Author: judedent

For those of you who know Simon, you’ll understand his excitement at arriving in Washington. His fascination with US politics, you may ask? His obsession with Night At The Museum and Spiderman? No!!! Everything is FREE to visit in Washington, which is hopefully doing wonders for his spreadsheet as we are nearing the end of our trip!

This has to be one of the best cities in the US that we have visited. No skyscrapers (you can actually see the sky!), big open spaces and great places to eat, plus a pretty luxurious AirBnb (dishwasher, aircon & an icemaker in the fridge!) What more could a girl ask for?

The Smithsonians are all free to visit (did I mention that?!!) thanks to a British man who left all of his money to his nephew, as long as the nephew had kids. His nephew, however, was busy off doing other things (?!) and so his legacy went to build some pretty impressive museums and a fantastic zoo! Probably the one and only time that we will get to see Giant Pandas, Simon & I were more than excited! Plus we got to see a 6 week old baby gorilla (but the photo was rubbish!) And Barnaby found out that he isn’t as tall as a Narwhal’s tusk!!

We also spent a day at the capitol building, where we got a guided tour of the Rotunda (fancy dome thing) and even got to sit in the House of Representatives (no photos allowed), although the visitors outnumbered the politicians – I think they were all off practising for the annual Republicans v Democrats baseball game that they had last night! We visited the Library of Congress (with the beautiful ceilings and mosaics) and I managed to drag them all around the Botanic Gardens, with the stunning orchids (& welcome aircon!)

Finally we went to the International Spy Museum (we had to pay to get in there!). Alice bravely did a bit of acting, they both had a go at deciphering messages with the Enigma machine and we learnt about ingenious ways to hide transmittors in various kinds of logs! There were some interesting things in the gift shop too!

We’ve got 2 more days here, so we’re off for tea with Trump tomorrow…………..

Tuesday we started off the day at Ground Zero.

Even before we got inside the 9/11 Memorial Museum, I had started blubbing! Watching the film which showed interviews with Condalisa Rice, George Bush and Guiliani and footage of how the situation had unfolded for them set me off even more!

The museum was brilliant (if I can say that?) It was really important for us that Alice & Barnaby visited it and learnt about what happened. There were parts from the original towers on display and lots of photos and footage. I really hope that they remember it.

We were too chicken to go up the new, One World Trade Center (well, I was!) so we set off for a free ride on the Staten Island ferry, to get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. It didn’t dissapoint!

Then Alice treated us to a trip to a pop-up make up shop called Glossier, where you went up in a lift to a tiny showroom and all of the employees were dressed in pink boiler suits! Simon & Barnaby felt a little awkward until they found out that the ladies thought they were very cool to be there!!

By the time we got back to our apartment, it was dark but this was the view across to Manhatten so we weren’t too upset!!

Boston was ok but I was really looking forward to going here…

No,not because I am a huge fan of a certain film that was filmed here over 40 years ago (they still play it every Sunday evening at the cinema in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard!) but because of the iconic beaches, lighthouses and houses.

The Airbnb was one of the best we have stayed in, complete with a covered deck at the back and it’s own Cape Cod!! It even came with a kayak which, once we had manoevred it out of the basement and down to the lake, was great fun in the mist!

I hadn’t expected just how wacky some of the colourful Gingerbread houses were in Martha’s Vineyard – Judy’s Jewel was a bonus!

A “light snack” at the Backdoor donut bakery (apparently they sell donuts out the back door in the evening after pub closing time!) managed to coat our arteries for the rest of the day!

Unfortunately the weather got the better of us and we didn’t get to experience any of the beautiful beaches, due to the rain and mist which meant that we couldn’t even see the sea! But Cape Cod was a truly beautiful spot and one I would definitely love to return to one day, maybe in this stunning car I found!!

Wednesday saw us in a dark-windowed mix between a travel bus and a limousine, complete with LED lights and a (sadly empty) minibar!

We were off to Niagara!! Our incredibly chatty driver Michael taught us about “HOMES”, the way to remember the names of the Great Lakes (Hiron, Ontario, Michigan, Eerie & Superior), and all sorts of other things that I have since forgotten!

When we got to Niagara, it didn’t disappoint! We went on the Hornblower cruise up to the foot of the falls (& got completely drenched, despite our fetching bright red ponchos)!

We then walked up to the head of the falls, which was just as awesome as the bottom but a bit drier!

On the way back, we stopped off at a Winery for a little tasting of Ice Wine, which is made from grapes that are harvested while frozen on the vine. It was a bit too sweet for Simon & I but, as you can see, we managed to force it down!

Finally, here are the before and after photos that you’ve been waiting for!!! Simon finally got his hair cut!

