Well, the day started badly.  When we got up at 08:00, we were greeted by news reportsn that there had been a huge amount of rain, and that parts of Boston were at a standstill due to roads being flooded.

We aimed to catch the 09:00 Airport Shuttle, but it didn’t turn up until 09:30, and our flight was at 10:30, so we were cutting it a bit fine, but luckily the journey only took about 10 minutes.  However, it got better.

We tried to use the electronic check-in, got to the stage of telling the system how many bags that we had, and it crashed out with an error.  We wend to a check-in desk, and were told that we needed to use the phone to the help line, but whilst we were waiting for an answer, our names were called out to put our baggage through, as the baggage tags had printed, but the boarding passes had not.

We had to join another queue, where some inconsiderate bastard was rebooking his entire flight, when everyone else in the queue only wanted their boarding pass.

We eventually got our boarding passes, and had to run to the gate, getting there just before it closed, phew.

We had a bit of a wait for the shuttle between La Guardia and JFK airports, but once we got to JFK, we had a 5 hour wait for our flight to Madrid.  Luckily I had the latest Potter to keep me occupied, and Alice had her Ipod, so it wasn’t too bad.

However, when we finally boarded, we found that we had a family of about 7 that included a SCREAMING baby, which was sat with its mum, next to Alice :o(

The mother eventually swapped seats with one of the kids, but the bloody baby spent a lot of the journey crying, meaning that not a lot of sleep was obtained.

Why the hell do people with small babies insist on flying, its not like the baby is going to remember anything from the trip, they should be banned for the sanity of the rest of the passengers.

Didn’t get much sleep, then had to put up with about 3 different passport and security checks at Madrid, and I thought that the US were paranoid.  In Spain, we had 2 people check our passport and boarding passes within about 6 feet of each other, I think thts a bit unnecessary!!!!

Eventually got back to the house at 11:45, only to find the front of our house still littered with the remains of the back boiler.  I checked my phone, and found that I had a voicemail from a British Gas person, and needless to say, I left them a message saying how disappointed I was at their service, I was absolutely furious.

Now been up for probably 26 hours straight.  Alice has gone to bed to get some sleep, but I’m going to try and stay up, and just get an early night tonight, but its not easy as I am bloody knackered.

Well, we’re just getting ready to leave the hotel in Boston and fly back to JFK before flying home.

Flight from here is 10:30, then we’ve got a bit of a wait at JFK, as we don’t fly out of there until 18:00, but I’m reading the latest Potter book, and am only about a quarter of the way through, so I’ve got lots to read.  I’ve also got Pratchets Darwin’s Watch to read if I finish Potter.

The wedding was an experience, and we’ve had a great time over the last 2 weeks. Part of me doesn’t want to go home, but most of me does.

Really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

Well, we’re now in Providence (RI) ready for Karen & Miguel’s wedding tomorrow.

We spent the morning riding the trolley tour around Boston and seeing the landmarks.  We visited USS Constitution, which is the oldest commisioned navy ship in the US.  Its a square rigger that was used in the battle of independence, and got the nickname of “Old Ironsides” as during a battle with HMS Guerriere in 1812 someone reportedly saw british shot bouncing off the sides and exclaimed “Her sides are made of Iron.”

We also went past the new Computer Science building at MIT, which was mostly funded by Bill Gates, and much as I dislike Gates, I have to say that it is certainly an impressive building.

We got the train from Boston to Providence, which took about 40 minutes, and we’re now in the hotel chilling out for a while before we go to the Karen & Miguel’s rehearsal dinner.

We’ve spent a good part of the day on a Whale Watching trip out of Boston. I was hoping for some good views, but wasn’t expecting it to b quite as good as it was.

At times, we were surrounded by 5 Humpback Whales, and we saw Minke, Fin and Humpback Whales, so all 3 of the baleen whales that we could see.

I have got loads of photos, again and we saw the Humpbacks breaching (jumping), tail slapping and fin slapping.

Here are a couple of the images I took, one of a humpback tail slapping, and the other of a humpback fin slapping.

After a very long day of travelling we finally arrived in Boston at about midnight last night.

Alice managed to read the latest Potter book cover to cover yesterday, which is impressive, and now its my turn, I hope that it lives up to expectations.

We’re hoping to go Whale Watching today, then on a Duck Tour, before we leave for Providence, RI tomorrow afternoon.

I’ll post a bit more when we’ve been out and about in Boston.

Just got back to Salt Lake City after spending the last 4 days in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone was fantastic, we saw most of the major sights, but could have done with a couple more days as we were driving pretty much non-stop.

We did manage to see a couple of Black Bears, many Bison and a White Pelican, which was really cool.

Its gonna take me months to sort through the photographs though :o(

We’re just about to go into Yellowstone now, so I’ll bee offline for a few days.

Next post will be on Wednesday when we get to Boston.

Its been another long day today, as we had to make an early start to get a flight to Salt Lake City.

We had to pick up the bus to the airport from Haarlem of all places, but we managed to find the stop ok, and got onto a very packed bus for the airport.

Passed an arrest on the way there, 5 big police officers to arrest one teenage kid by the look of it, and what a huge crowd it drew, but then again I giess thats par for the course in NYC.

Flight left on time, and we made the connection from Chicago to Salt Lake, thankfully we weren’t delayed as we only had a 40 minute transfer window.

We’ve got a great car, I can’t believe its a budget car as its a massive saloon, about the size of a Peugeot 307, not a Corsa, like our budget cars back home.

First stop is Idaho Falls, it was about a 4 hour drive from Salt Lake, and we passed thru some fantastic scenery, but as I was driving, I couldn’t take any shots.  Passed some signs for Butte, and like Alice, I can’t believe its not butter ;o)

Just about to go and get some dinner after watching Bones on Sky.

Well, today was our last day in NYC, and its been another full day.

We started off by going downtown to South Pier to get the ferry to Liberty Island, but there was a lot of fog, and you couldn’t see the tops of the buildings, so we decided to have a bit of a walk first.

We walked up to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, before walking back to Fort Clinton to get our tickets.

On the way through the park, I saw my first ever Monarch Butterfly, and managed to get some decent shots, even though I didn’t have my favourite Macro Lens with me.

We queued up for a while, and went onto Liberty Island, and many, many photographs were taken. Once we got there the weather was quite nice, but it was spooky looking back at Manhattan as it was looming out of the mist, kind of like the wreck of the Titanic in the film Titanic.

Next we went to Ellis Island, and spent ages having an audio tour of the immigration facility. If we’d realised how long it was gonna take, we probably wouldn’t have bothered with the audio guide, but the booking in hall on the first floor, is rather spectacular.

After returning to Manhattan, we had lunch outside the NYSE, before wandering around the ground zero site, and then up to Broadway. After this, we got the subway to Greenwich village, then again to the Apple store. After that, we wandered back to the hotel through Central park, and visited Strawberry Fields, etc.

Got to get an early night tonight, as we have to get up for an early flight to Salt Lake City tomorrow morning.

Just a quick post from the really cool glass cube that is the NYC Apple store.
Soooooo much here that I’d like to buy, but so little money :o(