Snowbirding continued

We stood on the beach with our binoculars one night and from a distance saw the Endeavour rocket launched into space, a glowing tail of orange flashing across the sky. Spectacular.

It was soon time to pack up again and put aside our luxurious lifestyle for 5 nights in our tiny tarptent down in the Everglades. To quote Rob – “Nobody told us we were going to be blood donors in Florida”. We personally fed countless mosquitoes despite taking every precaution – they even bite through thick denim. The sandflies in Milford have got nothing on these suckers – or the no-see-ums which sneak up on you and have a quiet feast. We renamed ourselves Itchy and Scratchy. But hey, the rewards were great.

Firstly, as you enter and leave the Everglades you have to stop at Robert is here fruit-stand for a delicious ice-cold real fruit thick shake. Papaya and key lime, hmmmm-mmm. Funny thing,  we never saw any lime trees anywhere we went, but maybe they grow them in northern Florida.

Secondly, there’s the wildlife. We saw intriguing spiders, colourful butterflies, huge dragonflies, alligators big and baby, American crocodiles, manatees like muddy underwater hippopotamuses, a wily bobcat, secretive snakes, turtles swimming, rare short-tailed hawks and bald eagles, curvy-billed ibises, herons great, small, tri-coloured, white and blue, egrets, ducks of many varieties, kingfishers, woodpeckers, woodstorks, meadowlarks, anhingas and my favourite, roseate spoonbills - and dozens of other birds.

Thirdly, the Everglades themselves, what’s left of them, are fascinating. A few inches in elevation produces vastly different habitat from sawgrass prairies to Mahogany Hammocks, each with their own beauty.

Our campsites were superb, soft grass under our thin closed-cell foam mats, no traffic noise, hardly any other people. Each night Rob managed to cook us up near-gourmet meals in our one billy over a campfire.

It was so dark in these camps that at one of them Rob got confused and couldn’t find his way back to our tent – he wandered around for ages. I had to laugh as it’s usually me with the terrible sense of direction.

You can forget the Florida Keys. We felt we had to pay them a visit as we were so close, but they are truly awful. How to ruin a place of amazing natural beauty, little islands all ion a row, how gorgeous they could be if man hadn’t taken over and created beach-to-beach commercial operations and strung out the ugliest power poles you could imagine, and run a huge road right through the lot. I’m probably being unjust, and obviously lots of people love the keys, but it wasn’t a place we enjoyed, especially after the beauty and serenity of the Everglades.

There were some saving graces – Anne’s Beach, John Pennekamp State Park and our newly acquired Coastal soccer friends who live up the road apiece in Homestead. We spent a happy couple of hours with Gary and Lisa, in their awesome RV complete with armchairs, sofas, flat-screen TV, bathroom bigger than ours at home -a real home-away-from-home.

We returned to Hollywood for one last night of luxury, a final swim and a sunbathe. We ate at a great Armenian café on the boardwalk, watching kids playing on the beach and life of all kinds drifting past us. It’s going to be hard to leave the warm sunshine behind us in the morning, but we’re looking forward to meeting up with Tom and Micki and seeing Seattle –so many people have told us it’s the best city in the USA!

Snowbirding

I gotta start this by saying that it is completely impossible to go hungry in the United States with every town having so many eating places lined up in a row waiting for you to walk through the door - MacDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Waffle House, Pancake Place, Wendy's, Dunkin Donuts, Crabby Mike's - on and on the list goes. Obesity is a BIG problem here, and I am slowly joining the crowds. But on with the blog.

Like thousands of citizens of the colder climes of the USA, we headed south to the sun. We hit Fort Lauderdale in Florida and basked like lizards in temperatures of 85 degrees F. Wow, this was living. Another luxury resort thanks to Swavek - right on the pristine white sands of Holllywood Beach. We tootled across the boardwalk, swam in the warm Atlantic ocean, wandered back and leapt into the even warmer water of the resort pool, finishing off with a plunge in the hot spa and a snooze on a poolside lounger.

In the evening we drifted along the boardwalk admiring all the beautiful young people, some of whom would sashay past us on rollerblades, others on Segways, bikes, or their own two gorgeous legs. The older folks like us who visit too many bakeries would pass envious sideways glances and think longingly of their lost youth and figures, and maybe like me wondered why their new pair of jeans had shrunk.

