Christmas... but not white

I got woken up at 6:30 this morning when Dylan (my cousin, Daniel is the other one) came in to ask me whether or not I wanted to open my presents from Santa. I decided because I was already awake I would open my presents – of course we were all awake… it was Christmas after all! After all the adults got up & had their cooked breakfast we got ready for the day then read (a family tradition) the Grinch stole Christmas! I read the book this year even tho it was off the computer because we didn’t have the actual book here.

After that we opened our presents. This year I got heaps of clothes. (just what I wanted) and so did Amy and Emma!!! We had an early Dinner, Aunty Jo did an awesome job of making dinner we had ham and turkey… it was sooooo yummy. Later that day we went for a Christmas walk around a lovely bush walk we walked half a mile then walked back. We had an awesome Christmas it was lots of Fun.

The Day after Christmas

Well today we woke up late and watched T.V we played on the bikes played with our presents till Lunch! After lunch the Daddys and the kids went out to the shooting range, Uncle Paul had a 9mm pistol. When we arrived Uncle Paul and Dad got it all set up… Amy had the first turn at the shooting range while me Emma and the boys stayed in the waiting area and played with a cute dog called Reggie!

When it was my turn I had to put on some safety glasses and some ear muffs, Before we came uncle Paul showed us haw to use the gun so we knew how to load it and what to do! I got 3 shots got 1/3 on the sheet! Dad and Uncle Paul were so good. It was pretty amazing to fire a real live pistol at the shooting range. Dad says when in Rome do as the Romans do… and Americans love their guns!

Zion Southern Baptist Church

Today Dad woke us up at 8:00 to tell us we were going to a church that worships God really well! He was right, this church had no other white people apart from us they were all darker skin but their passion was amazing. They were hard to understand & there was a lot of yelling but it was a great experience!

After that we went to get a pie and a sausage roll from the Australian bakery. Once we got home we decided to go up Sawnee Mountain. (Emma was not well last night so she stayed at home,) the walk was so much fun we took photos at the top, played in the rocks & had loads of fun. We saw most of Cumming from up there. On the way down Dylan ran ahead and he took the wrong turn so we spent ages trying to find him. But we did so all was well in the end. Dad made me kiss the Indian Chief’s bum!

Stars and Strikes

We played for most of the day did the usual stuff. because there is not much to say I am going to skip to the interesting part… stars and strikes… well this is a massive place where you can go bowling, play laser tag, do bumper cars, and play car racing games, we did three out of the 4, can you guess? First we did bowling. This was fun we were put on 2 teams, Adults- Kids. We paid for1 hour than another half hour cos we weren’t finished in time. We all enjoyed the game (well almost every one) then had pizza for tea! Next was the games. We got 2 card with 20 tokens on it, every game was 4-6 tokens each. I played Nascar with Amy, we also played a motorbike game, an air hokey game, and much more! The last was Laser tag that was fun, we all got a vest with a laser. We went in a dark room and had to shoot one another for 7 min. What fun!

“ALVIN” yep, no body does that better then him.

The Dads went out to a car museum while Aunty Jo and the kids went out to the movies - Alvin and the Chipmunks, the sequel. It was great movie, well I wont spoil it for those of you who want to see it. But it’s a excellent movie!!! We helped tidy up the house as we are leaving for Florida tomorrow. Which means Disney for New Year, then another week in the warm weather. Cool!!! Lots of love from Deanna.

back to Atlanta - hooray!

[howdy it's the editor - nice to see you all again. Here are some pics from Atlanta, as well as a couple of text additions, our blog writers had forgotten a couple of happenings... happy reading]

It was a long day of driving ahead of us today, all 565 miles to Atlanta and a 1 day record for this trip. So as soon as possible we got out of dodge, it was such a long drive that we only stopped when absolutely necessary, even dad held on. The scenery was amazing for the first couple of hours - smow everywhere!

The first stop was lunch where Deanna made Mac and cheese with a side of tomato soup. The second major stop (not toilet) was for dinner - in fact outside the fireworks store @ the South Carolina border. Now many of you have not been to an American firework warehouse, so let me tell you what it looks like. When you walk inside the door to the left and right of you are rows and rows of fire works, crackers and even sky rockets!!! Around the walls are shelves and at the top are the biggest fireworks they have. We had to be very careful because many were very expensive. We ended up buying a box that exploded into colours for the finally, a packet of 4 of the biggest skyrockets and many little ones. + Much more. You need to get the fireworks there because Georgia has different rules and the fireworks aren't nearly as impressive. Dad says they are way bigger and better than even when he was a kid (all those decades ago!)

