TravelStream™ news feed for member alvrez on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/alvrez en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:06:08 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258767347/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258767347/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258767347/tpod.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:06:08 -0500 The Alvrez USA Road Trip 2009

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Durham, North Carolina, United States

Managed to get out of the hotel by just before 8, but after navigating Queens and Brooklyn traffic we probably lost a lot of our early start. Stopped in New Jersey at a pull-off travel centre with a food court and had Burger King for breakfast – yes, I know, how unhealthy!! Then back on the road through Baltimore (I couldn't stop singing 'Good Morning Baltimore' from the movie 'Hair' – well, at least the first line of it as I didn't know the rest!) before stopping at an RV Park in Maryland where we stayed 2 years ago - a book I bought on e-bay got sent there accidentally, so we're making a short detour to pick it up. After grabbing the book we got hopelessly lost and snarled up in  Washington D.C traffic, what a mission!We finally made it out of Washington D.C and into the state of Virginia. We stopped for lunch at Stafford, VA, at a Bob Evens restaurant, which is a chain restaurant we stopped at a couple of times last trip, but had forgotten how good the food was & how cheap! I had a turkey dinner, which was sliced turkey breast and enough stuffing for 3 NZ helpings of stuffing, baby carrots, mashed potato & gravy, cranberry relish & two huge biscuits – all for $9.99. Note – this was actually our 'dinner' as we didn't get there until nearly 3pm, having forgone an earlier lunch! Bought a 'Amish Friends' cookbook, which I'm looking forward to sharing with my more culinary able friends in Island Bay. :0)So far today have driven/touch on 6 States today: New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington D.C, Virginia & lastly North Carolina! About 1200 km driving! Staying the night in Durham, NorthCarolina.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258763767/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258763767/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258763767/tpod.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:23:19 -0500 The Alvrez USA Road Trip 2009

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New York City, New York, United States

Stopped again at MacDonald's for breakfast this morning, before catching the Q60 bus which goes to Manhattan. The bus took a LOT longer than the subway (tons of traffic) but it was an interesting experience seeing some of Queens, which you don't get to do in the subway. Queens had lots of red brick buildings, graffiti, traffic jams everywhere and small shopsmore than chain stores – from what we could see on the bus route, I'm sure other areas of Queens were different. Some amazing views of NYC as we went over the Queens bridge. Hopped on the subway and then transferred to the line that would take us to the American Museum of Natural History by Central Park. However, unbeknownst to us we hadn't actually transferred lines properly, so we were sitting at the wrong part of the subway wondering why our train hadn't come...! Finally we figured it out and managed to get to the right area and catch the right train, but that was 30 minutes down the drain sitting watching subway trains rush by. Once at the Museum (which was opposite the park, and looked very stately among the autumn coloured trees) we paid our $50 suggested (!!) donation and decided to go on a free highlights tour. The guide we got (Irene) was very passionate and enthusiastic about the museum and we were highly entertained by her narration about the many exhibits (evidently the museum has over 2.5 million – we didn't see that many, thank goodness!). There were tons of dinosaur bones (which the museum is famous for) and many stuffed real animals that looked spookily lifelike, behind glass with painted murals in background. After the tour we grabbed a quick lunchat a burger place called 'Shake Shack' (which were the nicest burgers we've had in the USA so far) but the place was jam packed so we had to sit on some benches outside the museum, which Josh and Kate moaned about as by this time it was spitting/drizzling. Spent another couple of hours in the museum, lots to see, but boy were our feet/legs sore by the end of it! Then we decided to go into Central Park and see the castle that we'd read about – asked about 6 staff members of the museum where it was and none of them seemed to know! Finallyfound someone who told us to go down 81st street (which goes right across Central Park) and we would spot it. So we dutifully trotted off down 81st street in the light rain with 2 complaining children, hemmed in by a tall rock wall one side of us and two lanes of whizzing traffic on the other, expecting to find some paths off 81st street so we can actually get INTO the park, rather than walking down the busy road beside it...ah, no. No entrances, and when we finally spotted the top of the castle, there was no way of getting to it, we just had to keep plodding andplodding and plodding...!! Finally made it across to the other side of Central Park and decided to at least walk some of the way through the park – which looked beautiful with the yellow/orange leafed trees and winding paths. Kids were not impressed, Josh kept laying down on any available rock or even the path sometimes! Kate cheered up a bit when we saw lots of squirrels, and then both kids became more enthusiastic when we found a playground. After taking somephotos of us at the famous 'Alice in Wonderland' sculpture, we decided to catch a bus down to the end of the park, where the horse/carriage rides start from. We found a driver called Richie (he was from Ireland and asked if we were from  England..hehehe) and his horse Gallagher. The four of us piled into the carriage and tuckedthe big furry blanket around us and enjoyed a 20 minute ride around Central Park, which was made even more enjoyable by the fact that we didn't have to WALK! Saw on the ride the skating rink inside the Park, the The Plaza hotel (where Home Alone 2 and Crocodile Dundee was filmed), the two 'Ghostbuster' sky scrapers (from the movie) and an indoor carousel (which was a bit boring as was only a brick building). After the ride we took the kids for a short look into FAO Schwarz again (huge toy store that we went to last time) and then caught the subway back downto 34th street where we had dinner at the Tick Tock diner again. After dinner Fred bought a beautiful leather ¾ length coat for $129!!! Then our last look at the frantic busyness of a New York city street with the Empire State building wreathed in mist & rain in the distance, before heading down into the bowels of thesubway to our final return trip to the hotel.
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New York City, New York, United States

