Jocelyn's blog

May. 20, 2008

Boston and Beyond

We've been back in Australia for a few days now so I'd better finish this off.

On Friday, 9 May, after the Tulip Festival, we headed off to Boston. Unfortunately for Andrew, it was raining and then he missed a major turn but after a detour, we did get there!! We were staying with the McCarragher's for the weekend and they live an hour north of Boston.

The children met each other and instantly went off to play. I do love that about children - they never take long to make a new friend and enjoy each other's company. As it happened Cera, now 15, was just about to head out the door to Awana. This group is run at a local church and has activities and games for kids to do. Two of our older ones went along and had a great time. I stayed back to chat with Hilary. She's recovering from Lime's Disease and it has been hard on her and the family over the past two years. She's improving every day and thankfully, we were able to enjoy some time with them and not be too much of a burden.

Saturday is soccer day and different ones of us went and watched their kids play games. We had thoughts of going out to Rockport in the afternoon but never quite got there. Caleb, 13, has some BB guns and the boys (yes I do include Andrew in that) spent half the afternoon going in and out of the woods behind their house taking shots at each other. After Hilary's sleep in the afternoon, she felt refreshed enough to come out shopping. Actually, she suggested the shopping and she then made sure I looked at clothes for myself rather than just all of the boys. We had such a great time. Hilary got me to try on AT LEAST 20 pairs of pants and numerous other articles of clothing. Sometimes she'd walk in to the change room with the most hideous thing or biggest size she could find and have me doubled over with laughter!

When we got back, Brenan had a campfire going out the back and some leftover dinner for us (we did take a long time to shop...) Everyone enjoyed some toasted marshmallows and Breanna made me a fantastic s'more. One was definitely enough, though.

On Sunday, we went to the Reformed Pressie Church the McCarragher's go to. They were friendly and we had a good message. After lunch, we headed down to Harold Parker State Park with a canoe strapped onto the back of the car.

After Mark had a turn in the canoe, he came out exclaiming, "I went in the canoe and I didn't get wet!" Poor child, the only other time he had been in a canoe was a month earlier and he got tipped into the Rainbow River. It was a pleasant day but it reminded us of Canberra weather for May. Warm in the sun but cold in the shade. We were wondering if we were being prepared for our return!

On Monday, we moved to a hotel closer into Boston for the last couple of days. Because we had missed out on going to Rockport on Saturday, we thought we would tour around this coastline today by ourselves. It would have been a good idea on Saturday and it was bright and sunny and in the low 70s (that's about 20 degrees). Today, it was cold, the wind was ripping through and it was 50 F (about 9-10 degrees C ). We got out at Hallibut Point to take a quick look but even Andrew felt too windblown to go down to the rocks and take a photo. We settled for a driving tour of the area and followed every windy road around the coast.

I asked Andrew to help me out with some descriptive words for the coastline. He said it reminded him of England but not as bleak. I thought the coast was rugged and rocky, dotted with quaint little towns along the way. At one of those little towns, I took a photo of a flag in the stiff breeze. Andrew had gone into a seaside cafe and was getting us some hot chips (fries) for a treat. Oh, they were so good!!

As the kids had gotten on so well and the McCarraghers were so welcoming, we went back to them late in the day and stayed till after dinner.

Tuesday was a complete contrast to the Monday. Another sunny day with pleasant weather. We decided to head downtown today, look around the Boston Common and Public Garden before then going on the Freedom Trail. The kids got stuck at the playground and we just let them enjoy the time.

Andrew then led us through the Freedom Trail. We had the brochure from the Visitor Center and followed the red line around the city streets. We stopped by historical buildings, cemeteries and public squares which all had significance in the lead up to the American Revolution. It was good to see some of these places and be reminded of various events. After a couple of hours of walking through the city, Zac exclaimed, "This isn't the Freedom Trail...it's the slavery trail!" I had to laugh at his dry humour. We were setting a pace to get through as much as possible and did have Mark in a stroller to be able to do this. So Mark, of course, had no problem with the day nor the walking.

