Gday again Been in Vegas a day or so and teed up the rental car that will move us on tomorrow. Vegas is nothing more or less than we expected and we are looking forward to hitting the road tomorrow. First stops Boulder Dam then Grand Canyon. Nice appartment here at the Signature at MGM Grand. The whole place is expensive though - which surprised us a little. Our room complete with Kitchen and Jacuzzi is on the 30th floor - which makes your correspondent's knees a bit shaky when standing on the balcony. Dinner last night was an all seafood and sushi affair for $29.95++. Best value I have had. There was actually some very nice meat there as well but I couldnt fit it in after the Oysters, lobster and prawns - all before ... read more

Gday again Quick report tonight. Quiet day. Tackled the street car system today - stretching out to all points of the compass under our own initiative. Did some walkin in City Park then checked out the 'Garden District' - the area settled initially by the Americans when Luisiana (along with a handful of other states) was annexed - from what I understand, under the Luisiana Purchase agreement with France in 1803. Then some more walking in the Audubon Park before returning to peruse the markets in the French Quarter. Tonight we had dinner in there also - but I needed to be a bit discreet as the diet is not perfect for me ........ The highlight was seeing the magnificent old houses in the Garden District - as well as the tram rides - which were ... read more

Hi all Deliberately quiet(er) day today. Major washing task at the local laundromat and we are now up to date. Still had time to squeeze in some final sightseeing including Empire State Building (amazingly we walked straight in there. We did choose to go at lunch time and it worked a treat). After that, the Chrysler Building at ground level (a bit disappointing) and Grand Central Station - magnificent. A 6 km stroll back via the Hudson river and a walk on the Hi-Line Park (a disused elevate railway just near our hotel thru the meat packing district) completed the day - but we still have dinner to contend with. We fly out tomorrow for New Orleans and we are looking forward to a chang of scenery and a change of pace. We have enjoyed the ... read more

Well 2 days to catch up on. Second stay in Boston was fine and the Amtrak train to NY worked like clockwork - and it was a nice journey thru Mass, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York. More Autumnal colours all the way - and lots of coastline with huge and well stocked boat harbours. Not sure where this recession is hitting here - but it aint in New England. Checked into the Tutu centre with the news that we had been upgraded which was nice - but we are still on 10th Avenue - which is not nice. Anyway, appropriate pharmacology ensured 8 hrs of restful sleep ready to take on the full day of tourism today. First impressions of NY were not good yesterday so we didn’t do a blog. Better to wait until ... read more

More evidence of 'Global Warming'. Todays Autumn Colours tour was temorarily disbanded because of rain and snow. Unseasonal here just as it was when we were in Tokyo in April and even in Melbourne as we speak... Believe the nonsense if you like. Anyway, it was another interesting day for us - and a lot of fun. We are now comfortably in our room at Lake Placid. A stopover at Fort Ticonderoga was fascinating albeit cut short meterologically. This is where the French took on the Brits and won temporarily in a rout apparently. We didnt see as much as we might have but it was good. We were meant to do a cruise on Lake Placid and a tour up the Olympic ski-jump tower but it was all cancelled and instead we drove around and ... read more