America Archives - Page 9 of 81 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Sugar the surfur of Huntington Beach

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And as the drums roll to induct the legends into Surf City’s Hall of Fame let’s paws to celebrate Sugar the surfur of Huntington Beach.

Sugar, a Collie mix, holds a unique position in the surfing world.

As the first, and as yet, only mutt to be enlisted in the Californian town’s Surfing Home of Fame.

Huntington Beach’s status as the centre of the surfing world is assured.

Though maybe not mention that in rival claimant Santa Cruz, who claim they’re the birthplace of the sport.

But all disputes aside, and my friends in SC were keen to play that down.

As they promoted their fares to me at the American Travel Fair in Chicago last month, everyone can sing Sugar’s praises.

Herein hangs a tail

Because as they say in Sugar the Surfing Dog’s case, herein hangs a tail.

And one that in the land of the moving picture ought really to be a Hollywood blockbuster.

Because Sugar, much like Bob in the British true story A Streetcat Named Bob, turned her owner’s life around full circle.

HB native Ryan Rustan had been battling mental health and drug issues.

But he cleaned up in his 20s when Oakland rescue dog Sugar came into his life.

And she went on to wing 19 surfing titles across her career including multiple World Dog Surfing Championships, Surf City Surf Dog and Purina Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenge titles.

Because as all you devoted readers here know and I found out one spring morning over breakfast in Ballsbridge, Dublin with our HB visitors dog surfing is definitely a thang.

And on that occasion it was labrador Bono whose achievements we were recognising.

With, of course, me being professionally incapable of avoiding asking if Bono surfed the waves in his shades.

Follow in Sugar’s pawsteps

Chairmutt of the Board: Outside the museum

We do hope that Sugar’s elevation to Hall of Fame status will push on other surfing dogs to follow in her pawsteps.

And we’ll be following Sugar’s progress and our other pooch pals on SURFER website.

Not that 14-year-old Sugar’s surfing days are behind her with Ryan promising his pooch .

That he will take her to Waikiki, the real birthplace of surfing, as a treat.

‘She does a lot of surf therapy for lots of kids,’ he said.

‘It’s not just [about] surfing against people but also putting smiles on the little kids’ faces and the athletes that are disabled. She gets to ride with them.’

Dogg days

This year’s deserving inductees into the Surf City Hall of Fame are world champion and Olympic gold medalist Caroline Marks.

Outstanding surf photographer Tom Servais and HB local standout surfer Dwight Dunn.

All taking their place alongside Sugar the surfur of Huntington Beach.

HB, of course, ought to be on everyone’s to-do list when in Los Angeles, just an hour north of Surf City USA.

And, if you are lucky enough, you might see another famous Dogg down there doing one of his sets.

And you thought I make all this stuff, well here are the pictures to prove it.

America, Countries

Start the USA’s 250th party early

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Paul Revere has long completed his Midnight Ride and the first shots have been fired at Lexington and Concord, so we can start the USA’s 250th party early, right?

The USA is in full excited preparation mode for next year’s Semiquincentennial celebrations as we discovered at its travel fair in Chicago.

Quite a mouthful, although the Classics-loving Founding Fathers would no doubt have approved.

The veritas est (that’s one for my old Latin teacher ‘Weed’ McCafferty) America’s revolution is played out daily across the old 13 colonies.

The Cradle of the Revolution

And nowhere more so than in the Cradle of the Revolution Boston.

Where visitors are invited to channel their inner Patriots, holler Huzzah and throw a crate of tea (on a pulley) into the harbour.

At the award-winning Boston Tea Party Museum.

Or walk the 2.5kms Freedom Trail to take in 16 of the sites critical to that first year of the Revolutionary War.

That there isn’t a plaque marking my time working in Faneuil Hall, or the Irish bar institution that is The Black Rose, is probably an oversight.

But we’re sure that our friends in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will have that rectified.

