Friday 3 May 2013

We went to the International House of Pancakes for breakfast this morning...certainly brought back childhood memories as there is one in Glendale. Two eggs, bacon or link sausages, hash browns (grated potatoes fried like a pancake) and two buttermilk pancakes for $4.99! Breakfast $13.00 (coffee thermos at the table for all the refills you want!)
Cold and windy this morning about 8C. Warmed up a little after lunch and we took one sweater off! Quite a few students in shorts but as I said to Rob, 9 is great as they were probably at -9 three weeks ago when there was snow on the ground! Spring is very late, some trees are only just starting to bud which looks so pretty while cherry blossoms are gorgeous!
Spent the next five hours walking through Harvard University and Radcliffe. Harvard used to be all men while Radcliffe was the women's college. Amazing place. It is soooo big. The architecture is amazing, old and new! Lots of high school groups checking out if this will be the school for them. Graduations have begun and will be held over the next several weeks, there will be so many of them.
Some interesting statistics: 27,000 students at Harvard in both undergraduate and graduate programs; 2000 in the Freshman class (first year college) out of 34,000 applicants who are in the top10-15% of their high school graduating class; tuition is $36,000 per year or $52,000 for room and board too; if family earns less than $65,000 there is no charge for tuition; 60% of students on financial aid; 2100 teachers; opened in 1636; named after John Harvard who bequeathed 400 books from his library and half of his estate £779; oldest uni in USA; 8 presidents graduated from Harvard and 62 living billionaires also graduated from Harvard!
In the science building they had the first computer developed in 1944, Harvard Mark 1. It was huge.
Today the engineering students had a display showing off projects that they have been working on this term. The technology we saw was amazing and the majority of topics we couldn't even pronounce much less understand.
Interesting intersection near the hotel. It is a divided road. When the light turns green, three lanes can turn left through the intersection.(remember they drive right side of road) Same intersection lets oncoming traffic (three lanes) turn left too when their light turns green. Same for side traffic. They all use the same lanes as intersection has no line markings! Got to be on your toes!
Tonight went to the John Harvard Ale House for dinner where they make their own beers. Rob had a sampler of 5 beers so he could try the range from pale to stout.

Thursday 2 May 2013

Traveling day! Early rising...so early that we could see the sun rise on the way to the airport! Uneventful 5.5 hour flight from LA to Boston and with the 3hr time change, it is 5 pm by the time we land! Another day disappears flying. We took a shuttle to our hotel, the Hilton Double Tree Suites on the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts where we have a living room and bedroom with river views! (And warm chocolate chip cookies upon check in!
We are across the river from the petrol station where the all alleged Boston bombers had hijacked the SUV and pulled in for fuel and the owner of the car escaped. On that side of the river and a few minutes East is Mass. Institute of Technology where the shoot out with the guard happened. Enough of that.
We walked about 30min to Harvard Square, home of Harvard University. It was so good to walk again even if it was quite cold, about 12 with a cool wind chill factor! We saw our first spring flowers, a small group of tulips that someone must have planted under a tree near the river!
We had dinner at a really fun place, Border Cafe that serves Mexican food so we started with a strawberry marguerita and a Dos Equis beer. Warm home made corn chips soon arrived and the meals were huge. I had a quesadilla and Rob had fajitas, very hard to finish. The place was packed with college students...we were the oldest there by a long shot but it was noisy and decor was really Mexican. Walked by the Kennedy Business school and park on the way home...he was such a great president! Still light at 8:45 while we were walking back!
Rob has handled both plane flights very well with his back...we both had several acupuncture and chiropractor appts before we left and all seems to have made a difference. Early to bed so we are ready for a big day of exploring Boston!

Wednesday 1 May 2013

This morning I did a favour for my sister in law and sat in on her hypnosis session that she offered to the Women's support group for those who have children with a disability. Leslie has trained as a hypno-therapist and has had some great results with weight loss programs and people with tinnea sp?? (ringing in the ears).
We visited my Aunt in the afternoon who has just moved into a retirement home. Uncle George died last Dec and Aunt Martha felt their home was just too big to look after so she now has a lovely 2bedroom, 2bathroom apartment with a very good size living and dining area. She has only been there a week but says the food is great and she has already made several new friends.
Chuck took Rob and I to the Dodger game....I grew up loving baseball! I could tell you all the players, the positions they played, their batting averages etc. so I quite enjoyed the game although the Dodgers didn't win.
Quite different to cricket, baseball has 9 men on the field, lasts 9 innings and each team is retired at the end of three outs. Pictures show them painting the Dodger logo on the back of the pitcher's mound, getting ready in the "dugout" and the layout of the field. "Batter up" is the call to start the game and the pitcher throws, trying to place the ball in the strike zone which is between the batter's shoulders and knees. A strike is called when he achieves this or when the batter swings and misses the ball. 4 balls (when the ball is outside the strike zone ) allows a batter a "walk" to first base. Running to all the bases is a run, a home run being hit over the field fences. We saw plenty of foul balls (outside the field of play) come up into the stands. They must go through four to five dozen balls a game. Fans can keep any foul ball or home run ball and if the umpire feels the ball has a dent he throws it out of play.
Ever few innings the crew come out and maintain the field and the umpire often cleans off home plate with his little brush!
If the pitcher isn't doing well, the next one starts warming up in the bullpen. The Dodgers went through six pitchers, one only lasting an inning.
The Seventh Inning stretch comes in the middle of the seventh and everyone gets up to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and have a good stretch! Not a great crowd as the Dodgers are not having a particular good season.
But a great night!

