Disneyland Day 1

After 4 weeks into the trip, we finally made it to our last stop,... Disneyland. The 3 children (The Girls and Cos) were very excited entering the park at opening time. For Cos especially, it was realisation of 36 year dream to visit Disneyland.

Disneyland didn't disappoint, it was quiet by Disney standards (as American children have returned to school). We ventured into "Fantasyland" and rode many rides (including the mad hatter teacups, Jumbo ride, and a few more). Later we moved in "Tomorrow Land" as crowds gathered and rode rides like Star Tour, Buzzlight year, Jedi Academy (which Jacqs participated as part of the act) and a few more. Finally we took a quick look at Toontown where the girls found Goofy and Mini-Mouse. The girls also purchased their "mouse ears" in Toontown.

Finally we watched an evening show of fireworks, laserlights, huge props (a pirate ship and a dragon), holograms that lit-up the night sky and a vast cast of actors. Very impressive. We were tossed out at closing time exhausted by a full day of wonder.

Trip to LA

The trip went smoothly. We had:
1. A bag searched by TSA
2. A minor issue going through security, our boarding passes went through the x-ray machine and a nice young TSA officer demanded to see them. Hmmm, fortunately a wiser TSA officer(who had obviously just seen us show our ID and boarding passes 6 steps ago) allowed one of us step over the scanner to find them (which we did in 5 seconds.) Our fault.
3. Our gate at Chicago changed 35 minutes out to take-off. Melissa discovered by accident and saved the day. Smooth flight except for a flight attendent in a toliet blaming Jacqs and Melissa for knocking on the toliet door. It was another child who was also waiting for the toliet or maybe even someone passing the door in the squeeze space.

Based on some of our previous flights, it did go smoothly. (Basically we are learning). Shoes that slip off and back on easily are a must. Both flights went very smoothly, no delays to talk of and we even got in a few minutes early we believe. We will not mention other (positives for fear of jinking. in fact we hardly felt the plane land. Generally aircrew were OK. We had a great time exploring Chicage Terminal 2 - its huge. It contained an areoplane flown by O'Hare himself during world war II and a life size dinosaur skeleton. They were just in and near the terminal we departed from. We arrived in a different terminal and saw many other displays including access to a Children's Museum.

Must sign off as the girls are keen to see Disneyland.

Last leg LA here we come!

Today will see us fly across the USA to Anaheim in Los Angeles. The bags are packed ready for a midmorning take off. We move on from a very action packed almost 3 weeks with Chris, George, Peter and Andrew. Our heart felt thanks go out to them for giving up parts of their very short breaks to ferry us to many places in the area. We are very grateful for this. Without them we would have seen very little as neither of us were keen to drive in the wrong oops I mean right side of the road. We have enjoyed many typical American foods such as biscuits(like scones), buffalo wings, sloppy fries, reubans and many others skillfully and delectably prepared by Chris, George and even Andrew and Peter. Once again we thank them for being wonderful hosts. As you can see they have a lovely house among beautiful oak trees.

Last Day in Columbia

Last day in Columbia was a simple one.... pack. Well perhaps not simple, we needed another bag to carry all the new stuff we have obtained on the trip.

We took the girls to the park in morning, very nice facility with lovely parkland. Later we went to the movies, always a pleaser for the girls.

Ed Venture

Today saw us being dropped off by George at the Columbian Museum complex which included a children's hands on, interactive section called Ed Venture. It could easily compared to the Science Centre in Brisbane but aimed at a slightly younger audience. It includes not only the hands on activities of Brisbane but many more interactive activities.

The front foyer is adorned with a huge three storey 'Ed' that the children can play in like an oversized play gym. Each level has a basic rendition of that part of the body for example the top was the head, brain, ears. The next level the stomach. The girls had a wonderful time playing in the contents of his stomach!! This was a minor part of the area. There were two storeys of hands on interactive activities that were designed to appeal to different ages. Some rooms were even specifically designed for under threes. The displays were very vast and spread over the many subjects areas.

There was a room on Africa which included music, geography, everyday life (you got to ride a static motor bike carrying chickens) The music section involved short circuit video which filmed you playing drums with tradition alAfrican people.

