During our Teen Travel Talk day trip to New York City, we started off our day by wandering around Times Square. After all of the talk about Times Square getting shut down to only pedestrian traffic we got to see if for ourselves. As we turned the street corner into the heart of Times Square the first thing that caught our eye was a cluster of green lawn chairs in the middle of the street. There were a few people sitting in these chairs, enjoying this rare opportunity. We decided to try the chairs out as well.

After checking out the lawn chairs we hurried between the rain drops that were beginning to fall, towards our next destination: The Marriot Marquis Hotel in Times Square. On the eighth floor of the Marriot the TTT group decided to both have lunch in the lounge as well as enjoy the breathtaking view of the city the restaurant had to offer. Most of us ordered the delicious flatbread pizza for lunch but managed to save room for our next detour!

With only a little time to spare, we hurried to catch a cab to try out Pinkberry http://www.pinkberry.com/, a frozen yogurt shop which only has U.S. locations in New York, California and Texas.

After our frozen treat, we headed to our final stop via subway: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame- New York Annex. After picking up our tickets at the box office, we were ushered into the first room. (TTT Tip: Visit http://www.rockannex.com/ to preorder your tickets. You will be assigned a specific time to arrive at the Hall of Fame.)

The first room divides up all of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees by the year they were inducted. Each person’s name and band name (if applicable) is on a silver colored brick under each year. If you listen to the music playing in the background you’ll notice that each time a different song is played the musician’s name(s) will light up on the wall. When the time comes for the group to move into the next room the songs change faster and faster and then ends with a burst of sound and the lights go out. When the lights come back on, the group enters the next room.

The next room contains several movie screens and several rows of stools. After we were all settled, the movie screens lit up and for about 20 minutes or so different clips of famous musicians were played. With each clip it felt like we were actually attending these concerts. If you watch closely, at one point they superimposed one of the bands onto an image of us so it looked like we were really the audience on screen! After watching the clips we entered a third room and were handed headphones. There were several screens along a hallway with different groups of musician displayed on them such as Women Influences in Rock and Roll, and Rap and Hip Hop Artists. Each time you approached a screen the headphones synched with that particular video so you could hear the music of each artist. The fourth section was the Rock and Roll Memorabilia. There were outfits, guitars, handwritten song lyrics and so much more from many famous musicians such as Elvis, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen (They had his first car on display!)

Last but not least was a special exhibit focused purely on John Lennon’s NYC years. There were four movie screens showing various clips of him throughout his life and several cases containing clothing he wore, pictures he drew and letters he wrote. It was a very moving tribute to such a talented musician. While the exhibit is no longer at the Hall of Fame Annex, the Tenn Travel Talk Team really enjoyed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and highly recommends it to anyone who is going to be in NYC. It may sound trite, but it’s a great way to bond with your parents. Chances are, they experienced some of the rock and roll history documented in the museum first-hand and can add their own narrative to it!
(All Photos are Compliments of Alex)

Be sure to read more about NYC music!

Willis Tower

View from "The Edge" at Willis Tower"The Edge" Willis Tower

My friend Carly and I

My stir fry from the create-your-own stir fry restaurant in Chicago "Flat Top Grill"

First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh

The 13 Tiffany windows at the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh are one of a kind

I just returned from a week-long trip with my church choir. Every year we put on a performance and during February Break we take it to a different part of the U.S. or occasionally, out of the country. This year we did Fiddler on the Roof and traveled on a bus to Carlisle, PA, Gibsonia, PA, Chicago, IL, Anderson, IN and finally Pittsburgh, PA. About fifty-five of us, students and the adult advisors, traveled from town to town performing in a total of five churches. Luckily between all that work and driving we had some time for a little sightseeing! Our main destination was Chicago. We stayed two nights right in the city and visited the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), the Museum of Science and Industry, volunteered with Chicago City Year and went to a show at Second City, a comedy club where many comedians from SNL got their start.

The Museum of Science and Industry was amazing. I wasn’t expecting much but it turned out to be similar to the Newseum in Washington DC that I wrote about a few blogs ago. It is the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere with more than 35,000 artifacts and over 14 acres of exhibits. We also had tickets to the Omnimax Theater to see “Mysteries of the Great Lakes” which was really interesting and quite an experience. My favorite part had to be Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle. Colleen Moore was an actress who created the dollhouse of her dreams by the suggestion of her father. It is a beautiful piece of art. Everything inside symbolizes something and some miniature statues are close to 2,000 years old. It also contains the tiniest bible ever written. It cost about $500,000.00 to create! Some other exhibits we visited were the U-505 submarine and a coal mine. There was so much to see, I’ll definitely go back if I ever find myself in Chicago again! Visit www.msichicago.org if you’re going to be in the area!

