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The rarely updated blog of Joel Dixon

Viewing blogs in section Travel

Monday, September 24, 2007

Cable TV + PVR = Crazy Delicious

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 24/09/2007 11:27:20

Apologies to the hilarious SNL skit Lazy Sunday for the blog title

Note: Some links in this post are NSFW (due to words of naughtiness)

While in Edmonton I decided to get the premium digital television package from my communications provider - as I knew I'd have a fair amount of spare time on my hands. I also took the option of buying a PVR device, to prepare myself for the hockey season. I made a good decision, if I do say so myself.

The first thing I did was check out the extensive Electronic Programming Guide. With the hundreds of channels and a week-long programming guide - I filled up my PVR's 80 Gb hard drive very quickly. As the hockey season hasn't started yet, I stuck mainly with movies. There's at least 6 channels that are dedicated to movies, as well mainstream channels running weekly movies.

I've been able to see movies I've been meaning to catch for a while now (such as Monty Python's Meaning of Life, Scarface and Half Baked), some old favourites (Fletch 1 and 2, Die Hard and The Firm) as well as some movies I'd never heard of.

One such movie that I hadn't previously heard of was Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story. It caught my attention immediately, as the opening scene involves He-Man figurines involved in a staged paintball scene. I highly recommend this movie - it's a bit of a mix between Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and The Office. Here's the trailer for the DVD:

But the thing I like the most about my cable and PVR mix is coming home, cooking dinner and sitting down to watchable, pause-able, fast-forward-able and rewind-able television (without the expense of DVDs).

I'm surprised Australia hasn't been bigger in the PVR space. The closest is Foxtel iQ, which is pretty good but doesn't cover all of the free-to-air channels. You can also buy a regular PVR to attach to your regular TV - but the programming guide only goes two days in the future.

I have heard that Tivo is coming to Australia soon - which is about time - but there still isn't an all-channel programming guide available. Since coming to Canada, I'm really aware that Australia is getting shafted in both the Internet and television industries. Perhaps I will have to keep purchasing those DVDs.

# Posted in the Travel section and tagged as: Edmonton, Movies

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Edmonton Walkabout

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 12/09/2007 09:10:46
Updated by Joel Dixon at 09/09/2008 14:32:43

This past Saturday I needed to go to the local Save on Foods grocery store, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to provide a short guided tour of downtown Edmonton.

Around the town in Edmonton

Now, a disclaimer: I won't be showcasing the nicest parts of the city, but it's fairly representative of Edmonton. Firstly, my personal hill:

I've gotta climb this hill at least once a day, maybe twice. I'm getting used to it now - but it was hell the first few times. I surely didn't notice the hill when I was researching the place!

An example of the very common Edmonton construction

Canada has US style crossing signs. I don't know, call me colourist, but I prefer the green guy.

There are heaps of these single-story, unfenced public car parks throughout the city.

Street newspaper stands

A certain Australian comedy group made big news over here as well - probably wouldn't have heard of it if they didn't pretend to be Canadian

There's more phone booths over here, as far as I can tell

No ordinary plumber? You're damn right!

My local foodary

The local electronics store, Future Shop. They've got lots of cool stuff - but their customer service leaves a lot to be desired

I've also added geotags to all of my photos - so if you go to my flickr page you can see a map of where each photo was taken, for example:

# Posted in the Travel section and tagged as: Edmonton

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 30/08/2007 13:02:45
Updated by Joel Dixon at 29/01/2008 16:49:33

Well I've been here for a while now, and starting to regret my decision a little less. My workmates are nice and as more essentials items are bought for my apartment I'm getting a little more comfortable. I thought I'd take the time to discuss the transportation options available to me in Edmonton.

I chose the location of my apartment because it is very close to most of the clients of my new company. Unfortunately, I happen to be working for a client for whom the work is done out of the main office - a 30 minute drive from my place (and me without a car). Thankfully, I live very close to a work colleague that has been giving me a lift to and from work each day. Also fortunately, it has given me an insight into what the commuters of Edmonton deal with each day.

