Having a ball in South Carolina!

We are having a great time in South Carolina and I will blog about it properly once I am back online with a laptop. My brand new ASUS Ultrabook has apparently died so I am typing on the iPad which isn't much fun. We are staying with one of my friends from school and her beautiful family. It is a real highlight of the trip but more soon.

New friends in Lansing Michigan

Lansing is the capital of Michigan.  It reminds me of a big country town, except there are a few high rise buildings and it has the most beautiful capital building.  There are plenty of malls too and some of the biggest stores I have ever been in – one called Meijer, which is like a supermarket, discount department store, hardware store, pet shop and just about anything else you can imagine rolled into one.  The store we went into was also open 24 hours a day and has a barber shop, Subway, insurance agent and numerous other departments too.  The children at St Michaels told me that it was nothing compared with the Wal-Mart.  I’m saving Wal-Mart until I get to the south – my friend Dianne can have the honour of taking me there!

In Australia there is a perception that everything is bigger in the USA.  Having spent the past couple of weeks here, I think that’s right.  They certainly have bigger cars (those pickup trucks are monsters), bigger stores, bigger malls, bigger freeways, bigger meals and more fast food chains than I have imagined might exist.  In the mid-west there is also a church on every corner, not just in Lansing but in many of the suburbs in Chicago too.  And many of them are HUGE – several storeys high.  One little boy asked me yesterday if we had as many churches in Australia.  I don’t think so.  There are also lots of squirrels!

We headed to Lansing after ‘meeting’ Sid Dunnebacke, a dad who blogged about Alice-Miranda on the Internet.  This tour is about meeting people and when the opportunity arose that we would be in Chicago we realised that Lansing was only a few hours’ drive away.  We also have a friend who lives in Ohio and we thought we might be able to convince him to drive to Lansing so we could spend some time together over the weekend - after all it had been ten years!  Anyway, the stars aligned and we spent Saturday through to Monday afternoon in Lansing.  Saturday and Sunday we had time catching up with Brad and then meeting new friends when the Dunnebacke’s had us into their lovely home for a meal on Sunday night.  It was great to meet Anna (the Alice-Miranda reader) and her older sister Audrey (who is a Rick Riordan fan), Sandra and Sid – and their four extremely cute and cuddly cats.

It was great learning about life in the mid-west, what Sid and Sandra did for work, holidays and just how things happened in Lansing in general.  Dinner was delicious too and it was so great to be having a home cooked meal.  Sandra had made a rhubarb crumble using 'heirloon' rhubarb that she had grown from her grandfather's garden and it was scrumptious! 

Sid had kindly arranged for us to stay at the Lexington Lansing Hotel on a very special rate.  It was  a great hotel and the only one I’ve ever been to where they come around in the evening offering complimentary hot milk and a cookie.  Not that I needed it – the food has been bountiful throughout the trip.

On Monday morning we headed to St Michael’s school in Grand Ledge where Anna and Audrey go to school.  It was interesting and sad to learn that the girls had changed schools already a couple of times because their two previous Catholic schools had closed down due to lack of enrolments.  Lansing and the greater area are suffering due to the closure of industry and the population is shrinking.  Hence school closures are a consequence.  We met Mitzi Luttrell the lovely principal and she showed us around.  I talked to the Grade 7 and 8 students first, focusing a little on my own writing but more so on writing in general and how they can improve their own work.  They were a fabulous group – really attentive and interested in learning.  I suspect they have a great teacher too.

Afterwards I worked with larger groups Pre-K through to Grade 3, then 4-6 and a writing workshop with Grade 4.  They were keen beans and their teacher was really enthusiastic too. 

We had a bite of lunch (thank you Mitzi and Sid!) and headed across town to Wexford Montessori School.  It’s a public Montessori school which would be considered very unusual back at home.  Most of the Montessori schools are private.  We only missed one freeway bend – but thankfully I’m getting much better with my iPad navigation and so we were back on track in seconds.  We were greeted so enthusiastically by Nancy Lubeski, the principal.  She told us about her travels in Australia as a young backpacker.  She spent three months doing lots of things I’ve never done like camel trekking in the desert and bungy jumping. 

