While it doesn't have the sophistication of "A tale of two cities" (by Charles Dickens), my recently completed trip was in many ways about the four cities that I visited: New York, NY; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; San Francisco, CA. The first two hosted conferences that I wanted to go to; the last three hosted friends that I wanted to visit. (Yes there's some overlap -- Portland, OR hosted both a conference and people to meet, and I spent about half my trip in Portland.)
New York, NY
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In many ways New York, NY, is the quintessential city -- the city that defines the stereotype that comes to mind when one says "city". From the skyline filled with high rises, to event centres like Madison Square Gardens, and parks like Central Park.
I'd been to New York once previously, in December 1999, also for a conference; that was actually my first trip outside of New Zealand, and I spent it surrounded by people speaking French (due to that trip being sponsored by a Belgian based client). The sheer volume of people on the streets reset my idea of what "crowded" means, to the extent that when I came back to New Zealand into the Year 2000 celebrations a week or so later my reaction to people saying "it's so crowded" was to look around and feel it was rather quiet, actually. (I also got a little of that on returning this time, although this time I was returning into winter so I think people are generally avoiding being out on the streets unnecessarily -- adding to the effect.)
Because of constraints on when I could leave New Zealand and the timing of the conference, I didn't spent much time in New York other than at the conference and in the immediate area (which usefully turned out to be almost identical to the Midtown Manhattan area I'd visited previously -- so I felt I knew my way around immediately; not that navigation in Manhattan by foot is difficult, given that it's a full grid of numbered streets and avenues, so heading in the right general direction always works).
Other than Highline Park, which I mentioned previously, the only "touristy" thing that I did was to visit Central Park.
Parts of Central Park look very much like the movies -- in large part because Central Park has featured in so many movies. I spent parts of my time wandering around going "I recognise this place" because of how frequently it's been used as the Stereotypical Park in TV and film. But other parts look very different. In many ways Central Park is a whole series of distinct parks (and recreation areas), each a few square blocks in side, all joined together.
From most places within the park you can easily look up and see the buildings that surround the park, but it's also possible to get tucked away in little areas and feel both away from the crowds and away from the city. I can see why it has the reputation of being the recreation area for the city. Unfortunately the volume of people shows in other ways -- most areas of grass (!) were fenced off, with signs asking people to stay off the grass. In retrospect the need is understandable, but it gives the impression of being near nature, rather than being in nature. Still I was very pleased that I went, as it is a rewarding place to be, and was one of the quintessential New York locations that I'd not visited.
By contrast other places like Times Square held very little appeal (especially after seeing on-mass-billboard-advertising in a bunch of other cities, and being generally anti-advertising at this point); but it did have the benefit of free WiFi.
Mostly my New York experience was one of the conference, of street side fruit vendors (excellent idea, every city should have them), of Korean food (which seems to be a staple of my visits to New York, and was once again convenient for ducking out for quick meals), and of the buzz of lots of enthusiastic people (being in a hotel directly opposite Madison Square Gardens and Pennsylvania Station meant that there were people around almost constantly day and night).
It's a fun place to visit, but I'm not sure how long I could live there.
Portland, OR
Portland, OR was probably the most inland of the cities that I visited, but is situated on a major river (right next to the border with Washington State) so it didn't feel that far inland (the river is wide enough that they can, and do, bring military vessels right up to the city docks -- and most of the bridges in the city proper open in some fashion to allow them to pass). I spent about 10 days in Portland, of which 2.5 were taken up with a conference during which I mostly only saw a few bits of inner North-East Portland. But I spent the remainder of the time with a friend seeing the city and surrounds, in a manner that easily made up for the lost time (by the end I was looking forward to a half day on a train -- to Seattle -- to recover!).
Many of my friends say if they were to live in the USA they'd live in Portland, OR -- and I can definitely see why. It's a "just right" sized city, big enough to have lots of useful services without becoming a sprawling metropolis. And it benefits from having been largely designed in the days before there were two motorcars in every drive way, so it's pretty walkable and has good public transport (bicycling is also very actively encouraged, and has many participants -- in contranst to many cities where it's only the most dedicated few). One surprise was just how pedestrian friendly it is -- cars will stop, and wait for you to cross, at the slightest provocation. If you wander near a corner and look like you might be crossing, then traffic comes to a halt until you do. Being used to cities where you're lucky if the drivers see you, let alone stop, this took some getting used to.
Portland is also the most green of the cities I visited. Particularly in the South East section of the city, where I spent most of my time, almost every street and avenue is lined with old-growth trees, in a way that I hadn't really seen since Canberra (Australia). The stereotypical USA modern city landscape pokes through in places (particularly with the freeways near the river, and some of the more recently developed areas) but mostly it looks like a city designed for people, rather than one designed for efficient use of private cars.
The other major highlight for me was that Portland is a city that takes healthy food, and sustainability, to heart. Not only are there raw and vegan restaurants (eg, Blossuming Lotus) but many other restaurants take good quality food seriously. It was the easiest place for me to be fairly sure what was in the food that I was buying (critical given my food allergies), and to know that it was good for me. Portland also has a large range of healthy food oriented supermarkets (in additional to the nationwide chain Whole Foods -- which my Portland friends call "whole paycheck").
