15th January

After a very early start, we caught a flight to Hawaii. Nice plane but VERY cramped. Just as well the flight was only 5 1/2 hours.

Picked up a rental car and was at Susan Morrison's by 2pm. It is nice and balmy - a step on the way to getting us back to summer!!

It is so nice to have no airconditioning and no sound of it. Just waves crashing in the distance and and crickets at night! Natural, fresh air!!

14th January

This morning we baled out of the hotel breakfast and ate delicious breakfast burritos at a nearby Mexican cafe. We checked out of the hotel and they put our bags in storage.

Once again, we arrive at Disneyland just as it opened. It was a lovely, warm sunny day. Hard to believe we had been freezing just 2 days before.

Joe took Amelia and Jess on the It's a Small World ride. It is one of those songs that gets into your head!




We then queued for about half an hour so Amelia could meet some of the Disney Princesess. They were all very friendly and well trained in dealing with little children. Amelia was just over awed with them all!!

Oops, sorry, forgot to turn this one!

Once again, Pluto proved to be a big hit.

At this point my camera battery died. I had forgotten to check it as it has such a long life. There are more pics on Joe's camera which I will upload later.

After meeting Pluto, Amelia decided she wanted to go on her first roller coaster. It was a small kiddy one. She seemed very apprehensive but said she loved it!

Susan and Jack arrived just as she got off and we spent the rest of the day going on rides with them or taking Amelia on tame rides while they did the hairy ones!

The biggest hit of the day was the Buzz Lightyear ride. You can shoot at targets and also make the car turn and spin. Amelia had it all worked out halfway through and insisted on going again with Daddy and Mummy (Joe and I took her the first time). She spun Stephen round so much I thought they were going to make themselves sick! Joe and I had to leave at this point as the shuttle was picking us up to go to an hotel near LA airport as we are flying out to Hawaii early next morning.

It was sad to say good bye and after 5 weeks the adventure was over. I can't believe how much we have done in 5 weeks and still 4 days in Hawaii!!

Wednesday 13th January

We were up and out ready to go to Disneyland today. The so called complementary 'Continental' breakfasts provided by the hotels seem to be diminishing in quality!! The highlight of this morning's breakfast was donuts - chocolate coated, sugar glazed and brown sugar crumble coated!! The biggest redeeming factor of the breakfasts has been good coffee!
We arrived at Disneyland before the official opening time of 10:00 am. We started with California adventure park.

Amelia was equiped by her indulgent parents (before her indulgent grandparents) with her choice of mouse ears. Her good taste was evident with the choice of as much bling as possible.

Amelia has discovered a love of carousels since going to see Mary Poppins. She rode this one 4 times.

Amelia was quite over-awed by the various Disney characters and couldn't seem to fathom these people that seemed like real people but didn't really look like them. The fact that they didn't speak didn't help either.

Another ride on the carousel - this time with Grandpa.

Amelia has also fallen in love with ferris wheels. This one had stationery cages and also cages that were on runners that rolled & swung around. Joe and Jess opted for the stationery one!

I chickened out as I have no head for heights or things that swing about in the air!

Amelia wasn't too sure about Minnie!!

But found Pluto a little more acceptable.

We went across to Disneyland around dinner time, did the train ride around the whole complex and then waited for the parades. This is the Fantasyland castle at night.

Miss Piggy and Kermit

Donald and Daisie

At the end they blew Mickey shaped confetti in the air.

Within 2 minutes of the parade finishing the confetti had been swept and vacuumed up. I need some of those Disney people at my house!!

Tuesday 12th January

When we got up this morning we found another small snow storm had passed through - just about 1cm of snow. While everyone was getting ready to leave I went down to the Bay and took some photographs of snow on the beach!!

We said good bye to Bill as he went to work and Margie drove us to Dulles Airport on the other side of Washington. We had a quick and smooth trip around the Beltway.

The flight to LA was uneventful and we actually arrived early. We found the shuttle that I had booked and managed to get out of LA just as the rush hour (read '3 hours') was starting. We have a suite that consists of 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms but no lounge area.

The whole area is hotels that cater to Disneyland and there are blocks and blocks of them!! Had a very nice Italian meal and Jess and I finished off the evening sitting in the hotel spa!!

Sunday 10th and Monday 11th January

After going to a local church, Joe and I went to downtown Annapolis with Bill and Margie. We wandered through the Naval Base Visitors Centre and then downtown amongst the beautiful old shops. I went looking for my favourite Christmas shop where I have bought some beautiful decorations before and it seems they have closed. There was a fire in the building next door about a year ago and they had been forced to relocate. It seems that the owners have retired. What a shame.
It was freezing cold again and after buying nice coffees we headed back to Bill and Margies house

Monday

We walked down to the waterfront just 3 doors from Margie's house. There was still some snow on the beach - weird - my brain couldn't grasp the concept!!

