Bet you thought I'd never finish this thing

But here I am. We got pretty lazy once we arrived in Atherton, and found better things to do than blog (pinball... pool... home cinema...).Then when we got back we were more concerned with going back to uni, and once we got there my semester basically consisted of lab/lectures 9-5, come home, work and eat, sleep, repeat. The same on weekends, but without the lab/lectures. Anyway, excuses! Now I have lots of free time, hurrah! 

So where did I leave us... oh yes, the airport in LA. Well, we got there ok, and it was very lovely with armchairs and fancy bathrooms, cool bottled water and even freshly baked cookies. We didn't have long to wait before Oz's dad and his friend landed. The plane was smaller than I'd thought it would be and it was a bit frightening because the door seemed awfully thin and it did feel a lot more like physics would suddenly realise what we were doing and pull us out of the sky. However, more concerning was that the air conditioning needed recharging, so it was extraordinarily hot in the plane (especially as it had been sitting on the runway baking for about half an hour by the time we got in). Here we are in the plane, looking rather hot (but check out the headsets!):

The flight was uneventful until we got to the airport, when we could hear the control tower directing another plane to land behind us... about 60 seconds behind us it turned out. Luckily we were out of the way when they came down! 

We went to Oz's dad's very lovely house in Atherton and settled in before going to Fresh Choice, a salad place, for dinner. (All you can eat salad - sounds a bit perverse to me). 

Now... I forget the order we did things from this point on, so you will have to forgive me as it will be a bit jumbled.

We:

- went shopping at Stanford mall (all outdoors, very nice)

- went shopping in San Francisco

- went to Alcatraz

- went to Golden Gate Park and Haight Ashbury (LOVED it - got to go back, so many cool shops!)

- rented a car and drove around lots (Santa Cruz, Carmel, some park with lots of trees)

- went wine tasting

- wandered around Stanford (saw Facebook HQ)

- went to the computer museum

- went to Berkeley

- went outlet shopping

- went to Vegas

I think that was it... now I have a list I can just write about them all, probably not all today though as my Laura (housemate) has just informed me we're going out in an hour to go to Sainsbury's before we go to Ed's house for dinner before we go to the cider festival... I'm sure you're all desperately interested in these minutiae. 

Stanford mall was rather nice, lots of fancy shops and as I said, it was an outdoor mall (not something English people can really appreciate...). I got some silicone cupcake cases from Crate and Barrel - I wish we had  that shop here. I also got some more from some other fancy shop that I forget the name of, these ones were mini ones so I can also make mini cakes and put on twice as much icing as there is cake. They work very well I have to say, and I am sure that with the amount of cupcakes I make they will soon be worth the money as I no longer have to buy paper cases. Oz bought a waterproof jacket thing for cycling in, but apart from that I don't think we bought anything of note, which is good because we did a lot of shopping in San Francisco! 

There were a couple of buses running from El Camino Real (a couple of streets away from the house) to the centre of San Francisco, so when we wanted to go it wasn't too hard to get there, though the buses did take a while as they went via the airport. The first day we went we were shocked by how cold it was, and I was pretty miserable until I bought a nice grey jumper in Hollister, which I debated buying because I was running out of money, but now I wear it all the time as it is very comfy and stylish (in fact, I am wearing it right now). I also bought a winter coat in H&M. By this point the dollar was not so favourable towards us, but given that the prices were the same figure in dollars as they are in pounds in the UK, we still made appreciable savings. Oz too bought a very fetching black coat. We definitely needed the coats later on when we went to Fisherman's Wharf and it was FREEZING. All I can say about this is that you can't truly appreciate Mark Twain's quote, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" until you've been to San Fran. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.