First thing I noticed, was that my work friend's windshield had a very large spiderweb-shaped crack all through it. I had figured it was recently in an accident and just not repaired yet, until I noticed that about 1 in 20 of the cars on the road have similar cracks in their windshields.

I found out that the roads in Edmonton can only be repaired during a few months of each year (when they aren't covered in snow), and as Edmonton is in the middle of a boom right now there is a lot of roadwork required. It basically equates to poorly maintained roads, which means more stones are shot into your windshields. What begins as small stars evolve into large cracks by the constant bumping around through dodgy potholes and other such annoyances. I was also surprised at the number of people breaking the road rules by speaking on their telephones while driving - until I found out it's still legal here. I think I might get myself a "learn to drive" booklet before I attempt to cruise the streets.

Another phenomenon around here is the number of "pickup trucks" on the roads. A pickup is basically a four-door ute, but the whole thing is huge. I guess a four-wheel drive vehicle would be useful in the Winter months, but it looks odd seeing so many of them driving around in the nice weather. Edmonton also allows a driver to start learning at 14 years of age, and have a full licence at 16. There's no "P-plates" here for probationary drivers, but you do see an occasional home-made sign indicating a "new driver" resting against the back window. Reassuring.

One of the many pickups on Edmonton's roads. To be honest - I wouldn't mind driving a bad-boy like this

Edmonton doesn't have an extensive train system, which makes getting around much harder. There does seem to be a lot of different bus routes, but almost anywhere I want to go will require a change at three different bus stops. Edmonton also do not have trams, but they do have "trolley buses". They're basically a normal bus (wheels and all) driving on the left lane of regular roads, attached to an electric cable running over head for power. They run smoothly and don't emit greenhouse gases - but man they look funny!

An artists rendition of a trolley bus

There's also a number of taxi's driving around the city - a lot less than in Melbourne. It's difficult to catch a cab without actually phone ordering it. There's three main taxi companies (and many smaller ones) - but legislation states that they all need to charge the same fares. So even though the dodgy "barrel" brand of taxis are not maintained as well as the nicer "Checker" cabs - they both charge the same fare. You can guess which cab company I'm going to call.

After living in Edmonton for a short time, I'm thinking more and more about leasing / renting a car while I'm here. It's just too hard to get around the city without one, and my place of work offers free parking. Until I finally make that decision, I'm walking a shit-load more than I'm used to!

# Posted in the Travel section and tagged as: Edmonton

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Day 1 in Edmonton

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 09/08/2007 10:03:51
Updated by Joel Dixon at 23/09/2007 10:00:36

Don't worry - I won't be doing an Edmonton travel log for the whole year I'm here

I woke up on Tuesday morning surprisingly chipper, and eager to start the day. My boss took me to Denny's for breakfast, and filled me in on the company I was going to be working for and he caught up on all the Melbourne happenings. I ordered a small orange juice and one of the cheapest breakfasts on the menu - and started to get an understanding of the "larger portions" prevalent in North America.

The orange juice would definitely be classified as "large" in any Melbourne eatery, and the breakfast certainly filled me up. Two standouts were the real hash browns (just grated potato fried up - not the McDonald's perfectly rectangle reconstituted goop) and some grape jelly on my toast. I got a taste for grape and cherry jelly during my previous visit to New York - and I'm glad it's back! After a very satisfying breakfast, it was off to work.

Work was work, nice people and they actually had my computer setup for my start date (although no user account). I was asking my immediate manager whether I would need to let him know when I started working more than 40 hours a week (as I'm currently a contractor) and he just looked at me funny. Apparently everyone here works their 40 hours, then goes home. They actually lockup the building at 5:30, overtime is rarely required - it was a welcomed change! Working hours are 8 am to 5 pm with a lunch break, and pretty much noone turns up after 8:30. Guess I need to buy an alarm clock.

I stopped into Wendy's for lunch, which again reminded me of old times. After work I went back to my apartment to view it for the first time. Thankfully it isn't that bad.

My Edmonton Apartment

The building also has a pool table room, gym, spa and sauna as well as a big screen TV room. But walking in to a completely empty apartment did shock me a little bit. Thankfully, someone at work was able to lend me a single bed allowing me somewhere to sleep - al biet without a pillow. Although I was missing Belinda terribly, putting my bags away in my room did feel a little nice. As soon as internet, cable tv and a phone line are installed - I will be feeling a lot nicer!

