zimmers in texas

Since out last entry Mum and Daniel have arrived safely and are enjoying the sights of Austin. They have taken a while to recover from jet lag and Daniel has had a cold but all is well now as we prepare for you cruise next weekend.

Marching band in parade in Seattle

We flew up to Seattle for Thanksgiving which was another really pretty city and a great weekend. Mum met up with her friend Alison and Daniel met up with his friend Rene. Mum hadn't seen Alison for 50 odd years so it was quite a reunion. Coincidentally another friend of Alison's who still lives in Sydney called during the visit and Mum spoke to her too.

Seattle was wet and cold but very picturesque. We visited the Sky Needle on Thursday night and it was full of people going to the restaurant for Thanksgiving. We couldn't even get into the hotel restaurant so we had hamburgers via room service which was probably unusual as Thanksgiving is all about eating lots and lots of food.

On Saturday we took a day trip up to Vancouver and this is another lovely city. Quite surprisingly we had no trouble getting through the border on the way back. We didnt even have to get out of the car, but we did have to get our passports stamped going in to Canada.

It was also very cold and wet with patches of snow everywhere but fortunately it wasn't snowing on the day.

People really go all out with Christmas decorations and Seattle had a big celebration with lighting the tree and fireworks to mark the start of the "holiday season". There was a big parade on Friday morning which is annual event sponsored by the department store Macy's and then all the stores have big sales. I am starting to become a bit cynical about the sales as there seems to be a big sale every other week.

Austin has the tree lighting ceremony tonight and then next weekend they start the Walk of Lights (or something like that) along the river. This is apparently very pretty so it will be a must do sometime before Christmas. There is also the Christmas Bazaar starting next week which is a great big market that goes from 11am - 11pm each day leading up to Christmas.

I thought Australia made a big deal about Christmas but this seems even bigger however I think the difference is that we make a big deal about the holiday time and the getting together with friends and relatives but this seems happen at Thanksgiving. I guess it is because it is summer at home and more about relaxing and time off work.





M & D in revolving restuarant overlooking Vancouver