Thursday 10th April 2008

Today we went into Chicago. Unfortunately it poured with rain all day but we saw enough of the city to know that we want to come back in the future and explore it more.

At Sue's suggestion we took the trolley ride around the city. It enables you to get on and off when you want and the driver gives a detailed commentary about the city as you travel along. The architecture is fantastic - a real mixture of styles - and there are many sculptures around the city. Sadly, because of the weather it was difficult to take many photographs! Here are two of the many sculptures however.


Our first stop was the theatre district. We saw the Chicago Theatre - they used the frontage of this in the film.

We went and booked a show for the evening. We decided on the Drowsy Chaperone. This is on at the West End starring Elaine Paige and it would be interesting to see how it transfers to London.

Back on the bus - we waited around 20 minutes for the bus and it was by now raining even harder. We stopped on the bus as it took us around the museum area and got off for a look at Navy Pier. As it was still raining heavily we just looked inside at the tourist type shops rather than look at the ships and boats on the lake.

Our next trip on the bus took us over the river that flows the wrong way!

We drove along the Magnificent Mile which is where all the expensive shops are and got off at the water tower. Here is the worlds first vertical shopping mall. Again - expensive shops!

We also looked in the Hershey's shop and walked past Ghiradelli's! Our final trip on the bus took us to the restaurant that we planned to eat at that evening. This is thanks to our daughters who found it when they were there in January. It is called Brazzazz and is a Brazillian steakhouse. We ate at a different Brazillian steakhouse in Orlando a couple of years ago and if you like meat then this is the place for you!

After our meal we got wet again walking to the theatre. The show was very good and very funny. Well worth seeing!

Wednesday 9th April 2008

We checked out of our hotel and picked up Katie at 8.30am. This was going to be our last chance for breakfast at IHOP! Katie had a regular breakfast with ham, eggs and pancakes, Frank had sirloin tipps and onions with pancakes and eggs and I had T bone steak, hash browns, eggs and pancakes. We then returned to the university and Katie gave us a tour of the campus. We saw the Chemistry department, the Maths dept., the Bell Tower and the Engineering dept., with the statue of Neil Armstrong outside. We all had our photo taken with him - first of all standing in front of him and then Katie climbed up to sit next to him!




We then walked up to the Purdue Football Stadium. It was closed as the season has finished so we went to take a look in the shop - the nickname used is the Boilermakers and there is a huge statue just outside the stadium - Purdue Pete is their mascot!

We went back to the union and had a coffee at Starbucks and then took Katie back to her apartment (flat!). We left her there in time to go to her class! It will be mid July before we see her again.



We visited Walmart and Hobby Lobby in Lafayette before setting off for Chicago. I sent Sue Benner a text message on the way there and she called me when we got to our hotel room. We arranged to meet in a lovely restaurant called White Fence Farm - it serves farmhouse style fried chicken and came with sides of bean salad, coleslaw, cottage cheese, pickled beetroot and corn fritters. We had a delicious meal and it was really good to meet Sue. She told us a lot about Chicago and made suggestions of what we should do tomorrow!

Left photo: Bren and Sue; Right photo: Sue, Bren and Frank

One thing that Frank got excited about was that we had to drive on Route 66 to meet Sue!

Tuesday 8th April 2008

Breakfast and then we started our journey back towards Purdue. One stop on the way for a drink and a break and then we headed into Lafayette for a very unhealthy snack of a Krispy Kreme donut for lunch!

We parked near to the hotel and dropped off our luggage. Katie then took us to the bank to cash some travellers cheques and she called in to get a smoothie from one of the uni cafes. We took a look in the university bookshop which sells lots of Purdue stuff and then I went back to the hotel to do some washing, while Frank took Katie back to her 'apartment'!. I had just put the stuff in the machine when the electricity went off. It was off for about an hour so when Frank and Katie returned to collect me (we were eating in one of the Uni food halls and meeting her friends at 6.30), the stuff was still in the dryer.

We met her friends in the food court and Katie showed us all the stuff that we could have. Frank chose chicken and I chose a stirfry. It was a very nice meal but I can understand how they get fed up with it after several weeks.

We returned to the hotel, took the washing out of the dryer, booked a hotel for Chicago and then collected Katie again and we went to an Irish pub - the Nine Irish Brothers. Katie and I both had Strongbow Cider (English!) and Frank had Murphys (Irish). It was a very pleasant evening and the bar was lovely. There was Irish dancing when we arrived and the atmosphere was good!