This is large flakes of ice on the shore!! It looked a bit like salt at first!

You can see here that the surface of the wate is frozen for about 3 metres out! This is the Chesapeake Bay and I thought salt was supposed to make ice melt. Stephen skipped a pebble across the water and it just sat on top of the ice when it stopped

We spent the afternoon shopping for last minute things. Joe and Bill had head out for the day on an excursion to Mt Vernon (George Washingtons home) and past his old neighbourhood in Kensington where he grew up.

We finished off a memorable visit with Bill and Margie by all going out to dinner at the Chart House. We got there just in time to see the sun set over Annapolis Harbour and they seated us right by the window. Absolutely delicious seafood!!

9th January

We just hung around with Bill and Margie today and had an R & R day. Stephen, Jess and Amelia headed back into Washington and did a trolley tour and went through the Newseum - Museum of News.
Joe and Bill dropped me at the Mall and I just wondered around the shops. I think half of Annapolis must have been there. There was nothing very different from home in the shops!
I bought a couple of flat rate boxed to post the fabric I have bought home. To be cost effective, they have to be very full of fabric. I have room in both boxes so I will just have to go shopping again. It is much cheaper, though, they paying excess baggage and the fabric is so much cheaper here!!
Margie is cooking delicious seafood tonight mmmmm

8th January

The predicted snowfall came this morning and dumped about 20cm in half an hour (while we were asleep, unfortunately) and then passed over. This is what we came out to!! Just enough snow to make everything pretty but not to affect the roads.

We caught the Metro from New Carrollton into the Smithsonian and came out of the station right in the middel of the Mall.
This is the Washington Monument"

And this is looking the other way to the Capitol Building.

There weren't many tourists around - maybe because it was too cold! We started at the Air and Space Museum. Joe and I saw a planetarium film at it was almost 3D. It was wonderful.

Joe and I caught the train to Arlington Cemetary to see the grave of our friend from Hawaii = Bob Morrison. Bob died 18 months ago and had served in the US Navy for many years.

This is is a view of the Lee Mansion on the hill over Arlington.

By this time, we had split up from Bill, Stephen, Jess and Amelia.

Joe and I then caught the train back to the Smithsonian. We went into the Museum of American History. There is so much to see there that we only just managed to skim over most of it. Many of the exhibitions that I had seen before weren't currently on display. Apparently only 2% of the Smithsonian is ever on display at any time.

This is the most gorgeous dolls house imagineable:

This is a dress belonging to Martha Washington. There were quite a few First Lady's Gowns on display.

These are original Mouseketeers ears belonging to Lonnie ?????

This was an amazing quilt made in the 1850's. The quilter made it while waiting for her husband to be to return from an 8 year journey to the frontier. Lots of amazingling small quilting and beautiful applique.

There was a wonderful display of transport which included steam trains, buses, carts and trains. This is one of the amazing locomotives. They had all these figures that would very lifelike except for the colour and we kept thinking they were real when we saw them out the corners of our eyes!!

We eventually met up with the others at the Museum of Natural History. After paying for all the crowded museums in New York it was incredible that all of the Smithsonian is free.

This is the Washington Monument at sunset as we were heading back to the Metro.

We stopped off for a quick visit to Walmart on the way back to Bill and Margies.

7th January

This is the view we woke up to this morning - sun rise over the Ben Franklin Bridge. The other side is New Jersey.

We caught the train to New Carrollton in Maryland and were picked up at the station by Bill and Margie. It is sure great to see them again and catch up on the last couple of years.

After lunch, Margie, Jess and I went to my favourite fabric store - Cottonseed Glory where a bought a lovely oriental kit for a quilt, fat quarters for our fabric exchange back home and fabric to make Amelia a quilt for her bed. I wanted to buy just about everything in the shop!!

Everything at the supermarket was very busy and Margie said it was because snow is forecast for tonight and everyone panic and stocks up in case they get snowed in - even thought not that much snow is forecast11

I finally washed clothes and I think I can make it till we get home before I need to do it again.

Finally did some washing

6th January

This morning we caught the hotel's courtesy shuttle to the Historical District of Philadelphia. As we had 30 minutes to wait for the trolley tour, we went across the road to see the Libery Bell. It was smaller that I expected but awesome just to be so close to it. It is not in a protective case but there is a rope around it and guards watching all the time.


