America 2013: Day Seven - November 28 | Happy Thanksgiving!

As the snow flies on a cold and grey Chicago mornin', a poor little baby child is born. In the ghetto. And his mama cries, ‘cause if there's one thing that she don't need, it’s another hungry mouth to feed. In the ghetto.

- Elvis Presley

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last night’s Blackout Wednesday was really fun with the Alley’s and everyone else who came around, but today was even better!

Thanksgiving is the day of the year where family gets together to celebrate the fall harvest and to give thanks for what they have in their lives. This year, I have plenty to be thankful for: I’m fortunate to be in the great city of Chicago, with some of my family, two of my best mates from Australia and a great American family. I’m very privileged.

Aside from being a great day for eating, drinking, socialising with friends and watching a bit of football, Thanksgiving also marks the start of the Christmas holiday season, which is definitely my favourite time of the year. So, basically, there’s nothing not to like about the last Thursday in November.

I love being in America for the lead-up to Christmas. Every city and small town you visit or pass through is decked out in festive displays which are bigger, better and more prominent than back home. If you love Christmas and have an opportunity to travel here, it’s a wonderful month to be in the country. Everything reminds me of one Christmas movie or another – Miracle on 34^th Street, Home Alone(s), The Santa Clause, and a dozen others – and the cold weather adds to the atmosphere.

Lauryn slept overnight at the Alley house and did a 5km Turkey Trot this morning, and just about froze to death in the process. That’s madness and I didn’t want anything to do with it, so whilst those crazies did their thing a few towns over, I chose the option of sleeping in after two nights’ previous without much sleep, and caught some of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from New York City on TV.

If there’s one thing that America as a whole beats the entire world at, it’s putting on a parade. We saw an amazing one at Disneyland two days ago, and I was in awe of the 2009 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade in Pasadena and America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit in 2010. They know how to put together an impressive spectacle.

The Macy’s Parade, a true and iconic Thanksgiving tradition which has been featured on many television shows and movies, features impressive floats, giant balloons, musical performances, dancers, Santa Claus at the end…the works. It draws millions of television viewers annually and what seems like half of New York City out to watch the parade on it’s route from uptown to the Macy’s flagship store in the heart of Manhattan. For me, it sets the mood perfectly for the rest of the day and for the next few weeks.

We had a giant and delicious Thanksgiving – early – dinner at Matt and Jaimie’s house with sixteen people, some of whom we hadn’t met before. It was perhaps the happiest and most friendly group of people I’ve been amongst. Everyone is so positive with the excitement of the holidays on the doorstep. There is nothing like spending Thanksgiving with a great family, and I don’t think there are any more welcoming than the Alley’s. It’s very humbling how much people are glad to have us there.

My plate

Of course, the food was amazing: beans, potato, turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potato, corn bread and more. I could not have eaten more than I did. Every single thing on the table to eat was insanely delicious. I had two or three plates, and that was before dessert. I love how they spaced out the main meal with dessert so my stomach had time to settle. We were drinking all day, too. Not the healthiest day of the year, but definitely the most fun.

It was nearly midnight before we left Matt’s house, after everyone else.  It was hard to leave because we’d all had so much fun. Definitely the best day of the trip so far! Thanks to everyone who made it possible.

Everyone

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

The day is about giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year, but also a good one to take stock of your life and consider everything that's in it. This year, I'm celebrating the day in one of my favourite places in the world, with some of my favourite people in the world: my cousin (who's put up with me...so far, so good), my best mates from Australia, and an amazing group of friends here in Chicago, who're welcoming us into their home today for one of my favourite holidays of the year.

I've got plenty to be thankful for in 2013.


Have a great day!

America 2013: Day Six - November 27 | Los Angeles LAX Chicago O'Hare

Come on, oh baby, don't you want to go? Oh come on, oh baby don't you want to go?
Back to that same old place, Sweet Home Chicago.

- The Blues Brothers

Being woken up by your alarm at 3.30am is never a good thing, even when you’re on holidays, but it’s the price you have to pay for getting cheap flights and for avoiding the madness that is holiday travel. Today, the day before Thanksgiving, is the busiest travel day across the United States because more people are likely to travel home for Thanksgiving than even Christmas, which leads to airport queues like you’ve never seen before.

The way to avoid those monstrous queues at check-in and TSA screening is to get the earliest flight possible. The earlier the flight, the less stress. Our 3.30am wake-up was for a United Airlines flight from LAX to Chicago’s O’Hare International at 7.55am. We caught a bus from the hotel at 4.30am, managed to avoid the queues and were through security by 5.15am. That’s the way you want to do it. 

