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The Fowlers on Holiday!
Click on these photo albums and then on the slide show. If you want to read the captions just scroll down each page.
This part of our trip is after Fowler holiday 1,2,3,4..
This part of our trip is after Fowler holiday 1,2,3,4..
At the Shipwreck museum
Breanna and her friend Amy
Declan cooking Venison with Mary the painter
Dad getting fashion advice
Niagara river
Wearing our supercool ponchos on the way to the maid of the mist boat that goes under niagara falls
We walked down this- we touched the water on the American Falls and got SOO wet!
At Navy Pier in Chicago
At the Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago). They were shooting a movie here!
At Millers Brewery
At the Harley Davidson factony in Milwakee, Wisconsin
We all jumped into Taquamenon Falls fully Clothed, it was so muvh fun!
At Oswalds Bear Ranch
MORE PHOTOS UNDER WRITING!
I feel so isolated, so out of touch with everything. You dont realise how much you rely on the computer to do everything. I feel like my right hand has been chopped off. If I am able to get on a computer it is soooooooo slow you would not believe it and it cant handle downloading anything. Half way thru sending an email it cracks it and stops. I dot think any of my mail has been going to anyone. And it is really expensive to use. Well, $10.00 for half an hour which is really like 5 minutes of normal time cause of the slowness of it all. I hope you have our computer up and running now.
They are sooooo behind us technology wise. You would not believe it. I get range on my mobile about once in a blue moon.
And nobody knows a bout mobile phones, internets or anything or very limited knowledge. They are just laid back about just about everything.
I think we have been hanging around hicksville.
I have not traded at all and not even looked like trading. We are so busy either traveling, looking at things, working out where to go, cooking or eating or bathing. We have only ever stayed in a place for 3 days maximum so it is hard to find the time to get into get into anything. ( I have found the time to read two books and complete my diary and other fun things but). I imagined me computing as we were driving but it is a full time job navigating Mr. Fowler in the Griswald machine. School work with the kids takes an hour to hour and half every morning and they all require attention. You cannot set it and leave it as they have to be taught it first. It is more difficult than I imagined getting it together but we have now and it is OK, just time consuming. I cannot believe parents choose home education over school education. They would have to be committed to that and nothing else. Apparently it is very popular here. I hope the kids are learning enough.
We had a rugged flight over, no real problems and we and all our luggage arrived safely, amazingly after the 8 different flights I was sure something would have gone astray. It was just rugged cause the girls were sick all of the way. They really suffered and had their head in the bag all the time. I felt so sorry for them. Declan was as chirpy as a bird and was determined to stay awake the 36 hours, the little bugger, and we had to play games with him all the way. Our last flight was on a tiny little aircraft that was really spooky. We were unable to take off cause of the bad weather and we stood on the runway blowing in the wind for an hour before he took off. Yukko. We were all a little shaky. 36 hours feels like about 66 when you are flying. I don't think I would ever do that to the kids again.
We were all so happy when we got here and it was over we got our second wind and we all went out for tea and could barely go to sleep. The Dewalts picked us up and were the loveliest people. They took the kids to the movies and bought them CANDY AND POP!!!!!!! while Steve and I had our lesson on how to maintain our van. Our van is fantastic but very very American. We were such celebrities there, we have had the whole family out to talk to us.
We spent our first couple of nights in the bush by a beautiful rapids river that the kids had a ball in. The houses here are so cutesy kind of. No one has fences between or out front and everyone has fantastic verandahs with big comfy chairs on them facing the street. They all have at least 1 American flag flying, some have an arrangement of them. They are all kept in such beautiful nick, it is like on the movies with the big sweeping lawns and the neighborhoods with the big trees. I always thought that was smulchy American TV but it is for real. Their houses are something. I love them.
We have been to the most amazing places. I cant believe we have done so much in four weeks. My favorite place was Wall Street, well maybe not my favourite but the thing that amazed me beyond my expectations. We were camping in New York right opposite the statue of liberty, can you believe it. We caught a ferry over to Manhattan and walked straight up Wall Street. It is only little, not hustle bustle but grand and cool and classy with the best buildings and everyone kinda saunters around, even the food vendors seemed a little classier than the rest of New York. The stock exchange had an enormous flag down the side with guards out the front holding machine guns. They were friendly guards and the kids all stood with them and got their photo taken. It was weird. We walked to the end of Wall Street and there was ground zero. It is so huge a hole you cant believe it. The building adjacent to the block had like a big curtain hanging down the side almost 200 stories high or so with an enormous placard restoring faith in everyone. Their is a huge fence on the perimeter of the blocks and a placard with
everyone's name on it that died. There is heaps of activity going on, it looked to me like they were still removing rubble, but the sign said they had begun to rebuild. Other buildings close by had bits missing from them and some were untouched. I didn't like it there at all.
