Jun 2005

We arrived in New York on Saturday night and headed straight down to Times Square. Our hotel (if you can call it that) was very close to all the action. Got to Times Square just as a huge storm hit, so took refuge in a pizza restaurant for dinner. It was unbelieveably hot so we didnt stay out too late, desperate to get back into the air con!

Sunday we went back to Times Square, checked out the wireless internet at Bryant Park and then walked to The Empire State Building. We saw very cool views of the city including the Chrysler building, Maddison Square Gardens (which is round) and a golf driving range where the Titanic was to dock. We could see the other NYC boroughs as well as New Jersey. It was pretty wierd to think that Karen had been up the World Trade Centre Towers in 96 looking in the opposite direction and now they arent there. We intend to visit ground zero, it's fascinating really. The skyline is massive but there's just this massive gap where the towers were.

We then took the Subway up to Central Park, got a hot dog and just wandered through the park. To be honest, it wasnt quite what we expected, a bit dingy and dirty really. It was some kind of Peurto Rico celebration and the park was full with Police everywhere and loads of paths shut making it difficult to get around. We walked passed the Trump Towers on our way back to the hotel and stopped in at the new CNN building which has a very posh mall attached. Our day ended with a little NYC excitiment as we got caught in the middle of some kind of Police bust in a cafe next to where we had our dinner!! We had no idea what was going on as we munched our gyros but when we got out there was a crowd and police everywhere.

Checked out of our scum hotel on Monday and arrived at a much nicer place in the East Village for the remainder of our stay. Not a hotel, but more like a posh hostel or Bed and Breakfast! The place was sepearated into floors with around 4 aircon enabled rooms on each floor along with a shared lounge, kitchen and bathroom. Each floor even had it's own PC and printer which was more than you could reasonably expect for a B&B in NYC I reckon. The afternoon was filled with a bus ride to the southern tip of Manhattan in the business district where we caught the Staten Island Ferry. The ferry gives good views of the Manhattan skyline as well as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Tuesday morning was spent walking around the East Village towards the nearest Subway station (five blocks north and 4 long city blocks west) which took about 20 minutes in the blazing heat. The East Village is a weird place, it looks really rough and is very lively. I'm not sure I felt 100% safe there but it was summer in the city and most people didn't even give us a second glance. We caught the subway to Times Square and jumped on a movie tour of the whole city! We covered all the bases here with a tour of all the Manhattan districts along with some movie history and locations such as the Ghostbusters HQ and the Cosby's house... The tour was fun in the end and we left the bus to eat in Ellens Stardust diner where we ate burgers and listened to the waiters sing show tunes on the counter tops! Our journey back to the Village was pretty easy going really and we had fun in a local chinese restaurant eating out of cardboard boxes like you see in the movies.

Wednesday was all about Letterman! We got tickets for a taping of the David Letterman show to see Dennis Leary and Alanis Morrisette!!!! We arrived (in a taxi) in time to get our briefing and impress the scouts enough to get on the front row. The waiting was a pain but the show itself was awesome. Karen's view was blocked by the cameraman most of the time but I saw everything... We smiled and laughed in all the right places and when we watched it that night we were in shot, full frontal for about 20 seconds. Cool....

We left New York the next day, sad to go really. Much better than I expected although accomodation is pot luck....

From Memphis we went to Washington DC, which was excellent. We arrived on a Saturday at our luxury hotel along with a load of Harley Davidson bikers who were in town for the Memorial weekend 'Rolling Thunder' rally to pay homage to the USA's POW's MIA's and war veterans. So Sunday we went downtown to see the 500,000 riders flying through the city which was very cool and very noisy! We went to see the White House, and as we were there a helicopter came in, presumably dropping off the boss! Saw lots of other famous sights, The Mall, Washington Monument etc. Went passed the West Wing, and then up to the Capitol Building which is a beautiful building. They were preparing for a big Memorial Day concert there that night.

Monday saw us at the Pentagon, which was a little dissapointing. You aren't allowed to take photos of the outside and there is very little to actually see. They dont do tours since 9/11.

From the Pentagon we went to Arlington Cemetary which was pretty cool. Saw the graves of the Kennedy's, the Unknown Soldier and just far too many graves of all the people killed in the different wars. Bush had been there in the morning, so just missed him again!!

Our last day was a frantic one, trying to cram in as much as possible! Went to the FBI building, but again no tours since 9/11 and they arent planning anymore until 2006 so couldnt wait that long!! Went up the tower of the Old Post Office Building which gave great views of the city.

Then we went to The National Archive Building, which holds The Constitution, The Declaration of Independance and The Bill of Rights. All pretty faded now, but well worth seeing. If you get the chance watch the movie National Treasure which has Nicholas Cage in. You'll see a lot of the places we went to!

Our next stop was the Lincoln Memorial, which is amazing. I've seen it on a load of movies and it excelled my expectations. He is just huge, sitting in his chair overlooking the washington monument and the Pool of Reflection. The War Memorials are all in the same area, so we walked through the Vietnam, Korean and WWI & WWII memorials. Again, frightening to see how many people the country has lost to war.

From DC we headed back to Chicago to spend more time with 'the family'. Had a great time, chilling out and supporting Joey in his baseball games. The weather was fab all week, if not a little too hot!! Went downtown again and got my ipod replaced!!! We stayed just long enough to visit Navy Pier again and have some shrimp at Bubba Gumps. I was a little shocked when the waitress' first words were "where was Forest Gump shot during the war? - In the Buttocks!" weird, but good food all the same.

Karen settled into Chicago life again and even found time to attend some Art classes with Mary! She made some pretty cool paintings, no doubt they'll find their way into which ever living room we occupy on our return...

One dissappointment in Chicago was that we were supposed to be seeing Joss Stone on the Monday night, as Tom was doing the sound for a TV recording, but she had to cancel as her grandparents took ill in England. Shame.

We took the Furlong boys to Six Flags on the Wednesday when they finished school for the summer! What a hoot! Joey dragged Karen onto the new Superman ride, which is a roller coaster that you ride lying on your front, head first!! She squealed like a pig the whole way round but I couldn't hear as I was on the Ragin' Cajun rollercoaster at the same time. Karen also went on the Batman ride, which has your feet dangling below the seat and again, screamed so hard that she lost her voice for a few days!!! We also went to the new water park aswell but that was a bit lame to be honest. There had been a thunder storm warning so a lot of the rides had been closed down. The boys had fun though so that was the main thing.

Friday night was a laugh. One of Tom and Marys neighbours was leaving to live in Dallas so they had a cowboy party in their honour. We both got a very funny cowboy hat for the night - wait for the pictures on the net!! Also did ' pin the teeth on the redneck', 'lasso the (saw)horse' and 'Canbush' (shooting empty cans with a water pistol!) The kids enjoyed it just as much as the adults (especially after all the drinks!!)

So then we had to say Goodbye again to our wonderful friends/family in Chicago. Very sad to do so, but really hopeful that we will see them next year in England.

On to the final two weeks of our trip... boo hiss!!