New York City, Day 3

We had a great day with Frances and Hamish. They took us to the American Museum of Natural History (you know the movie: 'Night at the Museum'). What a great place, you really need several days to take it all in, including their special exhibits that are always changing. We saw a beautiful butterfly exhibit of many varieties of live butterflies. They seemed to like Hamish, landing on him often and not wanting to leave. We also enjoyed their live lizards and snakes exhibit where a huge boa constrictor showed us how wide she could open her mouth (a yawn maybe?). Kyra got a video of a lizard that accidently slipped off it's legde, it was unharmed so it was funny.

After many hours enjoying the museum they took us for a walk in Central Park. They say that for them it's their backyard and they know it that well. We went on a bus to their apartment not far from the park on the east river. They fed us a lovely meal and then so kindly guided us back on the bus, 2 subways and down Wall St. to our ferry terminal. They even waited with us until our ferry showed up an hour later. Thank you so much for everything Frances and Hamish. You added greatly to our New York experience. We thoroughly enjoyed our day with you!

New York, day 2

On day 2 we took the ferry from our camping area (more of a parking lot at the ferry terminal) to Wall St. From there we took the subway to Central Park. We had a great time at FAO Schwarz. They even have gigantic stuffed zoo animals and dragons for sale for several 1000 dollars. As you can see we found that giant piano (remember it in the movie 'Big'? Why does everything I say lately have a movie reference?). The Harry Potter characters the kids are posing with are lego, they also had life-sized Darth Vadar and Chewy.

In Central Park we took a horse and carriage ride and then went to the Central Park Zoo. They have a great rainforest room there, warm and misty with wonderful birds. With tired legs we returned to our motorhome. Just getting to and from these adventures was an adventure: walking around the city, the ferry and of course the subway system, all very educational.

New York City

With the help of our GPS street finder we made it into Jersey City where our camping spot was across the harbour from Manhattan, with a view from our motorhome of the Statue of Liberty. How cool is that?!

On the afternoon of our first day we took the subway (the 'path') to the Empire State Building. With many others we made our way to the top, squeezing between the crowds for views of the city. Sometimes a pigeon would block our view, sitting on the wall at eye-level hoping for snacks from the tourists. The views were pretty cool once the pigeon moved. I kept thinking of that movie, 'Sleepless In Seattle'. I love that movie. I thought it was great to be in New York, it's one of those places on my mental list of places I've always wanted to see. Kyra was less enthralled, she said it was just a city. Oh well, can't win them all!

Connecticut

In Connecticut we had a couple of visits with Kevin's sister Corinne and her man Luke. They took us to Mystic, the very place where they filmed "Mystic Pizza" with Julia Roberts. We had chowder there. Mercedes went for the pizza and found it tasty.

It was nice seeing you Corinne and Luke, thanks for hanging with us.

Boston

From Salem we took a ferry to Boston for an afternoon. It was a great and windy ride down the New England coastline, dotted with seaside mansions and into downtown Boston at the dock of the New England Aquarium. We spent a few hours there, of course. There is a 4 story aquarium of a man-made coral reef and all it's life: sharks, turtles, moray eels and so on. A winding staircase follows it up. 3 kinds of penguins take up the first floor, where some rockhopper penguins were cooling their armpits in a sprinkler.

We had lunch at Fenuil Market where we enjoyed New England chowder and also Paul Revere chili in bread bowls while we watched people celebrating as they came out of an official building where they'd just received their citizenship papers.

Salem, Massachusetts

We visited Salem, a great little town full of history. We checked out the Witch Museum which turned out to be more of a presentation that scared the kids a little. (correction, Mercedes says it didn't scare her). So near Halloween this town was hopping!

Here's an interesting tidbit about Massachusetts: there's a Lake called Lake Chargogagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. Apparently it's Native American for "You fish on your side; I fish on my side: nobody fishes in the middle." (from scholastics 'Atlas of the United States').

New Brunswick and Maine

We're out on the road again. Here are some pictures from the beginning of our trip. In Fredericton NB Gavin and Kate treated us to a great meal at their impressively renovated home and then ice cream at the local ice cream shop. Thanks you two, what a nice way to start our journey.

We really enjoyed the leaves through Maine and had a some fun in Freeport cruising the shops. The girls are in a fish tank dome in the LL Bean store.

More soon, really!