Aruba, we won't be back.

 

Last few photos of Aruba. It was a nice little island to visit, but I wouldn't go back. The 'rich culture' of the Caribbean was not obvious (is this the most insulting thing to say about a country? Am I turning into a colonialist?) The beaches were great but there really is nothing to do on a cloudy day. Well actually now we have kids clouds are perfect for beach days. The map showed a couple of old one room chapels but nothing to hold anyone's attention for long. I felt like they needed to take some tips from America. Here are some of my favourite American attractions:

- big Sue the largest Holstein cow (a 34 ft model cow in a field in North dakota)

- the first place the British stepped foot on the land (literally the rock their feet touched. Even if this is not dubiously found until 60 years after the event)

- Wall Drug Store. A chemists in a place called wall. It was advertised for over 100 miles on the road. To be fair it did have a model dinosaur in the parking lot

- the corn palace. A building which has a small amount of corn pinned up on it, not a palace made out of corn which people might wrongly assume.

- a house where a criminal grew up (There are numerous but I've seen Jesse James' house first hand)

- crazy horse statue. Again not quite what you think. Pay your entrance fee and turn the kink in the road only to see that it's not finished. In Fact It still looks very much like a cliff face and not at all like a Nobel Indian pointing to the land where his kin lie dead.

Ready for a seafood dinner :)

Ice cream for breakfast. We've really settled into this travelling thing!

Bostons children's museum is Awesome.

I've loved Boston. I'm writing this from our double bed underneath Starbucks bunk in the dark as she just wouldn't go to sleep tonight despite the threats of no sweets tomorrow. Cookie on the other hand fell asleep as normal she's not distracted by sleeping in our room, although she does now wake up every night, just once, at 4 am and then falls back to sleep quickly with a cuddle (how do I break this pattern?!?)

Boston is clean, it's based around a large park called Boston common, with independent coffee shops, cafés etc surrounding it. Short walks in any direction will bring you to old brownstone houses, museums or a shopping district. Today we went to the boston a Childrens Museum which we LOVED. We could have spent an hour in each of the rooms they have there playing, but they had too many. We also saw two short plays (20 mins each) and Starbucks got on stage and did some dancing.



Cookies favourite area was one with loads of golf balls you roll down slides etc although she just liked sitting holding the balls; and did that cute baby thing of struggling to pick up three things with two hands, constantly dropping one as she gained another.


Hand cycling to generate electricity .

Starbucks favourite, chairs that make music when you sit on them. She can't work out how they work though.

Magical animated butterfly's that land on your shadow

One of three water ways for boats.

Making pictures with tuning forks. Fun, but also something we would probably do at Tower tots on a Monday. (tower tots rocks)

Only criticism of Boston? No Dairy Queen. I've also already googled Aruba, no Dairy Queen there either. Oh I do love soft chocolate ice cream with pecans and brownie bits in. Oh yeah Georgia Mud Fudge, I'll be back!

Lazy Boston Sunday

I'm always worried about going to a church I found through googling. The first time I did this I went to a very welcoming and kind baptist church in Minnesota. In contrast to my overly large death metal t-shirt and more holes than demin jeans, their young ladies were all wearing gentle ankle length skirts and modest head coverings. Although we worshipped the same God that morning, it was never going to be more than a second-cousins hello.

This morning we went to Holy Trinity church in Boston and it was home away from home. (Although all the women in this church were also better dressed than me, it wasn't so much due to Old Testament interpretation than scruffy being my style. (I generally dont dress up for church as God is 

everywhere and isn't fooled by my attempts at smartness when I attend the church building. It's hard to impress or fool someone who created you.) (also have you seen me try to look smart? I usually look like a 13 year old girl playing dress up, with trainers, always trainers).

Any who, the sermon was awesome today. Simple truths are just so effective at encouraging learning and change. The preacher focused on why Jesus ends many of his miraculous healings by telling the 

individual involved to I not tell anyone. Surely someone starting a new world religion would need the word spread as far as possible. But the preacher argued that Jesus was not starting a new powerful religion through thunder and lightning antics, but in a way that attempts to encourage us to engage in meaningful relationships with each other. Indeed isn't that how we learn most? Through those we are in relationship with. 

It refines a focus on life which I've been reviewing a lot lately: this could be it! Wouldn't it be great to 

say that you hadn't done something because you were too busy talking or hanging out with a friend? 

