Having never been in Washington before, and with the heat, we might have been forgiven for thinking it was like California. It's not.  The people who we met in Washington were polite, not unfriendly - but certainly at first - they didn't smile much.  They were even a little abrupt and some of the announcements on the Metro were completely unintelligible.

And it's true what they say about the UK and the US - we are two nations divided by a common language. At Mr Smith's - a bar in Georgetown which is an institution in the city - we tried unsuccessfully to ask for water.  The waiter only realised what we were saying when we asked for "warda".

Our first day was spent on a bus getting an eyeful of the monuments and buildings in this lovely city. It's a bit like the American version of Paris or Rome - classical allusions simply litter the place, with ornate plasterwork decorating every spare corner, pillar or wall.  And because nothing is built higher than the statue of liberty adorning the Capitol Building, Washington is low rise in comparison to many other American cities, and as a result, even with the columns and porticos, seems actually fairly human.

This feeling was reinforced by the tour guide on one of the buses we took; her recitation of facts and figures was fairly perfunctuary - until she got to talk about food. Her knowledge of pizza outlets, McDonalds', and burrito bars seemed encyclopedic. While she mistakenly put Concorde in the Washington building of the Aviation and Space Museum, she could tell us authoritatively that there were 30 flavours of ice cream available in the Food Court.

Washington, the White House and the Willard

Ok, so Washington at the end of July is not the most comfortable temperature for two ladies from London - but we thought that given that tempers in our capital city were bound to rise because of transport and the Olympics, we thought we'd decamp to someone else's capital instead

And while steamy and hot, Washington has that effortless elegance which makes you want to turn into Julia Roberts or Audrery Hepburn wearing big hats and even bigger sunglasses. We arrived courtesy of Virgin Atlantic at around two in the afternoon, a pleasant flight even in economy. Leaving the safety of the airport's air-conditioning to get a cab, the heat hit us like a wall. Thankfully  a cab ride soon delivered us to the grace and grandeur of the Willard Hotel, and after depositing our luggage, we set off (slowly) for the White House.

Unfortunately, the White House doesn't give tours to foreign nationals currently, and we were forced to take photographs of the South Lawn through railings,  keeping a wary eye on the heavily armed guards on the roof.  The White Houseis, as everyone says, smaller than you think it's going to be.   But it is beautiful, in a colonial, slaves-sweeping-the-porch kind of way.

This thought came back to us several times in our visit; there is something about the rhetoric which doesn't quite align with historical fact.  There's nothing untrue, it's just not the whole truth.  But we'll come back to that through the trip.

What has caused us some amusement is the reporting of the Olympics - some of the TV coverage has been relentlessly patronising when referring to the UK - not to mention poorly pronounced.   Not that we're bitter over the lack of medals so far, and the current lack of gold.....

One thing of which we could feel justifiably proud - we felt renewed respect and love for the BBC, free as it is from 12 minute ad breaks every 10 minutes.

Here we go again

We've been very quiet but here we go.  Soon we'll be escaping the Olympics and heading off on our travels again.  We aim to inform and hopefully amuse our friends as we explore new experiences and revisit some old ones - watch this space!

Home to our island!

We left you at the end of Disney day 2. Now we are back at home and recovered from jet lag. Fiona is a year older and also has no voice - what is it about flying that seems to guarantee a cold at the end of your holiday?

Anyway, our last day dawned bright and blue and we headed off in the trusty George to Huntington Beach. We found a car park OK but found it very difficult to pay! The place was heaving with surfer dudes who had other concerns - such as a very tiring tag surf race...The machine when finally found had run out of paper so we had to note a number and leave a handwritten note on the dashboard. A walk along the pier took us to Ruby's and views of pelicans for breakfast.

Karen is very grateful to Meg for the tip of the day - Club Soda removes ketchup from blue blouses - really it does!

We wandered back along the pier to watch the surfers and then into town to a post office for Karen to buy a money order and send a letter (more of this later...). Then with a sigh and armed with leaflets about what to do in an earthquake thrust upon us by an insistent Fire Chief (sorry Lorraine), we pointed George in the direction of LAX.

As we started George reported that he needed an oil change but with only about 15 miles to go we decided to ignore it until we gave him back. A rather dull and uneventful journey led us to the outskirts of the airport. Fiona was reading the map when a coach driver shouted where do you wanna go? amazingly he told us how to get to the rental return car park - just can't imagine anyone doing that at Heathrow.

Handing the car over was easy but they charged us for fuel we had already paid for - we are getting it back now but that just adds to our determination not to use that particular company again.

We checked in and went through security at which point Fiona remembered that there's very little to do at LAX and very limited duty free. We also discovered that Karen had left her glasses at the counter in the post office. A call to the office found them and a very helpful guy has promised to send them to us. It's typical of our trip that people were unfailingly kind - the woman at Route 66 (cafe in LAX) brought a sharing plate of food when she saw how upset Karen was about her glasses.

Karen trying to look happy at the end of our trip...











And so to Heathrow - we spent about 45 mins circling and swooping above the runway as the gales and rain caused flight delays and prevented us from landing. A really peaceful pleasant flight ruined by those last minutes - God knows what will happen if they do get another runway. We made a note to fly from somewhere else if at all possible.