We had our last day of shopping at Walmart. This one was completely disorganised and the service was poor. We had to buy another bag to fit all of extra things in and we bought Caleb another BB gun as one had broken the day before. Apparently, Massachusetts is one of the few states where you have to handle and purchase such a gun under supervision.

Wednesday was the big pack up day. Our flight wasn't leaving until late in the afternoon so we decided to take it easy rather than running ourselves ragged at the start of a 30 hour trip in transit. We checked out at 11am, and called on the McCarraghers for lunch. When we left in the afternoon, we all wished we were home already!

Unfortunately, we still had to go through the travel bit ...

and I'll have to do that later as I have to get onto other things now.

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May. 14, 2008

Albany and Australia

Posted in USA Trip

Well, I'm behind with the blogging again. We've been having such a great time here in Boston that I just haven't thought much about the computer (at the right time that is).

As it is, this will be my last entry before returning. We leave tomorrow though it will take us until Friday to get home. I will have to write about Boston when we get back.

For now, I'm going back in time somewhat to Albany, NY. We stayed there overnight on Thursday last week and then spent some time in town on Friday morning (9th) before continuing on our journey to Boston.

We went and looked at some of the historical area. There's a lot of Dutch names still around, seeing as though it used to be a Dutch settlement in the 1600s. When the British took over, they changed the city's name from Beverwyck to Albany but most other names stayed the same. There was even a news item in our hotel that morning, saying that a bank robbery had taken place in a nearby town - Guilderland!

The centre of the city shows some good planning and that main street (State) is wide as it has the market, church and other public buildings come off it. The streets become chaotic later on as the British took over, replaced Fort Orange and built their own structures with seemingly, no system.

After looking at the State Capitol building, which was built later (1860s- 1890s), we then went up to the Tulip Festival. It was only on for the weekend (Mother's Day). It's not as bug as Floriade but it did have some lovely blooms and the boys photographed their favourite flowers.
It rained late in the day but Andrew managed to get us to Boston safely, where we met up with the McCarragher's.

I'm afraid it's just too late to add more entries tonight. It's just after midnight and we will have a long trip back late tomorrow. The Albany pictures are up on Facebook. It's been great to get some feedback and please feel free to leave some though we won't be able to answer you until we return.

God bless and thanks for following our travels,

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May. 9, 2008

Niagara Falls 7 May

Posted in USA Trip

Well, this time I have put comments on the photos on Facebook. After all, this is a natural wonder of the world and the photos still don't do justice to it!! Andrew wanted to see this more than NYC and I think he chose wisely. All of the boys were truly captivated by this.

We went on a boat ride to the base of each waterfall and it was simply overpowering. We did reflect on this later in the day and praised God for His awesome creation. (Right use of the word, Dad! )

So, I'm keeping this entry brief and directing you to Facebook - or if you can't see photos there to bug us to see our photos when we get back. Andrew took some movie clips too.

Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21721&id=792083544

P.S. We stayed on the Canadian side so we got that stamp in our passports and yes, Maria, we did visit Value Village. All your sales pitches for it years ago made me remember the name when I saw it...

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May. 8, 2008

Farm Stay - Amish Country

Posted in USA Trip

Before we left home, I asked Andrew what were some of the things he wanted to do while we were away. He was flat-chat with work and barely able to think but he did say that we wanted to visit Amish country. I decided to go one better and booked somewhere for us to stay in that region. I looked around and saw this lovely farm stay and knew the boys would love it too.

We stayed in this rustic cabin, with all the basics. Overlooking the cabin was a volleyball net and children's playground. These things were nice but the bigger attraction was the woods behind the cabin, the pond with a row boat and paddle boat and the small farm of animals for the children to see, pet and help to feed. The best thing was....SPACE. The kids could just run around, hop on a scooter or roam. It was a great opportunity for them and they loved it. The amount of dirty clothes I have from a few days certainly bears testimony to this!!

On the second morning, Stevie discovered that a nest had 3 blue eggs in it and one newly hatched. It was so wonderful to see this and to share in his delight. By the time we got back later in the day, all four were hatched and starting to walk around.

