DC day 3 - 29 July

Caught the bus to Maryland this morning as Steve wanted to pick up, another "State" (#14) for his caching statistics.  Took us an hour and only cost $1.60 as all bus fares do no matter the length.  We were diverted round the Washington Cathedral both ways with cop cars being very prevalent and it was not until we saw the news tonight that we realised that more paint had been splattered.  The good thing about the re route was we got a wonderful view of the cathedral which is huge and beautiful and where the National memorial service for 9/11 was held.  I expected Maryland to be less wealthy than DC but this is definitely not the case where we were, Friendship Heights.  

 A beautiful sculpture of a woman artist beside the fountain in Friendship Heights, MD

Saks on 5th Avenue (five stories of seriously expensive apparel and accessories) and Tiffany's being examples of some of the shops, big houses, white people.   We did a few caches and were back in DC for lunch.  After lunch we hired bikes and cycled round Capitol Hill and down to the Titanic Memorial, it was lovely, the temperature was in the 20's and the humidity slightly less but we still arrived home hot and sticky and ready for a swim. 

 Out back of the Capitol.

 The Capitol library

 Between the library and the front of the Capitol

The Titanic memorial.

This memorial is on the banks of the Potomac about 2km from the National Mall.  The best bit is that its a great place to watch planes :)  Even better, a Blackhawk flew past us at low level made a 180 down river within sight and flew back.  Just like in the movies.

Washington DC Saturday 27th July

Friday was a travel day, train into Penn and we deviated from our practice route and had a mild panic when we were not where we wanted to be, however a friendly ticket tout pointed the way and we made the queue.  The bus was pretty chokka but we found 2 seats together.  The bus cost us about $50 and the train was to be around $400 so it was a no contest even though it was an extra hour on the bus.  The hotel is lovely, very upmarket for us, Steve got it through booking.com at a bargain price.  Jumped in the pool then went shopping and found this amazing supermarket a block away.  We had some leftover chicken so we heated it up in Thai green curry sauce in the coffee maker as that is the only form of heating we have, however; that and salad, yum.  We went out later to do a cache and buy green tea which we had forgotten, that kept us both happy.

Next morning we hired bikes and on the way there passed the old post office with free entry into the bell tower.  Up we went to a spectacular view.  The guy claimed one of the best in DC as it does not have the skyscrapers that NYC boasts.  Once on the bikes we followed all the virtual caches, the Washington monument and various war memorials. 

 Giving the President a wave.  Front row!

On the way Steve discovered we could pop across a bridge into Arlington and do the caches in the cemetery there which ended up with a virtual at the Lockerbie memorial.   

 Lockerbie memorial in Arlington cemetery

Before this we had been held up to allow the  presidents motorcade through, very exciting.  While in the cemetery we realised that it was the 60th anniversary of the Korean War and he may have also taken a look at the Abraham Lincoln memorial which had been vandalised by having green paint thrown over it.  Back over the river we did Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jefferson and FDR memorials and worked our way around to the White House.   

 Looking from Lincoln towards Washington

Lincoln Memorial -  Abe, an "Honest Man" with Green paint apparent from recent vandalism

 The NZ wreath at the Korean 60th anniversary

 The Korean war memorial.  To the left of this photo is a wall with sand blasted images of those that perished.

 Martin Luther King Jr memorial.

On either side is a wall with many of his quotes etched in granite.

Very moving.

More African Americans here than at any other memorial.

We visited the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial after Luther King.  It is huge.  No photos.  FDR is highly revered.  I never realised that he was a four term president although he died in office during his fourth term.  We then visited Thomas Jefferson's memorial.  Huge Colosseum.   Next the we visited the White house and there was also a plinth showing us where mile zero is.  Supposedly all road distances in the USA  were meant to be measured from here.

 Lindsey showing off her new "Rocking Fish" T-shirt

 Mr Michelin proving that he was there too.

The Presidents Christmas tree.   A bit under whelming.  I Think we prefer the Rockefeller Centre's Christmas tree instead.

A few more on the way back to the bikes and bussed home.  Changed to jump in the  pool to discover it was now pouring with rain and the pool was closed in case of thunder and lightening so we contented ourselves with a shower instead.  Chilled in the room, shopped in the fantastic supermarket hot food section  for dinner and now writing the blog, logging caches and watching Gladiator on telly.

Our travels continue. Massachusetts to New York city via Connecticut plus 3 days in NYC and 1 day in Northport

We woke early on the morning of leaving the Berkshires, packed and left, travelling towards New Haven, CT.  We of course had to do the obligatory cache for Steve to log yet another state.  

