Visiting America
I started going to America in 1979 and I have never stopped going back (thirty
plus visits and counting). I love the place and its people. I especially like
its music whether classical, blues, bluegrass, country or rock. I have also
frequented its jazz bars in Seattle, Georgetown, New Orleans, LA, Chicago and NY
listening to the likes of Lionel Hampton, Stanley Turrentino, Booker T and
Ramsey Lewis.
In 1979, my visit took in San Francisco, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, San Jose and
Santa Cruz. Whilst, my last visit in 2011 was a 3 day stop over in New York to
speak at a conference there. In between, I have driven down the 101 on the west
coast, made a film in San Diego and trained it in from DC to NY and then on to
Boston. One summer, I visited St Louis, Kansas, Tulsa, Miami, Orlando, St
Petersburg, San Francisco and Denver simply by purchasing a 30 day Continental
Airline internal flight voucher for $200 (ah, those were the days).
It's hard to have a favourite place with so many great cities but Chicago is
hard to beat in the summer (I met Obama there in 2008), whilst watching the Red
Sox at Fenway Park, Boston is close to being in heaven.
Of course, being a techie, I have always enjoyed San Fran and its Silicon Valley
especially visiting Apple in Cupertino. But my favourite places have been Sonoma
County, next door to Napa Valley, in northern California, sipping a Peter
Michael wine in the cool evenings and perhaps, surprisingly, Las Vegas where the
entertainment is wild one day and wonderful the next. Every country should have
a Vegas.
Last week, I flew to Durham, the home of Duke University, in North Carolina
ostensibly to further my research on concussion (I sit on the UK bit of the
European Council for the Brain). I was lucky to join 15,000 locals at a
Bruce Springsteen concert at the PNC arena in Raleigh. (I'd last heard him at a
Born in the USA concert at Wembley in 1984!). He was just fantastic. His E
Street band of hugely talented musicians and singers created a unique wall of
sound which had us Dads and Granddads bopping in the aisles. Springsteen's
encore routine lasted almost an hour! (Bob Dylan please note).
I would guess the southern states of America are not so well know to us Brits.
As a for instance there are no Lonely Planet, Wallpaper or Rough Guides to the
place. Only Fodor's has a fix which covers the Carolinas and Georgia. And yet
the place charmed me. A direct flight from Heathrow on American Airlines takes
just over eight hours and if you leave at 11am you can be enjoying a BBQ and
sipping a locally brewed beer by 4pm the same day!
Principally, the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill host a trinity of
classy universities including Duke (private), North Carolina State University
and University of North Carolina (known as the "Triangle"). There are still
acres of space for development so the cities span out without impinging on the
lush woodlands such that it is sometimes difficult to appreciate there are over
2 million people living here. By the by, you can ski in the mountains or on the
sea and either or is less than a three hour drive.
Tourism has a new focus which adds to the triangle's charm. New restaurants like
The Pit (in an old Coca Cola factory) in downtown Durham is barely six months
old and heaving. Its rib menu keeps you busy for a couple of hours whilst there
was an old world charm at The Grocery which was situated closer to Duke. The
university (14,500 students) dominates the city though it is unobtrusive and its
campus architecture is subtle and sensitive.
I attended Duke Chapel on Sunday because Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock was the guest
speaker. He is the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptists Church in Atlanta where
Martin Luther King had also served. Warnock brought with him his legendary choir
(quite the best in the world) and they almost took the roof off the chapel
modelled as it is on a more modest version of Canterbury Cathedral.