Spanky's Clam Shack - 'Wicked good!'

Today's tour was organised by Nik (aka 'Her Bag-jesty' due to her fondness for collecting shopping bags!). First stop was a quick look at 'Critter Control' to see if there was any movement at that station... negative. So we drove on to Hyannis and found ourselves at the harbour area, where a delightful restaurant caught our eye - 'Spanky's Clam Shack'. We'd heard an ad on the radio and just knew we had to visit.

Scarlet and Nik took a look at the drinks list and ordered a 'Slap my Clamshell and call me Spanky' cocktail (only 2 slaps allowed per visit)!!! They are the green dreams pictured above. After a few sips we understood why only 2 slaps allowed - they were s-t-r-o-n-g! Jules & Dave ordered stuffed 'quahog' and then ordered 2 more because they were soooooo good. What is a quahog you may ask? One server laughed at our question and said he didn't know, but another server revealed the secret: it is a large clam! The whole menu was highly entertaining with items such as oysters rockefeller, clams casino; drinks like Jamaican Me Crazy etc. We were all so excited that we had to purchase our team tour t-shirts - so we can all take a bit of Spanky home with us!

A unexpected pit stop revealed a birthday treasure - as Dave found a special item in a jewellery store for Scarlet which she's not supposed to know about until later this month...... stay tuned for a picture!!!!

After spying some supersized seagulls who had been feasting on American food, we drove around (in circles) trying to find a lighthouse. Oh well - there goes one!

Nik found Larry Lobster lonely lying on a shelf in a store, he now is our team tour mascot taking pride of place on the dashboard giving Dave driving directions when required.

Final stop was the 'Trading Post' - where Dave posed for a pic out the front with the lobster traps. Inside..... looked like a scene from a western movie, with a hint of Indian flavour.... it was crammed so full you could only move through in single file! Scarlet was NOT intending on making a purchase and went in last, following the others like Nik who was looking for a horse whip to buy...... when suddenly she spied...... the suede leather jacket rack. Turquoise! But Nik said no, it was too bright (it was) and then Dave spied 'the lady in red' - a red suede. Perfect!

Next: Pizza for dinner!

Scarlet is resigning from her post as a shopaholic.

Foodaholics!

Today we drove from Portsmouth, NH to Wrentham (premium outlets) via Boston. Had lunch at the outlets. Check out the size of the pizza! That's 1 (one) slice! It was bigger than my hand! Finished our time at the outlets breathless from all that shopping - we gave ourselves 3 hours. Check out the back of the car when we'd finished! We should enter ourselves in the Guinness Book of Records or something. (How we're going to get it all home is anyone's guess...)

Found our way into Cape Cod, MA this afternoon. Raining and overcast. Not the best weather for a beachside retreat, but hey, what can you do about it? Nothing. So - we went to find some food! Pulled up at a lovely looking joint named 'Seafood Sam's' and strolled in looking for some lobster. Check out the cool looking lobster buzzer which flashed when our order was up! Next - get a load of the poor looking lobster! Dave's order was a seafood selection of fried fish, shrimp, clams and oysters! Enough to feed an army! Wow!!!

On the way home, still a bit peckish, we stopped at 'shawes' supermarket. Found a charming little snack in the freezer by the name of 'Ben & Jerry's' which is a popular ice-cream brand here in the USA. Absolutely delightful - 220 calories - Chocolate fudge brownie! YUmmo! (and even had a little spoon hidden in the lid!) Ya gotta luv that!

Tour of Brewery

Today we headed to Merrimack, NH to visit the Anheuser-Busch brewing facility. Dave booked us in to the Brewmaster's Tour (US$25) and we were there for almost 4 hours! We had our own personal tour guide, Penny. She had us hooked up with radio head-sets, safety glasses, cap and ear-plugs (finders-keepers!) and off we went. It would be the cleanest facility we've ever been in - absolutely spotless. We were taken around and each step of the brewing method was explained. We were privileged to be able to taste freshly brewed beer straight from the vat at 36 degrees F - see photo - who forgot their jumper??? But the best was kept for last - we were treated to several samples (large and small) of various A-B varieties. J was so excited - he reckons today made the trip (and we haven't even gotten to Las Vegas yet!).

