Debbie and Jules US Trip

Up and off to the airport for my 39 hr trip home! Des Moines to Chicago to Los Angeles to Sydney to Brisbane to Hervey Bay, QLD. Debbie is staying behind indefinitely to look after her Mum... read more

This morning we went to the Iowa Historical Society which had a great exhibit on the Civil War and Indians in Iowa. As it was a lovely day, we sat outside on the terrace of the cafe, which gave us a lovely view of the State Capital building and it’s terraced gardens. After this, we went to visit Debbie’s friend Carol Sue and have happy hour with her. When we got back home, Debbie’s school friend Jill came down for a drink with us!... read more

This morning we were up at 3am as we had to leave the Baltimore hotel at 04:30 to get checked in and through Security for our 05:54 flight to Chicago. It was still dark coming in to land, but I could see the city on a point jutting into the lake and the city itself extending for miles. There were lots of orange lights and the houses looked like Legoland, all the same layout and on a grid pattern as far as the eye could see. At Chicago, we had about 2 hrs wait until our 08:15 flight to Des Moines. After dropping our bags at Debbie’s Mum’s house, we headed out to do some shopping and I can finally say that I am now a Walmartian! I even have a photo to prove it. Unfortunately, ... read more

This morning we checked out of the hotel but left our bags there whilst we did some final sightseeing. We both enjoyed the tour of the Capitol building so much that we went back there again. We had a different guide and heard some different information and saw the old Supreme Court on this tour so we both enjoyed it. After the tour, we went through the Botanic Gardens beside the Capitol and then caught a taxi to the Spy Museum. http://www.spymuseum.org/exhibition-experiences/about-the-collection/ This museum was great fun and had interactive exhibits and lots of things on display from lipstick guns to lock picking sets, to fake glasses. It provided information of basic spy techniques and also stories of real situations. After this, we caught a cab back to the hotel to collect our luggage and then ... read more

Today was wet and supposed to be 12 degrees, although it didn’t feel that cold at all. Debbie took a train to Alexandria, Virginia, which is a historic town that was the original port for Washington DC and has 4200 buildings on the national register. I took a taxi to the Freer Gallery and started a museum crawl along Independence Avenue. The Freer Gallery has American, Asian and Islamic art displays. From this I went into the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, which is an adjunct to the Freer. I walked past the Smithsonian Castle and then into the Hirshhorn Museum, which is also called the doughnut for its construction shape. On street level in the middle (the hole), it has a fountain with statues around it and artwork in the garden around it. It houses pieces ... read more

Well, it was definitely a bad hair day – but a super day. The morning was beautiful and clear, with a forecast temperature of 28 degrees so we got a 48 hour ticket on the Big Bus and spent the day riding around on the top of a double-decker bus, which gave us a terrific view of all the sites. We caught a cab to Union Station and took the red loop on the bus first, which stopped at the US Capital, passed several museums and the Smithsonian Castle, then went past Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, the WWII memorial, Ford’s Theatre (where Abraham Lincoln was shot) and the White House. We transferred onto the blue loop and then went over the Potomac River on the Arlington Memorial Bridge into Virginia and past Arlington Cemetery ... read more

Debbie was more mobile today so, after breakfast, she set off to the Visitor Centre and to see Independence Hall, etc. As I had seen these on Monday, I went to the Mütter Museum. This was a medical collection within the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and consisted of lots of skulls, skeletons, bones, pictures and all sorts of things in bottles and jars depicting particular medical conditions and injuries. It was very interesting but not for those with a weak stomach. The museum shop had some very bizarre things to buy indeed. After the museum, I walked down to Reading Market which is a huge undercover market of food stalls where people come to sell their products. The Pennsylvania Amish have several stalls of products and there are jams, honeys, olive oils, meat, seafood, cheeses ... read more