 The cache was a goody.  Did the tree grow around the rock and lift it into the air?  Maybe.

Drove past Yale university on the way to the station.  We jumped on the train and had an uninteresting travel into NYC passing through a lot of backyard businesses.  We then caught 3 more trains and then walked down to Izzy's house to be told off for not contacting her so that she  could collect us from the station.  We settled in, had a shower and beer then off to one of her brothers restaurants near to the station.  I went to phys ed college in Scotland with Izzy '67 to 70 and have had no contact since but we did spend a lot of time together in class. She being an HA and me being GU and we were in the same B1 section.  Izzy and her partner Sharon have been so hospitable, Iz has left us her car most mornings for us to drive up to the station to catch the NYC train.  They live 60 kms outside the city on Long Island.  The trains are amazing, so long and the commuter ones are 2 storey and cold.  After day 1 I took my jersey to wear for the 1 hour ride.  We bought ourselves a NYC pass to allow us free entry into many places which was great as we then did many things we might not have done.  The best thing we bought was a week long ticket on the metro, this made life so easy just swipe it through the gate and enter and we bought a ticket for all the trips on the commuter train in and out of the city.  All this made our lives a lot less stressful as we moved around.  The things we did in the city were, the Intrepid Museum (a WWII aircraft carrier) with the space shuttle Enterprise and submarine called a Growler which patrolled the Mediterranean to keep an eye on Russia during the Cold War.  

 

I just had to take this one for Jim Guy.  UPS have a presence in New York City :)

After that we took the Hop on Hop off water taxi to Battery Park where we ate lunch and then walked to the 9/11 tribute centre and memorial park which is very beautiful and very moving.  

 Ground Zero - very moving

Back to the ferry and round to Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty which finished our trip. 

Rushed to Penn station via the metro to catch the train home giving us a 12 hour day, leaving and returning at 8.  

Day 2 was the the museum of Natural History where we joined a tour for the Dinosaurs among a few other things including the "Star of India".  Lunch in Central Park then we tried to hire bikes but ran out of time so did the  Rockefeller  centre which was fun but quite a bit of faffing  around as you had to wait for the time stated on your ticket to enter the complex so we went to Starbucks for a seat and a drink and some WiFi too for 1/2 an hour.    

 Central park and Uptown.

 The Empire State Building and Downtown Manhattan from the 87th floor (Top of the Rock)

After the centre we passed Madame Tussaud's which was also free entry on our NYC card so we hopped in as it looked fun.  Steve had to have a photo taken with Angelina Jolie (he had to get Brad out of the way first!) and he then insisted I had one taken with the Beatles. 

 Angelina happened to be walking past and stopped for a photo op.

 Well, why not.  Its not every day that you get to hang out with the Beatles.

We then  caught an earlier train home, showered, beered and then down to Robs other restaurant, the Rocking Fish to be shouted by him a delicious seafood dinner starting with oysters.  He also insisted Steve tried a flight of 4 beers after he had already drunk 2 schooners so he came home very merry.  

Day 3, Wednesday we caught a later train as that evening we were going to The Jersey Boys on Broadway and then up the Empire State Building.   Today we did manage the bikes only to discover that the caches in Central Park had fallen off the GPS.  Luckily we had Lizzie with us (the IPad).   

 Alice in Wonderland in Central park

 Our lunch spot in Central Park

We then decided that maybe we would not come into the city the next day and if we wanted to get the later train to catch the bus on Friday we needed to know exactly what we were doing so off we went to Penn station to work it out.  We then wandered into and out of Macey's, definitely not in the mood to shop, and on up to Times Square to take in the sights.  

 A quiet day in Times Sq.  The intersection between 7th Ave and Broadway.

We then thought, we have a spare hour, so let's go to Grand Central Station and get an audio walking tour.  This station is spectacular, we did the tour and then ate dinner in the downstairs food hall, got ourselves up to where the Jersey Boys was showing with time to spare.  The show was fantastic, a standing ovation, we loved it.  Then we quickly walked down to the metro and on up the Empire State Building.  It took us an hour to get to the top because of the queues of people at 10pm.  At the "top", 86th floor it was clear, cold and on one side, windy.  Stunning view, but not as enjoyable as the Rockefeller centre.  Not sure whether that was day vs night, or just bigger queues and more people about.  $25 entry, free on our NYC card and another $17 if you wanted to carry on up to the 101st floor!  There were hundreds of us - ka-ching. The observation deck stays open until 2am every night.  16 lifts up to floor 80 and then only four up to floor 86.  We walked the last 6 floors, quicker than another 1/2 hour queue for the lift.  After a quick look around with the crowds we left to catch the 2345 train home.  Luckily we still had time to buy 1 litre of takeaway beer to drink on the train.  Home by one, exhausted.  

