Rain, rain, rain
Well we left Niagara with its grandeur and power of water to drive to Detroit. Here we encountered the power of another type of water, torrential rain. After about 6 hours we modified our planed and stopped short of Toledo on the banks of Lake Erie. The high spot of the day was stopping at Erie city and having a great lunch at Johnny’s dinner.
We made it to the motel and looked forward to tomorrow when we head for Chicago.
PS no pictures today, who wants to see rain?
Wednesday, a drive to Niagara, the roads, (I90 and I190) were very clear, the weather was a bit too chilly for the top down on the interstates. We have a coupon book (discounts) and booked in to the Quality Inn-the nearest hotel in Niagara (USA side) to the falls. The room was ready although it was just after 12: midday so we dumped our bags and headed out for the falls. First of all we walked to the edge of the American falls, then had lunch and fed the noisy seagulls. The we spent $23 to go on the Maid of the Mist-experience. We were issued with thin blue rain cover ponchos, the wind at the base of American falls was so strong I don’t know how the poncho’s didn’t take off and blow away!!!!!!!!!!!!
The maid of the mist-
http://www.maidofthemist.com/ has been operating in different incarnations since 1902. The falls are 180 feet high. Check the pictures.
Because the boat motors right up close to the falls, first American falls and Bridal Veil Falls then in to the maelstrom that is the base of Horseshoe Falls. The power and blast of the wind and spray was awe inspiring, nature at it most powerful and impressive.
After a rest we went to the massive outlet mall on the outskirts of Niagara. A 75% sale was on and I got some lovely Oshkosh dungaree’s for little Luke and lots for me, including some lovely shoes and a pair of 15 pound designer jeans that fit me so well!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We went of dinner in the quietest Hard Rock Café we have ever found, you could talk and hear each other over the music. Tony had a new thing-pulled pork!!!!!!!! Tasty though. Back to bed by 10ps, aren’t we good. Tomorrow we set out via Detroit for Chicago. The start of Route 66. We are visiting Tony’s cousin Matthew so will set out for our fabled road trip on Sunday morning.
Lake George
Well we woke bright and early in Aunt Sally’s lovely house and after a traditional breakfast of pancakes-American style, we went for a walk to see the Bixby house.
Sally’s father had it built in 1901 and over the years the growing family has used it for summer vacations and big parties, including very society weddings. Uncle Eric converted the house into apartments for different branches of the family to use, Sally’s branch got the front upper apartment, facing the lake.
The grounds are wonderful and this morning the lake was at it’s sparkling best, the tree’s obligingly beginning to show their autumn glory. The air was so fresh and clear. Sally walked with us and gave us historical pointers to plantings, neighbourhood moves etc.
The crowning glory lives in the boat house, amongst several very nice small and larger launches is a very special electric engined launch, bought by grandfather Bixby at the 1901 St Louis Fair. See picture.
We strolled back to Sally’s house, took some photo’s for posterity and then hit the road, our first full day’s road trip.
Today we drove over and through the Adirondack Mountains, highest 4000 feet. Via Lake Placid the site of 2 winter Olympics and we got an unusual view of the humongous ski jumps as we drove by.
We stopped for lunch in Saranac at the lake side town and ate in the towns central café, Tony had a Reubens sandwich ( corned – that means salt cured in American, beef and salad, usually sauerkraut) and I had a bowl of lovely handmade vegetable and chicken soup- natures cure all!!
Back on the road and we drove down to …….And stayed the night in a Comfort Inn at Syracuse. It had an indoor swimming pool. Supposedly heated but actually freezing, after half a dozen lengths Tony said my nose was blue, so we hopped out into the lovely Jacuzzi, the strongest one I have ever encountered, talk about wobbly bits!!!!!!!!!
We ate take out and watched cable TV, and in-fact were asleep by 10pm!!
MoMA
After a late night we were up later than usual, a nice brunch and then of to MoMA ( Museum of Modern Art)
http://www.moma.org/ and it was everything we hoped it would be. A fantastic collection of work from the 20th Century, exhibited in a way and with explanations that all could understand. We stayed till late afternoon, having lunch in the process in their café. Good thing to as it was pouring most of the day. Some of the best views were the gray skyline from the museum windows.WE recovered to the hotel to rest prior to our assault on the night of New York. We started at 7 with a night bus round the whole city. It is a magical place, even if not too environmentally sound, but it does looks good(as you can see). Back in Times Square the crowds had thinned, all going to the second shows in the theaters. We were able to walk the streets off Broadway and found a really cool Jazz club. A good meal, a few martinis, recovery to the Algonquin for more martinis the off to bed. Off in the morning for Up State New York, so time for bed, really this time!
First Day
Saturday morning. We were awake and buzzing at 3.30 am. It was a long wait till breakfast at 7.30am!!
After breakfast we strolled up to Grand Central Terminal and then to the Empire State building. We rode to the top, Tony making much of a slight limp to get us past the queues! On the top 88 floors- visibility was hampered by low clouds, and then the heavens opened. There was a handy audio guide and we could se out of the covered observation deck over the cityscape. The Empire state building was built in a year and a quarter in 1931.
