Today is Saturday and heavy rain was forecasted. We drove to the Tar Pits and managed to park nearby, realising there were museums close by too.

The tar pits are so interesting. Over millions of years the oozing oil and tar trapped dinosaurs and ancient animals. Their remains are being found all the time. We saw many examples of skeletons and reconstructions of the animals. In the lab we saw the technicians sorting through tiny remains under microscopes. The way everything was explained and displayed was fabulous. Hope you like the photos.

Next the skies looked full of clouds so we decided to visit the museum of modern art. There are 5 huge buildings and sculptures outside. Again there were so many people around it was awkward to take the photos.

There were several Picasso pictures and Matisse. We saw so many items from all over the world. We both found lots to interest us but some were weird and hard to believe are art. Not on our wave length.

At 3.30pm the rain showers started, but good timing as we were getting tired, we had walked so far around the exhibitions!

Tomorrow we fly out at 11pm Sunday and then lose a day as we arrive in N Z on Tuesday! How does that work Lily?

Love to you all

Xxxxx

A few photos of me and dad aboard the Queen Mary yesterday

 

 

It’s now Friday 4 January and we left Thornbury on Tuesday 1 January.

 

 

Times going quickly this week.

We set off early and hit the traffic going into the city. It moved very slowly for quite a few miles. We managed to find a car park near to the LA waxworks along the “walk of fame..” You pay 15 dollars all day and they park the car for you and return it to you!

 

Up on the pavement we saw lots of young people dressed up as super heroes and wanting to be photographed. Here is Spider-Man waving to me. He said ” I see you my lady” I thought Otis Louis and Xavi would like this.
We saw loads more characters and bumblebee. Grandad told him Louis has difficulty transforming him and he said, “you can learn from 7 year olds no problem…”. Grandad said “but hes 6” ….he said “you will learn soon”

So if I’m truthful I didn’t enjoy the bus tour through Beverley Hills and sunset boulevard and Hollywood areas. We were shown where the stars eat at restaurants and places they worked and filmed at. I thought it would be much more grand and we would see more historical areas and background stories to the stars, but it didn’t happen!

 

We spotted many stars names on the walk of fame. Grandads name was there Lily!

We went to the Hollywood Rock Cafe for lunch. I really liked it there and the food was delicious. The menu was calorie counted and I chose well to keep to my diet.

In the afternoon we drove up the hillside above,to view the Hollywood sign. There were hundreds of people up there and we realised we were at the famous planetarium and observatory

 

It was so impressive inside and explained all about things like planets orbits super planets, movement of the moon etc. But too many people were there though. I cant imagine what its like in the Summer!
The views over LA were amazing
I hope you like the photos.
Some bad weather coming tomorrow with rain, so we will go to museums if it is too bad, otherwise we are off to The Tar Pits and Santa Monica Beach.

I hope your work is going well Anona and that you are having a good time at the farm Lily.
I hope Matthew Blandine Louis and Alice that you had a lovely holiday. I think the photos look so beautiful

So yesterday after a long day with hardly any sleep for 24 hours we finally got to our hotel near the airport.

This morning we woke up early and after a large breakfast. We headed out to the Queen Mary in Long Beach LA

It is a huge ship and well preserved. We spent all morning and most of the afternoon on the ship. We only paid for children’s rate as the computer was down and she wanted cash only. We didn’t mind!

I hope you like my photos. We ate lunch looking out over the harbour from the ship and saw pelicans and 3 dolphins! We had such a lovely day today and a good start to our travels.The sand is part of Long Beach LA. We quickly drove to see it as it is close by the Queen Mary.

Tomorrow we are touring Beverley Hills and Hollywood.

Just to finish off our fab 2018 travel log, a belated entry!

Today in a lazy mood we packed everything up and loaded the car. We had wondered what to do on our last day and on searching the internet, grandad found there was a naval battleship at Quincy MA that is being renovated by volunteers and open to  public viewing as a museum. It is close by the airport and is the USS Salemu

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Length 717 feet    decommissioned1959        draft 26 foot

It was a hot day and even hotter below decks! There was no fresh air and a very hot dry atmosphere. I found it  bit overpowering and claustrophobic but persevered. The museum below deck was interesting; and so was imagining how over 1000 men lived and worked in the ship.

