...Or so we thought

After checking in our bags and watching the security guards have a giggle with Dave the Minion we were sad to see that the plane had been delayed by an hour. Luckily there was quite a time gap between our landing time and our connecting flight so we weren't worried. That was until we got on the plane and were told that there was a further delay...uh oh!

Arriving in Philadelphia we run off the plane only to find that we'd missed our flight by 10 minutes...ohhhh!!! James goes to sort it out and comes back with a tiny washbag for one and an explanation that we can't have our luggage back and the next flight is 8.50pm tomorrow, mannnn!!!Booking onto that flight we ask about getting somewhere to stay but we're told that the airline aren't responsible for weather related cancellations. Following a very polite conversation and puppy dog eyes from James we end up with a free hotel room, result! 

Arriving at the hotel we are fed up and hungry. We ask if there are any restaurants or shops within walking distance which prompts the response "Oh no. Nothing within WALKING distance". Oh well, suppose it's some chips in the bar for us then. 

After a lovely sleep we wake up to a beautiful sunny day. It would be nice to take advantage of the pool but with no luggage we doubt we'd be let into it in the nuddy. With a full day to waste we decide to ignore the reception lady's advice and walk along the road to see if we can find anything. Within 10 minutes we come across an Ihop and another diner, we should know by now that our "walking distance" is a lot different to American walking distance! We have a big breakfast and carry on walking. 10 minutes later we find a small town called Tinicum which has shops, pubs and a lovely harbour, thank goodness we decided to take a stroll and not just sit in the hotel bar for the day. Now, time for a pint...

 

After enjoying the beer garden we leave with a friendly wave to the waitresses who know us as "The English couple" and go to sober up with a banana split and chocolate brownie.

At the airport we aren't shocked to see that we are delayed again but at least we don't have a connecting flight to miss this time. After flying through a thunderstorm (AMAZING!) we arrive back on UK soil and into the arms of Sue and Phil. 

The End.

Back in Hudson to finish the trip of a lifetime (Our last post, sob!)

With only a few days left in America we decide to spend our time wisely by raiding the local T K Maxx for bargains to take home and eating and drinking as much as we can fit in. It's nice to be here to celebrate Katherine's birthday with her and we're definitely in the good books after buying her a spy watch and a tent. 

On our last day it's time to make the most of Chris and Tricia's fantastic garden and we take the boat out on the lake with a couple of beers and Christine wrapped up tightly in a life jacket. We don't see any animals but it's very relaxing and we could stay out here all day...if there was a toilet on the boat that is. 

James cooks for Chris and Tricia as a thank you for all that they have done for us and we chat into the night before having a few beers in the local and calling it a night. Awwww. 

The next day and it's time to go home. We say goodbye to Tricia and Katherine and Chris kindly takes us to the bus stop so that we can spend our last few hours in Boston. We have been asked by our friend Roosa to view an apartment for her in the Cambridge area which we are happy to do as we wanted to see Cambridge anyway. It's a lovely area and we call in to the Mexican restaurant that seems to be a tradition for the Lambert family when they are in Boston. It is one of the best meals we have had and Christine manages to clear the whole plate for the first time since being in America. The huge margarita's are worth a mention too ;) 

We meet Chris at the airport to collect our bags (seriously Chris, you are brilliant!) and say our goodbyes. A great way to finish the trip, goodbye America! 

Boston

It's a lovely day and time for a day trip to Boston, woohoo!

Arriving in Boston we aim straight for the aquarium to see the seals before having a nice stroll along the harbour. We make our way to the old town and browse the markets as well as taking in the sights of all the pretty buildings.

It's time for an early dinner in the 21st Amendment bar where James' burger is so big it nearly eats him. After fuelling up we find the gardens which are beautiful and we have a walk around the lake where we spot some bandit squirrels stealing food from prams, naughty squirrels!

We decide to take a trip on the historic swan boats which is really peaceful and relaxing.

After strolling through the streets of Boston we decide to stop for a drink and where better to stop than where everybody knows your name? that's right, we're in the famous Cheers bar although it's not as friendly as the song makes out and not as cheap as the show makes out, but worth a stop.

The actual set is out of bounds

We'd like to visit the library where the globe thingy is so we stroll through some lovely green areas before arriving at the library which is shut because it's a Monday, great! Plan B is a walk along the waterfront which is really nice. We see some people having a free sailing lesson but the sight of them nearly capsizing puts an end to any thoughts of us heading out on the water.

There's been a lot of walking today so we're very grateful that Uncle Chris has offered to pick us up, he's a good egg.

Back in Hudson for Katherine's birthday

It's the moment we've all been waiting for...Katherine's spy themed birthday party...yeahhhh!!!

It's all go go go as the obstacle course is set up, the "bomb" wrapped up and the wanted posters plastered all over the house, the bad guys won't be able to escape those water pistols. The pair of us get a little break and accompany Chris to pick up the ice cream cake (Ooooh American's have the best desserts) and we even get treated to an ice cream each, cheers Chris!

