Differdange, November 22nd 2007
Dear Friends,
If you were wondering what we did and what we saw during the 3-week holiday we just spend over in the good ‘ole USA (and Quebec) here’s the blow by blow… Since Teri Ann and myself wanted to let you know our feats together, my text will be in normal font, whereas Teri Ann’s will have a nicer look to it.
Happy reading.
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Introduction
We were pretty gung-ho about the entire trip since it was going to be the first long trip we’ve taken together. The longest thus far was a trip to the Canary Island of Fuertaventura (belonging to Spain, just off the coast of Africa) that Teri Ann and myself took as a “Graduation Present” from KPMG for me, before I started working at RBC-Dexia in February this year. Besides that we took trips to the French Vosges mountains last summer and a cycling trip we took earlier this year to the Provence (both were 4-day trips). Also it was going to be my sweeties’ first trip to North America and having me at her side crooning about the advantages American life has to offer and wonderful sights to be seen for over a year now, she was quite anxious to get there. As she put it, “The US is a blank piece of paper to me that has to be filled in”. So we were set to invade the American continent on this short-planned trip around the Eastern US and Quebec.
I must be dreaming, I’ve never met anyone so special to me until I met Laurent. We finally had the passport situation sorted out and I felt that the trip to North America would open my eyes not just to the country itself but to new experiences. This 3 week holiday with my baby will make me feel so free and happy since it would be the longest I’ve ever been on holiday without my family.
I had reserved the flight and first hotel in advance in addition to following my 2002 footsteps and reserving a “cool” car. I wanted to relive the 02-experience by riding around in a convertible. The Hertz web-site promised enough space for 2 suitcases in the convertibles’ trunk so I was actually gambling on a 2.5 suitcase-space that may work out quite well for the trip during the first couple of weeks. Afterwards, with all kinds of stuff purchased, we would have to ship some stuff over to Europe or, alternatively, store it temporarily on the backseat of the car. Although this would pose the added difficulty of not being able to park the car with the top down I was confident it would work out.
On the 19th of August, having worked out the logistics of airport drop-off and pickup by my sweet pea’s mom, we embarked on a flight from Luxembourg through Amsterdam to Boston, MA having one suitcase about 2/3 full, another bag nearly empty, packed into a 3rd bag that was empty. Plenty of space to store the goodies we were about to purchase with the 40% exchange-rate bonus from US$ to Euro€. I already had $6000 in cash with me so we were going on a 3-week shopping spree for sure.
I had prepared my suitcase with clothes for 3 days and the rest we would purchase in America. I was so excited the night before the flight, I could hardly sleep, but my cats kept me company. Laurent stayed at his place where I stayed at my parents’ house, sharing my bed with 2 of my 3 feline friends.
In the morning I knew: “Yup this is it… GOING TO AMERICA …yippeeee.”
My mom was excited too since I was the first in the family going for a holiday in the US, although we’ve got a bunch of relatives there, living in New Jersey, Oregon and California. But I did not plan on visiting them… This was a holiday for my Laurent and not a family reunion J
A couple of nice shots from Luxembourg during takeoff...
Hey! Someone is breaking into my house down there! :-)
The plane trip to Boston was only some 6.5 odd-hours long but it seemed twice as long due to the myriad of small kids that were seated around us and had the extraordinary capability to get on our nerves just in the right way to drive me and my sweeter half completely gaga. I believe our collective IQ dropped about 10 points just being stressed out by toddlers… a reinforcement in the “no-kids” resolution THIS couple has taken right from the get-go. But notwithstanding this annoyance, the Northwest Airlines service was pretty good and we were only mildly annoyed by the screams… ok MORE than mildly… let’s say: Softly annoyed ! J
You can always hope against these things but… arghhhhhhhh every time it happens they’re making me nuts. I’m not against kids but on this trip it was a nightmare. The flight for me was not long but having children screaming on the top of their voices, crying spontaneously, it was HORRIBLE!!!
But anyway… having kids is a very tough decision and since I don’t want kids and I’m happy that my baby doesn’t want any either too. My baby and I decided to have cats as replacement for kids since we both love those better J.
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Boston, MA
But all bad things come to end and we made it to Boston’s Logan Airport on time and made it through 3 security checks and customs to be able to get to the Hertz office to pick up our wheels.
After a short delay (for some reason the Hertz bus was AWOL for 15 minutes while all other rental places had their buses and vans zip by the arrival concourse at higher frequency intervals) we made it to the Hertz counter and were given a $15 voucher due to the delay… we got to the car.