We enjoyed the shops in San Francisco, even if I did lose Oz for a bit when I was buying my jumper - he went to another shop but when I went there I couldn't find him so waited outside for what seemed like an age, turned out he'd gone into a third shop and there had been a queue :P We found a nice charm shop and I bought a charm for my bracelet that Oz bought me in LA of a San Fran cable car, and Oz bought me one of two hearts linked together (awww...). We also went to a bookshop so Oz could buy comics and presents for people. Then we got on the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. That was fun! and the hills! I have to say, there are many of aspects of SF that are like nothing you've ever seen before and it's just kind of unexpected. Not many places in the USA were all that hilly, at least not compared with what we're used to in Bristol and Bath. Odd. I guess they have a lot more land at their disposal so they can choose non-hilly places for settlements. 

We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf for a while, looking at all the awful tat (again - like nothing you've ever seen) and I bought a pirate mug for Crin. We also saw the sea lions and read some facts about them, then called Shocky because he said he'd pick us up and we could have dinner with him. While we were waiting we got so cold we put on all the layers we could find (including coats) and Oz got a hot chocolate. It was cold and windy and all in all downright FREEZING! Presently Shocky arrived and we went to a burrito place for dinner. We ordered a starter platter, which basically was enough food for all three of us, not to mention the burritos on top of that. I couldn't finish mine. In a way this is surprising as I adore burritos, particularly in the USA because they are so darn tasty. In a way it's not, as in the States the burritos are the size of small rabbits and probably contain about a week's recommended amount of cheese. Afterwards we were sooooo full... full like you're worried that the shock of your feet hitting the pavement as you walk will cause your stomach to rupture, releasing burrito into your abdominal cavity (luckily, it didn't). We wandered down the road and found a bar with pool tables, so we played a few games, all in all a good day I think! 

Los Angeles

It turned out that the website we'd booked the hostel through had given the wrong address, so first we turned up to the wrong hostel, then had to walk several blocks in the heat with all our gear to the right hostel. Then we weren't allowed to check in early, so we stayed in the lobby for a little while, then headed out again to see LA. Our hostel was in a good place just off the Boulevard, so we saw a lot of Hollywood just by walking to and from it. It was very near a shopping centre, so we got some smoothies to revitalise ourselves and went in a few shops. For lunch we had some tasty sushi, we decided to head downtown to see what that was like.

Well, it turns out that downtown LA is, basically, horrible. We made the mistake of venturing too far east into a very poor area, and felt very exposed and vulnerable walking around. Also there just didn't seem to be any nice shops or sights around. So after wandering around for a while we got back on the underground to Hollywood Boulevard again. I bought some pizza for dinner and we spent the evening in our room working out how to get to Burbank the next day.

On Wednesday we felt we'd seen enough of Hollywood, so after breakfast at Starbucks we got a bus to the La Brea Tarpits ("La Brea"actually means "The tarpits", so that's like saying 'The "The Tarpits" tarpits', but anyway) where we spent a pleasant couple of hours. It was a good museum. I like it when museums are kind of antiquities in themselves. This one had a definite seventies vibe to it. We saw lots of skulls and some animatronic mammoths and things, and a video about the tar pits and the excavations/scientific discoveries they were making there. Then we bussed back and had lunch in the shopping centre again, this time at a place where you have a computer screen in front of you and order all your food through that. You can also play games or do quizzes while waiting for your food. It was a bit silly and slightly expensive for what we got, but kind of worth it just for fun. Afterwards we went back to the hostel and sat outside waiting for our taxi to take us to the airport. I would like to go back to LA, but next time with a car or to the coastal bit, as that was too far away for us to get to this time.

El Paso

We got into El Paso later than anticipated, as the trains were delayed. So it was about half past nine by the time we got to the hostel. It was rather empty. We found a film to watch on the TV in the common room, so crashed out on the sofa to watch that. It's surprising how travelling by train can make you tired. I think it's worse when the train is delayed becuase it's all very tedious, especially when the train is barely moving for hours at a time.