We got on the trolley tour again and were going to go to Betsy Ross's house (she made the first flag) but it was closed for refurbishment - this is the off season - and, unlike New York, there aren't many tourists around. We got off at the African American Museum which was very interesting. We hopped back on the trolley and headed for the Rodin Museum. It was to kind of make for not seeing the one in Paris. There were lots of Rodin's sculptures but I was a little disappointed in the setting - very cold and harsh.

We then walked across to the Museum of Natural History and saw a very interesting exhibition on George Washington Carver. I have been interested in him since a read a story of his life when I was a child.

This is a large statue of Ben Franklin

This is a picture of the Philadelphia skyline. The Brown building is based on a phone jack and the taller one behind it is designed on a USB drive! It is a very nice city.

This is the City Hall. It is French Revival in style and is made of bricks with stone fascade. The only thing that spoilt it was the air conditioner in every window - on all four sides. Benjamin Franklin is on top of the tower and until about 30 years ago no buildings were allowed to be build higher than him!

The city has a public art program and all new buildings have sculpures out the front. This one amused me!!

We then walked back through the city to Independence Hall and did the tour. This is one of the rooms - I can't remember what they were all for but will update this when I know!!

This is the room where the Declaration of Independence was worked out. I had a really cool chandelier with candles!

We found a nice little Chinese cafe and had an okay dinner. We asked someone how to get to the Ice Hockey stadium and headed down to the subway. $4 and 20 minutes later we were there! Steve, Jess and Amelia were picked up at the hotel by someone they knew and met us there. Stephen had organised the tickets and we had seats just 12 rows behind the glass. I didn't take any pictures of the actual game but it was a lot of fun and the Flyers won - so everyone was happy!!!

At the end of the first period they had a children's game. This little goalie is only 7 years old. He was almost lost in his uniform

This is the kid's team. The kind of play like under 6s soccer - in a pack!!

This is Amelia in her Flyers track suit with a Flyers Tatoo on her cheek taking a picture of the children playing hockey with her mother's digital SLR!

Tuesday 5th January

We checked out of the hotel at 10:45am, caught taxis to Penn Station and by 11:35 were on our way to Philadelphia. The train was really nice with comfortable seats, trays like on aeroplanes and power sockets with every seat.




It only took 1hr 20 min to reach Philadelphia - what an easy way to travel. If we had gone by plane we would still be at the airport.





Our hotel room was ready when we got here so we checked in and Joe, Jess and I walked to the Historical District Visitors Centre. We are staying right near Penns Landing and next to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Joe and I bought tickets for the hop-on, hop-off trolley bus which are good until tomorrow evening. We did the complete circuit to orientate ourselves to the city and decide where we won't to go tomorrow.

We then went to a place that the tour guide recommended and had Philly Steak Sandwich for dinner. mmmmmmmmmmm

This is the view from our window tonight - Benjamin Franklin Bridge

Bruises from ice skating aren't too bad but I have found muscles that haven't been used for a while!!

Monday 4th January

After breakfast, Stephen and I caught the Subway to the Guggenheim Museum. I remember falling in love with this building back in the 1960s when I was doing art at school. It was even better than I imagined. There was a retrospective of Kandinski's work and there was a free audio tour that was excellent. I an usually not that keen on abstract art but the commentary really made it come alive!! It made me want to buy canvas, paint and brushes!!

After spending 2 hours at the museum we caught the Subway back downtown, Stephen got off at our stop and I headed a few more stations down to visit City Quilter. It is a lovely quilt shop in the middle of New York City. I bought some special New York fabric, some fabric for my patchwork groups fabric exchange, a pattern and a book. I then walked the 14 blocks back to the hotel (only about a mile!).

After a brief rest we headed out to Bryant Park, just a couple of blocks away that has a free outdoor ice skating rink. We only had to pay for skates. Beside the rink was a Carousel and Amelia got very excited as she had been watching her Mary Poppins dvd this afternoon. She had the ride all to herself and, as you can see, LOVED it.

Don't you just love the oversized gloves!!

We had lots of fun skating although the skates weren't marvellous. I haven't skated for at least 32 years and Joe hasn't skated for 25 years so we were both a little rusty. We both had one tumble each! And both have ended with bruised knees!!

Poor Amelia, I don't think she realised how shaky both her grandparents were!!

This is a fountain outside the ice rink. You can see how cold the air is. Joe was sure that the ice had been artificially assisted but it was natural!!

Oops, this one is out of order.

Amelia just loves ferris wheels and is particularly fascinated by this one in Toys'r'us in Times Square. She did have several rides on it while we were in New York.

Tomorrow we catch the Amtrak to Philadelphia.

Footnote: We keep laughing at drug ads on TV where the possible side effects take longer to explain than the ad itself!!