Who wants some photos???

Hi all - here are some pics for you from Quebec City, New York and Washington DC... Chicago ones still coming :-)

This is the Chateau Frontenac Hotel in Quebec City:

This is Lower Town in Quebec City (just outside the city walls):

This is the Manhattan skyline - if you look really hard you can see the cranes where the World Trade Centre used to stand:

Belvedere Castle in Central Park with a dusting of snow:

Here is me at the White House - please note the particularly attractive afro curls I am sporting:
Who would like this little piece of bling? Hope Diamond y'all:

Here is me at the World War II memorial (with the Lincoln memorial and reflecting pool in the background) - please note the slightly less out of control afro curls I am sporting. I am thinking of starting a "Clare needs a haircut" collection...

And just for a change from looking at my afro - this is the hat Abraham Lincoln was wearing when he was shot:

Hope you are all well!

Clare

Post Number 100!

Hi everyone and welcome to my 100th blog post!

I arrived in Vancouver a couple of hours ago and just wanted to let you know that I had got in safe and sound. Before I left Chicago, Nicky and Marie and I decided that we had better have a bit of a night out to say goodbye to each other so we headed out to the DELICIOUS Cheesecake Factory for some tasty eats and then went on a Monday midnight hunt for a bar... we eventually found a little one just around the corner from our hostel... turns out if we had just gone one block in the other direction we would have been in the main nightlife area but such is life!!! We had a great time anyway discussing the wonders of the Young Farmer of the Year competition (they had never heard of such a thing... fancy that!) and how a police officer on a segway could possibly go about apprehending a criminal. And I am not even kidding - Chicago cops get around on bikes, horses and indeed segways!

Tuesday morning I had breakfast with the girls and then waved them goodbye to go and catch my train. I was not too excited at the propect of leaving warm chicago, my lovely new friends or sitting on a train for 44 hours but I have to say that once we got going it was actually kind of fun!

I met plenty of people and for the last portion of the trip had my own local guide Jim to point out the main sights of Washington State. Tomorrow I am going in search of a decent internet cafe so I can put some pictures up for you! There is a lot of brown, flat nothingness in Minnesota and North Dakota but once we hit the Rockys the views were fantastic, as they were this morning when we came through the Cascades and I got my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean for about 8 and 1/2 months! After the 44 hours on the train I got straight on a bus for three hours and now I am here in Vancouver, which has also turned on the sunshine to welcome me.

Since I got in to Vancouver I have just explored a little bit around the hostel to try and get my bearings and avoid embarrassing myself with my directional challenges in front of James once more... James and I are going to catch up later to watch some hockey and I am definitely looking forward to seeing a familiar and friendly face, but would rather it wasn't mocking me for getting lost or going miles too far as I may have done in the past in James' company!

I hope you are all well - promise some photos soon!
Clare

World's Tallest Building and World's Bravest Clare

Hi all! Yep I made it up the Sears Tower - the elevator ride to the 103rd floor was not my finest hour but I made it and the views were definitely worth it. When I am back in the land of decent internet cafes (also known as Canada) I will put some pictures up for you all!

OK, so since I last wrote I did a bit of an explore around Chicago - especially around Millenium Park, which has this very cool giant silver jellybean on it so you can see yourself reflected against the skyline etc. I also made some friends with fellow travellors Nicky and Marie, and after some pizza we decided to head off to the hostel outing "30 Plays in 60 Minutes"... unfortunately the longest bus ride ever meant we missed the plays and had to settle for the pub instead but we still had fun! On Sunday I got up and headed straight up the Sears Tower because it was fine and sunny and thunderstorms were expected later in the day. After that incredibly brave act, I hoped on a city tour to see a bit more of the place. The best thing about Chicago really is the amazing architecture and the view of the double decker bus was excellent. We went past the Water Tower, which is one of only two buildings that survived the great Chicago fire, checked out Oprah's house (very nice), Soldiers Field and the Magnificent Mile among other things. We had a great guide and I really enjoyed learning a bit more about the place.

After that I headed back and met up with Marie and Nicky again, and we went to the supermarket to get some food to make dinner and spent the rest of the night sitting around eating and drinking and having a good old yarn. Today we went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, including the Body Worlds exhibition which was really interesting and took up far more hours than I would have expected. Tonight we are going to take a look at the John Hancock Tower (the second tallest building in the city) and some of the buildings by night before I head off on my train to Vancouver tomorrow and they head off to Toronto. Give them a warm welcome Torontonians!!!

Chicago has been a nice stop but I am very excited about heading west now, catching up with the people I know over there and seeing Ms Goodall of course (happy birthday for Thursday Z!)... I am not so much looking forward to going back to work but I guess that had to happen some time!

Hope you are all well!
Clare

The Windy City is... Um... Foggy!

Hi all from Chicago - home of the bulls, the cubs, lake michigan, the world's tallest building (in two of four categories) and apparently piles and piles of fog so you can't see any of the amazing buildings!

I just got in a few hours ago after my slightly longer than anticipated 21 hour train ride from DC. I didn't find it too bad and the idea of getting on a train again in 3 days for 44 hours isn't too upsetting just yet. I am liking the look of Chicago but definitely hoping for less fog tomorrow so I can see some of the architecture that makes this place famous!

Anyway - since I last wrote I visited Arlington Cemetary, which is where JFK and family are buried as well as numerous other famous Americans. It is massive and very moving to see all the tidy rows of white headstones, mainly military just in the line of sight of the Pentagon. After that I decided to capitalise on existing melancholy and went to the Holocaust Museum. It is really an amazing museum, beautifully set up for you to get a whole experience of the death camps during WWII... not very uplifting but certainly well done. After that I needed a little light relief and went to the Spy Museum, which was great fun and gave you an entirely different perspective on history. I particularly liked the cold war section and the bit where you got to do some test to see how good a spy you would be - I don't think it would take too much of a rocket scientist to figure out that I would not be a good one... bit too nervy!

The next day was my last full day in DC so I went on a mission to finish off everything I wanted to see. I went to Dupont Circle to look at the shops and I am delighted to report that the quest for the red handbag is finally over! I have a lovely one after about six months of looking... has slightly put the budget out of wack but after all this time of trying to find one it just had to be done! After that I went to the White House Visitors Centre to see what it is like inside the White House since non-US citizens are pretty unlikely to actually get in there these days, and went to the National Art Gallery. The next morning before hoping on the train I went for a walk in Foggy Bottom (hahahahahahaha) and through Georgetown University and just generally enjoyed the gorgeous weather and great atmostphere in DC.

I had a great time here and fully recommend it for anyone's travels... not sure what I am going to do with myself in Chicago for three days but hoping to check out the architecture and planetarium... who knows, maybe I will even make it up to the world's highest outside viewing platform... of course I may not too but....