Apologies for the lack of recent posts, the motherboard on my iPad crashed and farther was unable to fix it. So the following comes to from a brand new Ipad.

Where to start!!
Washington DC is the US capital, a beautiful city on the Potomac River. It is defined by imposing neoclassical monuments, buildings and museums – thousands of them – including iconic ones such as the White House and Capital building. I love museums and macarbly, grave yards, so I was excited to explore this city.

We had 2 days to see as much as possible, if we had 2 years, I still don’t think we would have got through all the places of interest to visit. We thought the best place to start was the Big Bus tour.  The red line took us around the buildings and museums and the blue line to Virginia – the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. We ran out of time to do the yellow route.

The buildings are really very beautiful, I think my favorite was the Capital building with its large dome topped with the lady freedom statue. Arguably,  the most ugly building was the FBI building. In between are large buildings housing everything from the Red Cross to the  Pensioners Department, to the Navy and so on, it is a town filled with civil servants. There are also thousands of statues, some of famous people but most we had no clue of what their claim to fame was.

The museums are mind blowing and most you need at least a day to explore. There are museums for everything from the Bible Museum to the Smithsonians, which are all free and amazing. We loved the Air and Space Museum, voted one of the top 5 museums in the world. Another interesting museum was one on the White House, conveniently situated across the road from our hotel.

A memorable stop was at the Lincoln Memorial, everything is so big here and the iconic statue of Lincoln, sitting in his chair, is no exception. From the memorial you get a great view of the obelisk like Washington Monument across the long rectangular reflecting pool. This monument is said to be the tallest free standing structure in the world, it is still however, shorter than the Eiffel Tower (useless fact).  From there we wondered down to the Vietnam Vet memorial – a semi submerged wall with the names of all who died in that terrible war. My favorite statue was a giant one of Albert Einstein in front of the Department of Science.

I think the most most profound of our visits was the Arlington National Cemetery.  We went on a guided tour around this pristinely kept property, the final resting place for over 400 000 active duty service members, veterans and their families. Steeped in history, the scenic landscape is a living shrine or honour the fallen.

The Big Bus companies have been a great way to see the cities we have visited. They also come with frustrations, at times. In New York our driver went through a red robot and slammed on brakes, narrowly missing a car. In Washington, a car side swiped us at a busy intersection, the driver had a cracked side mirror and there was no damage to the bus. The driver however insisted that we stay on the bus and wait for the police to arrive. After a 45 minute wait in the boiling sun we were allowed to board another bus. Also, the promised 15 minute wait at a stop, can be a whole lot longer.

On our second night in Washington we decided to eat at the restaurant of our hotel, it was on the side walk and we had a really pleasant evening watching the passing parade. Before dinner we had drinks at the roof top bar. This trendy place was definitely a meeting place for young professionals and the place to be seen. The views over Washington were spectacular.  At first I was a little reserved about this trendy hotel with its funky murals, bright lights and discretely packed sex item among the nuts and chocolates in our room but it has turned out to be wonderful – it was fun, hip, the staff were amazing and best of all it was in a great location.

On our last night in DC we had dinner in a Mexican restaurant and on our stroll home we stopped for ice creams. We ordered small tubs and these contained 4 scoops. Everything is BIG here but my choc chip/cookie dough/peanut butter cup Ice cream was delicious. We walked passed the South side of the White House as the sun was setting.

Washington was a great place to visit.

Sadly, we are leaving Boston, I loved this town. Bostonians move at a slower pace, they are super friendly and really proud of their town. June is gay pride month in Boston and there were rainbow flags everywhere. The news of the day when we woke up was that someone had stolen one of the flags from outside a shop.  Whew, first world problems.

We had breakfast at a little restaurant overlooking the Commons and Ubered to Back Bay Station to catch our Amtrack to Washington.

It was a 7 hours train ride that took us back to New York along the beautiful waterways of the area. It was a good day to travel as the weather was overcast and rainy. The trip from NY to Washington passed through Philadelphia, Delaware and Baltimore, these areas were not so pretty from the train as they were more industrial.

Washington Union station was beautiful and we walked out to a glorious, sunny, hot and somewhat humid afternoon.

Our Washington W Hotel is centrally situated, across the road from the US Treasury which is next to the White House. It is very different from our previous 2 hotels that were  smart, quiet and sedate. This hotel is trendy, loud and definitely pitched at the millennial generation.  It is however fun, hip and friendly and we are enjoying the change.

After a long day sitting on the train we went for an evening walk, the sun was still high in the sky and it was very hot. Gray has been wanting to eat at a proper American steak place but all we could find was a burger joint. I ordered Harry’s baby burger, glad I didn’t go for Harry’s huge one (burger that is).

After dinner we strolled back via the White House, getting a great evening view of it and Washington Monument.

Our day started with a stroll through the Commons to State House, with it’s giant gold dome.  We caught a bus that took us around the ‘Freedom trail’ sights and then to the harbor where we took a boat trip around Boston Harbour. I love being on the water and it’s a great way to get a ‘big picture’ view of the city. There is so much history in beautiful  Boston  and even the harbour area has museums and old boats to visit.

NY has been a whirlwind, a town with its own life of sights, sounds, smells and people. I think we did a lot in the time afforded to us. Another few days would have been nice.

We caught the cab to Penn Station.  A hive of activity and people, where trains can take you anywhere in the US from Alaska to the Panama Canal.  The lift underground smelt of pee and I began to question our decision to take the train to Boston. However, traveling first class has its advantages, and the lounge and train cab turned out to be a real treat.