So on the Monday, after commuting to Philly over the weekend, we just toured around locally. We went first to the Choo-Choo Barn. There's a miniature railway there and it is the best I have ever seen. Several rail enthusiasts we know in Canberra would have loved it! The whole of Amish country is in miniature and almost every little scene has some moving aspect to it. The layout was huge and after a certain amount of time, the lights fade and it becomes night! It was beautiful and I don't even really like this sort of thing normally. Well, Mark would have been happy to stay there for the whole day. As it was, we stayed there for an hour.

We then moved on to a covered bridge, out by Intercourse. The whole time we were driving around, we were looking out for the Amish. Andrew started a "spot the Amish" game with the kids. The were looking in the fields and saw men plowing behind a team of horses, women in the garden, children playing volleyball and of course, the many horse and buggies we saw along the way.

We had lunch in Ronks at a restaurant called Diemer's. It's a lovely family restaurant with a lunch buffet for children costing 60c per year of their birth. So Mark's lunch was $2.40 and Steve's was $6.60. They had a placemat with all the different traditional ways of saying grace and some praying hands in the middle. There was a Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish prayer listed. I thought it was a nice touch.

After this, we went on and looked in other areas. We looked at some shops with quilts and nic nacks but it obviously is not the best place to keep boys amused.... Mind you, they did appreciate the small art gallery and I found one painting quite entrancing.

When we got back, I went off to do some food shopping and Andrew tok the boys out in the boats on the pond. When I got back, we had a light dinner and then started the campfire. All the tools for a good cookout were there, courtesy of our hosts. We roasted marshmallows and threw potatoes in to cook. We also cooked up some sausages but by this time it was late, we were smoky and we just held them over until the next day.

Tuesday, we had to pack up again and head north. We've had a change of plans for the rest of the trip.

Tues- travel to Niagara Falls
Wed- Look around Niagara Falls
Thu - travel to upstate NY
Fri- head toward Boston, arriving by 4pm
Fri night to Mon morning -Stay with McCarraghers
Mon & Tue - stay in Boston
Wed- fly home
Fri-arrive in Sydney and take hire car back home

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May. 8, 2008

Philadelphia 3-4 May

Posted in USA Trip

On Saturday, we packed up and left the Houghtons!! No easy task as we had done some shopping while staying with them...

We got on the road and had bad traffic to Philadelphia. There's a toll booth just on the other side of a tunnel in Delaware that banked traffic up for ages. Then there was road work as we got closer to Philly itself. Anyway, we arrived by 1pm and Eunice (another Aussie over here) had lunch on the table for us, which was great.

After a quick bite to eat, we headed downtown as Eunice had already booked our tickets for Independence Hall. We were ushered in with a group and a Park Ranger led an introductory session about the Hall and its historical significance. I must say that whether the rangers are leading historical things or are in the wold, we've been very impresed with each one we have come across. (Good choice of profession, Dylan). This guy was just fantastic and if anything, the tour didn't last long enough.

After that, we tried to go to the Liberty Bell but the queue was so long, we decided to go to the Visitor's Center and see what else was available. They directed us to Franklin's Market St houses. This was great because these buildings are the original ones Franklin worked in. There's the post office (which he started), the printing office and the newspaper office run by his son in law, all in a row. In the printing office, a park ranger gave a demo of how to ink up and print off a sheet of paper from an old press. We did enjoy that.

We then went back to Eunice's for afternoon tea. Mark had had enough at this stage and we still had one and a half hours to get out to our farm stay.

We did join Euncie the next day for church at 10th Presbyterian and that was great. We had lunch with her and her cousin before leaving to go back out into the country.

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May. 3, 2008

Last week in DC

Posted in USA Trip

I've looked back at the blog and realised that the whole week has gone by!!!

Monday was a home day and shopping day.

Tuesday, we hired a car and went up to Gettysburg. It's only an hour and a half from here and it was a pleasant drive. The Houghtons had an audio guide which takes you through each stage of the battle over the three days. Putting that on and driving around this huge theatre of the war was incredible. I certainly had a greater appreciation for the significance of this battle and the huge sacrifices involved. That pretty much took the day - by the time we got there, spent 3 hours going around the battlefields, tried to find Andrew a donut and a coffee, bought Civil War caps and then came back.

