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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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>I did take a short cut through canada on my way to lansing
I know that my geography is a little basic, but. I'm sure that it seemed like a good idea at the time!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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As you say, Capfka, LA (or alternatively, San Francisco) is fine for flights from the UK (and the least bad for Antipodeans) although it does seem to cost nearly as much for USn's to get there from the East Coast or Mid West as it does for me to get there from Edinburgh! The main problem with the springtime is that for those tied to educational establishments that do not allow vacations within termtime, the Easter holiday and spring break tend not to match up.
Looking at the prices on E-bookers.com from the UK, New York, Boston, Denver, Miami and Orlando all offer cheap flights. Examples at today's date: New York £175, Boston £179, Washington £184, Chicago £214, Denver £237, Miami £218, Orlando £261, Los Angeles £215, San Francisco £214, Toronto £431, Montreal £342, Vancouver £514, Quebec £448.
I suppose that much depends on someone volunteering to organise the next event.
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old hand
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old hand
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Re a detour through canada...
it sounds strange doesn't it? but Route 80, is the major road from NYC (well actually it start in NJ) heads west. I-80 has to dip south, round the lake erie, starting just about at the edge of that lake, which is near the NY/Pennsylvania boarder, before ohio,as does route 90!
a 40 or so mile detour,(north) on picturesque road and you are in Niagara NY, and then you can cross over into canada, and travel along the north edge of the lake on a road that also heads back south, and bring you to detroit.
its one of those geographic surprizes.. if you are in downtown detroit, and travel south, what would be the next country you enter? most people guess mexico, or some south american country, but the answer is canada!
a penisula of land on the northern edge of the lake, slips under detroit.. once you are in detroit, a few miles on another interstate road, you meet back up with I-80 which works its way back north..
There is US interstate system of road..with even numbers tend to be east west, odd numbers tend to be north south that criss cross the country.
the interstate Routes, (10, 20,(30?), 40, (50?), 60, 80, and 90) are the big east/west ones. they start in the south with 10(and i don't know if all the numbers are used,) and end in new england with 90
I-80 takes you (i know this one best!) from NJ to SF, CA.
I-90 from Boston to (Seattle? Portland Oregon?) but as i say, the great lakes cause the northen edge of US to take a dip..(and I-80 and I-90 share the same road for a while)
Running north and south, I 95 is the major road in NY area, it goes from Maine to Florida...and I-5 is in California, (going from mexico boarder north to at least seattle (i think it meet up with the old road, 99, which is called the Alaskan Highway, and runs along the coast from seattle, to alaska (the route might change names in Canada) but if you were driving, you'd basicly stay on the same road.. and except for the customs house/immigration stops, would be unaware of the boarders..
we US's tend to forget what a good neighbor we have in canada, and our border with canada is one of the largest unpatroled, and largely un fenced borders in the world! in some places, in northern montana and the dakota's, farms straddle the boarder, and farms cross back and forth freely as the plow there fields!
another feature of the system, are ring roads around major cities...so DC, NY and Boston all have routes I-495 (three digits indicates a ring or spur road)
there is a ring road round chicago too (I-480?) i am unsure of the number, because last time i traveled thro chicago, it was undergoing a major overhaul, and i didn't take the ring road.
what is really nice, is the major US road heading East, (near the lakes) and many heading north, link up with roads just as nice in canada. i don't know if those road always existed, or if the canadians just were kind enough to build in response to our system.
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
>It's one of those geographic surprizes.. if you are in downtown Detroit, and travel south, what would be the next country you enter? most people guess Mexico, or some south american country, but the answer is Canada! Which suggests that flipping the question around and asking those same people, "If you're in Windsor, Ontario, and head north, which is the next country you enter?", would really have them scratching their heads. 
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
Thanks for that. I've met people from Windsor, Ontario and had never looked it up on the map before. This interactive map answers both questions: http://www.ontario.worldweb.com/Maps/mapviewer.html?map_id=19044Incidentally - travelling eastwards will take you to Essex, travelling north east will take you to Bradford en route to Perth and travelling north will get you to Tobermoray. Be very careful about applying the directions on the rest of the map to Windsor, UK or else you will be taking a very strange route to London and you would have great problems navigating your way to Cornwall.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
LA in, say, March or April?
As someone once said :
The trouble with LA is there is no "there" there!
If you want the west coast it should be noted that San Francisco has a moderate climate all year round. From a few visits there I must say it is an easy city to get around in... with many points of interest. Also there is excellent public transport, including vans from airport. Whereas LA requires a car.
But like any major city the hotels, motels etc are pricey! Sigh. Is there anyone among us who lives there?
Is there any problem with early Sept? Or does it conflict with too many school openings? An extra three months gives a few more months to save up.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
well i have a granddaughter in the SF area, so i won't argue.. one option is going cross the bay to emeryville or oakland.. hotels are much cheaper, and then car pooling cross the bridge to see the sites is an option.. parking is expensive in SF, but as much fun as it is to get a hot sporty little red convertable, one or two mini vans would schelp 7 or 8 people at a time.. once your in SF, there are connects to buses, (cross the golden gate, to marin county, and the park) the cable cars, tour buses, and even a small subway system.. so if there was a plan for a car rental to include a van.. (and then some way of working out comp for the van renter/driver(cost more than a car)/gas/parking.) places like rent-a-wreck(which aren't wrecks, but also aren't current model year cars) are good options for saving costs.
it would take more coordination.. how did you guys work things out in ireland? did everyone rent their own car, or did you car pool?
some of the motels in oakland/emeryville even have shuttle buses cross the oakland bridge. and because the land is cheaper,they also often have outdoor pools. they also often have conference rooms, too, that can be booked..
any one who really want to see things (say drive 4 hours down to monterey bay) could rent their own car..if you do, take pacific coast highway, Rt. 1, not I-5. Route 1 is the old coast road, (the ones the spanish monks followed!) it hugs the coast, and passes all the old missions..
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
I liked the way that the first WAP worked, with a core weekend, where most people were there at the same time, allowing other people time to travel there and combine with other trips.
San Francisco has better than average public transport. Some friends found a reasonable place to stay near the ferry, so that they were able to get in and out easily without the expense of hiring or parking a car.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Well, one of the reasons for suggesting LA is its relatively equable year-round climate. Yes, I know it can get cold, but it generally doesn't get all that cold and in comparison with most other parts of the US or Europe at that time of year it is positively tropical. SF is nice, but the weather can be much worse. San Diego, on the other hand, might be doable. And it's a nice town. If we did LA (or anywhere in Southern California), we could time it so that the majority of people could be there. We could take a straw poll of dates to ensure that the most people can come. And for most USn's it would almost count as foreign travel, wouldn't it? 
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