By the time our flight pulled away from the gate, Travel Hell would have been in full swing behind us. It’s definitely something to avoid. Thankfully, we were delay-free, which is more than can be said for a lot of people travelling the I-95 corridor this Wednesday, where winter storm Boreas was causing prolonged delays from as far south as Washington D.C. right up through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and on to Boston. O’Hare is famous for it’s frequent and long weather delays, but we had no such problems today.

I had a window seat on the flight today, and had a good view of the scenery. We took off out over the Pacific Ocean, made a few turns over the water (and battled through a bit of turbulence, too) and headed eastward, towards the Midwest. Looking at the desolate Mojave Desert from about twenty-thousand feet is quite an experience. It reminds me of a scene from a movie set on Mars.

Going from the west coast to the Midwest is a bit of a culture shock. Gone is the smog, insane traffic, giant highways and theme parks that dot southern California. We also left behind the warm weather. Landing at O’Hare, it was 26c Fahrenheit (about -3 Celsius) with scattered cloud about. A nice day, if it weren’t for the arctic-like conditions that are going to be the norm for the next three or four months. That said, I like Chicago, and it’s a good place to arrive in after the manic experience of five days on the west coast. Things move a little slower around here, which is a relief.

We’re staying at an Extended Stay America hotel near Wheaton, which is only about ten minutes’ drive from the Alley’s in Wheaton, where we spent the evening, and got to meet a bunch of people who dropped by the house. Jamie has really built us up to rock-star status here. Everyone wanted to meet the Aussies. It’s very humbling, because these are wonderful, wonderful people. We had an amazing night.

I can’t say enough about the Alley family – it’ll be a recurring theme of my blogs over the next few days – who have invited us into their house for Thanksgiving, which is a much better holiday experience when you’re able to spend it with friends or family. I’m lucky to have good friends and family around me this year, which is definitely something to be thankful for heading into tomorrow.

America 2013: Day Five - November 26 | Disneyland California Adventure Denny's

And those Hollywood nights, in those Hollywood hills. She was looking so right in her diamonds and frills. All those big city nights, in those high rolling hills, above all the lights, she had all of the skills.

- Bob Seger

If there’s one thing I’m not going to miss about Los Angeles when we leave tomorrow, it’s the traffic. How citizens of this city can regularly sit in giant traffic jams that stretch on for miles and miles is beyond me. Coming back from Disneyland today, it took us more than 2.5 hours to get into Hollywood, right through the teeth of the Monday evening peak. It’s a brand of insanity that makes Sydney’s traffic seem like nothing at all.

It must’ve been our day for crowds, because Disneyland was jammed with people, more than I’ve ever seen at the park – previously, we’ve visited in off-peak periods – and far too many to make the lines on any of the very popular rides anything less than about 45 minutes. I’m not okay with standing in line for so long for a two-minute ride…but you don’t have much choice if you want to get on. 

Thanksgiving Week is one of Disney’s biggest of the year, and it apparently gets worse and worse as we get closer to Thanksgiving on Thursday. Black Friday will be totally insane. Queuing for so long takes a lot of the fun out of being in the park, but Disneyland is still a great place to visit. I can’t recommend it enough.

We managed to get on the water ride, Grizzly Rapid Run, the California Screamin’ roller coaster, Toy Story Midway Mania and Soarin’ Over California (flight simulator) in California Adventure before going over to the main Disneyland park, where we were last night. Lunch was some very good Mexican-flavoured chicken and we watched the A Christmas Fantasy parade down Main Street, we went across to Tom Sawyer Island and Pirate’s Lair, but didn’t line up for anymore rides. 

For dinner, we drove into Hollywood, where my brother, Matt, and his girlfriend, Thao were staying. Tonight was their first night in America, and although they had a rough flight with not much sleep, we had some beers and some good food and laughs at Denny’s on Sunset Boulevard. Matt and Thao are staying in Los Angeles through Thanksgiving and braving Disneyland over the next couple of days. It will be interesting to see how crowded it is when they’re in the park.

Early night tonight, because we have a hellish 3.30am wake-up for our flight to Chicago, where we’ll be over Thanksgiving. The day before Turkey Day is traditionally the biggest travel day in the country, with giant queues, stress and tension at both security and check-in, so we’ll be at LAX before 5.00am to try and avoid those delays.

Making things more complicated for travel, a nasty winter storm is going to cause havoc on the I-95 corridor – Washington D.C. through to Boston, encompassing New York City, Philadelphia and Boston, amongst other cities – but the weather looks okay for departure from Los Angeles and for our arrival in Chicago. 

Fingers crossed that we have no delays.

