Day 6 and 7 - Denver (25th Wedding Anniversary)

An early rush to Chicago's O'Hare airport (45 mins) and a two and a half hour flight saw us in Denver by lunch time. We are now in Colorado and across another time zone - 7 hours behind the UK. It is noticably cooler in Denver and the hotel is a marked improvement over our Chicago hotel. It's modern, upbeat and friendly. Every floor has a different theme and we are on the 16th floor, which is the 20's retro floor. We have a great view over the city to the Rocky Mountains in the distance. The mountains are still snow-capped.

Having had some pretty hectic days recently we have decided to take it a bit easier in Denver and have done a lot of wandering around the city, popping into bars and coffee shops on a regular basis. Denver is another beautiful city - new, clean, friendly and quite small compared with Chicago and Washington. There's a slower, more laid back pace.

We are a few mins walk from the main shopping street (16th Street): a pedestrianised area full of vibtrant bars and restaurants and shops. One of the best things is that there is a free shuttle bus or busses, which travel up and down the length of the street allowing everyone to hop on and off at will all day until 2am in the morning. A great idea.

A unique (I think) feature of this city is that it has placed a number of pianos at points along 16th street - yes, real pianos - for anyone to play. We have seen many people just sitting playing some great music and being accompanied by passers by, who dance about or clap a beat with their hands. There's a certain joy about the place, which is refreshing to see. The other thing that strikes you is the fact that there are chairs (metal garden chairs) just placed along the central reservation of the street for people to use. The pianos and chairs are not secured or bolted to the floor - they are just placed there. How trusting is that? We both agreed that we would never see such a thing in the UK, which is a shame.

There is a darker side to Denver, of course, as in most cities. There are a lot of homeless people and tramps wandering the street in a completely unintimidating way. Some even sat playing the pianos with others in their situation. There's a certain tramp who looks ancient and walks around in what can only be described as rags. He looks like a prophet, with long flowing beard and long torn overvoat worn to strips of cloth. The scene is almost biblical.

Our first night in Denver was spent in a Mongolian restaurant. We were given a bowl each and asked to choose from a large selection of raw meats, fish and vegetables from a bar. Then we had to choose a sauce or combination of sauces and put them into another little bowl. Finally there were spices to choose from. All this we took to a large circular kitchen with a circular hot plate, where a guy cooked what we brought to him. He used two long metal spatulas to skillfully mix, flip and chop our food, adding our sauces and serving it all on plates for us to take back to our table. We were able to return as many times as we wanted. We only managed two trips!

Today - Day 7 - is our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We decided this would be a chilling out day. We got up late for the first time since we came to the States and made coffee and read the newspapers in bed. Later we walked along the River Platte for hours, stopping off at Starbucks and popping into an outdoor centre,where we bought some binoculars ready for our trip across Colorado and Utah over the next two weeks.

We returned to the city and found our favourite bar (Paramount Cafe) again and sat for ages chatting, people watching and drinking in the sun.

This evening we went to a steakhouse before going to the theatre to see a comedy called 'I love you, you're perfect, now change' - how fitting for our wedding anninversary!!

Now it's almost midnight and Rachel's asleep while I catch up on the blogging. Tomorrow is RV Day and a whole new adventure. But for now, it's the end of our 25th Anniversary and I'm thinking how lucky we are to be spending it happily together in such a lovely place.

Day 5 - Chicago

Another early start as we had to be at the River Boat Tour by 9:30am. We had to skip breakfast but were given complimentary coffee and muffins on the boat. We spent a really relaxing hour and a half sailing through the Lake Mitchigan inlets, which meander through Chicago.

After the tour we walked to Navy Pier, which is the most popular attraction in Chicago. It was extremely hot but there was a cool breeze off the lake. It was really busy in the many bars and restaurants along the pier. Huge yachts were moored end to end along the pier: one even had its own helicopter onboard. We had lunch in a nice little sports bar overlooking the lake before hiring a Quad Cycle for an hour.

It was tough going cycling in the wind (not sure Rachel was actually peddling very hard!) but we managed to travel about a mile up the coast to Oak Street Beach and back again within the hour.

We started the long walk back to the hotel along the coast in time to get changed for our evening activities - a live, free concert in Millenium Park (near the Bean) and then hopped on the evening bus tour to see Chicago at night.

It was almost too late to get dinner but we found an Irish pub and restaurant near the hotel to round off another great day.

