Saturday, October 25, 2008

Willimantic

We took yet another early morning flight - I am getting really tired of all the early flights - to get from Montreal to Hartford in the United States.

Mama's friend was supposed to meet us but unfortunately one of her relatives died in Australia and so although we travelled across the globe to see her, she ended up back where we came from. Anyway, her husband picked us up and we spent a couple of days with Brian, his twin boys and their younger brother.

The twins and their dog Molly were very glad to see me. We went for a walk up the road past the very nice houses (Daddy's note: beautiful New England homes and BIG) to a nearby university where we ran around and then rolled down a hill in the autumn leaves - the twins called them fall leaves. Daddy has a great photo of it and will post it eventually.

The next day we went to Boston and toured Fenway Park, the home of baseball's Redsox. We heard all about the great Ted Williams and stories of the green monster in left field (it's a big wall in case you don't know). We even climbed on the monster. It has a manual scoreboard that you have to operate from inside with no airconditioning or heating. I enjoyed the trip so much I am now a Redsox fan. Unfortunately, the Redsox missed the World Series after losing later that night.

MILKSHAKE

Nearby Fenway I had a milkshake which was a little lacking in flavour. I would rate it at four stars - just passable. Milkshakes are hard to find believe it or not.

Well this has been a short post. Keep looking for more.

Mac

Friday, October 17, 2008

Montreal est bon!

The latest stop on our trip took us to Montreal after an overnight stay in Toronto.

For the record, we didn't actually get to the city centre of Toronto but stayed at a hotel near the airport. The planes went over the hotel (just) all night and we had to get up early to catch our flight. The Toronto airport has a curved roof so that the snow doesn't stay on it during the long winter months.

And so on to Montreal. When we arrived at the airport one of the first things I noticed was that the English words were put after the French words on the signs. Everybody speaks French to you first before they change if they realise you don't speak French. Canada has two languages - English and French - and Montreal is very French while Toronto and the west of the country is English.

Daddy picked up a car at the airport and we quickly discovered Montreal has a traffic problem - there's too much of it! We took forever to get into the city and to our friends' place. (Daddy's note: Mama's map reading still needs work).

Our friends have a small house near a park in the centre of Montreal with two cats. I slept on the floor. (Daddy's note: on a mattress!)

We walked around the old Montreal town which still has cobblestones and buildings dating back 350 years. Mama and I went on a tour of an old Catholic church. We went up the tower and had a good view of the city. We also saw lots of stain glass windows and went down into the crypt which worried me because it's very close to Holloween. At the top of the tower there were some stone angels which also creeped me out because of the weeping angels from Dr Who.

Later in the afternoon, Mama and Daddy walked up Mt Royal. They took a long time while I waited with out friends.

At night we took a quick trip into the shopping district downtown and managed to keep Mama from spending money. Victory!

It was 10C for our second day and we went out to Olympic Park. Montreal hosted the Olympics in 1976. One of the old sports venues has been turned into a biodome. It has four areas - forest, rain forest, arctic and ocean - and lots of plants and animals from the various areas. The arctic zone was the best because that's where the penguins were living. All the penguins were tagged and that allowed me to identify one of the bigger ones that I called "Reddy".

We also went to the insectorium at the botanical gardens just across the road from the Olympic venues. I don't like insects and it creeped me out a lot. Spiders aren't insects but there were plenty on display - yuk! Also in the botanical gardens was the Chinese garden which was brought stone by stone from China as a gift to Montreal.

MILKSHAKES
When we had dinner near the Toronto airport at a place called Perkins, Daddy had a milkshake that he rated five out of seven. He says though that too many milkshakes in the US/Canada are made with chocolate ice cream rather than vanilla and then chocolate flavouring. (Daddy's note: Hey, if we are out to find the best then this detail matters!

In Montreal, we dropped into a corner coffee shop just near our friends place and I had an excellent hot chocolate while Daddy ordered a milkshake. I tasted it and was very impressed. I would give it five out of seven because with New York still to come I need to think there's better still to come.

Thanks for readying.

Mac

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Let it snow!

