Day 16: Monday 28th June 2010: Washington, DC (Miles to Date: 4363)

Washington is another place we had visited before but as were travelling this way it seemed to be an opportunity to call in on the Nation's capital once again. We were staying in the Alexandria suburbs and caught the Metro into National Mall area, a journey of some 20 minutes or so.

The Smithsonian Institute runs a number of museums in and around the Nation's capital. To visit all of them in any depth would most likely take weeks. On previous trips to DC we had been into a couple, and decided this time to visit some again, especially as the hot, humid weather made moving around outside in the open pretty uncomfortable. Also the oppressive heat was bubbling up some wicked looking clouds, so we were definitely set for an afternoon storm or two! We took the short walk from the Metro station to the Natural History Museum, passing through the National Sculpture Park, which houses some very interesting exhibit, the most eye-catching of which is a full-sized polished metal tree. There was also fountain fed pond, which was an ideal place to cool our already hot and tired feet.

The Natural History Museum is wonderful place to visit and there are always new things to see here, so it is a place to you can come back to again and again. We toured through the “Oceans” gallery, which not only contained models and preserved specimens of creatures from the sea but also exhibits on the ecology of the seas and oceans. It was not the huge skeleton of a whale suspended from the ceiling that impressed Emily and Jack most, it was the display case containing the preserved giant squid, nearly 40 feet long, that caught their imagination. The next exhibit area we visited was the one that traced the evolution of the human species and our other close “erect” cousins. We were surprised how closely the human DNA structure was to that of bananas and chickens, but when we think back to some of the people we have met it is not too hard to make the connection!

On the second floor of the Museum is the gems and rocks exhibits. This houses the National collection of jewellery, including the famous Hope Diamond, which, like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, is somewhat disappointing in real-life! More interesting and impressive than the cut stones laid in silver and guard are the collections of gem stones and rocks in their more natural state. There is also a section on geologic phenomena such as volcanoes and earthquakes, and their root cause- plate tectonics. As we are watching an active display on the “Ring of Fire”, the active plate region in the Pacific Ocean where most of the major earthquake activity takes place we were talking about the number of earthquakes around New Zealand when a couple standing by pipe up and say in Kiwi accents, “did you mention New Zealand”. We had bumped into Irene and Glenn who are on their own World-wide tour. During our travel we have met a number of fellow travellers and explorers and it is always good to exchange experiences and information with them. We spent some time chewing the cud on global travelling and exchanged Facebook and Blog details before moving on.

By this time it was approaching lunchtime so we left the museum to find something to eat. One look at the skies told us a downpour was imminent so we bought some pretzels from a street vendor and headed off down the street to Museum of American History. We just managed to get sheltered in the eaves of the building's entrance when the skies opened. Phew! We had never visited this museum before and began to look around the ground floor. The first floor covered inventions and technology, and ranged from the contraceptive pill to nuclear bombs. It was actually really interesting and we spent nearly an hour looking around watching videos and reading the displays. After this we went to see “America on the Move”, a wide ranging exhibit on transportation through the ages; with trains, planes and auto-mobiles. Fascinating stuff! The time had shot past and it was getting towards 5pm and we wanted to see some of the outdoor sights. Leaving the Museum we found the weather had improved; still hot and sticky, but the sun had replaced the rain. So we headed out on to the National Mall to take some pictures of the Capitol Building, National Monument and the Whitehouse. Sadly extra security around the Whitehouse meant we could not get as close as we had done on our first visits here. Tired and hot we decided to jump on the Metro back to our hotel to eat and relax for the rest of the day.

Day 15: Sunday 27th June 2010: Alexandria, Virginia (Miles to Date: 4363)

A lot more miles to cover today, passing up from South Carolina to Virginia. Pretty much heads down and go! The highlight for the day, as is often the case on such occasions, was dinner. There was another opportunity for a highlight of the day as England were playing in the World Cup against Germany. Mark had gotten the kick off time wrong so by the time we had pulled off the road to find somewhere to watch it was half-time and England were 2 – 1 down. Karen managed to sweet talk a receptionist at a hotel into letting us watch the game in their lobby. Unfortunately by 20 minutes into the second half England were 4-1 down, so we gave up and carried on our journey.