Tuesday 30 April, 2013

Today we decided to take a drive to Santa Monica where I used to go to the beach. The Santa Monica Pier is certainly in need of some renovations and is looking very old. But in saying that, it was quite busy for a Tuesday and a school day. The Santa Monica Pier is at the end of Route 66, well known in the states. It was known as the Main Street of the USA as it was the road that most of the wagon trains travelled from Chicago to the West Coast. Later the Federal Govt built the highway in 1921 following the 2400 miles of the original road. There are many parts of the original highway that you can still travel on and many of the small towns along the way are trying to revive the old highway!
The day started out very foggy and cold and usually the fog burns off late morning but not yesterday. It was probably about 16C yet there were a few people in the water. Rob performed his traditional ritual of feeling the temperature of the water wherever we might be. He thought it was quite cold! Most of the people on the beach were dressed quite warmly with sweaters and jackets. As we were walking I had said to Rob that it seemed as if they had cleaned up the beach as we always used to have tar on our feet when we got home....it seems that they haven't cleaned all of it as the bottom of Rob's shoes were full of the stuff.
The building industry is certainly alive and well in Santa Monica! This construction was the same complex, being built over several blocks and will end up being many hundred apartments. I'm sure they will be quite expensive as they are across the street from the beach! Reports say that real estate prices have improved by 10% in recent months.
On the highways you really need to have your wits about you. These were a couple of the signs in a 5km distance. On the way home we passed the high rises of LA. For as large of a town that LA is, the city centre does not have a lot of tall buildings. The building made up of circular towers used to be the tallest building in LA and is now dwarfed by the others.
We stopped to see my brother Bob and nephew at the shop. Bistagne Bros Auto Body Shop (a panel beating shop) was started 66 yrs ago by my Dad and Uncle and is now run by my two brothers, Bob and Chuck helped by Bob's son Robert.
Last night we went out to dinner with Bob and his wife Tana...always nice to catch up with family!!!
Lovely view of LA from Mum's house (same buildings as the day photos.

On the road again!

Third time lucky? Something is not working in the Blogger app and I have lost all my writing so I 'll try from the Internet blogger. Cross fingers! Well that didn't work as I couldn't add photos so I deleted the app, reinstalled it and it carried over what I had started on the Internet blogger!

After waking to a beautiful moonrise, we finished packing and Matt picked up Rob and I to head to the airport.
We flew Virgin Australia this time...no complaints on the leg to Los Angeles! Plenty seats empty to stretch out on but still only nodded off for a couple hours as it is hard to sleep in the middle of the day as we left at 11:15am. The sunrise was great to see out of the plane but there was so much fog! We were 10 min out of LAX and still couldn't see the ground.
My brother Chuck picked us up from the airport...we waited 30 min for our luggage which was supposed to be priority luggage but we were happy as it was there!
We were so tired when we got to Mum's that we nodded off for a couple hours and then Chuck took us to the phone shop to get a SMS card for my iPad and to Honey Baked Ham for some amazing sandwiches.
One of the altar boys from our wedding stopped by in the afternoon to catch up. 36years ago I was taller than him and now he towers above me!
We joined my brother John, Chuck, his wife Leslie, and son Adam for dinner at Black Angus. Wow!! They has a special for two people: share an appetizer, each have a main meal (mouth watering fillet mignon), two side dishes (I had onion rings and asparagus) and share a dessert for $40! We had apple pie, chocolate cake and a chocolate chip cookie for our desserts! You could hardly eat all the food that was on the table. Dinner for 7 was $160 with 2 bottles of wine.
We slept in this morning and joined Mum and John for breakfast at 10. We then headed to the shopping centre to buy a watch for Rob. When he retired he put his watch somewhere safe as he didn't feel he would need to wear a watch, so safe he can't remember where he put it! Watches were 20% off and the girl somehow gave us another 25% off so the watch was quite a bargain.