We went to Maceys, and everyone except Declan & me went up the empire state building. We weren't getting him up a building after ground zero. They all loved it and Steve thought it was far better than he expected. Maceys is exactly as the movies, a big old classy department store with fancy lights and pillars. We had to get out of there quick cause we saw a thousand things on sale that we didn't need until we saw them. We didn't get to Bloomingdales, we just forgot. We really loved hanging around 42nd street and Broadway and Times Square. It is so lively and so many shows on and so much activity. There are huge TV screens showing movies on all the walls of the buildings. I had to keep pinching myself that we were there. The girls and I were desperate to see a show on Broadway and as the girls had never seen Rent but knew the music off by heart they begged me to go there. Chloe ended up winning two front row seats in the raffle that is drawn each night and another girl sold me her ticket so we all sat up the front. It was a great production. The boys went to see the Hulk. We saw all these celebrities, I don't know who they were but the kids do. It was a premiere show Will Smith, was the man, red carpet and all.
We were not scared one bit in New York and came home both nights about midnight, oonce on the bus where noone speaks English only Spanish, and then on the tubes. I was really surprised to see a lot of girls traveling home from work etc. on their own at this time of night. People with shopping bags, it seemed so safe and so civilised, not as I had imagined.
After New York we met some people who did a little map for us of some places they enjoyed (the ladies name was Ginger!!!!!). We went to a seaside place and camped for a few days and spent a day in Boston, it is a great city. Really fun. We then went further up the coast to the state of Maine, a very picturesque state. So lovely driving thru. We stayed at a port town with a bout 50 inlets called Boothbay. It was so pretty. We camped right by the beach. Seafood is their business there so we had lobster rolls. They are to die for. Next we went up to the border of New Hampshire and Maine and stayed with some people we had met from Alaska. They were really interesting to talk to, then we drove across lots of mountains by these really fast rivers and forests to Vermont, the food state I think. We had a yum time there eating all the local produce. We went to maple syrup farm, to a cheese place, an ice cream factory a cider place etc. etc. We rolled out of Vermont and spent two days at an amazing museum that was merely a collection of buildings and things of one very rich lady. She had lots of original paintings by Claude Monet and had shifted an entire upper class New York apartment to the museum and a ship and you name it. We met an artist who was so taken with what we were doing she gave us a painting of a girl she had named Freedom. (This is the name on our van). She was a hunter and cooked Venison for us. We all loved it except Chloe who almost went white as the lady explained how she killed it, skinned it, prayed over it and thanked God for it. She explains how she uses every part of the deer. Steve kept teasing Breanna who scoffed the most, how she felt eating Bambi.......
We caught a ferry across Lake Champlaine to New York State and drove across the very pretty White Mountains to Lake Ontario and down the coast of this lake to Niagara falls. Niagara falls really blew us away. We were all expecting to go thru a forest to it but you drive into the town and there they are. Spectacular, truly a wonder of the world. We spent three days in awe there. The whole are has been made a state reserve by the US Government so it is free for everyone to go to the falls ands stand about a foot away from them. The sheer force of the falls is scary. There are three falls with the largest being the horseshoe falls which are falls shaped in a horse shoe. We caught a boat and went right in the middle of the horseshoe. It was awesome. At night they are all lit up pretty colors and they have fireworks every night at 10 o'clock over the falls. We walked over to Canada one night and saw a totally different perspective yet equally as beautiful as the American side. We spent one day walking down to the rapids and to the whirlpools caused by the falls along a most beautiful path thru gardens and things.
We spend a couple of days in Canada driving across and found not a lot of difference to America except they are huge on golf and wineries. Hundreds of both of them. We tasted Ice Wine which is made after the grape has been frozen for three days by snow and then they squeeze. It has a very high concentrated sugar level and is so yum you cannot believe it. It is about $100 a bottle so we didn't buy any just had tastings....We entered back into USA at Detroit, Michigan and spent two days at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. What an amazing place and what an amazing man. He was very good friends with Edison so he had all of Edisons original workshops and laboratories, and even his last breath in a test tube. He had the home of Noah Webster the man who wrote the Webster dictionary, the farm of Harvey Firestone, and loads of loads of famous achievers homes moved to the village. It was 85 acres and everything had been restored to its original condition. They even had a n 1885 working farm (it was actually firestones) with people living exactly as they did then. It was so good, they bread merino wrinkly sheep and got $65 a sheep for them back in 1885, today you would be lucky to get $100. They had loads on slaves and the civil war and heaps of original cars and things, and you could drive around in a model T and see it all. They had the chair Lincoln was shot in, and the car Kennedy was shot in and all that sort of junk. They even had the wright brothers original workshop and family home moved to the village with some of the original plane still in the shop. Declan liked hearing about Orville and Wilbur the best of all. Ford began Greenwich Village as a working school for children as he believed they did not receive the right kind of education at the public school. He believed that children should be surrounded by great achievers and work in the environment they did when they achieved excellence. He believed History should be felt rather than read about in books. If the children were to study English they would do so in Websters house, or Science, in Thomas Edisons or Music in some famous musicians etc. etc. etc. The school opened in 1929 and ran for thirty years and has only been reopened last year. Detroit itself was a bit of a dirty town, well the bits we saw were pretty ordinary, I am sure there were nice places.