Next time: Willis Tower and Second City

My snowy backyard

Well, northern New Jersey has been hit! After a false alarm this past weekend and seeing pictures of Washington DC and Virginia being overwhelmed with snow, it is now coming down hard in NJ. I love snow days. Curling up with a good book and sipping hot chocolate is my idea of a perfect day. I’m not a fan of shoveling out the car or having to brave the dirty, slushy after-effects of a big snow fall, though. I used to go sledding when I was little, ice skating on the pond in my back yard and I even gave skiing a try when I signed up with my town, taking a trip to Shawnee Ski Resort in Pennsylvania every Friday. I don’t like to be cold. I don’t mind the idea of snow and cold weather but if I am not fully equipped with a sweater, coat, gloves, scarf and a hat, I am not a happy camper!

Every time I tell someone that my plan for next year is to go to Queen’s University in Canada, they seem shocked and say, “You know it’s cold up there, right?” My response is always the same, “It’s cold here too!” No, I will not be living in an igloo come next September. I think what misleads people is that after it snows it doesn’t melt right away like it does here on the east coast. It stays consistently cold up there so every time there is another snowfall it just piles up on the last week’s precipitation.

Yes, I do realize it will be colder for longer next winter for me, but I will just have to find winter activities that I do enjoy. I can ice skate on Lake Ontario and maybe even take a trip to Wolfe Island where if it freezes one can skate from one side of the island to the other on a canal that runs right through. I’ll have to relearn how to ski, but I don’t think that will be too difficult. Moving to a whole new place will be an adventure, I’ll just adapt to the new daily routines of having to bundle up from November until April!

With winter breaks coming up, what do you all have planned? Ski trips? Staycations? Maybe a trip to warmer weather?! Any ideas of fun winter activities are welcome!

Stay tuned for my next adventure: Westminster Choir Tour 2010!

Destination: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Anderson, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois!

Berlin Wall

What better way to start off the new year and celebrate my birthday than a trip to Washington DC?! Just when I thought I had experienced everything worthwhile seeing in DC, I found several more “must sees!” After an invigorating yoga class on Saturday morning at Yoga Chai my sister brought me to her favorite café, Tryst,  located in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC. My waffle with strawberries was delicious and everyone else seemed to enjoy their various choices as well. The cool thing about Tryst though, is that it transitions from a coffeehouse to a lounge and finally to a bar as the evening goes on. You also have the choice of sitting at a table by yourself, or share one of the larger community tables or couches with other Tryst customers. It’s a great place to meet new people and has three different environments to suit everyone’s taste. Definitely make Tryst one of your stops if you’re in the DC area!

On Sunday, I was able to experience two more DC museums, the Newseum and the National Building Museum. I had walked past the Newseum many times but never went in mostly due to the fact that it is not part of the Smithsonians so it isn’t free. Thank goodness my sister found 3 free tickets on her community board in her apartment complex or I never would have gotten to see how worth a trip to the Newseum was! Out front they have the front pages of newspapers from all 50 states and many other countries around the world which are changed everyday. We were there shortly after the earthquake in Haiti occurred so many, if not all, of the front pages had to do with that. It was very interesting to see the amount of censoring each country did. All of the U.S. papers had mostly photos of the relief effort and the survivors but other countries had some very graphic, emotionally moving photographs would never be seen in a U.S. newspaper. Inside the Newseum was even more spectacular with its 14 galleries and 15 theaters, it wouldn’t be possible to see everything in one day. A few highlights we saw were a movie on the history of the first amendment, actual pieces of the Berlin wall and an old news truck complete with a huge satellite on the back of it. There was also an exhibit of Sports Illustrated photographs and a 4-D Time Travel Adventure movie. Check out this short video clip for an overview of what else the Newseum has to offer. Even though the Newseum is not among the free museums in DC, I highly recommend going to check it out, I would definitely go back again!

I didn’t get to see many of the Building Museums exhibits but we had lunch in the Great Hall and that was enough fun for me to want to go back! The Building Museum, originally the U.S. Pension Bureau, is a national museum so it was free admission. The Great Hall is a huge room with beautiful architecture containing a café, the gift shop and a large area for kids of all ages to run around and play with jumbo sized blocks and legos. If you have younger siblings the National Building Museum would be a good stop.