The next day we weren't really in the mood for doing much, so we mainly just hung out in our room reading, after going to the shop to get some food. Not many places were open as it was a Sunday, so it was good that we weren't in the mood for doing much. In the late afternoon Oz decided he was bored and we should go out, so we went downstairs to get some food first, where we met Suzanne, another hosteller, who was from Leeds. Then Antonio, who works in the hostel, appeared and said he was taking us all out for fried ice cream in the evening and to see the city lights from a viewpoint high up in one of the hills surrounding the city. So we stayed in the kitchen for a while chatting to Suzanne before piling into Antonio's car to drive up to the viewpoint (you can't get there by foot or bus).

Views of the lights:
Most of these lights are actually across the border in Juarez - the border is the bit about 1/3 from the bottom of the picture that sort of looks like a road going horizontally across.
Lights and mountains all artistic-like.

Afterwards we got fried ice cream, which was very tasty! It was ice cream rolled in sugary rice crispie-like things, then deep fried. Then we went back to the hostel and played some pool.

The next day we ventured into Mexico with Suzanne and a German guy who was also staying at the hostel. Safety in numbers, etc... We had no trouble getting across - you pay the 25 cent toll for the footbridge then walk across. Juarez was... interesting. Every other shop was a pharmacist or optician. The main road (leading to/from the bridge) was mainly in one piece, but when you looked down the side streets to the roads running parallel you could see that the buildings were very shabby - one had an entire collapsed corner and there was just a big pile of rubble in the road. We wandered around looking for the market until some Mexican man led us there, then wouldn't leave us alone. We stopped for a drink and he wandered off to a tequila shop opposite (saying something about how we should get chocolate tequila...) so we tried to pay quickly then disappear into the market, but he popped up again. Then we tried to go out of a random back exit of the market, but he still managed to catch us up then wouldn't stop being our "tour guide" until we gave him a few dollars. After that we decided to find some lunch, so we filed into the nearest cafe we could see. We were slightly off the beaten track by this point and it turned out that nobody in the cafe spoke any English. None of us spoke any Spanish either, so we basically had to guess what to order, using the few paltry bits of vocabulary we knew. I ordered eggs and the waitress asked me if I wanted them with ham or on their own, which of course I didn't understand, so she had to get another customer to translate. The food itself was very cheap but also pretty terrible, so afterwards we decided we'd had enough and headed back to the bridge that would take us (hopefully) back to sanity. It was a lot slower getting back into the USA, as there were many people going that way and everyone had to have their documents checked. Of course we had no trouble getting back into the USA, which was quite a relief as I think we'd all had enough of Mexico by that point!

That evening we hung out at the hostel. We made some cookies because we'd bought some eggs and there was sugar and flour that other people had left, only then I left them out on the side and the next day they had all been eaten, I hope by the people running the hostel because we did say they could have some. Our train on Tuesday was at some time after 5, but we got up late and weren't inspired to do much as it was so hot, so we bummed out some more in the common room, playing pool (it was free) and I made some more cookies because I found some oats this time and there were still ingredients left. We had a slight hiccup getting on the train - Oz phoned up the automated hotline that tells you what time your train is at soon before we were planning to leave just to check it wasn't delayed, and it suddenly decided that our train was half an hour earlier than the time on our tickets, which meant we had 15 minutes to get to the station. So we hurriedly grabbed our stuff and practically ran to the station and jumped on the train... to sit there for half an hour until it left at the time it was originally meant to.

The journey to LA was long (had to go across the whole of New Mexico) and overnight, but it was quite busy so we couldn't stretch out over two seats as we had been doing previously. I couldn't sleep for a long while and wasn't very comfortable, but we arrived in LA half an hour early, around 10am. We were both pretty tired and ready to go straight to San Francisco, or at least to go to our hostel and relax for a while before taking in LA... alas, it was not to be.

