Dutch diary of a two week trip to the USA ..

[marjan]

HA HA Fooled you :D

Not a chance I could give you my diary at this moment yet.
Woke up in NY at about 8.30am and traveling back home went smooth, hit homeground around 6.30am local time. And as it is now 10.20pm local time I'm awake now for somewhat of 21 hours in a row. I figure I'd better go to sleep at normal local time and get up tomorrow as there is no time difference to get rid of my jetlag.

For those attending the Jan-nic I've paid for my posters just a few minutes ago. And I sended it by mail at Honesdale to my place. Just have to wait now for it to arrive! I figured that would be the best thing to get it home.

So .... you will have to be patience to get more news from me .... I first go to sleep

Love you all, Marjan

[Eva]

Welcome home girls! I hope you had a great time.

Eva

[Dee]

Welcome back Marjan! Looking forward to hearing about your adventures.

[Bat]

Glad you're home safe and sound, Marjan and Annette...a good night's sleep at your regular hours in your own beds will certainly help beat the jet lag!
I do hope your sojourn in the US was pleasant, exciting, and fun! I know we sure had fun with you!...come back anytime!
Hugs to you both!

[Marcia Drummergal]

Marjan! I was just thinking of you at about the time you posted so it must be ESP!! I really miss you. And Annette, if you are reading this, it was truly wonderful to meet you. I was (still am somewhat) under the weather so was not quite my usual self. I hope we get to see you again some time.

Marjan. I will never forget jamming with you as you sang "The Crocodile Song." I guess maybe that should go under the topic, "Rudie Moments to Remember!"

Marcia :) Glad you are home safe and sound!

[Randy & Betty in Pa]

Dear Marjan (Mar-e-yan') and Annette...

So glad to hear your home and safe... Hope the critters are as happy to see you as I am sure you are to see them... Thank you so much for the visit... It was really great meeting you both... Come back anytime your in the states and "rough it" with us some more....

I hope you sleep well with wonderful dreams (or nightmares) of your visit here in the United States.... We sure enjoyed your company... Your both great....

Fellow Rudies... The sidewalks are safe again.... :o

Best to all

R. & B. from Pa

Randy (Not Oak)

[Oak Kitten]

Marjan,

I am glad you and Annette had a safe and uneventful trip back home. It was great to meet you in person, and thanks again for the Leeuwenhosen. We are getting a lot of mileage out of them, and it's something of a struggle to retain possession of them, everyone wants them when they see them!

Looking forward to reading your impressions of your trip when you have time to post.

Pleasant dreams,

Randy (Oak)

[KarenSews2]

I'm so glad you made it home safely.

It was so good to see you again, and to meet Annette. The Jan-nic would not have been the same without you two!

Rest well, my friend!

[suzanne]

I am glad you had a good trip . How does life in Holland compare with our US life? I am proud to be American and hope you enjoyed our culture, country and American personilties.

[david uk]

Hi Marjan

glad you had a great time....

thanks for the card from New York... see you in October!

d xxx

[SongDragon]

Glad you're home safe and had a good time, Marjan.

~Song

[marjan]

OK here are my pictures and I added the ones Leslie made of us kayaking

http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d181/DKCS/USA2006

[RedjackRyan]

Glad you made it home safe and sound.. It was such a great pleasure enjoying yours and Annettes company! The delight on your face alone as you embraced the poster was worth everything leading up to the day.

[Dee]

Thank you for the post card from NYC, Marjan. Very thoughtful of you.

(((HUGS)))

[Agnes]

Marjan, you're a sweetheart!

Such a lovely picture of that beaming face of yours with the poster... And, Dar dear, what are you drinking there?!

Glad you got home safe :)

[Marcia Drummergal]

I enjoyed those pictures very much! Thanks for sharing them and thanks for sharing YOU!!

Marcia :)

[leslie]

I forgot about the "buffalo horn" tiara. LOL - I have so many memories and no brain for them. So glad you posted the kayaking pics. I love that lake and so glad you and Annette are home safely, I'll e-mail later girl!