From Vancouver we flew on Thursday to Rapid City so I could see Mt Rushmore and the presidents. That trip meant we had to fly to Denver in Colorado then to Rapid City in South Dakota (two more US states for me!) with the second flight on a much smaller plane. We looked around Rapid City that afternoon. I discovered a TV series of Star Wars - The Clone Wars that goes after the newest movie. We woke up the next morning to find it was almost 10 o'clock - the time Mama said we had to get going and we all rushed around and got out of the hotel. It was really foggy when we got to Mt Rushmore and it was really really really really really really really really really cold. We went to the front desk and found out about a junior ranger program and I got a booklet that I had to complete all the pages with a badge on them to get a junior ranger badge. We were told to go along the Presidential Trail, so we did. We started along the Avenue of Flags, which is a path with poles lining the side, with inscriptions and flags of each state - what number they were and when they joined the union.

Then we got along the Presidential Trail. Mama and daddy were really afraid that we'd come all that way and we wouldn't see anything because the fog was so thick. But when we got along the Trail to the first platform we saw George Washington's head through the fog. Then we went along to the next part and we saw Washington and (tadah) Jefferson's head. There were information things at each part about each president you could read to learn about them. Then to the next bit where we could see Lincoln's head, then Teddy Roosevelt, who's actually in between Jefferson and Lincoln but he's in a dent in the mountain so you see them in a different order. It was really freezing and the steps along the Trail were icy and we nearly slipped all the time. In the right angles they were all grouped together like in the postcards. Then we went to the museum and I sat and filled out the junior ranger book. While I was filling it out, daddy said 'look outside!!!'...... and there was MY FIRST LOOK AT SNOW!!! and I raced outside and danced in it! (It was daddy's first sighting of snow, too.)

I filled out all the badge pages and found out about the turkey vulture - which the ranger said I could get help with, being an Australian - and then I got my junior ranger badge!!!

In the museum I found this exhibit that told us that 90 per cent of Mt Rushmore was carved with explosives but the best part was that you got to push a button and push down the plunger thing and on the screen you could see Mt Rushmore exploding. Once I got to explode someone's eyebrow! By the time we looked a lot at the museum we'd been there a long time and we'd all been learning lots of the history about the mountain and the presidents.

We were driving back to Rapid City and daddy had to drive in the snow - which he'd only seen for the first time that day - on the wrong side of the road. He was pretty worried. But we got back to Rapid City.

Early the next morning (Saturday) we got up to go back to Denver and then on to Toronto, back in Canada, then daddy drove for two hours north to get to where I am now - in a cottage on a lake surrounded by trees that are all the colours of 'Fall' - orange, yellow and red. The lake is called Lake Muskoka and a lot of people have cottages here.

On Sunday morning it was Canadian Thanksgiving. I had pancakes for breakfast and a bit later I had another first in my life - a boat ride, on the lake. The cottage belongs to friends and they say the weather here is amazing for this time of year - on that day, it was about 25 degrees C. A bit later I had another boat ride to play in a Thanksgiving touch football game and I was the centre who had to hike the ball and start each play. The other team won and daddy starred and they want him back to play next year.

That night we had Thanksgiving turkey, a ham sausage thing wrapped in bacon, corn and there were a couple of other vegetables I didn't eat, and the best part was the best mashed potatoes I've ever had!!!

People with cottages in this area have to move things away for the winter and yesterday on the actual Thanksgivingt holiday we helped do that. We had to take the boat out of the water and it gets stored with other boats. We had a lazy day and daddy and mama played tennis.

Now it's Tuesday night. Like I mentioned earlier about the people in this area leaving their cottages for the winter, that happened this morning with our hosts - but they let us stay here until tomorrow. Mama woke me up early to say goodbye to them (well early for how early I've been getting up at the cottage) and then I went back to bed until nearly 11! We did some washing and Mama and I went for the first time into a real North American supermarket where they have lots of food, some of which we don't have at home. We went for a drive this afternoon and we went to see some relatives of the people we were staying with who had invited us over during Thanksgiving dinner. They had a friendly little dog that looked like a chihuhua but I didn't find out what it was. But it's name was Demi - meaning half a dog! They had a big screen and about a billion channels and Demi and I became close friends on the sofa.
Oh, I almost forgot ...
MILKSHAKES
In Keystone - a town at the bottom of Mt Rushmore - daddy bought a milkshake. More of a thickshake as Australians would know it, but very nice. I gave it 5/7 stars. Daddy gave it 5/7.