We do still exist

You are probably wondering about the rest of our adventures in the USA. Well, we are home safely but what with jetlag, spending time with people and packing to move back to university, we haven't really found time to update. Also I'm now on my laptop, and Oz has all my photos on his laptop that we took with us. Hopefully we can magically send them through the air from his to mine this weekend (the wonders of technology...), though I will be busy trying to fit all my (many) possessions into my room. So I will write up the rest of the fun times we had, but it may have to wait a little while. 

In other news, it's good to be back. You can get decent cups of tea and change is actually worth having. Things are the price they say they are (even if they are expensive). You don't have to give people your life story every time you go into a shop. The bread doesn't have sugar in it, nor do the baked beans contain molasses. Most things are free from high fructose corn syrup. I've definitely missed good old England. 

San Antonio

We were pretty tired by the time we got to San Antonio. It was meant to be a 3.5 hour train journey from Austin, arriving at 10:30pm, but I think we didn't even leave Austin til about 11. So though we got up for breakfast at the Travelodge at 9 (no sense passing up free food after all), we went straight back to bed afterwards and didn't head out until lunch time. Thus our first stop naturally was a cafe, where we had a very tasty lunch. San Antonio was pretty quiet compared with Austin, but everything was in walking distance which was nice, as public transport is ok but it can take an age to get from A to B sometimes.

Obviously the first thing we felt obliged to see was the Alamo, which confused us at first because we didn't fully read the signs so then we didn't really get what was going on. But once we'd figured it out it all made sense. Basically it's all to do with the Texas Revolution: first the Mexicans had it (the Alamo) then were driven out by colonists, who defended it against the Mexicans even though it seemed like a sure thing that they would lose, which they did in a short battle one day that started before dawn and finished by morning time. Anyway, it's all about it being an heroic struggle against impossible odds, etc. Also Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were there fighting with the Texians, so they have a bunch of stuff about that too. Well, I'm sure that was a very illuminating account for you all but I never was that into history :P However I did enjoy the gift shop, which was full of Texas- and Alamo-themed souvenirs such as Alamo biscuits (shaped like the front of the Alamo), Texas flags, magnets etc, Sheriff badges, etc etc etc. I bought a bonnet because they'd had them in the cool museum shop in St Louis but I didn't buy one then because while I thought it would make a fun silly souvenir I couldn't think of any sensible reason to buy one. But I decided that if I saw one elsewhere I'd buy it, then Oz said if he saw a Mexican wrestling mask somewhere he'd buy it, because we'd seen those previously as well and he'd wanted one for the same reasons as me but hadn't bought one.

Afterwards we went to the Mexican market, which was filled to the brim with tat, but we both bought genuine Mexican blankets because they were only $6 and the over-zealous air conditioning on the trains was starting to get to us, especially at night because it's hard to sleep when it feels like all of San Francisco's finest breezes are breathing down your neck (more on that later). Oz also bought a Mexican wrestling mask, because I'd bought my bonnet. We also went to a pharmacy because somehow I managed to get a cold. In Texas. Where it was 35+ degrees Celsius. I blame the trains! Then we walked along the river for a little while before heading back to chill out for a little bit. 

In the evening we found a big shopping center to go to, so we went there and bought hats in the hat shop and I got some shorts (not from a shorts shop), then we had some dinner in the food court. We've learned that mall food courts are good places to get cheap, half-decent food. The American food courts are generally a lot more extensive than English ones and there's always a Chinese option so you can get vegetables, or a place to get salad (though, salads here are quite often some leaves drenched in sauce with lots and lots of cheese on top). On our way back we stopped in a convenience store to get some food for the train to El Paso, as the train was at 5:40am and was 12.5 hours long, and train food is limited and not cheap or particularly nice - microwave pizza anyone? 

Oz in aforementioned Mexican wrestling mask...

...and me wearing my bonnet. I think we both look rather fetching! 

Keep Austin Batty

All right! So as you have noticed I finally got a chance to update. Lazing around in California is difficult I tells ya! Where did I get up to...