Wednesday, we stayed home and caught up on washing and other tasks. One of those was getting our hire car or the last leg of our trip. Andrew had to get himself out to Dulles airport to pick it up. It was good to have a down day after Gettysburg.

Thursday was full-on! We got up earlier and drove out to the National Zoo. It is a nice zoo but some exhibits were empty and we were glad it was free as if we had paid a lot of money, we'd have been disappointed. We did see the giant pandas and the orang-utan walking across the huge rail that goes through the zoo. The zoo is pretty, with lots of trees surrounding it.

Later that day, we had the Bozarths coming over to join us for dinner. It was just great to see them all again and to talk. Little Hudson was much grown and he and Mark hit it off together. Ginny is a gorgeous little baby and the older children were just lovely.

Friday, yesterday, was Adam's 7th birthday! The Houghtons had a Renaissance Day at Lachlan's school so we got all dressed up and joined them for those festivities. The pictures are on Facebook. You'll see monks who were ministering to physical needs - operating cotton candy, snow cones and popcorn. It was a hit on the day! The jousting tournament was fantastic - Adam won through 6 times and tied on several other occasions! The archery was done well with pipe used for the arrows. Some creative person did that well. My boys knocked down the apple several times and were quite good shots. The "Queen" arrived, followed by singers and proclaimed the day open and there were some items in the hall as well. Older students did the last act of "A Merchant of Venice" and younger children did some Renaissance dancing. It was great but a really sunny day and we got a bit tired from it in the end.

Dinner was Adam's choice - meat pies. Meat pies in America? Yes! Carmel showed me how she makes it herself so we had that with roast potato and then the cake.

Today, we head off to Philadelphia and we will stay in a farm stay on the edge of Amish country. It's unlikely that we'll have email access again until Tuesday. At that time, we'll have spent all of Tuesday heading north to Niagara Falls.

Must go - gotta pack,

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Apr. 28, 2008

The rest of the week in DC

Posted in USA Trip

Wednesday for us was a "down day" after all the sightseeing we had been doing. The kids have been to so many museums I think we will struggle to get them to go to them again for a while in Australia. Each experience has been a good one but when you are on a time limit, it does mean packing more in than you might do normally.

Thursday, Andrew took Stevie and Zac off to the National Air and Space Museum for the day. It was great for them to be able to go and do this by themselves as there's so much to see in there. They saw the Apollo 11 command module, the Spirit of St Louis, the Glamorous Glennis, that broke the speed of sound, V2 rockets and many more types of craft. They enjoyed lunch in the parkland surrounding the Smithsonian and then kept going in the afternoon.

I went to Carmel's bible study with her and took Adam and Mark with me. Unfortunately, Mark was not well behaved - not enjoying been in another room away from me. He has become "clingy" during this trip. After lunch, was rest time and then general play.

On Friday, we went down to Charlottesville for the day. It took a bit of time to sort out the rental car but then we were on our way. There was some construction going on between the hospital and university so it took a while to negotiate our way through there and then get onto the Uni lawns for lunch. It was worth the efoort as that campus is just beautiful. We had fine weather and it was so refreshing to sit and eat in such an environment. The occasional college student walking through dressed shabbily did spoil it but not for long. After lunch we did a quick tour of the campus. Andrew was interested in reading all about Thomas Jefferson's vision for the University and his confidence in education as a remedy for society. We toured through the Rotunda and then the quadrangle.

We then moved on to Monticello, the estate of Thomas Jefferson. By then it was near 3pm and we could only stay for an hour. We decided not to go in but got the guidebook for later. I have been there before and left the decision to Andrew. After this, we went out to the house I used to live in when our family was in America for one year, some twenty one years ago. As soon as I saw the post office, the memories came flooding back. Dad did provide me with some directions but I could have managed on my own at this point. We got to the gate and found there wasn't one so we moved on up to the house. Even with fervent knocking on the front door, no one was there so we took some photos and then left. I then got in the rental car and drove myself to school!! It was fun to do this short drive now I was actually old enough to do so! We didn't take a photo of the high school as I really didn't feel the need....

