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Archive for February, 2007

NY and Philly – Day 4 and More (hey that rhymes!)

February 19th, 2007 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

Well today was the day! We were going to gorge ourselves on a buffet of breakfast. How did we get this buffet? Well here’s the story. When we were checking into the Hyatt on Day 2, the person who checked us in was very kind and asked us if we wanted a free pass to the buffet in the hotel’s fancy restaurant. We couldn’t refuse! If we had paid then it would’ve amounted up to something around or above sixty dollars american! So we went up to our hotel room after we had checked in and then a few minutes later, the man came, with our coupons. I like people like that. Well lets stop talking about that and get talking about day four! At the buffet, I had Oatmeal mixed with Honey Nut Cherrios, along with milk, raisins, brown sugar, and granola! After that, I headed back for more food – this time around, I had eggs, potatos, salsa, ketchup, and some fruit! Then I had to have more… This time round, I had a pastry, more eggs, potatoes, and ketchup, and salsa. This was the life! Then we had to leave. Oh, yeah… I had Orange Juice to wash all that down! Such a wonderful morning! Now we had to go up back to our rooms to get our bags. I washed my hands. We were going to take the bags down to the car. We were off to New York!

-A Long Time Later-

We had arrived in New York. It was so big! We were about to cross in. Well we were technically still in New Jersey, but Manhattan was so close, you could’ve just as easily been in Brooklyn instead of Jersey City! Jersey City is the city on the way to new york. There was such a wait to get onto the Lincoln Tunnel! Yet, we eventually made it. The trip through the tunnel seems so long! It has to be at least 5 minutes, but when you are in Jersey City it looks like you could walk over there in 1 minute! Maybe it was because the traffic was slow. After a while, though, we arrived. The first impression of the type of traffic in NY was bad. We were practically in gridlock! We saw a guy on the corner of a street that was dancing. Then we headed through Times Square. And we found some good parking nearby a museum that was called something like “National Museum of Art” or something similar. We went in there and there was so much to see. I went onto a computer there and found out that they have over 30 000 pieces of art! It was more than you can see in a day! Eventually, after being all tired out, we went out of the museum. We were going to a restaurant called “Candlelight Cafe”, which got awesome reviews. I ordered a veggie-burger, and it was so good! Then it was time to go to our hotel. We were staying in Club Quarters, which is a private hotel that you can only go to if you are a member – you have to be a member, and to become a member, you have to work for a special company or something. I stayed up late on the complimentary internet access typing this out.

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NY and Philly – Day 3

February 17th, 2007 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

^Pictures from PMA^

I guess there’s not much to say about this day, because not much happened (just kidding – lots did!). As I woke up, in my nice, warm, “Hyatt” bed, I knew a long, tiring day was ahead. We were going to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. So after I had changed, then I went out with the rest of my family out to the car. We were heading for the Museum. Once we got there, we had to walk across a field that was covered with “Ice-Crusted” snow. Whenever me or my brother fell through, we said, “onch” for some reason. It doesn’t quite make sense now. Then we went into the museum. Everyone in our family except my dad got one of those “AntennAudio” things. They are fun and make the museum more worth looking at. At this museum, almost all the paintings had one of these things! It was lots of fun. My favorite painting that I saw there was, “Sunflowers” by Vincent Van Gogh. It was so exhausting. Then we went to the Cafeteria and Austin and I had Mac and Cheese with a Cookie, Orange Juice, Milk, and a bag of Chips (potato ones). We went back out to the gallery after that and looked at more paintings. When our day there drew to a close, dad went to get the car while AJ and me ate the Chips that we got at lunch because our parents wouldn’t let us eat them at lunch.
Then we went out for dinner at a chinese restaurant and headed back to the hotel for our last night there. It was a nice, and relaxing hotel… but the best part of the trip lay ahead.
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NY and Philly – Day 2 – Part Two

February 17th, 2007 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

^Views from our Hotel room in Philidelphia^

Ahhh. Finally here! We’re here and we’ve made it! I can’t believe this! The drive over to Philly was so exhausting. We almost missed our exit from the highway and if we did miss that exit then we wouldn’t have made it here. Also, when we were driving to the hotel we stayed in last night, the only stuff we got from the storm was a bit of fogginess! Now, though, we were really getting the storm. Ice/snow was falling like crazy, and it was making a heck of a noise. Mom wouldn’t let me on the computer! It was supposed to take two hours to get from the Days Inn where we were, but because of the storm, it took two times that – four hours. What’s creepiest of all is that we almost skidded out and killed ourselves it was so slippy! Now that we’re here though, it doesn’t matter! Now we’re going to go see the Tut Exhibit in the Franklin Institute! When we first got there, I found a quarter, so that helped pay for the parking. Then we went inside the building. The Franklin Institute had a picture of Tut on the stairs that if you looked from the bottom of them then you would see it.

