Dent Family Six Month Travel Blog 2018 – Australia NZ USA Canada

Yesterday me and mum went to go and see dear Evan Hansen! It was my birthday present and I was very excited to see it, and I certainly did not disappoint! I was also lucky to be able to see 4 of the original broadway cast, as most of them are leaving soon. (If you don’t know what Dear Evan Hansen is about you should google it and listen to the soundtrack) Michael Lee Brown (who played Evan) was absolutely amazing, and a few people have asked me if it wasn’t as good as the soundtrack, as Ben platt is not there anymore, but he did an amazing job and it was honestly even better than I ever could have expected.

We took a train from Providence to New York. The train conductors have been so helpful on all our train journeys, so far. This time he walked down through the train and told us he had 4 seats ready for us at the front of train, as he had seen us struggling on! Stick that in your GWR cigar and smoke it Brunel!

Arriving into Penn Station, was an experience, as was working out how to get across the river for less than the cost of a mortgage….anyway we arrived.

Here are some pictures from the end of our street:

Our first trip back across to Manhattan, based on a weather forecast of poor weather, we headed for The Metropolitan Art Gallery…..via a bus and the subway….Barnaby is a bit of an art buff, and we went straight to the European end of things, specifically Van Gogh and Picasso….

Next we wandered around Central Park, took in the (very good value) boating…next to the Lobe Boathouse

Alice then forced us to a (not very good value) Ice Cream place – apparently its where all the “YouTubers” go (?)

Further wanderings found Trump Tower (9 for Goldness, 8 for Security, 4 for Maximum Service Height and 55 for Physical Strength), Rockefeller Building (8 for Goldness, 1 for Security, 6 for Maximum Service Height, 75 for Physical Strength) and Grand Central Station (7, 0, 3, 85 + bonus 100 for trains)

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!!

On our last day in Toronto we took a short ferry ride across to Toronto Island(s). Here we hired bikes (again!) and enjoyed some beautiful weather and fine views back across the lake to Toronto…(note you can tell this was over a week ago, pre-haircut). NB you can see the islands on the CNN Tower blog….

Another great train ride, from Toronto to Montreal (no hats I’m afraid)…..and then Jude could slip into French mode, oooh laa laa. As it was “Start of the season day” (ie everything was cheap to do) at the “Old Port” we all Zip wired, Big Wheel, High roped and Science Museumed…

We visited the Notre-Dame Basilica….and gazed at the huge organ.

A short bus ride to the Mont Royal (A mountain apprently!!! About the height of Lansdown Hill)…..for a view of the city

Next a long bus ride from Montreal to Boston (about 9hrs with 1.5hr stuck at US Custom)…..We had but a single day in Boston…so we learnt what we could about how the “Locals” picked a fight with the King of England (George III) and won….slightly awkwardly we had to play the part of the “Boston Tea Party” oiks (thus anti Royals) and “throw tea” into the River…..most unpleasant. We also enrolled the kids at Harvard to cut out unecessary paperwork later…

Next we picked up a car and drove down towards Cape Cod…..hopefully I can con someone else into doing blog, it’s all got a bit slapdash and demob happy….

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!

In Toronto, we (as in me Alice and Dad) went up the CN Tower which is blummin’ tall! At a whopping 553m tall, we were lying on a glass floor, kinda scared-but not that scared as we were only about two thirds of the way up the actual tower. It was great fun going up it, but it was all over in about 10 minutes.

Then, after that thrilling experience (not) we went to a house. Actually, no. Not a house, but half a house! It was as if someone had just got a big axe and chopped the whole house in half! It was kinda weird, but the story behind it was that ages ago they had flats on both side of the house, and they then decided that they wanted to knock all of the houses down. But this person obviously wanted to keep their side of the house, so they just kept one side! As I said, very weird…

Then finally we went to Grafitti Alley, an alley that was full of grafitti, as the name says. Dad got kinda excited because there was a “Heavens to Murgatroyd” Snagglepuss and a Top Cat.

We then exited stage left, even….

Barnaby😁😁😎😎💩👍💣💨🥇🏆🎮🕹🔥💲

And I kinda got excited with the emojis!!!

The next day we didn’t do too much….visited a cafe called “Snakes and Lattes” – which is a Board game cafe….eat and play games from their library…

We’ve been very busy and couldn’t be bothered to write anything. I know this because we have been inundated with email from angry followers…

So Day 3 in Jasper and we sent rafting. Nothing too adventurous as 3 of us hadn’t really been before. 5 Miles down the Abalasca River….we did some splashing and some 720 turns and some of us (the non adventurous 3) jumped in….

Day 4 was preparing to get back on the train, but as we had already heard it was 8 hrs late, we didn’t have to hurry. A short trip to Lake Malingne…still frozen in parts…and a partially snowy walk to “Moose Lake” which was a lake, but no moose….we did see lots of different types of poo and a very friendly bird….

Back to the train….ok so it was supposed to be in Jasper at 16:00, but we already knew it was late….so we had a Hotel room for the night….but then the train arrived about 4 am, so we hopped on board…..just in time for breakfast…..train rattles on down the tracks towards Toronto for the next three nights…..arriving 9.30 Saturday….well maybe not, how about 13.30 Sunday?! Lucky we didn’t need to get anywhere fast!

Once your on board being late is part of the “experience”….anyway here are some picture of the insides….(of the train).

Next stop Toronto….

Day 2 in Jasper and we head out into the park following the “Icefields Parkway” (dramatic sounding name for “road along valley”).

Stop 1 Athabasca Falls…only a drop of 23 metres, but the volume of water was huge…

Stop 2 Sunwapta Falls…even tiddlier 18 metres….

Stop 3 for some 21% Turkey Ham (Furkey Fam) rolls and a very poor viewing point…

Stop 4 Athabasca Glacier – Very different from the Fox Glacier in New Zealand (which I though was mint).

Stop 5 Tangle Creek Falls – Three tiered waterfall that apparently freezes over in winter and you can climb up..there was still a little bit of snow on the top..

Stop 6 (unscheduled) Bear!!!!! If you see cars pulled up at the side of the road, it usually means “Wildlife” and sure enough along came a bear, crossed the road, nearly fell over a bush and then disappeared into the forest.

Sorry, no Hat news (not even one belonging to a Bear Trapper) and I still haven’t had my 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!!!

Yesterday we made a trip up the side of a mountain on the Jasper SkyTram! It was like a cable car, and the journey was about 7 minutes long. Once we got to the ‘top’ we started our walk to the summit of the mountain. On the way up it was very steep!! And also very slippery as there was a lot of snow. At one bit in particular dad fell into the snow and it was about 4ft deep!! When we finally did get to the top (after a substantial amount of moaning and groaning from me and Barnaby) the view was amazing!