http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Ericaabuzo/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Ericaabuzo en-us Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:29:36 +0000 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:29:36 +0000 Day 103 FridayBack home at last. What a wonderful journey Arrived back this morning and met by the kids and taken to breakfast at a favourite cafe at Bronte Swell. Finally went to the hairdresser after 15 weeks this afternoon. Beautician tomorow morning at 9am. Pearl Fishers tomorrow night. Family slide show on Sunday pm work Monday 8 am. Looking forward to vegemite toast for breakfast. So http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Kirribilli/blog-332837.html Day 101 WednesdayMy bag is packed and I'm ready for the shuttle to the airport as I have had to check out of my hotel room. Luckily ING Direct banking have a free internet cafe across the road. You just have to buy a drink. It is rather cold and windy in Chicago today and I am attired for a long flight to Sydney...with bare legs and sandals so am not suited to wandering the streets marvelling at http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-332816.html Day 99 MondayI'm regrettably now awaiting the shuttle to Newark airport for my final domestic flight...to Chicago for two final nights of opera. Then home on Wednesday and back to work next MOnday. Only when I focus on specific places and events dp I realise how much I have done and how long it has been. The scary part is that I am still having a wonderful time...I guess when the travel bug bite http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/blog-331509.html Day 97 SaturdayAfter Thursday evening at the opera I decided that I needed to smarten up my appearance considerably if I was to be worthy of the seats I had booked. Unfortunately I am the victim of the various circumstances of my travel.... I posted my opera going gear from Cambodia to Chicago in an attempt to lighten my load since I would not need those garments in Asia but it has not http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/blog-330854.html Day93 FridayThis is a quick update. More later but no time to spare. Travel is really a hectic pastime Tuesday evening I flew to NY after spending the morning at the Getty Centre. Wonderful place. Then taxi to the airport.Arrived after midnight at hotel. This one is really cute. Quite small and friendly. Tiny room but clean and cosy. In 49th between Broadway and 7th Avenue. Chicago one of the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/blog-330412.html Day 92 MondayYesterday we flew from Colarado to LA where we were met by Connie's sister No 6 Cathy and her two lovely daughters Sophia and Anna. They live south of the airport about 30 minutes in good traffic right near the beach broadly speaking Redondo beach . The girls like the rest of the family are heavily into sport and most interestingly what is known here as Junior Lifegua http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/Palos-Verdes/blog-329398.html Day 90 SaturdayOur trip to Boulder has been booked as long as our overall package...for the purpose of visiting Connie's number three sister...Colleen mother of Kat whose company we enjoyed in Chicago and then Boston. Connie merely said that it was a university town near Denver perhaps similar to Armidale. All I could imagine was a single rock presumably in the middle of nowhere like a de http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Bermuda/blog-328825.html Friday Day 90When I finally awoke about 9am on Friday morning Murt Connie's stepmother announced that since this was my last day in Minnesota I should go and have breakfast of doughnuts at a special local place. Connie and Nora wanted to have a last day together and see Connie's own mother Flo who came to visit us at Dolls Point about 4 years ago. After that we went sightseeing around the d http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/St-Paul/blog-328812.html Day 89 ThursdayYesterday was the first day when we needed a jacket...it is definitely getting cooler. But there are many more stages to come. I would love to come back in the real winter. It sounds amazing here. The lakes freeze over and of course everyone skates and does cross country skiing around the city. In due course the lakes become so frozen that the local newspaper announces that it is O http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/St-Paul/blog-327540.html Day 88 WednesdayWe have been having a very welcome rest and some family time here in Minnesota staying with Connie's father and step mother. They have a lovely home here on the shores of LAke Owassa about 15 minutes from downtown St Paul twin city with Minneapolis across the Mississippi river. Connie is the second of Rollie's 9 children 8 of whom are girls with names starting with C. Mer http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/St-Paul/blog-327244.html MondaySunday morning I had set aside to visit the National Civil Rights Museum in the motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. According to the brochure it was open from 10am. Unfortunately when I got there it was closed until 1pm the time of my flight. So I only got to look on the outside. Disappointing as Eva said it was the most impressive part of visiting Memphis. So..back to the air http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/St-Paul/blog-326371.html Day 84 SaturdayAside from the fact that I have long wanted to visit New Orleans for it's own sake as a unique and fascinating city I was really imressed to to see various aspects of the Mississippi River. The location New Orleans is interesting...between the final curves of the river and the amazing Lake Pontchartrain...so extensive and with such amazing long bridges across. These are things http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Tennessee/Memphis/blog-325756.html Day 83 FridayThis is my third day in this great city and I am just about to check out and make my way to Memphis for the weekend. I am pleased to say that there seem to be quite as few tourists mainly from the US here at present and it seems to be business as usual for most.. Nevertheless lots of places are still awaiting restoration and some have closed down. I think Amtrak must have a death http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Louisiana/New-Orleans/blog-325312.html Day 83 maybe WednesdayI started off yesterday by doing one of those onoff bus tours around the old part of town. Their idea was that you stay on board for 112 hours to see everything then spend the rest of the day going back to visit in detail where ever you wished. However since the old town is laid out according to a very careful grid plan around some 20 squares with lovely public gard http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Georgia/Savannah/blog-324726.html Day 81 MondayAfter spending a great day in Washington visiting all the classic locations yesterday I left Connie and Nora about 5.30pm to go to the Kennedy Centre. According to my guidebook there are daily free performances there . So... left them at the National Portrait Gallery one of 18 parts of the Smithsonian complex and went to see the great cultural centre. LIke all of Washington...mon http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Georgia/Savannah/blog-324072.html Day 80 WashingtonWe aren't mad...we had to move on today as there seemed to be no vacant rooms in NY..even in New Jersey And according to Nora there are no vacancies in youth hostels till the end of October So..when you come... get your acts together and don't be like us. Plan ahead and bookActually I wasn't worried as I am returning to NY for about five days at the beginning of next month http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-323290.html Day 79 FridaySitting here in the magnificent reading room of the NY Public Library on 42nd street in order to use the computer. The internet in my hotel didn't seem inclined to cooperate for me. After my busy day in Boston on Monday we picked up a hire car in order to go to Cape Cod and Nantucket. This entailed driving a couple of hours to the south stopping of at Plymouth on the way. Here we http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-322796.html Tuesday MorningThe blog server was down for 6 hours last night apparently so of Monday 8th September I can report I set out early this morning from our very nice and relatively cheap hotel in Chelsea beyond Logan airport at 8.30am. There is a shuttle bus from here to the airport train station via the airport. From the station I travelled two stops toward downtown to Aquarium the same http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Boston/blog-321546.html Day 74 SundayReflecting on yesterday my highlights were the Boston Public Library and the the Make way for ducklings scenarios both live and bronze in the Boston Common. Today I set off on a trolley hop on hop off tour with additional support from the Boston subway. It was a glorious late summer's day perfect for wandering around going in and out of famous edifices and walking around. I g http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Boston/blog-321110.html Day 73 SaturdayAfter maintaining an average of at least every second day till we reached the US I'm afraid things have been more difficult to maintain. One obvious difficulty is that we have mainly been with Connie's family and even though there are computers around when one is with a group of people it is difficult to get some quiet time for solitary activities. So to back track over the past http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Boston/blog-320564.html