Up at the crack of dawn today...5.45am, while it was still dark. Managed to drag the kids out of bed and get them dressed with intentions of getting breakfast in town before going to be in the audience of The Early Show. We'd been told to arrive at 7am for the show, so aimed for that time. Well! We got there at about 6.50 so no time to grab anything to eat, and to find that the show is actually done outside where it was less than 10 degrees and with a colder wind! Well, parts of it are done outside – the few seconds they wanted the audience for. We thought since we had gotten up so early that we would brave the freezing cold anyway – after finding out from a crew member that we didn't need to be there until 8.30am! Went and got breakfast at a nice and cheap diner, then waited in the Apple Mac store - which, amazingly for New York where everything seems to open at 10am – was open at 7am, and was toasty and warm inside (and full or customers too). At 8.30 we wandered back to the tv set just in time to be on USA national television, as the tv cameras were aimed at the two presenters, and we were just behind them. I think our bright red sweatshirts helped us stand out. :) There were only about 10 people there in the audience and there was really no need for a 'ticket' as anyone could just wander up and be in the audience. After our 30 seconds of fame, we were told to be back there at 9am for a tour of the studio, and being nosy types we decided we would return, so back to the Apple Mac store to keep warm and play games. The TV studio tour was a bit of a let down, only about 10 minutes long and we had to wait outside in the freezing cold until itwas time to go in. At least we got a good family photo of the four of us with an NYPD policeman while we waited and as a bonus Elvis Costello walked right past us – he had been inside for aninterview. (Tracey adds that she wouldn't know Elvis Costello if she fell over him, but Fred was impressed!)Got to say there are policeman simply everywhere in NY city, every corner of every street seems to have one or more of them, every train station is packed with policemen and women too. Love the mounted police too – feel sorry for the poor horses living in NYC with no grass & fields to run around on.We then got the subway back to Times Square to try and find Kate a jacket, as it was really cold today and she had only a sweatshirt. While we were there we noted that on the enormous (enormous!) neon sign across from McD's there was a guy who we presumed was working on it, but the photo really gives you an idea just how big the sign is.Another annoying NY thing (and especially in Times Square) are the 'bus tour guys' who are trying to get tourists to go on their bus tours. They are simply everywhere – every corner of the street, almost yelling at you to go on their tour, and then again on the next corner, then the next corner...you get the idea. There's only so many times you can say 'no thanks' without it getting tedious!We finally found one for her at K'Mart (which meant catching yet another train) so then caught the subway to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, where we had some really foul pretzels – cold and tasteless. We had had one earlier in the day in mid-town and it was  excellent but not these four. But we did see some squirrels there, including a black one that we had not seen before in that colour. (Tracey adds that this area was totally different in atmosphere to 'uptown' areas like Times Square, this is where NYC university is and has lots of apartment blocks and little 'mom & pop' stores.)From there we thought we'd go to Chinatown and Little Italy, just to have a look. Chinatown was extremely busy and reminded us of Tijuana where every shop has someone outside trying to force you to go in and buy their stuff. I took Josh into the McDs there so he could use the toilet, but the usual “customers only restroom” sign was there. So I bought coffees while he went to the toilet. The girl behind the counter could not stop laughing at me ordering a “small black and small white coffee”. She thought I said light coffee and I had to describe to her what a white coffee was. The joke went on and on with the staff there while I waited for Josh to come back from the toilet. (Tracey adds that while I was in one of those tacky souvenir shops getting ripped off, Fred gave away my MacDonald's coffee to a homeless man – hope he enjoyed.)While on the way to Chinatown we went into a pet shop, because I just knew there would be snakes for sale...and guess what? There were. Only small ones – which I am sure grow into huge man-eating ones – and so cheap at $99. Not even tempted, although Josh did decide it was quite plausible for us to buy him a frog to take on the remainder of our trip. Yeah, right.We then walked through more of Chinatown and on to Little Italy, which border each other. LittleItaly is a very pretty part of town, with lots of Italian restaurants (each with a guy out the front trying to force you inside, but not with as much vigor as Chinatown and with more wit and style) and older style architecture. By this time we were all pretty much stuffed, our feet and calf muscles were screaming out, so we caught the subway back to our hotel. We only just managed to drag our weary bodies inside at a much more reasonable 4pm – after last night's late night it was funny to be arriving back in daylight. None of us could manage walking to get dinner so we ordered in Chinese. You would think we would have learnt from the last time we got Chinese food and would have ordered less, but no, we got the 'large' servings. We didn't even get through half our order and it was less than $30, including fortune cookies (Josh's said “learn Chinese”!) free drinks and lots of other goodies. Andthe food came in those cool little boxes you see on Seinfeld.
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New York City, New York, United States