We went inside and bought tickets. Dad and I were planning to go on a flight simulator that would put you on twirlies and loop-de-doop. First, we would go and see a film about Egypt in the “Tuttleman” Imax Theatre. It was so amazing – It was like you were really there! The sound was really awesome too. Then Dad and I went to go on our “Flight Simulator”, but no-one was staffing that, so we had to go get a refund for it. When we were trying to find the Flight Sim, we discovered something else awesome. We found a whole exhibit that was filled with stuff relating to Flight. It had an actual huge old fighter jet on display! You could actually go into it. I have a picture of me in it. The room was filled with interactive things, like a wing that you could first bend and then you would push a button to see if you made it fly. That place also had a computer where you could design a plane and then print it out. I designed one, but the problem is, I don’t know where the sheet of paper that had it went. So after that we went to this place called “Sir Isaac’s Loft”. In “Sir Isaac’s Loft” there was a huge marble run that went on forever! The marbles never stopped running! I guess that’s why that called it a marble run. Then it was finally time for Tut. Tut was open until 8, whereas the rest of the museum was closed at 5. We decided we would see the rest of the museum first, and then we’d do the Tut exhibit. The way they did the exhibit made it so appealing. There was the spectacular lighting, the amazing antiquities, and lots other things. My favorite thing there was Tut’s dagger. Unfortunately, they didn’t have Tut’s mask, so I guess I was a bit disappointed. Them putting it on their brochure didn’t help. And the picture of it on the steps leading up to the museum made it just plain annoying. It was everywhere, that mask of his, but after showing it so much in their ads and billboards, and most of all, having it on the museum’s steps, they could at least have it in the exhibit. Maybe Egypt didn’t want to have their prize possession lost. After we passed through the exhibit, we headed for the exit. We had an awesome time there, but now we were exhausted and hungry. We decided to go to Maoz, which is a falafel place. We all had falafel – but my mom didn’t have the pita with it, because she got hers in a to-go container. While my mom and I got the falafels, Austin and Dad were sitting in the car! You wouldn’t believe what happened then. “I was sitting in the car and heard four bangs (bang, bang, bang, bang), and I thought, that sounded like gun-shots! I didn’t want to believe it. A minute or so later, four people came running down the street. Two women ran to a bus and shouted for the bus driver to open the door – explaining that there was a shooting. Two other men ran into a store. There were a lot of sirens coming from about 8 police vehicles. A female police officer ran by our car with her gun drawn, running towards the crime scene,” says my father. Then we headed for the hotel – we were staying in the Hyatt, my favorite hotel. The reason I like the Hyatt is because it’s so deluxe! Their pools are awesome too! The pool there was freezing cold this time, surprisingly! I could barely get in, but once I was in it was so refreshing. After about ten minutes of that I wanted to get out, but my mom was complaining that I “was too wound up to get out”. So I had to do ten laps more and then I came out, with an annoying headache, and I sat on a beach chair. Then Dad showed up. Austin had completed 54 laps (wow, I didn’t know he could swim so well!). Because of mom, I ended up doing 20. Then we went to the washroom and went back up to the hotel room. I had a shower and then went to bed.
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NY and Philly – Day 2 – Part One

February 17th, 2007 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

Today we’re going to see Tut in Philidelphia! This is really exiting. The breakfast was good, because they had eggs, and I like eggs. Right now we’re heading out. It’s freezing rain out and it’s really cold. We’re about to leave! 2 hours of driving, coming up! I’m hoping to take lots of pictures of Tut today and his sarcophagus is supposed to be there. It’s going to be held at the “Franklin Institute”. I can’t wait! My brother is obsessed with egypt, and he’s the main reason we’re going there. We’re departing now.

Calling back later in the day!

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NY and Philly – Day 1

February 16th, 2007 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

^My brother at the Hotel Room^ (days inn)

Well we technically haven’t left yet, so I shouldn’t be writing here. My Mom and Dad are packing and I’m writing this up. I plan to take a detailed and informative journal about where I’m going!The reason we’re leaving today – a day early – is because there’s supposed to be a snowstorm on the way over there. We’re planning to leave early because we don’t want to get the worst of it. I hope I can get a really good souvenir!

