Newsletter 1 - In Fairfax, Virginia, US for 7 weeks

Friday morning we were driven to the Airport by Chris (thanks Mark nice treat) gave us a reminder of working years & being in peak hour traffic.  After the usual book in, security etc we enjoyed a relaxing few hours in the United Lounge (per favour Shayne) as our flight to Sydney was delayed by 2+ hours.  Some food, coffee & free Wi-Fi to use our tech gadgets filled in the time. 

Finally we flew out of Melbourne, arriving in Sydney with a connecting flight waiting, a very pleasant flight, hard to sleep but plenty of ‘toys’ to keep us occupied, and a couple of meals, drinks and after about 17 hours flying time total, we arrived in LA (on the same day we left) early afternoon.  Fairly quickly through customs etc, onto a shuttle bus which dropped us at the Raddison only a few minutes away where we checked into our 2 room Suite, Shayne’s organisation again, well done. Had a swim in the pool, very refreshing, summer here is a nice change. 

A light room service meal, we were reminded that we were in US as with our toasted sandwich we were asked “do you want fries or fruit with that”, we thought fruit the healthier choice.  The very welcome bed was terrific, a great long sleep, even if we woke for fruit & coffee at 3:15am, breakfast at 11am then read, relax and shuttle bus to the airport at 3pm for our flight to Washington DC, Dulles Airport, arriving at 12:45am Sunday.  We were met and welcomed by Lee, Shayne & Shaun, lovely to see the family again, Shaun drove us home (he has had his licence for about 18 months, he will turn 18 whilst we are here, but they are not allowed alcohol here til 21, very different laws.)

Sunday we spent a very relaxing day, meeting up with Lee’s parents, Val & Bert who are also here, having flown from NZ a few days prior to us, lots of chatter and catching up on news.  Sunday evening Lee & Shayne took us all for dinner to ‘Red Lobster’ together with Megan (Shaun’s girlfriend) a delightful girl and her parents Pam & Bob, what a great night we had, lovely seafood and of course true US fashion, so many choices.  A very busy restaurant especially as lobster season has just begun, as we had to wait for seating we began with drinks at the bar, and were asked if we would like some biscuits, they arrived, oh I had forgotten that ‘biscuits’ are actually scones, these were savoury, warm and delicious.  What a great night of lovely food, drinks and fun company, lovely to be all together. 

Monday Shayne had to work (he has an office in the basement) the boys did some gate repairs and the girls went shopping, as you do in US, Lee took me to AC Moore’s a huge craft shop, will have more visits there as I only saw a fraction of the store, wow amazed at how inexpensive some things are compared to home, hope I have room in the extra bag.  The remainder of the day was spent relaxing, some heavy rain left it rather humid, house is very cool with aircon so don’t notice it. 

Tuesday morning, think we are over the jetlag now, Lee took Val, Pete & I out to the Riding School where she volunteers 2 mornings a week with disabled riding, a 14 acre property which is funded by grants and donations, operates 7 days a week and has about 200 different volunteers and only about 4 paid staff, lots of lovely horses, Val & I fed Peachey a lovely old horse who gets fed by hand 4 times a day owing to his age.  Loving the lush green, Fairfax is a very pretty area with beautiful tall green trees everywhere, just lovely.  Quite hot today about 82F/28C.  After lunch which of course was again a matter of so many choices and more than we could eat, you just have to learn to leave what you don’t want, seems such a waste (better in the waste than on the waist, I guess!).

Now sitting out on the deck, with music from my iPhone coming out through the sound system on the deck, using the Surface Tablet and the Wi-Fi, I love all this technology and watching a squirrel and a chipmunk running around.

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Trust this finds you all fit and well.

Love from Jan ‘n Pete