# Posted in the Travel section and tagged as: Edmonton

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Flying to Edmonton

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 08/08/2007 08:23:28

The last time I flew across the Pacific it was all new and exciting, and while it was difficult I was excited to get over to the US. This time, I knew what to expect, I was doing it on my own, and I was leaving my wife in Australia. It was tough!

Belinda took me to the airport so she could wish me farewell. At the risk of damage to my incredibly masculine image, it was sad with a few tears shed. When I went through the security checkpoint and waited alone at the departure gate, I shed a lot more tears. It had finally hit me, I wouldn't be able to see my wife for at least 100 days (I plan on coming back for a visit in November), and I started blubbering. When my plane was called, I managed to clean myself up and stem the flow of tears until I sat down in my seat, and had a little cry at the fact that this was the first International flight that I won't share with Bell.

The plane took off without incident and I started watching one of the movies on offer. Whenever something sad happened in the film, or a point where two characters displayed love for each other I could feel the tears well up. Even the silhouette of the girl on the plane's toilet lights made me all sad.

Now, I know I'm a bit of a girly man. Ever since I was a young lad I was very quick to tears. I've gotten better as time's gone on - but must admit that I did have a tear in my eye at the end of Adam Sandler's movie Click. Even though I know I'm a very emotional person, I had no idea I would turn to tears so easily when I got on that plane. I think it might have been because I was trying to ignore my emotions during the preparations for the trip, and they just kept building up inside. I also realised that I rely on Belinda's friendship more than I had thought. As I've been with here for the past 10 years, she's become a big part of my life. At this point of the flight, I was questioning my decision about working in Canada, and wondering how upset my new boss would be if I got on the first plane back to Melbourne.

Knowing I needed something to keep my mind cheery, I put on my iPod earphones and started listening to podcasts. I've been podcasting a few of my favourite radio shows for a while now which is going to help when I'm living in Edmonton. Thankfully, Tony Martin's Get This helped me keep my mind off the sad things and got me through the rest of the flight.

Towards the end of the flight I started talking to the girl sitting next to me, she was going home to Ottawa (Canada) after an extended stay in Melbourne. Laura was fun to talk to - and I started learning about the differences between Australia and Canada that I hadn't thought through. The 14 hours had gone by fairly quickly, and we finally landed in Los Angeles.

It felt good to be on my feet again, and we made the trek through American customs. As soon as I joined the long line I noticed a guy about 10 people a head of me that looked very familiar. Sure enough the girl that was two seats away from me during the flight asked "Is he from Australian Idol"? Yes, it was Dean Guyer. Almost straight after that, some middle-aged Aussie dude went up and asked for an autograph. I didn't feel like annoying the guy, so took a sneaky snap with my mobile camera.

Looks a bit like that old Bigfoot film, but believe me, it's him

After a phone call to Belinda (more tears) I hung around Los Angeles airport with Laura for a few hours, waiting for our flights (she was transferring through Chicago, I was heading to Denver). I eventually got onto that plane and soon enough we were in the air again. The Denver flight was much more manageable (only 2 or 3 hours) and I got through a few more podcasts (and no more tears thankfully). With the seat-belt sign on we started our landing - but I was a little worried. Looking out the window all I could see was farmland, and we were pretty close to the ground! Just before landing I finally saw the corner of a runway, but it was still a very rough landing.

I had around three hours to wait in Denver, which was very boring. I did notice that when I bought some food at a Mexican place the change was dispensed to me automatically by a change machine - very cool! I also went to a few gift stores in search of Colorado Avalanche gear for my wife - but for some reason they weren't selling any (probably making way for some upcoming Penguins gear).

The final flight from Denver to Edmonton went by in a breeze, as I spent most of it asleep. I was trying to stay awake so I didn't disrupt my sleeping patterns, but it was no use! When I got off the plane I mentally prepared myself for the immigration interview that was coming.

