Trip to Charlotte - First trip of many

This is Charlotte - our first weekend away as a family (a family of 11 that is!)






























This is the home of the Carolina Panthers the football team. One day we might go and see them but the tickets are not cheap.















I feel my blog is lacking nature so here is a photo of a butterfly that was outside the hotel. The butterflies are huge - the size of a small bird - no kidding!















And here are the lucky people who will be sharing the weekend with me. They are (from left to right) Paula (South Africa), Aoeifa, Hannah, Jodie, Martina, Orla and Penny. Also Sally is just hidden at the back.















Here is our lovely hotel - we only stayed here for a night. Bring the outside in!





























After settling in to our hotel, we went to a local Irish Bar - Ri Ra. Ri-Ra means "fun and merriment" and lots was to be had at this place. Both in the day time and in the evening.

In the day time we had food there.
















In the evening we travelled in style to the city centre. I knew nothing about the guys hiring this beast - it is the definately the highlight for me so far having never been in a limo.
















We hired it for an hour and travelled round in style. We stopped off at a dodgy store to get champagne (ok so $5 bottle of sparkling wine!) and this is what we got up to:















































We then got to Ri-Ra and danced the night away. This picture was taken at the beginning of the evening!















The next day we all went into one room to watch the Hurling Championship on a laptop! Martina's cousin plays for Kilkenny and Orla's dad is President of the Gaelic Athletics Association. It was much fun. Here is a picture at the start.
















Here is the middle of the game - it was tense!















This is a picture taken at the end - Kilkenny won! Yeah!
















After the end of the match we went to an exclusive mall to go shopping. I didn't buy anything - much to expensive for me. In one store was an old man playing hits from the musicals on a piano.















And this was a picture of a car that we saw in the car park. It is advertising sunflower seeds!
Interesting name on the side!

Only in America!

Kirspy Kreme doughnuts were started in Winston Salem which is only half an hour away. I was taken to the shop by my team leader - Kim (Mrs Seagraves) and team mate Mrs Harris. Yes we call each other by our last names! Anyway. They took me to the store and thankfully the red light was on. No it is not a brothel! It means that the doughnuts are hot and fresh! They were gorgeous. I would like to have included a photograph of one but I did not have my camera with me. Instead is a photo of the box they came in and there was 12 of them in there. I did not eat all 12 - just 4! Ooops. Diet not going too well!



This next photo is of Aoeifa (Ireland) who is standing beside a typical American car. This photo does not do the size of the wheels any justice - they were huge!



Can you guess what I am doing in this picture? No I am not going crazy! Ok just a little bit then.
In Greensboro they do not have cash machines by the side of the road - instead they have drive throughs! They have them for everything - including Funerals! So this a picture of me behind a car waiting to use it - in true drama style! Not sure how the woman in the car felt!



This next photo is of a typical/tv style chinese takeaway. We got fortune cookies too!



This next photo is for Catherine really. It is of Wal mart. This one is not too brilliant - more of a Target fan myself I'm afraid.

The Great Ohio Adventure - Summer Camp Reunion

Ok so who said driving to Ohio was a good idea! Ok, so everybody tried to warn me that it was a really bad idea. But did I listen? Oh no! It is only just over 9 hours driving - no problem. How wrong was I! As at this point I had no car (quite an important thing to have on a road trip) I rented a car. I opted for the compact vehicle but unfortunately when I went to pick it up they did not have one so they gave me a free upgrade! YEAH! This is the lovely beast I got to drive a Grand Jeep Cherokee and she was mighty fine and I loved her and I didn't want to give her back!




Back to the trip.. So I set off from Greensboro at 1.30pm (I had a lunch time school meeting prior to this so I could not set off any earlier). The trip started off well. However, got into Ohio and Columbus proved to be a nightmare - especially as it was dark and I had no idea where I was going. To cut a very long story short, I ended up arriving at Julie V's house (camp director) at 1.50AM! Thankfully they were all still up (in fact we did not go to bed until 4am in the morning) and the whole weekend was fab.


This is a photo of some of us. The event went on from Friday through till Sunday. It was great seeing everyone there. Unfortunately not everyone could be there but I got to catch up with some great friends. On Sunday I started out at about 11am and yes I got back at 12am! I was given different directions which were easier. However it took me a bit out of my way. I cant count the amount of times people said "I love your accent". I also got someone saying that I sounded just like Harry Potter!