After the hustle of the big cities and all the activities, Weirs Beach was quite a contrast. A small lakeside town, it is easy to see it packed during mid-summer, but now at the tail end of the warm weather, and with school back, it’s nice and sleepy, which is just perfect.

We’ve kept things pretty quiet, all except E who has flourished with a bit more space to run around and keeps asking to go outside. We are only a few minutes away from the main strip so there are lots of options. There are souvenir shops, a couple of bars/restaurants, some pissy dodgem cars, and a little games arcade.

We did some shopping at a local outlet centre which provided some great bargains, then cruised back via a supermarket to get some supplies for lunches and dinner. One oddity for me – I went to the liquor store to get some beer and wine. I asked the lady where the beer was and she told me I had to go to the supermarket for beer. Funny little differences like this are turning up quite regularly.

One of the activities we heard about was a nearby zip line and high wire adventure, so Deb and I decided to check this out, leaving the vertically challenged E and the vertigo challenged Leanne to hold the fort.

The zip line trek was huge fun, climbing up amongst the tree tops and negotiating various obstacles, then zipping between the trees.

  
There was a clever “monkey paws” mechanism which meant you were clipped on at all times and perfectly safe, but there was still plenty of adrenaline. We had started early so apart from our instructor we were the only ones on the track, making it more fun.

After the zip trek we had an opportunity to try the high ropes course, a big set of challenges and obstacles to clamber around. Some were quite high and somewhat perilous, although the monkey paws were there to help.

 

 
We headed back for a rest after all the excitement, then Deb, Leanne and E took a scenic train ride round the lake. 

 E had a ride on one of the old-school rides at the arcade, then it was time for dinner, 

 We picked a nearby Italian place, which ended up being more like the Monty Python cheese shop – almost anything we ordered was not available. It reached the point of ridiculous when the waitress asked us if we’d like dessert:
– Would you like some dessert?

– hmmm… What are the options?

– Well, you can have strawberry shortcake…

– …

So we gave that a miss. The food we had was quite good but the somewhat limited selection was a bit amusing.

Tomorrow, we head to Boston!

We braced ourselves for another long day in the car, but thankfully the worst was behind us. Stopping in the cute town centre of Stamford for a coffee, E was particularly taken with the many brightly painted dinosaur statues dotted around the town, apparently part of a summer art project.

Our next stop was the Stamford Museum and Nature Reserve – a nice mash up of gallery, farm and zoo.  

 There were lots of animals for E to look at, he was particularly impressed with the baby goats he could pat, and a ferret. There was a particularly good reptile house and a pond with beautiful otters playing in the water. A play on the playground, and E was ready for a sleep, so we gave the museum a miss and hit the road. 

   
We had had a recommendation that the pizza in New Haven (home of Yale University) was worth stopping for, so set the GPS and were soon there. The weather had become very unsettled, and although still hot there were brief intense bursts of rain to contend with. Soon we arrived in New Haven and headed for the recommended pizzeria, Modern Apizza. The wood fired pizzas were very good, albeit enormous! Two small pizzas was too much for the three adults. I did see a large pizza come out of the oven, I think the box may have come with a warning saying it needed two people to lift it. 

Quickly eating in the car, we pressed on, and were soon into Massachusets and then New Hampshire, bringing our count of states visited on this trip to 9. Hopefully the trip back from Boston will get us through Rhode Island and up to 10!

The landscape became increasingly green and lush, and we started passing country clubs and golf courses quite regularly, before reaching Laconia, on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee (prizes for correct pronunciation). Our destination was Weirs Beach, a small holiday town about 20 minutes away. 

 We settled into our nice cottage then Deb and I headed to find us dinner – some cheap but quite good Mexican. While we waited we had a margarita at the bar – lots of locals sinking beers and talking crap. The barmaid was very friendly and ran the place single-handedly, not a bad effort.

Again we crashed, exhausted from our long couple of days of travel. I’ll put up some photos and the like in the next day or so.

We started the day with a trip to the playground so E and Dottie could have a decent run around together, then packed the car and said our goodbyes. It’s been so great staying with these guys, we will miss them heaps and hopefully get a chance to catch up again before too long. 

 Soon enough we were out of the DC sprawl and on to the Interstate 95, which heads all the way to our destination in Connecticut. Leaving Virginia for Maryland, we stopped north of Baltimore for a quick coffee and recharge, then hit the road again. Adding to the count of states for the day, the I95 briefly passed through Delaware, then into Pennsylvania. We were struck by the amount of green forest around the highway, I was expecting more urban sprawl in this part of the country.

