Holiday Valley

Sunday we drove almost 2 hours to Holiday Valley Ski Resort, New York for a snowboarding session. We arrived just before lunch and got a 4 hour lift ticket.
Ryan carved up the snow and got some good runs, except for when he came down with me and we spent half the time on our butts!

We left at 4pm and drove back via French Creek for a good old pub meal and a couple of drinks before heading home after a tiring day.

Show Us Your Shamrocks!

Saturday was St Patricks Day, and one of the biggest days celebrated in Erie.

Ryan shovelling the snow from our driveway - this is from 1 days snow

We had a massive snow dump Thursday and Friday - we found a new way to keep our drinks cool!


A St Patricks Day Cookie

Everyone decorates their house for every 'event' - this house had a blow up leprechaun!

We drove our car downtown & left it there to be buried in snow, while we headed up to Sullivans Irish Pub. We got there about 10am - it was absolutely packed! We started off wearing no green at all - lets face it - who owns any green stuff? As we pub crawled down town Erie, not only did we drink, but we collected more and more green attire until we were both covered in it by the afternoon! We had never seen so much green before and everyone was wearing it - whether it was a big green hat or funky green glasses. Beads are all the rage over here - any type of function you go to, venues hand out beads, & people go crazy for them.

Dressed in green

One place even made you flash for beads! By then ,we had so much green stuff we didn't have to resort to that (we had scored a shirt each, beads, a green hat and a green garter - all free!).

There was a town parade - and everyone in the parade threw lollies. It was hilarious and we filled up a hat full of lollies.

That's only half the lollies we collected!

After the parade we grabbed some lunch and kept on the Beno and Wardy Pub Crawl.
By 7pm, it was time to head home - we managed to flag a taxi (one of only 24 in Erie). After about 10 hours drinking, it was bed time, but not before Kristy stacked it in the snow!

Geek of the Week

And the award goes to....

Down to DC cont...

Sunday was another busy day & full of lots of walking. As we were walking to our first destination, the White House, there was a lady on the other side of the street, who was obviously a little crazy. We heard her screaming at this family (who didn't provoke her) - she told them she was going to destroy them! It was funny from the other side of the street. We walked past President Bush's residence and then on to the Washington Monument (the tallest building in the district). We didn't go up the monument because all the tickets had sold out for the day.

Beno at the White House

We walked on the the (empty) reflecting pool and up the stairs to the Lincoln Memorial - a dedication to the president who freed slaves. When you looked back from the top of the memorial, the Washington Monument was reflected in the reflecting pool.

If you look closely, you can see the Washington Monument reflecting in the very little water in the reflecting pool

We walked along the Tidal Basin (the bay) to downtown where all the museums are. We walked in on a St Patricks Day parade, although we couldn't work out why there was a parade a week early. There were marching bands, men in kilts, and all sorts of weird looking people (including the lady below).

A lady dressed up for the St Patricks Day parade - she had green clover glasses on too

Speed Racer - cars in the parade

We walked back to the hotel and jumped in our car and headed uptown to a place called Adams Morgan, which is renowned for its Ethiopian community and Ethiopian cuisine. Kristy had been talking it up all weekend. We walk in and no one was in the restaurant, but we sat down and ordered. We ordered 2 dishes - Ryan ordered lamb and Kristy ordered beef - the waitress asked if we would like our beef cooked well done, which we said no medium please. 3 minutes later 1 dish comes out and it wasn't what either of us had ordered. Instead it was a massive pancake (about the size of a giant pizza) that looked like tripe. On top was mince, feta and a tomato salad. The idea was to rip of a bit of pancake, put some beef on, then feta, then salad and roll up like a spring roll. We had a few pieces, and Ryan thought that the mince was raw. We asked the waitress if it was cooked, she said it was. By this stage we were totally turned off, and asked her to cook it some more for us. It came back out and the meat was grey (as opposed to red) and looked cooked. We picked a bit more, but couldn't stomach it.

After this we went for a drive to the Pentagon, which was just out of town. It was actually really boring. We could see some construction work on the building - not sure if it was from September 11.

Down to DC

This weekends trip was to the nations Capital City - Washington DC. From what we had heard and read, we werent expecting much and werent overly excited about the trip (had heard a lot about real seedy areas in the city and some hotel receptionists sit behind bullet proof glass shields!). It took us 6 hours to get there and we arrived about 8pm. When we drove through the city we were surprised at how beautiful the city was, especially the architecture.

Saturday was a very busy day with lots of walking.

First of all we walked to Union Statio Plaza (train station) and had a look throught the building - it was beautiful.