Saturday was supposed to be cloudy with a possible storm but the day started with no sign of it. Steve C had joined us by this point and we all headed off the downtown DC to do a walking tour of the memorials. With two cars and "Houghts" as our guide, we covered the Lincoln Memorial, Korean, FDR, Jefferson, WWII and just the base of the Washington Memorial. That took all morning and Andrew did have to make a special effort to be up and out of the door by 8.30am but it was worth the early start. We left Steve C to go on to the Air & Space Museum, seeing as though he only had one day to sight-see. Not long after he left us, he was spied by the guys (moving the cars to another carpark) photographing a line of buses!!

We came back for a late lunch before Carmel & I went out to the hairdresser. D & C had the Airforce Ball to go to and we were the ready made sitters for the evening. Steve came back and we finished the evening by playing some more Settlers.

Sunday - today- started with church and then some visitors joining us for lunch. Old neighbours from their Defence Estate in Canberra are also on a posting in the US! It was great to see them again.

It has been rainy today but the boys still played cricket in the lane. Carmel and I tried to teach ourselves how to play "Thurn and Taxis".

I'll put photos up on Facebook another time. Bye for now,

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Apr. 24, 2008

Sightseeing in DC

Posted in USA Trip

On Monday, Andrew took the older three to the International Spy Museum - one of the only private museums in Dc and therefore, one of the only ones that costs money! Andrew did enjoy it though he would have liked more time in there without children who were wilting... Over dinner they certainly spoke enthusiastically about some of the spy things - guns in cigarettes, bugs in the smallest objects and who dunnits that you had to solve.

Tuesday, I went with them. We went to view the Declaration of Independence in the morning. We'd just finished watching the movie, National Treasure. I probably wanted to see the real live thing more than anyone else. We arrived, only to find a line. It moved freely but then stopped dead still for half an hour. We ended up debating whether to stay when the line started to progress. It took an hour all up to get into the Rotunda and look at the "charters of freedom". I didn't realise that the Magna Carta was housed there as well so that was a bonus! We also saw the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendment to end slavery and Civil Rights Amendment, proudly on display. I'm sure that they are trying to preserve some of these documents by the dim lighting in the building but it really did look dull. there's some great paintings on the wall in there and the Rotunda itself has lovely architecture.

After that, it was a short stroll to the "Mall", an outdoor park between the Washington monument and the Capitol building. We stayed there for lunch and the kids enjoyed a little run around. We were just outside the Smithsonian Castle but had already decided to go to the Natural History Museum for the afternoon. This was done quite well. We liked the mammal section the best. The Dinosaurs were good but of course, there was an evolutionary slant to the beginnings of life and the prehistoric exhibits.

We did have a nice day out and know that we will have to get on the train and have a few more DC days! We are having fun with the Houghtons too - playing Settlers of Catan most nights and I need to get off and play right now....

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Apr. 21, 2008

Williamsburg to Washington

Posted in USA Trip

It's late here in D.C. - about 11.30pm but I know that if I don't keep writing, I'll get too far behind.

Thursday and Friday were spent in and around Colonial Willamsburg, VA. We went to Jamestown Settlement on the Thursday and it was nice to just drive 10 minutes down the road to something about all the miles we had been putting on the car.

We looked around at the displays, watched a movie on the founding of Jamestown, which helped Andrew fill in on the historical backgound and then went outside to the recreation of the fort/settlement. I really liked seeing the staff dressed up in period costume, talking about so many fascinating things from that period and encouraging the children to interact with them. From hauling water, to watering plants, looking at a canoe being burnt out, a musket being loaded and fired, to having a go at sweeping the floor and dressing up in some armour, it was just a great experience! Caught your breath now?? Phew!

