Thursday, December 17, 2009

2009

So we have finished one year touring America and have one year left. Looking back it is pretty mad to think of all the places we have been, we have certainly travelled a few miles.

Tampa FL
Orlando FL
Jacksonville FL
Birmingham AL
Greenville SC
Greensboro NC
Richmond VA
Huntsville AL
Newark NJ
Uniondale NY
New York NY
Norfolk VA
Hampton VA
Providence RI
Hartford, CT
Philadelphia PA
Trenton NJ
Omaha NE
Colorado Springs CO
Las Vegas NV
Phoenix AZ
Fresno CA
Los Angeles CA
Anaheim CA
Ontario CA
San Diego CA
Oakland (including San Francisco) CA
San Jose CA
Sacramento CA
Kent WA
Everett (including Seattle) WA
Portland OR
Salt Lake City UT
Denver CO
St. Louis MO
Cleveland OH
Wilkes-Barre PA
Rosemont IL
Chicago IL

Chicago IL


Chicago is split into two, two week stands but the train is parked in one spot for the entire month. Its not in a bad place, we are close to civilisation and a variety of stores and food places, so its not to bad to be here for a month. It certainly could have been worse. The main shops close by were The Brickyard Mall, even though it is outside it still gets called a mall. I use to think a mall was an indoor shopping area but it seems I was wrong on that one.

The main problem though is the journey to and from the Arenas, especially Rosemont, it took so long they had to bring in extra buses and our bus broke down last week as well. Rosemont is a bit of a hike to get to; it is out by the airport, which is just typical for it to be the first half of the month and not the last half when we will be heading out this way again to fly home. To get to the United center was a little bit easier but there is nothing around it really and we kept being told it is in a sketchy part of town, though we get told that so often and wonder what people are on about.

Even though Chicago is the 3rd largest City in America it seems to have past us by. The first couple of weeks Tweedy wasn't that well so rested any chance he got, he has also been really busy working with lots of shows. The weather didn't really help to get us out and about exploring either, it has been cold, damp and getting dark early, getting is adjusted to going back to the UK though I guess.

We did manage to get out and wander around a bit though. We went in but not up Sears Tower, though it is now called Willis Tower.

We went to Navy pier which was OK; I expect it would be really nice in that part of the city in the summer. The pier houses The Children's Museum, a botanic garden as well as shops and a fair ground.



Millennium Garden was really nice with some amazing art work. The gigantic silver bean was just great. Though I wouldn’t recommended head butting it, it’s quite hard.



November is a strange sort of month when it comes to decorating the outside of your house in America. There is a weird mix of Halloween decorations left over with thanksgiving and Christmas ones going up. It really is a little bizarre especially the houses that seem to have a little mix of all of them.

Thanksgiving was a nice evening, not only did Tweedy and everyone else have the night off but we also had a nice meal and Willow had a great time. The only down side for most people was free alcohol followed by a six pack (3 shows Friday and 3 shows Saturday) doesn’t really mix.

Something that we never used to have in the UK but one which has been slowly creeping in is baby showers. So far I have been to a couple here and they have both been Brazilian which apparently is different to an American one. The 2nd one was not your normal baby shower and even someone like me with very little experience on these things could tell that. It was a virtual baby shower which was lots of fun but a shame the Mom to be was on the end of a cam instead of the room, but at least technology made one possible.

A RBBB tradition for the end of the year is the Talent, No Talent Show, which actually had quite a lot of talent despite the name. The main core of the talent this year was provided by the dancers. They worked so hard with the children putting together various acts and the dancing for the main act 'Dancing with the stars' which was really good. Tweedy and Angelica came away with two awards, first place from the judges and first place with the peoples vote. Tweedy and Alex also threw together a comedy magic number that went down pretty well. And when I saw threw together I mean in 10 minutes during the interval in the show before. It was a really good night.