I talked to three groups, covering all of the school from Pre-K to Grade 8.  The kids were great –very excited and I saw some of the best hair dos I’ve come across during the whole trip.  Lots of little girls with the most extraordinary braids – just beautiful and a little boy who looked like Jayden Smith, with the hair and clothes to match too.  It was great having the opportunity to talk to the children about Australia and writing.  One little fellow called August was in tears at the end of the talk and his teacher bought him over to speak to me.  When he finally got the words out, he was upset because he hadn’t invited me to his birthday party.  I signed a card for him and I suspect he was ok a minute or so later J  There were lovely teachers too, some of whom I signed books for and one who gave me the most beautiful spontaneous hug.

Barnes and Noble Lansing Mall looked after the book sales for the day – they were lovely and patient and I hope that they get a whole lot more kids coming in to say hi over the coming weeksJ.

Just before 4pm we hopped in the car and drove back to Chicago.  Fortunately with the one hour time difference, putting the clock back again, we were there by 7pm.  The trip was a little hair raising as we were driving a teeny tiny Nissan – perfect for the two of us and our luggage – not so perfect for the gale force winds on the freeway and passing semi-trailers and monster trucks!  But we got back in one piece, without any wrong turns and even managed to negotiate the toll without having to get out of the car.

Today we fly out of Midway airport to South Carolina, to a place called Greenwood where we are meeting a friend of mine that I haven’t seen for about 25 years!  I can’t wait to see her again and meet her family.

Chicago Day 3

I had a great time yesterday at Meadowview School in Woodridge Illinois.  A beautiful school surrounded by lush green fields, I spotted my first squirrel of the trip running across their front lawn on our way out.  I love watching squirrels – they’re so fast and very cute.

I talked to about 180 students in Grade 3-5.  Their knowledge of Australia was not as extensive as some of the other schools – there seemed to be a bit of confusion between us and Africa.  But some of the children had fun facts. They were a great audience and we had a couple of outstanding actors too.  Excellent tantrum throwing!

It was lovely meeting Melissa Love their librarian and Angie from Anderson’s.  Chicago has been welcoming and is very pretty – much more so than I had first imagined.  The suburbs are picture postcard and the city is well planned with fantastic public spaces.  Although I couldn’t imagine so many different fast food outlets and there does seem to be a Macdonalds every mile or so.  Adrian looked after us beautifully, driving me to the engagements and making sure that we were there in time.  It was fun to learn more about the city and the US in general as we swapped stories along the way.

We had some time off in the afternoon; I was writing and resting –it’s been a big couple of weeks!

Dinner at Stetson’s Chophouse where the chops were HUGE!  There are no lambs that big in Australia I’m sure.  Everything is bigger in the US.

This morning we headed out of the city to Lansing Michigan – a three and a half hour drive.  Only one wrong turn where we ended up in a pretty run down suburb.  Thankfully it wasn’t too difficult to find our way back to the freeway.  We thought we were on track to be early – then realised about half an hour out of Lansing that there is actually a one hour time difference between Michigan and Illinois.  Never mind we were only half an hour late.  We met up with one of my husband’s best mates from home – who lives here in the US.  It’s been ten years since we’ve seen him - so a lovely long catch up was the order of the afternoon.  We stopped into the enormous Barnes and Noble store and met two of the staff members who were again very welcoming and asked me to sign all of their stock.  Tomorrow we’re off to explore this neck of the woods and then to schools on Monday.

Chicago Day 2

This morning we set off to western Chicago to an area an hour and a quarter away from the city.  It was another sparkling day.  My guide Adrian drove us past the suburbs we visited yesterday through a much more rural landscape compete with barns that looked like they were straight out of Little House on the Prairie.

Today’s school was Munhall Elementary at St Charles.  The librarian Kristin Kaye welcomed me to her lovely library and soon we were joined by 90 Grade 3 students.  They had recently finished a country study and several had chosen Australia so they knew quite a bit.  Although I had to laugh when the first student told me that there were ‘lots of killer animals’.  Yes that’s true but as I pointed out, we don’t have bears or mountain lions!

The children were so quiet and attentive – I had a ball – they couldn’t have been any more perfect an audience.  When the time came to do some drama Veronica did a wonderful impersonation of Jacinta Headlington-Bear, Winchesterfield-Dowsfordvale's second best tantrum thrower and Jacob made a terrific Alec-Michael (instead of Alice-Miranda). 

