The US

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Hi folks,
Well, greetings on what will be the last blog from our trip overseas. This one is coming from New York city where we have been staying the past 5 days. A lot has happened since I sent the last blog from Paris. I'll give a bit of a rundown of where we have been, excuse me for being a bit rushed, as it is late in NY and we have to get up early to catch our flight.
After Paris, we flew via Iceland to Toronto. The flight over was spectacular when we passed over Greenland we could see glaciers, icebergs and a remote snow-covered landscape that seemd very far away from Australia. We didn't see much if Iceland apart from around the airport which was very flat, and apparently that is the case for much of country.
We stayed with friends, Chris and Anne in Toronto, and Lucinda and Ruby enjoyed playing with their kids Benjamin and Zoe, who are similar in age. It was good to see the kids having fun together, Benjamin and Zoe really hit it off, and there was lots of madcap fun in the house. Toronto seems like the same size as Melbourne, but is more spread out. The Toronto Film Festival was on when we were there. Lots of stars jetting into town, but alas we couldn't fit them into our schedule. We went to the Museum, the Art gallery of Ontario was really good and we spent a couple of days there. There was also a visit to one of Toronto's oldest houses, a street festival where the girls saw a camp version of Peter Pan in an old church, and a ferry out to Ward Island which is a short distance from the mainland. It was good to catch up with Anne and Chris, we even managed to take them out to dinner one night courtesy of a local babysitter. Much rested, we caught a bus down to Niagara Falls.
The Falls are sort of split in two, with the best falls being on the Canadian side and the lesser falls being on the US side. Alison had come down with a flu and was feeling poorly, so bad that when we arrived at our hotel, she spent much of the afternoon recuperating in bed. Our hotel overlooked the Falls and was 22 floors up. This made for spectacular views of the Falls as they sent a mammoth spray up into the sky. Later on, Alison was feeling better and we walked around the Falls. They do seem to be smaller than I imagined, yet it is an amazing thing to see so much water curling over the lip of the Falls and cascade downwards. At night, there was a fireworks show which was pretty good from our hotel room. Flowers of colour, soaring ribbons of light, all the other hotels flashing their neon signs, so that the night became a landscape of neon and brand names. In some ways it reminded me of the Gold Coast, a hypereal world that depends upon the night to emblazon us with its charm, or its tacky illusions. The next day, the bright lights seem a bit cheap when we went past the Ripley's Believe it or not Museum with the Gorilla leaping from the wall, Fast Food joints and the Criminal Wax Museum.
A short train ride over the border and we were in the US, and then after being processed by customs we made our way to Rochester to spend the weekend with friends, Cassie and George. They have a cute 5 month old daughter, Sophie. We hired a car there and underwent some careful practice with George and Cassie. We drove out to a farm where there were kids activities such as haycart rides, a jumping pillow, aiming a slingshot at a pumpkin face and a toy duck race. It is still pre-Halloween and people have gone to town in decorating their houses either with pumpkins or scarecrows. It is also the change of season, officially Fall now, and so there was a harvest moon last weekend which looked pretty impressive. Rochester is a smallish city. Cassie and George live on a street with lots of neat clapboard houses, very shady, and quite a few American flags draped out the front. We had a great meal at a New Orleans style bar/restaurant.
Our car was a Chevy Impala, luxurious for us, with leather seats that could be warmed. At first it was a bit hard getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road, and it really helped having someone else to be 'the eyes' at intersections. We were aided with our navigation by 'Jill' the GPS who really guided us well around the country. The US seems to be a maze of freeways and exit ramps. The roads change number quickly an do so you have to be on your toes a lot. We drove into upstate New York, into the Adirondack Mountains. Fences don't seem to be a common thing. There were so many trees and forest growing down to the road, These mountains reminded me of the Otways a bit. The higher we went toward Lake Placid, the greater the colour range with the trees. We had some wome wonderful views of the trees changing colour from green to lime to plum, to red, to yellow etc. We passed through many cute and historic towns. One of the biggest tests for us in the US has been the food. The servings are huge and many dishes seem to be smothered in cheese, the diner type places anyhow. Eventually we made it into Concord where we stayed the weekend. Here I realised a dream ofmine to walk around Walden Pond, where Thoreau lived in a cabin for a year or more. We had beautiful weather there, especially when walking around the pond. Lots of massive historic houses in Concord. We visited the homes of Louisa Alcott, (Little Women), the home of the poet Emerson as well as the Museum. Concord is a place I could easily live, if I had a spare million or so.
It's getting late now, so more about New York later on.

Cheers

Brendan

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