At each stop in America, whenever I went through immigration or tried to get my flight's boarding pass I had at least 10 minutes waiting while the clerk checked all of my work permit details. Because of all of this attention, I had figured it was going to be hell getting through the Canadian immigration. Sure enough, I only spent about 5 minutes waiting for the very efficient Canadian immigration people to complete my documentation. I probably would have been more impressed if I wasn't asleep on my feet!

My old boss picked me up from the baggage claim, and I went back to his place to crash in the spare room. After 30 hours in the air or in an airport, sleep came very easily!

# Posted in the Travel section and tagged as: Edmonton

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Travel Log - Day 19 (Fare thee well America)

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 18/04/2007 23:33:00

Well, our honeymoon was finishing up, and Belinda and I were both looking forward to getting home. A quick recap shows we got a fair bit done in our 19 days:

33,000 Kilometers of air travel
More than 18 hours of train travel
Spent at least 5 hours sitting in a taxi cab
Took 891 photos (probably 691 of them of animals)
Far, far too much money spent on memorabilia (then again, it was not really enough)
15 short hours watching ice hockey games
3 different kinds of cheese
Visited 1 very special pond

The morning of day 19 was spent in a taxi driving towards the Pittsburgh airport. We squeezed each other's hands and left a winter wonderland (*sniff*).

A friend of mine had warned me that a fair amount of time was required when transferring planes at Los Angeles Airport, so I think we allowed around 3 hours between flights. It wasn't enough. We arrived in LAX after a 5 hour trip from the East Coast, so we were a little tired and grumpy to begin with. We discovered the gate we needed to get to (and the bus we needed to catch to get there) and made our way immediately. When we eventually got through the first check-in gate as saw "the line".

There was hundreds of people in "the line", and our flight had just started being announced. Both very worried that we'd be stuck in LA for the rest of our marriage, we were lucky enough to find a very helpful airport staff that allowed us to cut "the line". A very small drama that probably happens all the time, but we were amazingly relieved when we were boarding on our plane in time!

When we eventually sat down in our Qantas plane, we immediately heard Crocodile Dundee. I guess we must have adjusted to the American's accents, as half the passengers sounded like they were putting on a killer Shannon Noll impressions. When the captain came over the PA system and went through a few of the formalities I finally started to experience how others countries' populous hear our accent. It was really funny, and took a while for Bell and I to get used to. Thankfully, we had a while on hand (during our 14 hour flight).

Even though we came back to Australia tired, hungry for real food and heavily in debt (and the situation hasn't really changed - although I'm not too hungry at the moment), we both agreed that it was definitely worth it.

We're currently planning another possible US trip, around the time of the next NHL playoffs. Until then - I have no Travel Blogs to complete (w00t).

I thought I provide an ending montage of the famous people we met on our honeymoon.

The happy couple

One of the first celebrities I had met, Blue was really nice in person too

More of a celebrity spotting with Super Grover, as he flew straight past us

He actually said to me: "Yes you deserve to die! And I hope you burn in hell!". Pretty harsh since I was just offering him a drink

A man that's really dragging the most out of a good situation, for as long as he can.

Surprisingly the foot odor wasn't that terrible

Down in front!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Travel Log - Day 18 (The only game that really matters)

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 10/04/2007 22:09:00
Updated by Joel Dixon at 14/01/2008 12:52:14

It starts

Firstly, let me take you back. The year was 1994. I was about to start high school, and was probably thinking about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or playing Altered Beast on our Sega Mega Drive. My older brother brought home a few games for the aforementioned Mega Drive with a pooled resource of our Christmas / birthday money. One of them, I do not remember and obviously didn't have a huge impact on my life. The second was Sonic the Hedgehog II, a game that I was very excited about. I had played it a fair bit of Sonic at the local video game store, and it did take up a fair amount of my time during that year. The third game was seen as a little odd to me, as Gavin was more of a basketball fan back then, and I didn't think much of it at the time. That third game was NHL 94.

Notice how small the Electronic Arts branding is

I thought so

Oops, sorry about that

Lemieux to Jagr and he scores to tie it at one

He beat him like a rented mule, Mario Lemieux with the hat-trick.