The hour flew by and I wished that I could have stayed with the kids all day.

It sounds like the Illinois education department is facing similar challenges to that of California in terms of funding.  I had a lovely chat with Kristin while I signed the children’s books.  She and her assistant whose name I can’t remember (that’s terrible!) had lot of great suggestions for some sightseeing in Chicago too.

Heading back to the city I loved seeing the changing landscapes – the green grass, pretty trees and chocolate box houses. 

Chicago drivers seem a little less patient than in San Francisco – there’s a lot more tooting of horns – must be a consequence of heading east as I know they’re really good at it in New York!

Ian spent the morning sorting out hire cars and flights to New York – and when I got back to the hotel he was tearing his hair out trying to use the vouchers we’d received from United for the grub in my dinner.  It seems they’re happy to give you the vouchers but less happy that you might actually try to use them.

So we headed out for a walk in the sunshine.  The weather was markedly warmer than yesterday – I’d say around 16 degrees.  We strolled down along the river to the lakefront.  Lake Michigan is the most extraordinary blue and the park is a palette of greens.

We ended up in the Millennium Park which is spectacular.  I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Walking around the city, the architecture continues to dazzle.  But there are some unusual features too like the railway line that runs above the traffic – and the very ugly stations along the way.  There’s a lot of rust!

We stumbled upon a Nordstrom Rack Store which is heavily discounted shopping heaven.  I didn’t walk away empty handed.  Neither did Ian J

Chicago Day 1

So far the windy city hasn’t lived up to that title at all but it is cold.  Today’s high temp reached about 12 degrees Celsius and we’ve just been out for dinner and I’d hazard a guess it’s now hovering around 5 degrees.  It feels more like London in winter. 

Chicago is pretty.  There are flower beds full of tulips all along the Magnificent Mile (Michigan Avenue) and the architecture is gorgeous.  Art deco on every corner and evidence of the great architects, Frank Lloyd Wright and Daniel Burnham among a slew of others who have made their mark on the city.

We travelled out into the suburbs today to Washington Elementary in Wheaton.  Our driver Adrian lives in Chicago so it was great to have explanations of things and learn more about the city.  Wheaton is full of pretty houses, green grass and tree lined streets.  The welcome was wonderful – my name was on the sign – totally unexpected and a real thrill. 

The librarian, Krystn Wiesheit was so friendly and had prepared the children really well for my visit.  I talked to about 210 Grade 1-3 children in the library which was airy and bright and had a fantastic mural. 

Once again the children had great questions about Australia and were a very attentive audience.  Some of the teachers recommended places we have to see in the city.  One of them said we should try Giordano’s which has the best deep dish stuffed pizza in Chicago.  But more of that later.

The second school we visited was Steck Elementary in Aurora.  Again it was a picturesque suburb and we received a warm welcome from the librarian Julie Hatcher.  She had made a display in the library of various Australian things including currency, boomerangs, a slouch hat and several toy marsupials.  I loved that in the car park there is a special spot reserved for staff member of the week.  I wondered if my boss might like to make her spot available for such an honour!

The library was the hub of the school, with classrooms accessed from the internal perimeter.  On the mezzanine level above, the hallways all looked down onto the library too.  It really felt like the heart of the school.

I talked with Year 3 – about 110 students in three classes. They were well informed about Australia – and once again the thorny devil came up.  Who knew they were so popular with little boys in the US!  The children told me about the deserts and the droughts.

Once again it was a pleasure to work with the group.  I had my most interesting interpretation of a boarder to date.  ‘Does it mean she was born on a board?’  Another little girl explained that it meant she went to boarding school.

After the session finished a little boy called Brian came up and asked me if I could help him with a story he was working on.  He explained the plot in some detail and it was amazing.  What an imagination.  On the way back to the city I received an email from Brian’s father thanking me for inspiring his son – it absolutely made my day.

We popped into Anderson’s Bookstore in Naperville – a huge shop with a fantastic selection of books and toys and games.  It was great to meet the staff and particularly Jan Dundon, the children’s coordinator.  I am working with them for the rest of the week and looking forward to it.

We returned to the city, via a freeway network and headed out for a walk.  Unlike San Francisco the stores here seem to close at more regular times so it was just a look.  We found Giordano’s and had our first taste of deep dish stuffed pizza.  Delicious but too much!

