Travel Moment 4 - Driving from Las Vegas to Yosemite

We drove 8 hours from Las Vegas to Yosemite via Death Valley and Mono Lake. It was an amazing day with so many changes in scenery that were simply breath taking. Here we are driving out of Las Vegas ready to drive on the wrong side of the road!

Travel Moment 3 - Lake Mead

Our tour guide was taking us to the Grand Canyon but on the way we stopped to glimpse Lake Mead. In the town of Boulder, a herd of Barbary sheep live in a park with this amazing view of the lake.

Travel Moment 2 - Maid of the Mist tour at Niagara Falls

Travel Moment 1 - Architectural cruise in Chicago

Chicago is one of my favourite cities. Let me qualify that. Chicago is one of my favourite cities in summer (in winter my great aunt got frostbite on her ear going to the supermarket). Today's travel moment is about an architectural cruise through the waterways to marvel at the skyscrapers. It is always a risk to join a cruise - they are either awesome (Sydney, Paris) or dead boring (Vienna, Perth). In this case it was awesome! We sat back, drank Starbucks coffee and enjoyed the sunshine whilst our announcer explained various building styles and techniques. From the Wrigley, to the corn cobs, to the John Hancock, to the Sun Times we enjoyed our cruise and recommend it to you. We also recommend seeing the Wrigley up close as built into its outer walls are stones from other famous buildings (great wall of China, Notre Dame, and the Parthenon to name a few)

OBX

We're heading off on vacation tomorrow. It seems a long time since our Seattle Odyssey and what a contrast in weather! We are driving north to the Outer Banks, North Carolina's most famous stretch of sand. The Outer Banks is a series of relatively undeveloped barrier islands which change shape with the fierce hurricanes. We are staying in the aptly named town of Waves, south of Rodanthe made famous by the Nicolas Sparks novel 'Nights in Rodanthe'. Incidentally Richard Gere and Diane Lane were here in Wilmington filming the movie last year and I was in an art gallery when the call came in for paintings to be sent to the set ASAP. [Film to be released 3 October 2008]

It is the Outer Banks where the Wright Brothers first made flight, where Black Beard the pirate reigned and is the location of the 2007 beach of the year as judged by "Mr Beach" (Ocracoke beach) It is also home of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, the international symbol of North Carolina. In short it is a jewel in the crown for our state and many many tourists venture here each year. This was the number one place on our travel list whilst here in the US as we would be kicking ourselves if we moved back to Australia without experiencing this place at least once.

We are staying at a house (above) almost on the beach. Given that is not school holidays yet we managed to get this house for a good price and we're looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of the waves. Blogging will continue next week so keep checking in. To keep with the traveling theme I'm going to post some photos showing some awesome holiday spots around the US.

Garden project 5: Pizza oven

Okay all the other garden projects are completed but this one is still in planning, design and approval. Here is the marked out spot in our yard for the entertaining area (far right corner you can see a couple of orange flags). Dream big and you'll see what we have planned.

Garden project 4: Flower garden

This project unlike the first three is in the front yard. We have 5 large garden beds and whilst most are planted with evergreen shrubs there are quite a few 'holes'. One of the beds (left) was a blank canvas except for the large ornamental pear tree in the middle.

You'll have to wait for late summer for some better photos as there isn't much to see yet (though there is nice promising growth especially with the ice plants at the front flowering) We do have a red hot poker that has grown in another bed and it is gradually changing from green to orange to red.



Here is the planting list:

• black eyed susans


• pink coneflowers


• green rudbeckias


• ice plants


• butterfly bushes


• red hot pokers


• purple liatris


• diamond grass