By the time they invite us out for the 250th anniversary of the actual signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Bustin’ for Boston 250

Boston will, of course, do American proud as it did back then and has been ever since.

It has an ongoing hub to curate projects aligned to Boston 250.

And the city’s enduring contribution to Freedom.

With Martin Luther King’s rally in Boston in 1965, a momentous year for the world with the birth of one very important travel blogger, commemorated.

With the dedication of Freedom March Square at the entrance to Boston Common.

A Common purpose

The Common is the oldest (and Boston has a lot of those firsts) public green space in America, dating back to 1634.

And Bostonians are rightly proud of their playground which will be central to next year’s festivities.

Our Beantown Buddies, of course, have proved with blood, bravuro and beer that they will defend their liberties to the hilt.

But that respect, of course, is twofold, particularly when you’re a visitor from its old overlords.

Which is why we observed the no unlicensed drinking of cans on the Common or outside at all.

But Nick the #&%*, a randomer on our plane who had attached himself to us, arrogantly ignored the rules and landed himself a fine.

A mistake we won’t ever be making. Because Bostonians still live out their Patriot days daily here.

Which is why they would every right to start the USA’s 250th party early because this is where it all started.

Countries, Flying

We do have our baggage

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We do have our baggage but sometimes that’s what makes the trip so interesting, which is why we won’t get fined for excess luggage.

The perennial problem of fines at the gate has been ramped up.

With revelations over EasyJet putting ground staff on commission.

For fining customers in the line for breaking the weight limit on their carry-on luggage.

Portable essentials

First things first the best answer to the EasyJetstapo (now I’ve done it) is to not give them the chance to fine you.

The £48 fee charged for oversized bags from which the staff get £1.20 each piece.

Now drilling down, easyJet’s free allowance is a generous 45x36x20cm which you must be able to put under your seat.

And that poses this question… why should that not be enough for your portable essentials?

Because isn’t everything available to be bought at whichever destination you and your family are headed?

The rulebreakers

The last resort: Say a little prayer for me

And the stress and cost of paying a fine is not restricted to those who don’t follow the rules.

As we all know from being held up at the gate.

When a traveller argues the toss with the ground crew over paying.

Which incidentally they always do as the alternative of having your boarding pass blocked sharpens the mind.

The follow-up

That lost time and further delays when passengers clog up the airplane aisles trying to cram in bags to overload lockers which you never get back.

As I found out to my cost on my recent linked flight with Aer Lingus from Edinburgh through Dublin to Chicago.

With our already delayed flight disrupted further because of a couple’s intransigence.

Yes, we do all have our baggage.

And credit here to the flight crew, who remained firm and fair.

Reminding everyone that the sooner bags were put in lockers the quicker we’d get there.

Hotfooting it to the gate

Now as a half-full sort I looked back on my experience with relief.

That I made my transatlantic flight at a, albeit with ten minutes to spare.

And pre-clearance completed, a great advantage of flying out of Dublin Airport.

But my luggage did not.

Understandable because humans on legs can get to the gate and on the plane quicker than luggage on wheels.

Good to go

Of course, every action has a reaction.

And so when I got to Chicago O’Hare Airport I did so without my suitcase.

Which turned up at my Palmer House a Hilton Hotel a full three full days later a day before I was due to leave.

Of course, looking back the support desk at the carousel were very helpful.

In helping me fill out the form and keep my reference number.

While I also got to know the bell hops at the hotel very well.

From checking constantly if my yellow suitcase had arrived.

And allowing me to use their phone to check of the luggage’s status.

While there was also a very accommodating mobile phone assistant who helped me top up my credit when that ran out.

As well as Ivan, my man on the inside at Aer Lingus, who smoothed the process and reunited suitcase with Scotsman.

Aye, we do have our baggage.

And it would help if we all considered each other and brought the right-sized bags to the gate.

