Goodbye Manhattan! Our final week had some outstanding moments! The first of these was our visit to the 9/11Memorial and recently opened Museum. Both were extremely moving......the simplicity of the two pools placed in the footprint of the two buildings and with the names of all the deceased engraved around the outside in groupings of colleagues, the Californian pear tree which was the only tree to survive and which was nursed back to health and when we saw it...

Thanksgiving in the Snow!! What a wonderful and diverse few days we have just had! Tuesday saw us sailing around the whole island of Manhattan, becoming orientated as we moved along past famous landmarks, districts, bridges and of course the Statue of Liberty. Had a pretty crazy guide who thought he was Robin Williams and did very poor imitations of film stars and comedians. Such a different experience on the next day. Awoke to snow falling and a lunch dat...

Art and Jazz! After our return from Washington, Wendy and Roe met up with John and all 3 set out to visit the Frick collection. This is a huge private collection of priceless paintings housed in a beautiful old mansion, previously the home of Henry Clay Frick. The building is still furnished as it was when he and his wife lived there - opulent furnishings giving you a real glimpse into how the wealthy lived almost 100 years ago....a gilded lifestyle indeed! Ex...

Security plus!! The last few days have been heavily focused on security in one form or another. On Tuesday John took Wendy and Roe to the United Nations building where we were lucky enough to be able to observe from the gallery a session of the U. N Security Council. The meeting was chaired by Gary Quinlan, the Australian Ambassador to the U.N and the topic was Iraq.....such horrific statistics....10,000 killed in Iraq this year and twice that number injured a...

Upper Eastsiders touching base! Writing from the train to Washington.....currently just past Delaware. Flights to LA went well for Roe...un eventful and comfortable....only about 3 hours sleep but multiple episodes of House of Cards helped pass the time. John and Wendy were delayed 2 hours in Melbourne and then of course were 2 hours late in LA giving Roe some anxious moments as she had well and truly boarded the next flight before they caught up! Finally all...