Finely we got back to the Seymour’s place and it was like 9:00 pm. Everyone was very happy – especially aunty Joe because we weren't expected until the following day. After the long drive we all talked and went to bed.

It was a good thing we got there when we did because it meant mum could lie in on her birthday. So while mum lay in bed & read her book half the day, we kids played on the bikes until tea. It wasn’t just bikes though; it was also cops and robbers and we watched T.V. We got to stay up until the parents went to bed and this was because Emma and I slept on the couch.

I liked sleeping on the couch because in the morning I get to watch T.V. so that is exactly what I did. After we had played together for a bit we got in the car, all nine of us and drove to the World of Coke. When you walk in you find yourself side by side with about 5 huge coke bottles. And you will all be proud when you read this but the biggest from New Zealand!!! The first room you go through to is full of old coke artifacts and thingymibobs (ed... I promise you, that is unedited!), it even contained the largest coke bottle opener. The next room along was a theater and the movie was all about what was happening inside a coke vending machine. Did you know that your coke gets kissed by a whole heap of love puppies before you get it? Or that the lid gets catapulted on? Well all that does happen right inside the machine (according to this movie anyway - it was extremely cool). Next we went up a flight of steps to the 4-D theater. This is like 3-D except 1 tiny detail - the chairs move and water gets sprayed on you. Not much I know. This movie is about the secret formula of coke and how a lady travels around the world trying to figure out what the formula was. At one stage a bug flies around you and pokes you in the back. We also went through two rooms that had yet more artifacts. But compared to what we were about to do - that was pretty boring.

The next was the tasting room this is a room where you get to taste fizzy drinks from all over the world. Most of them I didn’t like, which was a shame because when I got to the coke section I barely had any room for the good stuff. Then We got some free bottles of coke as we left (it doesn’t matter where you go, you always exit through the gift shop of course).

In the evening the olds went out for dinner for Mum's birthday. In America Deanna is old enough to babysit so us kids stayed at home on our own.

The next day, on Christmas Eve we went to Slap shots this is a roller-skating rink. There were also plenty of games to play. We played the games and rolled around the rink and before long we were the only ones left. With this type of freedom (not having to worry about banging into others) we had a big race. Since Dylan couldn’t skate properly he got the head start of half the rink. Two things happened, 1. Emma slipped and I won. But I was going so fast I just went bang against wall.

The other fun thing was letting off some of those fireworks. Only fire crackers - Dad calls them double happys and seems to be reliving his youth. He taught us how to light & throw them, drop them down bottles and cans, and also let them off in letterboxes. It's a pain that we can't buy decent fireworks in NZ any more. We'll be letting off the others sometime around New Year - can't wait cos there are some HUGE sky rockets!

That's all for now - love from Amy

what is a bridge/tunnel?

We woke up right next to the toll booth for the Chesapeake Bridge/Tunnel. As you know, we weren’t allowed to cross it last night because of the wind so this morning we crossed the massive bridge. Crossing the everlasting bridge is like driving over the sea. The bridge is actually two bridges. One of them has two lanes going one way, and the other going the opposite way. There are two points where the two bridges meet and go through a few rocks of reclaimed land & straight into a tunnel. The process is cool because there is a big wall either side when the road meets the rocks. The road is so long, 8 miles to be exact. It was like the land never existed the road just kept going and going and going on and on forever. For a start we couldn't work out why they bothered with the tunnels - why not just make a bridge all the way. Then we saw a shop going over as we entered one of the tunnels... so that's why, so ships can pass by. We smart cookies eh!

Because of the snow delays we ran out of time to do the naval base tour at Norfolk however were fortunate to see 3 aircraft carriers across the water... so not quite as good as a tour but at least we got to see the big ships.

That was just the beginning of our driving but not long until we reached Williamsburg, just before lunch. Williamsburg is a really old town, and that’s stressing the old! You can find places that are nearly three hundred years old!! Did you know way back when, if you go sent to jail they took you to a tailor to have handcuffs fitted to your size then they bolt the cuffs on until the jailer wants to cut it of. We learnt this at the old goal & also got to see the entire house – the jailer lived on site, in a comfier room of course. There were certain things in the town that you had to pay for [ed... they wanted $46 per adult and $23 per kid & you could get into any of the historic buildings. We decided to be cheapskates and just wander the streets... this editor's credit card has had a fair hammering the last few weeks!!!]. Two of them we got into for free because no one asked for tickets, the jailhouse being one. The other was a weapon warehouse that looks like the lookout in some sort of castle. It was full of weapons like guns rifles and spears. We walked up and down the road looking at the pretty houses and some of the glass is over 200 years old.

As usual we finished the day by looking for a campsite and this one had 3 playgrounds!!

For your information... The lowest price of gas we’ve seen is $2.269 per gallon and the most expensive was $3.199. The range we actually ended up purchasing was $2.319 at best and worst was $2.869 in upstate New York.

The next day was one long haul from Williamsburg back to Atlanta - we drove all day and peeled off 565 miles, a record for one day on this trip. All freeways & pretty much no traffic issues all day. Really beautiful scenery with all the snow for the first 200 miles or so.

Aunty Jo & Uncle Paul weren't expecting us until the next day so they were rather surprised to see us tuen up on their door step just after 8.30pm. We wanted to make it in time for Mum's birthday so she could have a lie in and not have to drive... so it was good that we made it. We've included a photo of one of Dad's favourite road signs...

No more driving for a week now - yay! Lots of love and a very Merry Christmas to all... Amy

[ed... Well the big loop is now completed, pretty much as planned. a total of 6812 miles, just slightly more than predicted before we left. we're staying put here now for a week or so - really looking forward to Christmas (& not having to drive this bus!). Not too much else planned so blogs might be a bit thin on the ground... that is until we get to Disney World just before New Year all going to plan. Thanks for keeping us company on our travels - it's been a pleasure to be your blog editor. Merry Christmas one and all!!!]

like falling in a cloud

Last night I could not sleep, Dad saw me wriggling around and asked if I was still awake… I answered back yes, they told me to look out the window, and I stumbled at of bed and to the window and saw the snow falling!

Amy got up all enthusiastic this morning because there was snow everywhere - she was out playing in the snow by the time I was out of bed. It was fantastic when you fell (or Dad tackled you) it didn’t hurt. It was like falling in a cloud! We made snow angels (just like we do at the beach in summer with sand), snowmen, snow caves & snow balls! We spent hours playing in the snow. Hard to say exactly how much but Dad reckoned there must be almost a foot of snow - Dad was out helping us with all the building (& snowball fights of course!!) The snow is so soft, the only snow I have felt is hard snow, this was like icing sugar. We were lucky because there were plows plowing the snow in the carpark so we could get out! It was such a cool experience.

You would not know how tough it is to drive in a snow storm. I have never seen so much snow in my life Dad found it hard driving in the snow because he could not see anything. It was cool we got to stop in the middle of the freeway because the wipers were covered in snow, no one minded, in fact they all were stopping on the freeway if they needed to.

We drove over the Bay Bridge in high winds but we got there safe and sound but they would not let us over the Chesapeake Bridge/tunnel because the winds were so high. They shooed us over to the carpark till the winds died down, we ended staying in the parking lot overnight!

Check out the photos and video of us playing in the snow... also a couple showing the conditions Dad had to drive in! Almost Christmas time now, can't wait to see our cousins again. Love from Deanna

[ed... yep driving in a blizzard was definately one of life's new experiences for this editor. I've driven in snow a cople of times before but not this much snow!! I talked to a couple of people before heading off & concluded that the roads would all be ploughed and passable so long as you took it quietly... which turned out to be the case. It's quite handy if you can find the odd truck to tuck in behind. That Bay Bridge was something else - wickedly windy & snow coming sideways, did only 20-25mph over the bridge and still got buffeted around heaps. Rest of the first 2-3 hours was no more than about 35mph so it was pretty slow going.

As we drove south the amount of snow around got less and less and within a few hours we were out of it altogether. Funny to drive through all that weather then get told at the toll gate @ Chesapeake that it was too windy to go thru. Certainly not as windy as earlier in the day... and no snow, however rules is rules I guess. We were planning to stop for the night just the other side of the bridge anyway so no real time lost.]

the moon and the flag

It was our last day in Washington and we still had a bit to do. The museums don't open until 10am but the Bureau of Printing and Engraving was open @ 9 so that was first stop. Here they print american money and we got to watch them make it from start to finish. Some of the interesting parts were The security band that got woven in, the 72 hours that they had to wait to let it dry and the vibration table. They used this to make sure none of the papers had stuck together.

The next stop was at the Smithsonian castle. here we had our photo taken with a Christmas tree decorated in blue. Then it was time to split up – Deanna, Emma and Mum all went to the native American museum (PS Mum will tell about later) while Dad and I went to the air and space museum. There we saw the Apollo 11 and for those of you who don't know it was the first to land on the moon!!! We also saw the first plane made by the Wright brothers - yep, the actual one!!!

Mum now... Because we hadnt seen much of the American Indians story Deanna, Emma and I decided to check out the new museum dedicated to the indiginous race. It was fascinating to see how they live and what their beliefs are. They live in harmony with the earth and sky (everything has a spirit which entwines with your own) and nothing is ever wasted. If they kill a bufallo the whole beast is used including the bones, hide and meat. It is a great celebration for the whole tribe. The cermonial clothing was so flamboyant and depicted the status of the warrior in the tribe.


After lunch the others joined us back to the air and space because Dad & I hadn't finished. There was an actual lunar lander to look at (they made 2 for earlier unmanned missions but only ended up using one... so here's the other one), as well as duplicates of the hubble space telescope and a space station which you could walk though. Dad really liked the WWII aircraft & also artifacts from the moon missions - like Gus Grissoms actual space suit from the 1st moon landing, and some moon rocks... and stuff like that. Dad and I had fun playing 'knock each others hats off' as we went around.

Next stop was the National Archives where we saw a giant globe... and New Zealand was at the back!!! Perhaps we're quite little! We also saw the first written Declaration of independence. It was long and faded. [ed... long & faded?! that's cos it's old Amy! check out the panorama pic below, that's the rotunda where u can view various original documents including the constitution & various amendments, bill of rights, articles of confederation etc. in this editors opinion, it's very cool to see all the originals of these historic documents and try to pick out the signatures of Washington, Franklin and co]




The last museum was the national museum of American history. Here we saw the original Kermit the frog. And this is for you Olivia we saw Dorothy's ruby shoes! There was even two of the most expensive violins in the world there! [ed... in fact 2 of only 11 ornamental Stradivarius fiddles ever made]. Dad thought Muhhamid Ali's boxing gloves from the George Foreman fight were pretty cool as well.

But the biggest thing they had was probably the first American flag - the original star spangled banner. You would probably think it would be small like any other flag – but this one was different, it was huge!! it had parts of it cut out because people didn't bother preserving things back then. [ed again, sorry... when the British were attacking Baltimore Harbour back in the early 1800's... with cannons for 25 hours... the defending locals were inspired at first light by the sight of this huge flag still fluttering. The song penned to commerorate the occasion was adopted as the national anthem. Again, rather cool to see the actual flag that inspired the anthem (despite a small sign advising no photography). I've included the lyrics below for anyone interested.]

So that was Washington. We were all extremely leg weary during that last walk back to our RV - a few miles walked this week I reckon! Snow is forecast for tonight so Dad says we better 'get out of Dodge' otherwise we mightn't be able to!

love from Amy

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Bob is lost.

Today I am the bearer of bad news. Despite a really good hunt yesterday, it appears that Bob has been left somewhere, in Pennsylvania we guess. It's a shame that he didn't make the whole trip - there were a couple of close calls where he was left in random places & then found again. RIP Bob! We have another mascot named Little Bob but he's tiny so a bit hard to pick out but you may still spot him from time to time.

It was a very early start for us today because we needed to get to Manassas to get a new mirror for our RV. We journal'd and blogg'd until we got there and then Mum and Deanna went shopping while the rest of us collected the mirror. While we were at it we went through these two really flash RV's. The first had three flat screen TVs, two bathrooms, a double bed, four slides and all this for only 2 people (you could tell becuase only 2 seats at the dining table). Not fit for us – but the next 5th wheeler we went through was awesome because it had two slides, a huge bathroom (for an RV), a TV that when you turn it around it becomes a mirror, this is connected to the double bed room. But the best thing about it is the kids room. This one had a bunk and a trundler... so cool... a bed each!!!.

We afixed the mirror ourselves, then we got a tank of well priced gas, then collected Deanna, Mum & groceries. Our water & waste were in serious need of attention so we found a campsite and paid them to let us take care of the aforementioned matters. While there we all had showers/baths so for $10 we bought our selves 3 more days of free camping... the larder, gas & propane tanks were full... & 2 mirrors... so back to DC with all systems go!