Gretzky with three pitiful goals gets the third star

With all said and done, I think that that video game has probably had the most effect on my life, more than any other video game. Before NHL 94 I had never heard much about the sport of ice hockey, and only ice skated once when I was around 8 years old. Once I got sick of Sonic and Mr. Prowler I moved on to the NHL game. Initially I played as a few of the teams, and one of my first "favourites" were the Winnipeg Jets (I will buy their jersey one day) mostly due to Teemu Selanne, a gifted scorer. I never really settled on a team until I re-met an old primary school friend who's dad was a huge Penguins fan. The transition was simple for me, as Pittsburgh was also a team I would often play as, with both Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr lighting it up, almost at will.

From then on, my love for the Pittsburgh Penguins only increased. When my parents installed pay TV I was finally able to watch some of the games in full, and allowed my friends and I to watch Mario Lemieux's first comeback against the Toronto Maple Leafs at 3 am one December morning (it also introduced me to Mat Hoffman and the X Games, which kindled my love of rollerblading). Becoming a savvy interweb user helped a lot, as I was able to track my favourite team instantly and gain a lot of Penguin information quicker than I had previously encountered.

So that's why I like the Pittsburgh Penguins. Belinda, my lovely wife, on the other hand - chose her favourite NHL team (the Colorado Avalanche) because she likes the colour blue, and the Avs (with some blue on their jerseys) had recently won a Stanley Cup.

I provide this background information, so that you can understand why I deeply wished that the mighty Pens would crush my new wife's favourite team in their showdown match. This was the schedule for Day 18.

We might have done something during Day 18 that was non-hockey related. Perhaps we had a nice meal or saw some more of the town of Pittsburgh. I'm not 100% sure however, as I just thought about my last chance to see the Penguins win a regular season game. As always - dot point goodness:

I noticed during my research into this fateful game that the Colorado Avalanche had played a game the night before this one. I looked a little deeper and saw that the Avs had only played back-to-back three times prior in this season. The other three times resulted in a loss in the second game. Hesitant confidence was gained!
With Marc-Andre Fleury in net with his golden pads of goodness, I was feeling a little more confident about this match. That little nipper is just awesome to watch in goals.
I noticed that once the game started, the Penguins were playing with energy that I had yet to see. They were running around and banging bodies - it was looking like the momentum was all theirs. Maxime Talbot (one of my favourites) was one of the main proponent of the physical play, and it was fun to watch
Even more fun was watching the Penguins score the first goal of the game - the crowd was electric. I let myself get excited and started thinking about a win.
It only took 6 minutes for me to crash down into depression as the Avalanche tied the score at 1. To the Penguins credit, they kept the pressure up and went ahead again with only a minute to go in the 1st period.
After the Pens traded a goal a piece in the 2nd frame, I was still a little edgy being only 1 goal ahead to start the third period. My main man (after Crosby, Lemieux, Fleury etc) Max Talbot made me jump from my chair midway through the 3rd period with a well deserved insurance goal to put the Penguins up 4-2. It was great seeing Talbot's tough physical play rewarded with a goal in an important game.
Colorado scored another goal to make it 4-3, but the Penguins held on and I saw my first ever Pittsburgh victory. It was sweet!

The dance begins!

Belinda got to see a few Colorado goals ...

... but I got to see an extra Pittsburgh goal

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Travel Log - Day 17 (A kid in a candy-filled toy store)

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 21/03/2007 20:46:00
Updated by Joel Dixon at 15/11/2007 22:39:20

At the start of the 17th day overseas, I was starting to feel a little over travelling. The air travel, poor meals (involving a whole lot of cheese), lack of sleep and general running around was starting to catch up with Bell and I. I was also starting to get a little bit homesick, though this feeling was lessened by the impending show-down between the Mighty Penguins and the lowly Avalanches.

Due to a previous planning issue Day 17 was also a schedule packed with "bumming around". We went into town, and stumbled upon a toy store. It seemed like a proper, old fashioned, not-too-commercial toy store, and was a welcome change from some of the other, more commercialised sights.

The toy store was 3 levels of fun which was quite a feat, as unlike space crazy New York, the toy store had three decent sized levels. The items that interested Bell and I the most was the Christmas decorations.