Around lunchtime we reached Philadelphia. We had been told the best place for a Philly Cheese Steak was “Pat’s King of Steaks” which featured in the movie Rocky, movie appearances being the yardstick of culinary quality.

Owing to some dubious GPS navigation we ended taking some backstreets through a very run down area of the city. It was clear that Philly has some real poverty issues, the economic downturn looked to have hit hard here.

Pat’s is in an Italian area of Philadelphia, with lots of grocers and restaurants and the like. I was reminded of parts of Sydney road in Coburg, but a fair bit narrower.

Deb did a fabulous job of navigating through the strict ordering process – “Three Americanos wit” and we soon had three rolls with thin sliced steak, American cheese and with (wit) onions. They actually weren’t too bad, although I wouldn’t be rushing back for more I could see their appeal after a night on the turps.

Thus refreshed, we climbed back into the car and headed off, into New Jersey and along the interminable turnpike, a long stretch of concrete nothingness. The considered wisdom was for people to travel at least 10mph over the speed limit so I guess speed cameras aren’t a big thing here.

By the time we crossed the George Washington bridge into New York and the Bronx E was starting to get pretty tired and cranky, but we survived the journey into Connecticut and our stop for the night, Stamford.

Exhausted from eight hours of driving we had a quick meal at a nearby diner and crashed. 

Today was a relatively quiet start – after a quick run and some bagels we hung around the house and let the kids entertain each other. Patrick was heading to New Orleans so we bid him farewell then took the train to the Alexandria old town for a wander. It’s a lovely part of the city, lots of craft shops and little cafes and restaurants, and being a sunny Sunday afternoon there were lots of people enjoying the day. 

 We found a really good running shop and I had to exercise iron discipline not to buy more shoes. The harbour area was lovely, with magicians and portrait artists plying their trade. We considered lunch at one of the waterfront restaurants but both had quite expensive buffets, and I’m always suspicious of bain-marie prawns on a hot day, so we selected a place called Virtue a short stroll from the waterfront. This proved to be an excellent decision, with a delicious brunch and great service.

On the walk back to the train there was a choice of two ice cream places on opposite sides of the road. One had a queue out the door and the other only had a couple of people lining up, so we took this as a sign and braved the longer queue. It was worth the wait.

Back at chez Garrigan we all crashed after a couple of action packed days. The kids were exhausted and we took it very easy – a long drive coming up tomorrow.

After a fine post-run breakfast we jumped on the Metro and headed back into DC to check out the mall at a more sedate pace than the morning run.

It was already shaping up to be a scorcher and the sun was punishing on the mainly white stone surfaces. We passed several museums but on a whim decided to head into the National Archives. We were very glad we did – an original copy of Magna Carta, one of only four, was on display, as part of a great exhibit on the progression of rights in America. Of particular note was the section on African American rights, some great material on Martin Luther King Jr and some poignant personal stories of freed slaves.

There were also significant displays on women’s rights and Native American rights.

After this we headed upstairs to the rotunda, holding the jewels in the museum’s crown – the originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Unsurprisingly no photos were allowed but the documents were great to see in real life, even if they were quite faded. A real treat!

 

Leaving the cool dark confines of the archives we headed back into the blazing sun, further down the mall and to the beautiful treasury building. Quite ornate and lovely, but overshadowed by its smaller next-door-neighbour – 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (the Gettysburg Address?) and the White House. 

 We came in the back way (like Dubya in 2004, ahahaha) and were able to get quite close, despite the heavy security presence. Out of nowhere a group of army people ran past without their shirts chanting U-S-A, U-S-A, which I suppose suited the location.

To evade the heat we retired to a roof-top bar nearby for a cooling beverage and some lunch. We had spectacular views of the White House, treasury building and Washington monument. The beers were pretty good too! 

 Refreshed, we set off to see the monument up close, pausing briefly for the mandatory lame perspective trick photos.  

 We then walked down alongside the reflecting pool, pondering the essential nature of duck poo and solving the problems of the world, until we came to the Lincoln Memorial. A stunning building, the statue of Abe is very impressive up close. 

