The Adventure Begins

Those of you who know us well might know that recently there has been some changes. Facing the sudden realisation that we needed to move out of house and home, and me with no gainful employment to tie me down, we decided to come to America for one of Bec's friends wedding - something we have wanted to do since we heard about it, but really didn't think it was going to happen.


So after a whirlwind of packing and moving, and a couple weeks at my extremely supportive parents house. We packed our bags and jumped on a flight to New York. Actually Newark, which I have since discovered is in New Jersey. But that's ok, because Our first stop was Cherry Hill New Jersey.

Now let me tell you about how Bec came to know people in the east coast of America. Bec was actually born in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and today I saw the house she spent her first years in. The Pradela family is very close to a family here in cherry hill. Shana who is one soon to be married, is the daughter of that family. Freddie and Jack are Shana's parents, and they treat Bec as if she was their Australian daughter. Now I had heard a lot about this couple before arriving, and somehow they were exactly as I expected. A more warm and loving couple I've not met, and it's been a wonderful experience staying with them.

Not long after stepping off the train we were relaxing in a wonderful dinner, eating pasta, and drinking ice cream sodas. We spent a few days in Cherry Hill, saw some nice little places, including New Hope.

We spent a day wandering around Philadelphia which is not far away. The day we went happened to be when they were holding the 'great 12 hour walking tour of Philadelphia', a free event. Our guide seemed to know everything there was to know about every historical building and park. After 3 hours of the walk, my brain was so full of American history that we had to part ways and check some other things out. We went to the art museum, which also happened to be free that day only, in honour of the anniversary one of the founders death. Finally we went to see the Cleopatra exhibition in the evening, which was very good, before making our way back to our Cherry Hill base camp to fall into a culture induced coma.

It had been a great 3 or 4 days, but the fun had just started, for next stop was New York City...