Wayzata, Minnesotta

Time for another update as we have just got back from another cross country trip. This time we headed to the mighty Mid West –Minnesota. It was another 24 hour drive but we are getting pretty good at entertaining ourselves. We considered ourselves lucky this time as we got to see some of the countryside along the way. Instead of there being huge tall trees lining the roads, there were corn fields, and corn fields...and more corn fields!

There were multiple highlights of the trip, but the biggies have to be the regatta results, the Mall of America and my birthday (bias I know). The kids did really well in the regatta placing 1st (woohoo), 5th, 9th, 10th and 11th. An excellent all around result!
















The MOA is the largest indoor mall in the US and has an amusement park in the middle of it. Mat definitely out shopped me –I think I am saving myself for the Top Shop in London! I am happy to report that there we no further purchases of black strappy shoes though :-)



















I celebrated my 28th birthday during the regatta. We spent 8 hours on the water that day, and then the team organised a cake complete with candles and they sang the appropriate birthday song for me too which was an awesome surprise. Mat and I then went out for dinner together –finally found a restaurant that would serve us alcohol! Our NZ Drivers Licenses just wouldn't cut it (even ON my birthday!).

We were fortunate to have the biggest architectural experience of the trip so far this past week when we headed to Falling Water. This is an amazing house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930's. I think that I would kill this moment if I try to write more about it, so I will leave this part up to Mat (see the 'Architectural Highlight' section below).















So we now have another week in our house here in NJ before we have to move out. We are done with the coaching next Tuesday and will then pack up and head to Boston for the weekend, before stopping at Cape Cod on the way back to New Jersey where we will stay at the Williams house and make day trips into New York City. We then fly to London on August 10th to start a new chapter.

Will update the blog again in a week or so.

M+S

Architectural highlight (and total museum/gallery visits):
Fallingwater was pretty impressive. There is a full review at www.aaa.org.nz/story/453

If it wasn't for Fallingwater, the Mall of America was the highlight. It was hmmmm, yuck and yee haa! all at the same time

Total museum and gallery visits = 3

Shopping highlight (and total clothes purchases):
With two trips to the Mall of America, there were too many purchases to count.

Pairs of black strappy shoes = 1 (still)

Lessons learnt:
If you exit a motorway and do a 270 degree turn, you end up in the same place as if you did a 90 degree turn the other way! If someone could pass this onto the traffic engineers in Minnesota, it would be much easier to navigate around Minneapolis and we would be far less dizzy.

Fear Factor:
2/10 – bad motorway planning in Minneapolis and Chicago drivers.

Funniest moment:
Watching "Flight of the Conchords" on HBO (Free to download from iTunes by the way) and this little conversation.

Waitress: Would you like a drink?
Mat: Yes please, I'll have a Corona.
Waitress: Can I see your ID please?
Mat: SURE!'Here's my driver's licence.
Waitress: I'm sorry, we don't accept international IDs. Do you have your passport?
Mat: Hang on, you won't accept my driver's licence because it's from New Zealand but you'll accept my passport?
Waitress: Yeah, because it will be an American passport.
Mat: .................?!

Total number of Thai meals so far:
Total Thai count still 0

Bay Head, New Jersey

So, after a month of tripping around the country side we have been able to slow down a bit and base ourselves in Point Pleasant, New Jersey for the last week or so.

We are sailing out of a yacht club called Bayhead Yacht Cub which, funnily enough, sits at the head of a bay called Barnegat Bay. The bay is shallow and is landlocked with a thin strip of land separating it from the Atlantic. This area is pretty much populated in the summer by people coming to stay at their holiday houses. In the winter the place is apparently pretty empty. The houses aren’t your typical bach however. The bay is lined with beautiful houses that back onto the water front. Most houses have a wharf (or dock if you’re from the USA) where you keep your early 1900’s timber motor boat. Bicycles are the preferred mode of transport because it is so flat. Today we saw an opti sailor riding his bike with his lifejacket on, a centreboard thrown over one shoulder and a long roll of sails over the other.

Everyone seems to know everyone else. The two kiwis stick out a bit here and we’re pretty sure everyone knows who we are and that we have been introduced to everyone else. The only problem is that we can’t remember who we have been introduced to or what any of their names are.
The Atlantic coast is a bit strange as there are no islands to see (the UK is a bit far away) so it feels a bit foreign (which it is). We have been for a swim but it was the coldest swim we have had for a while. Barnegat Bay is nice and warm.... but then it’s more of a shallow puddle than it is a bay. The beach also has a boardwalk. It was described to us a “honky tonk” and we’d probably have to agree. Games, ferris-wheels and stuffed toys. It was fun but given that you have to pay to get onto the beach, can’t take any food with you and the exorbitant cost of food at the seaside shops, it’s probably not a place you need to spend much time at.

4th of July is of course a rather big holiday here. Simon and Andrea Cooke were here for a week or so and we took the opportunity to go with them to New York City and check out the fireworks. Yee Ha! Not much bigger than other fireworks we’ve seen but boy were they loud. The sound was amplified by the high rises behind us and you could feel your clothes shake. Apparently there were 3 million people watching those fireworks. Standing on a motorway over-bridge in the rain has never been so much fun. Nor has eating at a Japanese Restaurant before hand (with a few Cosmopolitans and Martinis).

We did have a quick adventure up to a college in Rhode Island (very near Newport) to check out a potential coaching job there. In the end we have opted to stick with Plan A and we will be heading to London early August.

The next trip is to Minnesota for the National Championships. It’s not treated as a very serious regatta but it will be a good opportunity for the sailors to put everything we have taught them together at one time. It also means a bunch of driving (20+ hours). We’re getting used to it now.

Here is a picure of most of the team that have been training in Bay Head this week. We had a mini regatta yesterday and presented the inaugural Barnegate Bay Trophy...the 'gold'plastic bucket complete with red spades! Now, just to make sure that we have mentioned them all, they are (from left to right) Margaret, Molly, Ellie, Bianca, Bernie and Sam the king of zinc.

We’ll be in touch when we get back from there.

M+S

Architectural highlight (and total museum/gallery visits):
Sailing Quest, a Herreshof design 20+ft boat around Barnegat Bay with Simon and Andrea. Some beautiful houses and a beautiful setting. Total museum and gallery visits = 2 (withdrawal symptoms have set in but NYC is on the horizon)

Shopping highlight (and total clothes purchases):
Mat bought a jacket and is desperate to wear it but given the temperatures around 30C° he hasn’t had much opportunity.
Total clothes purchases = This is starting to get difficult so we’re going to simplify it by counting pairs of black strappy shoes. Therefore the total is 1

Lessons learnt:
The college sailing scene is pretty cool her. Great resources and support. We don’t know how the students actually study though.

Fear Factor:
0/10 We keep getting told off for locking the car doors.

Funniest moment:
Buying a hamburger, cheeseburger, fries and drinks at a boardwalk cafe only to discover that it was going to cost us $20 and then finding out that the burgers were....well....meat and bread. There was DIY sauces though. "Tips for good service"....yeah right.

Total number of Thai meals so far:
1. We were right. Simon and Andrea turn up and we find ourselves eating some Thai. We’re pretty sure it’s their influence.

It’s Sam here and I dispute that the restaurant was Thai –note that earlier Mat mentioned the ‘Japanese’ restaurant!!! I didn’t have satay chicken or chicken with cashews so it wasn’t Thai! Total Thai count still 0