Author: Jon

Motown Museum, Detroit

Detroit is famous for 2 things; cars and music.

Detroit = The Motor City = Motown

From the window of our hotel we could see the Ford building and the Ford test track below. We were also just a few minutes from the Henry T Ford Museum, but we only had one morning and I’d put Detroit on the itinerary for one reason only and that was to visit the Motown Museum.

The Motown Museum is no ordinary museum, full of glass cabinets and exhibits (althouth there are some). The Museum is built inside the small residential property which housed Tamla Motown records during their busiest years and was mostly set out just like it was in the 60’s and 70’s.

Berry Gordy bought the property in 1959 and it was both his home, a recording studio, headquarters, distribution hub and artist development centre. We got to stand (and sing, badly) in the original Studio A where artists like Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson (the list goes on…) recorded their biggest hits. We also got to see how Motown really was a small cottage industry, run from a small property where everybody chipped in (the artists would pack boxes when they weren’t recording and Diana Ross sat on the front desk answering the phones when she first got there).

I think my favourite story from our (excellent) tour guide was about the candy machine in the lobby. Apparently the Baby Ruth bars were always kept in the 4th slot from the right hand side and whoever filled it was told they MUST make sure the Baby Ruth bars were 4th from the right. This was because Baby Ruth bars were Stevie Wonder’s favourite and he could only find them by hitting the 4th button from the right 🙂

Unfortunately, no photos are allowed in the museum but you get a sense of how small it is from the few photos I got of the outside.

 

 

Niagara Falls

We started today by driving  just over 100 miles from Toronto to Niagara Falls .

I’m not sure what I expected Niagara Falls to be like, but I definitely wasn’t expecting the huge town that has sprung up around it and comprises casinos, theme parks, big hotels and lots of  falls related tours and attractions. We could have stayed there for a couple of days but we’d come to see the falls and we weren’t disappointed!

We decided to take the famous  “Maid of the Mist” boat tour . After taking an elevator from the rim down to the river we boarded the boat with around 150 others which took us right up to the bottom of the falls. As you can see from the photos it was very wet and very windy (hence the fetching blue ponchos), but amazing to get that close and hear and feel the power of the water coming down.

We then drove about another 300 miles back into the US (after being stopped at customs for a “secondary inspection”) and we’re staying at an amazing hotel tonight in Detroit . We’ve worked out that you can get some really amazing hotels pretty cheap through Expedia’s “secret saver” deals. Basically the big hotels sell off their unsold rooms on the cheap but it doesn’t tell you which hotel you’re going to be staying in until you’ve booked it. We’ve done it twice so far and they turned out to be the two nicest hotels we’ve stayed in.

Oh, and as we got to our hotel just after dusk we were treated to something I’ve never seen before, an amazing display by some fireflies just outside the hotel.

 

 

 

A brief stay in Toronto

Another quick stop-off today in Toronto .

As with Montreal we haven’t got time to explore properly unfortunately as we’re making our way down to Detroit and Chicago , but we did quickly drive into the centre to get a few snaps of the CN Tower and a few of the Rogers Centre .

We’ll get more photos tomorrow hopefully as we’re off to Niagra Falls .

 

Montreal and Bonus Photos

We’ve only got one night in Montreal unfortunately and to be honest don’t have enough time to see the city properly. Our trip into Canada is only a quick one and seemed a better idea than travelling through the New York State countryside. Still, it’s nice to be here, however briefly.

I wasn’t sure what the mix between English speaking and French Canadians would be. Well, Montreal is pretty much 100% French speaking and I got a D in GCSE French so reading the signs and going out for a meal has been…. interesting…

We’re staying in a nice suburb called Longueuil which you can see in a few of the photos and we took a drive into Downtown Montreal, hence the slightly shaky photos taken from the car window.

We’ve also just taken some photos off Jen’s camera from the last few days, there’s a few extra ones from Mount Washington and some nice road trip photos from our drive through New Hampshire.

 

Ben and Jerry’s Factory

Just a quick update to post some photos of our day at the Ben and Jerry’s Factory today.

Our trip was inspired by Stephen Fry’s “Stephen Fry in America” and one of the stops on his trip was the Ben and Jerry’s Factory Tour so I really wanted to stop there, oh, and obviously I love Ben and Jerry’s!

We didn’t get to design our own ice cream like he did, but we did get to sample a new flavour which had crisps in it (nicer than it sounds) and check out some of the really nice sounding flavours that don’t make it across the pond, such as “Cinnamon Buns”, “Berried Treasure” and “Americone Dream”. If we had a freezer in the car I’d have stocked up but unfortunately it was 85 degrees outside.