There was a dentist surgery which enabled you to clean a (somewhat smaller) Ed's teeth, look at dental xrays and learn about general dental health. There were similar health areas where you could check your blood oxygen levels, weight, bloodpressure, see xrays & learn about bones and bone structure, look at the degestive system and see how it works on screen along with a multitude of other displays.

Other interest level displays included a supermarket that the children could shop in with piece of 'fantastic plastic' that they could then use in the remainder of that section to complete activities and earn 'money' that helps them learn about money and budgeting in a family. There was a car that was filled with petrol, a farm with tractor and milking cow, a snow scene with snow balls, slides, ice fishing and snow. A hockey field with carpet skates. A fire engine and emegency services display. A real (or maybe very realistic) car, tractor, and fire engine were on display that the children could climb into and sit on.

There also was a room filled with wonderful works of art that the children could interact with and even be photographed in.

Visit to Brattonville

On the 3rd January, Chris took us to Brattonsville. Brattonsville is home to a Revolutionary War (1780) battle which the Americans won using surprise. The site was also a mid 19th century cotton plantation.

The site has two parts, the Revolutionary War site consisting of early 1700 buildings and fields, and then a later site (created by the son of the Revolutionary era owner) which is a cotton plantation. The girls enjoyed meeting pigs, chickens, goats and cats ( all breeds from that from that era). These original animals did not look all that different from those today. Well perhaps the cats were not original, they were just local strays.

Each of buildings were kitted out with period items. The plantation also had the added attraction of actors in period costumes acting out the daily lives of servants and slaves from 1820-40 era. The girls loved the cook house! A lot questions by the girls(and us for that matter) left several exhausted actors wondering what hit them! They were reenacting as if they did work for Mrs Bratton and creating meals and snacks for her and the people in the home. They had just cooked a cake in the dutch oven using as many authentic ingredients as possible, a chicken was cooking in the reflector oven and some cabbage was boiling to mash to make a cabbage patty (like a mince patty we would put on a hamburger) The girls paid a second visit to cookhouse to see the results of the actor/cooks efforts. Looked and smelled nice, particularly the roasted chicken all of this food they consumed themselves (they weren't allowed to share sadly). We also learnt about field work, cotton gins, ladder making, and tool making. We also saw the cotton pit used in pressing the cotton. The plantation was very successful with 80 brick slave houses (139 slaves), numerous buildings, sheds, barns as well as the grand house. A general store and a girl's School completed the site. We saw a number of ruined sites where original building such as slave quarters and the pit connected to the gin once stood once stood.

Today Brattonville is run and maintained by the local county. Well worth a visit to see a Revolutionary War site and a "southern mansion" that survived Sherman's (Civil War) burning of South Carolina plantations and great houses. The countryside reflects the popular imagination of rolling hills, deep woods of beautiful tall oak trees, oak tree lined roads and Cotton fields. Again the people were most friendly.

USS Yorktown and Fort Sumter - 2nd Visit to Charleston

On the 2nd January, we travelled down to Charleston, with George, to visit Patriots Point (Home of the WW2 Essex Class Aircraft Carrier and other ships) and out to Fort Sumter (19th Century Coastal Fort).

Patriots Point, based in Charleston Harbour, a Naval display of USS Yorktown CV10, USS Laffey, Coast Guard Cutter Ingham and USS Clamagore (submarine).

The girls saw a variety of aircraft on USS Yorktown, including Wildcat, Hellcat, SDB, Phantom, Skyhawk, Tomcat, Crusader, Hornet and many more. The tour guide (a retired Naval Pilot) had a variety of stories which particularly entertained Jacqs. Both girls enjoyed climbing through the ship and riding the flight simulator. In fact they where very keen to ride the simulator again!

After the Yorktown, we took a 30 minute ferry ride across the harbour to Fort Sumter. The ferry was followed by a flock of sea birds all the way over to Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter was very interesting, but time was short with only one hour allowed by the National Parks Service. A hurried study of the fort was still worth the cost, very educational and interesting. The girls generally enjoyed the visit to Fort Sumter.

