They may be the enemy- but they are beautiful!

First stop today was Yale. Now I know I should hate the enemy but it becomes a bit difficult when the campus is so unbelievably beautiful. Its gothic style buildings are breathtaking and to it looked even better as it was freshman move in day so there were flags and decorations everywhere. Sarah and I pretended to be freshman and walked around the dorms, got our freshman t-shirts and looked at the groups we could join. I wish we could have spent more time there but we parked a car in an 1hr only spot L but I will be back as professor one day so its just a see you later!

We then decided to drive past Province and go to the Wrentham Premium Outlets which were fairly good but pretty much the same prices as the normal stores.

While the shops may not have been the best our Hilton hotel was really cool. It was just down the road from Brown University and had huge ballrooms that were fun to sneak into.

On our way to dinner we found a Partycity store which was so much fun and so so cheap. I want to organize a party just so I can buy decorations! We decided that it would be funny to buy a happy birthday crown and wear it to see how much stuff we could get for free. Sarah wore it to dinner at TGIF and while they didnt public humiliate her by singing every was extremely nice to her.

 

 

 

 

Rain rain go away

We spent the morning at Liberty Hall doing a tour of the beginnings of the USA. We saw the room where the founding fathers signed the constitution and learnt some of the history of the birthplace of the nation.

Then..

Torrential rain! I mean torrential rain that nearly caused us to be flooded in and stuck! It was only lightly raining when left Philly, however as we were on back roads through beautiful countryside it started to pour. At one stage we had a raging river next to us and a hill on the other side, so we had rushing water coming down meeting the rising water of the river and we were trying to go through it! It was tough drive, however we made it out alive.

Then we decided to get on back on the main roads but with the internet cutting in and out and not great signposts we kept getting lost or going too far when we were supposed to turn.  So far along the trip we had been doing pretty well with directions, but somehow today was not the day and we got lost so many times.

By the time we got to New Haven (our hotel was on the beach) we were very over it and over each other that we just watched some tv and went to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Road trip to the birthplace of the nation

Today was a day of stops.

First stop was Australian embassy to vote. It was the biggest let down of our entire trip. They have all this security but didn’t even scan or look at passport and it was just a building, nothing making it look “Australian”. I think we were both expecting an embassy like the one in the Simpsons J Plus the guy there said we couldn’t even vote because the day of the election hadn’t been called, when in fact it was called two weeks earlier… argh so annoying.

Our second stop was Baltimore which we solely drove through so that I could stop and sing ‘Good morning Baltimore’! We couldn’t really find anywhere right in the city to stop and we had just driven through the ghetto part so we literally pulled into a dock for 5min sang and got back in the car.

Our third stop was the town of Lancaster which is known for its Amish heritage, however as we had driven through traditional Amish land previously, Lancaster looked commercially and was a bit of a letdown.

Our fourth stop was Kohl’s where we had free vouchers that we needed to use, so we did a quick shop before having dinner at Red Robin’s. This was a favourite of mine when I came to the states for Cheerleading Worlds as we went there a few times for dinner. It has the best freckled lemonade you will ever try and bottomless fries! So yum.

Our fifth and final stop was our hotel in Philadelphia which was really nice. We managed to have a fairly early night after planning the rest of our trip.

 

 

The Capital

Our drive to Washington was pretty uneventful- we just wanted to get there and it was horrible weather L Although we did pull off and go to the Flight 53 memorial site from 9/11 which has just been opened. I don’t know if it was the cold wind or the effect of spirits in the air but there was something very eerie about in the air. We also decided to drive through Georgetown which is one of the cutest towns with Cobble Street even if they are really steep and when driving down it feels like you are on a rollercoaster! We stopped in at DC cupcakes and even though I had them in Boston, there is nothing like having to wait ½ and hour in a line to eat cupcakes- they taste so much better and they seriously are the best cupcakes ever.

We had a few days in Washington which was great because there is just so much to see and do even if ive been there before.

We both went to the Air Space Museum which is one of my favourite- im just a big kid at heart and love hands on stuff! I also went to the Natural History again just because I love night at the museum 2 and it’s a pretty cool museum with dinosaurs, orangutans and big whales. I met back up with Sarah and we decided to go to the Kennedy Performing Arts Centre as each night they have a free show. So had some fro-yo (I’m an addict!) and walked to the KPAC. We ended up seeing a contemporary dance group that told the story of the burqa. It was very interesting and they had some really cool motifs and elements of design which I would love to adapt.

On our second day in Washington we got up early to go to the Holocaust Musuem which is without a doubt the best museum I have ever been to. Now I’ve been to numerous Holocaust museums around the world and even been to a few concentration camps, and I was really taken aback by the assembly of the museum. The history and stories of the deceased were beautifully honoured and the information was provided in a informative and easy to understand way. I think the most heart-wrenching element was the photo card you receive as you walk in that tells the story of an individual. It was eerie that my photo card of a person who was a drama student and Sarah’s was a fashion student- how ironic.