We left Detroit and found a little campground in the middle of no where by 5 lakes with only 7 houses on the lakes. The people are so friendly in Michigan. You cant get anywhere cause they want to talk to you all the time and want to be helpful. They are quiet and not at all like the Americans you see traveling. One of the campers took us out on his pontoon on the lakes thru all these channels with the most prettiest water lilies. It reminded me of On Golden Pond. We saw deer on the banks and all. We see heaps of chipmunks and squirrels and raccoons. I want to see a moose and a bear. Apparently the moose are 7ft to their shoulder.
There are thousands of lakes in these Eastern Northern States. I don't know if they are all over America. We are camped by one at the moment in Ludington, near Lake Michigan, and to get to the other side the ferry ride is 510 miles. They are enormous. They look like the bay, with waves and all and lots of lighthouses, pure white soft sand that DOES NOT STICK TO YOU and lots of sand dunes. They are very pretty. We intend to drive up to Mackinaw City along the coast across 5 mile bridge to Northern Michigan and into Wisconsin and then to Mt Rushmore.
We will be in Mt Rushmore in 2-4 weeks????? (30th August) depending on how things go. Our mailing address there will be General Delivery, Post Office, Keystone, South Dakota, 57751, USA.
This email is by far my best email. I am not getting the emails from optusnet so well. I must only be allowed to store so many and it gets filled with junk mail and then it cuts off so if you could send us emails to this address it would be great.
I hope Molly is well and not being too bossy. I hope you have settled in to the house and the rain has stopped. We have nothing but blue skies here....
Just email me to this address if you have any queries and I hope it works and I actually get it.....
Take care of yourselves and give molly a big cuddle for us. We miss her a lot.
love Elizabeth
few days and I dont think we will have any communication at all.
The kids have fallen into a much better routine school wise. Declan gets his homework done before anyone else wakes up. The girls are doing much better too.
Our mobile in case any one ever needs it is 484 903 9072. We never have it on but i can get messages. I have sent messages to Carla & Robyn but got no replies so I figure text must not be working. I will have to talk to them about it.
After Detroit we headed to Lansing the capital of Michegan and then right along the coast of these incredible lakes to a state park callled sleeping bear dunes. They have sand dunes 410ft high that drop almost straight down into the lake. They look fabulous and fun to run down but sooooo tiring to run up. There was a soccer team running up that were famous (but I forget who they were). We went on lots of BUSHWALKS AROUND THEM. We are members of the National Parks now. We have been staying in lots of State Camp Grounds. They are only $10-$15 a night and they have all the facilities of the ones we have been staying in for $35-$40 and they are usually so much prettier. We went right up to upper Michegan wich is so high up, right up near Canada following all these lighthouses on the way. The kids think I am a lighthouse junkie cause I make them go out to all these lighthouses along these really long and sometimes quite wild wharfs. They all have amazing history. The lake we were on last is called Lake Superior and it is 1200ft deep in parts, and 500 ships have been shipwrecked on a particular point we were at. They have big ships go thru the soo locks up there down to the lower lakes that are 1000 feet long. They are just amazing to see and watch. The water is crystel clear and apparently it is full of fish but we aint got a fishing rod. We have eaten lots of the local fish caught but. We have been going out a bit for meals cause it is very cheap up north. They dont get tourists at all so we are a celebrity to them. They really spoil us. We camped on the St Mary River (which looked as big as the bay in Melbourne) and you could see the ships going thru the locks. I lied on the beach all day while the Ban and Declan made buddies and swam and Chloe and Steve hid and read. The water was really warm and clean. We stayed another night at this fishing village where each campsite had its own wharf for your boat and they all brought in the biggest fish. They had the most amazing boats, the money these people have and spend to go fishing is amazing. This town had a 3 mile walk out to the lighthouse along a boardwalk along a river. It was pretty and so much happening all the time. I would love to live here and do the walk everyday. A bit nicer than the park on CArlton Road......