Leslie

[Oak Kitten]

Great pictures, Marjan!

That lake is gorgeous, and it looks like you had a perfect day for kayaking. Was the picture of you in front of the Manhattan skyline taken at Liberty State Park in New Jersey? (I still can't get used to not seeing the World Trade Center towers there.)

I'm glad you and Annette had such a great time!

Oak

[Eva]

Picture number 7 would make a great avatar.
Eva

[marjan]

I think I will start my diary with ....

There once was a bad girl living in the Netherlands that no one really knows, allthough some of you might have noticed a glimpse :p

[Marcia Drummergal]

I think I will start my diary with ....

There once was a bad girl living in the Netherlands that no one really knows, allthough some of you might have noticed a glimpse :p

So, you have been living a double-life? DO tell! We want to know ALL! LOL

Marcia ;)

[dragonlady]

Happy to hear you two got home safely. It was wonderful to meet you both!

-di

[marjan]

Part 1 of my diary, <grin> just to tease you it is only the first two days..

August 8
After a day packing my last stuff into my suitcase, I feed my cats for the last time and say goodbye. Boy is that case heavy loaded! I walk down the street to the bus station and get on to it to the train station. Buying a one way train ticket to Schiphol airport I finally get into that holiday mode. After a stopover at Utrecht I arrive at Schiphol. Looking around if I can spot Annette somewhere, but no she’s not in site. Taking the shuttle bus to our hotel for one night and after checking in I’m off to my room. Just dropping my suitcase there and then straight to the hotel bar. Because that’s the meeting point between Annette and myself. And guess what .. Annette is sitting there, waiting for me to arrive, with a beer at hand.
Needless to say we had a great time talking about what was ahead of us ..

August 9
Our flight was due to take off at about 12.30pm, so we had plenty of time to have a proper breakfast in the hotel and take the shuttle bus back to Schiphol. And there I became aware of why my case was so heavy J. When we checked our cases in, mine was to heavy!!! The lady at the desk asked me if I could remove some of it into my hand luggage. I said yes of course .. and removed all the stroopwafels, cheese and chocolates I had in there. And the weight of my case dropped with about 3 kilo’s.
The flight itself went smooth, and going true customers in Washington wasn’t bad. They have our right and left index fingerprint now. Let them be happy with it. After a short time we got aboard a rather small plane that would bring us to Pittsburgh.
After getting our bags we went to the taxi standup. The guy working there told us he was sure the Candlewood Suites had there own shuttle bus. So we went back in to call the hotel and asked them to send a shuttle to pick us up. And at that point something went wrong. We were standing outside watching all those different busses from various hotels coming in. And there never came a bus from Candlewood. At one point we asked a guy from Hotel Express if he was here to pick us up and he said no, they have there own bus. So we waited, and waited, until Annette went back in to call again. And guess what, we were supposed to take the Hotel Express after all.
So we finally arrived at the Candlewood!!!

[Marcia Drummergal]

More, more....please!! :D

Marcia :)

[marjan]

Sooo the next days I had a lot of fun meeting old friends and making new ones. And after a short stay in New York it was time to take a flight home.

The cats were glad I was back and I needed some time to adjust.










Just teasing Marcia :D

[RedjackRyan]

Quit holdin out on us!!! More more more!!!!

[Eva]

Good one, Marjan! :D

Eva

[Marcia Drummergal]

Good one, Marjan! :D

Eva

Sez YOU!!! Quit holding out on us Marjan!!!! ;)

Marcia :rolleyes:

[Eva]

Yes Marcia, I like a little torture. Can't help it. It's in my nature...
MWUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Pirate Queen
(Now please go on with your diary Marjan. Marcia has suffered enough for today)

[marjan]