Being that we were coming close to Christmas at this time, it was understandable that some holiday decorations would be on display. But these weren't just decorations, these were to-scale model representations of various Christmas themes. There were heaps of different varieties, many different ways to enjoy the holiday period with collectibles (here's some examples). The most we would ever see in Australia is a modest nativity scene model, but I must admit we snapped up some pretty cool items.

My parents have something that look just like this, I used to love pulling off the moss

The M&M Christmas themed decorations we bought in Pittsburgh

Where the magic happens (I'll resist my regular pants joke)

This one is just awesome, and note the winter M&M tree in the background

Such great detail - Yellow obviously needs to be persuaded by Red

As Day 17 was another light-on day for content, I'll post some other pictures of M&M toys Bell and I bought.

Red's quite the ladies man...

... but seems equally enthused when his partner is a scared, peanut-filled yellow male. Fair enough I guess

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Travel Log - Day 16 (Worst NHL Game Ever)

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 17/03/2007 19:32:00

I had originally made a huge plan for our honeymoon, the planes we would catch, hotels we would stay at, hockey games we would watch, tours we would take and the various tourist locations we would gander upon. I created it in HTML and hosted it on my website so I could make changes from work in the weeks leading up to the trip. After I added all of the staples (planes, games and tours etc that we had booked), I would add a few ideas of what we could do on our days without plans. The trips to the Bronx Zoo and the Disney Store were planned in my handy Honeymoon Itinerary before actually booking tickets. For each day we had free I would research the various things available and note down a few options. Unfortunately work got really busy leading up to the honeymoon, so I had only finished planning up to Washington. This all meant that Day 16 was essentially un-planned - and we didn't do much at all really.

But at the tail end of a very busy and exciting honeymoon, both Bell and I were ready for a bit of a change in pace. We were also a little sick of carrying a camera around everywhere we went - so this post will be lacking in photos. We've agreed that we'll have to buy Belinda a new, small camera for the next trip we take.

After waking up very late in the morning (or perhaps the afternoon) we had lunch at a very nice Chinese restaurant. It's a pity it wasn't closer to our house - because I'm sure Bell and I would eat there quite frequently if it were. Other than the very nice meal, we pretty much did nothing other than watch a hockey game - the Penguins vs Minnesota Wild. Speaking of which, here's the summary:

Marc-Andre Fleury wasn't playing in net for this game, which was my first disappointment. This was very quickly followed up by another as the Wild scored the first goal just over a minute into the game. It certainly kept the crowd quiet.
Crosby was held without a point in the game, but was definitely the best player on the ice. He seemed to be the only one trying.
I was very upset by the way the Penguins were playing, they had few shots and were down 3-0 at the end of the second. But the behaviour of the other Penguins fans was unbelievably disgusting. I just cannot imagine a situation that would cause me to boo my own home team. Some of the fans were yelling out disparaging comments about our own players, and people were leaving the game from early in the third period (when Minnesota went up 4-0). I have trouble believing that any of the people booing their own team are true Pens fans. They really don't deserve to live so close!
Even though the game was going terribly for the Pens (we were down 5-0) I was amazed with the crowd's response towards the end of the game (in a good way). There had been a minor scuffle earlier on in the game - but nothing I would call a real fight. With less than 5 minutes to go in the game, Brooks Orpik and Kyle Wanvig participated in the first NHL hockey fight that I had witnessed. The audience made the most noise I had ever heard as the Penguins defender clearly won the fight. Sure, most of the negative nellys had gone by this point, but the crowd just went wild. I guess it was a small victory considering, but it did put a slightly positive note at the end of the game.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Travel Log - Day 15 (A Day at the Musuems)

# Posted by Joel Dixon at 12/03/2007 20:36:00

Well, I didn't finish off my Travel Log before the end of 2006 - but the main advantage of having a limited (read: no) readership is that no one cares when I'm late.

Day 15 was spent doing more touristy things in Washington and was pretty jam packed. We couldn't be bothered finding out if White House tours were available, or how to organise one, so we just took some happy snaps outside the gates. Initial fears that we would look like "dodgies" while performing surveillance on the official home of the President were allayed when we were just one of many people taking similar photos (and we were one of two couples that could have been crowned "Least Terrorist Looking" of the bunch).