Monterey and the famed Pebble Beach

So did Pebble Beach live up to its reputation?  Was it worth it?  Would we save our pennies and go again?  You betcha!  Pebble Beach was extraordinary – in so many ways but I’ll get to that shortly.

Late on Saturday morning we headed for Monterey – a really pretty town by the sea about 2 hours south of San Francisco.  It was lovely; albeit very much geared toward tourism.  We explored Cannery Row and learned about the history of sardine fishing in the USA.  Monterey made its mark as a cannery town – and John Steinbeck’s famous book Cannery Row (which Ian has already downloaded on the Kindle to read during the trip) took its inspiration from the place.  There are banners in the streets celebrating Steinbeck and his immortalisation of the town.

We had a slow day – which was great considering the hectic pace we had been setting up until then.  We stayed at the Heritage Best Western which is in a great location one street back from Cannery Row. 

On Sunday morning we took a stroll around the waterfront, saw a man busking with a rabbit on his head (yes a live rabbit) – I guess it was Easter Sunday, and then hopped in the car and drove along the coast to Pebble Beach.  The 17 mile drive is stunning. You need to take it slowly and stop at the various roadside parking areas to take full advantage of the views.  There was a colony of sea lions frolicking in the water near Bird Rock and so many amazing vistas of the Pacific.  There were even some die hard surfers out in the freezing water.

As you enter the park area, the houses are noticeably larger and the landscape more heavily wooded.  Then it opens out again at Spanish Bay – where there is a challenging links course and a beautiful resort – all part of Pebble Beach Resort.  Spyglass Hill is also part of the Pebble Beach group and the only course that has private membership.  I didn’t even ask how much.

Further around the peninsular the homes go from impressive to unbelievable.  The cliffs are dramatic and there is the famous lone cypress pine out on the rock that is over 250 years old.  Hammered by the weather, it must be one of the most photographed trees in the world.

Pebble Beach is about as perfect a golf resort as you could imagine.  It’s also something of an enigma.  Many of the world’s best courses are locked away, for members only but Pebble Beach is a public course.  Anyone can play there – as long as you can pay the green fees.  They do prefer that you stay too.  Ian did some negotiating and we managed to stay one night instead of the preferred two.  We were greeted so warmly and our porter was really helpful without being intrusive. 

The room was something else – I could happily have lived there.  In fact it was almost as big as our apartment at home.  With an open wood fire, a dressing room and two Queen sized beds, it was about as close to hotel heaven as I’ve ever been.  The only place we’ve stayed that would still beat it is Huka Lodge in New Zealand – but they don’t have the golf course.

Our room overlooked the first hole.  Clearly staying one night didn’t warrant an ocean view, despite the occupancy being low.

Although the room was very inviting we didn’t have any time to waste and so headed off to walk around the estate.  The weather was beautiful.  We walked down to the Beach Club, where there are tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool, fitness centre and another restaurant.  It seems to be favoured by the locals and there was a steady stream of luxury cars in and out of the gate.  If you stay at The Lodge at Pebble Beach you can use the facilities but unfortunately we didn’t have time.

We walked along the cart path beside the 17^th hole and watched a group of Japanese men playing.  We had heard that it was really worthwhile to have a caddy – to take your photos as well as help with the golf and these guys were making the most of their caddy’s camera skills.

The 17^th and 18^th holes are truly spectacular.  And so are the houses along the path.  We met a lovely family from Long Island in New York who we took some photos for and vice versa.  They were heading to Carmel By Sea and then to Big Sur and down to San Diego. 

We walked around the shopping village and bought a few golfing necessities.  Fortunately the Izod outlet shop in Monterey had the most fantastic deals and we bought some other bits and pieces there the day before. 

The shops were beautiful – in addition to the golfing stores, there was an antique shop, gift shop, ladies wear and menswear and also the most gorgeous children’s clothing store.  As it was Easter Sunday, The Lodge was hosting a buffet luncheon.  Watching the people come and go was like standing on a movie set with the patrons walking in and out of the country club, dressed to the nines.  Along the buffet table were several ice sculptures and a range of exquisitely presented food.  Suffice to say we both felt a little daggy in our jeans - but then saw plenty of other people dressed the same way.  I had already decided I would dress up for dinner though.