They also had some replica ships in the harbour of the first ships that brought the colonists out from England. The boys liked climbing all over these and doing some dressing up! Wanted to climb that rigging (that's a comment for you, Devon) but of course, weren't allowed to...

Later that day, after a rest and a swim in the hotel pool (yes, it was freezing...), we all walked around Colonial Williamsburg. In the dull light before dark, the town just looked majestic. Again, people were dressed in period costume and took their roles seriously, providing some interest as we strolled up the streets. We had a tired Mark at the end of the day and a couple of hungry boys but it was a nice walk in such picturesque surroundings. I'll put some photos on Facebook tomorrow - too late to organise them now.

Friday, we had to pack and head out to Yorktown. We just got there in time for the Artillery Show and then went back inside and started at the beginning of the galleries and worked our way back through. This was a smaller venture than Jamestown but still done well. The lady in the Farmhouse spoke to the boys at length about cooking and preserving things in a colonial kitchen and got them to handle huge pots and wash some dishes. A man explained the role of a surgeon during those times and showed all manner of gruesome looking tools for the the various complaints!

It was interesting to read about Yorktown and see where all the various parties had travelled from to get to this point in the Revolutionary War. We finished there by mid afternoon and then travelled to D.C. to stay with the Houghtons. We arrived just before the traffic got banked up on the Beltway and have had a great weekend here. I'll get back on soon to talk more about our D.C. happenings.Must get to bed now!!

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Apr. 18, 2008

Catching Up - Trip to NC, Valdese, Kitty Hawk

Posted in USA Trip

Sorry - I haven't been able to wrest the computer from Andrew's control at the appropriate time of night and thus has not been able to catch up on blogging.

Monday (14th), we travelled north from Jacksonville to Hickory in North Carolina. We had a nice, long stop in Savannah to look around. As I have mentioned to a few people now, Abraham Lincoln famously told the union troops not to destroy this city during the Civil War because it was too beautiful. We had a short little walk through some of the historic district and could see some of that beauty. If we had followed an official trail, we might have come across the most famous buildings but we did enjoy our casual and spontaneous route. We ended up getting into our hotel quite late though that night as we had spent 2 hours there!

The next morning, we were off to Valdese, a small town in NC. It was named for the Waldensians who settled there. This was a group of Christians, biblical and Reformational in character, who were persecuted for their faith in France and Italy. This town has re-created the buildings and monuments important to their ancestors. Most of the originals are in the Italian Alps. Well, we arrived at the "Trail of Faith", only to find that it was shut! Apparently, it is only open on weekends at this time of year and is in full swing over the summer. After explaining that we were from Australia and only visiting for this one day, the lady at the visitor centre phoned around and found a volunteer guide who would come down and open it up for us. We had a personalised tour! It was great to be able to go through the history of these people and look at their resourcefulness, perseverance and incredible faith. At the end, Andrew said, "Thanks for bringing us here, I really enjoyed that." I was glad because it was out of the way and I really wanted to do this. Devon, if you are reading this - it was worthwhile but visit in the summer as they have people dressed in costume at the blacksmith, a lady at the communal oven baking bread and an outdoor drama about how the people lived in Europe and then immigrated to the US.

Wednesday was Kitty Hawk - well Kill Devils Hill actually. This is where the Wright brothers first got a plane into the air! They chose Kitty Hawk because of the great wind conditions. We went there on this day, 16 April because I knew it was a special day. I didn't tell the kids until we got there...it was Wilbur Wright's birthday so we got in for free! They had birthday cake there and we watched some movies of their early flights and air shows. Zac thought this was the best thing about the day. We just caught the people packing up after doing kite making and I managed to get some kites for the kids. After looking at displays for a while longer the "Photo Nazi" in me took over and I thought we should be flying the kites at Kitty Hawk. So, we stopped and made them and went to fly them in gale force winds. Of course, it didn't work well and I should have left well enough alone.... oh well.... Stevie still has his and we will try and fly it in DC in easier wind conditions. We walked up to the memorial and down the flight strip. It was good to do though at this time, we were starting to feel tired from three days straight of travel and sightseeing.

Thursday is Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg. I'll write about that a little later.

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