We ate dinner on the deck of a cafe right beside the Intra-coastal waterway, watching luxury boats glide by an arm's length away.

Another chapter in 101 ways to kill your wife - we were walking along looking for a bus-stop in the hot heat of mid-morning when a stranger stopped and offered us a ride - quick as a flash Rob accepted, while thoughts of kidnap, rape and murder flew through my mind. However, our saviour was a good man and dropped us at the exact place, and the only payment he exacted was to hand us a religious tract. To repay his kindness we both read it.

We cruised on a water-taxi along the waterways and canals of Fort Lauderdale, simply goggling in stunned amazement at the massive mansions of the rich and famous, their luxury boats moored at their own personal docks. Star alert - we saw the mast of Johnny Depp's yacht!


Huge colouful iguanas sunned themselves on the banks, and all manner of boats sped past, the bridges opening up to let the tall ones through. It all seemed so removed from the real life of mere mortals like us, we felt more comfortable back in the Latin areas of Hollywood where every race under the sun seems to be represented.

The Big South

No one has a smile quite as big as Emily's, and it was heart-warming to see her waiting for us at Myrtle Beach. And at last we got to meet Swavek, Emily's lovely young man we have heard so much about. He has earned many, many bonus points for a) putting up with Emily, b) putting up with her parents and c) putting us up in luxury resorts!!

We arrived in time for the Coastal Carolina Soccer Women's senior night, when the 5 seniors were honoured. Emily's best soccer mate in the whole world, Emma, looked after us that afternoon, taking us to Conway for lunch and a stroll along the Waccamaw River. Emily had put her on "parental duty" while she went to classes. It was great to see Emma looking so happy and settled into life in South Carolina, where she teaches troubled children. It was also nice to catch up with Julia Baldwin, another kiwi imported to the Coastal team, and to meet the other girls on the squad and some of their parents.

Unfortunately, the heavens opened just before the game started and we were absolutely drowned - for the second time on this trip. Not only that, but Coastal lost, breaking a run of 9 wins. I think our arrival jinxed the weather and the team. But we did get to meet Swavek's parents, who a few nights later hosted us for a delicious Polish dinner in their home. They spoil Emily rotten, and even presented her with a birthday cake, which was more than her parents managed.

We spent a day with Emily in the Brookgreen Gardens, enjoying the warm autumn weather and admiring the statues and water fountains. We ambled along the endless white sands of Myrtle Beach from the door of our luxury resort, hunting for fossilised shark teeth and finding one, and ended each day with a soak in a hot tub under the stars. We hired a car and drove to Hilton Head, a resort island south of Charleston, stopping to visit another relation of Rob's on the way.

We spent a day hiking around Pinkney Island, a nature reserve, and were quite excited to see an armadillo amongst other creatures. I had the misfortune to be bitten by fire ants, don't ask me how two of them found their way to my armpits, but they did, and boy, do they have a horrible, itchy, long-lasting bite. The red welts are still showing, two weeks later.

Other days were spent driving to various University's in South and North Carolina to watch soccer games, a real treat for us to see Emily playing for her university team at last. We also had a wonderful time staying in a gorgeous resort in Gatlinburg, a Germanic sort of Queenstown, snuggled in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. We especially enjoyed a long hike to the top of Mount LeConte - thank goodness for handrails on the steep sections - and a drive around an historical area looking at old cabins and churches - and would you believe it we even saw another bear, only this time from the safety of the car. Just as well, as it was a big fellow, up on a bank above the road.

While we were up in Gatlinburg, the American election took place, and we became riveted to the television. It was fantastic to feel as if we were actually participating in such an historic event. Go Obama!! A few days later we read the results of our own election, and have decided we may not come back to New Zealand. But good on the Greens for picking up more seats. And of course we have been watching the dollar slide ever since we got here, so lucky our return tickets are pre-purchased as we may not be able to afford to go home anyway. However, we didn't let that stop us checking out the many outlet stores Myrtle Beach is so famous for.

We returned to High Point in North Carolina for the Big South Soccer tournament, the proceedings beginning with a huge banquet for all the teams and their parents. Emily scooped up several medals and awards, including the trophy for Scholar-Athlete of the year, clever girl. Americans are huge on awards, ceremonies, presents, decorations (every second house and shop was festooned with Halloween pumpkins and other such stuff) and they play the American anthem before almost every game. The Coastal team got through to the final, but were beaten 2-0. All the girls were gutted to lose, they thought this was going to be their tournament, so hence lots of tears at the end.

