Luckily the world didn't end this week, so we are all still here to enjoy 2012 Christmas! I hope Santa has spoilt you all. He hasn't arrived here yet, so I'm sitting here full of excitement ready for tomorrow.
Since last writing it's been quite a bit busy. After Thanksgiving I travelled to Costa Rica for a meeting, landed home on Friday night and then flew off on Sunday morning to Mexico for the week! I then picked up a shocking cold and cough, which now over two weeks later I'm still feeling the aftermath.
Here's some pics from Costa Rica (we had a traditional dinner one night)...
I like this shot and you can see the brightly lit up building in the middle is the Freedom Tower which is currently under construction on the World Trade Center.
Anyways, so firstly, the good news is that we now have a car. Actually we've had a car now for about 4 weeks, but we've only been able to drive it for the past week. Those of you that know Brett, know that a car sitting there not being able to be driven is the worst form of torture. All I can say it is another case of US bureaucracy and me mixing as well as oil and water. 5 trips to the DMV and an accumulated time of around 7 hours and only on the last visit did I actually walk away with my registration papers, registration plates and a title with my name on it. What a bloody drama! But that's all in the past now and we have managed to clock up over 2,000 miles (3,200 kms) in 9 days.
After getting our rego on Saturday morning we headed south down the Jersey Shore where we saw the truly devastating effects of Sandy, but also the beautiful Atlantic coast line. Here's some shots of the houses down there...
... yes, the house is on a very bad angle.
Whilst down there Brett's eagle eye spotted this perfect sign for this blog...
On Sunday we headed over to Long Island and drove the length of it down to Montauk (where Jodie and I visited), and I enjoyed what will now be a customary chocolate thickshake from John's Drive in Diner.
During this week, we made good use of the car and got ourselves a Christmas Tree, yes a real one!
This weekend we set of on our first real road trip. In 2 1/2 days we covered 6 states and 2 countries - New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada. We set off early on Saturday morning (on the road by 5am!), and about 1 hour into the trip, through the Poconos we were so excited because it started to snow. The beautiful flutter of snow soon turned into a full blown blizzard that we drove through for over four hours (well, Brett is the one that drove, I just sat there with my finger nails embedded in the dashboard). We passed 18 incidents on the road in that time that ranged from jack knifed trucks, spun out cars in ditches, to cars on their sides. Even as we were pulling up slowly to an upcoming incident, the car behind us nearly ran into us as he was going side to side all over the highway. This shot is on a six lane hwy (3 lanes each direction)!
So, I guess you're wondering how we got a-salt-ed... well, it wasn't us per se, it was our poor car. To keep the roads open, there are large snow plough vehicles that not only scrape away the snow, but they also drop salt all over the roads which melts the snow. So, our poor vehicle that had been immaculately maintained in the 3 weeks we'd owned it, was now white instead of gun metal grey - not so good for keeping the vehicle rust free...
So after surviving our first snow blizzard we found ourselves in Niagara Falls with the beautiful aftermath of snow, but now with sunshine... it was spectacular. The falls are right on the border of the US and Canada so we managed to get shots from both sides. On the Canada side, (distastefully) the town is like a mini-Las Vegas and definitely set up for the tourists. We stayed here that night in a very dog friendly motel (Jack even got himself a little doggy pack upon arrival).
The spray from the falls causes a lot of ice on the surrounding park. This tree looked beautiful (though you wouldn't want to stand underneath it!)
Here is me being a typical fool with some Canadian natives...
There was not so much to see except a very large lake, a lot of farmland, the tomato capital of Canada, and a little oil field where Brett enjoyed skidding all over the ice...
We then made our way around to the next point of the border in Detroit, Michigan - motor capital of the US and home to Ford. Brett toured the Ford museum (I waited and planned the next leg of the trip in the car with little Jack). With not much else to see in Detroit we then set off to Cuyahoga Falls in Ohio - a lovely little town also with their own falls and another very dog friendly hotel.
... definitely not a rival to Niagara Falls, but lovely nonetheless.
Ohio is what you expect, lots of farmland with one large water tower in every town and lots of red barns. They had also had a bit of snow, but the day was just lovely and the snow had stopped falling the day before.
Finally, this morning, we set off early again traveling through Pennsylvania, which from west to east was mainly forest. We wanted to head home in time to get ready for Christmas day - thaw the turkey, write my blog, skype the family (still waiting for them to respond), and watch Christmas movies all night! There's a 70% chance of snow tonight, so I am really, really, really hoping that I wake up to a white Christmas - I mean could I possibly have a more cliche experience whilst I'm here!
I hope you all were able to spend special time with your loved ones, and at lots of food (particularly pudding!). I must say missing the annual Deschepper Christmas party and the Zieren Christmas lunch are hard for me - they are two of my favorite things on the annual calendar.
Take care everyone and I wish you all a magical, prosperous and healthy 2013.
Michele
