I Feel A Plan Coming On – East Coast – Disney World – Southwest National Parks – 2008

Date October 2008

States Visited – 14 (and a district !)

New –

Washington DC (a district anyway)
Virginia
Maryland
Delaware
New Jersey
New York
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
New Hampshire
Florida
Utah

Re-visit –

Nevada
Arizona
California

screen-shot-11-06-16-at-04-39-pm-001 Itinerary :

20 nights in total, staying –

Washington DC 2 nights
New York NY 2 nights
Boston MA 2 nights
North Conway NH 1 night
Buffalo NY 1 night
Orlando FL 6 nights
Las Vegas NV 1 night
Bryce Canyon UT 1 night
Monument Valley AZ 1 night
Grand Canyon AZ 1 night
Kingman AZ 1 night
Palm Springs CA 1 night

Details :

I warn you – this is a long post !

This trip was in 3 hops – the North East, Florida, then the South West.

These first trips were before I embraced blogging and so I have used extracts of Adrienne’s emails to family at home during our trip for the detail below –

October 6 – At LAX airport we passed the time until our AA flight to Washington. Luckily we are sitting in some comfort – since we had a longish layover ( but not really long enough to leave the airport) we decided to spring for a one day pass to the AA Admirals Club lounge. There are comfy chairs, free drinks and snacks and free wireless – so it’s as good a place to be as any. We whizzed through immigration in LAX but struck a bit of a queue for Customs and then another very slow moving one to recheck our bags and get through security. The Admirals Club lounge was a pleasant place to pass the time but we were very glad to board our AA flight to Washington. Luckily it was on time and the flight was just over 4 1/2 hours.

Dulles was very “closed down” when we arrived around 11pm. By the time we’d collected our baggage the car transfer driver appeared and whisked us out to his vehicle – the one advantage of arriving that late meant that our drive into central DC was very smooth and traffic free. It was a real thrill when we caught sight of the Washington monument and a little later, the Capitol. Unfortunately the light on the White House are turned off every night at I I pm ( George Bush trying to improve his carbon footprint??) so we couldn’t see it at all. By the time we got to the room it was 1am so we just set our alarms for the morning and crawled into bed.

October 7 – Next morning, after avoiding the doughnuts, danishes, french toast and grits, we managed to find a few items on the breakfast menu that wouldn’t send our cholesterol skyhigh. At 9.30 we set off on a brisk walk to the Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue. There, in front of the Benjamin Franklin statue, we joined our tour bus with “On Board DC “tours. There were around 14 of us on the tour – we were the only non-Americans.

First stop at the Capitol, shining brightly in the sunshine. We weren’t previously aware that they electrify the dome so that birds won’t perch and poop on it! Wonderful view down to the Washington Monument.

From there we drove around to the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal basin. What a gorgeous building! Jefferson looks out across the basin and up to the White House – apparently Franklin Roosevelt outraged many prominent women when he chopped down 200 cherry trees to open up that view. The remaining cherry trees grow all around the basin – would love to visit in springtime to see them in full blossom. Some other time…

The Fall is only just starting here – only a few trees starting to turn – hopefully we’ll see more colour as we drive north.

From the Jefferson Memorial we drove further along the mall Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial – this is a very interesting series of 4 outdoor rooms , each one representing I of his 4 terms. The statues and texts in each room showing the passage of his career through the New Deal stage and the second WW until his death.

Next stop was the Korean War memorial – a very dynamic feeling scene of 19 bronze soldiers walking through a field. Behind them a highly polished marble wall reflects the 19 so that, in all, there are 38 soldiers to signify that all important 38th parallel. Everywhere we went we saw what were obviously veterans of the different eras as well as many current soldiers in their camouflage khaki – we were a bit amazed by the number of military around. We took a photo of the small acknowledgement there of the Australian contribution.

After that we walked up the steps to the Lincoln memorial – it was very busy, Lincoln is obviously considerably more popular than poor old Jefferson! Adrienne was glad to find that the Lincoln statue is just as impressive as she remembered it as a child. And this time she was old enough to read the words of the Gettysburg address that are carved on the walls around him. The view up the reflecting pool to the Washington Monument was particularly interesting to Liam as he could remember it from Forrest Gump! We stood on the spot where Martin Luther King made his very famous speech – there’s a small inscription engraved on the ground there.

Next we walked down to the northern side of the mall where the Vietnam Memorial is carved into the ground – it’s another highly polished wall but this one has 58,000 names engraved on it – all the soldiers who died or were missing in action. They are listed in order of the date of the death and we were surprised to see the first name on the list – John H Anderson! No relative I believe but a little eerie.

Lunch! After driving across the Potomac River on Memorial Bridge we headed past the Pentagon ( the largest office building in the world!) to the Pentagon City Mall to grab some lunch in the food court. After lunch we drove around the other side of the Pentagon , past the memorial that has been built in front of the wall where the plane landed on 9/11. We drove out through Georgetown past some gorgeous homes ( worth millions apparently) and several Embassies to the National Cathedral.

Finally, after negotiating increasingly busy traffic we stopped at the North Entrance of the White House. There was a guy there making a very, VERY loud protest against the war in Iraq – don’t think he was getting his point across, he just seems to be irritating people with the volume on his P.A. !

Last stop of the afternoon was the World War 2 Memorial, just near the Washington Monument – also beautifully placed with a view up to the Lincoln memorial across the reflecting pool. We loved the whole Mall area – it’s kept so well and, as its a National Park area there were Ranger talks held at each location throughout the day. There were lots of people visiting but, apparently, nothing like the crowds in summer and cherry blossom time.

Politics was present all the time – our guide dropped various comments about current events into his speil and the current financial mess was discussed several times by our fellow passengers. The 2nd Presidential debate was taking place – the woman at the souvenir shop asked if we were going to watch the debate and seemed a little shocked when we said we’d probably not stay awake long enough to watch it !

When we left the tour bus back at the Post Office Building we realised that the tour had run over time. Unfortunately that meant it was too late to walk down to the National Archives and do the tour there of the Hall of records – so we’ll just have to come back some other time to see the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Instead we walked up past Fords Theatre – Liam was tickled to see the place where Lincoln was shot and the house across the road where he eventually died.

Back to the hotel for a rest and we then had dinner at the local Ruby Tuesday restaurant – classic American family restaurant. Liam had ribs!

October 8 – This morning was our first driving day. After breakfast (we tried the grits this time!) I walked down to Union Station to collect the hire car and we set off to Arlington Cemetery. Unfortunately the GPS didn’t seem to know it existed so after going around the block a few times we set off with me navigating – using a pretty pathetic tourist map! We nearly ran a red light but eventually made our way across the Potomac to the cemetery.

We were very impressed with Arlington – we wandered up to the Kennedy graves first and viewed the eternal flame with at least 50 seniors on a bus tour. Loved the view from there back towards the city – I understand that JFK had greatly admired the view on a visit to the cemetery and that’s why Jackie chose it as his final resting place. She is buried alongside him with the tiny graves of their 2 children that died as babies (one stillborn). Around the corner, Bobby Kennedy has a simple white cross and just his name and dates.

The rows of plain white headstones march up and down the hills with military regularity – so many of them. On our tour yesterday we were told that Arlington is a very busy place, they average 30 burials a day. On the tour they had also said that at the current rate, the cemetery will be full by 2025. While we were there we heard the 10 gun salute at least 4 or 5 times. The grass was very green and the trees lovely, we wandered up the hill to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier – a very large, white marble rectangular tomb placed in front of a large white marble amphitheatre. A single soldier in immaculate dress uniform marches back and forth in front of it at a slow and regulated pace. There were many people sitting on the steps, solemnly watching his progress.

Behind the amphitheatre we visited the monuments for the victims of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters and those that had died during the operation to rescue the hostage in Iran. By the time we’d walked back down the hill it was nearly 11 o’clock – we had decided to spend more time there than originally planned and to drop the detour via Gettysburg.

