Let it snow, let it snow......

Tubing was awesome! Tubing is travelling down a slippery snow slope at break neck speed on a rubber tube – because you can!! Similar to an Aquaracer back at home in Australia, racing down water slides, but if you fall off the snow ones, it’s gonna hurt!!  We had no idea what to expect, but it was SO much fun. Had a little wait in line to purchase tickets, about 40 mins, but then it was 2 hours of up and down the mountain. It was great to catch up with our other friends Karina and Erica whilst there. Only for a short time but lovely to see them both again.

The next day at Anne & Priscilla’s house, we were treated to a beautiful down pour of snow. An amazing sight for Australian eye’s. Jackson and David made snow angels and had snow ball fights. We were happy to walk around in it, taking pictures, as it didn’t seem that cold.  In the evening, we met some more friends of Anne’s – Michael and Jason. Loads of laughs, wine and appetizers – a fun time had by all.

Our final day in Boston, a Fenway Park baseball field tour (home of the Red Sox) with Kevin. Fenway Park is  the oldest baseball field in the USA and 1 of only 2 baseball parks left, the other being the Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field, all others are classed as stadiums. 

This was followed by a meal at Walburgers, (a franchise started by Mark Wahlburg the actor and his brothers) to say ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Thanks so much for having us. After finishing our late lunch, it was off to the airport, heading  to Orlando tonight to enjoy some warm weather.

Christmas at Boston..!

We left Washington D.C. 5am on Friday morning. Our destination was Boston for Christmas. Our lovely Brazilian friends are taking us in for the week, to celebrate Christmas with their families. 

We had a fairly long lay over in Chicago – 9 hours so we saw this as an opportune time to catch up with our other friends Tom and Carol. As per our Brazilian family and our Orlando families, we too met Tom and Carol 5 years ago on our big trip in Florida, same holiday apartments – Driftwood Beach Club. We caught a train/bus from the airport to Navy Pier on the water front of Chicago looking out over Lake Michigan. We enjoyed a great lunch, chat and a few drinks at Margaritaville, although it was only 11.00 am, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere!

Lake Michigan was starting to freeze over in parts and there was plenty of snow still on the ground from the deluge that had taken place the week before.  Jackson enjoyed making snow balls out of the left over snow and throwing them at us all, before it was time to say goodbye, head back to the airport for the next part of our flight. We took the term planes, trains and automobiles to a new meaning by the end of the day. Our flight slightly delayed due to having to ‘de-ice’ the wings of the plane before take off – a term the Australian’s have NEVER heard before!!

After arriving in Boston safely at 10.30pm, collected by Anne, this was the start of our most enjoyable time with her family and friends. 

Light snow covered the grounds and Christmas lights on almost every house. Christmas Eve we were treated to a Brazilian feast! Welcomed with open arms, an amazing meal, great conversations, a beautifully decorated tree, lights across the mantle piece and a wood fire. The ambience was incredible. Although I couldn’t be home to share this time with my own family, this was certainly the next best thing.

Christmas day was a little slower thankfully, kids waking up to stockings and gifts Santa had left them and eating left overs all day. A great experience to sample a ‘white Christmas’. We took a walk to a lake behind Anne’s Mum’s house and skimmed rocks across the frozen water, we played in the snow and built a snow man.

A longer walk was in order the next day to get rid of some ‘Christmas cheer’. That simple task done so often at home, proved to be a little more difficult here in the snow! Two steps out the front door the sidewalk was iced up, and the sliding started. Snow had been pushed up the street every few houses like speed humps, so it felt like an obstacle course more so than a stroll..!!

Tomorrow we are off to the Snow fields to ride in some tubes. I have no idea what that is…..

Ocean City and Washington D.C.

We had some ‘down time’ out here in Ocean City, after the very sad news of the passing of my dear Mum back home. On the upside now we feel she is watching over us each and every day now on our adventures and her memories will be treasured forever.  We spent most of our time in the apartment as the minus 6 degree celcius temperatures inhibited what we could and could not do. We enjoyed being able to make some home cooked meals, play cards together and get back on our feet. One day we did venture out to the beautiful Boardwalk at Ocean City and took a stroll on the empty beach and viewed all the closed up stores for the Winter months.

Off to Washington DC – National Harbour. What a BEAUTIFUL place. Very classy, very clean, lots of families, convenience stores, restaurants and attractions all within walking distance (not the 35 block walking distance that we have become accustomed too either)! At National Harbour they have the largest, Christmas tree we have ever seen. Every half an hour at night they have a light show on the tree. National Harbour is the fastest growing area on the East Coast, with MGM opening a casino just 4 days before we arrived and they already have extracted money from me –( David) !!!!!! WE had an appointment to drop the car rental to Downtown D.C., the next morning, about 20 mins from our hotel. Easier said than done with the roads all frozen over and the Aussies way out of our depth in driving these conditions, so we found the closest drop off point, about 5 mins away and at a very slow cautious pace we made our way there without incident, although many others weren’t so lucky.

We have spent the first 3 days in Washington mainly exploring the area we are staying and shopping for some more winter clothes before the cold weather really sets in, at our next stop Boston. We also shared a Dinner with a friend we used to work with back home in Maryborough – Marty Noonan and his lovely partner Jenny. 20 years since we would’ve seen each other and through the wonders of Facebook it allowed us to reconnect earlier in the year.

Monday night football at Fed Ex Field tonight, Redskins V Panthers, then sight seeing for the next few days, stay tuned………..

Well, let’s not focus on the football, have now been to 2 redskins games at Fedex Field and they have lost both times, so I don’t think I’ll be going again anytime soon………

Sight seeing has been different this time around, a 45 min. train ride in, get off in the middle of the city, walk to any site/attraction/museum we want and away we go. Last time we did the hop on/hop off tour and as detailed it was, it felt rushed, so has been great to actually take it all in. Have visited 5 museums, all of which are free entry, as they encourage students, tourists and anyone else to be able to learn without having to pay. Last time they had only just started work on the Martin Luther King Jr. monument, so was actually nice to see it finished. We have also been to the ice sculpting exhibition here in National Harbour, 6000 lbs of ice, 32 semi trailers to bring the ice in and countless hours of sculpting by the artists, not to mention the -13 degree temperature to view it, felt like I was at work driving the fork lift back in the McCains freezer. Finished our time in Washington with some more shopping, mainly for Xmas stuff and sorted our gear, packed our bags, look out Boston, here we come ………..

Had logged on with too many devices at the hotel, so had to wait till we hit the airport for some free wi fi, that's why it's taken awhile for this post.......................