Didn't sleep well last night, but it wasn't the traffic going by outside, it was all the noise of the hotel – inconsiderate people slamming their doors late at night and sounds of humming coming from somewhere and water dripping/running. A quick MacDonald's breakfast before getting our 7 day Metro (subway) pass for $27 each and then a train into Times Square, which even in daylight is impressive with all the neon lights and masses of people swarming along the sidewalks and police officers on every corner. We headed up into the heart of Times Square to find out about getting cheap Broadway tickets and once we found where to queue at 2pm, we started walking downtown towards the Tick Tock Diner for lunch (where we had visited 2 times last trip, once at 3am in the morning!).After lunch Fred went back to Times Square by himself to queue for tickets, while the kids and I looked all over K-Mart for these little souvenir bears that the kids got last time and wanted to replace – of course we traipsed all over 3 stories of this department store and couldn't find them! Gave up in the end, and the kids and I navigated the subway up to Times Square to meet Fred, who was stuck in a long line for tickets and chatting to an Irish couple and even a Broadway producer! Once we had our 50% off tickets to 'Shrek the Musical' (Fred & I really wanted to see'The Lion King' but they NEVER to discounted tickets a sales lady told us) that still cost us $66 each, but were good seats 13 rows from front & in the centre. We were approached by a young guy at Times Square asking if we wanted to be part of the live audience for 'The Early Show' on CBS, so of course we jumped at the chance, but we have to be at the studios at 7am tomorrow! Worth it for the experience, I'm sure!Then we hopped on another subway to check out Grand Central Station, which was very impressive, once we finally navigated the maze of subway corridors to find it! Next we decided to go up the Empire State building, so onto another two trains to get back to the right station. By this time it was dusk and after going through ESB security and being herded though lines like sheep (baaaa...) to the elevators (a short wait really considering what I'd heard about the queues in ESB) we went up to the observation decks. The decks outside were PACKED with people and it was freezing cold – Kate let us know about this in no uncertain terms... Beautiful views of Manhattan and beyond up there, especially with all the lights coming on and an amazing sunset. Fred was giving Kate (who was whinging her heart out about being cold with sore feetby this time) a piggy-back ride when a security guard told him he couldn't do that as it was 'dangerous' and that 'she may fall off the ledge' – hello Mr Security Guard – the fence is over 8 feet tall and curved over, how the HECK is she going to fall off?? Fred couldn't even throw her over if his life depended on it! Rolling his eyes, Fred took the kids inside to find a seat so they could rest in the warmth, but there was no where to sit! The kids were told by a security guard that they weren't allowed to sit on the floor (“because then other people might want to too” I think he told Fred) and all the ledges on the low windows had spikes on them so you couldn't sit there either! So we were only up at the observatory for about 30 minutes, what a waste of US$70 – Rockefeller Centre isMUCH better, lots of comfortable seats inside with unobstructed viewsand a lot more space so you don't feel crammed in like sardines –and Security guards who aren't as anal. Back on the elevator to godown, we had to get out on the 83rd floor to swap liftsand we were forced to go around in a circle RIGHT through a huge giftshop – the elevator we needed to get down was about 2 feet awayfrom the one from the observatory, but you were NOT allowed toby-pass the gift shop. We did buy the obligatory photo taken of usas we entered the ESB, but I would NEVER go back there again orrecommend it to anyone – go to Rockefeller is my advice. After fuming our way back to thesubway, we went back to the Broadway area to find somewhere to eatbefore the show. We found 'The Stardust Diner' with singingwaitresses and waiters and of course we couldn't resist. They werereally entertaining, especially when two waiters started singing 'NewYork, New York'! The food was decidedly average and totallyover-priced, but it was more for the experience than the food.'Shrek The musical' was just awesome, Ihave never seen any production so fabulous! Everything from theamazing sets that moved around the stage, to the beautiful song anddance numbers, to the witticisms of Donkey.Didn't get back to our hotel till10.30pm, and we'll have to get up at 5.45 in the morning to get tothe studio by 7am!
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New York City, New York, United States