We set off towards New York – the GPS was fantastic. The bulk of the drive was through heavily forested areas – just starting to turn to their fall colours. We stopped for lunch at a small town called Edgewood, found a Subway fairly easily and the boys each tried something new. Liam loved his Cherry coke but my Root beer tasted just like Dencorub! (Seriously!) After lunch we crossed the Delaware (just like Washington!) on the Delaware Memorial Bridge – an amazing double bridge structure. It needed to be amazing as we’d paid $8 for the privilege of crossing it! I’m afraid the tolls have caught us a bit by surprise. We calculated that we spent around US$25 to $30 on tolls today!

I was feeling a bit dozy about halfway up the turnpike so we decided to get off at an exit and find some coffee – unfortunately when we were trying to follow the GPS towards a McDonalds and misread the instructions and we ended up back on the freeway! At first we panicked because we thought we were heading back south on the turnpike but luckily we realised that we were in fact heading north on the Highway 295 (we were both convinced we were heading south but we’d become addled in our twists and turns) After that bit of excitement I was now wide awake so we made the switch from the 295 back to the turnpike and carried on our way.

As we neared the city the greenery made way to a fairly ugly industrial landscape and the turnpike grew wider and wider – we thought we’d struck wide freeways in California on our last trip but this road definitely wins the size stakes – there were 12 lanes! Much excitement when we spotted our first glimpse of Manhattan but it also meant things were getting serious in the navigating stakes – the GPS was good but Adrienne was glad she’d also done her homework using Google maps. We queued for a while to get into the Lincoln tunnel and it was a slow trip through it but eventually we popped up onto 42nd street. We were in New York at last!

Had no trouble finding our hotel – it’s on 57th street, not far from Central Park. We arrived around 5pm and had a bit of a rest before we headed out and walked down to Times Square – it was just getting dark when we arrived and the lights and tickers were flashing like mad. We had a relaxed dinner at Bubba Gump fish restaurant – we’d really enjoyed a meal at the same chain in San Francisco on our last trip. By the time we left, Times Square was jumping – although I suspect it hadn’t really got started! I can’t imagine what it would be like there on New Years Eve.

October 9 – We had an early start this morning. Headed back down towards Times Square and had breakfast at McDonalds before we met out tour bus. Comment on McDonalds: – the toilets were not up to the normal McDonalds standards of cleanliness! We had a Bacon and Egg Bagel – felt like a very New York spin on a Maccas brekkie .

It had rained overnight but the showers stopped by the time we left the hotel – the weather improved throughout the day and was quite warm by the afternoon.

Edwin, the guide on our tour bus was a wizened little gnome of a New Yorker who really knew his city. He was born in the Bronx and lives now in Greenwich Village – had seen the renaissance of the city from the nasty, scary place that it was in the 70’s to the gentrified and increasingly green and attractive city that it is now. He was working at World Trade Centre Building 6 on the morning of 9/11 and felt the plane hit the first tower . Such an interesting little guy.

The first stop on our tour was Strawberry Fields in central park – this is the parkland area that the city set aside to the memory of John Lennon after he was assassinated. There’s a large mosaic on the ground with concentric circles surrounding the word “Imagine”. A young man was sitting down beside it strumming Lennon tunes on his guitar, not collecting money and totally oblivious to the crowds watching him. We also saw the Dakota building where John Lennon was shot and lots of wealthy people live, including Yoko Ono who owns the entire top floor. From there we headed through the park and down 5th avenue to our next stop at Rockefeller Center. The gold statue and the flags really stirred my memory – the ice skating rink is there but they don’t open it for skating until this weekend – Adrienne was sorry there were no skaters!

From the Rock we drove down near to Madison Square park where we got a good view of the Empire State Building and the Flatiron building. The top of the Empire State Building was still in cloud at that stage of the morning. After that we headed down through Chinatown and Little Italy to the South Street Seaport where we stopped for a food break. It was a great place to take photos of the Brooklyn Bridge. It wasn’t far from the seaport to our next stop – the Staten Island Ferry terminal. The trip across the bay on the ferry was definitely the highlight fo the day – we were all excited to see the Statue of Liberty and to look back at the Manhatten skyline. However, we agreed that the rest of the bay is NOT attractive – lots of garbage barges and industrial landscape. On the ferry we enjoyed one of the advantages of being guided by a New Yorker – the best place to be on the ferry is the lower deck outside area – no one else was there so we had the best photo opportunities ( whereas the upper deck promenades were crowded with tourists.) We didn’t spend any time on Staten Island – just turned around and caught the same ferry back to the city. Liam had a ball on the ferry – being blown backwards by a stiff salty breeze is heaven for a 11 year old boy. He didn’t mind that his hair looked like a birds nest afterwards ( unlike his mother!)

Our bus was waiting to take us to Wall Street. It was such an interesting time to see the Financial district and the NY Stock Exchange. On the way there Edwin told us that we would see dozens of media trucks parked in the area – the current credit crisis means that the precinct has become News Central. In fact when we arrived the whole street had been blocked to traffic and there were police trucks and security guys patrolling the area as well. There were lots of fairly sombre looking financial types wandering around as well! We saw the famous Bull but didn’t get the opportunity to rub it’s nose ( or its balls – which are supposed to give you the best financial luck!)

After that we made our final stop at Ground Zero – this was particularly interesting as we had the viewpoint of a 9/11 survivor to paint the picture for us. We went into the No 2 Financial Center Wintergarden which has a huge window overlooking the site. The building is beautiful with its vast glasshouse roof. Edwin showed us some photos of what the building had looked like after 9/11 – indescribable! They only reopened it 3 years ago. We saw the artists impressions of what the memorial and the new World Trade Center – Liberty Tower will look like – I’d definitely like to come back and see it when its all finished ( although that won’t be any time soon by the looks of their progress!)

We drove back right up the West Side highway to 52nd street where we left the bus. We had one stroke of luck with our timing today – it is Yom Kippur ( the Jewish holiday) and the traffic was considerably lighter than it would normally be. At each stop Liam was intrigued when we were able to relate many of the sights to movies that he has seen. In Central park we saw the Zoo that featured in the kids movie Madagasgar. As we drove past the New York City Library we remembered the scenes in “The Day After Tomorrow” where the survivors were able to retreat to the reading room to escape the storm. At the Brooklyn Bridge he was excited because that’s the place where Godzilla met his end in the more recent version of the story , we saw the Plaza Hotel where the family stayed in “Home Alone 2” and we also saw the rather nondescript building that was the headquarters of the “Men In Black”. Adrienne was more excited when we looked in the windows at Tiffany’s!

It was only 1.30pm when our bus tour finished so we headed over to Rockefeller Center to go to the Top of the Rock Observation deck on the 67th floor. I was not very comfortable up there but Adrienne got some amazing photos – north over Central park as well as south down past The Empire State Building to the lower island. We stopped for lunch in the food court near the skating rink and then queued for at least 20 minutes at the post office to buy some postage stamps – the postal system in the USA seems very complicated! After lunch we walked up Fifth Avenue past Cartier, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany’s etc to Fao Schwartz. Liam loved it there! We were tempted to buy the stuffed giraffe for Jennifer (my sister) but it was taller than Liam and cost $450. He was very taken with the Lego section – especially the larger than lifesize Darth Vader and Chewbacca!

We finished off our afternoon with a wander through the southern parts of Central Park – what an oasis! We had no difficulty in resisting the temptation of a carriage ride ( an overpriced tourist trap!) and preferred to stroll the paths and stop for an ice cream by the pond. We spotted a few squirrels – Liam has really loved watching these cute little guys. We saw dozens of them in Washington and there were several scurrying around Central Park as well.

Back to the hotel to rest our sore feet followed by a nice dinner in the hotel’s Italian restaurant finished our New York day.