We opted for a very late lunch in The Tap Room, which is their version of a pub.  As it was the last day of the Masters, the place was packed and we got a seat at the bar.  There was a woman beside us wearing thick rimmed glasses – she reminded me of an old movie star and if the whole place wasn't so wrapped up in the play off for the green jacket I would have found out if she actually was.

It was after 3pm and as I was starving I made the mistake of ordering two bar dishes – which of course were HUGE.  Potato skins and buffalo wings.  Typical US fare and typically enormous servings.

We watched Bubba Watson win his first green jacket, ate our enormous lunch then retired to enjoy our room before dinner.  Not that we really needed any.

On Monday morning we planned to be up early and get organised for the big game.  I would have loved to spend all day in the heavenly bed with the billion thread count sheets but there was golf to be had.  Interestingly while the accommodation and golf at Pebble Beach cost a king’s ransom the food is reasonable.  We had breakfast upstairs overlooking the putting green and I had what would have to be the best eggs, crispy bacon and hash brown I have ever tasted.  The hash brown was more like a potato roesti - and it was all very home made.  And they made good coffee too – finally!

We thought we’d be playing on our own but we were paired with a lovely couple from Tulsa, Oklahoma.  It just happened to be Dennis’s 60^th birthday.  He and his wife Susie were staying at Pebble Beach for three nights and playing all the courses.  I felt a little more pressure at this stage – having not picked up a club for a year.  I really didn’t want to ruin their day.  But they were lovely people and  so happy and grateful to be there that no amount of bad golf on my part was going to ruin their fun.  I felt exactly the same way.

Bing Crosby's old house on the course

Teeing off was a little daunting and my first two holes were forgettable to say the least.  Ian was none too thrilled with his first tee shot either but he found form a lot faster than I did.  Fortunately by the third hole I was beginning to remember that I could actually play – getting a shot into the air was a big thrill and things picked up from there.  I couldn’t have cared less about the standard of my golf though as the views were amazing in every direction.  Our caddy, Matt knew all the local stories – he could tell you who owned which house and where you could still buy real estate in Carmel By Sea for less than a quarter of a million dollars.  Unlike some of the houses on the course which were for sale for anywhere between six and seventy five million dollars.

Matt said that most of the homes were owned by self-made millionaires and in some cases billionaires and that the old money tended to be the other side of the bay.  The travesty of it all is that most of the homes are empty bar the housekeeper for the greater part of the year.  It seems wasteful in the extreme.

He had some great stories about people he’d caddied for including Clint Eastwood who he caddied for the day he bought the resort – well a pretty big share of it.  There are six major shareholders and a whole lot of smaller ones.  At least Mr Eastwood actually lives here – he was the mayor of Carmel for a while and he is apparently a very active and visible member of the local community.

The golf was fun – we had some great holes and some really ordinary ones but it didn’t matter.  We were pinching ourselves that we were playing Pebble Beach, home of the US Open on several occasions and again in 2019. 

The weather had been kind, mostly sunny and the wind wasn’t too blustery to begin with but by the 17^th hole it was freezing.  The caddies told us that we had been truly fortunate with the weather as it’s frequently raining and cold and in the summer, extremely foggy. 

For anyone who loves golf, a sparkling day at Pebble Beach is a must.  Who knows if we’ll ever get back – I wouldn’t mind spending my next big 0 birthday playing there again.  Ian has three courses in the world he’s always wanted to play.  Pebble Beach, The Old Course at St Andrew’s – which he played about 25 years ago and Augusta National; the home of the Masters.  I’m not sure how accessible that one is, but surely two out of three ain’t bad.

Driving back to San Francisco we passed through Carmel By Sea which is like a postcard and a definite must see for next time.  Big Sur is also on that list.  We took a wrong turn on the freeway – and found a little town called Castroville which we headed back through to get to the right road.  It was dead flat and dirt poor.  The juxtaposition of the area 20 minutes away was not lost on us as we took in the sights of the artichoke capital of the world - with their very own 'big artichoke'.

Waking up this morning to teeming rain we knew how lucky we had been to have a clear day at Pebble Beach.  We’re now en-route to Chicago, currently high above the snow covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.  Chicago is a balmy 7 degrees Celsius today so we’ll be bringing out the winter woollies again and getting set to meet lots of kids over the next three days.