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Grandad was shown round one of the 4 engine rooms. The scouts association regularly stay on board for weekends on the ship. In October there is a huge public input for Halloween as the ship is said to be haunted. We didn’t find anything spooky at all as we wandered around

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Do you like granddads photo ha ha!

We then explored the surrounding areas but it was mainly industrial and not as pretty as we had hoped. We decided to go to Boston waterfront.

We were so pleased we did as it was so pleasant in the afternoon sun. As it was Sunday afternoon everyone was relaxed and wandering round and there were people dancing and buskers playing. We had a light lunch of…. yes you guessed correctly…fish!

We sat listening to a very talented guitarist who played improvisations around 60s and70s music, so clever and lovely to hear

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We found it very hard to say goodbye to Boston and our fab holiday, but made our way to the Airport.

Our plane was delayed by 2 hours, but fortunately they could put us on an earlier flight still travelling business class using our air miles!

We’re looking forward to catching up with our sleep and getting over our aches and pains, but most of all seeing our family again as we’ve missed them so much

Bye till next Mann tours!!! xxx

 

Hi it’s our anniversary 44 years married. 2pm 27 th July 1974. We got married at St. Andrews Methodist Church Cleethorpes on a cold cloudy but dry day. We had our reception at the Grimsby conservative club as it had a big hall to fit us all in. We left there for our honeymoon to Lincoln opposite the cathedral; and then on to Shropshire the next day. Here we stayed at The Feathers Hotel Ludlow for 3 nights. We then went camping but our car broke down! My parents and Uncle Phil Aunty Babs came to rescue us and we travelled back to Grimsby in different cars!
So today we celebrated by going whale watching! It was a hot clear day and not too much of a sea swell. We went to Gloucester Massachusetts. Cape Ann.
We spent the morning at nearby Bearskin Point and Rockport. We came here 5 weeks ago!
The whale watching was fun.

The first humpback whale wasn’t far from Gloucester port but it only came up briefly for air and dived twice quickly again. They gave up on that one! We sped off in the ship to find a mother and calf. They were very obliging especially the calf, and we watched them for a long while.

Lastly we travelled on again to find 2 larger humpbacks hunting fish together. They may be both pregnant and have been together for 2 weeks.
We got good pictures of them diving together. So we were very lucky and were out at sea for 4 hours.
When we got back to Gloucester we were soaked to the skin right through our pants! As it was rush hour we decided to stick it out and go to a nearby restaurant for our dinner.
Eventually after a nice celebration meal we headed back to our hotel, still soaking wet!
Hope you like our photos all taken by grandad. Xxxxxx WE LOVE WHALES
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🚢⚓️🐳🐳🐋🐋🐋🐋
Sent from my iPad

It only took us two and a half hours to drive here from Brunswick on the motorways. You have to pay a toll a few times but cost us about 6 dollars all in.

We took it easy and stopped for lunch at a crackle barrel restaurant, the first one this time in USA. We had a salad and I had lemonade.

We then went to the house in Concorde where ” the little Women” book was written and where Louisa Alcock lived for 20 years…Orchard House. We had a guided tour around the house and were told all about her life and the family she came from. There were 4 girls and their father was an educated and their mother a social worker.

They were in the fore front of anti slavery movement , treating black people as equals and helping them to escape slavery. The father taught black children in his school and let his own daughters be educated and to follow their dreams. So encouraged suffragette movement and also insisting black women had the right to vote. All this was ahead of thinking at the time and the family were very influencial in the community. There is much more to learn about them ask me if you’re interested in their philosophy and beliefs.

The house tour lived up to my dreams and I found it much more interesting than the tour of Anne of Greengables in PEI

Concord is steeped in history. It is where the American revolution began and the first recorded battle against the British.

This is the house of concords black heritageThe Robbins House – There are highlights about Brister Freeman, whose home was in the town forest …

I saw posters in houses saying ” black lives matter” from the black lives matter movement.
Well I was immersed in history today and really enjoyed stretching my mind.

To finish ill leave you with some photos from the Maine botannical gardens that we saw.

