Last week recap

Finally, the update which you have all been waiting for, which brings you up to date on about a week's worth of traveling! Woo hoo! The internet access has been somewhat limited for the past week, and I tend not to write posts whilst they are happening (ie writing on the train and uploading later). Perhaps my lateness in updating will keep my recount a little briefer than normal (a good thing!) So, here we go... back to Chicago...

Mon, Aug 21-- We did in fact go to Giordano's for deep dish pizza. We got sausage and spinach, and it was good and filling, unfortunately we're not bringing any home as I don't think it would keep. After we walked down to the river, and came back up the Magnificent Mile past the Wrigley and Tribune buildings, many fancy shops, a water tower built like a castle, and finally made our way back to the hotel.

Tues, Aug 22-- We went on an architecture boat cruise in the Chicago River put on by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. It was a 90minute tour that took us up the main branch of the river and on the two smaller branches as well. Along with seeing lots of buildings (many designed by Mies Van der Rohe), we went under more than 20 bridges, some of which were double decker. Our guide told us all about the architects, uses, materials and construction of the buildings along with many jokes. I would highly recommend the tour, it was quite enjoyable.

After we ventured to Millennium Park, with an amphitheater designed by Frank Gehry, the same man who made EMP in Seattle. There are also other interesting sculptures there, and we had our lunch in a cafe there. We decided to try to go to the Field Museum, so we walked through Grant Park as well, past Buckingham fountains, but we were sort of late in getting there, so after ruling out Shedd Aquarium too, hopped on a Metra commuter train and out to Hyde Park. I lived there for 4 years, and we found my old apartment building (couldn't tell if it was the same one though), and walked around the University of Chicago. Back on the Metra to downtown, we went to Marshall Fields, a large department store. We wandered around a bit there, didn't buy any Frangos though :( Finally, we had dinner at a Cajun restaurant called Redfish, where i had Jumbalaya.

Wed, Aug 23--We checked out of the hotel, but kept our luggage there, and headed north to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We spent a few hours there, going about the whole park. Highlights included the large monkey house, where we got to see a gorilla baby, and chimpanzees, though it didn't smell as much as I remember as a kid. There was also a small monkey house, with a gibbon mama and child. We saw sleeping lions up close, and those polar bears which we had missed in Churchill. It was a hot day in Chicago, and we cooled off with milkshakes on the way back to the hotel.

We got to the train station rather early, and waited in a big group for our train, the Capitol Limited, to board and leave. We were 15-30minutes behind schedule leaving Chicago, where it started to rain hard. Just over the Indiana border we stopped for tornados which apparently crossed the tracks 10 miles down and knocked over cars on a freight train. We were waiting there for at least 6 hours, putting us behind schedule.

Thurs, Aug 24-- Continuing on the Capitol Limited, we awoke to hear that we were 9 hours behind schedule somewhere in Ohio. I took advantage of this longer train to do lots of reading. They gave us complimentary lunch of Dinty Moore-like beef stew, and as the ride wore on, gave us complimentary dinner of a "snack pack" as well, and by word of mouth we learned that in the snack car everything was free. Nothing much to report on the scenery, as I was absorbed in my book. We went through the Alleghenies and Appalachians, and there are narrow tall houses in Pennsylvania. Finally arriving in DC at 10pm (supposed to be there at noon), we were greeted by the Washington Monument out the window, and by Sean at Union Station. We got a mini tour of DC's lights, and called it a night.

Fri, Aug 25--Sean took us to breakfast at a diner, and then we tried to get internet at Starbucks, but instead had to pull over on the street to try to connect to someone's wireless. (that was 2 posts ago). We went to the Air + Space Museum and saw early flying machines, including the Wright Flyer, milestones like the Paul Allen private plane that got into space, a plane that went around the world in 9 days without refueling, the evolution of spacesuits, satellites that gather data that i used for my honours research, or at least learned about in some of my geography classes, and walked on an air craft carrier model and Skylab. You could spend days in just 1 Smithsonian museum! There is a lot to read there, though Matt and I noted that some of the computer related displays are a bit dated.

We grabbed a hot dog for lunch, and went to the National Building Museum. We just noticed it on Sean's map and decided to give it a go, it deals with architecture and urban planning! We got there rather late, so couldn't stay long til it closed. It is in a big beautiful building with huge columns inside, and nice decoration on the outside. We saw exhibits on Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower in Oklahoma, and on green (sustainable) buildings, and a cool model of DC used to help plan it and locate metro stops. I wish we had more time there, but it'll have to go on my list for next time!

We then did a grand monument & memorial tour. We walked past the Washington Monument, to the World War II memorial, which I believe opened in 2004. It has large fountains and is sort of split between the Pacific and Atlantic with panels depicting the war, with appropriate quotations throughout. Then we took the long walk around the Tidal basin to the Jefferson Monument, and continued around the opposite side. We walked through the Franklin Roosevelt memorial, which Sean hadn't been in and is new as well. It is large with lots of fountains, a few sculptures and quotes from his 4 terms, and seemed to have far less people than any of the other locations, which was nice. We crossed over to the Korean War memorial of soldiers in the field and faces on a wall. Then we made our way to the Vietnam War memorial and a monument to the nurses. Finally we climbed the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, which was by far the most popular, and got to see Honest Abe and the Washington monument and it's reflection looking out where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his I Have a Dream speech. We ended the night in Georgetown, a lovely old city, with lots of brick buildings, very busy and full of shops and restaurants.

Sat, Aug 26--We ate breakfast in Old Town Alexandria, at a quaint French restaurant where I had strawberry crepes romanoff. We walked down to the Potomac and saw catfish feeding at the surface. Then it was off to Union Station to head to New York City. DC's station is a gorgeous building. We left a hot and dry Washington DC, and en route to NYC the weather started to change, got cloudy and rainy. We went through the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay, Philadelphia, Newark, and finally arrived in NYC right on time at 5:45pm. Ned was there to pick us up, and we grabbed a taxi to head to the upper east side and drop our stuff off. It was chilly in the city, a frigid 60something, cooler than we were expecting. We ended up grabbing a pint that night and watched some of the Mets game near where he lives, and then headed down around the 20s to meet up with some of Ned's friends and have supper.

Sun, Aug 27-- It was grey and rainy whence we got up, so we took our time getting ready to do anything. Ned's Mum had picked us up some NY bagels for breakfast which were nice and as chewy as ever. We walked down to the Mac store, a glass cube with an apple in it on street level and the store is underground, which was packed with people (where I made my last post). We went to FAO Schwarz as well, it was smaller than I remembered it from years past, but apparently it's having bankruptcy issues. In any case, the Legos were impressive and we saw a $50,000 toy car. Matt thinks this guy is from Harry Potter. We jumped on the metro down to Union Square where we went to a dive bar with great burgers called Corner Bistro. Matt and Ned thought the rainy day called for a cozy bar and a game on tv, so we proceeded onward, and when they found one I took a walk around the area, browsing the local shops. I met back up with them and we went back uptown to take a break at Ned's place. We then met up with a couple of Ned's friends for supper at Brother Jimmy's BBQ, how appropriate since Boston and Uncle Jim's will be our next stop. Matt and Ned shared a dish with an interested flame in the middle of it, and I had a decent brisket sandwich.

Mon, Aug 28--This morning we got up, readied ourselves, packed, and hailed a cab to Penn Station. Since we had our cumbersome baggage, although our train didn't leave til 1pm, we weren't able to do very much in the mean time. Our train was right on time, and still is, and we are en route for Boston, our 2nd to last stop on our North American tour.