America, Countries, Music

The stage at the Rising Star Karaoke Bar

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I was set up, not for the first time, when Bev from Glasgow took the stage at the Rising Star karaoke bar in CityWalk Orlando.

I blame our hosts Visit Orlando and our party PRs Natalie and Fiona, who kept refilling our shots glasses when our backs were turned.

Bev ‘Lady’ Lyons and I had formed a bond being the only two Scots in our international party of travel writers to the Sunshine State and were poring through the music menu.

To pick what tracks we would sing up there on the stage with the professionals.

If I’d have had my wits about me I would have sussed out that Bev might have sung before.

When she said her Karaoke go-to was The Carpenters.

Rolling down the river

But there was no mistaking that Bev was well practised in performing.

When she introduced herself to the 2,000 crowd as ‘Bev from Glasgow’.

And launched into a rendition of Proud Mary, complete with motions, that would have done well Tina Turner, well proud.

With the sounds of encore ringing out the next act was called up to sing Lady Marmalade.

Only for that someone to be your tone-deaf favourite Bandanaman who proceeded to murder the song.

Of course, the fun-loving Floridians are always there to give you a gee-up.

And the Emcee called on the audience to give me a big cheer as ‘a dude doing a girl’s song.’

Mr Brightside Bandanaman

Not put off, though, I was back for more with an equally vocally challenged colleague, Eoin, later in the week to mangle Mr Brightside.

Eoin, the then-showbiz editor of our esteemed newspaper titles did put a spin on it.

When he met Brandon Flowers on tour.

Only for The Great Man to shoot his eyes up to heaven.

Make Bev a hit

My old friend Bev, who has also made a career on the other side of showbiz as the Showbiz Lion, is equally adept front of stage as evidenced in Orlando.

And the exciting news is that she is taking her first nervous step into her own musical career.

With the release of her first single, I’m Leaving You.

She tells me that the more presaves she gets the more likelihood there is of it charting): https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/bevlyons/im-leaving-you/.

And that would mean the guy who took the stage at the Rising Star Karaoke Bar after her.

Well, he might well force his way into being her support.

When we go on tour!

America, Countries, Food

Hot Dog… Chicago’s is dragged through the garden

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And something to line my stomach before my flight back to Scotland. Hot Dog Chicago’s is dragged through the garden.

On account of its green add-ons and more later.

For many of us Europeans, and other types, the hot dog is our gateway to street food Stateside.

So if you got your first taste of a dwaaag from a Manhattan vendor you might imagine that they’re uniform across the country.

Hot Dog years

Check in: Skyscrapers in Chicago Airport

Wrong, there’s a pack of dogs out there.

While we’re road testing the two best known here, New York and Chicago.

Our source, or should that be sauce, are hot dogoligists (OK, we made that up).

At the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (and we didn’t make that up).

They run us through a history of the wiener and the origin claims of Frankfurt and Vienna.

With even Homer and the Ancient Greeks thrown in for good measure.

New York on a roll

Now, just like the hamburger, there is consensus that German immigrants took their sausages with them to the States.

And their first port of passage was naturally New York.

Where inevitably there are rival claims for who was the first to make a buck out of the-then dachshund sausage.

Either an immigrant in the Bowery district, along with milk rolls and sauerkraut in the 1860s.

Or more specifically baker Charles Feltman, who in 1871 opened up the first Coney Island stand.

Selling 3,684 dachshund sausages in a milk roll during his first year in business.

Hot stuff

How the sausages came to be known as hot dogs is also shrouded in mystery and mythology.

With one version crediting a vendor at the New York Polo Grounds on a cold April day.

Shouting ‘Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!’

And sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan taking the story and running with it with a sketch.

Of barking dachshund sausages nestled warmly in rolls.

And because he couldn’t spell dachshund he wrote hot dog instead.

A tale of two US sittings

All of which is filling, albeit pretty interesting, in the discussion around the NY and Chicago hot dogs.