Georgetown Cupcakes

The last stop of the weekend, and quite possibly my favorite(!), was Georgetown Cupcake. I had heard a lot about these decedent little cupcakes and had even seen people line up down the street waiting to get one on a 90 degree day but I had yet to try one for myself. We got a nice variety consisting of mint chocolate, toasted marshmallow, red velvet, coconut and classic vanilla to name a few. My favorite was the mint chocolate, it never occurred to me to make that a cupcake flavor! I would definitely say this was my best birthday yet, and the first time I spent a birthday away from home.

Have you ever celebrated a birthday on vacation?

San Alfonso del Mar in Algarrobo, Chile is the world’s longest pool according to the Guiness World Records, at one mile long! When it gets too chilly, one can move into the heated beach in the pool’s glass pyramid with heated water and sand.

At the Umaid Bhawan Palace you can take a swim in this candlelit, temperature controlled pool. You might even see the Maharaja of Jodhpur!

The pool at Hotel Caruso Belvedere, located at the highest point in Ravello, Italy, offers breathtaking views of the coastline and sea.

Park Hyatt Tokyo’s pool is located on the 47th floor and is 65 feet long with spectacular views of Tokyo and Mount Fuji.

At the InterContinental Hong Kong you can listen to music underwater in one of their three pools.

If you ever wanted to swim with sharks, here’s your chance. At the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas one can swim with 5 species of sharks!

Thanks to Budget Travel (http://www.budgettravel.com/bt-dyn/content/article/2009/06/17/AR2009061702131.html?wpisrc=newsletter) for finding some really awesome hotel swimming pools! Have you come across any cool swimming pools on your travels?

Our home base for the week was Brussels but we traveled around a bit to Maastricht (on the border of Brussels and the Netherlands), Leuven (NOT Louvain-la-Neuve, which is a funny story for later) and Paris. Maastricht was our first stop to visit a relative. We took the train up and spent the day walking around. We had lunch on a square (which by the way, are everywhere in Europe!) and wandered around enjoying the culture. We were on the north side of Belgium so everyone in Maastricht spoke Dutch as opposed to the French we heard in Brussels.

After catching up in Maastricht we went back to Brussels to do some sightseeing. As per my sister’s suggestion, my aunt and I went to Grande Place, a famous square in Brussels. There are many restaurants and shops around Grande Place. We visited Manneken Pis, a famous sculpture of a little boy peeing. Every so often, an organization called The Friends of Manneken Pis dresses Manneken Pis up. For example, on St. Patrick’s Day he will be dressed as a leprechaun and on Christmas he will be dressed as Santa Claus. Apparently he has been stolen several times but has always been returned to his home in Grande Place. We also visited the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate where we learned about the history of the cocoa bean and watched people make Belgian chocolate. Check out their website for more information if you are interested in visiting: http://www.mucc.be/EN/index_en.htm.

Our next stop was to try an authentic Belgian Waffle. Belgian Waffles sold in the U.S. are nothing like the real ones. Real Belgian Waffles have a sugar coating and are covered in various fruits, whipped cream and nutella. They are definitely more of a dessert item than a breakfast item.

We did a lot more on our trip but this is it for now. Coming up next: the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Atomium, Leuven and Paris. Until next time!

Upon getting off the boat we had to walk along steep twisting paths to get to the actual building. We received headphones which would act as our audio tour guides. It was really cool to have the headphones to listen to. You can actually hear what they were saying unlike too many tours where people talk over the guide. It had sound effects and told you where to walk so that you would stay in synch with what was being said. There were a lot of very interesting and sometimes scary stories about escapes and fights between inmates. One that sticks out in my mind is about an inmate who took a knife from the dining hall and pulled it on one of the guards. A few inmates also stole spoons from the dining hall in attempt to dig their way out.

There were several levels of small, claustrophobic cells looking down onto the main walkway which they called Broadway. Each row had a name like Times Square, C-Block, D-Block etc. Inmates could go outside into this small courtyard surrounded by a stone wall topped with barbed wire for recreational time and movies were shown twice a month on Sundays. It looked like a pretty rough place, but it was for some of the most dangerous criminals in U.S. history such as Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly!

I highly recommend visiting Alcatraz if you are in the area but make sure you buy tickets ahead of time. They sell out fast and are time specific! Go to https://www.alcatrazcruises.com/index.aspx to buy tickets. Keep in mind that there is no admission fee to the island itself, just pay for the ferry and that’s it.