After shedding a few tears, we walked along the Washington Mall Memorial Pool up to the Lincoln Memorial, before detouring and going up to the Shakespeare Theatre. We had read somewhere they do a week of free shows and so we were hoping to get tickets. We were there really early so we went to lunch at a sports bar called Turtle. I find it really strange that at lots of restaurants they will have promotions if you sign up to their emails and they aren’t just like you may win this or that but are you can get $20 off or  free dessert or appetizer. So everywhere we seem to eat its not only cheap but we get free stuff! Anyway after a lunch we waited in line for the free tickets. In this line was another fellow Australia who proved the whole 6 degrees of separation can in fact be 1 degree as we both went to Bathurst University at the same time and lived in the same dorm and knew the same people! Crazy!

We were fortunate to get tickets to Much Ado About Nothing and had a couple of hours to kill before the show so found another frozen yoghurt place and people watched. Funniest comments on our behalf including the term ‘overgrown leprechaun’ (a man with a red hair and beard), which then formed “overgrown hobbit’ (any man who didn’t have ginger hair but did have scruffy hair and a beard). The terms are going to be the next big thing!

The show itself was incredible and absolutely hilarious. I was not expecting to laugh so much and the take on the classic tale in which the director set it in a Caribbean house courtyard with only one set, it was clever and worked well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Witches, Berries and Abby lee

I could not have planned today even if I tried. I thought some of the other stuff we have done has been random but nothing compares to today.

Firstly we were driving along and saw all these cars pulled over to the side of the road, so we pulled in to see what was going on. It ended up being an estate sale at a place that looked like it was from a Halloween movie. Vines were covering the house, the garden was so over grown and then when we went inside that’s when things got really scary. The place looked so run down with the wall paper peeling, cobwebs on the lamps and squeaky floor boards. As we went around we started hearing stories about the lady who used to live there. Her name was Elizabeth (from the town of Eden) and she was a practicing witch, which was shown through her choice of books and furniture- creepy lights with hands coming out of the wall and gothic looking sculptures. I ended up buying a charm bracelet and real pearl necklace as I wanted something to have from this place, although im not sure if I will wear them- they may be cursed! Before leaving we also learnt that she was a very old lady with no family and had been dead about 6 weeks before someone found her being eaten by her animals!!!

After our spooky encounter we continued to drive on before doing a quick U’ey when we sure ‘blueberry pickers welcome’ on the side of the road. We just laughed at ourselves picking raspberries and blueberries and how random our day had been so far!

It only got more random as we suddenly were driving through traditional Amish land.  We couldn’t help but pull over and stop at a horse and cart that was selling home cooked bakery items, where we were also invited to the towns annual picnic. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to stop until the picnic but we did manage to go to the Amish candy store and got the best (and probably only) goats milk fudge I have ever had. My ignorance in the Amish culture only makes it more interesting to me and it astounds me how they live in the 21^st century world but use none of its technology.

We arrived in Pittsburg (our destination) in late afternoon and went straight to the Abby Lee Dance Company. Initially I was a bit shy and just wanted to get a picture out the front with the sign, but Sarah convinced me to go inside as the shop was open. Once inside we met some lovely mothers of students in the youth performance troupe who gave all the ins and outs of the studio as well as a studio tour. Students were in the middle of a summer boot camp class, so I got to watch Maddi, Nia, Payton as well as other students from the show practicing. Unfortunately Miss Abby was not there but I did get to leave her a message on her board and we gave a pack of tim tams to the ladies for being so kind. Later in the night that somehow found me on facebook/instagram and posted photos of them eating them J It was such a cool experience being there.

Our hotel was really nice right next to a huge giraffe and elephant (putt putt golf) and down the road from outlets. We didn’t get time to shop but we had a nice dinner at Mad mex before settling in for an early night.

What another incredible day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A perfect picnic

After a sleep in we decided to go shopping at the huge mall across the road- still undecided whether this was a good idea or a bad one as I spent lots of money!

In Australia we just don’t have department stores like JC Penny and Sears- its so cheap! Plus the clothes are really good designer stuff. We also went to Waa Mans which is the best supermarket I have ever been to. Now to start with I love supermarkets especially when in different countries. I just find all the brands and how they place things so interesting (weird I know). This supermarket however was the supermarket of all supermarkets!!! It was massive. They had a salad and hot food bars that would have been as big as the fresh food section in Woolworths. Their cheese section was as big as a Telstra shop and the rest of the shop would have been twice the size of any Coles in Australia. We ended up getting a hot chicken, pesto, feta, sundried tomatoes, pina coladas and a bread stick for a picnic we planned to have at Niagara falls.

Late afternoon we drove to Niagara Falls where we set up a picnic rug and our food for a lovely dinner overlooking the falls. The falls themselves were beautiful however it was hard to get their full effect from the American side as you look at both sets of falls sideways. Although the sheer power of the falls cannot be missed as you can get about 2m away from the edge and the noise and speed of the water is phenomenal. As it got dark, lights from the Canadian side reflected a rainbow of colours and we were lucky enough to be there when they had fireworks which were awesome. Only down side of the picnic was that every time the wind changed it would bring the mist over us making it feel like it was still rain around you- kind of like a constant spray bottle squirting.

It was such a perfect picnic.