The NY offering leans heavily on the sauerkraut and brown mustard with onions^.

While the Chicago dog which really took off with the World Fair in 1893 packs in a lot more.

Served on a poppy seed bun, topped with mustard, tomatoes, onions, sport peppers, green relish, dill pickles and celery salt.

Which I slurp down at the airport bar with a Boston Sam Adams in the company of Hawaiian Chase.

Because hot dogs are a communal event I’ve enjoyed from Washington and Ben’s Chilli Bowl to Venice Beach.

And Hot Dog Chicago’s is dragged through the garden. And me after it.

America, Countries, Music, Sport

The L word in Chicago

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It’s its USP, the rickety elevated trains that run through the Downtown Loop and which everyone knows as the L word in Chicago.

For a wide-eyed Scottish adolescent with American cousins my entry point to Chicago was through The Blues Brothers.

And Elwood tossing and turning in his sleep above the Plymouth Restaurant.

The filmmakers depicted his room as being right next to the L tracks, named for the elevated position.

With the location now a small park in front of the restaurant.

Your inner Elwood

I channel my inner Elwood in the Palmer House Hotel these five days in Chicago.

Where I nod off every night to sleep, with the clanking train in my ears.

The L couldn’t be easier to navigate, no validating tickets here.

Just book your $2 trip (yes, you read that right) or $5 all-day ticket.

Which praise be, you can pay for too in old Earth money at the machine.

And if even that confuses those new in town there is help at hand at the information desk.

With Old Willie giving me a pass without the need for the machine.

And chewing the fat with me about Scottish white soul band The Average White Band.

An L of a ride

Let’s go round again… and that, of course, means a return to the scene of the crime from my first day here.

The Gaybourhood of North Halsted Street, Andersonville.

And it’s spiritual home the multi-bar Sidetrack where we gather on a hot and sweltering night to celebrate Pride.

In the company of Veronica Pop, Boy J and Tender Oni.

Tender, or Oni, they go by either nomenclature, is championing Drag Kings.

And wows us with an out-of-this world Bruno Mars.

While Boy J prides themself that they can survive and does a mean Bruno themself with Veronica’s Lady Gaga.

Partners in time

We watch it all from the intimate main bar with slushy cocktails in hand of course.

Before doing our own thang on the dance floor.

Where a 4ft tall pocket rocket owns the floor, announcing to everyone that it is her 30th birthday.

She has me at ‘you only look 35’ when I tell her I’m twice her age.

She only, of course, has eyes for her partner, who holds on to her protectively.

Looking out from under the peak of her Cubs baseball hat.

Halsted Street is just down the road from Wrigley Field and I join the wave of happy sports fans back to the Belmont train.

It’s cooling down, there is lightning in the sky and the Chicagoans have brought the thunder.

The L word in Chicago.

I am travelling with Aer Lingus from Edinburgh through Dublin and now back with my luggage and staying at the Palmer House Hotel.

America, Countries, Music

Sweet home ChicaGay

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If you want a break, have a Kit Kat the marketeers say so I did just that and came to the Windy City, sweet home ChicaGay.

I’ve taken a Spring Lover too although maybe not tell The Scary One back home.

We’re sat in the Kit Kat Lounge watching Kinley Preston stride the table.

As we tear into buffalo wings, onion rings and curly fries and sipping from a choice of the hundreds of cocktails.

And Miley Cyrus belts out Party in the USA on the big screens.

And we entice our entertainment in to pick us out for a teasing wink.

By flashing our dollars towards her.

But all too quickly they vanish although where scantily-clad Kinley put her George Washingtons only she knows.

Nothing as it seems

That’s magic: Justin at the Magic Lounge

But that’s the beauty of Halsted Street in the iconic Chicago of Andersonville where nothing is ever as it seems.

And so that if you need a laundromat in your travels, say if you’ve been waiting for your lost luggage to arrive from Dublin.