After that experience we hit an Irish bar near Macy’s and then went into the worlds largest store. We then ate a hot dog from a street vendor and strolled back for a rest before going to Greenwich Village for dinner.
We found an amazing Italian restaurant in ‘the west village, small, vine covered. We sat in a table overlooking the street. The windows were would right open, almost alfresco dining. Beautiful food and delightful waiter. Outside was a street theatre production, with a transvestite playing an Isadora Duncan type character. Wonderful. After dinner, we strolled through the village, buying some interesting pictures and talking to the artist. People here are friendly and so keen to talk and pass comments. We feel very safe in the streets and the streets are tidy and clean. We walked back towards the subway to get back to our hotel and on the way passed St Vincent’s Hospital; a key player in the 9/11 disaster. Across the road there is the only memorial to that terrible day, it is a wall of self drawn tills, hung by ordinary people. You can find details at http://tilesforamerica.com/
Arrival in New York
Our hotel, The Algonquin http://www.algonquinhotel.com/
Is on West 44th street.
Very atmospheric and friendly our porter-Kevin took us up tour room and settled us in. Jack Jones is playing in the ‘famous oak room’, check out the website for all the gen.
We showered and sorted our selves out then went for an explore. It was 3.15 pm local time, 9.15pm at home.
We turned right outside the hotel and walked down to Times square. http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/
Wow, it is overwhelming in real life, not a square but an elongated triangle shape and busy busy!! We decided to ride the open top tour bus downtown. Grey line city tours. We sat right in the front at` the top. Our guide –John was so knowledgeable. We arrived back about two hour later, chilly and exhausted. We ate in the Hard Rock Café, right on times square, we were hungry so a burger did the job. We strolled back to the hotel and fell asleep by 9.pm.
Brum to JFK
We caught a mini cab to the airport. No problems checked in with no delay and had a coffee whilst we waited 20 mins for our flight to be called. It was due to take off at 6.20 but was 15 mins late. Quite a turbulent flight. We landed at Paris ‘Charles De Gaulle’ and found it is being rebuilt. The plane parked on the perimeter and a bus drove us all round the airport to the terminal. We hurried to the transfer desk and they said they would call ahead to the next flight to say we were on our way. The flight was due t leave at 10.15 and it was already 9am(local time). We caught another bus to the next terminal and found our way to the security check, what chaos!!!! They had set aside a queue for the 3 flights to USA due to take off at 10.15 but it didn’t help more than to coral us in a separate area. As usual for French queues we mêlée’d around for ages. Belts and shoes off, Bit by bit we came to the front of the line. There was an x-ray machine for our bags an archway to go through a full body (thankfully not a cavity search). I was getting extremely testy by the time we got to the final check of our bags. A surly French geezer delved about in my carefully packed bags. Tony’s walking stick attracted a great deal of interest as did my medicine bag, have I a medical paper the guard asked. Yep, rummage, I produced said document, it could have been a shopping list for all it meant to him, with a shrug we were sent on our way. The walk to embarkation was about a 10 min walk up hill and down dale, then to a bus, which had been waiting and slowly filling up since 09.20. it was 10.10 no. After another 10 mins or so we drove off to the perimeter again. On boarding we hurriedly go ourselves organised. The pilot announced we had lost our slot, so we waited all strapped in for about 15 mins, then he announced something wasn’t right on the pre flight checks so they had to start again, finally we set off at 12.45
He flight was pretty bumpy over England and Ireland, then thick cloud over the Atlantic until we flew in over Goose Bay-RAF readers will know all about the Goose- although no black fly on board thankfully. In flight food was lovely Complementary champers and good films, Nacho Libre with jack Black, RV with Robin Williams and Inside Man with Denzil Washington.
Once into JFK in New York we quickly went through Immigration and we in a cab heading for the city within an hour.
Back on line
We are now back on line after a slight problem with the computer. We will make major posting later. For info, New York is as fabulous as they say.
D day minus 1
Well we are all packed up and ready to go. Good thing the carry on rules have been relaxed, not so much for now but what we will bring back! Next post will be from the Big Apple.
On to prison
The cats have a way of escaping as soon as their travel baskets come out, so if you can round them up you catch them and take them to the kennels ASAP. Well I got them this morning, so it was off to their hotel (prison) for the next few weeks. They have been before and are always looked after well at the Top Hat and Tails cattery (no, I am not getting a discount for the mention!)
Prepare for prison
Well the time has come to round up our 3 cats to send them to cat prison for the duration. We have been getting them used to new cat blankets to be in their cages, (see picture). The cats are Bishop, a 10 year old Saudi street cat( under his blanket), Teddy, a 4 year old Burmese (looking fed up) and Dumbo a 2 year old moggie( well really my daughters cat, which we are cat sitting until she gets a flat that allows pets) he is hiding in his box
Labels: cats
T Day minus 5
Preparations are proceeding a pace. Julie has become very organised and has written list of things to do. We have travelled for years and we always do this, is this usual?
Labels: Lists, preparations
Preparation
We are travelling to New York on 22 September to begin the big journey. We plan to drive to Los Angeles via Niagara, Chicago and places way out west. We will keep this blog as a warts and all diary of the trip and hope it might be useful of those who want to try the same trip
