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! 

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.

Adventure in Maryland, or, how Li got SHOT IN THE FOOTs

Okay, so Oz is being really rubbish about updating the blog, and he keeps hogging the laptop so I can't update it either. Or he gives it to me when I'm really tired and can't be bothered. Well, we've been having busy days!

Sunday at Ethan's: we have a lie-in, which feels pretty good, then take the opportunity to do an American activity, namely, going to a range and shooting guns. We wanted to do this with Ethan because he's responsible and actually knows how to work guns, so we won't shoot ourselves (that doesn't mean that we won't get shot by other people, though). So we pick up Pat (another American Oz met in halls last year), who also has never shot a pistol, who lives in Virginia. It's kind of cool driving around there because you can go into three states in about as many minutes. We got a little lost trying to find the range, but we got there in the end. To give you a little background on this place, their website advertised Monday's: Ladies' Night, Wednesdays: Couples' Night and Fridays: Parent and child night. 

We got two 9mm pistols, a Glock and a Sig, and three boxes of ammo between the four of us. Then, armed with our earmuffs and... arms, we assumed position in our lanes. Ethan had, of course, shown us how to load and fire the gun, and how to eject the magazine afterwards (because you should always set the gun down with the magazine out before you step away). I went last because I was frightened, but I think Oz and Pat were too, just hiding it better or being manlier! I wasn't good at loading the bullets at first because the spring was kind of strong and my fingers kept slipping on the bullets, but after a couple of goes getting Ethan and Oz to do it for me, I managed to work it myself. Shooting was surprisingly fun after the initial fear, though I was rubbish at aiming.

Then, I got SHOT IN THE FOOT. Not really. The guy to our right was firing increasingly large and scary guns, and as I was getting ready to fire, he fired and something flew off from somewhere and hit me in the foot (flipflops clearly being sensible footwear), scratching me and drawing blood in two places. Luckily I lived to tell the tale, and get lunch afterwards. Pat stabbed Ethan's cup with a cocktail stick so his soda was squirting out, so Ethan naturally got revenge by attempting to drive off without Pat. I think all the people in the parking lot thought we were crazy. After lunch we went to wander around Old Town in Alexandria, VA, which by our standards was really not that old. Then we all headed back to Ethan's place for Halo and a Taco Bell dinner where Oz ate entirely too much.

On Monday Oz and I went into DC, which we both really liked. It was possible to do everything in one day, as it's all really close and easy to get to. We started off at the Capitol then walked along the Mall to the Smithsonian air and space museum, where we saw moon suits and spacecraft and the original Wright Brothers plane, etc. We also went to the Natural History Museum, which I greatly preferred over the one in NYC, though we didn't spend too long looking around there. I'm developing a fascination for natural history museums, though Oz doesn't share my enthusiasm quite so much. So what did we do instead? We went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. We wanted to go to the museum of American history, but it was shut until September for some reason. The Holocaust museum was entirely depressing (as I expected), but afterwards we wandered around the Washington Monument, Reflecting Pool and Vietnam Memorial then up to the Lincoln Memorial. All very lovely, and we saw the White House afterwards too, where there were some amusing children. One was very disappointed when told she couldn't go in. The other asked her dad if George Bush drove a Mini Cooper.

Dad: I don't think so, he has a limo with lots of security

Child: Why?

Dad: In case someone tries to shoot him

Child (incredulous): But who would want to shoot him, Daddy?

Dad (very serious tones): Crazy people, honey. Crazy people.

We got back kind of late, but Ethan kindly drove us to the supermarket so we could get some food for dinner. We thought we were leaving on Tuesday, but when I checked our tickets it turned out we weren't leaving til Wednesday, so we had a whole extra day to play with. So, we went to Arlington cemetary and had a picnic lunch nearby (obviously you can't picnic in the actual cemetary). It was cool to see but it was sooooo hot - didn't help that we didn't get there til about 1 because when we called a taxi to take us to the subway station they didn't make a record of it so we had to call them again - but we saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, and Kennedy's grave. It was too hot to wander around any more so we came back and had a look around Rockville, getting smoothies to refresh us. Then we went back to Ethan's, packed our bags and had some dinner. More Halo was played until around midnight, when we went to bed so we could get up fresh the next morning to get on a train to... Cincinnati.

