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Published: November 23rd 2011
We left Vegas in the early hours with our unwelcome souvenirs in tow – hangovers! It was a rough trip for us as our bodies adapted to life outside Sin City and we were grateful when we finally landed in our next destination – Washington D.C!!
Washington was only going to be a flying visit of 2 nights for us – but it didn’t seem right to travel across the States and not take in the seat of power. When we arrived at our hotel hoping for a quiet night to continue recovering we were just thrilled to find our floor totally over-run by a kids group charging up and down the corridor, smashing!
The next morning and a couple of coffee’s later we were ready to hit DC like a pair of proper tourists. It was once again like stepping into another film set when we exited the metro at the National Mall. This whole area is filled with everything that symbolizes America’s power, and it’s always strange to be surrounded with sights you have seen endless times on television. After the sunshine of California we were finally catching up with how the weather should be - it
was a perfect autumn day with gloomy skies and the whole area filled with fallen leaves. This seemed pretty fitting for such a majestic walk as we took in the Houses of Congress, the Lincoln, Washington, Martin Luther King monuments and the White House to name but a few!
After our day of sight-seeing, our flying visit was over before we knew it the next morning as we were due to travel to New Jersey or New ‘Joisey’ as the locals pronounce it. We were excited about meeting up with Paul’s dad, Dave and his wife Betty who Paul hadn’t seen for two years and Tina hadn’t met yet! Disaster almost struck though when we mis-judged how long it would take to reach the bus station – after pleading with our way too relaxed taxi driver to ‘step on it’ we caught our bus by the skin of our teeth!!
When we finally arrived it was great to see Paul’s dad, Betty and an excited wee Maggie – who is by far the cutest dog we’ve met! We were given a tour of the 5th wheel, our home for the next week, and felt a bit guilty to
be stealing their beds!! Meeting up in New Jersey always seemed so far away in our travelling that it was a bit surreal to finally be here. We spent our first night boring them to death with our travelling stories, catching up and having a few beers.
For the rest of the week it was games domination as we had our games nights with the odd beer! We also got a wee tour around the local area which was filled with quaint little towns sitting along the Delaware River, got treated to lots of good food and even managed to fit in some Christmas shopping! With thanksgiving only a couple of days away Betty cooked us all up an early traditional thanksgiving meal, which was just braw – and Tina’s first thanksgiving experience!
Tina was also introduced to the ritual of playing poker when we meet up in the States – probably for the best that Tina became hooked after we had already left Vegas!! It was just as well we were only playing for fake chips or we would have been skint for the rest of our travels! It didn’t take long before Paul and his dad
had the cigars out in honour of another wee Barnes tradition.
It’s been great catching up over the last week and to re-charge for our last port of call – New York City. We’re writing this on the bus on the way to the city that never sleeps so we are full of excitement but also a tinge of sadness to have left Paul’s dad and Betty – cheers for looking after us so well for the last week guys!!
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Dave Barnes
non-member comment
Haste ye back!
Tina and Paul Glad you enjoyed the visit, still hard to believe that after waiting so long for you to visit us that's it's just flew in so quickly but we had brilliant week together. We wish that the weather had been a wee bit kinder but we did have a couple of nice sunny days in the mix. We really enjoyed our games of Yahtzee, Scrabble, Texas Hold'em and at last we learned the rules for Anti-Monopoly after Paul studied the rules. It seems so quiet now that you've moved on to the "big apple" but you've left us with some very happy memories. We just have to do this again and our bed will always be your bed when you head stateside next time. Betty, Maggie and I wish you all the luck in the world when you head to Australia in 2012. In the meantime have a blast in New York. All our love,,,,Dad.