I'm writing this at 2 am as sleep is eluding me. Still a few things to think about before we go. Most things are laid out on the spare bed, ready for packing. We may have to filter things out a bit more if we're overweight.
We still have the large aircraft-cabin sized backpacks we bought in China and Vietnam. The aim is to fly out with these nearly empty, in case we buy anything! But in reality I've a feeling they will be full up with the overflow. I'm trying to be a lot more sensible this time as I know that in America we'll be able to buy anything we forget to take .. whereas it was a much more unknown quantity when we were headed for Eastern Europe and Asia in 2012.
I'm starting to look forward to the trip now that it's nearly here! The biggest wrench is leaving our beautiful 3 month old grandson, who is growing so fast and changing every day! George, Arlie's Dad, swears that when he woke up this morning, Arlie's head had grown in the night!
Arlie's had a very exciting time over the last few days. Arlie, Arlie, where have you been? I've been to London to visit the queen .... well, almost! George looked after Arlie while Arlie's Mum, my lovely daughter-in-law Marianne, accompanied her own Mum, Anne, to Buckingham Palace, for Anne to be presented with an OBE by the Princess Royal, Princess Anne. Anne's proud husband Andrew and son Barnaby went too, so it was a very special family occasion. Congratulations, Anne!
While the investiture was taking place, George enjoyed father and son bonding, spending a couple of hours in London looking after Arlie, who behaved himself really well. Very helpful that Arlie will take the occasional bottle, and that the staff in the cafe in M & S were so accommodating! Afterwards the investiture they all went to the Ritz for tea. As I said to Marianne, where else could you possibly go for tea after being awarded an OBE?
Last night Marianne, George and Arlie came to dinner, (and Jasper, their wire-haired fox terrier!!) Reg and I gave Arlie our last cuddle before we leave for the USA. Marianne asked if I would like to bath Arlie? Did I need to be asked twice? We put some warm water in our baby-bath shaped laundry basket, and then George floated a little electronic toy in the water, which shows a tick on the screen if the water's not too hot!!! (Things have moved on a bit from dipping your elbow in the water to test the temperature!!) Arlie loves his bath so it was such a pleasure getting him ready for bed before he left. I remember when we used to get George and Elaine ready for bed at my own Mum and Dad's house, before driving home .....
Reg has fixed up to use Skype on his (oops, I mean our) new tablet, so at least we'll be able to keep in touch.
Important things to take: small flasks, plastic cups, travel kettle, teabags. I doubt if we'll be able to pop along the train corridor on American trains and fill up our flasks from a coal-fired boiler as we did on our last long train journey... but I'm sure the flasks will be invaluable once we get there. Since Reg now drinks green tea (ever since China in 2012) and I drink tea without milk (because we couldn't get fresh milk a lot of the time on our 2012 journey) it's a lot easier with hot drinks.
Shall I take"little red bowl"? This is the 8" diameter red plastic bowl I bought in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, so that I could have a wash on the train. Will the American trains have better washing facilities than some of the Asian trains? I'm still cringing remembering my blog-post about "the toilet from hell". There were a few of those actually.
My lovely friend Sylvia, who's lived in America, tells me that many of the hotels in the USA have swimming pools, so make sure I take my costume. I relayed this information to Reg, who nonchalantly replied, "not the hostels we're staying in, Lesley......."
Thanks goodness for the Queen Mary at the end of the trip!!
We still have the large aircraft-cabin sized backpacks we bought in China and Vietnam. The aim is to fly out with these nearly empty, in case we buy anything! But in reality I've a feeling they will be full up with the overflow. I'm trying to be a lot more sensible this time as I know that in America we'll be able to buy anything we forget to take .. whereas it was a much more unknown quantity when we were headed for Eastern Europe and Asia in 2012.
I'm starting to look forward to the trip now that it's nearly here! The biggest wrench is leaving our beautiful 3 month old grandson, who is growing so fast and changing every day! George, Arlie's Dad, swears that when he woke up this morning, Arlie's head had grown in the night!
Arlie's had a very exciting time over the last few days. Arlie, Arlie, where have you been? I've been to London to visit the queen .... well, almost! George looked after Arlie while Arlie's Mum, my lovely daughter-in-law Marianne, accompanied her own Mum, Anne, to Buckingham Palace, for Anne to be presented with an OBE by the Princess Royal, Princess Anne. Anne's proud husband Andrew and son Barnaby went too, so it was a very special family occasion. Congratulations, Anne!
While the investiture was taking place, George enjoyed father and son bonding, spending a couple of hours in London looking after Arlie, who behaved himself really well. Very helpful that Arlie will take the occasional bottle, and that the staff in the cafe in M & S were so accommodating! Afterwards the investiture they all went to the Ritz for tea. As I said to Marianne, where else could you possibly go for tea after being awarded an OBE?
Last night Marianne, George and Arlie came to dinner, (and Jasper, their wire-haired fox terrier!!) Reg and I gave Arlie our last cuddle before we leave for the USA. Marianne asked if I would like to bath Arlie? Did I need to be asked twice? We put some warm water in our baby-bath shaped laundry basket, and then George floated a little electronic toy in the water, which shows a tick on the screen if the water's not too hot!!! (Things have moved on a bit from dipping your elbow in the water to test the temperature!!) Arlie loves his bath so it was such a pleasure getting him ready for bed before he left. I remember when we used to get George and Elaine ready for bed at my own Mum and Dad's house, before driving home .....
Reg has fixed up to use Skype on his (oops, I mean our) new tablet, so at least we'll be able to keep in touch.
Important things to take: small flasks, plastic cups, travel kettle, teabags. I doubt if we'll be able to pop along the train corridor on American trains and fill up our flasks from a coal-fired boiler as we did on our last long train journey... but I'm sure the flasks will be invaluable once we get there. Since Reg now drinks green tea (ever since China in 2012) and I drink tea without milk (because we couldn't get fresh milk a lot of the time on our 2012 journey) it's a lot easier with hot drinks.
Shall I take"little red bowl"? This is the 8" diameter red plastic bowl I bought in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, so that I could have a wash on the train. Will the American trains have better washing facilities than some of the Asian trains? I'm still cringing remembering my blog-post about "the toilet from hell". There were a few of those actually.
My lovely friend Sylvia, who's lived in America, tells me that many of the hotels in the USA have swimming pools, so make sure I take my costume. I relayed this information to Reg, who nonchalantly replied, "not the hostels we're staying in, Lesley......."
Thanks goodness for the Queen Mary at the end of the trip!!
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