On the way back we stumbled across something Dad had really been hoping to see - the Iwo Jima memorial. You see miniatures of it in the souvineer shops so we were wrapped to see a sign on the freeway directing us there. I reckon it's the biggest bronze statue we've seen - check out the pics. And of course, Dad was a happy camper! Mind you, his parking there was a bit ordinary - but the thumbs up is also cos he's got 2 mirrors again, not just cos of pride in his parking skills!

Now it was time for some real sight seeing so we headed back to our parking spot behind the Jefferson. As we walked past there were 2 helecopters just hovering over the water, looked like they were looking for something/one. A fella said they were doing some surveying so nothing exciting after all.

The closest museum was the Holocaust museum and since it was 2:00pm by the time we got back, there we went. For those of you who don't already know what the Holocaust is let me explain... the holocaust was when the Nazis (led by Hitler) murdered millions of Jews because they were blamed for losing the first world war. The funny thing is Hitler was part Jew! The museum was all about this catastrophy of history - they sent huge numbers to ghettos, which is like a prison town with one building per family (or often more). This room had everything they need – including the toilet and kitchen but it would be so cramped (even worse than our camper!!) Most of the Jews at these ghettos (& loads of others as well) got sent to a concentration camp.

You probably don't know what that is either so let me explain – the concentration camp is a place of hard labor and they make you wear a uniform that looks like pj's. They don't feed you well and they split the girls and boys up. They all have to share bunks. Often people die of sickness or starvation. Most of the time the Jews got murdered by either getting shot or gas chambers. To stop panic they told the Jews they were going to have a healthy shower then took them underground and told them to take off their cloths and them moved them into another room then bolted the door and threw in poisoning gas that stopped them from being able to breath.

Everyone normally died after about twenty minutes. Then they took the bodies out, cut off their hair (sometimes they did that before hand) then burned the dead bodies.

I have one word to describe the holocaust: horrible!!! There were photos of when the camps were liberated - people looked lke skeletons & there were dead bodies everywhere. Emma found it so bad she could barely look. The rest of the museum was really good though if the truth be known - it told us all about Hitler too, and how he became president and changed the law to no more elections.

That was it for the day, quite a sobering finish but Dad says we all need to understand the history so we make sure it doesn't ever happen again. I hope not!!!

Our usual routine is to try find a hotspot on our way to overnight parking place. Randomly we discovered there was a very small area just near our daytime park so we stopped there. Unfortunately it's just around the other side of the Jefferson... and the cops get a bit twitchy about anything parked that close... so after 20 questions, we were politely moved on. Oh well.

Goodnight from Amy.

washington day 2

First of all we parked in the same park as yesterday, down by the river - it was a gorgeous clear day but freezing cold. Dad likes down by the river because its free. Then we were on our way to the white house!!! On the way there we past the Washington monument again, me Amy and Emma were lagging behind. Dad stopped and asked if we wanted to go up the monument for another look as the view wasn't that flash yesterday... so off we went.

It was so much better than yesterday because everything was clear and you could see for miles! We saw heaps more than we did when it was cloudy. Next was the famous WHITE HOUSE. The visitors centre was cool we did some colouring, while mum and dad watched a video about the history and also showing the inside. We then walked over to the White House! Did you know America has had 44 presidents, starting at Washington all the way to Obama. It looks so much cooler than the pictures its so big, we only saw the front, but that was sure enough to impress us. I truly enjoyed it. On the way out we saw a Christmas tree with a heap of toy train models underneath, they were so cool, we threw a penny on it! I missed but that’s OK!

After all that we walked over to the Natural history museum. In the museum were dinosaur bones!!! They were real bones - it was so cool, there was even a T-Rex skeletons and a Triceratops, and a one of a kind Diceratops (thats us with the photo of it)! We learnt all about mammals, fish, insects, reptiles and amphibians! There were loads of stuffed animals (including our Dad is seems), about a million different rocks, and also some amazing gems including the hope diamond.

On the way back, we all got to feed a couple of squirrels. I held my hand out with the bread in it while he ate it. Amy wanted a go so I pulled the bread away. Now let me tell you the squirrel did not like that it attacked me - luckily not fatal, just a scratched finger.

We walked to the Capitol no one was allowed to go up so we observed from down below. The Capitol is one of the oldest building in Washington and really spectacular - the statues out front were cool, Dad really likes one with a bunch of horses pulling an old cannon. We were there just at sunset & you could see all the way back to the monument.

By then we had done quite enough walking and it was more than 2 miles back to our RV... so we caught a taxi. On our way back to our usual parking spot we hunted around for some wifi to so blogs and e-mails... another day done... goodnight everyone from Deanna.