October 10 – Today was like a bookshelf. The bookends were two pretty awful driving experiences but the middle of the day was just lovely.

Driving out of Manhatten this morning in peak hour traffic was distinctly hair-raising. The taxi’s and bus drivers who insisted on turning left from right hand lanes made things a lot more nerve wracking than they needed to be. Adrienne told me that I really couldn’t call myself a New York driver if I didn’t use the horn at least once. After crawling along 57th Street , with a bit of a detour around the block to try to avoid the bus lanes we finally made it down 2nd Avenue to the Holland Tunnel. Once through the tunnel things were pretty straightforward.

Adrienne was excited to see the remnants of the 1964 Worlds Fair as we passed through Flushing but they looked a lot shabbier than in those videos we saw recently. The traffic slowed to a crawl as we approached the exits for JFK and La Guardia airports but after that we had a very smooth run through to Bellport. You see, Adrienne had lived in Bellport as a little girl with her family when her father worked on Long Island for a few years in the early 1960’s.

What a cute little village! We saw the school bus parked outside Kreamer Street school and drove on down to Shore Road. It was a lovely sunny day and the park and the bay were sparkling. The hedge out the front of the old house they lived in was huge! It’s obviously grown a lot in 40 years. The house looks loved – painted white with green shutters but the shape looks basically the same except for an addition to the side. Adrienne climbed up on the cannon in the park but managed not to fall off this time . The garage is still there with what seems to be the same doors – nicely painted white. There were two terracotta pots of red geraniums at the top of the steps – maybe the same geraniums. There was a funny little gnarled tree in the park that she was sure she remembered – such an odd little tree.

Unfortunately we couldn’t stop for long as the traffic delay in NY had held us back and we really were cutting it fine to reach Orient Point by 12.45pm. We were booked on the 1pm ferry and if you don’t collect your tickets 15 minutes in advance they cancel your booking and put you on standby. This weekend is Columbus Day weekend and the ferry is very popular on the long weekends. We really enjoyed the drive up through the North Fork – we passed several vineyards and lots of farms selling pumpkins for Halloween – they were all decorated with scarecrows etc and looked very festive. We just loved the “Main Street USA” feel that the whole place had – old glory flapping on dozens of flagpoles and cute little clapboard houses. All freshly painted.

We arrived at the Ferry terminal just in time – I collected our tickets and we drove onto the boat. We were relieved that we could buy our lunch etc on board as we just hadn’t had time to stop and get anything on the way. The sound was calm and the crossing was very smooth. I took several shots of Plum Island as we passed it – one of my favourite Nelson DeMille books is set there.

It wasn’t long before we were docking in New London – and ready to drive off. We stopped briefly in Mystic for a toilet break. We had considered stopping for a while at Mystic Seaport but felt that we wouldn’t be able to stay long enough to do it justice so we carried on our way. ( In hindsight we were extremely glad we didn’t stop there otherwise we may not have arrived in Boston until midnight!)

The drive through Connecticut and Rhode Island was lovely – many of the trees have turned and the foliage was lovely. It was just frustrating that we couldn’t stop and take some good photos. We slowed down a bit as we went past Providence but the trip was fine until we were about 20 miles from Boston. From that point on we just crawled – we listened to the traffic reports and it sounded like the traffic both in and out of Boston was gridlocked everywhere – the holiday weekend had hit with a thump. It was after 6 when we finally arrived at the Hilton in the Financial District – however things improved from there. We were offered a free upgrade on our room – we have a lovely two room suite with a spacious lounge room ( with a sofa bed for Liam) and a lovely bed room for us. The location is great – we walked 5 minutes up the street to Fanueil Hall marketplace which was full of people shopping and eating. Had a lovely dinner at Ned Devine’s Irish Pub and we’re looking forward to a bit of a sleep in tomorrow.

At this stage we were adding up our “States” and we realised that we’d covered a fifth of the Union in 6 days! California, Maryland, DC, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey ,New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts! With 5 more states still to go!

October 11 – It was really nice to have a lazier start to our morning this morning. we still woke up early but we didn’t have to rush off and do anything early. We wandered up to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market after 9 and bought some breakfast from one of the stands there. After that we looked through some of the shops in the area before we started to walk the Freedom Trail back down towards Boston Common. On the way we saw Old State House, Benjamin Franklin’s school and the Old Granary Burying ground. We spent quite a while there looking at the very old and worn headstones and reading the information about the residents. Ben Franklin’s parents have a large memorial as well as Samuel Adams, Paul Revere and John Hancock.

Don’t know if it was because of the holiday weekend but there were scores of people walking the trail and viewing the sites around the town. When we arrived at Boston Common we joined one of the local Trolley Tours and rode it down through Chinatown to the Long Wharf – included in our ticket was a 45 minute cruise on the harbour. It was such a nice thing to do on a beautiful sunny day like today . The boat took us up the harbour past East Boston before it turned around and headed back towards the head of the Charles river. We paused at the bottom of Bunker Hill and also saw the Navy Museum where the USS Constitution ( Old Ironsides) is now permanently docked.

Back at the wharf it was only a short walk back to Quincy Market where we bought lunch – Adrienne had New England Clam Chowder ( Chowdah!) in a bread bowl – yummmmmm! The whole area was packed with people and there were street performers entertaining the crowd. It reminded us a little of what Covent Garden was like when we visited it at Easter in London. We caught the trolley again and it took us up into the North End where we hopped off to see The Old North Church as well as Paul Revere’s statue and house. From there we wandered back through Little Italy to Quincy Market for an ice cream before we returned to the hotel.

We loved how downtown Boston was so compact – we could walk almost everywhere. If it hadn’t been for our harbour Cruise our trolley ticket would really have been a waste of money! We went back up to the market area again to have dinner – this time we ate at Cheers – the restaurant that’s based on the 80’s TV show that was modelled on a pub here in Boston! We enjoyed reminiscing about the TV show and we all had a pleasant meal overlooking the plaza. The whole market area was packed this evening – there was some sort of brass band competition going on as well as a constant parade of people passing by.

October 13 – Adrienne said she had the aim for many years to “visit New England in the Fall” – today she could cross it off her list. We left Boston early and, despite the fact that it was early Sunday morning we still had a minor traffic hiccup ( an unexpected road blockage made things a little difficult). We drove through the suburbs and made a brief stop at Lexington to see the Minuteman statue. Then it was back on the road heading north towards the Lakes Region. We had to make a detour off the expressway to visit Keepsake Quilting at Center Harbor on Lake Winnipesaukee. Adrienne could have spent hours there . Liam waited out the front on one of the Adirondack chairs placed for the convenience of the “menfolk” but I followed Adrienne around while she oohhed and aaahed.

Back on the road we continued on up to the White Mountains. On the way we stopped at a covered bridge over Squam River. This is actually the last covered bridge to have been built – it only dates from 1990. A lady jogger stopped and told us that the day it was put up there was a parade in town and the townsfolk still talk about it . When we neared Lincoln we had a hint of what to expect crowds-wise – the queue at the expressway exit to Lincoln wound back for at least 400 metres. We headed up to the Flume Gorge but it was simply impossible to get a parking spot. This weekend ( Columbus Day long weekend ) is peak time up here and the weather has been lovely so the crowds are here with a vengeance. We went further up the road and found the story repeated at the Cannon Mountain aerial tramway. The queue to buy tickets was out the door and after the ticket queue there was another massive queue to get onto the tram. We visited the shop and the restroom but decided to give the tramway a miss. We drove a little further north to the tiny town of Franconia, bought some sandwiches at Mac’s market and ate our lunch in the little park overlooking the tiny white church. As usual, every home sported an American flag.

We’ve noticed a lot more political signs up here – the majority of them are “Obama-Biden” so maybe New Hampshire is a Democrat state.