 Salli also pointed out a plaque on the floor denoting the place where MLK gave the legendary “I have a dream” speech. Some great history here. The sun was behind the memorial and lighting the reflecting pool and monument beautifully, I’m not sure photos can do justice to the moment. 

   
Meanwhile Otto had taken a liking to the marble stairs and was clambering up and down them (supervised of course!) and making friends with all and sundry.

Moving on we wandered back to the station via a grocery store. As I was browsing I heard the guy next to me saying his best trip was to Australia and how much he likes Australians. I introduced myself and tried to set the record straight. Turns out he’s a fellow Bombers supporter, good man.

Another day packed with history and fun with our most kind hosts. Really enjoying DC so far!

After a few too many craft beers the night before, a run wasn’t as high on the agenda as it probably should have been, but Patrick and I struggled out early in an effort to beat the heat. It was a nice cool morning and we parked on Theodore Roosevelt Island and set off across the Potomac to the National Mall.

It’s hard to overstate the number of sights we saw on the 14km out and back circuit. Some highlights included the Watergate building (where Patrick works), the White House, the Washington Monument, which is much bigger than I had expected, and the Capitol Building. 

A great run, but by the time we headed back it was starting to get uncomfortably warm. Setting up to be a scorcher!

 

The source of the above quote can be found here (some naughty words for those with sensitive ears) but Virginia was our destination and we loaded our luggage into a cab and headed for Penn Station, coincidentally right next to Madison Square Gardens.

Our cab driver was enthusiastic about his driving, and in lieu of his indicators preferred the use of his horn to announce his next move. Safe to say he used most of the lanes down 7th avenue.

We bundled our gear out and found our way to the Amtrak waiting area. There’s a great service here called the Red Caps who come and collect your bags and help load them onto the train. Much appreciated and very useful!

While we waited we grabbed a snack and watched the public service TV which explained in detail what to do when a gunman starts shooting up the place, or when terrorists attack you. To lighten the mood they explained how not to get hit by a train. Quite disconcerting really.

Soon we boarded and headed South. Not much of excitement to report of our journey through New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Baltimore looked as delightful as portrayed in the Wire, but to be fair it may have just been that part of Baltimore.

A few hours later we pulled in to Union Station in Washington, DC. Contrary to a lot of stations (and certainly Penn station) it was a very nice building with sculptures and high ceilings.

Salli picked me up and took me to the rental place where I climbed into our transport for the next week and a bit – a big Dodge SUV. Now for the fun of trying to drive on the wrong side of the road began…

Thankfully my brother in law had lent us his GPS (thanks Bryce, you’re a life saver!) so despite a few false turns I was soon back at the station to collect the rest of the team.

A slightly circuitous route via Maryland and we were in Alexandria, Virginia, to stay with Salli, Patrick, Dottie and Sadie. They have a lovely place in a nice leafy neighbourhood, a pleasant contrast to Manhattan.

We settled in and let E stretch his legs, and had a nice relaxing evening sampling a good selection of local craft beers and chatting. Lovely!

One of Deb’s friends happened to be in New York at the same time as us, and posted that he was going to see Billy Joel at Madison Square Gardens. We thought this would be a great post-script to our visit to New York, and we managed to score some cheap last minute tickets.

MSG is a great venue, very similar in size and layout to Rod Laver arena, and our seats turned out to be very good.

Not much to say about the show that hasn’t been said about Billy Joel before. As he said himself, he hasn’t had a new album in 22 years, so he was just playing the “same old shit” which clearly suited everyone perfectly.

He went through all the classics and crowd-pleasers, and put on a great show. Favourites were Piano Man (of course), Scenes from an Italian Restaurant and Always a Woman.

Today we took a ferry ride around Manhattan, in order to see the most famous French woman in the world – the Statue of Liberty. It was again quite a warm day but the breeze down the Hudson River was lovely and cooling.  

  

The statue was very impressive – we didn’t go ashore on Liberty Island, but had great views from the water. 

 Our tour continued and took us past all five boroughs. Some highlights were the UN building, the various bridges, and Yankee Stadium (boo Yankees) – all in all a nice way to get a different perspective of the city. The guide narrated the whole way, and although he was a bit hard to hear at times he was generally very interesting.

We disembarked at 42nd street, then decided to walk back to the hotel on 73rd. It was a great day for it, and again a good way to get a sense of the size of Manhattan. We stopped along the way for a good lunch, E in particular loved his Mac and cheese.