"I don't wanna go to bed, it's no good"

Today we picked up our rail passes and tickets from Boston South Station. We had a slight hiccup when the man told us that our tickets weren't booked and we didn't have a reference number for any of them, but then he checked again and they were attached to our passes somehow. We had to sign a slip to get our passes, our passes and all eleven tickets. By the time we'd finished there was a rather long queue of disgruntled rail travelers behind us, so we naturally made a hasty exit. Anyway, we now have in our possession the passes and 11 tickets we need to get from here to Los Angeles. Plans are underway for us to fly from Burbank to the San Francisco area via private jet, courtesy of Oz's dad. 

After the station we wandered down to the water for some seafoody lunch. Oz had lobster and I had cod, which was very fresh... perhaps a little *too* fresh ;-) (For those of you not in the Cownie family: when I first visited the USA aged 6, I complained about everything, most notably that my egg was "inside out" - the white was runny and the yolk was firm - and that my fish was "too fresh".) The place we went to was empty apart from us and one other couple, but it was very tasty. It had massive windows looking out over the water that were all open, so we had a completely open view. Oz almost managed to defenestrate his plate (it was stuck to the table so when he tried to push it away it stuck then jumped towards the window) which I found really hilarious for some reason. I think it was partly the thought that if you didn't like your food you could just throw it out of the window, plate and condiments included.

At lunch we decided that it was such a nice day and the water was so lovely that we wanted to go on a boat. (We had been planning to go to the cinema as it was meant to be thunderstormy and rainy, but the sky remained clear all day and we thought it would be a waste to spend the day in a cinema.) So we walked further around the water to Rowes Quay where there were harbour tours being advertised. We went one one of those and for 45 minutes chugged around the harbour while a recording of a nice American lady told us about the things we could see. We learned about when 2.5 tons of molasses were spilled, killing 6 people and injuring over 100 more, and about how Logan airport changed names twice and has 6 runways and occupies approximately 2900 acres. The boat was prettymuch empty and we had the whole middle deck to ourselves, so we had a lovely breezy, shady and relaxing ride around the water.  I wasn't too convinced about the educational value of the nice American lady but still, we just wanted a boat ride and we had a nice boat ride, so that's all that matters.

Afterwards we headed over to Quincy market. We went there before when it was raining but didn't really have a proper look around. I wanted a hat because my head kept getting hot when we went out in the sun, and I didn't want to get a sunburned parting at any point on this trip. We found a nice one on one of the stalls for the very reasonable price of $22. Then we T'd it home and have had a very uneventful evening, namely because we retreated upstairs just as it was declared to the boys that it was time for jammies... now three hours later they are still fussing in their room. Tomorrow we're going to attempt to go to the Science museum again. I hope we do get to go, because I remember going 14 years ago and having a fun time. I think it would be a good test of whether or not I've aged mentally 14 years in the intervening time!

Code monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew

Today we stayed at home in the morning, as Sammy was insistent that he wanted to play at home instead of going to the Museum of Science. Richard had a gig in Maine last night so he wasn't here when the boys got up, but I got up fairly early and they remained under control.

This afternoon we went to Natick mall, as Oz was itching to go to an Abercrombie & Fitch. I tried Mountain Dew, which is basically Sprite but a sort of nuclear yellow colour. It felt a bit obscene that a "Regular" was about a pint. I can't understand how Americans can possibly eat so much, because with drinks like that I feel full halfway through my meal. I think because I've been drinking so much I've actually been eating less, but there you go. 

The mall was good. I bought a t-shirt and a long sleeved top from Abercrombie, which in total cost about $60 I think. I also bought a travel alarm clock so we won't miss any of our trains, also it's so small and light that I can carry it around with me when we go out as I have no watch. Just in case Oz and I want to look in different shops, then I'll actually know what time we're meant to be meeting up again. I also bought a summery dress (in XS petite size...) because I didn't try on the one I brought before I left and it's just that bit too small. As in, it does up okay but heaven help me if I should for any reason need to take a deep breath (or perhaps drink a pint of lemonade). Oz bought a shirt and some tops, and the boys got new shoes and some toys. We managed to meet up again by accident in Macy's, then we went for pizza in the mall. 

Here is a picture of Oz in his lovely new shirt:

And the boys eating ice cream yesterday evening (Sammy in green, Jason in blue):

Tomorrow we're going to the train station to collect our rail passes and tickets. It would be good if the boys wanted to go to the Science Museum because that's vaguely nearby, but it's pretty impossible to get them to do things they don't want to do, at least not without a lot of noise...

hangin' out with my gnomies

Time for a more comprehensive update...