Spent the remainder of the afternoon shopping for lunch and supplies at Wal-Mart; before a 'commando raid' on the Kittery outlets. Did a 'strawberry short-cut' on the way back to the hotel, and found ourselves in the town centre of Portsmouth. Went for a walk, met the local constabulary and followed their recommendation to a local brew pub (just for something different) for dinner.

From the order board: Scarlet and N had a 'Dirty Blonde' beer; J had Heifwisen (some banana flavoured Belgian style stuff); D had a 'Hop Monster'. You are what you eat!!! Food was pretty ok except for when Scarlet sent the fries back because they were cold - and we were each given a replacement serving for it....

All in all - a good day.

Driving, driving, driving

Driving down 'the road' .... Tuesday we left Buffalo, NY bound for destinations east. Got as far as Utica overnight. Left early yesterday and drove out of NY state, into New Hampshire then Maine. Stopped in the late afternoon at the Kittery premium outlets :-) for a quick spot of shopping, but the sun was going down and the air was getting cool. Drove to Portsmouth, in New Hampshire (just over the bridge) and found a place to stay for 2 nights. Beautiful lady at reception recommended 'Dinnerhorn' restaurant as a good spot to test some lobster and seafood, so off we went. Perfect! We had a great meal, Nik and Jules enjoyed a baked lobster for $24.95. Dave had seafood 'stew' consisting of mussels, prawns, clams, lobster claw ($21) and yours truly had the coconut beer battered 'shrimp'! For the first time since landing, we all had a restful sleep last night!

Rodeo Drive

Flew from LA to Buffalo, NY yesterday. Said goodbye to Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills - couldn't afford to look at the shoes there!

A l-o-n-g day as our three hour stop in Chicago, IL turned into almost 6 hours. We found out after boarding that our flight to Buffalo was almost cancelled at 10.00pm for reasons unknown. This has never happened to us before! If they had cancelled our flight - what would we have done? We're not sure if they would have put us up for the night in a motel or not???

Never mind, we had a happy ending and completed our flight.

This morning we picked up our car - a VW Routan, 4.0L V6. Of course it goes 'fast' - red ones always do! We left Buffalo and headed east towards New York city. We were having fun looking out for various animals by the side of the road - both alive and well, not so alive.... our tally includes: squirrels, badger, skunk, beaver, turkey (yes, a real, live, wild one!), ducks and a racoon. Couldn't stop to take photos - either they were too fast or we were - can't stop on the interstate!

We also saw a number of police cars - which is why everybody drives to the speed limit. They're everywhere here - either on the road, pulling someone over, or 'lying' in wait.

We had to pay tolls today. As you enter the interstate, the person at the toll booth gives us a card. When we get off the interstate, we pay the toll for the distance we've driven. Price varied from a dollar to three dollars.

The trees are becoming interesting to look at also - starting to change into their 'fall' colours of yellow, gold, brown and red.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have a chance to get some on film?

Tourists LA

Did the Grand City tour of LA today. Started in Hollywood at Mann's Chinese Theatre - big crowds, lots of people finding Michael Jackson's star on the Walk of Fame. I found Spiderman! - which has been a long standing goal of mine, I must add. The tour also took us to the Hollywood Bowl, Rodeo Dr, Beverly Hills, the La Brea tar pits, Farmers Market, Chinatown etc. A fun stop was in downtown LA where we pulled up at a market with a very mexican flavour. I made my first purchase speaking entirely (almost) spanish!

D-Day!

Departure on a Qantas Longreach Boeing 747-400. A big bird! We were right down the back in row 72 - 4 from the end of the plane!
Food was good!

Arrived in LA at 7am - took us an hour to get through customs etc. Had a crazy taxi driver take us to our hotel. Nice hotel, they let us check in at 8.30. We went straight for a little shower and sleep. Have had a walk to the servo to get important things like beer, this afternoon.