...Oh yes, Texas. A little note on Texas is in order here, I think. The guidebook tells me that Texas is just under 262,000 square miles, or larger than Germany and Poland combined. And it surely is a force to be reckoned with. Everywhere you go in Texas there is the feeling that everyone is inwardly (if not outwardly) going "WHOO TEXAS! YEAH!". Or, "yee-aah," as Texans add extra syllables into many words: Car = Caw-uh, All right = Aaall raa-yit, etc. Everywhere there are Texan flags, images of Texas, Lone Star and Longhorn memorabilia, etc. I really liked it because I felt like many of the places we'd been didn't really give us a sense of where we were, if that makes sense. Obviously NYC is totally unique and you could never mistake it for anywhere else. But Cincinnati could have been anywhere. If we hadn't been to the Missouri Botanical Gardens while visiting St Louis, you could be forgiven for not knowing what state it was in. But most of Texas was is so very decidedly Texan that you'd have trouble mistaking where you are, even way south near Mexico. So I really enjoyed the character and identity of Texas throughout, which, I can tell you, was a pretty long throughout: we spent about a week and a half in Texas, and countless hours on trains going past mountains and through deserts baking in the sun. 

We both really liked Austin, though it was SO HOT. You'd walk three blocks then want to sit down with a nice cold drink. We stayed in the Austin Motel, which was a very lovely place. Our train was super-delayed from Dallas and when we got to Austin late at night, some nice people on the train offered us a ride to the motel rather than us having to get a taxi, as the motel was only about 10 minutes' drive from the station and vaguely in their direction. So we were off to a good start. On our first day there (Tueday 26th Aug) we wandered around downtown and visited the Mexic-Arte museum, then went back to SoCo where the motel was to see the quirky shops there. After dinner we headed back to 6th Ave to take in the nightlife. Austin is renowned for its live music scene, and we weren't disappointed (well, with free live music almost everywhere and $2 beers, who would be?). As we went out quite early, many of the bars were pretty empty but it gave a nice intimate feel - in the second one we went to, the guy playing had a break in the middle of his set and went and talked to everyone in the bar (we had a conversation about jeans and he told Oz that he liked his style). We met a bunch of guys also staying in the Austin Motel who were from London and were there because one of them was getting married, so we talked to them about Austin and things to do here. Then we went to the Coyote Ugly bar where the bartenders were dancing on the bar and it was just a bit odd so we left soon afterwards and walked back to the motel.

The next day we got up late and had some brunch in a Mexican cafe that was practically next door to the motel. I had a tasty omelette served with fruit, which was just what I needed! Then we found a bus to take us to Zilker Park, Austin's favoured open space. There's a pool there fed by spring water so is a constant 68F (20C) all year round and a place to rent canoes. So we spent a nice afternoon paddling down the creek then up and down a little bit of the river. I really liked the creek because there were wild turtles everywhere (I think we hit one or two unlucky ones that didn't move out of our way quick enough...) and fish and big trees sticking out of the water that you could go underneath and paddle around. It was very peaceful and lovely. It wasn't too deep and you could see all the plants growing on the bottom. Afterwards we went for a little paddle in the spring water, which was SO COLD. So we didn't stay too long. We decided to go and look around the botanical garden instead. We saw most of it - it was divided into different bits like the cactus garden, the butterfly garden and the Japanese garden, which was the best. It had been built/donated by a Japanese man and it was very beautifully designed with waterfalls and a little bridge and trees. After wandering around for a while we were pretty hot and tired so we headed back to the motel and got some microwave burritos for our dinner (which sound disgusting but they were from this little organic supermarket place so they weren't full of rubbish and were actually pretty decent, especially for under $3!). We also had a swim in the pool, which being outdoors in Texas was lovely and warm. Then we went to see the big evening event in Austin, which is the bats coming out from under the bridge. The bridge has a colony of 1.5 million bats living there. They come up from Mexico to have their babies, and after sunset they all stream out to go and find their insect dinners. In the day you can hear them all chittering in there but you can't see them. It was pretty impressive to see them all coming out but they smelt pretty bad! 