Then don’t be surprised, well actually be, when your host opens the wash to reveal a secret door to the Chicago Magic Lounge.

Joey Cranford’s speakeasy is a living tribute to the days of Victorian vaudeville with posters and ephemera adorning the walls and glass cases.

And he walks us through the history of magic as we sip How Houdini Died rum punches, a knowing nod to Harry’s demise.

Where the magic happens

The lounge is a living, breathing workspace and entertainment hub celebrating Chicago-style Magic.

With two theatres, eats, drinks and a card school.

We’re told Chicago-style Magic grew out of small card acts performed by the owner of a German-American restaurant.

Mine host Joey has given himself a day off today from picking our cards (well, he is the boss).

So Justin Purcell entertains our party with his sleight of hand.

Our hour flies by and alas our spin cycle is done and we are back out on Halsted Street.

Out on Halsted Street

But the gaybourhood fun doesn’t stop there as we are headed for the beating heart of Halsted Street, Sidetrack.

And meet Art, owner and protector of the Andersonville queer community for more than 40 years.

Having turned a small gay bar which he maintained through the worst days of homophobia.

To the international multi-bar buzzing venue it is today.

It is our good fortune that today is Sunday so it’s quieter and there’s no line snaking down Halsted to get in.

So we can enjoy our Frozé and Black Cherry Buzz fruity vodka slushy without having to be cheek by jowl with fellow customers.

Happy to get Sidetracked

Although that is much of the vibe of Sidetrack which we will discover on Tuesday’s Pride evening.

In truth, it hasn’t always been easy to be out on Halsted Street, although contrary to perceptions I am straight.

Which is fine in this inclusive district which straddles the Chicago Cubs’ ballpark, Wrigley Field, the second oldest in the States.

Our guide Victor Salvo walks us through his neighbourhood stopping off at the pillars of gay American and international history,

The legacy of the global community who suffered so the party I have joined for today’s tour can enjoy.

It truly is a Sweet Home ChicaGay. And anyone, straight, queer or somebody who just wants a Spring Liver can enjoy.

And as I’ve been saying all week, I’ve been travelling with Aer Lingus.

For the American Travel Fair, IPW, and staying at the iconic Palmer House Hilton Hotel.

America, Countries

Holidos and Don’t sensors working overtime in the US

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You can look but don’t touch. This is Holidos and Don’ts sensors working overtime in the US.

Now, despite being a seasoned traveller I am always learning and even the stuff I know I have to remind myself.

Particularly when you arrive in the country jet-lagged and travel-weary at Stupid O’Clock.

And more about my journey to Chicago, which like every trip I do was an odyssey, in due course.

Follow the Dorothy road

Over the Rainbow: Hilton Palmer House Hotel

But back to the iconic Hilton Palmer House Hotel on E Monroe Street in Downtown.

You are reminded of the area’s rich theatre history.

By the framed pictures of the greats who have stayed and played the hotel.

And there are few bigger than Judy Garland, whose Wizard of Oz tour stopped off here.

I doubt mind that Judy, who is waiting for me outside my room had to fuss herself.

With negotiating the snacks and water tray atop the mini-bar.

Look but don’t touch

Look carefully, and again no touching, and you’ll see a small note on said tray.

Saying that it is sensory and if your curiosity, hunger, thirst, or all three get the better of you.

You will be billed.

Magic water in Orlando

Drink up: This one was free with our party

Which many moons ago cost me while staying at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando Universal.

And I had innocently and noisily reached for the Fiji water only to change my mind about drinking it when I saw the price.

The thrills, spills and entertainment of Universal soon took over.

And I put it out of my mind until I was informed on check-out that I had drunk said water virtually and would have to pay.

Fear not, of course, the trick is to ask at the desk for bottled water which the kindly staff will gladly provide.

And so refreshed after a sleep of sorts with my body clock all over the shop.

Chicago-go-go

I’m channeling my inner Judy Garland/Dorothy and exploring Gay Chicago on an LGBTQ+ tour.

