Interesting trip from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to New York, NY. Since Lancaster county has the highest density of Amish in the US (some 33,000), we visited an Amish experience centre to learn more about this closed religious group that moved to the US from Swizerland/Germany to escape persecution. The simple Amish way of life is much in evidence, with farmers tending the fields using antiquated machinery, and people riding around in their characteristic horse & buggies wearing 18th century-style dress. Amish only choose whether to be baptised or not ('Amish or English') after the age of about 18; the vast majority choose to remain within the religious community which espouses a strict interpretation of the bible and a very simple lifestyle. But they make great quilts - we were late getting to NY because Pat couldn't be ... read more

Rome, Paris, London, and now Washington DC. It was raining on our first day, so we decided to take the 1-hour Old Town Trolley Tours bus around the main sights of the downtown area. The combined ticket allowed us to visit the Madame Tussauds waxworks museum and rub shoulders with the rich & famous, including all 44 presidents, Oprah, Morgan Friedman, Selena Gomez, etc. After that, we strolled down to the Smithsonian Museums (too many of them to list) on The Mall, and spent some time in the Natural History Museum. No rain the next day, just cold. We drove to see the house of Pat's niece Monique and Isaac (and Winston Churchill, the cat!) and had brunch at a nearby restaurant. We then all piled in the car and drove downtown to see more of ... read more

5 of the Sullivan siblings got together yesterday but this morning Robert arrived at Gwen & Larry's house, so all 6 managed to be in the same room at the same time. Many photos were taken to mark this significant (if somewhat formidable!) gathering, and there was a great deal of laughter to be heard. All except Darlene headed up to Raleigh, Mississippi (a 3-hour drive) in separate cars for an equally amazing gathering of descendants of the previous generation of the Sullivan clan, i.e. Pat's father and his 6 siblings. The event was hosted by Eileen, a local cousin of Pat's. A total of 58 people attended, including 16 out of the 22 living first cousins - an amazing turnout. We stayed overnight at cousin Susan & Bruce's house 9 miles from Raleigh, where they ... read more

We drove from Gwen & Larry's in Mandeville, across the 20-mile long bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, skirted around the centre of New Orleans, to see Pat's niece Vanessa & Felix (and of course their gorgeous 18-month old baby Isabella). They drove us to a swamp tour operation run by Felix's cousins and we had a 2-hour tour of the bayoux, during which we saw dozens of aligators (the biggest being a 10-foot monster), turtles, and all manner of bird life. We all got to hold a 1-metre baby 'gator - wild but thankfully not mad! An amazing experience. After that, Felix & Vanessa took us to a restaurant in Lafitte where we tasted some good Cajun fare. Katrina & Jackson experienced yet another cultural experience on this trip: fried frogs legs - "tastes like rubbery chicken", ... read more

Journey from hell for Mike leaving UK for the US. A 4.30am check-in time at Heathrow meant it wasn't worth staying with friends nearby or checking into a hotel, so spent a few hours sleeping on the floor of Terminal 1, along with a few other lost souls - thank goodness I had my sleeping bag with me. LHR to Frankfurt OK, but the Frankfurt to Houston flight left late because of mechanical problems (with the gate, not the plane), so it was always going to be a rush to make the connection to Lake Charles. US immigration was the usual laborious process, though I did manage to get a single smile from the officer - be thankful for small mercies. After traversing the airport on the shuttle train, I arrived just minutes after the (last) ... read more