Chicago cont.

So the best way to undrstand any place is to get someone who knows to tell you about it, so we take cruise on the river and out on to the lake. The guide on this tour is fount of knowlwdge on the history and architecture of the city and makes it all interesting.
What strikes me about this city is how close the beaches and marinas are to the business districts, you could finish work and walk to the beach in 15 minutes or be on a boat in a marina in the same time by cab, I can see that this would be a great place to live if you like water sports.
Looking around this place is hard work as as the temperature is about 32C and humid but a great first day to the holiday rounded off with dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe.

Chicago tram

Graffiti as part of arts festival appeals to Esme

On Navy Pier with beach in the back ground.

Tomorrow off to San Francisco.

Chicago My kind of Town?

So first proper day of the trip, we have one day to find out if Chicago is the "windy city" or something more interestin,. from the hotel we take the shuttle to the "EL" station this is Chicagos answer to the London tube except most of it runs at ground level or on elevated tracks (hence the EL) its a lot smoother ride than the tube but not surprising as it is a lot newer its a strange experiece to be on a train running down the central reservation of a ten lane highway. Arriving in the city we have to try and get our bearings as we don't yet have a city map but we find the river and start to follow it picking up a map along the way.
The thing that really strikes you is the height of all the buildings around you giving the real feeling of being in a concrete and glass canyon the skyscrapers come right up to the river but somehow it doesn't feel clostrophobic.

more to follow as the flight is about to start boardin for San Farancisco.

 

Airports 2 (The Big Apple)

Here we are now sat in Terminal 8 of JFK airport New York at least this place is not the shopping temple that Heathrow was and I can get on the Wi-Fi, but if anyone complains about queues at Heathrow they should try it here only four flights had arrived at terminal  7 but it took nearly an hour to get through immigration!

Next stop Chicago

Airports

Well here we are sat in Heathrow shopping centre otherwise known as terminal 5 a place designed to separate passengers from their UK currency as fast as possible. It still seems as though we are leaving behind the good weather here but it’s not too much of a problem as it should be around 30C in Chicago tomorrow when we are exploring the city, and only a little cooler when we get to San Francisco on Tuesday. It seems strange that we will be away for nearly 5 weeks, I hope Avon (the dog) still remembers us when we get back. Sitting around airport terminals is not the most popular activity with teenage girls comments like extremely board are beginning to become regular so the next 16 hours are going to be real fun. Watch out for the next update from where ever I can get my next Wi-Fi connection.

On the way

Well here we are sat in the Premier Inn at Heathrow airport ready for our flight tomorrow in the morning we take the car to the long stay car park and head off to terminal 5 for for the first leg of the journey by BA to JFK airport New York and then onward with American airlines to Chicago the first stop on the tour, more updates from there.

Getting things sorted

I suppose that its not surprising to find that the Olympics are causing me a headache when booking our departure from the UK the hotel that we normally use to stay the night before we fly to the states and leave the car in their car park while we are away is not taking bookings for more than 16 nights parking so we either have to travel down by coach which means getting up at 3am (is it worth going to bed?) to be at Heathrow by 7am, or book hotel and parking separately and just to make things more difficult we are flying out with BA from terminal 5 but returning on American Airlines terminal 3 so where to park the car so that it is easy to get to when we get back tired and grumpy?

Another thing that surprised me both in a good way and in a bad way is travel insurance, to get insurance for me with my current condition I thought would be very difficult and horrendously expensive but there are several insurance companies which specialise in covering people with cancer and other pre-existing conditions, I have ended up using "InsuranceWith" and although the cost is more than a "normal" policy but at £150ish not to bad. On the other hand insuring Alison and the girls for 5 weeks instead of the usual 2 weeks was coming out at 4 or 5 times the 2 week figure I did finally get it for a reasonable figure but found doing this more stressful than booking all the flights.

The Journey begins

Welcome to the "Southam Family Road Trip" blogg I am starting this blogg so that I can keep everyone who is interested in our holiday of a life time up to date with our progress.
Our plan is to vist Chicago, San Francisco, Yosemite national park, the California coast, Los Angeles, The Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Washington DC, Niagra Falls, Boston and New York.

As I type this the trip is begining to take shape we have booked our flights and we have reserved and have reserved two RVs (Camper Vans) one to take us round California and Navarda for the Grand Canyon and another for the the east coast starting and ending in Washington DC before finishing our trip in New York.

This is the type of vehicle we will be driving.

Further update will follow soon