England Part I: Natural History Museum

We went to England in July and after landing at Heathrow and taking the bus to my brothers flat stop number 1 was the natural history museum.

First time on the tube!

Mammals everywhere

This was Matt's favourite part - all the specimens in jars!

Watch out for dinos!

Natural History Museum from the outside!

You can't tell from this picture but the museum was really busy as it was the last week of school and a lot of end of term trips were going on. It was still fun though. I'd been there before but could only remember the main entrance with the dino and the giant whale skeletons! Although it was cloudy it was also really warm which made for a slightly uncomfortable train ride home - especially for Matt as he appears to be allergic to something in England in the summer so we had to go stock up on drugs! More pictures from the trip soon!

The Final Summer in NY: Part II

Trying to check out all the parts of NY State as we could we headed up to Lake Ontario, West of the Adirondacks (the opposite end of the lake to Niagara Falls) for 4th July weekend. We camped at a site on the shores of the lake and we were fortunate to get a spot right next to the lake. It was really busy and pretty much all sites were taken. Our site was on a corner by the lake so we only had one neighbor and lots of extra space - the sites were pretty small otherwise.

First top was the lake beach at a state park just up the road. it was a nice little beach with some dunes and a roped off swimming area. The lake was pretty warm with some good waves and a whole load of seagulls.

The first night, which was July 4th we watched a storm cross the lake, followed by a great sunset and watched fireworks all around the lake!

Day 2 involved something I've always wanted to do - whitewater rafting!! It was busy as it was a holiday weekend so there were 6 boats of people out in the afternoon session. We were really lucky that it was a beautiful, sunny hot day but the river flow was really high as there had been a lot of rain the week before. They even fed us half way round and had a BBQ when we got back. We managed to stay in the boat (except a quick swim during the quiet parts) but one boat took a nasty spill on one of the rapids and we pulled up one person and most of the oars. Someone on that boat quit halfway round because it scared her so much! Rafting on the Black River was a big hit. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to go again. Highly recommended.

The Final Summer in NY: Part I

We decided we had to have one more visit to NYC before moving to Oklahoma and the perfect opportunity arose when some friends from Texas said they'd be in NYC for a few days and we should go hang out. We took the train down on Saturday morning and after a stop at the hotel we headed to the Museum of Modern Art.

I'm no art critic but for the most part I enjoyed it - especially when it was paintings I actually recognized! Admittedly, some of the "art" I didn't really understand. I guess I'm just not that cultured. Matt even went in one of the "interactive" exhibits which was supposed to represent being born!

This is the sort of art I don't understand

But this one was more familiar

Matt being "reborn" involved balloons apparently

After the museum we had some lunch and caught some of the football (this was world cup round of 16 time). The we went up to Central Park and spent the rest of the afternoon wondering through the park and enjoying the sunshine. It was a lovely day and the park was packed with people enjoying it.

We met up with some friends for dinner and had a really delicious dinner at central American place. I had some really good ceviche and some fish ribs. The ribs took some figuring out but were really flavourful and I would definitely eat them again. This was followed by a walk through Times Square (our friends had never been to NYC before) and back to hotel.

The Empire State building lit up rainbow style for Gay Pride!

We spent most of the Sunday downtown in Battery Park and Wall Street before finding a place to watch the Mexico vs Netherlands game. We ended up in a British pub and had a great time. It was packed with people watching the game and it made it a lot of fun.

The afternoon we headed over to Ground Zero. We had hoped to go to the museum that had recently opened but you needed to get tickets in advance - there was a huge queue even for people with tickets. We ended up going to the museum put together by the families, which was much smaller but just as poignant. I won't say a lot about it, but I'm very glad I got to go.

For dinner we found a great Korean restaurant in the penthouse of a building in Korea town. Not only did we get great food but we had a great view that really topped off a wonderful weekend in the city. The train home was busy but the sunset over the Hudson was beautiful. Matt wouldn't know because he was asleep!

I <3 NY

Oklahoma!