And of course another really exciting thing to happen in Chicago was flying out of it and heading home for Christmas.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Circus School

There are quite a few children that travel with the show (though most are in trailers and not on the train) so there is a teacher that also travels with us. It must be a really challenging job for a teacher, not just because there varies between 10 and 14 students, ranging from Kindergarten through to 9th grade but also the different languages and the main hurdle, a class room in a different location every week. If they are lucky class will be in a fair sized room with desks and chairs and far enough away from the arena floor that the children are not distracted by the music. Oh and Internet connection is always a bonus. Some times the buildings have very limited space and rooms and on the odd occasion the school will be situated in a private box with just a curtain separating them from the show taking place beside them. Those weeks it is a struggle.

The lucky thing about the school at the moment though is Miss Sara Greenback who is an amazing teacher and Mrs Darcy Ford who helps her. I really am in awe of them and how they manages to get so much accomplished. They have some how managed to make a school that the children seem to enjoy going to (in fact some times it seems they can't get rid of them), but also have been learning as well. The lower grades are taught using The Calvert School which is really good and the higher grades use The American School, both via distant learning systems.

Willow seems to really embrace this type of learning though I'm sure it wouldn't and isn't for everyone. She loves working at her own pace and putting in extra work which has helped her get ahead a grade. Academically she has become quite competitive, we wonder sometimes where she has got this from. Her favourite subject is mathematics and again we wonder where she has got this from. On both counts though we are not complaining.

http://homeschool.calvertschool.org/

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Wilkes-Barre OH




So we weren't expecting much for Wilkes-Barre and that's what we got, there really isn't much there from a visitors point of view but that doesn't mean we didn't have a good time here.

The train was parked in an OK place, near civilisation and a few shops and quite a lot of fast food places. So close in fact we had to step into Pizza Huts car park to get out. This was much more preferable than the majority of the train though who had to leave the train via a swamp.

The arena this week was also near lots of shops and a mall. It was quite hard to not buy stuff we don't really need since there was not much else to do here but wander the shops.

Wilkes-Barre was not just about shopping though, it was also about Halloween and even though I am aware the US go in for the whole 'Tick or Treat' more than the UK I didn't really understand to what level until I experienced it. So many houses decorated and I don't mean just a pumpkin on the door step, I mean really decorated just as over the top as people get at Christmas.

One thing that we are lucky with in the circus (and not just this one) is we are a small community and the children all had a great time 'Trick and Treating'. Between shows all the children in the nursery and school gathered together and attacked on mass. First they went to the concourse and collected from everyone in the concessions and some of the staff from the actual building, before the doors were opened to let the public in. Then they moved on down to the dressing rooms and offices. Willow collected so much she could not lift her bag and we had to empty it before we could carry on. Tweedy and Alex changed there dressing room into a haunted house that everyone had to clamber into before they could get their candy. All in all it was a very successful haul and we have enough sugar to keep us going for quite a while. Then it was back to the school and nursery for a party.

The Halloween celebrations didn't stop there though as there was no evening show that night, a party had been planned and the clowns had resurrected an old tradition of a haunted clown car. Most people dressed up but I wasn't sure if I was going to bother so ended up throwing something together last minute (oh dear I really am starting to take after my Mum). The clowns did an amazing job transforming car 38 and they took donations and raised $200 for the school and nursery (so thank you to them all for that). Willow decided she wanted to go in and Tweedy had said to me she would be OK to go through. Well I shan't be listening to his advice on stuff like that again. Even though they toned it down for us she was still pretty scared and decided she wanted to go home not to long after, so that was the end of my night.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Cleveland OH




The train run to Cleveland took just a day but it was a pretty day. We went past lots of woods and this time of year the leaves are such pretty colours, it was a bright Autumn day. Hard to catch on camera and do it justice though. It is the sort of day when I really miss my dog, not that we could go walking in the forests we passed but it made me miss her more than I usually do. I'm counting down the days till I see her again.

So what can I say about Cleveland, not a lot really. We really didn't do much with our time here, the weather has changed making you less like to go out and just explore, though I'm sure if we had we would have found something of interest. It seemed like an OK place. The main attraction here is The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which lots of people from the show went to and enjoyed.

The arena is Downtown and this area looks quite nice and close to the mall which seemed OK till I walked past a couple who 'really' should have got a room! There were a few interesting buildings and monuments around. The Tourist information is also Downtown, and it is the most helpful tourist place I have been in, so thank you to them and I ended up getting 'the zhu zhu hamster' from Amazon.