We had a bit of an adventure one day up in High Point - smoke started pouring into the rental car. We had noticed a funny smell and checked the water which was fine. but now the reservoir was empty, and we had to top it up and drive back to our accommodation rather slowly. We had to hang around for most of a day waiting for a replacement car. We really don't have a lot of luck with rentals, this is the third time we have had breakdowns.

It was sad to say farewell to Emily and Swavek and the rest of the folk at Myrtle Beach. We don't know when we will be seeing Emily again as she is staying on for at least another year. But time to head south to warmer climes.

North East Expedition

Getting out of San Francisco was a lot harder than getting in. We were both randomly selected for the full security search treatment, including going through a machine that blows puffs of air all over your body and having all our hand luggage manually searched. We nearly freaked out when we got to Toronto and Rob discovered that he had left his 6-inch mercator knife in his hand-luggage -the scary bit was that the security men going through his bag never found it.

Rob’s cousin Michael met us at the flash airport in Toronto and whisked us to his beautiful home where Sheila greeted us with a lovely meal. Over the course of 3 days and several whiskies, Michael got Rob hooked on big league baseball. Mike and Sheila were wonderful tour guides, and we enjoyed going to see Niagara Falls, a place I had wanted to go since I was about 8 years old and read about Blondini crossing it on a tightrope. Now I have seen the falls – and they are magnificent – I cannot believe that any sane person would even momentarily contemplate crossing them by any method. We went up to the falls in a boat called the Maid of the Mist, and the force of the water was unbelievable. We were provided with ponchos to protect us from the spray, but they were useless, and we all got completely saturated – it was just like being under a high pressure hose. We also visited an incredible butterfly sanctuary nearby, and next day Michael took us to the excellent Museum of Toronto, and up the CNN tower for a panoramic view of the city.

Flying into New York city was an absolute thrill – the day was perfect and we flew very low over the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan Island. What a city! It truly is an exciting place, and we quickly immersed ourselves in the tourist culture. Broadway, Times Square, Central Park, Waldorf Hotel, Carnegie Hall, the subway, Brooklyn Bridge at night, the impossibly large Metropolitan Museum.


We stayed in a hostel right in the middle of Manhattan, an absolute dive but brilliant location. Rob could simultaneously touch opposite walls of our room, and we couldn’t open the door properly when our luggage and we were all inside. The room opposite was blocked off with yellow tape with a warning sign – Rob reckoned it was being fumigated for bedbugs, and when he saw them hauling out the mattress next day he was convinced. Arrgh – but we survived.

We took the train up to Albany alongside the Hudson river bordered by glowing autumn colours. Pete and Tina met us and looked after us, took us hiking in the lovely Catskill Mountains with some of their friends and lent us a car so we could visit the Adirondaks.

We had originally planned to camp, but thank goodness we changed our minds and took a motel room as next morning we awoke to a white wonderland. It was freezing!!

We returned to Albany where we enjoyed soaking in the spa pool under the stars and sharing many a fine wine with Pete and Tina, as well as touring much of the local area which is just stunning in the autumn. A highlight was meeting Pete and Tina's surrogate grandparents Greg and Rosalie, and visiting the Albany Museum with them where Greg showed us around the amazing displays and models he has built over the years. Outstanding.

California Dreamin' comes to an end

A nostalgia trip back to the 70's took us north of the San Francisco bridge to a little beachside hippie hangout called Bolinas. You won't find any signposts to it - you just have to know where it is. The place is full of alternative lifestylers and out-and-out weirdos, and has a character all of its own. We stayed in a cool pub called Smiley's and ate great food across the road at a cafe that used to be called Scowley's, but is now Coastal Cafe. Wandering along the street amongst the locals is quite an experience.

We headed up to Point Reyes National Park for some bird-watching and camping - although they wouldn't let us into the State Park. We could see spare campsites in there, and they were letting other people in. We reckon they just didn't like our accents.

Camping in the States is great, as long as there are no fire restrictions, and you have a billy and matches. Campsites have a fire-ring with grill, and a table. We cooked all our meals over a fire. But what we would have done if it had rained, I don't know, as there are no kitchen facilities or other shelter provided. Many camps don't have showers either, so you just have to go dirty....