After our lunch we headed back down the road and started east along the Kancamangus Highway – this is claimed to be one of the most scenic byways in New Hampshire. At first we doubted the claim – we rapidly rose up to Kancamangus Pass and, as it was so high, the foliage was well past its peak. The mountains aren’t craggy and it was not really what I’d call spectacular. However as we progressed further and a little lower we struck again the gorgeous reds and golds and drove along a pretty bubbling river. We stopped to take many photos! At around 5pm we pulled up to our hotel in North Conway. Comfortable and located conveniently near the outlet stores – New Hampshire is one of only 2 states without sales tax so shopping is a major activity here.

We ate across the road at Merlino’s Family Steakhouse – we waited 25 minutes for a table but people that came in after us waited an hour or more – North Conway is packed to the rafters tonight! The meal was delicious – Adrienne ordered Prime Rib, she expected a steak but didn’t realise that Prime Rib is a Pot Roast to us. Not a disappointment – it melted in the mouth. The pumpkin side dish was interesting too – slightly sweet and scented with cinnamon.

Tomorrow if we have time we hope to get to Salem before we go to Boston airport but we’re a little worried that the “end-of-the-long-weekend-traffic” into Boston maybe as bad as the “beginning-of-the-long-weekend-traffic” so we’ll give ourselves plenty of time to get to Logan International.

img_0806resized

October 13 – Today was largely another travelling day. We have enjoyed the White Mountains area so much we decided to stay here a little longer and pass on visiting Salem.

When we went down to breakfast the small dining area was packed ( not surprising as the hotel was full) so we took our scrambled eggs and bacon up to our room. We left promptly at 9 and drove down the road to take a look at one of the big outlet centers. We stopped in at the local Wal-Mart ( Huge!!!) where Adrienne bought a must-buy for her – Redhots ( cinnamon lollies) – she loves them and they are impossible to get in Australia. Liam also bought a game for his PSP at a much better priced than he would have to pay in Australia. A little further on we visited a little store that specialized in gold and silver charms – Adrienne found a really lovely little Maple Leaf charm to add to her “travel” bracelet. Adrienne was very happy to have it as seeing the beautiful scenery here was one of the highlights of the trip so far. Everywhere we drove, we would go past another glorious burst of colour. We had decided to spend some time visiting the two covered bridges in the area – they both date from around 1869. We took heaps of photos and video, along with several other serious photographers there – saw a few tripods!

After that we felt we’d better head off down the road towards Logan airport in Boston. We really didn’t know what the traffic would be like and didn’t want any last minute panic. The drive was lovely as the foliage stayed bright all the way to suburban Boston. Next time you’re visiting Boston make sure you come into town from the south or the west – the drive in through the North was pretty ugly – it reminded me of Parramatta Road. Dropping off the rental car was highly efficient – although the GPS directed us to the Hertz lot instead of the Alamo one! The airport security guys here inspected my laptop bag closely – commented that I really had “too much stuff in there” – odd that the guys in LA had no problems with the exact same contents!

The flight to Buffalo/Niagara was on a tiny little 48 seater. We were able to see the Finger Lakes from one side of the plane and could see Lake Ontario from the other side. We arrived on time and collected our hire car without any problems – it only took 30 minutes to get to our hotel from the airport. We walked up to the Casino for dinner and as we walked back we could hear the roar of the falls – can’t wait to see them tomorrow! One disappointment – the rental car guy said we can’t take the car into Canada so we won’t be viewing the falls from the Canadian side – however we hope to do The Maid of the Mist so that should give us a good view.

October 14 – Had a more leisurely start to the day today and a pleasant (free) breakfast in the hotel. We drove down to the Niagara Fall State Park at the end of town but managed to get stung by a really crafty crowd who run a fairly tacky souvenir/food concession business just next door to the park. As we pulled up to the entrance to the park there was a guy at the entrance wearing what appeared to be a State Parks uniform and waving a flag to the right. He was standing in front of a huge red sign that said Falls parking, so we followed his directions, paid the $10 parking fee and parked in a large lot behind the building. It turns out that these guys hijack people from entering the State Park lot and direct them to the concession lot. We walked in to the “Information desk” and were directed out the back door and across the road to the State Park!

The gardens in the park were lovely, lots of Fall colours and we walked down to the edge of the river to see the rapids boiling past. The roar of the falls was pretty amazing and we walked down to see the view of the American Falls from Prospect Point. The falls really are extraordinarily spectacular – and we were only looking at the American falls , which carry 10% of the water. The rest was rushing over the Horseshoe falls further across.

We decided to do the Maid of the Mist straight away – the entrance to it is from the huge observation deck structure that is built out across the river. A short elevator ride to the bottom and we were issued with our blue ponchos. The boat was pulling in as we arrived at the bottom so we had no wait to board. We were already getting damp from the light spray but that was nothing compared to the utter drenching that hit us as we passed the American Falls and headed up into the Horseshoe.

The sky had been cloudy and we weren’t sure if it was just the falls or if it was actually raining. Turns out, it was just the Falls! The ponchos kept our top half reasonably dry but our legs and shoes were wringing wet. We tried to take photos and video but the cameras were just getting constantly sprayed – don’t know how those pics will have turned out! After the boat ride we went back to the car and changed our pants – Liam changed his entire outfit as his shirt was also soaked. Then we walked across the river to Goat Island so that we could see the view of the Horseshoe Falls. We had hoped to eat at the Top of the Falls restaurant but it was closed for the season so we just had lunch at the snack bar instead.

After lunch we watched the Imax movie of Niagara – it showed the legends that have surrounded the falls from prehistory right through to the time in 1961 when a small boy survived a fall over them with only a life jacket on! We had some time to spare before heading to the airport so we found an outlet centre. We got to Buffalo Airport and waited for our flight. We were due to get to Orlando after 9pm.

October 15 – First day of the Mouse

We thought we were doing very well when we arrived in Orlando a ½ hour ahead of schedule but we waited for ages for our bags and the whole car rental process took a lot longer then the previous times. The GPS got upset that it had gone to sleep in Buffalo and woken up in Orlando so it had a hissy fit and took forever to pick up a signal – that meant we had a slightly hair raising start to our drive to the hotel. Our car here is a Dodge Caliber – I called it the crappy dodgy Caliber ! It sounds like a vacuum cleaner and has about as much grunt as one! It doesn’t even have central locking so we keep forgetting to lock the doors.

We arrived at the hotel after 10pm and were a bit nervous when we realised that there didn’t seem to be anyone around – lucky we could buzz and a very pleasant lady arrived to check us in. We can spread out here – we have a small 2 bedroom apartment with a full kitchen. Its lovely to have more space. We quickly unpacked the things we’d need for today and tried to settle to sleep but the heat/humidity made it a little hard to adjust. We didn’t sleep well ( and , Owen, your phone’s unexpected call at 2.45 am didn’t help!) and had an early start this morning – the alarm was set for 6.50am.

It was still dark when I got up and (would you believe it !) Adrienne wondered if we were nuts to be starting so early but when she saw the number of people at breakfast at 7.30 and when we saw the crowds arriving with us at the Magic Kingdom she said she knew we were on the right track with our early start.

It took about 10 minutes to drive to the Magic Kingdom and more than half of that was on Disney property – the place is enormous! You know you’re in Disneyworld when the street signs start to sport a pair of Mickey ears! Luckily we were close to the front of the huge parking lot so we were able to walk to the “Ticket and Transportation Centre” – many people have to catch a parking lot shuttle bus because they are parked so far away!

At the ticket centre we caught a monorail which took us to the gates of the Kingdom. We passed through a security checkpoint and joined the crowd at the entrance – just in front of the Main Street Railway station. It’s very similar to the one at Disneyland just bigger – it was also very orange! Everything in Disneyworld is decorated for Halloween. We waited about 20 minutes in the increasing heat until the Opening Ceremony show started. They danced and sang and the steam train arrives with lots of characters on board as well as one lucky family who have been picked from the crowd to help open the Magic Kingdom for the day. After the 10-9-8-etc countdown the gates opened and we started a brisk walk up Main Street.

