At home with the Tweddells

Today we had a party to celebrate Nathanial's name day it was a lovely low key affair in the garden. Thomas had fun playing with Eve and her friend Serena - making leprechaun traps and magic potions.

Helen and Jessica enjoyed being Godmothers - not the fairy kind, so they were safe from those traps.

With the party over we walked/rode/scooted over to their local park for a play in the sun.

Monterey

We stayed in historic Monterey Hotel - which was very fancy, but quite noisy. We liked it.

We spent most of the day in the Monterey Aquarium. The sea otters are quite famous - justifiably so! Thomas decided he wants to be a sea otter. 

On our way to the aquarium we saw seals and sea lions, and at the aquarium the jelly fish exhibits were fantasic too.

We finished the day by driving over the mountains to Emma, Tom, Eve and Nathaniel's house in Los Altos.

Big Sur

Today was our day for seeing the Big Sur.

On our drive North from Cambria we stopped to have a look at a colony of elephant seals. They mostly just lay and flipped sand, but one young pup managed to escape from his mother and get down to the water. On the way his mother belly flopped on him to try to get him to stop. He wriggled away from her so she let him go and see how cold the water was for himself.

A science teacher who was there to talk to a school group showed us an elephant seal skull, some moulted skin (rought and spiky) and a great white shark jaw.

A squirrel tried to share our morning tea so we had to take its picture. We couldn't take a photo of the Condor (one of only 120 in Callifornia) that we saw briefly, eating roadkill on the side of the road.

The wild flowers were coming out for spring.

We stopped at the McWay falls to take photos and have lunch. While we were eating, and looking out to sea, Helen spotted a (grey?) whale plume, so we sat and watched them migrate north for summer.

The McWay waterfall falls to the beach. We followed that up by walking up throught the redwoods to see another waterfall. The trees are huge! and the water is clear and cool.

Our next stop was the Big Sur forrest park and a walk up to another water fall. More huge trees and squirrels, but no ewoks.

Central coast

We woke in Santa Barbara and were given breakfast by our jovial host. After checking out we headed for the beachfront and walked to the old wooden wharf (burnt down several times and rebuilt). The mountains behind the town are really striking.

Thomas enjoyed watching a school group learn to skateboard at the skate park.

We headed up the coast, enjoying the rugged scenery along the way and stopped at Pismo Beach for lunch - fancy home cooked potato chips (Thomas' had dark chocolate and bacon - which was odd to say the least).

We drove on to Cambria and found our Motel on Moonstone beach.

Across the road from the motel, a boardwalk ran along behind the beach. We watched birds, climbed on rocks and watched the sun sink towards the ocean.

We went into town for dinner, and were quite taken by its extreem twee-ness, reminding us of Berry only much more so.

JFK to LAX

Last day in NY. We got a Taxi to the airport and pointed at all the sights along the way.

Next: a 6 hour flight to LA, which has a three hour time difference, so it only took half that time by the clock.

Then we picked up our red hire car (Camry instead of requested Corolla) and drove out of LA up the coast to Santa Barbara. The coast was quite special, but it was dark when we arrived so we all just piled into bed.

Natural History

Today we started out walking to central park to play at the playground that Thomas has decided is the best - the Wild West. We met a boy (5yo) called Eric who is staying in town with his grandparents and Thomas and He had a good run around. Eric's Grandmother had worked at the Museum of Natural History for 15 years and she told us her favourite bits, which was great, because that is where we headed next.

We were a little overwhelmed by the museum initially, but then decided to find the dinosaur wing. It was very well set out with lots of bones. We also liked the American sections, as they are well done, and topical! Thomas found the size of the Alaskan brown bears fascinating.

We finished the day with a late trip to the Rockefeller building to see the city lights from up high. It was pretty windy and cold, but the view was definitely worth it. The Chrysler building and the Empire state both look great lit up.

Then to top the day off, as we were walking back from the Subway station to our hotel, it started to snow. How cool is that!

Museums all day!

The temperature has dropped quickly and snow is forecast for tomorrow. This morning we got the subway down to the meat packers district and went to the Intrepid museum, which is housed in a former aircraft carrier docked on the Hudson River. We walked through a submarine and saw a lot of helicopters and jets. We then walked back up to Times Square and caught the subway up the west side of central park to the Metropolitan Museum. The Met was lots of fun - it has a complete Egyptian temple which was brought to New York when the Aswan dam was built. They also have lots and lots of paintings, a floor full of rooms arranged with period furniture and a room full of armour for knights and horses. Thomas really enjoyed seeing a suit of armour which was made for (and worn by) Henry VIII.

That evening we had burgers in a diner, which felt very American, and then went to a concert given by musicians who normally play in Broadway shows.

Ferries, Bridges and Feet

Today the temperature was a bit colder than yesterday, with a high of about 4 degrees, so we rugged up in thermals ad beanies and caught the subway down to the southern tip of Manhattan. We hopped on the Staten Island Ferry for a view of the Statue of Liberty. Thomas says that the flame looked very realistic in the sun.

We caught the ferry across to Brooklyn and visited the Brooklyn Ice cream Company, and although it wasn't the best day for ice cream, we managed very well. For lunch we went to a pizza restaurant where the cooks tossed the pizza bases across the kitchen to each other, then we walked back to Manhattan along the Brooklyn Bridge.

In the afternoon we caught the subway back up to Central park. Thomas enjoyed 'surfing' the subway, trying not to fall over when the carriages stopped and started. We went to the FAO Schwartz toy store. They had amazing things made out of lego. Thomas saw a man who could do magic with a special light. He is now practicing the same trick.

Finally, we walked down to Times Square to look at the lights. Thomas says Times Square is 'very city-ish with lots of screens'.

Day of walking

Today we started by walking down the Riverside park. We had a good coffee and bizarre rice crispy loaf thing at Irving's Roaster. We caught the subway to Grand Central Station (Thomas lay on his back to look at the stars on the ceiling) and visited Helen's previous hotel to retrieve her passport and on the way we saw the Chrysler building and Empire State building (we all preferred the Chrysler, with Thomas especially liking the silver statue eagles).
Next we caught the subway to Greenwich Village and walked to the Chelsea market for a Hot dog lunch before walking the High Line park.
Last (but not least) we caught the subway to Columbus circle and walked half the length of central park (Thomas loved climbing on the rocks, as did hundreds of other kids) back to our hotel.

In transit

We finally made it to New York! What a long trip.

Thomas' trip comments:

I got to watch Free Birds, Monsters Uni and some of Planes. I liked Free Birds best because of "Thanks giving to the great turkey" where the Great Turkey brings Pizza to the Wild West.

I liked the newer 747-400 best because it was so big and because of the new screens.

I didn't like trying to get to sleep on the old 747.

I vomited on the taxi ride in to the hotel. :-(

This is our hotel room:

During out trip we saw the Colorado river, the frozen Lake Erie and Manhattan.

Me in LA:

Packing