So we didn't do much in Cleveland worthy to blog about, lets hope next week has something more blog worthy. Though looking in to the next city I'm not going to hold my breath, but fingers crossed it will be one of those places where you don't expect much so it exceeds your expectations.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

St. Louis



So it was a fairly uneventful 2 day train run to St Louis which is fine as it gives Tweedy a chance to recover from the six pack weekend. I may not work now but I can still remember how tiring it can be to do shows back to back trying to find some time during the day to actually eat, knowing that you can't actually stop for a second because you know that would be the end of any energy you actually have. I am so pleased we don't drive. With the weather changing and the views not being that striking on this run less time was spent of the vestibule, though that doesn't mean it wasn't a good journey. I love train runs for so many reasons.

The season has definitely changed and we arrived to a wet, muddy train yard. It almost feels like we are back home. I wish the weather had been better as St Louis seemed to have a lot going for it and I think if it had been nicer weather we may have done a bit more, like go to the park with a free zoo and science museum for starters.

One of the must see tourist things to do in St Louis is 'The Gateway Arch' and since it is so tall (America's tallest man made monument in fact) it isn't actually that hard to see it. You can take a tram ride to the top of the arch but we didn't bother as there were days when you couldn't see the top because of the fog so thought we probably wouldn't get the best views. We did visit the Museum of Westward Expansion beneath the Arch though so even though we didn't go up it we did go in it.

The architect is very odd in this city, interesting but odd all the same. It seems a really mish mash pickle all layered on top of each other. You would turn a corner and some amazing building would be just sat there among all the others.



The City Garden was quite nice with loads of sculptures, water features and art dotted around. On one of the walls is a large TV that shows short films. The one we watched was called 'The Way things go' which was a chain reaction film using fire, water, chemicals and gravity. It was very odd sat in a chilly park watching TV.



The City Museum, is not really a museum, it is an artistic playground mainly for adults, made from recycled things collected from the city, including a couple of airplanes and a school bus. The building use to be an old shoe factory and there is still evidence of this today and you can slide down one of the original shuts after you have climbed the seven store high windy staircase. There are caves made from the skeletons of dinosaurs and some holes so small even Willow struggled not to get stuck. The ball pit is filled with real balls of various sizes, the sort you kick not the small plastic things ball pits are usually filled with. There is the roof top with a Ferris wheel, a fire pit for marshmallows, a bar to drink, live music to listen too, the list goes on and on and on Friday and Saturday night open till 1am. If I lived here I would be a regular that is for sure, no words can do this place justice. If you are even just passing through St Louis and you do nothing else you must go here.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Denver – The Mile High City

The train yard is pretty much what we have come to expect, dirty and dusty and is quite big. There is a play park not far from the train which was good as we where here for a couple of weeks instead of the usual one and a supermarket, sorry a King Soopermarket which is obviously better as it is sooper not super. Actually it wasn't bad, maybe even sooper. There is a light rail station very close by so that means you can escape and go else where to explore Denver and it isn't that far to walk to Downdown Denver which is really nice. The main shopping area Downtown was 16th Street Mall. They had to call it a name with Mall in it so people understood that's where the shops are. They also had a free bus service that ran the length of the street, we never used this though as it was only a mile from one end to the other.

We found a book store at the bottom of 16th Street Mall with a great name 'Tattered Cover Book Store' and even though it was nice there were no second hand books which I think are really required for a shop with a name such as this. Even just small section would be good.

We hung out at the civic centre park at the top of 16th Street Mall for a while which seemed to be swarming with squirrels, I think they must get fed by people quite a bit as they all seemed pretty tame.




There were a few things close to the park, The State Capitol which was modelled after the US Capitol in Washington, The Colorado History Museum and the a pretty big library, all of which are free.