We went across the 5 mile bridge and took a ferry to an island called mackinac island. It is a beautiful place where they have no transport except for push bikes and horse and cart. We hired bikes and rode around the 8 miles.....I was sad we didnt have our bathers the water was so beautiful and clear. They have forts and things on it and heaps of history. WE are so informed about American History.
We spent a couple of nights at a place called Tahquamenon Falls. It has 50ft falls that go about 200ft across. They look so pretty. We hired a little row boat and went to a little island and walked around and went out in all our clothes thru the rapids and under the falls. It was such fun and so scary but groovy. Chloe and I was quite concerned we were breaking the rules climbing over the barriers but we ended up not being able to resist watching the others. We could actually go underneath the falls and stand there with them breaking in front of you.
We went to a bear ranch in Oswald and the kids got to cuddle some baby bears. We watched this enormous big fat bear run up the tree like it thought it was a squirrel. It looked so awkward and funny and I thought it looked stupid like winnie the poo and I thought it was going to fall but it ran down no problems. Banny was unimpressed because a snake ran in front of her.
Declans favorite animal has been a field mouse we saw at the falls. He has far been impressed with that than anything else cause it was so fat and lazy it could barely move and so he got to pat it. He has had a pet frog as well. We see deer like you would see kangaroo in the bush. Last night at the camping ground I saw a bear at the back of someones tent!!!!! I didnt like the ground cause of all the mosquitos. I have never seen so many. It is headlines here about all the people that die from West Nile disease and it is transmitted from Mosquitos. At least we are not going to Colarado where most people have died from it. I am the yummiest of all and then Declan. We have to have stuff on us all the time. My favorite animal is still the chipmonks, they really remind me of chip and dale they are just too cute. We see lots of dead skunks and porcupines but none running around.
We drove down the inland coast to Mirwaukee in Wisconsin and Steve was happy cause he got to go to the Harley Davidson Factory and then we went to the Miller Brewery. I loved the brewery. They gave us lots of samples and it was fun. It is still the same buildings and caves they ran it in, in the late 1800s Its like a whole village happening.
We went to Chicago yesterday and we went to the CME where they trade the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ and the E-mini. It is unbelievable. They have 5 pits and its just as in the movies with everyone screaming and waving their arms around. I spoke to a guy who said he could have me on the floor if I have $75,000 to work with. They all have different coloured coats and speak in a sign language. It is amazing to see. It is so exciting. There is so much security. We had two security guards escorting just us up to the viewing deck. EVerything has tightened up since september 11 It was incredible watching them yelling and the market moving on the screen. No-one has charts up, just the tick going thru. I loved it. I could have stayed there all day. I didnt realise it at the time but all of the kids have written in their diaries that this was the highlight of their day. We had a dealer talk with us for ages and a banker. He pointed out his biggest traders. Most on the floor work for themselves. They told us how quiet it has been and they really dont expect to see things happening till September. Most of the action were on holidays till then.
Chicago is the most beautiful town. I always imagined it grimey and sleasy and its not at all. It is so beautiful. Big wide streets with the most amazing architecture. It is all on a waterfront and very easy to get around. We went to a zoo and an art exhibition and on a big navy pier that had heaps of things happening on it. Everything is for free. It was such a nice night we stayed there till about 10.30 listening to a band at the end of a big wharf. The girls and declan danced all night and chloe lost her watch. We went to Wrigley field to watch a baseball game but it was closed to the public and only members. The area around it is really good, heaps of bars that open to the street with big teles and music and beer and cheap food.
WE had not intended going down to Chicago but we wanted to go to Miwaukee so it was not that far to keep going.
We are in a town like Canberra at the moment. It is called Madison and it is at the bottom of Wisconsin. IT is SO HOT HERE. WE got here this arvo and decided we would not eat and just swim and watch tv and do internet for two days in this hotel. It is a beautiful luxury hotel and is only about twice the price of camping....well maybe three times. WE are very good budgeters and are right on budget so far. Very amazing.
We are off the day after tomorrow to Baboo, a circus town and then onto Wisconsin Dells and then across to Rushmore.... I really had no idea America was so pretty. We are lucky we have a guide book that the man tells us what is dumb and what is crass and too Americanish and where to avoid. We seem to be a bit in sync with him so its good guide for us to know where to go next.
I feel like we have seen enough already. I think I am full of looking. I guess time will tell if we can fit more in.
They are sooooo behind us technology wise. You would not believe it. I get range on my mobile about once in a blue moon.
And nobody knows a bout mobile phones, internets or anything or very limited knowledge. They are just laid back about just about everything.
I think we have been hanging around hicksville.
