge
"No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. " ~ Socrates
"Friends don't let friends squat high." ~ Chad Wesley Smith
"It's a dangerous business, Brodo, squatting to the floor. You step into the rack, and if you don't keep your form, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." ~ Gainsdalf

Link to comment

Haha I see some comments springing up all over the place. Just left the Beautiful Carolinas and have arrived in Savannah (apologies to the people who recommended Charleston, we just couldn't fit everything in!) The people, the food, the scenery have all been soooo nice thus far. We are having an amazing time :)

Link to comment

About 50 miles (80km) south of Flagstaff, Arizona is Sedona. I would recommend going by there and checking out some of the places, one of the neat places there is Montezuma's Castle (Native American cliff dwellings). There is a lot of history in that area for different things, like the end of the world in 1987 with the Harmonic Convergence (I was six and lived there at the time, I thought they where all crazy, wich they were, but my dad made a lot of money selling T-shirts for it :)

Sad you are missing Colorado, Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone and Grand Teton National park, I lived there for 17 years. The population of all three states is less than some of the cities you are going through. Beautiful country, nice people, and good eats.

Briguy, level 2 STR 1|DEX 2|STA 1|CON 3|WIS 3|CHA 2[/TD][/TR][/TABLE] "Learn the principle, abide by the principle, and dissolve the principle. In short, enter a mold without being caged in it. Obey the principle without being bound by it. LEARN, MASTER AND ACHIEVE!!!" Bruce Lee "To Live by a principal is to live, do die with no principal you have not lived."

Battle Log   My Fitness Pal

Link to comment

Since you are traveling in the fall. Friday night is high school football night. Entertaining, cheap, no liquor (probably).

Saturday PM is college football. If you are in a town with a college follow the crowd to the tailgate party and invite yourself. The accents should be all you need. You may not get to the game, but you will get food and liquor.

Sunday PM is professional football. The teams in the area you are in right now are Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, and Miami. May cost more, but the same accent technique should work.

Oh, and NASCAR is fun too. Just follow the pickup trucks with numbers on them.

wildross - warriors count tons, not reps

Warriors don't count reps and sets. They count tons.

My psychologist weighs 45 pounds, has an iron soul and sits on the end of a bar

Tally Sheet for 2019

Encouragement for older members: Chronologically Blessed Group;

Encouragement for newbie lifters: When we were weaker

 

Link to comment

Oh, and don't be afraid of the Rebel battleflag and never admit that Australians/Kiwis are not allowed to carry pocket knives. Most of the men and probably a lot of the women in the south are caring a 3 to 4" pocket knife.

wildross - warriors count tons, not reps

Warriors don't count reps and sets. They count tons.

My psychologist weighs 45 pounds, has an iron soul and sits on the end of a bar

Tally Sheet for 2019

Encouragement for older members: Chronologically Blessed Group;

Encouragement for newbie lifters: When we were weaker

 

Link to comment
Since you are traveling in the fall. Friday night is high school football night. Entertaining, cheap, no liquor (probably).

Saturday PM is college football. If you are in a town with a college follow the crowd to the tailgate party and invite yourself. The accents should be all you need. You may not get to the game, but you will get food and liquor.

Sunday PM is professional football. The teams in the area you are in right now are Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, and Miami. May cost more, but the same accent technique should work.

Oh, and NASCAR is fun too. Just follow the pickup trucks with numbers on them.

wildross - warriors count tons, not reps

This is really a great idea. We met a few Kiwis in the bar a few months ago and we bought them dirnks all night as they informed us about all kinds of odd things in your country, such as Levi's being like $150 a pair and out $19.99 Vodka being like $80 a bottle.

Massrandir, Barkûn, Swolórin, The Whey Pilgrim
500 / 330 / 625
Challenges: 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 31 32 34 35 36 39 41 42 45 46 47 48 49 Current Challenge
"No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. " ~ Socrates
"Friends don't let friends squat high." ~ Chad Wesley Smith
"It's a dangerous business, Brodo, squatting to the floor. You step into the rack, and if you don't keep your form, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." ~ Gainsdalf

Link to comment

Thanks for the tips guys. Will definitely try and at least get to a College football game along the way!

Yeah we get stung pretty bad in terms of prices back home. Small population, not much competition and long distances to ship imported goods contribute to the cost, apparently. Historically our exchange rate has made travelling over here expensive but now that we are getting up toward parity, especially the Australian dollar, the US is a really reasonable destination.

Hope everyone in the path of Sandy will be all right :S We have thankfully skirted underneath the weather.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

New here? Please check out our Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines