Booze & Blues (New Orleans & Memphis)

Hi all

We are about to leave Dallas for Amarillo but the last 2 stops we had were so good I thought they deserve their own post.

New Orleans met us with much anticipation and expectations of being a highlight of the trip... and for the most part it delivered! The French Quarter where we spent most of our time was beautiful during the daylight hours, the grand old French and Spanish buildings and statues seemed very out of place in modern America, but come sunset and the dirty old drunk men seemed to just leak out onto Bourbon street, and it was most definitely America again. We had a hurricane-like drink called a hand grenade that was so sweet and so sour it was an effort to get through just one. Our airboat tour of some swamps was very cool, the 'swamp people' lure the 'gators close to the boat by using what they call swamp crack (marshmallows), and we got to hold a baby one too!

Memphis and its main drag Beale St was like a cleaner nicer version of New Orleans and was a very cool town to hear some live music which was playing in pretty much every bar and restaurant, and being St Patricks day which the Americans celebrate much more enthusiastically than we do it was a very fun place to be in. We checked out Elvis's ridiculously styled Graceland mansion (multi-coloured curtains on the ceiling anyone?) and tried some deliciously healthy local peach cobbler and fried chicken.

L + D

DC to Florida

Hi all,

Currently sitting in Tallahassee, Florida, and as the last week has been crazy busy we are a bit behind in this, so what follows is a speedy summary of our southward journey from NYC to Orlando, Florida!

Some highlights have been seeing the incredible monuments of Washington DC, the charming towns of the old south like Charleston, Savannah & St Augustine with Spanish Moss drooping from their Oak trees and 18th Century houses, and amazing food! In Savannah, Georgia, we had lunch at a place that served an entire table of southern home style thanksgiving food that you'd share with other people, there was fried chicken, black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, and a heap of salads and sides, we needed a nap afterwards.

Florida has been interesting, a varied mixture of style of cities from European, beachie, touristy, and plastic (Miami). The NASA space center was pretty incredible, the original Saturn V rocket is on display there and is enormous! Miami was nice but a lot of people living there seemed to epitomise the stereotypical American, arrogant, superficial and showy... but the Art Deco buildings and mansions were interesting to look at. We went to a basketball game between Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers which was fun, as part of the singing of the national anthem they had clips of eagles flying, space shuttles launching, mountain vistas and the flag waving on the video screens which was very American.

The Happiest Place on Earth (Disney) was a pretty incredible place to visit, the grounds were immaculately kept, attention to detail on the rides was impeccable, and waiting in line for an hour is considered normal! Well worth it though as was Universal studios with their Harry Potter world and crazy roller coasters.

We are now on our way to much anticipated New Orleans so will share an update on that in the next few days.

L + D

Farewell New York

Hi all,

Our incredible week in NYC is unfortunately over now, but Washington is a suitable substitute to go to next. Still very cold here in DC but the Monuments are, well... monumental, so we are enjoying that, and our tour companions are nice too.

Bit of a recap of NYC in photos is below, some highlights included the sights from the Empire State Building, for the kids we saw Batman face off against Spider-Man in the street in Times Square and a huge indoor Ferris wheel, plus chocolate stores everywhere! The Italian restaurant we went to in Greenwich village was amazing (pasta degustation menu is below) as was the village itself, and Central Park was very pretty if not a little creepy in winter with the trees all bare. We went ice skating in the park, Lana proved to be much better than Damien! and we had a nice horse and carriage ride through the park too. Oh and the food everywhere was as to be expected.. incredible! (New York Reuben sandwich from a famous deli is the last photo here, delicious).

Will hopefully add some more photos in another few days.

L + D