The 4 hour train trip was a very relaxing way to travel and a great way to take in the countryside: the beautiful houses, the great old trees and lakes and rivers of Connecticut. I would loved to have taken a day to visit Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, where Kirst did a school exchange for 3 months.

New York is a city on steroids, it is busy and the people are very officious, I  guess what  they perceive as professional, we at times perceived as unfriendly . Boston, on the other hand, is more relaxed and the people are seriously friendly and chatty. This we picked up at the station and on our cab ride to the hotel, everyone wanting to help.

Our hotel, the Ritz – Carlton is near the ‘Common’, a beautiful park in Boston.

This afternoon we took a ‘hop on – hop off’ bus tour of the city. Our pick up stop was at ‘Cheers’ pub, from the old TV series. We got a good view of the city, of the old and new, we passed over the Charles River and saw Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Socks. We finished our tour at the harbour. A cold sea breeze had whipped up and we headed to a wonderful restaurant on the docks for dinner. It was a really friendly place and the meal was excellent, also considerably cheaper than NY.

We finished off the evening with a sunset stroll along the harbour. The sun sets around 9 pm.  It was beautiful.

We woke up to a rainy day, so decided to do some museums. By the time we left the hotel it was only a very light drizzle so we took a nice long walk through Central Park to the Museum of Natural History on the Upper West side.  We spent a great couple of hours exploring the museum before ambling back through Central Park to the Guggenheim Museum. The architecture of this art museum is modern, white, clean and impressive. The modern art inside was however beyond us plebs and unless you are into this type of art, don’t waste $25 to look around.  I much preferred our recent visit to the botanical art exhibition at the Everard Read Gallery and that was free, with wine.

We bought hero rolls and ate them on the steps of the Met Museum, while watching the Puerto Rican Day parade. 5th Ave had been completely blocked off for the parade, with a huge police presence.  We struggled to find a crossing to walk the ½ block back to our hotel.

Our phone app informed us we had walked over 10km today. We had an early night.

Today was a real tourist day.  We caught the Big Bus, sat on the open top deck and took and took in the sights of NY. The modern skyline and the beautiful old buildings.

We spent some time at Ground Zero. A poignant time, especially for Gray, who as a child went up the Twin Towers.  A wonderful touch, a rose is put on the name of those who died on their birthday. Gray conceded to one shopping center, Westfield, absolutely beautiful, the girls would have platzed. We did Wall Street and walked the streets of central NY.

 In the afternoon we took a boat cruise around NY. First stop was the Statue of Liberty, a must for all tourists. Two and a half hours later we were awed by the enormity of this city, not all of it pretty, we cruised passed the Projects and the Bronx. I was surprised by the number of bridges connecting the islands and Burroughs.

On the way home we spent some time in Times Square. Madness reigned on this late Saturday afternoon. People coming and going from the theatre, shops and restaurants.

We were on the waiting list for dinner at 11 Madison Park, unfortunately we didn’t get in, or rather fortunately as Gareth would have given up everything to fly over to join us for a meal at his dream restaurant. Our alternative was a wonderful Italian near our hotel. We felt hopelessly underdressed, I hadn’t brought heels and Gray didn’t have a jacket.  Oh well, once I was seated no one saw my feet anyway.  The food was glorious, I had the ‘shrimp’ starter, which turned out to be 3 giant prawns.

By now, we were finished and the  jet lag wasn’t helping. Bed had never been so welcoming.

I was so impressed with BA, their staff, in all areas, were friendly and professional. We had another great flight, arriving at JFK, to a hot and sunny, summer day.  The airport staff were far less friendly than Heathrow, barking orders at anyone stepping out of line. However, I guess this efficiency has its merits as from disembarking to getting in our yellow cab took 15 minutes.

It was almost an hours cab drive to The Mark Hotel on the Upper East Side   The cab driver wasn’t keen to chat, so we took in the sights along the way.

We arrived early afternoon, booked in and went for a walk around Central Park, which is ½ a block from our hotel.  I loved Central Park, the trees, birds, lakes and statues, a haven of greenery for the melting pot of people, of all nationalities, from babies to the really geriatric.  They walk, run, cycle, play, socialise and walk their dogs, lots of dogs of every variety and in between.  We waved listeriosis to the wind, this is not SA, and ate hot dogs from one of the hundreds of food trucks around the park.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, my lobster burger was delicious. We fell into bed at 8.30 (2:30 am JHB time).

With said packed new wheely suitcases, we said our good byes to the kids and animals. Kirst dropped us off at the Gautrain station and we had an uneventful and pleasant overnight BA trip to London. We had a 2 hour stopover at Heathrow, where we had a very welcome shower before our connecting flight to JFK.

So we are trying something different. Leaving our beloved Africa and traveling abroad for almost 7 weeks to the USA, Cuba and London.

Last year with retirement looming we got 10 year visas for the US and UK. We hadn’t planned to use them so soon as we were looking at a trip to either Rwandan or Gabon to do the gorillas (this trip is top of Gray’s bucket list). However, our great friends Jean and Wayne Diesel, who presently live in Miami, may be relocating back to the UK in the next year or so, this was a good time to catch up and travel around the US and Cuba with them.

We left 3 unhappy adult children, who felt it rather unfair that we were traveling without them. Really!!!  At 28 Gareth has just had a 6 month break and travelled around South America. He has just started a new job at Marble. Kirst, at 25 is taking a gap year and has travelled Europe, road tripped South Africa and will have left on a trip to Italy and Croatia before we return. Robs, now 21, is busy with her honours thesis and is really bleak about missing Cuba.

It was strange getting ready for this trip, a few visits to the travel agent and packing a bag. No jabs for life threatening diseases, no packing the Discovery with food, auto emergency equipment, camping paraphernalia and maps.