Today we have just chilled, happy to be on the Internet and catch up. Iz came home after lunch. 

 Here is Izzy with Lindsey outside the Fire Station in Northport

We took her out to introduce her to some of the local caches and are possibly going for a drink to her brothers cafe then Pizza for dinner.  Tomorrow it's back on the trail again, onto Washington DC for the final 4 days before returning to Florida for the last 10 days before returning to NZ for  the last 2 weeks of winter.  The choice was $400 for the train to DC or $54 for the bus.  We're on the bus!  One hour longer but also one hour more for Lindsey to cat nap and we are told it is a more scenic route.

Day 2 in Pittsfield, MA leading up to the Mega event. Friday 20th.

Today it had been suggested we cached a road up to Mt Grey Lock, the same name as the chief  in Burlington, however the wrong directions got put into Jack and even though we managed a few caches we were miles off track.   But instead we ended up going to a State Park where there was a Marble waterfall and a natural Marble bridge.  After that we turned around in the heat and headed for the lunch time event at a nearby skating rink.  It was a relief to step into the cool and to even put on a sweater while in the rink itself.  

 Lindsey with some of her new best friends.  The one in th green is the chief organiser of the event.

We chose not to skate but we had lunch and stayed for the group photo before setting heading on the correct  co-ordinates for Grey Lock.  We only did 12 of the caches though as by now time was ticking on, we were hot and sticky, what's new! So we turned around and headed for the motel via the supermarket where we bought today and tomorrow's dinner.  Salads today, as I have fallen in love with Caesar salad, and tapas tomorrow with Nicky D's creamy spinach dip as one of the ingredients.  We then had a well deserved swim, cuppa and I had a snooze.   At 6.30 we left for the swap meet and early registration for tomorrow.  OMG some cachers are manic and OTT with how they go about all this.  They have $100s  worth of GeoCoins all arranged in cases much like a stamp collection, Travel Bugs on their cars (we may well get one of them)!!!!!! Round their necks X more than one!!!!!  I went into total hyperventilation with it all, though I was known to runaround the car parks collecting TB numbers.  Well I am the queen of hunting and gathering but I don't do stuff and it is  Mr M who does the stats.   We did a few caches around the venue and motel 

A Chicken with cymbals at the "To Chicken to Cross" cache :)

then home by 8 for wine and dinner and the tour why  Mr M is watching with all those caches and TB's to log, I don't know!!!!

Berkshire Mega Bash Saturday 21st

We arrived early at about 9 as we wanted to take part in the 1 hour cache and dash.  Participants are given  8 lots of co-ordinates and need to visit the 8 caches and stamp their card, sign the log and return within 1 hour.  We thought we would not have a chance but the event was taking place at a ski resort and adventure park and the caching was up the ski slopes. Well that puts a lot of people out of contention.  So we rushed around, well Steve rushed more than I did and we got 3rd winning a stainless steel drink bottle and a trackable.  We visited the stalls and Steve bought a geocoin to commemorate our 5000th  cache and a trackable for our car window (can be changed from car to car) because this is what all the mad cachers in the States do!  And I bought him one of those wee figures that you stick on your back car window, a wee geocaching man!!!!  

Queuing to sign a cache at the event.   With over 800 of us it was a common occurrence.

After lunch Steve went to a workshop on solving puzzle caches (not that relevant for him) and a fantastic one on GSAK  the tool he uses for downloading caches onto the GPS.  (He also enjoyed them as they were held in air con).  The day was cooler tho and rain threatened but only spat for 5 minutes.  While he was doing this I went to do a couple of caches again up the slopes but ended up playing golf frisbee up and down the ski slopes with 3 random guys, that was much more fun!!   We also met and chatted with lots of great people and we were a novelty again for coming from NZ.  We actually won a new caching board game for being the furthest travelled.  

 At the end of the MEGA, the cutting of the cake.  The icing was the best bit.

We arrived home 8 hours later at 5pm for a much needed dip in the pool.  Now spending our usually evening watching the Tour but also planning for New York tomorrow.

Onwards to The Berkshires where the event is being held

We weren't too keen on the city of Albany, NY when we set off this morning towards the city downtown area and down to the river Hudson.  However, we did some cool virtual caches with lovely some lovely monument caches as you can see from the photos.

 A memorial for women who have served in the US armed forces - downtown Albany

 Some random bloke.  Don't know who the guy with the dog is either!

 SUNY - State University of New York

This is just the admin block!