Anyway back to the food. We chose to stop at another “Road Food” restaurant, this time one called “Dixie Bones”, which is in Woodbridge, Virginia. This restaurant serves good, wholesome southern cooking – yes more fried food. Little surprise that we have put weight on during this trip! To further our humiliation our server turned out to be German, and despite the front of being sympathetic with us poor English folks there was definitely an undertone of gloating there. It was tempting not to leave a tip! Fortunately the food was wonderful, especially the pulled pork, and we set-off to our hotel for the night.

Day 14: Saturday 26th June 2010: Anderson, South Carolina (Miles to Date: 3847)

Another long travel day during which we passed through five different States; Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, and covered 580 miles. Whilst the scenery was more interesting than that of Texas it could not relieve the tedium of travel.

Day 13: Friday 25th June 2010: New Orleans (Miles to Date: 3267)

By the time we had risen and left the hotel the weather was already hot and steamy and we knew we were in for another toasty day. It took us about 15 minutes to walk from our hotel, down Canal Street to the mighty Mississippi River. With more time we might have taken a paddle steamer ride down this most famous of rivers, but we were not destined to be Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer for the day, so instead we walked through the Woldernberg Park, which runs adjacent to these waters that had flowed so many miles across this vast country. In the Park we found a memorial to the Holocaust, at the centre of which was an amazing modern art sculpture by the artist Yaacov Agam. The sculpture is made up of a series of vertical, painted discrete panels which as you circle them give different images depicting themes or “memories” of the Holocaust. It was truly and amazing and powerful work of kinetic art.

Across from Woldenberg Park is Decateur Street, another popular area for tourists, which by the time we arrived was just swinging into action. This street borders the French Quarter and has some splendid examples of New Orleans architecture along its route, including wonderful balconies bounded by ornate iron railings.

This street is home to numerous gift shops, galleries and eateries. One place we were particularly keen to visit was the famous “Café du Monde”, situated in the French Market area of Decateur. For over a century this café has been serving patrons and vendors of the French Market with its signature offerings beignets (French doughnuts) and café au lait. Well, we just had to try it! The beignets are served covered in layer upon layer of icing sugar, which looks and tastes great, but it impossible to eat without making an absolute mess. Of course Jack and Emily managed to get covered in sugar, but half the fun was licking this sugar off of our fingers. We could have easily polished off several helping of these delicacies but settled for a single serving. Delicious!

We continued our walk down Decateur and noticed a subtle sign for the National Park Service. We have loved visiting National Parks and Monuments so we were curious to see what was here in New Orleans. Passing down a narrow alley between the building we found the Park Service building and wandered inside. This unit of the Park Service is dedicated to the musical culture of New Orleans, and we were lucky enough to be able to listen to the back end of a stage performance of two of the Rangers who were playing songs, primarily with a Creole influence. It was wonderful to listen to this traditional music, which is quite hard to find being played along the tourist traps of Bourbon Street. The audience was mostly made up children who were on a summer camp with the Park Service, and it was clear some were not really that interested in the music. After the performance they were led away by a fearsome lady Ranger under the threat of having to hold her hand if they misbehaved! There was also a TV production team filming; they were making a documentary on the larger than life black Ranger, who was a native creole speaker and who had the most wonderful deep, booming voice. Being here also gave Jack and Emily another great opportunity to do the Junior Ranger programme, which they zoomed through and got sworn in.

We finished our walk through the French Market and then diverted into the heart of the French Quarter. Away from the main tourist streets this area is quiet and peaceful, and for the first time we got the chance to appreciate the essence of this great city. Eventually we do find our way back to Bourbon Street, which is somewhat less frenetic than during the evening hours but it is still bustling. It was by now lunchtime and the satiating effects of the beignets had worn off so we needed to find somewhere to dine. During our ramblings over the last few days we had been told about a restaurant called “Hobnobbers”; the name alone was enough to draw us to this place. Finding this place was not too easy, being off the beaten track andit is best described as a “hole in the wall”; it required squeezing down a narrow passage to get to. It is one of these places which does not look too promising when you enter it, but it was full of people- which is always a good sign. We settle for some traditional creole foods, gumbo and shrimp poboys, which are very tasty indeed.