In an age of everything being punctuated by the regular checking of phones (not even just answering them when they seek out our attention), it is so important to me to spend the time I am with people, actually with them. But I do get too caught up on doing the housework and putting things in order, perhaps a messy house is not a bad symptom of being engaged in life with other people.

I guess for me I spend so much time with my girls and Xss that I need to consider them as people to be I fellowship with, not people to gain space from by hiding in the toilet with theiPad. 

• Make a rule, and pray to God to help you to keep it: Never, if possible, to lie down at night without being able to say. "I have made one human being, at least, a little wiser, a little happier, or a little better this day." - Charles Kingsley

 Starbucks and I spent a long time today playing in the frog pond park in Boston Common. For some reason she enjoys either putting the water out of the pool via a cup, or walking around on the side not actually going in. I feel that this is like carrying around a book but never opening it. I'm just jealous because I want to run in screaming and lay flat on my back in the middle. But I only had spare clothes for the children :(

Happy 4th July!

The stores had loads of red-white-blue clothes so I dressed them up, however not many other people dressed up and the day was sadly normal. The only part of the celebration seems to be fireworks at 22:30 which is too late for the girls :(

I thought quite a lot about whether I should keep them up/ take them out in carriers for the night, but what makes me happy in life is having happy well rested children. Good food and good sleep make for a happy me and them. We will catch the fireworks at bonfire night later in the year.

Plus apparently here in Boston people begin queuing at 6am for a good spot to see the fireworks. Erm, no.

Sisterly licking

Crazy golf

This week we are camping, in a cabin, at a campsite which has crazy golf, a swimming pool, a bouncy castle, and several climbing frames. It is heaven for Starbucks who has adopted a love for crazy golf. Since Cookie is happy to just sit on the course it's been nice to actually do a fun activity together as a family.  Although there appeared to be more obstacles on our course than others.

Cape cod

Starbucks happily skipping along the beach at Dennis, Cape Cod, ten minutes before she and Cookie both began crying hysterically. Being lost as to what of the many issues it could be (too much sun, hungry, lack of shade, boredom, scary sea snails, the brown seaweed ('I don't like brown things')) we all huddled under our umbrella and ate our pot of fruit salad. As we trekked back across the beach to our car they both fell asleep in carriers on our backs! Oh. 

We are really struggling sometimes with the car culture here in America as we want to arrive at a destination with parking, some sort of food, and toilets. It appears that often you have to drive to each one of these, via the coffee shop on the way. It makes for a drawn out longer day with less time for the activity we wanted to do. Or less food.



Cookies first look at the sea. She was mesmerised. Based on this i am going to encourage her to like mermaids. Perhaps one day we will make synthetic mermaid tails together in metallic greens and blues and purples. Living through my kids? Never.

Sunset in Burlington

Bearfoot Adventures

Cookie is a bit too young for travelling. Or perhaps the perfect age, she doesn't have many complaints. So long as she is fed and slept. Now we are travelling the world us her playground. Luckily because our first apartment in New Jersey was so dirty we quickly became accustomed to a lower level of cleanliness than before. Wherever we go she us put on the ground and allowed to crawl around.

I just can't work out what the rest of the world does?

  

What do normal people do when they share a hotel room with their children? Or do they not? This is Xss and I in our comfy bath boat reading in the light of the bathroom as our kids sleep in the bedroom. I'd say we don't mind that much, in the same way as we don't mind that much settling an awake baby to sleep at 4am - there's not much choice.

It was particularly comfortable this one though as there were loads of spare pillows and towels.

Deadly donuts in Cambridge

We felt like locals as we joined the line for donuts sold from an old fashioned van parked on a residential drive in near by Cambridge. There have been a handful of moments so far when we eat something on this trip and exchange looks that say, 'it tastes good but surely you would die of a heart attack after only a couple'. Can you spot the maple bacon donut?

Piano playing

Who knew that our first airbnb venture was to have a grand piano in it! Cookie loved playing it.

Who attacked me this morning?

I've forgotten two crucial things for this blog. 1) the battery charger for my camera and 2) the memory card thingy to upload photos via USB. So for the foreseeable future there will be no photos of our adventures. Sorry.

We arrived in White Creek, New York last night to stay in a beautiful converted school house. It has a massive open room stretching from kitchen, over the grand piano, sofa/lounge area to the old black board on the opposite wall.  It is quiet here, and VERY dark at night. I didn't realise that I had adapted to urban living so well as when I turned the light off last night and experienced such a darkness it seemed to absorb me.