Well, this hotel nearly was as bad as the one in 'The Shining' – I kept expecting Jack Nicholson to come crashing through the door with an axe! To start with the rooms décor was a bit old,  bathroom sink cracked etc, but hey, we're not that fussy – that was until I spotted the long black hair stuck to the shower wall with an accompanying unidentifiable stain – should have known it was going to get worse... Fred had already paid another $50 so the kids could have the adjoining hotel room next to ours...bad move paying first. When we'd finally done all our washing we decided to hit the sack at about 10.30 – only to find more long black hairs in the sheets – eeeeewwwww! Thought we'd sleep in the other double bed in our room – only to find another hair in there! Of course by that time it was too late to shift the kids (who were fast asleep) so we just had to sleep there. When we went for our free breakfast this morning we found that it was the sum total of some really sad looking fruit (oranges looked like their use-by date was about 3 weeks ago), a couple of danishes, and some packaged muffins (at least they would be sanitary to eat). When asking the receptionist (who must have been the only staff at this giant complex) behind the lobby desk (and I have to say the lobby was beautifully decked out with autumn pumpkins & leaves – don't be fooled people, we were...) she pointed us to the pitch black restaurant and said there may be some in there. We found a few tiny boxes of cereal and then asked her if there was some milk to go with it. 5 minutes after she disappeared out back she finally returned very apologetically to say there was none... (in that time she could have whipped across to the next door gas station and got some!). So Fred and the kids ended up using those tiny milk tubs that you use in your coffee. After packing up we went downstairs and asked to speak to the manager (who turned out to be the receptionist) about the room, but although she was very apologetic, she basically said it wasn't her responsibility and for suggested that we ring the free phone to speak to the Day Manager...hmmm, passing the buck I think, and if the rest of the hotel is anything like our room (which if by the state of the halls is used as comparison, then I would think so) she is probably well used to complaints. I did mention to her that we had stayed at lots of other hotels in the U.S and this was by far the worst. Some of the other places we have been on this holiday have look like they were straight out of the 70's & 80's, but they were CLEAN.Anyway, on the Interstate at 8.30 am straight to NYC – only a 400 mile (700km) drive to the Big Apple. Stopped for lunch at Buck Horn, Pennsylvania, at a 'Ruby Tuesday' restaurant, which was prettysimilar to the Applebee's that we went to last week. Last time we were in the States we went to a Ruby Tuesday and they had the most amazing salad bar – the one in Buck Horn wasn't so great. Josh was dead keen to get the adult size burger so he could have the 'endless' fries that went with it. We talked him out of it, and just as well, as he didn't finish half the serving of fries that came with the kids meal – plus his mini cheeseburger kids meal was identical to the mini burger meal that I ordered – and half the cost! Fred said he enjoyed his Parmesan Chicken breast & pasta, which is just as well considering the bill was $40 for the four of us.An American funny that I forgot to mention at the start of our trip: On the second night of trip while at Burger King, Fred noticed a sign by the soda (fizzy drinks) machine that had a list of the different flavours of soda, and which would suit what burger, just like a wine recommendation... surely it was meant tongue in cheek?? Or maybe not...Finally got to NY, but what an absolute nightmare getting through NYC and Queens to our hotel – luckily in daylight, but even then we've lost count of the times we went 'Off Route' with our GPS and had to recalculate, then navigate through the worst imaginable snarl of rush hour traffic! Finally found the hotel after driving down an 8 lane blvd with separated lanes and being in the wrong lanes... Looking forward to our room and a cup of coffee. Especially after paying $8 to get through the Lincoln Tunnel then another $5.50 to go through the Queen's Tunnel!After Fred had dealt with a rather 'curt' male concierge at the hotel we found our room on the 3rdfloor, facing the 8 lanes of traffic whizzing by outside. The room is ok, again a little outdated, but at least clean this time – and we're only going to be here at night to sleep & then off again in the morning. Only big 'Oh No!' moment is there isn't a coffee machine in the room, had to go down to the restaurant downstairs and pay $1.75 each for a coffee!!!! Think that this is fairly typical ofhotels in NYC though – when we stayed in Manhattan last time we had to buy coffee from the lobby.Tomorrow we hit New York City...hope our feet are up to it.
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Los Angeles, California, United States