I have not traded at all and not even looked like trading. We are so busy either traveling, looking at things, working out where to go, cooking or eating or bathing. We have only ever stayed in a place for 3 days maximum so it is hard to find the time to get into get into anything. ( I have found the time to read two books and complete my diary and other fun things but). I imagined me computing as we were driving but it is a full time job navigating Mr. Fowler in the Griswald machine. School work with the kids takes an hour to hour and half every morning and they all require attention. You cannot set it and leave it as they have to be taught it first. It is more difficult than I imagined getting it together but we have now and it is OK, just time consuming. I cannot believe parents choose home education over school education. They would have to be committed to that and nothing else. Apparently it is very popular here. I hope the kids are learning enough.
We had a rugged flight over, no real problems and we and all our luggage arrived safely, amazingly after the 8 different flights I was sure something would have gone astray. It was just rugged cause the girls were sick all of the way. They really suffered and had their head in the bag all the time. I felt so sorry for them. Declan was as chirpy as a bird and was determined to stay awake the 36 hours, the little bugger, and we had to play games with him all the way. Our last flight was on a tiny little aircraft that was really spooky. We were unable to take off cause of the bad weather and we stood on the runway blowing in the wind for an hour before he took off. Yukko. We were all a little shaky. 36 hours feels like about 66 when you are flying. I don't think I would ever do that to the kids again.
We were all so happy when we got here and it was over we got our second wind and we all went out for tea and could barely go to sleep. The Dewalts picked us up and were the loveliest people. They took the kids to the movies and bought them CANDY AND POP!!!!!!! while Steve and I had our lesson on how to maintain our van. Our van is fantastic but very very American. We were such celebrities there, we have had the whole family out to talk to us.
We spent our first couple of nights in the bush by a beautiful rapids river that the kids had a ball in. The houses here are so cutesy kind of. No one has fences between or out front and everyone has fantastic verandahs with big comfy chairs on them facing the street. They all have at least 1 American flag flying, some have an arrangement of them. They are all kept in such beautiful nick, it is like on the movies with the big sweeping lawns and the neighborhoods with the big trees. I always thought that was smulchy American TV but it is for real. Their houses are something. I love them.
We have been to the most amazing places. I cant believe we have done so much in four weeks. My favorite place was Wall Street, well maybe not my favourite but the thing that amazed me beyond my expectations. We were camping in New York right opposite the statue of liberty, can you believe it. We caught a ferry over to Manhattan and walked straight up Wall Street. It is only little, not hustle bustle but grand and cool and classy with the best buildings and everyone kinda saunters around, even the food vendors seemed a little classier than the rest of New York. The stock exchange had an enormous flag down the side with guards out the front holding machine guns. They were friendly guards and the kids all stood with them and got their photo taken. It was weird. We walked to the end of Wall Street and there was ground zero. It is so huge a hole you cant believe it. The building adjacent to the block had like a big curtain hanging down the side almost 200 stories high or so with an enormous placard restoring faith in everyone. Their is a huge fence on the perimeter of the blocks and a placard with
everyone's name on it that died. There is heaps of activity going on, it looked to me like they were still removing rubble, but the sign said they had begun to rebuild. Other buildings close by had bits missing from them and some were untouched. I didn't like it there at all.
We went to Maceys, and everyone except Declan & me went up the empire state building. We weren't getting him up a building after ground zero. They all loved it and Steve thought it was far better than he expected. Maceys is exactly as the movies, a big old classy department store with fancy lights and pillars. We had to get out of there quick cause we saw a thousand things on sale that we didn't need until we saw them. We didn't get to Bloomingdales, we just forgot. We really loved hanging around 42nd street and Broadway and Times Square. It is so lively and so many shows on and so much activity. There are huge TV screens showing movies on all the walls of the buildings. I had to keep pinching myself that we were there. The girls and I were desperate to see a show on Broadway and as the girls had never seen Rent but knew the music off by heart they begged me to go there. Chloe ended up winning two front row seats in the raffle that is drawn each night and another girl sold me her ticket so we all sat up the front. It was a great production. The boys went to see the Hulk. We saw all these celebrities, I don't know who they were but the kids do. It was a premiere show Will Smith, was the man, red carpet and all.
We were not scared one bit in New York and came home both nights about midnight, oonce on the bus where noone speaks English only Spanish, and then on the tubes. I was really surprised to see a lot of girls traveling home from work etc. on their own at this time of night. People with shopping bags, it seemed so safe and so civilised, not as I had imagined.