A RED Ford Mustang convertible… SWEET! And the problems manifested themselves right away as I tried (barely managing) to store the 2 suitcases in the trunk. When they said 2 suitcases they probably were thinking 2 lunchboxes! Well… tired and happy to have made it I pushed that problem aside for then and we started up the massive V8 engine, cranking out 300 horse powers and were on our merry way to locate the Hotel in the Northern suburbs of Boston.
Finally as we reached Boston airport, I started looking and glancing at everything and everywhere, I looked at the people and it felt so amazing to be in the USA. Despite the stressful trip from Amsterdam to Boston, we made it here safe and sound and I was completely speechless J, just taking in the scenery and breathe the air was new…
The car was so beautiful and nice to drive specially on a hot summer day… except that I have to hold my hair tight all the time otherwise it gets blown every which way…
It was a real muscle car but we could not keep it because of our suitcases…. Oh well I’d say it’s just one part of our holiday.
Dinner that night was a great finger-food fest at Applebee’s… marking the first time sweetie was at such an establishment and the first time in 2 and a half years for yours truly. We noticed that the temperature inside was close to freezing, normally not a problem for me but my sweetheart was cold right away and I felt chilled after I downed the second glass of Diet Coke (free refills welcome)full of ice cubes. We were both chilled to the bone after an hour and finally decided to call it a night and return to the hotel.
First taste of American fast food….. that’s was really good, despite my whole system which seemed to shut down rapidly as I was dead tired (and so was my sweetheart) and urgently longing to have a good night sleep.
WOW free refills on Diet Coke. In Luxembourg it’s Coca Cola light btw… but free refills don’t exist and for the same price you get a very small glass of slightly chilled soda…not a bucket with ice cubes swimming in it.
We picked up some Diet Coke cans and a bunch of pharmacy and drug items. Since we were traveling light we did not bring anything “unnecessary” which means I needed shaving stuff, soap, shampoo (even though I have no long hair left) clothes… you know… “unnecessary stuff” J.
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On the morning of our first day in the States I had taken the resolution to swap cars so we had to get to the Airport and get a bigger trunk space. Before that, and after having taken some cool pictures....
... we wanted to enjoy the day however and made our way to breakfast at the temple of North American breakfast tradition and sweet temptations: The International House of Pankakes!
My baby ordered a sampler breakfast whereas I went with a stack of Blueberry pancakes. Wow… We were in greasy and sugary food-heaven. Teri Ann liked the breakfast sausage and had her first strips of bacon in years (same for me) but I gobbled down the blueberry-laden cakes and washed it all down with massive quantities of Diet Coke.
Hmmmm bacon and eggs with sausages… it’s been years I haven’t had a breakfast like this plus pancakes hhmmmm… I never really had this kind of breakfast though... Although in Manila, or all of the Philippines, we have a lot of American food chains like Dunkin Donuts, TGI Fridays etc. and we also had pancakes but I never had a chance to try eating there. We used to cook at home and make our very own pancakes with honey and butter.
Gee I really felt so good after having a warm, tasty breakfast.
After a visit to our first Walmart, Old Navy, Circuit City and Walgreens pharmacy we now had enough clothes to get us through the first few days. We also had shaving and hair accessories as well as soaps, pastes, wipes, sprays, roll-on’s, roll-off’s roll-between’s and everything else we needed to look and feel clean and healthy. In addition we were armed with a (bargain!!!) Mio GPS gizmo that was the US pendant to the European version we already owned in Luxembourg to help us navigate around the North American landscape.
Thanks to the new technology man can now travel much easier with a GPS navigation system… and find new ways of getting lost faster J.
Lunch was a quick affair at the local mall where we dug into a Johnny Rocket pair of burgers.
My very first hamburger in the US yipeee…..
In the afternoon we traded in our Red Rocket (after having taken pics of it) for a more docile but luxurious Toyota Avalon with a massive trunk.
A few minutes walking around Downtown Boston...
Dinner was to be held somewhere special for the two of us… the Boston Hard Rock Café. So we parked the Avalon downtown and wandered around the historic center and Faneuil Hall to end up at the Hard Rock Café sitting next to a rock star who donated a guitar to HRC. However neither TA nor myself have to this day a shade of a clue to who he was.
We’re both big fans of the Hard Rock Cafés all over the World. We’ve always visited Hard Rock in every country we’ve passed by like in Paris (my first time to eat there) and Lisbon, Portugal. There’s also one in Manila but again I haven’t been there before.
Back towards the hotel we made a stop at a movie theatre, nodding off in the middle of the more than exciting Bourne Ultimatum. Telling you that we were still jet-lagged.
No comment… it was just the perfect place to fall asleep , dark, mildly cold and deserted of people.
In any case we were on our merry way living in the US for 3 weeks… A lot of calories to eat, a lot of driving to do and a lot of shopping to perform… Wahoooo !!!!