to fix the map thingy
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Youngstown, Ohio, United States

Another yummy breakfast this morning before hitting the road out of Chicago. Will be traveling through 3 States today: Illinois, Indiana & Ohio. Have spent a small fortune on tolls going the route we are, but it's the most direct way to drive.For lunch (a late lunch as there was another time change!) we stopped at our first Cracker Barrel restaurant (our families very favourite over here) which are as scarce as hen's teeth in thewestern states that we've been through. You should have heard us all squeal like mad people when we pulled into the parking lot! Crackerbarrel was packed with African American Church people, being a Sunday lunchtime (actually it was 3pm local time, but it was still flat out busy) in all their colourful and very beautiful Sunday-best clothes. I tried not to stare too much, it's just hard coning from a country with predominantly Maori/Pacific Islanders to suddenly see so many people with a lot darker skin and different accents– I really hope this doesn't sound offensive, I'm probably not being very P.C. The meal was lovely and very filling, even the kids ate everything on their plates for once. Fred had a Meatloaf sandwich, while I had Chicken n' Dumplin's, mashed potato, green beens, and biscuits – mmmmmmmm. The gift shop attached was all decorated up with gorgeous Christmas themed decorations other lovely 'country' style things – I resisted buying too many things, just a couple of Christmas ornaments & a gift for a friend back home. Going to stay in Youngstown, Ohio tonight since we lost an hour traveling East across a time zone. We finally found a hotel with a laundry, it's actually a hotel/conference center and because it's a weekend, we are 1 of 15 guests, so we have the whole 4th floor to ourselves – a bit spooky actually...ever seen Stephen King's 'The Shining'?! At least their guest laundry is free so we don't have to worry about having buckets of quarters to do our washing.
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Chicago, Illinois, United States