So, it's goodbye from us - we can show you all the other photos if you like!

Thank you to everyone who gave us such generous gifts and made this truly a trip to remember

Love
F and K xx

Shiny, happy people

Our second (and full) day at Disney started with breakfast at Downtown Disney at La Brea Bakery. Then we hit the rides, as only two older women with a mission can do. Thanks again to Ange with whom we agree that yes, it's too good for kids.


First up, we got a Fast Pass to the Indiana Jones ride, and then went and queued for a remarkably short space of time for the Pirates of the Carribean. Both are really impressive in terms of lighting and animatronics. We then went on a bit of a train ride, charmed by Vern who asked us both if we were married - which of course we both are.

Vern, who is 70 and could pass for 60 in a harsh light, obviously finds the flirting good for his cholesterol.

Next up was the Matterhorn Bobsleighs with costumes of VERY dubious Swiss origin (and chosen no doubt for the gay boys supervising the rides) a bit of a splash or two and then on to Star Tours where the teenager next to me texted the whole way through the ride....

Much more interesting was the parts of Disney's California Adventure Park which helped you understand a bit more about the making of the park, and the pictures. So we attended the Animation Academy, where we both drew a pretty passable Pooh Bear, and the Sorcerer's Workshop, where there was some interactive fun and the clever stuff behind Turtle Talk with Crush...more adult than most of the attractions here, and a welcome breather from all the breathless twinkliness.

Although the twinkliness WAS fun (see below right for the Disneyland Castle),
it was also rather pleasing for two grumpy old women from the UK that not all - in fact, a great many - of the workers, far from looking shiny happy people, looked as though they'd rather be doing something else, and the Australian woman who looked through our bags when we came in was very obviously not a morning person.

Having heard all the stories, this was faintly heartening -a human stand against the tide of almost inhuman niceness. Because after all, as the great David Ogilvy said, although you can rely on a chocolate bar to delivery your brand, this is because it doesn't have a row with the wife, get PMT, or have a rough night with the kids. People, as well as being the greatest strength of Disney, are - for customers at least - its greatest potential weakness.

This is not to say we had a bad time - Karen got a badge to say that this was her first time (not surprisingly from Vern) and Fiona is firm in her conviction that everyone should do this at least once. And if the weather wasn't stunning, neither did we have to wait in line for the rides for very long.

And this, friends and family, is almost the end of our trip. Rather than have a somewhat nondescript breakfast at the Crown Plaza, we're off to Huntington Beach, and to Ruby's on the Pier.

We fly at six and we'll doubtless be doing our final blog sometime on Sunday or Monday evening.

The mouse with the ears

So, today after a leisurely (and complimentary) breakfast we headed west out of Palm Springs.



Yet again we were charmed by the readiness of US garage mechanics to help us when we asked where we could check our tyres. Kerry checked them for us with a smile and a wave (and a big air line!).


Palm Springs was getting ready for the Veterans Day parade so some diversions were necessary but soon we were back on the interstate. About an hour later we were pulling up at our final hotel. Proof today that we are two nations divided by a common language. for some reason we seemed to be talking at cross purposes about the free shuttle to Disney. we asked how we could get there - they said tell us when you want the shuttle, we said now, they said the last shuttle left at 11.00 and so it went until finally they realised we meant we wanted to go then and called us a cab. Sadly, London does not have the monopoly on bigoted cabbies. Ours started out OK and then proceeded to let rip on conspiracy theories about Marx, Churchill, the Masons and current politicians all wanting humanity to die etc. Frankly, we were glad to arrive at Disneyland - at least that's honest in its fantasy!

Karen is a Disneyland virgin and Fiona hasn't been for over 25 years so we were like a couple of big kids. We've Ange to thank for our passes (and yes it is too good for kids). Today was quite busy as it is a public holiday here. Hopefully tomorrow will be quieter and less time will be spent queuing.




It is all a bit sugary sweet and a stylised version of America as it never has been but we knew that before we came and it's part of the experience. We do wonder how parents afford to take big families around. Many were dealing with tantruming little darlings who just wanted everything but on the whole they were OK. There was one little boy with blonde hair screaming at his mother and working himself steadily into hysterics. Karen wanted to stay and be amused, but Fiona dragged her away to more adult pastimes.


We had a great meal in a jazz cafe (see staggeringly brilliant piano below) before being whisked back to the hotel by the shuttle.


An interesting conversation with our Chinese driver, where we asked him where the shuttle would leave from tomorrow and he answered with the times it would be departing....pass the mandarin dictionary, please.

Pampering in Palm Springs

Today, we have no photos taken during the day. This is because we were blissed out by a massage in the open air and haven't really touched down - except for Karen to get her pedicure.

Massive thanks go to Elaine, Frank and Ray and Charlotte for our serious pampering today...leaving us in fine fettle to hit Disneyland sometime tomorrow.

Oh, and by the way - our room was upgraded today due to some problems with plumbing in our original room, and these are our only photos on this posting. We hope you're not too bored!


The Mouse with the Ears happens tomorrow. Karen promises to try to keep her cynicism in check.