After New York we met some people who did a little map for us of some places they enjoyed (the ladies name was Ginger!!!!!). We went to a seaside place and camped for a few days and spent a day in Boston, it is a great city. Really fun. We then went further up the coast to the state of Maine, a very picturesque state. So lovely driving thru. We stayed at a port town with a bout 50 inlets called Boothbay. It was so pretty. We camped right by the beach. Seafood is their business there so we had lobster rolls. They are to die for. Next we went up to the border of New Hampshire and Maine and stayed with some people we had met from Alaska. They were really interesting to talk to, then we drove across lots of mountains by these really fast rivers and forests to Vermont, the food state I think. We had a yum time there eating all the local produce. We went to maple syrup farm, to a cheese place, an ice cream factory a cider place etc. etc. We rolled out of Vermont and spent two days at an amazing museum that was merely a collection of buildings and things of one very rich lady. She had lots of original paintings by Claude Monet and had shifted an entire upper class New York apartment to the museum and a ship and you name it. We met an artist who was so taken with what we were doing she gave us a painting of a girl she had named Freedom. (This is the name on our van). She was a hunter and cooked Venison for us. We all loved it except Chloe who almost went white as the lady explained how she killed it, skinned it, prayed over it and thanked God for it. She explains how she uses every part of the deer. Steve kept teasing Breanna who scoffed the most, how she felt eating Bambi.......
We caught a ferry across Lake Champlaine to New York State and drove across the very pretty White Mountains to Lake Ontario and down the coast of this lake to Niagara falls. Niagara falls really blew us away. We were all expecting to go thru a forest to it but you drive into the town and there they are. Spectacular, truly a wonder of the world. We spent three days in awe there. The whole are has been made a state reserve by the US Government so it is free for everyone to go to the falls ands stand about a foot away from them. The sheer force of the falls is scary. There are three falls with the largest being the horseshoe falls which are falls shaped in a horse shoe. We caught a boat and went right in the middle of the horseshoe. It was awesome. At night they are all lit up pretty colors and they have fireworks every night at 10 o'clock over the falls. We walked over to Canada one night and saw a totally different perspective yet equally as beautiful as the American side. We spent one day walking down to the rapids and to the whirlpools caused by the falls along a most beautiful path thru gardens and things.
We spend a couple of days in Canada driving across and found not a lot of difference to America except they are huge on golf and wineries. Hundreds of both of them. We tasted Ice Wine which is made after the grape has been frozen for three days by snow and then they squeeze. It has a very high concentrated sugar level and is so yum you cannot believe it. It is about $100 a bottle so we didn't buy any just had tastings....We entered back into USA at Detroit, Michigan and spent two days at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. What an amazing place and what an amazing man. He was very good friends with Edison so he had all of Edisons original workshops and laboratories, and even his last breath in a test tube. He had the home of Noah Webster the man who wrote the Webster dictionary, the farm of Harvey Firestone, and loads of loads of famous achievers homes moved to the village. It was 85 acres and everything had been restored to its original condition. They even had a n 1885 working farm (it was actually firestones) with people living exactly as they did then. It was so good, they bread merino wrinkly sheep and got $65 a sheep for them back in 1885, today you would be lucky to get $100. They had loads on slaves and the civil war and heaps of original cars and things, and you could drive around in a model T and see it all. They had the chair Lincoln was shot in, and the car Kennedy was shot in and all that sort of junk. They even had the wright brothers original workshop and family home moved to the village with some of the original plane still in the shop. Declan liked hearing about Orville and Wilbur the best of all. Ford began Greenwich Village as a working school for children as he believed they did not receive the right kind of education at the public school. He believed that children should be surrounded by great achievers and work in the environment they did when they achieved excellence. He believed History should be felt rather than read about in books. If the children were to study English they would do so in Websters house, or Science, in Thomas Edisons or Music in some famous musicians etc. etc. etc. The school opened in 1929 and ran for thirty years and has only been reopened last year. Detroit itself was a bit of a dirty town, well the bits we saw were pretty ordinary, I am sure there were nice places.
We left Detroit and found a little campground in the middle of no where by 5 lakes with only 7 houses on the lakes. The people are so friendly in Michigan. You cant get anywhere cause they want to talk to you all the time and want to be helpful. They are quiet and not at all like the Americans you see traveling. One of the campers took us out on his pontoon on the lakes thru all these channels with the most prettiest water lilies. It reminded me of On Golden Pond. We saw deer on the banks and all. We see heaps of chipmunks and squirrels and raccoons. I want to see a moose and a bear. Apparently the moose are 7ft to their shoulder.
There are thousands of lakes in these Eastern Northern States. I don't know if they are all over America. We are camped by one at the moment in Ludington, near Lake Michigan, and to get to the other side the ferry ride is 510 miles. They are enormous. They look like the bay, with waves and all and lots of lighthouses, pure white soft sand that DOES NOT STICK TO YOU and lots of sand dunes. They are very pretty. We intend to drive up to Mackinaw City along the coast across 5 mile bridge to Northern Michigan and into Wisconsin and then to Mt Rushmore.