The White House from the South - don't know why the flag was half-mast though

"L'homme blanc gelant ses seins"

Belinda modelling the latest edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Washington

After viewing the White House we high-tailed it to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We pretty much only visited this museum for one reason, to see a giant dinosaur skeleton, and it didn't disappoint in this respect. It did, however, disappoint by housing a rather comprehensive collection of diamonds and jewels. I won't bore you with the 26 photos (Bell took a pic of every jewel!) - but it was pretty cool to see the Hope Diamond in the stone.

If you look carefully, you can see Ben Stiller in the background preparing for a movie role

Crappy photo, but I had to add a pic of a T-Rex

When reviewing these photos I've come to the conclusion that I've turned into my father

Some of the rocks did look pretty cool

The Hope Diamond

Just down the road was the National Air and Space Museum which I was really looking forward to. We saw lots of air and space related exhibits, and had a quick ride in an aeroplane simulation (which was awesome!). I must say one of the highlights was seeing space-candy and space-Coke! We were running out of time, so had to rush through the second half of the museum, but it was a lot of fun.

Doesn't look that difficult

The Wright Brother's plane, they are from a seven child family. The most that my six siblings and I could produce was a healthy dose of repressed mental illnesses resulting from concentrated teasing. So I guess both the Wrights and the Dixons achieved something in their own small way

The money shot - space M&M's. I can't wait to travel to Las Vegas to check out even more candy goodness!

Pretty funny that they made both space Coke and space Pepsi. Some food joints only offer Pepsi - space has a wider array of soft drink

I reckon I could wing it

We had organised tickets for the Capitals-Predators game, so we decided to grab some Hooters for dinner. Unfortunately there's no more photos though - as the area of Washington we were staying in was not the nicest (felt it was safer to leave the camera at home). Hooters had nice food - but I'm pretty sure most of the patrons were not really there for the food. Our waitress was quite rude, probably because she thought a couple would not tip her as well as a table of drunk college kids (she was probably right). Wasn't the nicest meal we had whilst in the US - but I'm happy I've had a Hooters experience.

As we hadn't planned to watch a game while in Washington, and we weren't that interested in the result, we choose to purchase cheap tickets in the "nose bleeds". I was really struck with the lack of crowd - sure it was mid-week but there was almost nobody there. I got to see rookie phenom Alex Ovechkin score a pretty sweet power play goal, and a damn potent power play unit from Nashville.

After the game we went back to the hotel to pack for the next day, and got lots of sleep!

# Posted in the Travel section and tagged as: Washington
This is the 16th in the Honeymoon Travel Log series
Day 0 - Travel Log - Day 0 (Flights)Day 1 - Travel Log - Day 1 (New York, New York)Day 2 - Travel Log - Day 2 (Thanksgiving)Day 3 - Travel Log - Day 3 (I can't believe it got colder)Day 4 - Travel Log - Day 4 (What is the deal with "New" York anyway?)Day 5 - Travel Log - Day 5 (J-Dix on the six)Day 6 - Travel Log - Day 6 (Niagara Falls, eh?)Day 7 - Travel Log - Day 7 (Wet Wet Wet)Day 8 - Travel Log - Day 8 (New York, New York ... again)Day 9 - Travel Log - Day 9 (Best NHL Game Ever!)Day 10 - Travel Log - Day 10 (Pittsburgh at last!)Day 11 - Travel Log - Day 11 (Best NHL Game Ever - Mach II)Day 12 - Travel Log - Day 12 (Mr. Dixon goes to Washington)Day 13 - Travel Log - Day 13 (Mr. Dixon ... stays in Washington)Day 14 - Travel Log - Day 14 (Washington Zoo-lander)Day 15 - Travel Log - Day 15 (A Day at the Musuems)Day 16 - Travel Log - Day 16 (Worst NHL Game Ever)Day 17 - Travel Log - Day 17 (A kid in a candy-filled toy store)Day 18 - Travel Log - Day 18 (The only game that really matters)Day 19 - Travel Log - Day 19 (Fare thee well America)

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