Breakfast was exceptional this morning, a huge selection and top of the line quality – really yummy. Guess that's what you pay for staying at The Hilton. The waitress was very helpful and gave us a map of the MTA (trains/buses), plus directions to hotel/Sears tower/Navy Pier where we wanted to go. Caught the free hotel shuttle to the MTA station, and then looked like absolute tourists (which I guess we are!) as we tried to figure how to get a MTA card and to get through the turnstiles, but we got it sussed in the end! The ride into the city took about 45 minutes and passed by some very 'Chicago-ish' suburbs, complete with the houses backing right up to the tracks of the train.Our first glimpse of the city as we came up out of the subway was just skyscraper after skyscraper. Our first stop was the Sears Tower, which was not fun having to wait in line to catch a lift to go down to the basement first, to then queue up to go through security, to then queue up to pay our US$55 to go up the tower, then wait 20 minutes to catch a lift to the 103rd floor. Mind you, it was worth it. The views are fantastic in every direction. Loads of other tourists up there, especially being a Saturday and the weather was uncharacteristically warm and sunny. We had heard that Chicago would be cold and windy, but we were pretty warm all day until 4pm.Anyway on the viewing deck of the Sears Tower they have installed some glass sticky-outy bits that you can (queue up to) stand on and take photos. Quite mind-blowing to look down 103 stories! We then queued to catch a lift down, then queued again to catch the lift we need to go from the basement to the ground level. We managed to find our way on an 'El” - elevated train – to a bus stop to go to the famous Navy Pier. Navy Pier was packed – it's a popular local attraction as well...think of it as Victoria Park Market in Auckland but much bigger and loads more people and built over the water. They had free kids' shows there but we headed straight to the also-famous Navy Pier Ferris Wheel. After unloading ourselves of US$24 we got a total of one revolution of the wheel! Still the views were great and at least we can say we did the Ferris Wheel on Navy Pier. We then grabbed lunch – everywhere packed again – kids had McDs while Tracey and I wanted to try one of the famous Chicago Hot Dogs. They were ok but nothing to write home about we thought, but then we were at a tourist attraction which may have had some bearing on it. Tracey got a Chicago dog –Sausage, huge pickle, hot/spicy green thingys, chopped onion & something else unidentifiable. I got a Green Bay hot dog which is just a basic hot dog but covered in melted cheese. I also ordered Cheddar Fries which is fries covered in...yes you guessed it, cheddar cheese. No wonder we saw loads of heart defibrillators about the place!We then walked to the end of the pier, and all the way around and caught the free shuttle that took us into town. Our destination was the 'bean' sculpture, but the walk along Michigan Avenue, Chicago's main street, was great in itself, huge skyscrapers everywhere, and we saw two different lots of wedding couples in the middle of the road getting photos taken. Seems likeit's a Chicago tradition? Lots of limos driving around too, and the sidewalks were so packed it reminded us of New York city. People were friendly and helpful on the couple of times we got lost and had to ask for directions.We got to the Bean sculpture, which is a massive stainless steel sculpture about 6 metres high, loads of people again but really cool to go and touch it, or take photos of your reflection. From there we walked down (after being told off by security for sitting somewhere we shouldn't...sigh) to the ice skating rink only in time to see them finish scraping it (or whateverthey do) with a massive machine, but no one ice skating unfortunately. Had to laugh at the sign in front of the ice that said, "Absolutely no shoes on the ice!!!! Positively no shoes on the ice!!!" Just in case you didn't understand not to have shoes on the ice the first time, they had to repeat it to make sure...!?We were all exhausted by now, with sore legs and feet, a VERY common complaint from Kate and Josh. So we walked up to catch another El and went to a McDs for much-needed coffee and sodas. After a spot of souvenir shopping it was to another El station to catch the train ride home. We tried ringing the hotel from the train station to order a pick-up but oh the phone system in the US is a dog. You never know if you have to dial '1' before the number, whatis a local number and what is not – it's just so hard to call anyone. From the hotel to dial someone you either dial 9 then 1 then the number or just 9 then the number or 8 then the number or 8 then 1 then the number – and some times none of those combos work either!Arghhh! Luckily at the train station some lovely ladies lent me their cellphone and I managed to get through to the hotel somehow. But while I was calling, our hotel shuttle turned up and even though Tracey was over there, he just went again! So I called the hotel who told me he would be back in 15 minutes....40 minutes later he turned up to pick up some cold and grumpy guests with extremely sore feet.It was so good to get to our room and needless to say that was onetip we didn't pay.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258164782/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258164782/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258164782/tpod.html Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:09:42 -0500 The Alvrez USA Road Trip 2009