Monday 7th April 2008

Today we wanted to visit Frank's aunt and uncle! We called them again before we left the hotel but sadly there was still no answer! We decided to drive across to where they lived just in case we could find them in as our hotel was only a few miles from where they live. We pulled up outside the house and Frank tried knocking but there was no answer. Katie went to see if they were on the deck in the back but they weren't! We knew we had the right house though, as there was a picture of a shamrock in the window!

We were about to pull away when a car came around the corner, and I recognised Johnny from photos I have seen of him. We waited till they had put the car away and knocked again. As you can imagine, Nuala was shocked to see her nephew from England! They were so welcoming! They had been on vacation and had just arrived back from a week in Houston, Texas. We were given tea and cake and it was really lovely to finally get to meet them. Frank has seen them before but neither Katie nor I had ever met them before.

Nuala is so like her sister!

We left Detroit and our overnight stop was to be Kalamazoo. We stopped off at the Kalamazoo Nature park and took a walk in the woods there, down to the Kalamazoo river. As it is just the very beginning of spring most things were still showing no signs of life! It will be very pretty there in a few months time. They cater for lots of birds and wildlife of all sorts there.

Sunday 6th April 2008

We breakfasted in the hotel and left Findlay at around 9.30am. We stopped at the tourist centre when we entered Michigan and looked at the information about the state, then continued on our way to Detroit. We arrived at the Henry Ford museum at around midday.

It is another place where you could spend days looking around. Greenfield Village is still closed for the winter but the museum kept us busy until closing time. We looked at the various types of transport on display there - planes, cars, bicycles, trains .... , and various other exhibitions. Some of the presidential vehicles are there - The car Reagan was in when there was an attempt made on his life (which is the same vehicle that Gerald Ford was in when someone tried to assassinate him!), the car Kennedy was in when he was killed and other vehicles used by presidents.

There are some bicycles which include what we call Penny Farthings in England. It was mentioned that they were made in Britain but no mention of their name! I don't suppose US folk would understand why they are called that - These bicycles are the ones with a very big front wheel and a tiny back wheel. And in Old English currency, the farthing was a very tiny coin whereas the penny was a large coin.


Another part of the museum is dedicated to Liberty and Justice for all and includes information about Independence, Freedom and Union, Votes for Women and the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibits include the chair that Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot and the bus that Rosa Parks was riding in in 1955.




The part of the museum dedicated to America in the 20th Century includes the Dymaxion House We were given a guided tour of this circular house and shown just how forward thinking they were back in 1946. The house had a built in kitchen with a fridge built into the cupboard drawers , a freezer, dishwasher and laundry area and the bathroom was self cleaning.


After checking in to our hotel we went for dinner at a little Greek restaurant called 'Little Daddy's Parthenon'. It was a very pleasant meal with American sized portions of course!

We called Frank's aunt and uncle but had to leave a message on their answer phone as there was no-one home. We will try again in the morning and if they are still not home, then we will head back towards Purdue!

Saturday 5th April 2008

We picked up Katie at 8.30am, went to IHOP for breakfast and then headed towards Ohio. We stopped briefly on the way for coffee, and then for lunch and finally arrived at Wapakoneta (Neil Armstrong's birthplace) at around 2.30pm.




We spent a couple of hours looking at the exhibits there and learning a bit more about the trips to the moon. It seems that if you want to be an astronaut you stand a much better chance if you have been born in Ohio! More astronauts seem to have come from Ohio than any other state.

We left the museum at 5pm and travelled for about an hour to Findlay and to our hotel. This evening we ate at 'Olive Garden' which is an Italian restaurant recommended to us by Katie. It is good having her with us as she knows what is good and what should be avoided. Tomorrow we will be in Detroit, all being well!

Friday 4th April 2008

We left the Universtity Inn at Kentucky University, which was VERY nice and started heading north. The Interstates all look the same and I can't remember what number it was, but it took us past the Edinburgh outlet mall so we called in for a look around. And there was a Van Heusen store! Every trip to US we find one of these and stock up on stuff for the years until our next trip over. And that is what we did again! Trousers, shirts, teeshirts, jacket, ties ...... Plenty of stuff for us both.

We got to Katie at about 5.30pm. It was easy to find her flat as Lizzie had told us that Katie's friend Jen, who lives next door to Katie, had a Welsh flag in the window. When we saw a window with a Welsh flag and a Canadian flag, we knew that was Mira and Jen's flat. It was good to see Katie again after so many months and we met Mira, Jen, Ashley, Danielle and some of her other friends, albeit briefly.

We went and booked into the Purdue University Hotel and the took Katie to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Tomorrow we are heading into Ohio so we are picking her up at 8.30 and then going for breakfast!