Summer 1997 East Coast (USA) Holiday
Details of our summer trip (written Monday 15 September 97):
Well we got back yesterday at about midday and classes started early this
morning - that is after I made a very early start to stand in line to buy
football tickets when they went on sale.
In any case - here follows a synopsis of our holiday this last month which
will be expanded on in the end of year newsletter (if one ever appears).
We left from Athens with the first stop Washington, here we stayed in the
home of a friend who was out of town. We had a great time visiting the various
museums (all free), the Capitol, Supreme court, Library of Congress, the
Washington and Veterans Monuments, Arlington Cemetry and the White House.
White House tickets are free and are given out at 7:30 am - the problem
is that people start lining up at 5:00 am - we got there at 5:30 and were
39 and 40 in line, by 7:30 there were 3000 people! We also watched a production
of the Andrew Lloyd Weber show: By Jeeves.
WhiteHouse
Next stop: New York - we loved this place - it is everything like the movies
and more. Highlights included three shows (half price tickets on the day):
Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Cats, roller blading in Central Park, the
Empire State building, the World Trade Center, Grand Central station and
the whole underground system and of course the Statue of Liberty, we enjoyed
a great tour of the UN. We also celebrated Linda's 30's birthday here.
LadyLiberty
NewYorkBackground
From New York along the coast through small fishing villages to Cape Cod
where we hired bicycles and explored Provincetown and surroundings. Since
this is lobster country we ate our share and even cooked two (wrapped in
tin foil) on the open fire - we had loaned a tent and did a lot of camping
here.
Lobster
Over the Labour Day weekend (30 August till 1 Sept) two of our friends flew
from Athens to meet us in Boston - our next stop - and together we camped
and explored Boston. We visited the USS Constitution (a very old sailing
boat of the US Navy), watched baseball at Fenway Park, did a sunset harbour
cruise, had drinks in the bar from the TV series Cheers, visited the Kennedy
Memorial and Library (really great) and various museums - arts, science
and technology etc.
After Boston we travelled to Maine and could have stayed here a lot longer
- this is beautiful country. I am sure that in winter it must be pretty
darned cold there but for us is was idylic. Again we hired bicycles and
toured, ate lobster (and also prepared another couple of lobster on the
fire) and basically had a great time - in short this was honeymoon country.
The Niagara Falls followed and what a beautiful sight!! We did the Maid
of the Mists tour - a boat ride that takes you as far into the bottom of
the falls as possible and then some further, the Cave of the Winds tour
- a walk to the base of one of the three sets of falls which guarantees
that you will get sopping wet and toured the islands. This was another highlight
though slightly marred by the ugly towns that exists on both the American
and Canadian sides of the falls! Camping on the edges of the various great
lakes (Ontario and Eire) in the area though was a great treat - while we
learnt the names in geography, you have to see these lakes to understand
the meaning of GREAT lakes - wonderful!!
Finally we spent a week in Chicago - another city we just fell in love with.
Apart from visiting Chicago we also went there so that I could visit schools
and gather data for my research. So I spent each day in the schools while
Linda explored the town and in the evenings we did sight seeing together.
My experience in the schools was eye opening and I learnt a LOT which I
will have to reflect on for a long time to come.... We stayed with some
friends ex South Africa who live here and slept on their lounge floor -
a discomfort adequately compensated for by the 23rd floor view of the Chicago
skyline and Lake Michigan. Some of the highlights of our sight seeing included
the Architectural Boat tour, the University of Chicago, the musical Chicago
and our sunset rollerblade along the edge of the lake on a path especially
built for people to run, walk, cycle and rollerblade.
So that in a nutshell was our holiday - many details remain to be filled
in BUT as you can easily gather a GREAT time!
Return