Well we made it and we finally have internet but still no belongings after 8 days of being here. Sleeping on an air mattress is getting really old.

I've got lots of things to catch up on. Nothing much to say about the road trip and no pictures - just three days of driving (plus a couple of hours the night before) with a cat in each car (and the fish with Matt). It wasn't as bad as I was anticpating but I won't be doing it again anytime soon.

Update from Oklahoma so far: you can get gas for under $3 a gallon (vs ~$3.70 in Albany), it's bloody hot and the DMV is useless.

More soon I promise!

Final Memorial Weekend Blog

I'm slow but I'm gradually getting there. The last day of our Memorial Day weekend trip involved driving back home through New Hampshire and Vermont. We had a quick stop at a nice little state park where we walked down to the lake and did some animal spotting.

Mother - you may want to skip the next picture...

Then it was on to Concord, the state capitol. It was a nice capitol building and park but the rest of the downtown was pretty deserted. Managed to find a place for lunch but it wasn't anything special.

Then a nice drive back through Vermont. I'm going to miss views like this.

Maine: The Way Life Should Be

How is it the end of June already and I haven't blogged at all?! It's been so busy getting ready for moving and trying to make the most of living in the Northeast for a few more weeks. So back we go to the end of May and our Memorial Day weekend trip....

Post whale watching, we headed back out of Boston to our hotel and drove up to Ogunquit, Maine. This was one of the few places we found prior to the weekend that still had open hotel rooms that didn't involve an excessively long drive. Turns out it was a really amazing little seaside town. We arrived in the early evening and decided to take a walk along the coastal path to the next little cove for dinner. I was still in my air cast at this point so walking all the way was a little tough for me but I wanted to enjoy the beautiful evening and scenery.

Along the way Matt found a plastic bottle with a note on one of the beaches. My first ever message in a bottle!! Pretty big demands - 2000000000 dollars and an ice cream truck (but only if you have them)! It made us smile.

We went for dinner at Barnacle Billy's which was a pretty casual seaside restaurant and of course we had to have lobster! My lobster roll (and rum cocktail) was amazing and so was Matt's whole lobster. So yummy and highly recommended.

The following morning the weather wasn't quite as nice, pretty windy and overcast and a bit chilly but it didn't stop us walking on the beach.

I left some pretty interesting footprints on the beach!

There must have been something about my boot because everyone wanted to stop and talk to me and tell me stories about when they or someone they know had a boot or how I was so brave for walking on the cliff path (which was paved) or beach with the boot!!

I really wish we could have been able to explore Maine some more and head further North, but now we know where to plan some summer holiday trips!

This might be my new favourite picture of us (even with the boot)!!

Watching Whales

When my parents visited last September, they went whale watching in Boston. Well, they were supposed to go whale watching but no whales showed up to be watched so they got two rain check tickets for another trip. They donated the tickets to us and we got round to using them this memorial day weekend.

After a delicious Italian dinner in the North End of Boston on Friday night (better than the place we went to last time) we headed out on the boat Saturday morning. It was a little cold, cloudy and windy and although the waves weren't big, the wind was rocking the boat a lot. I was fine but the crew were handing out sick bags! We got out to Stellwagen Bank in about an hour and took our position on the front of the boat. It wasn't super packed so we had a good view.

We didn't have to wait long to see some whale blows on the horizon and in no time we were surrounded by humpback whales. Sometimes it was hard to even know where to look as the were surfacing all around, open mouth feeding and one even jumped all the way out of the water (no picture of that I'm afraid). There were at least 20-25 individual whales out there and we spent an hour just watching them and taking far too many pictures!

The crew said this week had been one of the best weeks ever for seeing whales so we got really lucky and I was probably a little over excited - it was pretty amazing as they were right by the boat and you could really see how big they were. I won't show you all the photos but here are a few of my favorites!

Body and fluke

So many whale tails to photo!

Open mouth feeding for whales and birds

Two whales open mouth feeding

One eating and one diving

Double whale tail action

Captain Matthew!