-Later on in the day-

After a horrible day of driving, we finally arrive at a really nice days inn that some how got bad reviews! It’s got a pool and it rocks! It also has a computer in the lobby! Just my kind of a hotel! It is a bit broken down, I guess you could say, and the furniture in the lobby is ancient, but other than that, it’s really nice! They even have free Wi-Fi! It’s pretty handy!
We also went into the freezing cold pool area, and it was NOT fun. Tomorrow, we will be staying in the Hyatt, so it will be a bit better. They will have a pool there. Hopefully the water will be warm, and not so cold- we were shivering our butts off!!

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Our Trip to Arizona

February 13th, 2007 by Connor McBrine-Ellis | View Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

We came back from a month’s stay in Tucson, Arizona.We left for Tucson, Arizona on Saturday, December the 16th.
For a week, we stayed with Craig and Kenneth (us – Austin and Connor – living in Toronto.)
We had SUCH a wonderful time and would love to return. During that stay, we released a single of our latest hit, I’m Gunna Be OK.
After that, we went on a road trip that lasted a week. We were planning on going by the Grand Canyon, but we heard that it was really foggy this time of year, so with the combination of that reason along with having to take a tiny bit of a detour to get there, we decided against it.
I was a bit ticked about this but now i’m glad we did it. We stopped in L.A. along the way and drove almost the whole way to the Hollywood Sign. I wanted to get out of the car to climb up to it, but Mom said we couldn’t. Boo. But the good thing about that is that we got to eat “Trader Joe’s Chile Lime Peanuts” while we were going to San Francisco.
I just found about this site called www.helium.com/registration/signup where you get paid to submit articles on who knows what. (Sorry this has nothing to do with what i’m currently talking about. I get distracted EZ.)
Well when we got there, we went to our Hotel. It was on the edge of the city. Then we went in to SF. We drove around and at the end of the day, we wend to our next hotel.
The Hotel was called the “Hotel Diva”. While Mom and Dad went out to the fanciest restaurant in San Francisco, AJ and I sat in the hotel room eating “Asian Express” pizza and drinking Lemonade. While we were doing this, we were also watching cartoons. This is what is commonly referred to as “The Kid’s Dream”.
The only thing I really liked about the hotel was that the Staff were nice, There was a flat Screen TV (HD, of course), and there was free wireless internet.
That’s quite a lot of things. I shouldn’t complain so much. Anyways. (I wasn’t necessairily complaining, but, still…. it wasn’t that great…)
The Next day, we parked our car in the garage, and took the trolley car all day. We went to a chinese vegatairian restaurant (me and austin being vegatairian) and the food was DELECTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!
YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM. I could eat all day and night there. I could sleep there. I could live there.
And afterwards, what topped it off was the free lollipops. Austin and I each got 4 :) !
WE had a good rest at our second night (and our final one) at the Diva. Today, we had the “Asian Express” again. This time it was better because we ordered more. Mom and Dad were with us in the Hotel this time and they were watching cartoons with us and we had a great time. Tomorrow we would be heading to Monterey to see the world famous “Monterey Bay Aquarium”.
We had a great rest, and the next day, we were on our way. When we got there, we went straight to the Aquarium. It could be the most amazing thing you could ever do. We got to touch Manta Rays, felt some Kelp, and saw the biggest open viewing aquarium in the US. I’ll post some photos sometime showing all the beautiful fish – which all came from the Monterey Bay!
After an EXHAUSTING afternoon, we went to our next hotel, a Howard Johnston Express (the only thing I liked about it was it had cereal and toast for breakfast… YUM!).
We watched some TV and then dosed off to sleep.
BZZZT went the alarm clock and that meant that it was time to hit the road. We were heading towards Hearst Castle. We drove for quite a while. I couldn’t wait. A big day was ahead of us! Once we got there, we went straight to the hotel. The hotel had a pool! It also had hot chocolate machines and a hot tub! It was all indoors (that was unusual for california). I’m glad it was indoors because it was freezing outside! I’m so glad. The whole trip, we didn’t have the best weather. It was sort of ok. In Arizona it was freezing for there.
After we swam for a while and did some internet surfing with hot chocolate, we were headed off down to our hotel room. It was nice to get into bed, all clean and queaky (that’s not a word) and nice.
The next morning, we went to see Hearst Castle. It would be amazing. This house was not just a house. It was a palace. I couldn’t figure it out. I had no clue where I was the whole time – it was easy to ‘lose yourself’ in this place. The art and all the rooms were all amazing. We stayed at that hotel I just talked about a little while ago. I have to say that that hotel might’ve been my favorite one on this trip.

-Note : I’m still working on this post…

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