On Friday we headed down to the impressive Pacific Central station to board our overnight train to Jasper. The guards took pity on Alice & Barnaby and gave them cardboard trains to make (they clearly don’t know Alice!) and we all got to sit in a ” Prestige Club Lounge” waiting room (first time for everything!), much to the annoyance of the considerably older passengers, who arrived late and tutted at the youngsters taking up their seats!!!

These trains are notorously late but we weren’t too bothered, as we enjoyed sipping on free bubbly, munching on cheesy nibbles and getting to know our new best friends – Mike, a retired school teacher(!) from near Melbourne, who was off to see his kids in the States and Colin & Bev from Auckland, who were “spending their grand kid’s inheritance”.

Our sleeping arrangements were much more spacious than expected and we all slept pretty well, despite the rocking. Breakfast was before 8.30am and I had to wake them all up to get us down there on time!

The scenery on the journey was stunning, especially as we headed closer to Jasper through the Rockies. Alice & I sat in the carriage with a glass-domed roof, which gave us incredible views of the mountains. I’m afraid that Yosemite has been replaced by the Rockies as my favourite place on earth – the scenery is simply breathtaking! We even got to see two black bears at the side of the track (but couldn’t snap a photo of them quickly enough!) But if you read on to the next blog, you might see one…….!!!

We eventually arrived in Jasper 4 hours late, which is considered to be “on time” here! We still felt like we were moving on the train long into the evening, so goodness knows how we’re going to cope when we board the train again in a few days for a 3 night journey to Toronto!!!

Our next adventure was to Yosemite, which I thought would be another “nice” National Park where the kids could bluff their way through another Junior Ranger badge but nothing prepared me for the sheer beauty, size and wonder of this place!!!!

The first glimpses of snow made us relieved that we had stopped off in Fresno to buy snow chains on the way and as the temperatures started to drop, we wondered what to expect when we arrived. This was the first view from our balcony………..

Over the next few days, I fell in love over & over again with this majestic place! With places that I had only ever heard of before, such as El Capitan and Half Dome and a whole Ansell Adams gallery, where I could have bought up the whole shop!

The endless photos we took don’t do justice to the awesome natural beauty of Yosemite! I have never been somewhere as incredible and uplifting (the kids got fed up of me saying “wow” all the time!!) and some of us could have easily stayed for longer (guess who?!)

We even got Alice & Barnaby to go on a hike, as well as doing the obligatory Junior Ranger badges!

Some of the roads were still closed for the season and thankfully we didn’t have to use the snow chains, but I will be forever grateful that I got the chance to visit this little piece of heaven!

So, we made a last minute decision to drive through Vegas just to see what the hype is all about!!

Glitz, glam and bling galore…………and we weren’t even there at night time!! It’s the most surreal place I have ever been!!!!

Here are a few pictures to whet your appetites!

Sorry that we haven’t posted for a bit but, to be honest, we have just been relaxing and enjoying Hawaii!! We can’t quite believe that we are actually here but, the vast expanse of ocean, palm trees and Hawaiian shirts kind of gives it away – yes they are everywhere, so watch out dad!!!!

We visited a coffee and chocolate farm and tried all sorts of others things there too….!! We’ve been snorkelling and seen green turtles, puffer fish but luckily no moray eels!

We went up to the active volcano in the middle of the island yesterday but we were a little disappointed that it didn’t erupt for us! Not even a bit of lava to show for a 5 hour round trip!!!

The closest we’ve come to coconut bikinis and grass skirts was at a Luau this evening at a nearby hotel (think fire eaters and cruise ship passengers!) but it was a good laugh anyway!

Here’s some evidence that we’re not just living it up in Bognor somewhere!!!

 

We went to Wai-o-Tapu and saw and smelt the most bizarre sights of our trip so far!

You can see the various stages of the Lady Knox Geyser, my family’s reaction to the smells (Barnaby walked the whole way round with his hood over his face) and the fantastic and frankly weird Shrek’s swamp – yes, it actually was that colour!!

It’s a shame we can’t do “smelly-blog” for you!!

On 12th March we nervously set off to swim with dolphins, having read about high seas & almost guaranteed seasickness……and no guarantee of dolphins!!

Squeezed into our wetsuits, we cruised out from Kaikoura (thankfully on a calm sea with glorious sunshine) & came across our first pod in about 20 minutes!
We were told that the dolphins like it when you sing, so Barnaby & I offered them a fabulous rendition of the Rick Astley classic “Never gonna give you up”. They seemed to quite like it, even after the 5th try in the water!

We watched & swam with literally hundreds of beautiful Dusky dolphins & they performed jumps & leaps all around us! It was incredible!

On the way back, we saw some common dolphins, a little pod of Hector’s dolphins (which are tiny & so cute!) and then, to top off what was one of the most amazing things that any of us will EVER experience, 2 Orcas (Killer Whales!) just pottered around by the side of our boat for 10 minutes or so!!

Enough said I think?!!! Xx