A flying visit

The challenge: to see the sites of Washington Time limit: 5 hours The train ride from Chicago was 18 hours but we were very pleasantly surprised by the Amtrak train. Loads of leg room, comfy seats, viewing car and restaurant car . This is Stevie in the viewing cart section.


As it was night time we missed lots of the scenery but in the morning we got to see some beautiful sights...


We aimed for the white house first and we were surprised to see how small it was in real life!


It appears Obama had heard about the work Stevie had done down in Stephenville and asked for some assistance. However it soon became clear to them who the real brains behind the operation was....


Sprint to the Washington monument...


Power walk on to the Lincoln memorial...





During our limp towards the capital building we stopped by a sculpture garden...





And with weary legs we reached the capital!!


And ready to drop we got on our train to New York.....

Location:Washington DC

The white city

We visited Chicago on our way to Iowa and on our way back but for blog purposes I have combined the two trips! Our hotel was located just off the 'magnificent mile' which is famous for the amazing architecture you see there. I'm warning you we took a lot of pictures of buildings!





A larger than life Marilyn......


Millennium park is along this route and hosts the 'Bean' which is a sculpture we had been looking forward to seeing. It didn't disappoint and on a fantastically sunny day the reflection of the buildings was amazing.


We used the 'EL' to get around (elevated transport system).


We ventured up the Willis tower (used to be sears and the tallest building in the world till China trumped it). View from above....


And if the heights weren't already scary enough at the top they have a glass floor viewing station....


Goodness knows what came over me but I managed to drag myself on for about half a second whilst Stevie took a VERY quick snap.


Back to Chicago with Laura and Dennis. After a spot of shopping Dennis discovered green is really the colour for him....


We got to drive past million pound houses on lake Michigan, I made sure Stevie knew which ones I liked.......


We stopped by an unusual church


We headed for the science and industry museum in Jackson Park. This is where the first ever worlds fair was held and having just read 'devil in the white city' (a true story about a serial killer on the loose during the first worlds fair, soon to be made into a movie) I was dying to see the place where it happened. The museum is inside the only remaining building from the worlds fair. We learnt about tornados.....


And space....


And trains.....


We saw a baby chick that had just hatched


And I got my history fix when we got outside to see the lasting building of the worlds fair..... Seriously you should read the book it's very good!


So far Chicago is definitely one of my favorite cities :)

Location:Chicago

Family reunions

Gary and Sarah's - Iowa City First stop on the trip to see my/Stevie's family in Iowa was Gary and Sarah's, I hadn't seen them in years and we had a great welcome. Nancy, who I have such fond memories of from my last visit out with my family was there and doing so well. Sally ("the one who brought the game spoons to England") has her own family now and it was good fun meeting her husband and the girls. I'd missed children after 6 weeks of not working and it was good to finally speak to people on my level again. Cousin Riley kitted me out with a tripod for this picture and shared her iPad gadgets with us during our stay. We often had impromptu youtube video show and tell time which resulted in sore sides.


Went went out to an Amish village and looked at the goods they produce, they make some extremely intricate quilts and live a simple lifestyle without electricity.


....Amish parking lot


We stopped by a cheese making factory (by Nancy's request) and bought cheese curds, locally known as squeaky cheese! It was delicious.


Me and Gary hanging out with Irving whilst making a tour of Iowa City


Chloe tucking into the delicacy that is pink fluff, served as a salad it contains pink jelly, pineapple, cheese....we pushed it over to the dessert category...pretty tasty either way.


We finished our stay with a trip to Iowa City's favourite burger joint the 'hamburg inn.' Every politician who comes through on their campaign trials stop by, they were all on the wall including Clinton and Obama!!


Evelyn and Bill's - Muscatine It had been even longer since I'd seen Evelyn and Bill, we caught up with their family which had grown significantly. I remembered Alex (in the blue) as a 14 month old and Sam (with her new beautiful baby Ellie) and Zak (pic below) as more around my age when we (Ash and Chris included) spent our time together doing everything together as if we'd known each other our whole lives.


...it was great to introduce Chloe to everyone and we sat up with Sam, Zak and Rachel till late sharing stories and laughing lots.





