We're coming to America!

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David R

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Apr 26, 2005
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So it is looking very likely my sister will be getting married in Dallas Texas some time early next year (around March, I think), which is great as it provides a great excuse to make the trip to the US I've been thinking about for quite some time!! Obviously it's a big waste of time coming that far just for a wedding so we're looking at spending 3-4 weeks touring around. High up the priority list is checking out some decent aquariums, we haven't even confirmed dates yet, let alone itinerary, so are completely flexible about where to go. A public aquarium with a massive Amazonian display (preferably with pimas) is pretty high up the must-see list, so any recommendations would be great.

We're looking to fly into the East Coast, probably LA, and would like to visit San Francisco and San Diego to check out some of my favourite craft breweries. Grand Canyon is another must-see, my sister and mother both rated it as one of the highlights of their trip there in 2010. Not so fussed about vegas, but it's right there so will probably check it out. Other than that, we're still in the researching phase so are looking for suggestions and ideas of where to go and what to see. Other things that would be potentially interesting to us would be;
-anything fish-related; public aquaria, good LFS, johnptc's house perhaps?! ;)
-any sort of "natural wonders". Thinking about Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, perhaps the Giant Redwoods.
-museums of significance, anything to do with planes trains and automobiles, technology or history. Perhaps while we're in Texas going to Houston and checking out Nasa/Space Centre?
-anything beer-related, craft/micro breweries, brew-pubs etc.
-I'd like to hire a bike and do a mountain bike ride or two somewhere. I understand there's some pretty good riding and bike parks in Colorado? Or perhaps just a hike somewhere to save the bike hire etc?
-and of course visiting at least one big theme park to ride some roller-coasters!

and I'm open to any other suggestions of what could be worth seeing/doing while we're over there. We've both travelled a bit, but mostly Europe. I've only spent one day in the US on a stop-over (plus a week in Toronto) and my wife hasn't been there since she was a kid.

So sell it to me people, coming from the land of hobbits and rugby this is like a trip to the set of a TV show or movie!
 
you should hit up dallas world aquarium while your there. hope you have a fun trip

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If you'll be in San Francisco I would recommend the behind the scenes tour at Steinhart Aquarium that's part of the California Academy of Sciences: https://ticketing.calacademy.org/webstore/shop/ViewItems.aspx?Merchant=CAS&CG=BTST&C=BTSAQUARIUM

In my opinion it was worth every penny to the additional cost of general admission...I just wish the tour was longer. I would recommend going on a weekday even though you risk being around a bunch of school groups on field trips. On weekends it's almost always very busy.

Some cool big trees parks:
Calaveras Big Trees: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=551
Muir Woods: http://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm

Honestly, there aren't any fish stores in the Bay Area that I would say are worth going out of your way to see.

Make sure to bring a jacket...San Francisco is cold in March.

Outside of the Bay Area (fish-wise) visiting the Georgia Aquarium is on my bucket list: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/
 
Cheers, keep the suggestions rolling!!

Great suggestion Alex, I did the 'behind the scenes' tour at out National Aquarium in Napier and enjoyed seeing the filtration set up as much as the fish themselves!! I just checked out the climate for SanFran on wiki and the average high-low for March is 16-9C, which is about the same as we've been having now in the middle of a very late, dry and mild winter. Not too bad really.
 
if you are gonna be in LA anyways, definitely hit up JohnPTC ahead of time. I'm sure he'd be glad to show you his uber monster setup he calls House of Sam. It will be well worth it. You may never get another chance to see it again.

have fun and be safe when the time comes!
 
I also highly recommend the california academy of science in San Francisco.

I was just there again last week and they most definitely have giant airapima's (although right now there is only one).

I can't vouch for the behind the scenes tour, but I bet it's amazing (and I should try it sometime soon)


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