Inside Union Station

Next we walked to the Capitol Building, or Parliament House. We walked around it, but decided not to go through there as the wait was over an hour plus we couldnt take our back pack inside with us (it was too big) and we had food and water in our bag whcih we couldnt take either, and of course there was no where to leave your bag!

Ryan 'tweaking' the Capitol

Since we were near the botanic gardens, we thought we would do a quick walk through. Ryan loved it because the humidity in there was high and the over past 5 weeks we have no humidity, just really dry conditions which has freaked our skin out.



We then had a look at the world's largest library, then on to the Supreme Court. the Supreme Court was a really nice old building and it is so big!

One of three library buildings

Ryan in front of the Supreme Court

Kristy next to one of the columns out the front of the Supreme Court

From here we walked to some local markets and had a browse before heading back to Chinatown for lunch. We had more wontons (fried this time!), noodles and chicken.

After a quick shower back at the hotel, we attempted to find a bar near the basketball stadium (before the game), and had no such luck, but managed to purchase some bevvies from a Thai restaurant.


The game was awesome - Washington Wizards V New York Knicks. The Knicks won the game literally at the very last second of the game.

Washington Wizards V New York Knicks

At half time (and after a few more drinks) I (Kristy) decided i needed to go to the bathroom. I was sitting there, doing my thing, when all of a sudden, the lady in the cubicle next to me head rolled under the divider and into my cubicle. I was freaking out, quickly finished and was yelling out 'Hey! What are you doing?' Outside the cubicle i could hear another girl yelling out - 'are you ok?' I ran out to see the lady in the cubicle next to me had passed out and rolled in to mine!!! I just thought it was someone trying have a little looky at me doing my business, but she had fainted! Was very funny.

After the game we tried to find a gentlemans club for Ryan to attend, but had no such luck, so had to settle for a bar instead.

It's Melting!

Well, the weather is starting to warm up, which means that the snow is almost all but gone. Its funny how the snow can make everything look so much nicer than it actually is. Before we arrived, there was a 50 car/truck pile up on one of the interstate roads. A lot of the debris was pushed on to the median strip - Its only over the past day or so that they can attempt to clean it up, because finally the snow and ice has melted away. Mattresses, cars and food can be found on the median strip.

Grocery Shopping in the USA

What an experience! There is no Coles or Woolies over here, and almost all the brands are different, which makes for interesting grocery shopping. Some of the supermarkets have a self serve, which is fun - makes you feel like a check out chick! You also join the supermarket to receive a special tag which entitles you to discounts. You can also go through the newspaper and get coupons for even more discounts.
Last week, Cheryl (from down the road) and I discovered a new supermarket, which sells fresh produce only. It is crazy, and must be the hot spot for the locals because it was packed! you had to push through the queues to get some meat - the people stacking the meat couldn't keep up with the people taking the meat to buy! I have never seen so many potatoes or onions in my life. When you go to the deli, there is also a 'Cart Parking' section for your trolley! When you go to check out, your trolley, sorry cart, goes in one line, and you line up in another. There are no bar codes on anything - some have tickets, but the checkout ladies know the price of everything off the top of their head. I was laughing the whole time in the store.

Weekend in Erie

This weekend we thought we would spend the weekend in good old Erie doing snow stuff before it all disappears.

Saturday morning, we headed down to Presque Isle, the Bay that eventually leads out to Lake Erie. We walked out in to the middle of the bay (on the frozen water, which was close to 11 inches thick) and chatted to some local fisherman. We only saw one person who caught something.

Ryan on the frozen lake

Ice Fisherman

After this we decided we needed some real action, so we went to Bob's Gun Shop where we both hired some guns and went target shooting. The guy from the shop showed us how to load up the guns, and without even looking, fired a bullet which landed straight between the eyes of the target. It was a bit intimidating picking up a gun at first, but we got the hang of it.

The people from Bob's gun shop knew we weren't from round here when we asked if we could shoot a gun!

After an afternoon nanna nap, it was off to a local ice hockey game - Erie Otters V's Oshawa (a Canadian team) - what a great sport. There were 2 punch ups, and the refs let them fight! one went for about 2 or 3 minutes! The Otters fought back from 3 down at one stage to win the game. We capped off the night at a local bar.

Bring back the biff!

Sunday we went to Peek N Peak, the slopes 20 minutes from our house (but actually in the state of New York). Ryan went snow boarding and had a ball. There was stacks of snow, and more was falling while we were there. Kristy went tubing with the Morrison Family (other Aussie family down the road) and had a great time too.

We had to leave early so we could make it to the local winter grid iron game - Erie Freeze V's Johnstown. This game wasn't as exciting as the ice hockey the night before - it was very stop start and quite slow, although we still enjoyed the game. Erie lost the game, although had a good come back.

Erie Freeze