View from the 32nd storey offices of Oliver Wyman is stupendous

Hi everyone

Tim, when in New York at his office, has the best view ever to mid-town Manhattan. At present he is mainly in Boston advising a bank on restructuring, so we were really lucky to see him in his habitat. In typical New York fashion he works regular 16 hour days. Not only did we visit his spectacular office, but also he had time to have dinner with us in the trendy Vynl eatery.

Meanwhile in Toronto, James was playing and he was then on the plane to La Guardia from whence he dipped down into the subway and joined us and Tim at dinner. A really nice family night out - good to see the cousins hitting it off so well. James had to depart to do a gig in a clothing store in Soho (NYC) and then on the dawn plane to Montreal to do another gig at a park in the afternoon on Sunday. Tim hoped to meet us on Sunday but re-working figures for meetings on Monday in Boston took all his time.

We went on to spend a nice day in Central Park and to re-visit the Frick Collection with fine Holbeins, Van Dycks, Reynolds, El Grecos and many other great masters. Then to the Rockerfeller Centre, with a mind-blowing Lego shop and a lovely Museum of Modern Art Store.

Staying at the Algonquin was a heaven of peace in the hurly burly of New York and on Monday night Charles dropped in after five meetings and we went out to dinner.

Tuesday lunch with Paul Kram, Ivor's nephew, and Jennifer and a great whizz on the Subway with Paul. He was so thrilled as he has just passed his exam to enable him to operate as a financial advisor since the travel business is in decline with the growth of the Internet. It was so nice to meet Jennifer who sadly had to rush off to a meeting with lawyers to sort out a case about her former restaurant.

Finally off to the MoMA for exhibitions of "The History of the Modern Kitchen" and fine works by Monet. Matilda the Algonquin cat, who is a cool laid back New Yorker, sends cursory good wishes to all our readers - then off to JFK, then jet-lagged (for us) Breakfast on Wednesday at St Pancras with Darrell and on to home.

Love to you all

J&C

ps - Will send a small selection of the 856 stills to you in the next week or so.

pps - We finally did get custard excellently made by Charles in Washington.

Please do not photograph the General's dentures......

Amazing signs crop up - this one was in a room in the visitor centre at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home on the Potomac.
Visited the Library of Congress with Elizabeth and Alan and then on to dinner with Charles and Mary Ellen. At last the siblings and partners together while we are all in our 60's.
Six US Marshalls turned up on Argyle Terrace with a gang of immigrant helpers to throw out the possessions of one of Charles' neighbours. The bank had foreclosed on John and Charles heroically helped by getting plastic sheets to cover soft furnishings. Then we went with Charles to hire a 26 foot UHaul truck to take care of John's house contents still left on his front lawn.
We went to the lovely Politics and Prose bookshop and cafe a couple of times. Saw Wall Street with Charles and Mary Ellen who were able to identify many of the Characters in the movie.
It was a such fun to stay in DC and Charles saw us off to New York from the elegant train station.
Love to you all
J&C

There'll be blue birds over.................

Hi everyone

The Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville, where songwriters perform Country and Western, is a great night out and JS organised us a trip on Saturday night to listen to Danny Wells, Tony Mullins, Monty Holmes and Joe West.

The weekend in Nashville was fun and JS took us to The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson, President, Cotton Baron and Slave Owner - it was quite something to see a real southern plantation though now gentrified for tourism. Nashville was founded by Revolutionary War General Francis Nash, ancestor of Ogden Nash.

Vanderbilt University where JS is studying law is huge compared with Katie's Uni in California. We met his nice tall blonde girls friend, Megan, from Dallas who is also in the law school.

While in Nashville we realised that we had left Pacific Time, gone through Mountain Time and were in Central time - only Eastern Time left.

Just a quick note back from California - the Colorado River no longer flows into the sea. After the Hoover Dam there are Davis Dam, Packer Dam, Imperial Dam and Laguna Dam all taking water out for irrigation, water supply, hydro power and golf courses in the desert. Man has really destroyed this wonderful river.