There is a rooster around. Last night Xss shooed him away, but as I think I am superior to him in understanding animal behaviour (one of my numerous random superiority complexes - don't get me started on breeds of dog, or which way is north), when he described the chicken as 'mental' I thought he was over reacting. So this morning when it came over near the swing set as Starbucks climbed on, I simply thought it was curious and generally ignored it. Suddenly it darted at Starbucks and began attacking her, pecking her backside and scratching at her. She was obviously terrified and screamed, trying to run away as this giant bird chased her. It didn't seem at all perturbed by me trying to kick it and shouting at it. I began screaming 'help' as loud as I could. Hahah. What I scene. This event has obviously made a big impression on Starbucks and in her usual way she has been digesting it all morning.

It's become slightly comical now as the mother of the person whose house we are in, (airbnb) began texting me to help and became labelled 'the chickens mum' in translation to the 3 year old. Then the chickens owner became involved and he has become the chickens dad. I'm not sure if these human characters have made it even more confusing. Eventually after the police and animal control being called (I think Starbucks is secretly delighted that the police have been contacted to tell the chicken off, but is as of yet unwilling to give up her victim card) the chickens father pulled up with the chicken sitting in the passenger seat of his car. He said he is fed up with the chicken being naughty and he was taking it to a farm. I think the inference was that he doesn't care about what happens to it, and has been letting it run wild a while. Problem solved. Calm has been restored to New England, the naughty chicken is gone.

I'm happy my children are safer, but there is really not much to do in White Creek now the naughty chicken is gone.

P.s when I woke up, correction, when I was woken up this morning by Cookie, as I settled her back to sleep in the early morning grey I saw two deer a few mets from my window frolicking. This being our first airbnb experience, is it normal to not have any curtains in the whole house?

New York wasn't my thing

New York wasn't my thing. We saw many great buildings but found it hard to really get under it's skin. We ate hot dogs, we saw the Empire State Building, we picnicked in Central Park but we didn't really engage with New Yorkers.

To be fair we stayed in New Jersery and got the tube (PATH - Pronounced paff don't be fooled) in each day, to save money ( when I say save money I mean be able to afford to visit) so we didn't exactly live in a NY neighbourhood and get to know how they work. We did enjoy our stay in Jersery city, but Xss susinctly labelled it the Croyden of New York. Regional offices and a functional area lacking personality. We did manage to make friends with the local Starbucks staff and Starbucks was a hit, giving high fives to the regular staff she knew. But some aspects of America are hard for me to take. It's unusual for us to have a mature adult working in an entry
Level service industry job, and it makes me sad how hard some american have to work to support their families with so little leave for so little pay.



I'm having issues with uploading photos (in that I forgot several gadgets and things in Britain) but I'll upload pictures soon. Cookie has two new top teeth so has been waking up a lot at night, but it's not really a problem when you are on holiday everyday is it.

My new love

I absolutely LOVE Extreme Makeover home edition, a make over show from the USA which typically involves finding some wonderful needy family and knocking down their house and building them another one. I am no wuss but every time it almost brings me to tears. Each family seems genuinely lovely and the nicest most selfless people ever, but on top of that the American general public volunteer their time and effort to make it happen- hundreds of them. Its something we don't have in Britain, a society that will go out of its way to rally around someone in need. There are the odd people, but not en masse like in America. Its so brilliant and inspiring to see so many people who care about each other. A general recognition that people need help and no jealous or judgement- well why should they get a home and not me?

The show today had a lady who had escaped domestic violence with her 8 children and could only afford a two up two down house. It was poor quality, had flooded, had all second hand partly broken furniture and they had paid an electrician to improve some things and he'd made loads of holes in the walls and floors and then run off with the money. A team of volunteers and businesses donated time and products to build them a bigger house, get them a new car, pay off the rest of the mortgage and finally give them $100,000 college fund so the kids could go to university! They were so grateful, it was beautiful. I think most people can catch this show as i only have freeview. Its on 'Really' in the mornings.

Following the riots, i hope that the British public are beginning to realise that there is power in group action, and to recognise that an individuals voice can make a big difference when added to others. However, i wonder how long it will take them to realise this can be done to make good as well?

P.S i found Extreme makeover, UK edition on TV today. Vastly different show- individuals getting plastic surgery, haircuts and liposuction to make them physically more attractive! not quite the same loving buzz to this one. The British really need to up their game.

