American Dream Holiday Diary By Peter Chapman, Peter Walcott, Peter Peterson, Christine Lyne With contributions from various others (some included, some best left out!!!)

Arrived on Sat 27th October in Boston Mass. Stayed in a nice hotel called the Copley square hotel in the centre of Boston, for 3 nights. We went on a duck (sorry not the quack quack sort) a Dukw, which took us on a tour of the city. It is an amphibious vehicle (one that can go on land and water), and it took us down the river as well. We also went on a trolley bus ride, and we followed the freedom trail; which included the site of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere’ grave, Boston Common and the State House. We also saw the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). The Trolley bus took us past Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Redsox, who had just won the world series Baseball, that day. Everyone in Boston was so excited. One day we had lunch in the ‘Cheers’ bar, which was interesting 30th Oct. Today we went to Plymouth – we are here for 4 nights. Tomorrow we are going to discover what happened in Plymouth and why it is famous!! 2nd November Pilgrims progress Yesterday we went to see the ship the ‘Mayflower’ and learned that it brought the first white people to America, who are now called the Pilgrim fathers, because they started the nation we now know as America. The Mayflower is a big ship and very interesting, and we went under the decks to see where the people lived and slept, it was very cramped. Today we went to a Museum called Plimouth Plantation (not a spelling mistake, it is really spelt like that!) We saw a film about what it must have been like for the Pilgrims when they arrived. We went to see an ‘Indian’ village (they like to be known as Native people) and the “Indians” Told us how their people lived when the Pilgrims first arrived. We went into their houses which were very different from the houses we live in. We went to see the fort that the early pilgrims built, they lived in thatched cottages, inside a fort. We took loads of Photos, of the way they lived, and where they slept, and the way they cooked their food, and some of us asked lots of questions. Tomorrow we go sightseeing in Cape Cod 10th November Magical Mystic We really like Mystic, it had a lovely New England Charm and the tree colours were spectacular. We especially enjoyed the Seaport, so much we had to go back again another day. All the old sailing ships, and old ways of doing things. It was a whaling village caught in time. When we arrived at the hotel there was a power cut and we were worried that it would be a nuisance to us, but they soon had the power back on. It started getting colder in the evenings, but we didn’t mind as we could wrap up warm. We enjoyed eating in Mystic Pizza, which had been the setting for a soap opera. We also discovered Wal-Mart while we were here, as some of our friends might discover over Christmas. New York, New York We arrived at our Hotel after a hair raising drive through the city, to find we were staying at a ‘designer hotel’ The Hotel is very near central Park which was handy, so we returned the hire cars as taxis are so easy and no one fancied driving through the city again. The first evening we walked into Times square and had a meal, the lights and the signs were very impressive, and the area was alive with noise and activity. The next day most of us went to see Ground Zero (although one of our group had to go to hospital because he wasn’t well) which we found interesting and some of us took lots of photos and learned a lot about what happened there. We also did a bus tour of the city, and saw some of the sights in passing that we were going to have a proper look at later. That night we all went to see Mary Poppins at the theatre on Broadway, it was a fabulous show and at the end we all stood and clapped because we had enjoyed it so much. The next day we went to the Empire state building, right up to the top, where we had incredible views of the city. The building is so big we nearly got lost. After lunch we went into the famous Macy’s store and visited the Christmas shop there. Dinner was in a restaurant near to the hotel, which served all the sorts of food we really like. The third day in New York we went to the Statue of Liberty, the security to go there was a bit of a nuisance and it took us a long time, but we got there and it was very impressive close up. Again we took lots of photos. We went by boat to see the statue, and on the way back we visited Ellis Island where all the immigrants used to come to. On our last night we celebrated Robin and Peters birthdays, the restaurant had made a cake and both Robin and Peter had to blow out the candles. They both had presents to open. On our last morning we had a lie in because of the late flight home, after we had packed we went to look at Central Park, and had a carriage ride around it . It was very cold, but we did have blankets over our knees. In Central Park they have an ice rink that is open all year round - but we didn’t have a go! After a late lunch we caught the transport to the airport I’m sure we had a lot more luggage than we came with - and it certainly seems that Wal-Mart did well out of us. The journey home was very long and tiring, but the entertainment on the aircraft was good, once you worked out how to use it