We had Adrienne’s carefully worked out plan in her hands – we were headed towards Tomorrowland to collect a fast pass for Space mountain.. A fast pass is a ticket that allows you to return at a later time and go through a special, much shorter queue to enjoy the ride. There was a flood of people walking to the Mountain with us as its one of the most popular rides in the park. After that we headed for the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin – Liam absolutely loved this ride ( and to be honest we all did!) You ride through the dark and shoot at targets with your spacey laser blaster – the system keeps track of your score and we were pretty competitive about it.

I won’t bore you with our exact itinerary but Adrienne was very happy with her plan – we walked straight onto rides that only an hour later had long queues – all her research about the right way to “do” the park paid off . By the end of the day we had ridden Buzz Lightyear 3 times.

We left around 2.30 – it was very hot and humid and we’d accomplished everything that we’d planned including an extra – we rode Pirates of the Caribbean today even though it wasn’t on our plan (we didn’t think it was as good as the one in Disneyland).

Back at the hotel, we all enjoyed a refreshing swim – it was just the thing to cool us down. We also dealt with the more mundane things like laundry! Later in the afternoon we wandered across the road to a local supermarket – we WISH we could bring food back. We just can’t be bothered going through the declaration thing at Customs. It was nice to have a quiet evening here at the hotel – we have another early start tomorrow – Adrienne hoped her Epcot plan works out as well as the Magic Kingdom one.

The last Presidential debate was on TV – it seems like every channel is analysing what they are going to say before they even say it! This is such an interesting time to be in America.

October 16 – As we drove to EPCOT this morning Liam was quoting Homer from the Simpsons – “Oh EPCOT! It’s even boring to fly over it!” Hmmmm!

Well it turned out to be anything but boring. It may be hard to believe that when I tell you that we did an attraction based on Waste Management and another one themed around locating Fire hazards in your home – but when Disney does those things they really do make it fun 🙂

EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow. Walt Disney originally planned to make the place a showcase for the future and even envisioned it as a residential community with an array of futuristic facilities. The reality didn’t quite live up to his dream, however it is a pretty cool theme park.

We arrived again before opening. This meant we were one of the first people through the turnstiles and were able to obtain fast passes for “Soarin” within the first 5 minutes of the park opening. There is a huge mob of people heading towards “Soarin” ride in the morning but Disney have the whole thing very well organised.

As we waited at the rope for the park to open, several characters came out to say hi – Adrienne shook hands with Minnie and Mickey ! Our first ride of the day was TestTrack ( hosted by General Motors – a lot of the rides in EPCOT are hosted by major companies. There’s a lot of subliminal advertising! Test Track had us sit in a pseudo Crash test dummies while our car was put through its paces. It was great fun but Liam said the speed test “scared the crap out of him!”

After that we rode Mission Space ( hosted by HP;-) We were in the cockpit of the space shuttle on the first Mission to Mars – we were each assigned a role (Commander,navigator,pilot etc) and had specific jobs to do during the flight. Liam LOVED this one big time – so we went back and did it again later in the day.

Again I won’t detail every ride but we had a great time in the “Future World” part of the park until about 11am when the “World Showcase” section opened. This is a huge area set around a lake with large pavilions based on number of different countries. There’s an enormous Aztec pyramid in the Mexico section, the Eiffel tower in “France”, gondolas in “Venice” and many more. We ate lunch at the San Angel Inn in Mexico – the whole place is themed to look like it is in an outdoor Mexican marketplace with a large pyramid and a volcano puffing away in the distance. You would swear that you were sitting outdoors on a pleasant evening when in reality you’re sitting inside an air conditioned building. There is so much to see and do here we decided to stay throughout the afternoon rather than return to our hotel – it was a long day. We enjoyed our dinner at the Rose and Crown Pub in “Great Britain”, it looked far more authentically British than anywhere we ate when we were in the UK last year ! Disney employs young people from all over the world to work in the appropriate countries in EPCOT. We chatted to our waitress who was working there as an exchange program from her University in Gloucester in the UK. Her work at Disney World counts as credit towards her degree!

I told Adrienne that she can’t really call herself a proper Disney fan for at least two reasons. She is not happy to queue for hours and hours in the hot sun to ask someone dressed up in a character costume to sign my autograph book – this is not just for kids , there are dozens of grown men and women running around collecting autographs from Goofy, Donald etc! Secondly, she did not organise t-shirts for us. We passed family groups all wearing the same sort of t-shirts “The Wilkinsons Walt Disney World 2008”

Some people take this stuff very seriously!

October 17 – We enjoyed our usual breakfast here at the Staybridge Suites. The breakfast buffet ( free) here is the best one we’ve struck so far. This morning Liam had waffles fresh from the waffle iron and our eggs were fresh, not powdered.

When we arrived at The Animal Kingdom we were well back from the entrance turnstiles, however when they opened it didn’t take to long ot get into the park. The crowd surged up the paths to the entry rope where at 8.55 Mickey and friends arrived for another short opening ceremony – not close enough to shake hands today. The Animal Kingdom park is an oasis of green – the Disney people have installed a genuine looking jungle right in the middle of a Florida field. It was lovely strolling around under the leaves and past the bubbling brooks and waterfalls. First we followed the crowd to “Africa” and the Kilimanjaro safaris – this ride is hugely popular, within 5 minutes of park opening the wait was already 30 minutes. We chose to get a Fast pass and wandered down the trail to “Asia” to ride the Kali River Rapids. The signs at the ride say “You WILL get wet, You MAY get soaked” – Liam and Adrienne donned ponchos but I decided to tough it out….and I DID get soaked! The ride was great fun( similar to the wet ride at California Adventure) and when we reached the end we were invited to stay on the boat and give it another whirl ( no crowds at that time of the morning) – I still had a few dry square inches so of course we chose to stay on the ride.

Despite his poncho, Liam managed to get his shoes full of water – we wrung out his socks afterwards but they stayed damp for the rest of the morning. After our “bath” we wandered the Maharajah Jungle Trek- the park is a functioning zoo and we saw a variety of animals including a tiger having a refreshing swim. Next stop was Flights of Wonder – Liam was NOT keen on stopping here when he heard it was a “bird show” but by the end he was asking if we could see it again. Disney can make anything entertaining! The centerpiece of this park is the “Tree of Life” – a 10 story high Baobab tree with a marvelously carved trunk. From a distance it looks like gnarled bark but close up you realise the entire trunk is carved with pictures of animals – 123 animals in fact.

The 4D show inside the tree was hilarious – and based on the Disney movie “A Bugs Life”. We chased poachers on our ride on the Kilimanjo Safari’s and saw more animals in what you would swear was an African savannah. Lunch was down by the river at the FlameTree BBQ – cool and pleasant in the shade.

We headed back to our hotel shortly after lunch – the laundry was calling! And we wanted to have a bit of a break before we head to Hollywood Studios this evening for dinner and the big production show called Fantasmic that evening.

October 18 – It was so nice to sleep in this morning! We still woke about 7.30 but at least I woke up naturally instead of to the alarm. We were on the road to Cape Canaveral by about 9.45. It takes about an hour to get there – along the way we traversed what we thought was the longest stretch of dead straight road that we’d ever come across. Very boring!

