A couple more days of activities

So we have now begun to do more as we feel rested and ready to go.  Wednesday was a quiet morning planning for Disney, then we went to the old Jerusalem village near to Carl and Petra's house.

http://www.jerusalemmill.org

It is in the Gunpowder Falls National Park and there are a few walking trails leading of from here.  We set off down-river and covered about 4 miles there and back. It was wooded and rocky with places to throw rocks and paddle. It was also very warm.

Carrying a pack with water is vital because even on the hottest days in the uk you need a drink, but here we need gallons.

Anyway, we scrambled about in the country a bit, saw a very cool covered bridge and paddled in the river.

http://alltrails.com/trail/us/maryland/gunpowder-falls-state-park-jerusalem-village-trail-with-jericho

The next day we went to Baltimore. I am amazed at how expensive everything is! Parking for the day: $28, water taxi: $48, smoothie $4... And so on. I think we are used to small town (sorry Doncaster) northern England prices and the rest of the world operates on a different financial paradigm. It didn't stop us from doing anything we had planned however, things cost what they cost and you get on with it!

So, arrival and quick scout around the harbour was followed by lunch overlooking the Constellation and other ships. We then boarded the water taxi and headed off to Fort McHenry. This is famous as the place where, after a battle against the British, xx wrote a little song called the star-spangled banner.

http://www.nps.gov/fomc/index.htm

The boys got to practice musket drill, which ended with an ironic bayonet charge against the British. We returned by water taxi. The easiest way to explain this is to look here:

http://www.baltimorewatertaxi.com/

This was pretty much it apart from taking a look at the various ships in the harbour, including a submarine. It was warm and a lovely day.

Tomorrow Washington DC.

Sweet sweet sleep

Today was mostly resting and planning for next week in Florida. It has been great to see how well all of the younger children are getting along and this really does give us parents a rest.

The main activities were a trip to the park and hanging out. I went out with Ian and Carl to Carl's friends in the evening.  About 9pm I could feel the tiredness creep back and get me.  If you are thinking of flying straight to the states and being active then I'm sure it is possible but a couple of days to get back on your feet and in sync with the time difference has been really useful.

Nicola managed to get a tour of the local elementary school which she found to be just like in the films we see of american schools. This is despite it being a relatively small elementary school. It had a full gym with seating.

It is the little differences that catch you unawares; the grass is different here and the bugs are too. Another early night. Tomorrow I think we will go out visiting and then pester Carl at work....

Safe arrival

After an extremely sleep-deprived 24 hours this will be a very short post. 

We slept from 1am till 4.45. This was because of the last minute packing and printing jobs we had overlooked.

The taxi arrived promptly at 5.15 and then we boarded the 5.40 train to Manchester airport. Arrival here at 7.30 then check in at 8.00. 3 hours on the terminal and boarding before we lifted off.

7 hour flight with comfy seats, ample leg room and a good selection of in-flight movies. It went pretty quickly. I think I missed about 30 mins of the second film before I was woken by something.

Arrival was good, but we were pulled over by a sniffer dog who discovered our secret stash of... Two small oranges and a small apple.  Cue longer processing time.

Quick transfer (1 hour) to Baltimore and here we are.

As I keep drifting off while typing, in going to bed. Goodnight.

We have the passports

I think that the heading just about covers it. Four and a half hours of driving to and from Liverpool (which surprised me by being quite an attractive city, I've never been before) and the nice-but-slow people at the passport office handed it over. I had a lovely day out with Andrew as well.

Phew

Visit to Liverpool tomorrow. Passport will be ready to pick up we are assured. Many thanks to the office of Caroline Flint MP for all of their help.

Passport panic

Now we are a little bit worried that Peter still doesn't have a passport. Calls to the passport people have led to decreasing confidence as they have cited 'emails going to the wrong place' and have said that his passport is in the stage before printing on two occasions.

We will call again tomorrow and a trip to Liverpool looks likely. Caroline Flint (our local MP) is also on the case. Keep everything crossed and if you pray, that would be appreciated.

The RV we booked has also fallen through so we are now looking at camping options up and down the Rockies. It actually frees us up quite a lot as we then don't have to go back too Calgary but can take a higher loop to Jasper and Rimbey.  We will travel more quickly as well.  Lesson for the day: every cloud has a silver lining if you look carefully enough. 

Maybe not the passport one though...

Just found out that our first host Carl is in hospital with a dodgy heart.  There are a number of jokes I could roll out here, but the condition is quite serious and it doesn't seem appropriate.

Carl. Get well mate. I've looked forward to this for about 3 years now and it seems like we are coming to see you at exactly the right time to be a support. Besides, you need to show me round your life , not laze around in bed.  All our love being transatlantically projected.  See you Monday.

Hiatus

It seems that blogging about everyday life is less fun than I thought it would be.  Hence the lack of activity.  However, this Summer is different.  We will be away on a fabulous trip to America and Canada and I'm going to write (or have written by children) a summary of the things we do.  I'll not commit to every day - but at least every few days should do it.

Watch the blog to see things appearing...