We hit the big city lights after our countryside rambles. A hop-on-hop-off bus tour of San Francisco gave us a good look at the city and we loved the old buildings. The Sea Lions at Fisherman's Wharf were a highlight. They are really hilarious, fighting each other to be king of the raft, barking crazily, sliding over one another and generally showing off to the crowds. They arrived on the piers after the 1989 earthquake, and all efforts to remove them using high-pressure hoses failed. Eventually the city fathers accepted them, and the boaties had to move their boats. Hooray for the Sea Lions.

California dreamin' came to a close much too soon, and it was time to pack up and head for the airport.

California Dreamin' continued...

We had to traverse California to get from King's Canyon to Pinnacles National Monument. We bought the most enormous, luscious peaches - and grapes - at a roadside stall to munch on as we drove - and drove. We traversed some completely over-worked agricultural areas, hot, dry and the wind was whipping up huge dust-storms. As if this wasn't depressing enough, we then passed alongside Dairy feed lots, where all the poor animals are crowded into dusty, barren sheds, no grass to eat. They are fed out hay. These were really awful, enough to put you off dairy products for life. However, shortly thereafter we decided we needed a pick-me-up and chose icecream! Well, we picked the wrong place. The staff were sullen, the place dirty - and of course the icecream wasn't up to NZ standards.

Next, my navigational skills were sorely tested. The road I had been following suddenly disappeared completely, all we could see were notices indicating the area ahead was closed. The people we stopped to ask the way couldn't understand English, so in the end we had to back-track several miles, and I almost sent Rob south on a huge interstate road instead of north! Arrggh.

After a long, taxing day we finally arrived at our campground as the sun went down, but we couldn't understand the system. All the sites seemed vacant, but they had reserved signs on them - all except the ones coverd in thistles!! In the end we thought too bad, and just put the tent up on a choice site, ignoring the reserved sign. Thank goodness no-one came and booted us out in the middle of the night.

The next day made up for everything. Pinnacles was a fascinating area, and our hike started off through a cave where we saw bats up on the ceiling. We climbed up through formidable rock formations and had to cope with some scarily steep stretches. Our efforts were rewarded by seeing the extremely rare Condor - he even flew right over our heads. We only saw two other people - it seems to us that every hiking area in the States is deserted in the autumn.

California Dreamin'

Have had a fantastic time in the California Dreamin' part of our trip, spent 8 days in our tarptent which served us well - even though we camped one night at over 9,000 feet and it snowed. We froze our butts off, but thank goodness for good NZ merino clothes - probably saved our lives!! We woke to a white world, stunningly beautiful, and climbed to over 10,000 feet in the snow - not sure if this was to keep warm or because we are mad. The tops were going to be untenable, so we had to return to the slightly lower climes.

Mono Lake was as lovely as we remembered it, and we had a couple of recovery days there. The Tioga Pass is amazing, on the way back over we spent ages just admiring the views and taking a zillion photos.

The road to Kings Canyon was seriously unbelievable, fantastic drop-offs one side, towering cliffs on the other. We shouldered packs again, and headed for our campsite. Just as we reached it, Rob turned to me and said "there's a bear and I'm not joking". Coming towards us on the trail was a pretty big brown bear, and it was so scary that the chance to get the photo of a lifetime passed me by! We hollered and biffed rocks, Rob even bravely advanced on the beast, and with a disdainful look he finally lumbered away. It was really really hard to sleep that night, and a couple of other campers were so spooked later the same evening that they came and camped right beside us for a bit of security.

On the way out next day I had my camera at the ready, and I bravely went in the lead. Next minute I am turning to Rob and saying "there's a bear and I'm not joking". Sure enough, a beautiful light brown bear wandered across the trail - but behind her were two cubs. This was looking bad - she saw us and got herself between us and the cubs, then as we tried to continue she came down a log towards us. I had the camera poised, but as she advanced Rob pushed me back along the track, ruining my second chance at a photo of a lifetime - but possibly saving my life so I'll forgive him.

Pre-Departure

Bags, packs, tent, billy, good clothes, tramping gear - piles all over the place, somehow it all has to be fitted in. A million things to do before take-off on Tuesday - can't wait!