You can see the space center a long time before you reach it as the Vehicle Assembly Building towers over the swampy ground on Merrit Island. Once we arrived we realised that it was obviously a very popular destination – there were lots of people queued at the ticket boxes. We chose the standard entry – we didn’t have any choice as the special behind-the-scenes-tours were sold out of the day already. As we entered the building we went through the toughest security that we’ve struck anywhere. Not only were our bags and bodies scanned by the usual airport style scanners but the contents of our bags were examined in detail – we had to turn on every single electrical appliance – phones and video camera, my camera and Liam’s PSP were all checked. We felt very sorry for the English family in front of us – their little boy, about Liam’s age was carrying the plastic Star Wars Blaster that they sell in Disneyworld ( Liam has one at home that we bought on our last trip). The security guy looked at it doubtfully and asked him to turn it on. He then called over his supervisor, who called over his supervisor – who decided that they were NOT allowing that toy plastic gun inside NASA. The Dad had to trail back to the car with it!

Once through security we went straight to the bus bay – there is a tour bus that takes you to three stops scattered within the enormous acreage that NASA manage on the island. First stop was the L39 Observation Gantry. From here we could see two launch pads – both of them had a space shuttle ready for their next missions. The Atlantis is due to launch in l6 days.

From there we went to the Apollo/Saturn V Center. After a short film we entered the Firing room that was used for the bulk of the Apollo missions. The front part of the room has been retained in the same state as it was during all the launches. A light and sound show took us through the last 3 minutes of the countdown for the Apollo 8 mission – When Jim Lovell and his crew were the first men to orbit the moon. The show was fantastic – Adrienne and I were spellbound. From there we entered the enormous hanger where they have a fulI size Saturn V rocket, as well as a Lunar Module and Lunar Rover on display. The Saturn V was enormous! There is a small display where you can touch a moon rock as well.

We stopped for lunch here at the Moon Rock Cafe – Adrienne and I were fascinated by the whole experience. Liam was interested but not as much as we were – I guess because we have real memories of the Apollo missions. The final stop on the tour was the International Space Station Center – this is where they are putting together the modules that are being launched into space to construct the Space Station. We saw a wardroom where the astronauts bed lines the wall – I know it’s weightless up there but it looks weird to see a bed standing up against the wall! After that we went back to the main visitor center and lined up for the Space Shuttle Launch Experience – this is a simulator ride that is supposed to give you a very realistic feel for what the astronauts go through at launch. It was OK but we though Mission Space at EpCOT was more fun !

The whole area around the center is very low and swampy – NASA manage it as a wildlife refuge and the wildlife are thriving – including alligators. We saw a large gator lazing in a pond as we traveled between the stops in the center.

We took photos of the full size shuttle and also of all the rockets in the “Rocket Garden” before we left the centre and drove up the road to the Astronaut Hall of Fame – this place gives you a more personal view of all the American astronauts and has a vast array of memorabilia as well as some “Training” simulators.

It was late afternoon before we headed back to Orlando. The Space Center was well worth the visit.

October 19 – We were back to the early start this morning – the sunrise here is at 7.30 so getting up in the pitch dark is a little hard. However it really pays off when we get to the theme parks – the first hour or so in the morning are so much quieter than later in the day. Today we went back to the Magic Kingdom to do the rides that we didn’t get on the other day. We were right at the front of the rope and raced to Splash Mountain for a fast pass before we went to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This is great fun – you’re riding down a mountain and through a collapsing gold mine on a runaway train.

As we left the ride we were delighted to meet the Dream Team ! – Explanation: I don’t know if I mentioned previously that this year is the “Year of a Million Dreams” in Walt Disney World. What that entails is that in every park there are a group of people called the Dream Team who appear at random locations and hand out special prizes. The prize may be as simple as a sticker or a free pen or as big-time as the opportunity to spend the night in the apartment inside the castle. However the prize that we’d heard about as being the most coveted was a Dream Fast pass – this is a special badge that gives you a Fastpass onto all the rides that normally issue fastpasses ( there’s about 10 of them) Well, luck was on our side this morning because we left the Big Thunder ride with three Dream Fast passes! The Dream fast pass is a boon as you can normally only hold 1 Fast pass in your possession at a time – you can usually only collect 2 or 3 in a whole day. These badges gave us 10 fast passes at once ! It meant that we could relax and not have to rush around to get all the ‘headliner” rides done early in the day before the crowds grew to big.

We left the park around 2.30 and went searching for a Gamestop store – we had promised Liam that we would take him to one so he could buy the Dungeon Runners PC game he is desperate to have – he says it’s not available in Australia. We found a store and we even found the game box on the shelf but when the shop assistant looked in the drawer for the game disk it wasn’t anywhere to be found. Poor Liam was pretty disappointed. We’re hoping we have time tomorrow to try to find another store.

We came back to the hotel to do some laundry and to rest up a little before dinner – Liam and I had a swim but it was a bit cool for Adrienne. The weather has cooled off today, only into the mid twenties and quite cool in the evening.

For dinner tonight we went to Downtown Disney and had a lovely meal at the House of Blues. Afterwards we strolled the length of the shopping/dining precinct and were a bit gobsmacked at some of the stores. We spent some time in a huge Virgin megastore – I think they must have every CD/DVD in the world available there ! There’s a Cinema complex next door with 24 theatres! Some truly amazing restaurants ( the T-Rex restaurant has life size animatronic dinosaurs inside!) and a huge Lego store with a 15 metre long Sea Monster made entirely of Lego! There’s an enormous Planet Hollywood restaurant with the usual movie memorabilia – however this one also has the full size ‘Jenny” fishing boat from the movie Forrest Gump, moored next to the entrance!

Everything at Disney is just so “Big” – unfortunately that also includes us – we put our jeans on tonight for the first time in a week and we’re both convinced that we’ve gained weight ! (All those American sized portions I’m afraid.)

Tomorrow is our last theme park day and we will be spending the night at the Hyatt hotel within the Airport building for our next flight.

October 20 – We woke up at an obscene hour to get ready for our flight ( 4.50 am) The flight was on time ( I’m amazed that all our flights have been on time!) and we were soon on our way back across country.

Adrienne had the window seat and could see the gulf and then the gulf coast pass by I think we were over Louisiana. Lots of cloud over the middle of the country but had a reasonable view of the desert once we reached Albuquerque we could see Hoover dam as we flew into Vegas. On collecting our rental car we realised we’d definitely gone up market we have an ENORMOUS 4WD. The thing really is a tank but a very luxurious one. Leather seats, Moon roof ( why don’t they call them sun roofs?) , a million cup holders and everything else that opens and shuts. It’s a lovely car but it sucks gas like crazy. The car is definitely bigger than the one we ordered but I think they gave it to us because it has California plates and we will be dropping it off at LAX.

In Vegas we drove to an Outlet center and had a meal as well as browsing the stores. I bought some Levi’s ( ridiculously cheap) and some shorts. We drove up and down the Strip to have another look at all the Casinos – that took ages as the traffic is terrible so by then we were ready to check in to our hotel. You could smell the cigarette smoke wafting from the casino floor before you walked in the door . The room was fine and we were tired ( on Florida time) so we just relaxed in the room for a few hours. I slept and Adrienne watched TV. When we have the TV on we’ve spent the whole trip on 2 channels – the Weather Channel or CNN. CNN is almost exclusively showing politics now, although at the beginning of the trip the Wall Street reports loomed large. There have been lots of political ads on TV and radio for the local senate reps as well as for McCain or Obama. Lots and lots of signs in front yards and we even saw some people voting in Las Vegas at a temporary poll booth in the middle of the Outlet Center. They were using monitors to vote there. It’s odd that they can vote before Election Day here. There have been reports of rogue machines and very long queues in some areas which have been putting people off voting. The long queues were particularly bad in some urban areas where they believed African American people were particularly disadvantaged – of course that’s not good for Obama as he has a huge proportion of the African American vote (according to Polls)

Both Obama and Hillary were doing a rally in Orlando on our last day – it would have been tempting to go but it was late in the day and we were buggered! Sarah Palin was doing a rally in Henderson Nevada (which is just down the road from Vegas) the day we were there. After our rest we wandered next door to the Luxor and then across the road to the MGM Grand to have dinner. The Rainforest cafe was fun again this time.