We will be in Mt Rushmore in 2-4 weeks????? (30th August) depending on how things go. Our mailing address there will be General Delivery, Post Office, Keystone, South Dakota, 57751, USA.
This email is by far my best email. I am not getting the emails from optusnet so well. I must only be allowed to store so many and it gets filled with junk mail and then it cuts off so if you could send us emails to this address it would be great.
I hope Molly is well and not being too bossy. I hope you have settled in to the house and the rain has stopped. We have nothing but blue skies here....
Just email me to this address if you have any queries and I hope it works and I actually get it.....
Take care of yourselves and give molly a big cuddle for us. We miss her a lot.
love Elizabeth
few days and I dont think we will have any communication at all.
The kids have fallen into a much better routine school wise. Declan gets his homework done before anyone else wakes up. The girls are doing much better too.
Our mobile in case any one ever needs it is 484 903 9072. We never have it on but i can get messages. I have sent messages to Carla & Robyn but got no replies so I figure text must not be working. I will have to talk to them about it.
After Detroit we headed to Lansing the capital of Michegan and then right along the coast of these incredible lakes to a state park callled sleeping bear dunes. They have sand dunes 410ft high that drop almost straight down into the lake. They look fabulous and fun to run down but sooooo tiring to run up. There was a soccer team running up that were famous (but I forget who they were). We went on lots of BUSHWALKS AROUND THEM. We are members of the National Parks now. We have been staying in lots of State Camp Grounds. They are only $10-$15 a night and they have all the facilities of the ones we have been staying in for $35-$40 and they are usually so much prettier. We went right up to upper Michegan wich is so high up, right up near Canada following all these lighthouses on the way. The kids think I am a lighthouse junkie cause I make them go out to all these lighthouses along these really long and sometimes quite wild wharfs. They all have amazing history. The lake we were on last is called Lake Superior and it is 1200ft deep in parts, and 500 ships have been shipwrecked on a particular point we were at. They have big ships go thru the soo locks up there down to the lower lakes that are 1000 feet long. They are just amazing to see and watch. The water is crystel clear and apparently it is full of fish but we aint got a fishing rod. We have eaten lots of the local fish caught but. We have been going out a bit for meals cause it is very cheap up north. They dont get tourists at all so we are a celebrity to them. They really spoil us. We camped on the St Mary River (which looked as big as the bay in Melbourne) and you could see the ships going thru the locks. I lied on the beach all day while the Ban and Declan made buddies and swam and Chloe and Steve hid and read. The water was really warm and clean. We stayed another night at this fishing village where each campsite had its own wharf for your boat and they all brought in the biggest fish. They had the most amazing boats, the money these people have and spend to go fishing is amazing. This town had a 3 mile walk out to the lighthouse along a boardwalk along a river. It was pretty and so much happening all the time. I would love to live here and do the walk everyday. A bit nicer than the park on CArlton Road......
We went across the 5 mile bridge and took a ferry to an island called mackinac island. It is a beautiful place where they have no transport except for push bikes and horse and cart. We hired bikes and rode around the 8 miles.....I was sad we didnt have our bathers the water was so beautiful and clear. They have forts and things on it and heaps of history. WE are so informed about American History.
We spent a couple of nights at a place called Tahquamenon Falls. It has 50ft falls that go about 200ft across. They look so pretty. We hired a little row boat and went to a little island and walked around and went out in all our clothes thru the rapids and under the falls. It was such fun and so scary but groovy. Chloe and I was quite concerned we were breaking the rules climbing over the barriers but we ended up not being able to resist watching the others. We could actually go underneath the falls and stand there with them breaking in front of you.
We went to a bear ranch in Oswald and the kids got to cuddle some baby bears. We watched this enormous big fat bear run up the tree like it thought it was a squirrel. It looked so awkward and funny and I thought it looked stupid like winnie the poo and I thought it was going to fall but it ran down no problems. Banny was unimpressed because a snake ran in front of her.
Declans favorite animal has been a field mouse we saw at the falls. He has far been impressed with that than anything else cause it was so fat and lazy it could barely move and so he got to pat it. He has had a pet frog as well. We see deer like you would see kangaroo in the bush. Last night at the camping ground I saw a bear at the back of someones tent!!!!! I didnt like the ground cause of all the mosquitos. I have never seen so many. It is headlines here about all the people that die from West Nile disease and it is transmitted from Mosquitos. At least we are not going to Colarado where most people have died from it. I am the yummiest of all and then Declan. We have to have stuff on us all the time. My favorite animal is still the chipmonks, they really remind me of chip and dale they are just too cute. We see lots of dead skunks and porcupines but none running around.