Mount Washington

Well, today was eventful…

Having picked our car up from the airport and grabbed a sat nav from Target we set off towards New Hampshire.

We made it slightly less than 100 miles before I got pulled over for speeding (It was a 55 limit on an interstate and I was only doing about 60!).  Anyway, once the officer realised it was a rental car (and checked that it wasn’t stolen) he just waved us on our way with a warning. I’ve now learnt how to use the cruise control and am trying to get in the habit of leaving it bang on the limit.

With that little drama over we reached Mount Washington and took the cog railway to the summit. Firstly a few facts about Mount Washington and it’s cog railway.

  • The mountain is the tallest point in New England at 6,288 ft
  • It still holds the world record for the highest recorded wind speed on land at 231mph
  • It has the worlds first ever cog railway and it’s also the worlds 2nd steepest.
  • The summit has been home to a weather observation station for over 100 years.

The weather was beautiful at the base of the mountain and the guide told us we were very lucky to get such a clear day. Unfortunately, when we got to about 4000 feet it started to rain and the breaksman said there was a big storm coming in.

As we climbed towards the summit the mountain around us was shrouded by fog rolling over it and the rain was coming down hard. We could see lightning striking the peaks around us and the observation deck at the summit. We ran into the observation deck as quickly as we could and could barely see 10 feet out of the window. I had decided a coat was unnecessary and was still wearing a T-shirt!

Some kids let out a scream as the building we were in was struck by lightning and we mooched around the museum and gift shop for an hour before the train arrived to take us back down. We ran towards the train again in heavy rain and as we stepped on another lightning bolt hit the observation deck behind us.

The descent took about half an hour, still in thick fog and I was kind of glad to get back down again but it had been fun. We may not have got the perfect clear panoramic photos we had wanted from the top but it was definitely an experience.

We then headed out of new Hampshire and into Vermont for an incredible drive through the countryside. I wish we could have taken some photos of the sunset as we drove through Vermont but it was raining and we couldn’t really pull over.

We’re staying in a lovely hotel in a small town called Stowe tonight and tomorrow we’re off to the Ben and Jerry’s factory and into Canada.

 

 

 

Boston Freedom Trail

I just wanted to post a few photos from today. We spent 3 hours learning about the history of Boston and US independence on the Boston Freedom Trail .

The photos won’t mean much to anyone who hasn’t been on the tour or read the history but it was a really interesting day learning about key figures in the revolution like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams , seeing sights like the USS Constitution and the Old South Meeting House and hearing about events such as the Boston Tea Party , Boston Massacre and the Battle of Bunker Hill .

We’re a little tired after doing 2.5 mile walking tour in the middle of a heatwave but it was great fun.

4th July Fireworks

One of the main reasons we started our trip where we did and when we did was to be here for America’s biggest 4th July celebration.

Tonight we joined about 800,000 people on the Esplanade next to the Charles river to watch a 2 hour concert by the Boston Pops and what can only be described as the best firework display we’re ever likely to see.

If you ignore the completely over the top patriotism (it is the 4th of July after all) then the concert was actually really good. I don’t think we needed 3 different renditions of ‘God Bless America’, but watching an orchestra play ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was fun.

When it comes to fireworks I thought I’d seen it all, but the company that does the Boston 4th July fireworks apparently does all of the biggest displays in the world (including the Olympics) and they didn’t disappoint. I won’t try to describe it but I will say that we saw fireworks explode in the shape of a cube, in the shape of Jupiter (with the rings round it) and the fireworks we’re so low and so intense that my ears hurt and I’m literally covered in ash.

Oh yeah, and we also popped into the Cheers bar on the way.

Scroll down for photos

 

 
 

 

 

We’ve arrived in Boston

We arrived at Boston Logan airport at 7pm local time last night and our hotel had upgraded our room and put a bottle of champagne on ice for us (I’m liking this honeymoon business). Unfortunately our body clocks thought it was about 2am by the time we got settled and after a 7 hour flight we grabbed some food quickly and fell asleep.

Today we’re supposed to be getting a bit of work done and a bit of shopping for the trip but we had a bit of a walk around and checked out the harbour and Faneuil Hall Marketplace , so I thought I’d post up a few photos.

Tomorrow is independence day so we’ll be going to the Boston Pops concert and fireworks.

 

 

 

3 days to go.

Just so this blog isn’t empty I thought I’d put up a quick post as we’ve only got 3 days to go!

We’re flying out to Boston on Saturday afternoon and we’ll be keeping this blog updated on a near daily basis over the next 3 months so please check back.