USA Evaluation 231.8

USA

Likes: The food!! Dairy Queen ice cream, The Russells, having the freedom of a car, the national parks, being familiar with everything, cleanliness (no risk of food poisoning here), My old bedroom, the snow, half pound cookies, driving, 24hour all you can eat passes in Las Vegas, looking for celebs houses in Hollywood hills,

Dislikes: the responsibility of a car (did it have a good time?), Dennys restaurants, being cold all the time in California, going to the closed Jelly Belly Jelly Bean factory, the sat nav taking 5 minutes to boot up at inopportune times, gaining a belly,

Sunrises passed: 21

Places visited: Miami, Key West, St. Cloud, LA, San Francisco, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Joshua Tree.

Number of times i wanted to come home: 0. (Xss 2 - both at Christmas missing his family)

Favourite hostel: Best western in Key West. The ultimate in Luxury

Snow Angels made: 2

Number of minutes it took me to convince Xss to make a snow angel: 17 cold ones

Number of times my nose was a red as Rudolph due to the weather: 22

Number of times we played in the snow: 0 opps.

Favourite memory: Going to the Cinema with everyone on Christmas day, good family fun. Thanks for coming Tim (it took some convincing).

Worst day: All the days were so good, so driving to San Fransisco from LA was the worst as we drove the most.

Favourite new food or drink: Prime Rib (no bones involved here)

Best/worst smell: My old shoes, mould combined with old sweat and rainwater, the smell could fill up a room in 30 seconds!

Best/worst noise: The silence in the national parks, not a sound. Beautiful

Best Norwich City Victory: Beating QPR to get into 3rd spot in the championship.

Weirdest country fact: It is near impossible to buy matching underwear in America! Do they not like to match??? What would the ambulance men think..........

New thing learnt: There are rural communities all over America, even in California. You can live 3 hours from LA and live in the middle of nowhere. This made me realise I love small towns, and being isolated. Perhaps because i feel that i can do less; i like to be so involved in where i live that i still have so much i want to do and not enough time. If i lived somewhere without these options perhaps i would be less stressed and busy cramming stuff in. In London there are still numerous night courses i want to take (Dress making, photography, dance, creative writing), along with all the people i want to be better friends with (Mel, Alison, Leo, Danica, Junior etc), and kids i want to help. Not to mention wanting to start up several social enterprise projects, like a old clothes swap bag, gospel choir, and graffiti project. On top of maintaining my marriage, existing friendships, work, youth groups, kickboxing and church. I feel sometimes that i am letting myself down by not doing all these new things, but life keeps getting in the way, and the bathroom isn't self cleaning. Its nice to be taking this time off, but how can i limit these things in the future, or should i really be limiting them at all?

Country Score: 231.8

Things my mother never told me-

1) California is not always warm. Who`d have known that California is not always sunny and warm. As we drove into beautiful Yosemite park, past all the signs that said, ` chains on tires needed` we knew all was not well. Despite the chains we did a little tour of the beautiful Yosemite, and took a few pictures. Due to the annual winter snow however most of the roads in the park were closed. So its a good job we have only packed for warm countries and only have thin waterproof coats with us. we felt like such fools. On the way to Las Vegas we had to phone ahead to check in the road was open, which it was, but got caught in a snow storm just after we had done the trickiest pass!


2) Snow burns. Don't touch the snow in Minnesota with your bare hands it hurts. Here is me trying to recover, although putting two burning hands together also has limited effect.


3) America is the country of opportunity. I LOVE America. Ever since i was an exchange student there and met the Russell's, i have adored it. In fact i am often quite nervous before i go back, as i`ve built it up so much to be this paradise of a place (people included) that i am worried one day it will fall from the pedestal position i have placed it upon. Everyone knows that Americas economy has not been doing so well, but it is tough to see the effect that this has on real honest American families. In my family there are 3 sons (30, 32, 34) of these, only the youngest now has a job (part time at the moment), the other two do not, both have house payments and families to support (neither wife is working either). These are perfectly employable hard working young men and women. This would not happen in the UK.

The Russell's and us at Christmas! They made us do all the washing up and vacuuming but it was worth it. Joking. They wouldn't let us do anything and even brought us presents!

4) Vegas is Crazy. Vegas is not crazy, its not too over the top, there aren't too many show girls or crudity, but there are a lot of ways to gamble. It is nice to see all the hotels and free things, but that is it, the free stuff is limited so as not to detract from the gambling, everything is limited so as not to detract from the gambling. Since we don't gamble, there was only so much to do. For Xss that meant eat, and we managed to get great value out of our all you can eat 24 hour passes (ended up being 45 dollars for breakfast, lunch and two buffet dinners!)