While the Blue Birds are in the title we can report that they do really exist in South Dakota and we saw one or two just north of Cactus Flat.

We are now in Eastern Time at Charles and Mary-Ellen's with Lizi and Alan who are here for two days before they go of "leaf peeping" in New England.

Great museums - more in the next blog.

Love to you all

J&C

Grizzly No 7

Hi everyone

South Dakota is the land where the buffalo roam and on our first day there they were - great herd of them on the prairie.

This is pick up country and Connie tells me "You can't buy a pick up in the West without a gun rack across the back window".

Harney Peak is the highest mountain east of the Rockies and, with inspiration from Connie and Terry ,we hiked up to the summit at 7,242 feet from Sylvan Lake. Quite a climb - breathless and a little vertiginous the views from the summit over the Black Hills and on to the Bad Lands was spectacular. The hike was 7 miles in total and took 6.5 hours. A little caveat - we actually only hiked up 1,000 feet and, of course, down again on an often steep trail - we had lunch at the summit and then down to a lovely relaxing evening at their wonderful cabin in the woods over looking a stream and with Harney Peak as the backdrop.

Yesterday we went to the Bad Lands to see the great layered rocks in gold, blue, green and red. We watched a burrowing owl in a stand off with some prairie dogs and then went on a short hike into the interior of the Bad Lands to see how it is on the ground as opposed to viewing from various viewing points. Talking of the interior there are some unusual town names here, Scenic, Wall and Interior to name but three. We went to Wall to visit the largest drug store in the USA and today we write from the Library at Custer which is about as close as we will get to Custard on this trip

Here at Custer we are on the Mickelson Trail which is a splendid 114 mile long "Rail to Trail" multi use cycle route.

Grizzly No 7 was the name of one of the trials on the way up to Harney Peak.

Off to see JS in Nashville tomorrow and will write again from Tennessee.

Love to You all

J&C

"The trail gets gnarlier as you go on" – advice from old dude as we start on the Palm Canyon Trail

"The trail gets gnarlier as you go on" – advice from old dude as we start on the Palm Canyon Trail

Up at dawn for sunrise across the Grand Canyon and goodbye to El Tovar and nice daytime drive by JT and CT 300 miles back to Las Vegas. Still crazy gambling and at the airport ads for guns – "Try One! Shoot a real machine gun! MP 5, UZI, THOMPSON ,MP40, AK47, STEN, M16, GREASEGUN ,M249, SAW" all in the airport.

On to a United Airlines Brazilian turboprop for the flight to Palm Springs where Connie and Terry were waiting at the airport and off by car to Borrego Springs where we are staying in the lap of luxury at the home of their friends Nick and Bonnie.

The desert is wonderful and HOT DAMNED HOT about 105F in the day time and down to a low of 80F in the evening. We have been to see the Badlands from Fonts Point (nothing to do with printing) – a truly staggering sight as the sun went down yesterday.

Today up at 06.00 to walk the Palm Canyon Trail into the desert where we had to carry a gallon of water per person as the temperature rose to 106F by the time we returned to base. At the summit of the trek we arrived at a lovely oasis where the temperature dropped to a cool 80F. Just outside the oasis we found an unexpected herd of Big Horn Sheep which were more like mountain goats high on the rugged mountainside above the canyon where we were. The sheep climbed up rocks with ease and were a delight to watch.

The desert has a very special quality of serenity and at the same time a feeling of unease knowing that many people have perished in this daunting and potentially hostile landscape.

Tomorrow we fly to Denver and then on to Rapid City with Connie and Terry for the South Dakota sojourn and more adventure as the nation unfolds as we start to go east and leave California.


Love to you all

J&C

Northern Exposure

Hi everyone
Second day at Grand Canyon up in Twin Otter over the spectacular Colorado River. We are at 7000 feet here on the rim. It is 95f and the Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and 1 mile deep on average.