Day 4 - Chicago

We didn't get much sleep on the train. It was uncomfortable on the tiny bunks and the space between them and the door could not have been much more than a foot, making for an interesting contortionist effort to climb in. The constant movement and the sound of the train's horn every few minites, as it approached a level crossing, made it impossible to relax. The best stretch of sleep was for an hour and a half before waking with a start shouting "STOP" - I had been dreaming the train was about the crash and Rachel wasn't too pleased to be awoken in such a manner! That was it - we didn't sleep again and decided to get up. It was about 6am.

Food was being served in the restaurant car so we got breakfast. I didn't mention in our previous blog that the restaurant had 'community seating', meaning you didn't get a table to yourself but shared with whoever you were put with by the attendent. This turned out to be great because we met and chatted to some very nice people. At dinner last night we had a laugh with a couple of people. The first a 22 year old girl who was doing a month long round trip across the States, visiting friends and seeing the country. She was delightful - a typical (in my mind) wholesome American with family values. The other was a middle aged lady who had been on a work's conference and was heading home.

This morning we met Jim and Candis, who were returning to Salt Lake City after a work's conference for Candis. Jim had been tagging along. They told us they had moved to Utah about 9 years ago after living and working in LA most of their lives. Over breakfast we discussed our families, work, our holiday and the American health system as they helped a charity, which has a children's hospital in Utah providing kids with free treatment, which they would not otherwise get from the State. Jim was a physisist working in hosptials on something to do with radiation. As we got up to leave Candis gave us their phone number and email address and said that we should contact them if we came unstuck in Utah and needed help.

We arrived in Chicago's Union Station at about 9:30am and took a taxi to the Essex Hotel on Mitchigan Ave. This hotel was not as plush as the one in Washington but was friendly and comfortable. We booked the hop on - hop off tour bus and the architectural water tour as soon as we arrived in the hotel and headed out immediately for the bus. We spent a couple of hours touring the city and were amazed by what we saw. We had loved Washington but this was something else! The buildings were stunning: impossibly high, seemingly brand new and extremely interesting architecturaly. The Chicago skyline is every bit as stunning as New York and, in some ways, even more impressive. We really enjoyed the boat tour and learned a lot about the thinking behind the Architecture. The reason Chicago looks so shiny and new is that it actually is quite new. Most of the city was burned down in the 1870's and had to be rebuilt. So there are very few buidlings predating this but Chicago is now blessed with the most stunning architecture.

Here are one or two photos to illustrate this:

The Bean is one of the most recognisable attractions in Chicago. Someone said it is the equivalent of France's Eiffel Tower - if you see it you know it's Chicago.

In the evening we went to a great Blues club and restaurant called Buddy Guy's Legends. He's famous in the world of Blues and he made a guest appearance during the show, sang and told a few jokes. The regulars loved it and the music went on until about 2am, although we left about 11pm to get some much needed sleep, ready for another hectic day.

Day 3 - Washington to Chicago

After packing and leaving our suitcases in hotel storage we headed out for breakfast. We visited The Corner Bakery, as we did yesterday. This morning we ate blueberry muffins and a cinnamon slice, with hot tea and orange juice. It was already warm outside and we headed for the Metro at McPherson Street for the short ride to the Smithsonian stop.

The Metro in Washington is clean and efficient.The trains are wider than those in the London underground, and there's no 'gap'. There were very few people on the train this morning and most got off with us at Smithsonian, mainly tourists. We exited the Metro on Independence Ave and after a minute's walk were on the park between the Washington Monument and the Capitol - great views in both directions.

If we were to see any of the museums it had to be the Natural History Museum:

There was a brilliant exhitbition of award winning wildlife photographs, some of which I've shown below:

Later we had to get to Union Station to catch the Amtrak train to Chicago:

Our overnight cabin was tiny:

But in the evening, over a meal we met some really nice people and chatted for a couple of hours before tiredness got the better of us and we headed off to bed.

Day 2 - Washington DC

Day 2 didn't start off as planned. We wanted to ride the Old Town Trolley around the city to get a feel of the place. However, someone lost the information map (Me! (Andy)) somewhere near the White House, which meant us wandering around for what seemed like hours (actually only an hour or so) trying to locate the Trolley stop. We asked numerous times but always ended up in the wrong place. If you are every in Washsington looking for the Old Town Trolley, don't rely on signs (there are virtually none) - just head straight for the corner of E Street NW and 10th. The Welcome Centre is right there, where you can buy tickets and get on the Trolley. The Orange route is by far the best, taking you to all the main sights.

