Dan & Ness

We just arrived home after spending 4 nights in the nation’s capital. Yesterday was also Memorial Day (and federal holiday), so there was alot to see and do. DC was pretty awesome, we had lots of fun seeing the sights and walking around everywhere soaking up the history. It had quite a laid-back feel to it, which I was pleasantly surprised about.  We had wonderful weather except for yesterday afternoon when it rained, but it didn’t really spoil anything. A couple of shots:

Tudor Place in historic Georgetown.

Old Stone House in Georgetown.

Front of the White House.

View of the Capitol from the Newseum museum.

Out front of Ford’s Theatre.

Out the front of the Capitol.

Inside the Lincoln Memorial.

View of the reflecting pool, Washington Monument (and Capitol) from the Lincoln Memorial.

So last weekend we were at South by South West (SXSW) in Austin, specifically the Interactive festival. This was something I had wanted to go to for a few years now, and as soon as I knew we were headed to Houston (ie last year) I bought tickets and booked a hotel. It was pretty crazy, as I knew it would be. For several weeks the town of Austin gets over-run with people from all parts of the tech, film and music industries. The Interactive portion included panel sessions on a variety of technology topics, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff like book readings, trade show, sponsored parties etc. Our experience was, as usual, somewhat mixed..

We left home on the Friday morning with dogs and dog food/beds/toys/etc, and dropped the boys off at the dog ranch. It was a particularly miserable rainy day, which meant that on the way to Austin we couldn’t really stop and take photos of the gorgeous bluebonnets (state flower) by the side of the road. The drive was quite good and took us around two and a half hours at max.

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We all braved the ice and snow and headed off to Mall of America, supposedly the largest mall in the US. Of course it has stores and restaurants. It also has an amusement park, concert pavilion and police station. According to Wikipedia it also has a church, miniature golf course and wedding chapel, but we didn’t get to see those Yes it felt big, but not too big. I think because of the different ‘zones’ it has.

We did alot of wandering around. If only I had a bigger suitcase (these are margarita premixes):

Due to lack of suitcase space and funds, I only made two small purchases from Urban Outfitters. Disappointing I know.

And here is Dan at the end of the shopping day. Always a pleasure going to malls with him

Friday was an eventful day. I started it by waking up with a coldsore (damn weather) and Dan ended it by vomiting copious amounts of brown stuff in the toilet (damn booze).

Saturday we all got out of the hotel and went on a bus tour. The Saint Paul Gangster Tour to be exact. It was a fun way to spend two hours. Thank god we were on the bus the whole time. It got to about 16 degrees F today, which is about -8 degrees for Aussies. Which is kind of hard to imagine really. Anything below zero F is too cold as far as I’m concerned. I just don’t know how people live here in the winter! The tour took us all through St Paul, and it really is quite a pretty city with all the snow around. Lots of interesting architecture and history. Just way too cold

Still snow. Still cold.

I have been spending my days:

- on the treadmill (got to work off all these meals!)

- reading

- drinking lots of tea and eating bagels

- writing Christmas cards and other odd jobs

- drinking and socialising with the natives

I especially like the last one. And I have grown fond of zinfandel and Michelob beer. Ultra beery goodness.

On Saturday we drove to the airport, again on scary terrifying freeways. I am literally terrified for my life sometimes. But we made it to the airport, which of course is massive, dropped off the car, got a shuttle to the terminal and checked in all fairly easily. Being the Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend it was busy-ish, but not too bad, which is why were travelled that day instead of Sunday. The plane was overbooked of course and everyone was jammed in, but the flight itself was fine, abit under 3 hours from Houston to St Paul.

When we arrived it was cold, several degrees, but didn’t feel too bad. We got a taxi to the hotel, which is out of the city centre. Dan is doing work for 3M which employs alot of the town, and they must use this hotel alot. We are here for 11 nights! Yes, I will be doing ALOT of reading. Hotel is fine though, has a gym and restaurant and little shop, and they bring out freshly baked cookies every evening after 5pm. They are delicious! There are some shops and eating places across the road. For dinner we walked over to the Olive Garden haha. Of course the meals come with copious amounts of salad and bread and we ended up taking half our pasta back with us.

On Sunday Dan worked for most of the day and I kept myself busy. It had snowed overnight and into the morning – photo from our room:

We thought we would walk over to the shops across the road so we rugged up and went outside. It was about -2 degrees. Damn it was cold. Very quickly my fingers and ears and lips went numb, and the wind was painful. And of course there was still snow on the ground and the footpath was all icy and slippery. I was slipping all over the place and hated it. We made it across the road but I had to come back to warmth. It was misery. It is slightly snowing now as I type this, and snow still over the ground. There will be a high of about -3 today (and a low of -7 overnight). I don’t think I will be leaving the hotel the whole time!

Dan headed off at 7.30am this morning (the sun is only just coming up then, and setting around 4.30pm). On Wednesday a couple more people from his work arrive, so there will be a car and slightly more socialising. But at least I will catch up on some reading while I am here