On one of the dark days we went out to celebrate the Boss Clowns birthday early, and went to Casa Bonita. What a place! Seriously if you are ever in Denver you must go here, it really is an experience that I can't do justice in a blog or with pictures. It was so tacky it was wonderful and there really is no hint of sarcasm there. It boasts strolling musicians, daring cliff dives (though the most daring of the night was not preformed by one of their cast), exciting gunfights, hilarious puppet shows (hilarious for all the wrong reasons) and dancing monkeys in costume. Though the latter one I think was printed wrong as we only saw someone in a monkey costume. Oh and not forgetting the haunted caves.



There was a rather chilly Punch party to say goodbye to one of the sound guys. Well it seemed cold at the start of the night. It seemed to warm up by the end though, funny how that happens.

The building isn't that nice and is old, very old. Apparently the Beatles played there when they first came to the US and it was old even then. So in American standards of old it is ancient and apparently even has a ghost! Once upon a time there must have been rodeos here as they still have the old stalls for the horses out the back. Before it was an arena it must have been an aircraft hanger. There wasn't much around it either, a McDonald's, a gas station and a small Mexican market.

And we had snow!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Salt Lake City

Yet again we had an amazing train run. I wonder how long you need to be here before you get bored of the sights from the vestibule.



We were parked in three cuts not far from the building at all which is great as it meant you could walk to downtown. Though being close to civilisation is good in some ways it is not so great in others and one night loads of people had their bicycles stolen. It is slightly unnerving knowing they must have been going up and down the train right under everyone's noses in the dead of night.

On the day the show opened there was a parade around town which seemed to be well received and it 'looked' like everyone had fun, there were even motorcycle police with clown noses getting in the spirit.




Right opposite the building (Energy Solutions Arena) was the Gateway, an open air mall. It definitely had more going for it than the usual mall.
There was The Discovery Children's Museum that the school went to on a field trip. It was great that Willow got to go with other children that she could play with instead of just being stuck with me, which is the norm for us in these places. Willows favourite bit was building parachutes.
The Clark Planetarium was at the entrance to the Gateway and included an IMAX Theatre and Dome. There was also lots of free exhibits which were really good, especially as Willow is quite into astronomy at the moment. She especially liked Newtons Daydream, we have seen lots of sculptures like this one at various museums but this one was the best so far.



One thing you can not miss in Salt Lake City is the Mormon influence everywhere including the attendance to the Sunday performances of the circus. There seem to be dozens of magnificent building's which usually turn out to be temples, churches or cathedrals . Now we have left I wish we had visited a few more. We did go to Temple square which seemed to house quite a lot in its 35 acres. Along with all these 'old' buildings there also seemed to be a lot of construction going on.



I liked this part of America but it doesn't like me much and the altitude affected me quite bad, with so many nose bleeds I lost count and a permanent fuzzy head. I have been told the next couple of weeks will be no better in Denver. So even though I like it here I'm looking forward to getting to a lower altitude.

And what has happened to the weather, I thought we were heading into Autumn but it seems like Summer is reluctant to let go as it has been pretty hot again.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Portland Oregon



So this train run was one of the shortest we have done but it certainly managed to impress in the short time we were on the rails. Luckily for us we left Everett mid-day so we didn't miss the amazing views from the vestibule. As we left we went through quite a few industrial places that kicked out various odd smells.
For hours we ran right along side the waters edge, that seemed framed with mountains of bleached white uprooted trees and passing small communities that you could only visit by boat.



We slowly rolled into Portland and as we stopped heard those words “all coaches spotted”. Nothing unusual in that, except we just stopped and that was that. No shunting back and forward. I'm sure this must be a first. The train yard is huge and very industrial. It takes as long to walk from our train car (yes we are on the wrong end again) to the train yard entrance as it does to walk from the train yard to the building. But we are only a mile away so it is easy to walk. Willows school teacher skateboarded everyday.



With free rail transport downtown though we didn't really walk all that much and having a couple of stations so close to the building was very handy. Also beside the building was a water feature that you could play in which was lots of fun. Especially watching a small child refusing to come out and just knowing the father was going to have to go in a dodge the water himself to get her out. He didn't dodge it!