At Rapid City, we went to a sports bar/restaurant called Boston's and the waitress gave me icecream mixed up with topping. It wasn't a milkshake and it wasn't a thickshake - just thick. Ineligible.

At Denver Airport we had a shake made from Ben and Jerry's icecream. It was a thick, thick shake, extremely rich. Both me and daddy had one but technically I had about a third of one.
It was too much. 4.5/7 stars. Daddy thought it was fine (finished mine too) - 5/7 - and says I don't seem to have his sweet tooth.

Looking forward to big results in New York soon.
Mac

Friday, October 10, 2008

Vancouver from up high

Vancouver airport has been refurbished (Daddy's word) for the 2010 Winter Olympics and is very nice.

We spent two days in Vancouver.

On the first afternoon we walked a long, long way across a bridge and to the McMillan Space Centre. We found out some details and next morning Mama and Daddy were better organised and so we took a base to the space centre. It was full of really cool stuff like the planetarium and the alien encounter display.

We spent about three hours there and then caught a bus, a water bus and another bus to Grouse Mountain. At the bottom of the mountain, Mama said goodbye to us and began climbing about 3000 steps to the top. Daddy and I were smarter and we paid to go to the top in a sky ride. It swung a couple of times but was pretty smooth and we had a great view of the city. At the top we got some great pictures of two grizzly bears that are in an enclosure that is electrified. The rangers said the bears only eat nuts and berries but it was good there was an electrified fence there anyway because they were pretty big.

We wandered back to meet Mama when she arrived all puffed and complaining that she wore too many clothes for the walk. On the way down in the sky ride she then complained it was cold. A bus and a water bus later we were back at the hotel.

That night we had a meal at some crepe place. And I had a ...

MILKSHAKE

It was pretty rich and creamy but the flavour seemed a little average. I drank it with pizza. (Daddy's note: hey, you try feeding a 10-year-old good food on the run all the time!)

All in all I rate the milkshake a four out of seven and look forward to better as our journey continues.

Off to sleep now. Plenty of travel still to come.

Thanks for reading and for the messages.

Mac

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Foggy Frisco

The people of San Francisco actually don't like it when you say "Frisco" but it made a good headline according to Daddy.

The trip over took more than 12 hours from Auckland and I only slept about four hours. We left on Monday but because of the international dateline we then arrived about 15 minutes later than we left Australia.

On the plane, we had our own personal tv on the back of the seat in front and I watched three movies - one of them was Terminator - and two Simpsons episodes. (Daddy's note: and you wonder why he didn't sleep!)

Although I was tired - very tired - we climbed hill after hill in San Francisco to get to Fisherman's Wharf. I had some bread stuff with cheese and tomato sauce that the cafe called pizza. It wasn't what I was expecting.

Mama spotted a tour bus after lunch and we jumped on to visit several places but most importantly the Golden Gate Bridge.When we travelled over the bridge it was very foggy and at times you couldn't see any further than about 100 metres in front of you. Parts of the bridge seemed to disappear. Then when we went to a lookout, parts of San Francisco disappeared.

We went through some of the really expensive suburbs and heard about the earthquakes that hit the city in 1906 and in the eighties.

Now the part you have been waiting for:

MILKSHAKE

The only milkshake I had time to taste in San Francisco was one that came in a bottle and was called Chug milkshake. It promised on the side of the bottle to be extra rich and creamy chocolate. It was very rich but it wasn't very creamy.

All up I gave it a three stars out of seven rating so a slight thumbs down for this one.

The search continues ..

Mac

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Ready for takeoff

It's Sunday night and we're getting ready to leave tomorrow for the Great Milkshake Hunt. First stop the US - Daddy says I should expect big things from the land of Arnold's and the Peach Pit! As a key part of my preparation I had a Wendy's supa-shake this afternoon - just to get me ready. Double thumbs up - but I'm not even started.  My sidekick Pud (she gets upset if I call her a stuffed dog) is very excited. Stay tuned to see her as she gets to visit all the great places we're going to!
Up, up and away
Mac