Our first stop was the White House (before we found the Trolley). It's a little more 'ordinary' than expected and you can't get very close, for obvious reasons. I've never seen so much security in one place, and that's the security you can actually see. By all accounts there's much more that you don't even see! Barracades, Dogs, Police, cameras, not to mention a thick ring of Japenese tourists with cameras! There's an exclusion zone around it, which is a little frustrating.

Once on the Trolley, we enjoyed the main sights and were struck the beauty and variety of the architecture. One amazing building after another, many evoking memories of Rome: towering columns and dazzling white marble. We passed through a maze of museums, all works of art in their own right. We'll visit some of them tomorrow. We even saw a street named after my dad:

The US Capitol building was one of the most imposing buildings:

But one of the best moments of the day came when we saw the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. We wondered how one man could invoke such admiration and deserve what is one of the best places to be in DC. But when you think the third president of the United States was the author of the Declaration of Independence, a founding father, an advocate of equal rights and democracy, the separation of Church and State, as well as being an architect, scientist, writer, musician and inventor - you have to say this is a fitting place for such a man. Set on the shore of the Tidal Basin with a view of the Washington Monument, it's a peaceful place to sit and ponder. It's a perfect structure and gives pleasure just to look at it. It was hard to drag ourselves away.

Next onto the Washington Monument:

Then WW2 Memorial and the second best monument of all - the Lincoln Memorial: Another Roman-style temple in honor of a great man but far too crowded, which was a shame.

Our final stop of the day was the Arlington National Cemetary, just across the Potomac River. An amazing and humbling place. The sight of thousands of identical gravestones, each with an American flag stuck in the ground beside it made us stand and stare for ages. We watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of The Unknown Solidier: a precision spectacle that works like clockwork every half hour precicely. The signs dotted about the cemetery read 'Silence and Respect'.

We took the Metro back to the hotel, crashed out and slept for 2 hours before going out to eat. It's now 1am (6am in the UK). Rachel is asleep while I complete our blog for the day (I think there's a pattern emerging here!!).

Tomorrow, after visiting the museums, we head for Chicago by train.

Day 1 - Washington DC

Dulles International Airport is approx 30 miles out of Washington and it took quite some time getting to the hotel once we had landed. After queueing for what seemed like an age at customs it was about an hour to the hotel. For most of the journey to the city we were actually in Virginia.

Really nice hotel -The Madison - and the staff are really helpful and friendly. There's the two guys on the reception: Innocent and Lewis and the Concierge is called Tony. Innocent wanted to talk about the Queen and was convinced we must know her personally, living in the same town and all!! Don't think he was convinced England is big enough for more than one town! He seemed surprised that we had left the country while the Queen's Diamond Jubilee was on. Made us laugh.

Our hotel room is really nice and we found we had got our apetite back after the road-kill incident at 4am this morning. Yep, the rabbit is forgotten and we headed out to find a famous little restaurant call Ben's Chili Bowl, visited previously by President Obama, former french president Nicolas Sarcozy, Hilary Clinton and many other celebs over the years. The place is adorned with wall to wall photos of their visits. So the guy who served us our chili took one of us, which won't find its way onto their wall.

Here's the link and it's worth a visit if you are ever in town!
http://www.benschilibowl.com/ordereze/Default.aspx

The 20 min walk to the Chili Bowl was along leafy streets with wonderful, quaint and sometimes odd houses, side by side with ornate churches of all denominations. We found the people to be very friendly and ready to say hello.

Now we are back at the hotel. It's 20:45 - that's a quarter to two in the morning in England. Rachel has already crashed out, leaving me to write up this brief account of the first day of our road trip.

Tomorrow is going to be very busy.

Day 1 - Manchester Airport

Waiting to board flight to Heathrow. Savouring last cup of English tea :-)  Already had first trauma - Andy drove over a rabbit on way to airport!  Wasn't too impressed when Rachel started singing "Bright Eyes"!!!!!!!!!

One More Sleep!

Well, we are all packed and ready to go. Early start tomorrow (4am) so early night! Let the adventure begin! :-)

The Road Ahead

The road ahead. We'll be travelling across the whole of America - east to west, by planes, trains and automobiles! Only 8 working days to go and we'll be on our way. Here's the map of our route.

2 Weeks To Go

Getting excited about our holiday. Blog set up and ready to go!