However, we would be happy never to see Vegas again. It’s just as trashy as last time I think if you weren’t there with children you might enjoy it more but I just find it a bit off. I don’t like the hard sell – people are always trying to flog something to you – time shares, hookers, you name it!

October 21 – The drive from Vegas to the border of Utah became very interesting as we neared the little border town of Mesquite. We wound through a narrow canyon forged by the Virgin River and had our first taste of the stunning southwestern scenery. As we passed through St George we saw the large white Mormon temple that was the first one established in Utah – apparently Brigham Young’s winter home was there.

As we drove closer to Zion National Park the rocky peaks grew higher and higher. Inside the park we stopped at the visitor centre and boarded the shuttle bus that takes you up the canyon – we didn’t have time to do the whole trip but we were gobsmacked by what we saw. We had cricks in our necks by the tie we arrived at the Zion Lodge the walls of the canyon are sooooo high ! We took lots of photos and video but we’ve realised that the scale of Zion, like many of the other things we’ve seen since, just can’t be conveyed by photos of videos.

When we left the park we wound up the mountain and came to a stop at the entrance of the Zion-Mt Carmel tunnel. This one mile ling tunnel was drilled through the rock to provide access between Zion and Bryce in the 1920’s. The tunnel isn’t very wide or high so whenever a bus or RV comes along the traffic has to go one way only. We only had to wait a few minutes until the traffic came out and then it was our turn. After the tunnel we drove through a bizarre landscape of sandstone rocks and peaks. I’ve seen more solid sandstone in the last day than I have in my entire life!

As we neared Bryce Canyon we drove through Red Canyon – which lived up to its name , rich rusty red peaks, contrasted against a vivid blue sky – absolutely stunning ! Butch Cassidy often hid out in Red Canyon. At Bryce Canyon we checked into the lodge and were directed to our lovely little log cabin. It was so cute and rustic, with its log fire and high peaked ceilings. No TV, Internet and not even a phone signal but it made up for that with its proximity to the rim of the canyon.

We walked over and were so excited to see the red hoodoos marching down the valley. Its another bizarre landscape and its easy to see why its so popular. We drove up the road to see the canyon from different viewpoints and walked a little down into it along one of the trails. The trails were a little unnerving as they had no handrails and there was nothing to stop you from slipping down hundreds of feet into the depths. We kept a close eye on Liam!

Our dinner in the Lodge restaurant was lovely and we settled in for an early night as we planned to be up before sunrise.

October22 – Bryce to Monument Valley

This morning Adrienne put on two pairs of socks, a singlet, a t shirt, a long sleeve t shirt, one pair of jeans, a pair of stretch pants over my jeans, a light jacket, a parka, a scarf, a hat and a pair of gloves. She felt like the Michelin Man but even with all that on she was freezing only 2 minutes after I’d walked out our cabin door ! As we approached the rim of the canyon the light was glowing over the horizon and we wandered up to Sunset Point ( which, contrarily, is one of the best places to view the canyon at Sunrise!)

We were shortly joined by a few other hardy souls at least half of them had large cameras and tripods and everyone started clicking away as the light grew and as the sun finally poked its nose over the horizon. In the sunrise glow the rich reds and golds of the Hoodoos really came to life. It is a scene that we will remember our whole life.

Our fingers were so cold they were aching but we just kept clicking away. We checked the weather web site and it was -4 degrees ( Celsius) at dawn this morning however there was a stiff breeze blowing so I can’t imagine what the wind chill factor was !

We decided not to eat breakfast in the lodge instead we drove down the road and filled the gas guzzler with petrol and bought some breakfast at the well-equipped gas station. Today was a long driving day but it was also a day of amazing changes in scenery. We drove up and down mountains ( 9,600 feet at the highest) and saw some extraordinary lunar-like rock formations that looked like enormous mountainous blobs of concrete ( or maybe slag heaps) It sounds ugly but it was really fascinating.

We drove through Capitol Reef National Park and saw some of its massive 100 mile long solid red rock mountain. Here we also saw some ancient Puebloan petroglyphs etched into a canyon wall and the remnants of a 1000 year old granary built way up into a cliff face.

Adrienne held her breath at one point when we drove down a winding, steep, dirt road that dropped a 1000 feet in only a few miles this one brought us to the valley floor where Monument Valley resides. The Mesas looked amazing in the red light as the sun went down you really can picture John Wayne and companions riding past them in the old western movies like “Stagecoach”. Our accommodation here at Gouldings Lodge is very comfortable. Most of the staff are Navajo – the park is in the middle of the Navajo nation. We admired some of the beautiful silver, turquoise and other stone jewellery in the trading post here but it is VERY expensive. We wont be buying any.

October 23 – We had an interesting electrical experience late last night which was a little unnerving. Liam and I were both in bed, I was asleep, Liam dozing. Adrienne had packed everything up and was almost ready to climb into bed when she accidentally knocked over our precariously arranged “charging station” – the power board was sitting on top of the television cabinet charging the video camera battery and a couple of other things as well as the laptop. When she knocked the laptop cord everything slid down, she tried to grab it and with a sudden flash and an acrid smell then everything in the room went black. The laptop charger had fried and had blown the fuse for our room! She was just relieved that we hadn’t blown anyone else’s power!

This morning we gassed up the car ( again!) and bought some breakfast things from the local grocery for Liam and Adrienne. My tummy was a bit crook so I didn’t eat anything.

We headed off for the Monument Valley visitor centre. To enter the area you have to pay an entrance fee to the Navajo nation who own the entire park. At the toll booth the guy said the entrance fee was $45. We were a little taken aback as the sign said $5 per person. I asked if that included the fee for the 17 mile scenic drive through the valley and he then sheepishly smiled and said – “No, it’s $15”. I’m not really sure if he was just joking or was trying to rip us off !

We headed down the road and very rapidly Adrienne decided that she was VERY glad that we had rented a 4WD. The road was a shocker she’d been expecting a gravel road but this track was full of big humps and holes , bad ruts, steep inclines and thick sandy areas. You could do it in a normal car but it would be a bit nerve wracking. We bounced our way from one scenic viewpoint to the next. At many of them Navajo people were setting up tables to sell handcrafts and jewellery etc.

We took a lot of photos, the mesas and buttes were just beautiful against the bright blue sky – and we recognized the view from John Ford point amongst others.

By the time we had bounced all the way around the 17 miles, my tummy was not good at all. We headed off to Grand Canyon, about a 3 hour drive. This time the landscape was much less exciting – most of it was open scrubby country, dotted here and there with small Navajo settlements. Most of them looked rather tatty. Finally we left the Navajo nation area and entered the large forested area close to the park. I was getting more and more uncomfortable so I was glad when we finally pulled into the carpark at Desert View – the first place that you can see the Grand Canyon as you approach the park.

What an amazing sight! This is one of the few places where you can actually see the Colorado way down below. We took photos and video and then Liam and Adrienne grabbed a quick lunch at the snack shop.

I was feeling very crook so we headed off down the 22 mile road to the Grand Canyon village. When we finally arrived Adrienne ran in to the registration desk hoping to get the keys to our room , only to be told that the room wasn’t ready and checking was from 4.00pm. This was only at 1.30 !

We drove back to the Village Marketplace and found a shady spot to park the car. I reclined my seat and lay down while Liam and Adrienne went off to find him some cold water. The Marketplace had a substantial supermarket so Adrienne was also able to buy some stomach settlers . They delivered them back to me and I had some Panadol, then Liam and Adrienne set off to explore. They wandered up to the rim trail and strolled along the trail marveling at the view – it’s really an extraordinary phenomenon. During their trek they saw a woodpecker, a couple of squirrels, several ravens and (they think) a condor. They had picked up a wildlife brochure to help identify them.