When we got down to the river the building (see photo) reminded me of Aberdeen university.  It also being made of granite and a similar architecture, very pretty.

Looking back at SUNY over the Interstate after crossing the Bridge of Remembrance.

The Hudson river is at our backs.

Caching then took us to a swimming hole, the water was cool and clean and quite deep.

 The highlight of most caching expeditions for Lindsey

 Next was a conservation area but the caches were a struggle so we returned to the car and a shady spot for lunch.  Cached our way into the Berkshires, MA and the Inn of the same name which is our base for the next 3 days. Checked into the motel, jumped in their pool, showered and off to the cache meet for hot dogs (steve only).  Thought it was going to be awful but it turned into good fun.  Cachers are such geeks but very nice and friendly.

One of Lindsey's new best mates at the event.  His name is Signal.

Of course we are a bit special having come so far, many have NZ on their bucket list and a few have already been.  It is a little cooler now, this evening (8:30), we came home, jumped in the pool again, Steve went to buy some beer and we are now sitting on the bed using the WiFi and watching the double climb in the Tour.

Hottest day yet to Albany, NY state

One of the great things about a lot of the places we have stayed is that we get a small double bed each, I love it!!!!  Started off this morning by leaving our car at the motel and walking down to the lake 3 minutes away to do a cache.  The lake looked so clean, cool and inviting we walked back up, changed into our togs and drove back down for a swim.  Lots of private beaches roped off for other resorts and only a little space for us, but big enough. It was delicious as already the day was hot.  We did a few more caches around Lake George, then I remembered we had left no tip so back to the motel to drop it off.  Last night we did a cache by a Richard E and he sent us a very nice email recommending we do one of his caches called the Tin Man which had won an award.  On the way there we did caches on the lock gates for the canal system between Lake Champlain and the Hudson and on to lake Eerie I think it is.  

 This was our lunch spot.  Desperately trying to find some shade in 94deg (about 33).  We watched a barge move through the canal on the right.

We got to the Tin Man and it was wonderful (see photo). 

The Tin Man geocache.  Lindsey holds the ammo can cache beautifully painted.  The door is open to show the Tin Man's beating heart.

Shortly after this we were just about to leave a cache when a car reversed back to us and asked if we were caching.  We said yes and we were from NZ, the cacher got out the car and came and introduced himself as Richard E and gave us a tin man geocoin which we will release when back in NZ.  

 

Two proud, geeky cachers after the geocoin presentation :)

That's Richard E who made the Tin Man.

We spoke a while and will see him again at the mega.  He has done 26 thousand caches and has hidden 244, of which we did about a dozen today, some of them very clever.  He's proud to say he never gave a lame TFTC (thanks for the cache) log and I think that is why he emailed us as Steve makes a good effort to log caches well with a story if possible.  

 Lindsey with another one of Richards caches - called "Exhausted"

We did about 25 caches all up and by then it was getting on for 4 and we had had enough of the heat up in the high 30's, so set heading for Albany.  It took us 3 accommodation places till we found a bed, apparently there is a baseball game or something in town.  Wonderful to be out of the heat, nachos and ice cream for dinner in our room and sitting on our beds on the free WiFi watching the time trial for the Tour.  

Travel from Burlington, VT to Lake George, NY

Tuesday 16th JulyToday was not that exciting, a travel day really. Our one and only cache in Burlington this morning was magnificent, a huge wooden carved statue of Chief  Grey Lock  the "greatest" leader of the Abenaki people.

 Lindsey strikes the pose in front of Chief Grey Lock

After visiting the great chief we head south towards tonight stay at Lake George NY.

The next stop was Vergennes.  America's third oldest city, incorporated in 1788.  Population around 2,750.  Vermont's smallest "city".

Vergennes Falls

We discovered these falls on the river running through the middle of town.

Next stop was the Vermont side of Lake Champlain overlooking Fort Ticonderoga (on the New York side).  There was a ferry available. $8 for a car $1 for a passenger.  Very reasonable.

This area was significant during the American revolution.  This waterway runs all the way from Canada, connecting to the Hudson and reaching the Atlantic at New York.  The British made many attempts to invade from Canada to rest control from the revolutionaries.  We visited a lesser fort named Mt Independence.  Named as soon as the news arrived that the Declaration had been signed.

Had lunch in Fair Haven.  Our last town before entering New York State.

Lake George where we finished today is full of motels and tourists. It's pretty horrible but we did find a nice place to eat looking over the lake and watching the authentic paddle steamers plying their trade though the food was not nearly so good as last nights.  One really good thing is that we can get the "Tour" on telly, that's a first since Florida.