A little further out of the city it was very useful that friends of friends were willing to take us both out to the coast (eg, Cannon Beach) and inland to Multnomah Falls). In both cases the trip there was very interesting, in addition to the destination (and in the case of the falls, the trip included a mile and a quarter walk up to the top of the falls).
I'd happily return to Portland, OR and spend more time there.
Seattle, WA
That Seattle, WA is a bigger city that Portland, OR, is pretty immediately obvious on arriving in the city (at least arriving by Amtrak at Union Station). Of all the places that I visited it has more of the "big city" feel, and more of the "mostly settled after the private motorcar became common" feel.
Seattle is beautiful on the days when the weather cooperates (which seem to be infrequent enough that they are notable when they occur; certainly it was foggy and/or gray for part of several of the days when I was there). It's a water-based city, spread around Puget Sound, and a pair of lakes, Lake Washington and Lake Union -- and it's obvious that those with the money have a boat, a place that overlooks the water, or both.
I stayed near Seattle Center (on wikipedia), with the hope that would be a central point for entertainment and food. It sort of worked on the entertainment front (I got to see a movie at the IMAX), but less so on the food front (indeed of all the cities Seattle was the one where I struggled the most to conveniently find food that I wanted to eat, although I did have one very good meal at Ivars Salmon House thanks to a local).
One of Seattle's famous landmarks is the Space Needle, which like the Sky Tower seems to mostly exist to be visible from all over the city; it's definitely a convenient navigation point, and and features in many of my photographs. Together Seattle Center and the Space Needle form something of a destination-entertainment area, primarily aimed at younger children (and tourists); it's also the starting point for an amphibious tour of the city which I kept seeing all over the city (but declined to get involved in).
On the Friday I went to visit friends I knew in Seattle, and saw (bits of) the campuses of a couple of the major IT employers in the area as well as played several board games (one of my friends seems to have a knack for finding board game enthusiasts in every city he is in). On Saturday I visited Pike's Place Market (on wikipedia), one of the longest running "farmers markets" -- which was overcrowded with tourists on a weekend day, but had an interesting history museum and some interesting shops in the related areas. I also got out to Bainbridge Island (on wikipedia), a short ferry ride from the city -- in part to see the city from a different direction. And on Sunday I wandered around the Olympic Sculpture Park (part of the Seattle Art Museum).
San Francisco, CA
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My last stop was San Francisco both to visit friends I'd not seen in years (I was last in San Francisco 8 years ago) and to catch my flight home (direct flights from San Francisco to Auckland being a new thing to me -- I'd have flown into San Francisco as well, but the timing would have meant I arrived in New York well into the early morning -- something that ended up happening anyway).
San Francisco was much as I remembered it, although the Ferry Building has been renovated and now houses a nice selection of speciality shops as well as hosting a farmers market out front. I had a nice, inexpensive, lunch of Tamals from a stall there, and there were plenty of other options both in the Farmers market and in the Ferry Building itself. The walk around Embarcadero is still a lengthy stroll, but pleasant in the sunshine. It gets increasingly touristy as one gets to Pier 39, and Fishermans Wharf, but I had a great time looking around Museee Mechanique, a large collection of fully operational coin operated machines from amusement arcades over the past 100 years or so. The history panels alone make the visit worth while, but being able to watch the machines in operation is a real treat; I hope they're bringing in enough money from the machine usage to survive (there's no entry charge).
Later in the week I wandered through bits of San Francisco I'd somehow never got to, including SOMA, parts of which look very fashionable, and parts of which still look pretty industrial (especially once you get near the Freeway). Wandering fairly randomly (as is my way as a touristy) I stumbled upon a breath-taking Robert Cameron exhibition of aerial photography; and it makes me sad to learn that he died late last year (also NY Times article), because that means there'll be no more images.
I also made a point of taking a street car (route F) to the Castro, to get a first hand impression of the city outside the main business centre. It was particularly of interest since I believe I was inside the City Hall at the time that the press conference announcing that the federal court had ruled Proposition 8, limiting marriage to a man and a woman, unconstitutional -- the big local news story of the day I discovered later. (Many of my photos of City Hall show at least some of the press conference crowd on the main steps inside City Hall; even though I was trying to omit them from the pictures.)
Out of interest to compare it with New York and Portland, I took a trip out to Golden Gate Park, and walked around a little (it's another park large enough to have roads running through it, so I saw less than half of it). I looked through the Japanese Tea Garden, but didn't stop to have tea because it was busy and I was short on time to go meet a friend. It's a compact garden, but does manage to give a variety of different views within the limited space -- and it's fascinating to see what can be done with over 100 years of cultivating trees in particular directions. (Sadly that tea garden and other parts of Golden Gate Park highlight the sad state of California finances -- several things there were explicitly charging tourists several dollars more than "locals".)
Rounding out my short visit I made a quick trip via the BART to Berkeley, which still seems to be its own little state complete with its own weather (after being in fog all day in San Francisco, it was sunny in Berkeley). I had a nice all-fruit smoothie, my friend managed to buy All The Berries In The World (tm) from the farmer's market, when we arrived just before it closed.
I'd have liked to have spent more time in San Francisco (and I'd have liked it to have been warmer -- it was almost as cool in summer in San Francisco as it was arriving back into a nice Wellington winter day!), but it was also good to be homeward bound. I'll have to try to get back before another 8 years pass.