The El Tovar Hotel is a constant reminder of Northern Exposure. The silver haired restaurant host has a black eye patch, our waitress limped so badly that we thought that at any minute her tray would fly off and the cocktail bar has a notice on the door prevevting entry if you are carrying a gun.

We are off to the desert tomorrow so you may not hear from us for a little while. No strange food today.

Love to you all

J&C

Awesome

Hi
Drove on 8 lane LA freeway to LAX only one car fire and tour of airport to find Alamo on way. Arrived in Las Vegas to find gambling machines even before baggage claim. Got out as quickly as possible. Drove over Hoover Dam which was spectacular. Then through desert and scrubland for only 5.5 hours to Grand Canyon. We ate Pringles, bananas, cookies, trailmix en route. Here we had delicious calamari and prawn cocktail. For breakfast sausage, bacon, toast, oj, melon and eggs. All this food info is for Polly and family
Today we have been for great walk along the rim and saw Condor number 10 there are only 25 left in Arizona. The Canyon is awesome.

Love to you all

J&C

Hub Cap Annie

Hi

Hub Cap Annie, a small motor shop, is on Route 66 just a few blocks from our hotel and Katie and Jeremy wanted to visit her. It was Sunday and it was shut, but Katie wants to make a tee shirt from Annie's Logo.

Yesterday we left San Deigo on a nice scenic drive north to Claremont where we met up with Katie who is just back from a year long trip to the far east and China. We went to the Rancho Santa Anna Botanic Garden which was full of local desert plants and strange notices - "Non-Agressive Digger Bees on Slope. Please do not disturb their Mating Activities" - fortunately we did not come across any of the bees so all was well.

Katie took us round her university and showed us the lovely grounds with beautifully manicured lawns, their nice Art gallery and pristine buildings. In the evening we went out with five of Katie's friends for a Thai meal in downtown Claremont where there was an old car street show with lovely chromed engines. They were a great group of young students and the future of the USA will be fine in their hands.

Today we have been to the Huntington Gardens with Library and Art Collections. What wonderful gardens - flowers, trees and plants from all over the world and we got close up to humming birds. The Library has a copy of the Guttenburg Bible, a First Folio of Shakespeare's plays and from the 20th century, papers of Isherwood, Auden and Spender as well as Kingsley Amis and Hilary Mantel.

Tomorrow we are off to Los Angeles and then on to Las Vegas and then drive through the desert to the Grand Canyon.

Love to you all

J&C

From the ocean

Hi

The seals are basking in the sun on the ocean shore as the pelicans fly overhead here in La Jolla.

London seems a long time ago - it was yesterday that we left and spent some time in the air to make it to San Fancisco en route to San Deigo.

The drive from Reading to Heathrow was quite bizzare with a bonkers coach driver who was keen to try to hit low flying herons on the M4. The Ibis hotel at Heathrow was very busy (as a result of the tube strike) and so we went out to eat at Barcello's chicken diner in the Airport Bowl next door - great value and quite nice chicken and chips.

Flying into San Deigo last night the downtown skyscrapers and freeways were spectacularly close to the flightpath - a wonderful night scene.

Today we have been out with Helene and Vincent to the shore with their beloved "Pascal" - a cross between a chihuhah and terrier - who was rescued by them from the flood in New Orleans. The name of Pascal is in honour of his home state Louisiana and Helene says of him "Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connais pas"

Also here in the condo is "Pagliacco" the nice little cockateel with the small red dots on his cheeks. His name derives from the Opera Il Pagliacci (The Clowns) by Leoncavallo.

We are off to the pub for a meal now and so we will write again over the weekend when we get to see Katie.

Love to you all

J&C

US Visit 2

Hi
Only 5 days till arrival on Pacific coast. Will only write again from here if anything vaguely interesting to report.
J&C

USA Visit

Hi

Just busy weighing tee shirts.

J&C