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

Hit the road out of Mankato on time of 8.30 this morning, and drove straight to Rochester, MN to a mall there, as Josh left his jacket on one of the two planes coming over and by evening here, you definitely need a jacket. At the moment the temperature is about 15 – 16 degrees, but the windchill at night...brrrr. The Mall we stopped at was HUGE, had at least 3 full size department stores: JC Penney's, Macy's and Sears, plus lots of other smaller shops inside. When we first got there the stores hadn't opened (a lot of stores open at 10am over here) but by the time we'd been inside for a short while, lots of people started coming through. Lots of sales happening in the stores, got a nice top at JC Penney's for $2.97 on Clearance! Bought Josh a jacket and Fred & I got some good brand sneakers from Sears (Fred's Sketchers $30) , before back on Interstate 90 heading East. Crossed over the Mississippi river as we drove into the state of Wisconsin. Took an exit of the Interstate to the 'Happy Trails Diner' which was attached to a gas station at Sparta. Food was yummy, with very large servings! Waitress amused Fred and I as everywhere you go in the states when you say 'Thank-you' to someone, you can almost guarantee that they'll reply 'You're Welcome' – well not this waitress! Every time we said 'Thank you' to her, she would reply with a non-committal “Mmm-hmm.”Oh well, maybe she was having an off day...Arrived in Chicago at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel at nearly 6, after navigating some pretty serious traffic(makes Auckland rush hour look like a slow day in Kaitaia) – well done Fred! Kids happy to have a swim in the heated pool, and the Chicago specialty of Deep Dish Pizza for dinner – yum!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258072130/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258072130/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alvrez/7/1258072130/tpod.html Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:06:57 -0500 The Alvrez USA Road Trip 2009

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Mankato, Minnesota, United States

Off to De Smet, South Dakota today, home town (one of them) of Laura Ingall's Wilder, author of the 'Little House' series (in case you've been living under a rock & unfamiliar with the series of books and the 1970's TV series.) Drove through some small towns on the way there (Josh had to make an emergency toilet stop at a tiny gas station in the town of Fedora and I use the term 'town' lightly as it had a population of 21 according to the town's sign) and again the wide open fields of maize and prairie grass. De Smet was a lovely little town and we decided to do the Laura Ingall Wilder tour. Our guide was called Bev and she was very knowledgeable andentertaining – we especially like the way she said 'creek', which came out as 'crick'! First we went to the Surveyors Cottage where Bev told us about the families travels and then we checked out the old schoolhouse. Lastly we drove across town to the house that Pa built in the late 1870's and heard about the family once the girls had grown to adulthood. We were really glad we did the tour and even Josh and Kate seemed to enjoy it – Kate of course dead keen to buythe set of Laura's books (which we did). After the tour drove back into town to have lunch at Ward Store (a cross between a bakery/diner/general store). The waitress there was very friendlyand even gave Kate a grilled cheese sandwich for free when she didn't like the soup that she'd ordered. Fred was talking to the waitress later, who was originally from Florida, and when she asked him where we were from she had no idea where New Zealand was (she even askedFred what 'State' that was in), or even Australia or Antarctica! Also the other couple from Michigan who were on the tour with us came over for a chat, which was nice. Stopped in at The Loftus Store, (an original store from Laura's time, which now sells souvenirs) and bought a couple of gifts – the lady there again very friendly. All and all the friendliest town we've been to so far in the USA and would loved to have spent more time there.Back on the road to Mankato, Minnesota – not sure if mentioned in the Laura books, but was mentioned on the TV Series. Also drove through Walnut Grove (where Ingall's family lived in) and past 'Plum Creek' (name of one of the books). Staying at the Comfort Inn in Mankato. Walked across the parking lot and across the road (was freezing outside, at least I thought so) toTaco Bell where we ate (more than enough) for $16. Back at the motel, the kids enjoyed having a swim in the heated pool.
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