Satisfied to have avoided and able to share the first in this Chicago series.

Of Holidos and Don’ts sensors working overtime in the US.

I travelled with Aer Lingus through Edinburgh and Dublin with pre-clearance to attend the American Travel Fair IPW.

America, Countries

A star in stripes in the US on Flag Day

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And finally, I’m off to Chicago, a star in stripes on Flag Day.

Today, June 15, being the day Americans celebrate ‘Old Glory’ every year.

In honour of Betsy Ross’s drape, marking the 13 founder states in stripes.

And 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing the new constellation which was the new nation.

Flagging up Chicago

United States of AmAerica: My flight providers

That I’ll be spending the next week in The Windy City is apt.

As a major rally featuring 300,000 schoolchildren honoured the Flag here 130 years ago.

In Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks.

Proud nationalist Benjamin J Cigrand had taken up an idea from the Civil War and run with it.

Where Ross is boss

And so we are where we are now.

And for that we are thankful to Philadelphia upholsterer and friend of George Washington Betsy.

Whose story we can follow in the City of Brotherly Love at Betsy Ross’s House where a flag-raising ceremony is held daily.

When in Philly, of course, we gather around a certain cracked bell.

But this Americanophile and revolutionary naturally sought out a flag-raising ceremony myself at the old town hall.

Holding back the civic officers just so I could get my picture for posterity.

Waving the flag

Now wherever I go across the Oo Es of Eh I seek out the flag.

And wrap myself up in it since taking the Atars and Stripes back with me from my first visit as a 17-year-old.

By order of the Flag: In the ‘White House’

Which has been used on a flagpole, as a dinner cloth.

And the least said about what my Best Man Andy used it for the better.

Not, of course, what the founding fathers had in mind.

When they adopted the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.

I’d expect though they’d appreciate my devotion.

A star in stripes in the US on Flag Day.

America, Countries, Sport

On board with Brian Wilson in California

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Turns out I was on board with Brian Wilson in California all along by skipping the wave.

Because like Brian I’m more natural at singing the praises of surfin’ than actually doing it.

As my guides from waterskiing in Malta through paddle boarding on a Royal Caribbean cruise in Barcelona will testify.

Surfin’ for us and everyone else for whom walking on sand makes more sense is about the Good Vibrations.

Wouldn’t it be nice

And there is nothing better than catching The Beach Boys themselves in California.

I guess we should have guessed all along about Brian’s aversion to surfing when we watched him on board Sloop John B.

On the overhead video during lunch break of the annual American Travel Fair in Anaheim.

As his Beach Boys channeled his vision on set below and Mike Love and I pressed flesh.

The home of surfing

As is the tradition of the Great American Song Surfin’ USA name checks as many locations as you can in a three-minute hit.

Apart from, and Brian has taken his reasons for omitting it to the Next World, Huntington Beach.

Now Huntington Beach bills itself as Surf City USA.

And while we didn’t exactly follow Jan and Dean’s advice.

And buy ourselves a ’30 Ford wagon called Woody we did get a party growin’.

Surfin’ Dogg

With a little help from a Surfin’ Dogg.

The dudest of rappers putting on a set which had us all dancin’ into the early hours.

Not that Surfin’ dogs are anything unusual on this stretch of the Pacific 44 miles south of Los Angeles.

As I first discovered when Huntington Beach rolled into Dublin and reached out to us.

And I discovered that anyone can surf with Huntington Beach even putting on dog surfing competitions.

With Bono, a Brazilian Labrador the champion although this one doesn’t wear the shades.

Anyone maybe other than me and the Beach Boys genius.

But then for his fans he will always walk on water.

And I’ve something in common with him as I’m on board with Brian Wilson in California.

So Do It Again, get out to the USA and when you do go through Ireland with Aer Lingus with pre-clearance.

To Los Angeles, sample round trip £636.