7 cities in 7 days

September 21, 2007

Time to leave the UK and begin our quick and nasty tour of the US, 7 cities in 7 days. Our flight from London to New York was with BA again but this time we had the new seats that lie completely flat plus better entertainment but the food was still very average.



That wasn't the highlight though, before take off the flight attendent told us to follow him and we ended up in the cockpit with the pilots. Yes they were very interested in showing us their instruments and computer screens but interupting them I asked, "Do you really take off and land the plane or does the conputer do it?" yep tactful as always - according to them they have to manually take off and land. My second question was "Do you flip a coin?". Then they went into a detailed description of which one was the chief pilot and who landed where when and the weather conditions for each landing site, blah blah blah. They also showed off the room behind them which has a single bed matress on the floor so they can sleep (at least that's what I think they were referring to ....)

Then I had another travel related toilet incident (earlier in the year I walked into the male toilet by accident at the airport, looked up and realised my mistake as I stared at a guy standing at the urinal and I think he got on the same plane as me after - very embarassing). Anyway I opened the toilet door on the airplane there was a guy inside doing up his pants. Who unlocks the door before finishing? More importantly, did he wash his hands?

Highlights from our US visit so far:

New York

Some really bad food choices, pancakes and bacon for breaky....

Followed by pepperoni pizza at 2 different places for dinner. We couldn't find the pizza place Andrew and I ate when we were here in February so we had to try somewhere else, which of course I didn't like so we had to try another, which was worse

Pizza place #1 - yes that is oil draining off of the pizza and onto the paper plate

Pizza place #2 - not as oily, more pepperoni but still not good


And the Naked Cowboy at Times Square (thats not Sam or I in the photo, neither of us were interested in getting that close to him)

Cleveland

Cleveland is located on Lake Erie and is known as the "Mistake by the Lake". Our Ohio sales rep, David drove past the sites between visiting customer accounts

Columbus
The 2 hr drive from Cleveland to Columbus with David. Only one Starbucks stop along the way (David has a narrow therapeutic window for coffee, too little and/or too late result is headache; too much coffee result is headache). Fortunately David doesn't like Country & Western music and he even had a Black keys CD in his car

7 cities in 7 days (cont)

September 22, 2007

Chicago
After our 2 days in Ohio we then headed to Houston via Chicago, where we caught up with Pauline who recently transferred from the UK to US office.

It was a beautiful day so we did a lot of walking around the city. Managed to get in a bit of shopping down Michigan Ave although both Sam's and my suitcases are already over the 50 pound limit.

View of Chicago from the Michigan Ave bridge....

....and me trying to take a photo of me in front of the bridge

Lake Michigan

Millenium Park

Houston

After our day of R&R in Chicago we headed to Houston, well at least I was going to Houston. The travel agent had stuffed up Sam's itinerary and had her leaving chicago on an earlier flight which of course she didn't get on cause she didn't know. Apparently if you don't show up for a flight they cancel the rest of your flights, yes our second hiccup....does bad luck really run in three's? But it ended up being all ok, Sam's was rebooked on the remaining flights with me but she had to take an economy seat for the flight from Chicago to Dallas as all the first class seats were taken (I did offer!). So I got a hot refreshing face towel before being served lunch but only ate the freshly baked chocolate chip cookie they gave us for desert, while Sam had "a beverage of your choice".

But we made it to Houston ok and Sam was still speaking to me


Houston airport, Sam checking out the map to see where our hotel was


In Houston, we stayed in a hotel/appartment one of our local support scientists recommended. It was very homely and had that country feel to it, it also didn't have any hot water! Hiccup #3? Fortunately Sam's room was fine so I ventured outside in my PJ's to her room so I could shower.

Sam waiting for our local Support Scientist to let us into the car (see hot water = happy face)....

Cold water = grumpy me (you can see our hotel in the background)



Needless to say I was ready to get back on the plane and get one city closer to going home. Next stop, San Francisco

On the home stretch

September 25, 2007


San Francisco
We were pretty excited to leave Houston, and even more excited when we arrived in Dallas and found there was a Ben & Jerry's icecream shop......mmmm choc chip cookie dough icecream (ok its possible I was more excited than Sam)


Another uneventful flight (Sam in first class this time), followed by another beautiful day, a good day at work and another city skyline to add to the album

In the evening we took the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf cause you just can't go to San Francisco and not ride on the cable car

We had dinner at Boudin Sourdough place, this time we had Chilli in the bread bowl (last time I had clam chowder) with a good old sprinkling of American chedder cheese on top

Followed by, yes you guessed it, Ben & Jerry's icecream, this time decided to try another flavour, chocolate icecream with pieces of raw chocolate brownie mixture....mmmmm


Tomorrow we fly to LA and then home....

Home.......eventually

September 28, 2007

Before hoping on the Qantas plane home we made a quick stop to LA for the day. In the airport lounge at San Francisco, Sam and I bumped into Jeanie, a collegue from Melbourne who was also heading to LA. We made use of the time before getting on the plane to catch up on some work

Before we knew it we were back at the airport and boarding our last flight for the trip (or so we thought). We changed into our Qantas PJ's, had a quick bite to eat and settled down for a well deserved sleep.

We woke up to find that our destination had changed and we were flying into Sydney instead of Melbourne.

Sam grabbed a flight attendant as he walked past who confirmed we were in fact landing in Sydney as there was something wrong with the plane but no one was supposed to know yet. An hour later the pilot annouced a bird had flown into one of the plane engines and the Qantas engineers in Australia had decided to land in Sydney and have us board a different plane to Melbourne. Sam and I took the opportunity to brush up on our emergency brace position technique, just in case.

The plane landed safely in Sydney, got off plane, cleared security for the 50 thousandth time (take out laptops, place liquids in clear zip-lock bags, take off shoes, etc, etc, etc) and headed to the Duty Free Store to get an iPod each. We then boarded the real last flight from Sydney to Melbourne.

Spring arrives early in Melbourne

How do you know its Spring in Melbourne.....

1. The Magnolia, Cherry tree and wattles have blossomed

2. Snow drops have sprung up

3. Its day light when I leave work and still light after I ride home (ok it would have looked lighter if I hadn't stopped to take all these photo's)

4. You look at the traffic on the Monash 'carpark' while riding home and realise your not the loser afterall

On a related note, Terrie, Warwick agrees that the white birds are ducks (not geese) but this black one is definately a swan

5. Andrew and Eddie can no longer use the weather as an excuse not to ride to work. Some examples are:

• I've pulled a stomach muscle


• My wife is sick and I need to take care of her (a likely story)


• I took my laptop home and its too heavy to carry into work

(feel free to make suggestions on other excuses Andrew and Eddie can use, I'll pass them on)

6. The winter jumper I've been working on is finished just in time for summer, well almost finished......

Opps sorry Voula, how did that photo get there?

Zoe Vom's 1st Birthday

Zoe had her first birthday party this weekend. She was wearing the outfit Dad had bought her in the US (with Voula and my help) and Mum had made her a great cake.

Mum, Dad and Zoe had a great time........

....and so did Stuart's and Matthew's kids......

... and I was spaced out from a sugar overload ...

...but Voula was mad because she didn't get a frog-in-the-pond jelly cup