Boston to Vancouver with Snow and tne Rail Experience!

Adventure indeed! Very exciting and most enjoyable. 

Boston was fantastic we thoroughly ehjoyed our time with Chris. He is a very together, intelligent and nice guy. It was a great meal that ended to soon.

The news was dominated by Nemo! Not the Capitan of the Nautilus or the Orange fish no this was a storm of epic proportions. I now understand why the weather channel is so popular over here!

A wonderful trip up through Cape Cod to Boston a fantastic town. Our little car then driving through the snow, ice and sleet soldiered on seat heaters on full reached Montpellier in Vermont. Again who knew what a wonderful place it would be. The best tapas bar I've been too and fantastic local craft beer in a meter of snow was a highlight.

Our little car braved the ice and snow and off to Toronto.

Our window cleaner fluid froze and every time someone passed they sprayed our windscreen it then froze; visability got interesting on occaisions!!!!!!!

New Zealand is predominately a North South country. Driving from Montreal was 3 hours into the sun.

Toronto is delightful and the Niagara falls in Winter was spectacular. It was nearly frozen over with massive ice flows and there were very few tourists.

On to the train, 4 nights in a cabin with 2 bunks, a wash basin and a toilet about the size of a Queen size bed I had the top bunk Kerry laughed a lot both at my agility and presentation. Again we met neat people and saw all sorts things. Riding through the Prarie with no hills on the horizon was brilliant and novel. The Rockies are all they promote them to be majestic, towering and powerful and the train trip really shows them off a treat. 

In Vancouver today a bit tired, the train wasn't bad for sleeping but it still moved and jolted alot so there were interuptions.

Just a wee grizzle about the States and Canada. Their product pricing is very annoying the quoted price is not the final price and it differs from state to state. I would really like to know what it is going to cost me.

The Big Easy to the Big Apple

I'm sitting in a lovely 90 year old Hotel, The Biltmore in Providence, Rhode Island. Vegas and New York had such shitty Wifi it was impossible to post! Here it is perfect and free!
New Orleans was fantastic we visited some "Gone with the Wind" houses beautiful with Crinoline for africa on display. The plantation owners life style was  significantly different from the other people on the Plantations. I always thought of King Cotton in this context but that was further North in the area we visited it was and still is Sugar Cane the key to it though is the river, The Missisippi, it supplied the soil, the water and the highway. The swamp or Bayou is so extensive and the land is so low lying and flood prone I wonder why you would live there.
Vegas, bright light city, sets your soul on fire. I don't gamble so for me it was more of a biscuit sampler, the Eiffel Tower and the Brocklyn bridge just dowm the road from the Pyramid and sphinx. We were at the MGM Grand huge 5000 rooms, electric blinds. They dissuade you from knowing what the time is and how much you've spent.
When we visited 22 years ago there 7.5 million visitors per annum now 35 million. It was a great cheap place to visit it aint cheap now! I flew out to the Grand Canyon a spectacular place and flight, well worth it. No John Wayne or the Lone Ranger but hey! Kerry bused out to the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead I flew over them and waved. We went to the Cique de Soleil Beatles show. That really was a treat an amazing performance proceeded by  great cocktail.
I have now had a Mint Julip in New Orleans, a Hello Goodbye in Vegas and a Manhattan in Manhattan; decadence.
New York is special, we walked miles and did all the usual but I suspect even if you lived there you couldn't do it all. I loved the Empire State, Central Park, the Museum of Natural History but I figure they are to busy to be nice or polite, helpful yes but polite no!
Television has a/lot to answer for. Here it is a caricature of life not reality. Fantasy land meats tasteless however the people we have met have been great, neat people with great senses of humour if a little lax on world affairs and geography. There are a group though that are prepared to loudly declaim their inner most feelings and everybody elses. I have an intimate knowledge of some peoples lives and I wasn't even part of the conversation!
Off to Cape Cod and the on to Boston for a meal with our Nephew Chris. It will be fun..