On our last day in Austin we went up to see the University of Texas campus, which was rather nice, and it felt good to be surrounded by students again! We didn't have too much else to do, but as we'd checked out of the motel we had to kill time until our train, so we headed back downtown and went to the Museum of the Weird on 6th Ave, which we'd noticed before. It was incredibly cheesy but pretty awesome, worth the entrance fee anyway! It was like an old-time dime museum, with shrunken heads, a two-headed calf, a supposed Fiji mermaid, and a Mummy. We'd called the Amtrak hotline beforehand and discovered our train was delayed, so as we still had a few hours to kill we decided to see a film. The only thing showing was Tropic Thunder, which turned out to be ok. But the cinema itself was worth seeing. In front of each row of seats was a long table, and each seat had a menu in front of it so you could order food by writing down your order then clipping it into the stand in front of you. Then someone would come and get your order and bring your food and bill. Of course, being a cinema it wasn't exactly cheap, but they gave you a decent-sized serving and it was pretty tasty. When the film ended it was time to head to the station. Annoyingly our train was even more delayed so we had to wait there for a couple of hours. While I liked Texas itself, the Texas Eagle was most definitely not my favourite train!

The bats. They were hard to take photos of as it was completely dark and they were moving so fast, but this will hopefully give you some idea.

As promised

I bring you Oz Eating a Lime:

"Pff, Li was such a wuss eating that lemon. I'm sure I won't pull such silly faces as her, for I am Manly and Strong"

"AARGH! The Limeiness of it!!"

"Oooouuuuughhh..."

"Blech! I am done with this nonsense!"

"And that is it, no more lime for me! I think I managed to maintain my dignity..."

Bah + Dallas

Well I tried uploading some photos but it was going really slowly (or not at all) so I gave up. I have these pictures of Oz eating a lime in St Louis to balance out the ones of me eating a lemon in Boston, but I guess they'll have to wait a little while.

I forgot to mention before but when we went to Delmar we were filmed by some people making a TV show for American TV. It was about Easter and Christmas and they asked us questions about what Easter/Xmas meant to us and what advice we'd give to a person who was stressed over Christmas because they had to see relatives they didn't like. All rather random. 

Anyways. Our next stop was Dallas. Many people have told us that it's an odd place for tourists to go. I agree, but it was either stop in Dallas or have a train journey starting at 8pm one day and finishing in Austin at 6pm the next. So, we stopped in Dallas. We stayed at a Marriott hotel near Addison, far out from Dallas really but it was very cheap, and had a pool and gym etc. Also the breakfast was included in the price and was quite extensive. In fact we had lots of food for breakfast then took enough with us to feed us for the rest of the day on fruit, cereal bars, bagels, bread rolls, cheese, muffins, cake, cereal and milk (cool bag + ice = instant refridgeration). There was also a free shuttle bus to the Galleria mall, which was pretty massive and had an ice rink in the middle of it on the bottom level. Very sensible when it's 35C outside. So the evening we got there we shopped and ate in the mall food court. I found some snug boots that I wanted for winter, but figured I'd buy them in a different branch of the shop when we'd completed our travels. 

On Sunday we got on a bus to take us to Downtown Dallas so we could go to the Sixth Floor Museum, which tells you all about JFK being shot. It's on the sixth floor (obviously) of the building where Harvey Lee Oswald (apparently) shot him from, though they did tell you a bit about the conspiracy theories and alternate theories involving the grassy knoll. Outside on the road is a big white X at the precise spot where he was shot. All very tasteful, especially when there are grinning Japanese children standing around it having their photos taken by their parents. It's a wonder people don't get run over there, as it is just in the middle of the road. Afterwards we had a wander through the "historic district" which mainly consisted of random shops. We found Wild Bill's Western Store (see http://www.wildbillswestern.com if you're interested , full of all things Texan, where Bill himself helped us find some cowboy boots to buy. Now there was an extremely Texan man. Then we went back because it was extremely hot, and Return of the King was on so that kept me entertained all evening.