America 2013: Day Four - November 25 | The Voice Universal Studios Disneyland World of Color

Bobby's drivin' through the city tonight, through the lights in a hot new rent-a-car. He joins the lovers in his heavy machine; it's a scene down on Sunset Boulevard. Say goodbye to Hollywood, say goodbye, my baby. Say goodbye to Hollywood, say goodbye, my baby.

- Billy Joel

Well, what an extraordinary and amazing day this was!

It started last night at the Lakers game when I was texting back and forth with my friend Nate Morton, who is a bad-ass drummer who now makes a living playing in the backing band on The Voice, which is a major cultural phenomenon screening on NBC here. Suddenly, Nate’s organising us VIP tickets to go and watch the dress rehearsal of the Monday night performance show.

We drove down to Universal Studios and the back lot, which is basically a whole city that stands autonomously from the rest of Los Angeles – everything you can imagine in a city, they’ve got inside the back lot. We had to provide government ID to get into the lot, and once we were there, Nate took us down to Sound Stage 12, where The Voice shoots. It was amazingly nice of him to organise access at such short notice.

Security gave us VIP cast/crew passes and we went into the studio, which is a mammoth facility, full of the biggest cameras and brightest lights I’ve ever seen. It’s a beehive of activity, with people running seemingly uncoordinated in all directions, but it all comes together in the end. Organised chaos is probably the best way to describe it. There’s a Starbucks outlet on set, which dispenses all the free coffee you can handle during filming.

In the middle of the impressive and brightly-lit stage, is the band’s position. These guys, led by Musical Director Paul Mirkovich, are red-hot. These guys are the best musicians you’ve never heard of, and have featured on dozens of mega-selling studio records, and have toured with the likes of Cher, Pink, Paul Stanley (KISS), Michelle Branch and New Radicals. They’re as accomplished as you can get in this city, and, better still, awesome guys. 

Sasha Krivtsov, who we hung out with at Starbucks in Valencia yesterday morning, is the other half of the rhythm section, and he showed us around, too. Nate on drums and Sasha on bass: a potent musical combination. We met a bunch of great people, who were all excited to hear that we’d come in from Australia and how Nate and I first met. We are getting so much love from so many people for being Aussies! There were a bunch of reports in the house as well.

The Voice is down to it’s Final Eight, so we saw eight performances – everything from Queen to Etta James – and a few ensemble performances. The remaining contestants, including a 16-year-old from New Jersey and a single father from the south, are brilliant singers. I don’t know how they’re going to pick a winner. The acoustics in the studio are as good as any I’ve ever heard. They ran through the show as they would when it was filmed, though Carson Daly (host) and the judges Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, Cee-Lo Green and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine were absent, their places taken by stand-ins.

Watching live television happen from the studio floor shatters all your illusions and preconceptions of what happens. It’s far from a polished final product that appears on the screen. It’s a high-stress environment, and the star you see on screen is at the mercy of producers and directors yelling at them, and there’s a ferocious amount of activity as people swarm on during commercial breaks and those video montages you see on talent show broadcasts to dismantle one set and assemble an even more elaborate one in it’s place. 

There were three different band sets on the main stage, and so many other props and scenes set up for the performers. And the crew is working to a strict timetable. They have to be done by the end of the commercial break, and although it doesn’t ever look like it’ll all be done in time, somehow it is. After five seasons, the crew is a well-oiled machine. It’s almost militaristic, the way they go about things, but it always seems to work. That’s why the rehearsal is done to the strict timing of a real show, complete with the cameras filming it.

After the show, we went up to Universal CityWalk for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe with Nate. We walked up the hill where the Backlot Tour trams go down, and it was quite a trippy experience to have people waving at us out of the trams, just like we were doing on Saturday. The Hard Rock is an awesome place with great rock and roll memorabilia and amazing food. We sat at the bar and chatted with a cool bartender known only as Moose. Turns out, he’s a major AC/DC fan, and that makes him great in my book.

We left Universal mid-afternoon and endured a hellish trip to Disneyland that, in LA traffic, took nearly three hours. We arrived in time for our pre-booked dinner and to watch the fantastic holiday edition of Disney’s World of Colour, which is an amazing show where they project images on thousands of fountains. It’s one of those things you have to see for yourself. No photo or video truly does it justice. After the Christmas imagery, I’m really ready for the holidays to come.

Later in the night, we rode a bunch of rides in Disneyland – the recently-refurbished Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Autopia cars and Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, which is one of my favourites – and got almost down to boarding the Space Mountain roller-coaster before it broke down. That was how our day ended, apart from a speedy drive back to LA.

Probably my favourite day of the trip so far.