A tale of 3 cities

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Chicago
Fabulous city, pretty architecture, nice parks. One of those places where they've obviously made an effort to keep it looking nice, even with the curse of 70's concrete attacking the picture every now and then. Lots of daft shaped tower blocks surrounded by enough glass giving the city an occasionall bright shimmer. Millenium Park, near Lake Michigan was nicly sculpted, real artists given free reign over certain chunks, and included the bonus of a covered stage full of musicians practising for the following nights concert. Pleasant Classical music to amble and sunbathe by is always rather nice. Headphone had been providing me with heavy metal up till then so it was a weird contrast.
Had full day to wander the city so inevitably I got bored and wandered into the cinema. Kung Fu Panda on massive IMAX screen. Really doesn't need an enormous screen but is a really funny, incredibly daft film and great fun for an evening. Just wish I wasn't the oldest person in there by 20 years. Ah Well.

Toronto
Went to meet Samantha in Toronto, unfortunatly she got chunked off the plane. Her excuse is they overbooked and chose 6 people to bump onto the next plane. Anyway, she was 26 hours late getting to Toronto Airport. A personal record she is not eager to break.
Toronto is nice enough. Seen from the CN Tower, which looks ok by day, stunning by night, the city is still being built. Large areas of building site dominate the view overshaddowing the variety of skyscrappers that pepper the landscape. They don't have Vancouvers excuse of having an Olympics to prepare for. May visit again in 20 years. It's only purpose was vicinity to airport anyway.

Ottawa
Much prettier, smaller with nicer friendlier attmosphere. Found huge BBQ taking over one street. Huge chunks of chicken and spare ribs giving the nose a rare treat. Tasted pretty good too. Sam went to Subway, need to teach her to be a carnivore. Meat Good!
We walked all aroung the impressive parliment buildings, spectacular architecture for the 3 main buildings. Also very accessible as had large area of grass betweent the main buildings to crash on, and eat my huge pile of meat.
Must confess though, the main purpose for steering Sam towards Parliment hill was a tiny little building hidden away in the bushes. Stray Cats, squirrels and other small animals have been given their own sheltered housing by the council. A roof over their heads, food and company provided by an endless stream of tourists ingnoring Canada's seat of power and coming to look at the cute lickle kitties.

I'm now in Boston, Washington DC in a few days in time for the 4th July. Had a bit of England bashing while walking round the Freedom Trail today. Please can someone tell me the English version of the story. Why the Americans were so desperate to be Independant are were we as bad as they all claim?

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Comments

[Ian]

You've clearly been away too long, yes we are as bad as they claim. But then they're as bad as we claim :D Good to hear from you, now people can stop asking me if I know where you are/what you're doing! Well done for getting to America in time for Independence Day, you don't want to miss all the parades/alien spaceships!