We went down to the river in Muscatine and were lucky enough to see some American Eagles


We then took Chris' daughter Bella to the library, which she loves, to get some books. Chris read to her during lunch, she's got a perfect story voice!


A huge part of Iowa is my Aunt Eva who passed away six years ago. We went to see the house where she brought my aunts and uncles up in Muscatine. It has changed a lot but Evelyn and Laura told us some great memories of theirs which gave us great visions of what life was like.


We love ducks....


Laura and Dennis' - Davenport After the scare stories of freezing weather we were beginning to think everyone was having us on. However, we woke up after our catch up evening with Dennis and Laura to find a winter wonderland. The streets were white, the trees looked amazing. We went for a drive and soaked up the scene.


Our second night Tom and Jenny came over and we were heading out for a Mexican dinner, but not before Margarita's. Laura stole the show with the smallest Margarita glass ever seen!


Dennis roped us into trying the habanero hot sauce which blew my socks off!


I had chicken chimichanga's and loved them, Jenny informed me they are deep fried...now I understand why they tasted so good!


After dinner we went to an arts centre's open evening, this lady is making glass beads whilst we watch, it was really impressive. The young lad in front got very excited at the prospect of fire...future pyro?

Location:Iowa

Bon Temps

For the first time we were in America for the Super Bowl. We marked the occasion by making a feast of smoked ribs, chips with many dips and meatballs.





After having a delicious meal at an Authentic Ethiopian restaurant (you're meant to eat with your hands!) we went to see Wicked in Austin at the Texas University stadium which was amazing!


The next day...All set up with supplies, we set off for Louisiana!


Our first stop in Louisiana was a small town called Lafayette. It was just what we had hoped (really we were searching for a place just like Bon Temps if any of you have seen "True Blood" and it didn't disappoint!) everyone had STRONG Louisiana accents, there were swamps everywhere, old style houses and GREAT seafood!


As a lot of Louisiana is below sea level they have overground tombs which were interesting to see. We learnt about the Acadian culture that is a massive influence in Louisiana (Bon temps is actually a phase you see around a lot as they emigrated from France).


The next morning we set off for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. So much of the journey was on bridges (we crossed the 14th longest bridge in the world!! 18miles long) because of the swamps.


We didn't wait long to get in the party spirit when we arrived. We headed straight to The famous Bourbon street, home to live jazz music and crazy people. We sat and had a drink whilst listening to cajun folk music, and yes this photo was taken about lunch time....


A jazz band came through the streets and I collected my first beads - I was VERY excited but little did I know how many more were to come!


You can drink on the streets in New Orleans as long as your drink is in a paper bag - everyone was doing it so we embraced this hobo tradition....


The parades were fantastic - loud music, jazz bands, cheerleaders and most importantly the floats handing out beads!!


Back to Bourbon street later that evening for some partying. Sights like this were not rare....


As you can see below me it was packed full of people all in the mardi gras spirit.


Stevie couldn't resist a work related gimmick.....


The next day we rode on an old street car - unlike San Francisco people do use them to get around, not just tourists.


We wondered around the French Market when we soon realized bloody Mary's seemed to be the breakfast of choice - we did not partake in this tradition!


The view from the riverside


All the houses were decorated beautifully for the festival season.


More entertaining parades and yes more beads....





Mardi Gras fever does seem to get to everyone, these plastic beads that ordinarily would not interest you become a must have commodity that is just irresistible!


I'm drinking a cleverly disguised daquiri called "the attitude adjuster". For me an attitude adjustment meant needing a half hour nap in order to continue with the day... Rock and roll.....


Love the Pom Pom shoes all the cheerleaders were wearing.


Even Stevie succumbed to the bead fever. It was hilarious to see your usual hooded, scary looking youths adorned with many sparkling beads, we didn't dare take a picture of any of them though!





I then moved on from beads and began coveting cups....


Every parade was finished with a fire engine and convicts on community service cleaning up behind.


Stevie decided to go for the gangster look in order to pull off wearing so many beads...


Our accumulated bounty....


Unfortunately we had to leave most of it so we decided to leave a message for the cleaning lady written in beads on the floor.


We passed some hilarious place names and managed to get the camera out in time for this one.


We did not just fall off when we got to the top of this bridge as I suspected looking at it from this perspective...


Next stop Chicago....

Location:Austin to Louisianna