We drove down the inland coast to Mirwaukee in Wisconsin and Steve was happy cause he got to go to the Harley Davidson Factory and then we went to the Miller Brewery. I loved the brewery. They gave us lots of samples and it was fun. It is still the same buildings and caves they ran it in, in the late 1800s Its like a whole village happening.
We went to Chicago yesterday and we went to the CME where they trade the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ and the E-mini. It is unbelievable. They have 5 pits and its just as in the movies with everyone screaming and waving their arms around. I spoke to a guy who said he could have me on the floor if I have $75,000 to work with. They all have different coloured coats and speak in a sign language. It is amazing to see. It is so exciting. There is so much security. We had two security guards escorting just us up to the viewing deck. EVerything has tightened up since september 11 It was incredible watching them yelling and the market moving on the screen. No-one has charts up, just the tick going thru. I loved it. I could have stayed there all day. I didnt realise it at the time but all of the kids have written in their diaries that this was the highlight of their day. We had a dealer talk with us for ages and a banker. He pointed out his biggest traders. Most on the floor work for themselves. They told us how quiet it has been and they really dont expect to see things happening till September. Most of the action were on holidays till then.
Chicago is the most beautiful town. I always imagined it grimey and sleasy and its not at all. It is so beautiful. Big wide streets with the most amazing architecture. It is all on a waterfront and very easy to get around. We went to a zoo and an art exhibition and on a big navy pier that had heaps of things happening on it. Everything is for free. It was such a nice night we stayed there till about 10.30 listening to a band at the end of a big wharf. The girls and declan danced all night and chloe lost her watch. We went to Wrigley field to watch a baseball game but it was closed to the public and only members. The area around it is really good, heaps of bars that open to the street with big teles and music and beer and cheap food.
WE had not intended going down to Chicago but we wanted to go to Miwaukee so it was not that far to keep going.
We are in a town like Canberra at the moment. It is called Madison and it is at the bottom of Wisconsin. IT is SO HOT HERE. WE got here this arvo and decided we would not eat and just swim and watch tv and do internet for two days in this hotel. It is a beautiful luxury hotel and is only about twice the price of camping....well maybe three times. WE are very good budgeters and are right on budget so far. Very amazing.
We are off the day after tomorrow to Baboo, a circus town and then onto Wisconsin Dells and then across to Rushmore.... I really had no idea America was so pretty. We are lucky we have a guide book that the man tells us what is dumb and what is crass and too Americanish and where to avoid. We seem to be a bit in sync with him so its good guide for us to know where to go next.
I feel like we have seen enough already. I think I am full of looking. I guess time will tell if we can fit more in.
On Wall Street!
(New York)
(New York)
I HAVE NO SELF ESTEEM!
The Maid of the Mist ( Niagara Falls)
...how did this photo end up here?
...how did this photo end up here?
Ground Zero ( where the two Towers were)
Hmmmm Back to Niagara Falls Photos!
Crossing the country Border
Crossing the country Border
New York again!
The Stock Exchange (Wall Street)
The Stock Exchange (Wall Street)
Times Square!
Our Mororhome!
The scary ( but nice) gaurds (with machine guns!) guarding the Stock Exchange
The Scary Frankfort Pier
These waters look enormous, and stretch as far as the eye can see, but they are only lakes!
The Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes
The Longest Suspension Bridge in the world
( the 5 mile bridge)
( the 5 mile bridge)
On the ferry going to Mackinaw Island
Declans friend Alex
There are no cars allowed on Mackinaw Island, only horses and Bikes
Dad and i riding a Tandem bike aroung the island
(and i WAS pedaling!)
(and i WAS pedaling!)
At the Ben and Jerrys ice cream factory ( yumyumyum!)
YUM YUM!
Our friend Denny from Alaska and his dog Zeb
Playing funny Bowling
Canoeing! (It took us about an hour to travel 10 metres!)
At the Henry Ford museum. They were acting out the Civil War
The car that J.F Kennedy was assasinated in
An original Model T Ford
This is the bus that Rosa Parks refused to stand up in, and started the fight for racial equality
We went to a really cool James Bond exhibit, and they had all of the cars and gadgets and everything. This is Bonds car in Die another Day
Lovingly and wondefully prepared by CHLOE!!!!
Please email me at colly_flowa@hotmail.com
Please email me at colly_flowa@hotmail.com
My Photo Albums
Edinburgh
Ireland and Mum's writing
Belgium
Carlas holiday-New Year
My favorite campsite....
The West & Mums writing
Down South Man
More More MORE Down South!
Edinburgh
Ireland and Mum's writing
Belgium
Carlas holiday-New Year
My favorite campsite....
The West & Mums writing
Down South Man
More More MORE Down South!