A short walk from the building, or a couple of stops on the train was The Lloyd mall, which wasn't to bad. It even had an ice rink in it but we didn't get round to going, I wish we had. We did a little bit of shopping here, well you kind of felt you ought to as there is no tax in Oregon and you have to make the most of that.

Just over the river was downtown Portland which was really nice. A mixture of malls and shops on the street just like a real town, and it was pedestrian friendly. There were pieces of art on street corners and water fountains that had no on or off button, they just spurted water the whole time, which seems a bit wastefully, especially when you can't run through it.



My favourite shop in Portland without a doubt was Powells book store which is open 365 days of the year and is the worlds largest independent book store. Now I have heard claims like this before about other stores (the toy store in New York is not bigger or better than Hamleys) and been disappointed but not this time. When you need a map and a big map at that to find your way about then you know you are in a big shop. A great mixture of old and new books, some only stocked there and great prices too and helped by the no tax. We only went to the main store a couple of times but they have 6 shops in Portland, the others specialising in various things. And as you would expect it is pin pointed on the Portland map.

One shop on the map you wouldn't expect to see there but has every right to be is Voodoo doughnuts. We had heard so much about this shop before we got here, we were expecting more, actually more is the wrong word as we were not disappointed just I was expecting a more commercial shop. It was great that it wasn't. Just a little back street shop selling the oddest selection of doughnuts. I'm not a big doughnut fan but I have to say these were pretty good. Definitely worth a visit. We didn't try any of the odd flavours like chocolate and bacon which we were told actually tasted quite good but opted for a cute little voodoo doll.




I liked Portland, it had a good feel to it. Free transport, no tax, a great book store and doughnut shop, what more do you need.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Everett, Washington

Back to the short train runs this week. One that I should have gone to bed in one City and woke up in the next, but as the norm for so many people on a train run, I didn't manage to get to sleep till some silly time in the morning, which is fine if it is a decent length journey as dozing in the morning is also the norm so you catch up. Willow is even getting the hang of it, sort of.

We seem to be parked in a nice enough area, close to a bakery and a decent veg shop. We are also close to a play park which has pleased Willow, though she didn't get there as much as she would have liked.

On the dark day (day off) we went in to Seattle, which was only half an hours drive away (thank you Alex). We went and saw The Space Needle.


We popped into the Experience Music Project.



And we hung out at Pike Place Market. I really liked the Market and had a great feel to it, though it did close a little earlier than what we have become accustomed to. It is a very lively market and even had flying fish. The first ever Starbucks is beside the market and if you are a coffee drinker that is quite a big deal apparently. So Willow had her first ever Starbucks (hot chocolate) in the first ever Starbucks, and I had my first sip (that was all I was allowed) of a Starbucks hot chocolate in the first ever Starbucks.


I had heard about an interesting store in Seattle called Archie McPhee's. It sounding a lot like Hawkins Bizarre and seemed to have quite a large range of bacon themed items, air freshener, plasters, dental floss, jelly beans and such like. We didn't go looking for it but kind of stumbled across it. Well in the drive past it kind of way and decided to stop and check it out. It was okay, but I wouldn't say anything special, though the random junk at the back was interesting. It was much bigger than a Hawkins Bizarre shop but no where near as good. I only bought one Yoda postcard here where as I can leave Hawkins with untold stuff I do not need. If we had gone looking for it I think I would have been dissapointed.

On the drive we went up a road called Freemont Street which looked a really interesting area. We certainly didn't spend enough time in Seattle and it would have been wonderful to have spent more time here but Everett wasn't to bad. It seems quite a nice clean city with quite a lot going for it. Wandering around exploring you seem to come across some sort of 'art' on every other street corner. The Comcorse Building is in a nice part of downtown.

My favourite find in the shopping department was a Goodwill thrift store which I thought was a Halloween costume shop at first glance. Willow bought a dinosaur costume from there, not sure if she has bought it for Halloween though or just everyday wear. She wanted to wear it to bed! I also liked the cooperative organic store, though it was a little pricey to do the weekly shop.

There was a Children's Museum in Everett which did look better than your average Children's Museum (we have become experts in this field) unfortunately it was closed most of the days we were in town for some kind of refurbishment. The roof top garden looked loads of fun.