Fort Sumter's claim to fame was the first shot of the war was fired here. South Carolina in 1861 had just seceded from the Union but Union forces still occupied strategic Fort Sumter at the entrance of Charleston Harbour. The south demanded that Fort Sumter be vacated. The North refused. Finally after several months of siege, on April 12, 1861, from nearby Fort Johnson, South Carolina troops of the Confederacy fired on the Fort - started of a two day bombardment that resulted in the surrender of Fort Sumter by Union troops. Later in the war the Union retook the Fort after a two year siege and nearly 46000 shells had been fired at the fort. The later battle destroyed all but the bottom level of the fort.

After Fort Sumter we returned to Patriot's Point to visit the USS Laffey, Coast Guard Cutter Ingham and USS Clamagore (submarine). The girls loved crawlling around the WW2 submarine.

A most enjoyable day.

Happy New Year

New Year's day in Columbia South Carolina was a quiet day except for an all afternoon shopping adventure to the mall. Most shops are open New Years day and the shop keepers are keen to please with the current US recession. The girls collected a few bargins unseen in Toowoomba.

Riverbanks Zoo and New Year

Today saw us visit a wonderful zoo in Columbia www.riverbanks.org with George. This time, unlike Basel, the weather was warm and the animals appeared more comfortable in this cooler climate than their natural habitat. We saw many of the same animals but the vast majority were housed outside here. Including the elephants and giraffes, thank goodness!! The smell in the elephant enclosure in Basel was pretty strong and no rocking as in Basel. They seemed calm and contented. There was the opportunity to feed giraffes. This event previously was a feeding frenzy from 10am-3pm but the vet cut it back as the giraffes were having sugar problems. The girls loved this as you can see. The penguins put on a wonderful show but in the statue impersonation and their swimming prowess as can be seen in the video footage. We discovered that Columbia is a sister city to Brisbane thanks to a visit from Mr Beattie! As a result we were able to go into a rainbow lorriket enclosure and feed them a nectar substance. We suspect that they were pretty full by the time we went in as they were not all that hungry. Unlike Lone Pine where there are a few set feeding times it is ongoing feeding frenzy. They also charge $1 for a small shot glass size of nectar and $1 for a small handful of lettuce for the giraffe. Which we didnt mind paying as it was a lovely zoo, clean and care for the animals. According to George it is a wealthy zoo. Although we did not get a good look at them the gorrilla's were very impressive. The were huge and did not look realistic. The photo does not really do them justice. They were very coy about having their photo taken. Stood a little distance away with their back to us for quite a while, briefly turned and walked away then made sure they stayed out of good camera shot. The pink flamingos were amazing. They were so pink they almost looked spraypainted.

After a quick and late takeaway oops 'takeout' of very nice Chinese we visited a park in Downtown Columbia for a Family Carnival Celebration of the New Year. The girls had some carnival rides and we watched some short but very good fireworks. All over in five minutes. We spent about an hour all up at the Carnival which was plenty of time as it was cold.

Savannah House visits

Day two of Savannah, we spent walking the Historic District streets and squares to visit three 19th century homes. We tried to visit the Telfair mansion but sadly it was closed. Next we continued on to Oglethorpe Square to visit the Owen-Thomas house.

Owen-Thomas House was completed in 1819 for Cotton merchant. The house was built in Regency style which borrowed from Greco-Roman tradition. The locals believe the house is the finest example of the style in USA. The house was very modern for it's time having gravity fed plumbing.

The next home was the elegant Davenport House built by the master builder Isaiah Davenport in 1820. It was built in Federal style which focused on symmetry. The house had horseshoe shaped entry stair, marble mantles, elegant plaster work on the ceiling. The house is also reported to be haunted by a yellow cat! The girls were very interested.

The last house was the Juliette Gordon Low house who was famous for introducing the girl guides into USA. Quiet a few little girls were trooping the house to get their "Low" badge. The house was also famous for General Lee who was friends of the family and visited often. It was one the last homes he visited prior to his death in 1870. The house was very well appointed when built in 1849. We enjoyed this house the most out of the three. This house was also built in Regency style and is interesting to note that all three owners came from the Great Britain.

Returning home we witnessed a 32km car jam... And we thought South West Freeway/Ipswich Bypass area was bad. In fact the people in the nature strip were actually in their 3 innings of French Cricket...