Adrienne rang the hotel at 3pm but the room still wasn’t ready so they went back to the Marketplace to browse the gift shop and to have some afternoon tea.

The Grand Canyon Village and Visitors area is huge! They run a bus that just does a loop of the area and it takes 60 minutes to do the full loop.

Finally at 4pm we headed back to the car and drove back to the hotel – thank goodness this time we could get our keys. I went to bed as soon as we got there with a wet flannel on my head and Adrienne was pretty sure I was running a temp. Liam and Adrienne went off to explore the views near our lodge and to take some photos as the sun went down. As they walked back Liam asked Adrienne the time and they decided to go ahead and have dinner at the nearest restaurant – they didn’t have much choice as most of them were a car drive or a bus trip away but the Arizona Room was very pleasant. Adrienne was a little surprised how few people were there at 6.00pm until she realised that she hadn’t set my watch back from Utah time and it was actually only 5.00pm! A little later Liam and Adrienne agreed that it was just as well that we’d come early – there was along queue of people waiting for tables by 5.40pm!

There are a LOT of people here. I cannot imagine what the crowds are like during peak summer season ! After dinner , Liam and Adrienne wandered up to the El Tovar hotel to take a look at the lobby and gift shop. El Tovar is the classic rustic old hotel constructed of logs. They then sat in a little lounge area in our lodge until heading to bed and hopefully I’d be better after a nights sleep however we won’t be doing the sunrise photo shoot here.

October 24 – I woke this morning feeling a little better thank goodness. My tummy had still been a bit off all day and don’t have much of an appetite but I’m much better than I was yesterday. We both went out first thing in the morning to take some photos of the canyon in the early morning light we didn’t manage sunrise this time ! There was some haze in the air which affects the view a little and we read later that this is, unfortunately, a not uncommon effect of air pollution on the canyon. It would be wonderful to be there immediately after rain.

We had breakfast up at the Village Marketplace and then drove up the road to some of the different viewpoints along the canyon rim – there were dozens of Japanese school children at one lookout. I’ve also heard Italian, German and British accents while we were here – it really is a worldwide attraction.

After a browse around a couple of the shops we headed off down the road towards Williams, Arizona. This was the first town that we came to that is located on whats-left-of Route 66. It’s been a tourist destination for many years so we drove up Main street and passed several Route 66 Diners as well as memorabilia shops. We stopped at the gas station and a guy in a neat cap and a smart white boiler suit with a nametag that said “Mac” came over and cleaned our windscreen while I filled the car. It felt like we’d wandered into a 1950’s sitcom! From Williams we whizzed off down 14 towards Kingman. The landscape for most of the trip was not dissimilar to our own countryside. Dry, grassy, low hills etc.

We arrived at Kingman in time for a late lunch had a little trouble finding the centre of town but we eventually discovered Mr D’s Route 66 Diner. The 50’s sitcom was back with a vengeance here – there were chrome and vinyl stools pulled up to the counter and laminex tables to the side. The Jukebox was playing classics from the 50’s and the whole place was painted in a fetching combination of aqua and bright pink – which went so nicely with the black and white vinyl tile floor. It was very cool eating there with Route 66 traffic passing by outside. From our seat we were also able to watch several very long freight trains pass by. They each had 4 locomotives and Liam counted 109 freight carriages on one of them.

After lunch we decided to continue along up Route 66 for a bit further into the mountains to take a look at the little historic gold town of Kingman. We saw the hotel where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon. There were mules wandering down the main street, which was particularly surprising as the town was also full of Harley Davidson’s, bikers and other tourists we’d chosen to visit the town on the day that it was the destination for the 2008 Bike Run. The mules seemed to take it all in their stride though . We headed back down the road back to Kingman – Adrienne enjoyed the drive down a lot more as we were on the land side of the road – on the way up we had been on the cliff side and it’s a very narrow , winding road.

The hotel is clean and comfortable and we’ve just come back from the local Cracker Barrel restaurant where we had dinner – I like the way there are so many family restaurant chains in the States. Haven’t seen so many political signs today – maybe they can’t be bothered with politics around here? The polls still put Obama well out in front, with 9 days to go.

October 25 – We were on the road by 9 am and heading west towards Joshua Tree National park. I 40 was busy, US95 had lots of RV’s and State Road 62 was quick.

Speaking of RV’s – we have seen some doozies on this trip. These things are the Titanic of mobile homes. Most of them have a small 4WD ( like a Honda CRV) hooked up behind. We would LOVE to take a look inside these monster campervans – Adrienne said she might consider a camping holiday in one of those beauties.

The landscape was very dry – with dry, low peaks heaving up here and there out of the ground. It wasn’t long before we hit the state border – as soon as we saw the Institute of Mental Physics, the School of Cosmetology and a plethora of new Age stores, we KNEW we were in California !

Joshua Tree National park can’t compete with the other parks in terms of massive peak and huge canyons – however it does have huge quantities of Joshua Trees – these weird looking “trees” belong to the lily family but they remind me of out Blackboys – they grow very slowly and into weird twisted shapes. They obtained their names from the Mormons who, on migrating west, thought that the trees looked like Joshua raising his arms in welcome. The park also has many lumpy mounds of granite that climb quite high in parts. It was an interesting landscape but we drove through the park with only a few stops from one exit to another.

At the town of Joshua Tree we stopped for a nice lunch at the cafe in the National Park visitor centre and then headed up the road to the tiny town – Pioneertown. This place was established as a stage town in the 1940’s – it was used by Gene Autrey, Roy Rodgers and the Cisco Kid in film and television. I had discovered it on the web months ago and had realised that the day we were here was the last day of the year that they stage their bi-monthly gunfights.

We arrived and took a seat in the dusty main street across the road from the Bank. The show was such fun – it is run by volunteers who obviously love what they do – and what they do, primarily, is to wisecrack and shoot a lot of guns! At the beginning a General Custer lookalike rode out on his horse with an American flag and started to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Of course everyone in the crowd stood and put their hands on their hearts – we stood too as we didn’t want to stand out like sore thumbs!. After that the “Marshall” gave a talk about gun safety, however he also made a couple of comments that they were sponsored by the NRA and that “if Obama gets in, they would all be losing their guns etc”. We kept our left wing tendencies under our hats, otherwise we might have had a bullet in the back!

They staged a series of skits and at the end, two of the actors actually renewed their wedding vows ( in front of the Marshall – who has changed clothes and become the Reverend!)as they were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. There was, what I assume to be, a bigger crowd than normal as there were several friends of the “bride and groom” there to watch the occasion. They kept it light and funny and afterwards all the children in the crowd ( including Liam) were sworn in as Deputies. As the actor recited their oath I was a little worried that he would request them to swear to always vote Republican!

From there it was only thirty minutes drive down to Palm Springs – we crossed over the San Andreas fault along the way but I couldn’t see anything and we also passed an enormous wind farm – their were enormous windmills as far as the eye could see.

Palm Springs is a little bizarre. You can’t turn a corner in this dry, desert location without tripping over a golf course, country club or country club estate. They are all beautifully manicured and sport green lawns and we saw a lot of sprinklers – how much of a drain this city puts on the Colorado river is only a guess.

We enjoyed our dinner tonight swapping memories of our trip and trying to remember the “best dinner’, most exciting moment etc. Last day tomorrow – hopefully we will head to San Diego and visit Seaworld before making tracks to LAX tomorrow afternoon.

A little more politics – today we were listening to a radio commentary about the fact that Obama is significantly out in front in the polls. There was a short comment that John McCain is claiming that it is still a very close race and he is a strong contender etc. Time will tell.

And that was the last of Adrienne’s “edited” emails – so great to have them as a record to fall back on ! On the last day we drove from Palm Springs to LAX for our late evening flight – with a slight detour via San Diego and the San Diego Zoo. It was a great trip – our longest to that point and the ” three legs” of the trip each had it’s own draw.