St Louis

We arrived in St Louis at around 3pm, pretty convenient as the hotel we stayed at was a short walk from the station and 3pm was when check-in started. It was all very fancy - they gave you free popcorn in the lobby in the afternoon, three free alcoholic drinks in the evening (plus bar snacks) and free soda any time you wanted it. Also free breakfasts, which meant we could take bagels and muffins for our lunch. When we got there we just chilled out for a little while (ate popcorn, etc), then went in search of dinner. The old train station had been converted into a shopping centre with a food court, so we ate there and had a wander. We tried the food that St Louis people are most proud of: frozen custard. It was basically like ice cream with a slight custardy taste and when it melted it wasn't at all like custard... it was quite nice but I wasn't overly excited by it!

The next day was MY BIRTHDAY and of course I was very excited. We went back to the shopping centre so I could use one of the touristy machines to print a medal for myself that said "BIRTHDAY GIRL". Very tacky but $1 well spent I think! Especially because Oz paid for it. We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden in the morning and saw lots of sculptures and flowers and things. Then in the afternoon we went to the Anheuser Busch brewery, basically the world headquarters for Budweiser. They do free tours and at the end you get free beer, so obviously it was a good 21st birthday activity. The brewery itself was cool, it smelt all malty like Shreddies. Afterwards we went back to the hotel for our free drinks and snacks, then to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, where I told the waiter it was my birthday, Oz told me I was a loser, but I got a free birthday sundae. All in all it was a very good brithday!

On the 21st we weren't in the mood for doing anything touristy so we had a lie-in then went to Delmar, a street that's (apparently) one of the top ten streets to visit in the USA. It has loads of random quirky shops with retro clothing and random gifts and things like that. So we wandered around there and had a cheap Thai lunch. I bought a nice t-shirt and Oz bought some comic books. We found a tea shop selling "bubble tea" which is a cool drink that has little blobs of tapioca in it that are tasty and chewy. Then we decided to see if we could shoot them out of the straw like a pea-shooter and had a competition to see who could shoot one into the drain several feet in front of us first. Of course Oz won but I managed one too (and do not fear, we kicked all the ones that missed into the drain afterwards so as not to leave a mess O:-) ). On the way back we found a shop we hadn't been in yet and I bought a new bracelet for Oz as an early anniversary present as his other one got lost in NYC. So all in all a very lovely day =)

Sadly, the 22nd was a bit of a failure in all respects. We went downtown to see the arch (symbolising that St Louis is the gateway to the West) and the free museum of western expansion, which I didn't really get because it was really poorly organised so I couldn't really tell what I was meant to be learning. I wanted to learn about the pioneers and stuff like that but it was actually mainly about these two guys who sailed all the way along the Mississippi and fought Indians and things on the way. Then I guess they came back again?? I don't know, I really didn't get the museum at all, but that was ok because the gift shop was awesome. They had all this tacky olde-tyme American stuff like weird candies and handmade bonnets (I was so tempted to buy one but couldn't really think of any good reason). Mummy, I bought a book for you but then we hit calamity because Oz left the bag on the Metro, so we lost the things we'd bought =(

After the museum we lunched in the park then wandered around downtown, but there really wasn't all that much there, so we walked to this random suburb that turned out to be really far away and it was really hot so we got grumpy. Then we realised we'd lost the things we'd bought earlier and though we phoned the Metro lost property they said nothing had been handed in, so we went and got on our train to Dallas (which was delayed, I forget by how long). So we had a bit of a sad ending to St Louis, which was a shame because before we had been having such a nice time.