The afternoon was hot and humid so we decided to head back to our nice air-conditioned hotel room for a siesta. In the evening we decided Jack and Emily could chill out at the hotel whilst Mark and Karen headed out for the night. We decided to go back down to Decateur Street to check out the night life there. As we walked down the street we noticed small groups of teenagers wearing identical shirts, and it turned out that these we a church group who were in town to perform some songs. They were setting up on the steps up to the park, but were not quite ready so we decided to return to the Café du Monde for some more beignets. By the time we were finished the group was ready and had started to perform. We started watching from the other side of the road as they performed “Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz, when a man came over to where they stood and started encouraging them. The choir looked stunned, and when they had recovered their composure a big cheer went up and they all looked very excited, especially the girls. We did not know who this “person” was so we asked some other bystanders. It turned out to be Lenny Kravitz himself. We were not sure if this was prearranged or an amazing coincidence, but whatever the case it was fabulous experience for these kids. Lenny got more involved when he took over the drum kit to accompany the singers and was finally invited to join in the singing. It was fabulous and really set-up our night. The gospel group did not miss a beat and were clearly thrilled to have performed with Mr K ...he disappeared quietly into the crowd after his impromptu performance! What a nice guy!

We spent the rest of the evening strolling the streets, eventually making our way up to Bourbon Street where we went into a few bars to listen to music and drink overly priced drinks. Never mind! Is was a near to a date as we'd had for a time and the kids had a great time watching TV and eating unhealthy foods!

Day 12: Thursday 24th June 2010: Alexandria to New Orleans (Miles to Date: 3267)

We actually managed to get to lay in bed a bit longer today as we only had a realatively short way to travel. The atmosphere down here in the deep south is very humid and sticky and it is not long in the morning hours before the clouds start to bubble-up and the weather starts to look threatening. By the time we reached Lafayette the weather had really deteriorated, with the rain lashing down. We decided to stop for lunch at a restaurant called Dwyer's, which had been recommended by our 'Road Food” book. There was a convenient parking spot across the street from the restaurant, but we got absolutely drenched simply crossing the road. The food was southern style fried cooking, and came in copious quantities piled onto our plates. Unfortunately one dish was pretty much indistinguishable from another so it was a homogeneous “gloop” on our plates. Luckily by the time we had finished and paid the rain had abated so we made a run for it. They often talk about the “calm before the storm” and this was it. We got no more than ten miles down the road when we got into a tremendous thunderstorm. The rain was so heavy that we could not see more than 100 feet or so and the lightning and thunder were coincidental, as we were not in a hurry we decided to pull over into a little restaurant and sit the storm out. We had left Lafayette in a hurry after we became embroiled in a police ambush of an armed man! It was unnerving to be merely feet away from officers with their guns drawn chasing a suspect into a house a few yards from us as we pulled over to allow more police cars to pass!
The very real danger of this thunderstorm seemed less unnerving than the last incident! Being holed up in Mike's Crabby Shack was certainly better than the fate of the offender, we felt sure!

Half an hour later we were on our way again. We arrived in New Orleans late afternoon, unpacked our bags and headed into town. Our hotel was well situated for visiting the French Quarter, we were only a block or two from Canal Street and ten minutes from Bourbon Street. It was about 6:30pm when we got to Bourbon street and it was already very much alive; this is the hub of tourist activity for this city. There were numerous bars offering discounted libations and booming live music, ranging from Blues and Jazz to Hip-Hop, amongst which were various clubs, shops and cabaret bars offering refreshments of a sexual type. The streets of Las Vegas offered the heady mix of sex, drugs and rock and roll, but in a very sanitised form compared to that on display in New Orleans. In some ways the raw openness of the depravity in New Orleans is less sleazy than the “behind doors” goings on of Vegas. Jack and Emily are mesmerized by it all and even for the grown up Hoblets the noise, smells and images cause a degree of sensory overload! After about 20 minutes of walking we reach the quieter end of Bourbon Street, and the relative peace allows us to start to appreciate the architecture and grace of some of this fine city's buildings. Having rested for a few minutes we head back down to find somewhere to eat amongst the mêlée, a finally chose an outdoor café with a jazz band performing traditional jazz and swing music. Jack really got into the music; he had enjoyed being the Middle School Jazz band for the last year, and requested a tune “Jumpin' at the Woodside” that he had played with the band. They had never practised or played it together before but recognised that this was a young musician's choice and had a go! It was great!

We were very tired at this time and began to return to the hotel, only stopping to listen and watch a group of young talented street musicians bash out some rippin' jazz.