Back at the house the secret agents have started to arrive and pick their aliases before lining up for the disguise race. James is in charge and the spies are unrecognisable and once they are in their trench coats, hats and glasses disguise they're ready to run the obstacle course to collect and solve the coded message from Paris. Their work isn't over as Agent Katherine leads the other agents to diffuse the huge bomb that's been left lying around (how irresponsible) but luckily it proves easy enough to get through the layers, especially if you like toys and mentos. After all that hard work the Agents eat the evidence which is conveniently hidden in the ice cream cake, lucky them! But wait...uh oh...the agents have noticed the wanted posters and it's time for us to run as they practise their weapon control (water pistols) on us (the enemy!).

By the end of the day we are soaked but we had a wonderful day and we hope Agent Katherine did too!

Jay and Silent Bob

Drive back to Jersey

Some really bad planning meant that we found out too late that we were really close to Kevin Smith's hometown of Red Bank so after looping back on ourselves we headed there in search of Silent Bob.

We go into 'Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash' and spend a million hours in there (that's Christine counting) while James buys comics and gets stupidly excited by all sorts of silly stuff from various films.

Buddy Jesus

Bluntman and Chronic - heroes of our time

Mooby!

Then it’s a trip to see where Clerks is filmed, a shop called Quick Stop. James has fun pretending to be Jay and Silent Bob but draws the line at getting all of the eggs and milk out of the fridge. Christine just has to hold the camera while having no clue what's going on.

On the way back to Hudson we see that a police car has pulled someone over and the policeman has a gun to the drivers head – wowzer!

There’s so much traffic that we don’t get back until past 10pm…sorry uncle Chris! See what we mean by bad planning.

Don't worry, I didn't expect you to get it

New Yoick

Time to say goodbye to the Shore and head to our next destination New York! Exciting!

 We’re staying in Jersey City with a lady called Sharleen. When we arrive at her house she is in the shower, she must have been in a rush to get to the door as she’s wearing pants, an opened dressing gown and a blouse with one button shut over the top of that, we don’t know where to look! Sharleen is lovely and gives us lots of tips to get the best out of New York and after a quick cup of tea we get on the bus.

 Walking out of the bus station we’re overwhelmed, it’s madness! So many cars beeping, people rushing about and huge glistening billboards everywhere. Tricia and Katherine were adamant that we had to get a potato Knish while we are in NY so we do as we’re told and stop at a bakery stall. While ordering, a little old man comes over to the bakery and says “Excuse me, do you have any chair-wee toin-ovohhs?”…can you work it out? We LOVE the New York accent and Christine wants to spend the day following the old man around.

An Englishman in New York

 Instead we walk around Times Square and then aim for some peace in Central Park which doesn’t happen because even that is packed full of people. We peek over the wall to see the seals and goats in the zoo (We’re guessing  that there are more animals in there than that though).

It’s geeky time as we go to find film locations from Taxi Driver. First we find the theatre where Travis watches naughty films and then go to Columbus Circle which is a little area in a roundabout full of statues. The next stop is Grand Central Station which instantly reminds us of the scene from Madagascar. We spend about 5 hours trying to spot the "dirty square" on the ceiling which was left there to show how polluted the station used to get. It was the size of a post it note, no wonder it took us ages to find!

  It’s getting late so we go back to Times Square to see what it’s like all lit up at night. On the way there is a lot of commotion and we’re pretty sure the President or his wife drove past us, It’s not been confirmed but we’re taking it anyway. Spotting the M&M shop we go inside for a bit of warmth. It’s huge with pretty much anything you could think of having a picture of an M&M on it. After watching a giant blue M&M do a little dance we go into Toys R Us to see if we can find a present for Katherine and it’s amazing! There’s a huge giant ferris wheel with cars designed like Little Tykes and My Little Pony. There’s a huge lego Hulk and Statue of Liberty as well as a huge moving and roaring dinosaur from Jurassic Park which is scaring all of the little kiddiwinks….and James. Home time!

Mr President??

 

Be mine?

I only said Green wasn't his colour!

Balloooowww!!

We’re looking forward to a nice breakfast as promised by Sharleen, however, the sliced strawberries and sugar don’t really fill us up so we stop at a little café in Lower Manhatten for a proper breakfast (What Americans do best) before going to find the High Line which is an abandoned railway above the city that has been turned into a park with lots of trees and flowers. It’s a nice change from the mayhem of Times Square but it probably would have been a lot better without the downpour of rain! 

Next up it’s more Taxi Driver location spotting on E18th Street where Sport the pimp hangs out and Travis does all that shooting malarkey. We stop for a rest in a dingy bar before walking over to Little Italy, eating pizza and watching the world go by. We could stay here for the rest of the day, especially as Christine is in love with the Italian-American accent but instead we buy a red velvet cannoli and have a stroll through China Town. 

Doing a Travis

Pizza and People watching

Arriving in the financial district we see Wall Street, lots of tall buildings and a helluva lot of people having their picture taken with a giant bronzed bull’s balls.

We make our way to the ferry terminal and get the Staten Island ferry to catch a close up of the Statue of Liberty (for all of the budget travellers this is the free way to see the lovely lady!). The weather is rubbish today so by the time we go past on the way back we can only see her skirt. The weather cancels our plans of a helicopter ride or going up the Empire State building, it’s so foggy we wouldn’t be able to see anything. 

We walk back through China Town and Little Italy and stumble across another film location, the church from Mean Streets and Godfather II. We can’t go in because it’s too late which is a shame, it’s been a while since we visited a church. We find a bar to chill out in, it’s 10pm and we’re shattered! After a couple of beers our legs are working again and we find our way home.