 

We will be home very soon now and whale watching tomorrow, hope we manage to see a whale!!! love and kisses xxx

Today we again visited these amazing botanical gardens and saw different flowers and butterflies than we saw 4 weeks ago.The garden had filled out with bedding plants, the roses and poppies had finished and it still looked amazing.Beautiful butterflies…We had a healthy lunch chowder and summer strawberry saladOtis and Louis look what we saw on the way back, the biggest lobster ever! That wouldn’t fit in our aeroplane to bring home!I will upload more photos of the coastline near our motel tomorrow

Love you all and will see you all soon, I’m missing you all so much xxxx

The last two days we have been travelling and are now in Brunswick Maine USA

I was too tired to sort out my photos and write the blog yesterday but I’m catching up with things today.

Here are pictures of a heron and  an egret we saw near Yarmouth in the south of Nova Scotia , the day before we left on the ferry.

Our ferry  was very smooth and comfortable. We chatted to an English couple for most of the 2 hour journey and also met a UK man (with a voice box) from Bristol who was cycling round the world. He still has 2 more years to go! He was in his seventies I think.

We arrived by ferry in the fog to Saint John New Brunswick ,late morning. Our hotel was there but we really wanted to go back to Hopewell Rocks. If you remember, when we got there on the Fundy Coast 4 weeks ago the tides were wrong and we got there to see the rocks at high tide…..Well yesterday we had a 4 hour window to explore them while the tide was out. We have a new sat nav and we programmed it  for Hopewell Rocks. We were doing really well time wise and noticed we were going a different route from last time over “rocks road”

To our surprise we ended up on an unpaved road we continued for a couple of miles and took a wrong turn we think…. and ended up on a hilly mud track! So frustrating and bumpy for our backs. We turned round and eventually found a tarmacked road that took us to the main road we needed to be on, We had travelled through a forest!

Nevertheless we did not go back that way. Hope you like the Flowerpot rocks. we were so amazed by them and explored the beach for ages. there were so many people there too, its a very popular venue!

Back in Saint John we refound the fog and it was still thick fog  there as we left this morning.

Today the journey seemed long but it took 4 hours travelling plus stops. We are now in USA and have gained an hour in time.

We briefly visited the nearby coastal islands all joined by causeways and took a few pics.

Hope that lily and Otis enjoy their last at day at school and nursery tomorrow.

xxxxxx

Yesterday I didn’t write a blog page. We chilled out back in Annapolis Royal

It was market day and lots of different stalls and buskers playing. We strolled around the stalls and craft shops in the sunshine. We ate our lunch at Leos café again and then wandered around the remains of the fort along the river and into town again sitting on benches on the boardwalk.

Back in Digby we had dinner in the town and came back a bit tired but happy.

Today it was foggy but hot and occasionally torrential monsoon like rain in the heat. It was very humid and the sky was  cloudy foggy or blue skies, what a mixture.

We travelled to Yarmouth and saw the town in the grey cloudy atmosphere. We followed the Evangeline Trail for quite a few miles and saw a heron and an egret. There seemed to be quite a few French speaking towns around the South West.

Later on we went back to Digby to do our washing and for an ice-cream… and then to bear river again to watch the tide come in.

Tomorrow we catch the ferry to Saint John New Brunswick, I hope the crossing isn’t too choppy

love to you allxxx

 

Today we were so hot with temperatures up to 29*c and high humidity making us sweltering hot. We travelled to historical Annapolis calling at Bear River first.

At bear River we found craft shops on stilts over the tidal river water. Along the Acadian coast there is one of the largest differences between low and high tides.

At Annapolis we visited the historical gardens and kept in the shade of the trees. Grandad took many macro pics of the beautiful summer flowers. the lakes and rose gardens were especially lovely.

There is a reproduction of an authentic Acadian house in a position they believe it would have been situated facing the marshy river.

We wandered around the town after a lovely salad lunch at Leos café. and then later on back in Digby we walked along fisherman’s wharf to see the mackerel fishing bats returning at high tide.

We ended the day by driving up to Prim Point where the ferry leaves to cross the sea to St John. The cliffs and lighthouse and rocky coastline were impressive as were the wild flowers 

xxxxxxx