We got to Heathrow surprisingly quickly on the Piccadilly line on Tuesday, though it felt like being a fish out of water when it went overground. We checked into the Yotel and spent a little while being fascinated by how compact and clever it all was, before showering then going to bed. 

Here is a lovely picture of Oz in the Yotel:

On Wednesday we awoke bright and early, and headed out to drop off our bags. We'd already checked in at 11am on Tuesday and re-seated ourselves. We put ourselves right at the back of the plane where the row was just two seats not three, so we wouldn't have to annoy any other hapless traveller when we wanted to use the loo. It also meant that we got served our food first (well I got mine first anyway because I got veggie meals... more on that in a minute...). Though we did get off the plane last we didn't have to queue too long at immigration. Anyway. After bag drop we went through security and had some breakfast in Costa. I really wanted one of those pot things with the fruit compote and yogurt and granola on top, but the only breakfasty things they had were pastries and muffins, so I had a panini and a giant cup of tea instead. I don't know why I'm writing about this in such detail because I'm sure you all know what it's like to hang about in airports, so anyway.

Spot our plane...

The flight itself was uneventful, though I wasn't too pleased with my vegetarian lunch. The main itself (vegetarian moussaka) was actually quite yummy, but for some reason I didn't get oat biscuits or butter, instead I got some rubbishy sunflower spread. For dessert I had fruit in jelly, where Oz had a yummy Rachel's organic creamy rice pudding thing. Apparently vegetarians can eat cheese but NO OTHER DAIRY NOT ON A PLANE NO YOU CAN'T. 

We were met at Logan by Boris and lots of children. Boris decided it would be "too boring" for us to get the T straight to Tich and Lori's, so he picked us up and attempted to kidnap us. We had a tasty dinner of chowder and other seafood (Crin said we had to try the chowder when we were in Concord). Austin came over for dinner too, then afterwards drove us to Tich and Lori's as it was in his direction. Then we went to sleeeep.

***

Yesterday we met the twins, who at first seemed a little bemused by us. We went to the zoo and saw all sorts of animals, though the kids seemed more impressed by the zoo car and the tractor and the horse merry-go-round (they have never been told that the merry-go-round moves if you put money in...). We stopped for a drink and when we were in the cafe the monsoon started. We thought it had stopped so decided to go back to the car, sadly we missed the short window of dryness and got absolutely soaked. I couldn't have been more wet if I'd jumped in a pond with all my clothes on. Still, we invented the new sport of air swimming, with added handicap of two three-year-olds and a buggy. On the way back some parts of the road were getting flooded, but we made it back ok and had some lunch. 

The munchkins at the zoo - Sammy at the back and Jason at the front.

Oz and I decided to go and explore Boston in the afternoon, so we jumped on the T (the Boston underground system, though most of it's not actually underground) and wandered around downtown. We had a Starbucks and the prices were exactly the same as in England... but in dollars not pounds. Sadly it started raining again, not quite as hard as in the morning but pretty close. As we only had a small umbrella for protection we naturally got soaked all over again. Fun times. (Well, it was pretty amusing I suppose.)

***

Today we wanted to explore some more. The thunderstorms were all over and it was a beautiful sunny and hot day. We started off at the Isabella Stuart Gardner museum, then T'd it to Harvard for lunch at a grill place. Then we went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History and saw lots of glass flowers and stuffed animals in cases and things. After that Oz wanted to find a shop that would sell him expensive jeans, so we went back downtown and walked across the Common to Newbury Street where there were lots of designer shops, including the one with the jeans. There was also a strong contender for the most disturbing shop ever. It basically had in it lots and lots of gnomes. I can't describe very well why it was so disturbing, perhaps you have to see it to believe it. Anwyay, Oz successfully bought jeans, then we headed back. We got a bit confused on the T because it's just weird. Sometimes you have to get a receipt and sometimes you just have to tap in with your Charlie Card like you do with Oyster in London, and at some stations you can change and some you can't, and you can buy tickets on board if you feel like it. We had to do this going inwards because the machine on the platform was broken, but the T man was very nice to us and let us on for free even though we had exact change, I think this is our first example of people loving the fact that we're English. He told us to tell people back home that we'd had something for free here, so there you go.

xx Li