Thanks for a great Christmas Russell type folk. Until next time......

No more Peru (two thumbs up)

We've arrived in America! The place we were looking forward to for the good food, and widely spoken English. Well, one out of two isn't bad. Over 50% of the population in Miami speak Spanish to each other, which turned out to be helpful when i accidentally kept saying 'gracious' and 'si' to our waitress.

Our Art Deco hostel.　Turns out there are 100`s of these buildings and they are all hostels!

Miami was nice, lots of old art deco buildings, bars and fun places to see. Also lots of shops selling nice black basketball trainers and big tonged skate shoes, which are a complete weakness of mine. Since my shoes now have holes in the toes as well as holes in the souls, i am in need of a new pair. Xss and I have very different styles, and whilst i am not of the opinion that a girl should change herself to suit a guy, i do believe in dressing in a way that means your guy likes your appearance. Apparently Xss doesn't care so much for the 9 year old boy style i adhere to. So starting from now, i am going to try hard not to buy any boys (or men's) clothing. This will be a tall order for me, but I'm going to try. I know that some people log on here to read about my travels, but with so much time to think I'm almost more preoccupied with re-evaluating my life than i am with the ever changing world around me.

Since America is so much more expensive than other places we are going we decided to spend less days here. This has resulted in us trying to do as much as we have elsewhere, only in 3 days. In Florida this involves a day Miami (getting off the plan at 6am having not slept), next driving the 200 miles to Key west via the everglades, then Key West for the day before driving back and flying to Minnesota for Christmas (which we are very excited about).

Miami- South beach. Only saw it in the evening but the water was a lovely colour. Still nothing beats Morro de Sau Paulo in Brazil.

Everglade alligators, i know they are alligators because they have rounded snouts, are darker in colour (olive coloured skin) and their bottom teeth protrude outside their mouths as well as their top. National park information centres are so informative. It was hard to be that excited about the Everglades having just left the amazon. Pretty blase statements were easy to come by, `Parrots? we saw 40 last week and one sat on my arm`; `Do you remember when we were in that canoe the other day and Edgar pulled that baby alligator out the water for us to hold?`

Most overwhelmingly, everything here is in order. This flower bed blew me away, all neat and tidy, and our room was all clean, with UNLIMITED hot water, and a TV!! Its wonderful to be in a place again where we can understand a menu and ask questions about things.　It was nice to see Peru, but i wont be returning.

My dream job is.......

I went out for lunch with Rowl today (and last week we went to a quiz and a kickboxing class- does that mean we are officially friends rather than colleagues now?) and had a great conversation about the radically different worlds where people who don't work with Peckham teenagers exist. Her sister works in cosmetics and must have lovely conversations about 'this seasons lipsticks'. It sounds ideal to be there for a while, but i know i would miss the kids after any period of time.

So we got onto our own ideal jobs. And i remembered i found mine in America!! In the shop called American Girl, you can buy 2ft dolls who look like any type of American girl you can imagine. THEN you can bring them into the shop again to get their ears pierced, or their hair done! it costs $30. This is my idea job. Sitting a inanimate object into a little chair (complete with footrest and overhead mirror) and doing its hair into simple styles! Below is a picture of 'the girls' waiting for their hair appointment:
Rowl then found the job description of my ideal job!! here!

Back in the Rain

America was brilliant. As i excitedly drove to my house along those vaguely familiar roads (it is 9 years since i lived there), i can remember so exactly the date i arrived in Minnesota a few weeks after my 18th birthday never having been on a plane before. The love and excitement remains and i ran down the drive and into Tim's arms as he stood to greet me from his usual garage chair retreat.

Xss and I enjoyed driving down the Mississippi to St. Louis with our ultimate destination unknown. We settled for spending a few days in the Ozarks, and visiting several small towns on the way back, each with their own $2 museum as a tribute to something random and bizarre.

This is the place where the first 'Pony Express' left from, however the idea never really took off as telegrams were invented!

Below is a nice corn field we decided that we liked a lot better than any of the great cities. I think this is Nebraska somewhere. We had stopped for a Dairy Queen ice-cream, surprise surprise.

It was so great to see all my family, but also to be 'lost' in the middle of a huge safe country with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Every single stress of life removed.

I'd love to see all of the states, and if i had nothing else to do i;d love to do a Steinbeck (my favourite author) and spend a long time just going for a wander through them.