Ok I'll promiss to give you all a more specific view of my trip.
In the meantime I'm glad :) :D :p to announce that THE POSTER was delivered to me today.
Thanks again Wendy, it made a world trip from your place Australia, to Ben in Pittsburgh and finally to the Netherlands.
I promiss to post pictures when it is secured on my wall :D I suppose there will be a lot of pictures of Dutch rudies standing next to it after the LRC
Marjan

[Eva]

Oh yes! I am very curious to see THE POSTER, Marjan. I am sure you cleared about an entire wall for it in your house... :)

Eva

[marjan]

August 10
Trying to adjust to the new timetable, we got up around 9 am and learned from the hotel reception that the best way to get into Pittsburgh was to take the hotel shuttle to the airport and take the bus from there to downtown Pittsburgh. So that was what we did.
We walked all afternoon through downtown and the strip, sat down at some parks, went into some stores, etc. With sour feet we went the same way back to the hotel and had dinner and some drinks just across the street at the Buffalo bar and grill.

August 11
There was no need to go into Pittsburgh again (sorry Ben, but we didn’t had a clue were to go to, we might have missed some wonderful sights). So after breakfast and a visit to the Best Buy across the street, we decided to sit in front of the hotel waiting for everyone else to arrive. First familiar faces that arrived were Leslie and Patrick, and not long after that almost at the same time Karen, Marcia and Barbara parked there cars. We were informed that Dar, Kath and Lucille were on their way too and had to be picked up from the airport as soon as they called in.
We learned also that Wendy (Lucille) and Deirdre were stuck somewhere between LA and Pittsburgh.
Then when everybody got freshened up, we were off to our dinner appointment with our host for the weekend Redjack!!! It took a few phone calls but finally we got the right directions and arrived at the right restaurant. The others were already there, so we shook hands with Ben and his wife, Dragonlady Dian and Changeling, Oak Kitten Randy and her husband John.
The dinner itself was awesome, we somehow all ordered a different dish and handed our plates around the table so everyone had a bite of everyone’s order. Unfortunately Marcia arrived feeling sick at the Candlewood and although she went with us to the Restaurant she had to leave us before dinner was served. After dinner most of us had some pleasant time gathering in Les and Pats room.

August 12
THE DAY!!!
When we gathered outside of the hotel, we were discussing how we could get everyone to the pick nick place. We had three cars: Les and Pat’s, Marcia and Bat’s and Karen’s car. And possible hitch hikers Dar, Kath, Lucille, Annette and me. And suddenly there was a Hotel Express car that stopped in front of us. Wendy and Deirdre finally arrived, just in time to come along with us to the pick nick spot.

[Randy & Betty in Pa]

More more!!!!! get on to the auction:)

Best

R. from the wrong side of Pa on August 12....:mad:

[marjan]

I'll answer ... Hope you like it ... just wait until I will get to the part of visiting your place ...

When we finally arrived Ben was taking care of the food section, with some help from Karen and Wendy. They were rolling shrimps into bacon. The atmosphere was just what I expected. Everyone mingled just fine, there was some guitar playing by Kath and Leslie accompanied by Marcia. Some gathered to play some board games. And there was just talking and eating! Ben just did a splendid job, he prepared enough food to feed a orphanage home, but alas he stuck up with us. We tried our very best to eat everything but many of us ended up with doggy bags with delicious meat.

After taking some group photo’s we packed and headed back to our hotel. No need to say we gathered again in Leslie and Patrick’s room. We all had a great time, Dar presented us to a new phenomenon Stroopwafels ditched into Amaretto!!! And it seems I did some stupid things as well…. But I can’t recall more details.

August 13
Sunday morning. We all got into the available cars and went to a nearby Bob Evans for breakfast. Well when we finally found the place there was a waiting list for at least a half hour, so finally getting into our seats you could call it brunch. But the food was worth waiting for. After that we had to say goodbye to Kath and Lucille and Dar whom were scheduled to take a plane back home. And shortly after that Karen drove away in her beautiful convertible. Now there were only six of us left, for dinner we all went across the street and hat something to eat at Buffalo’s.

August 14
Leslie and Patrick did leave the hotel around six, to early for me to wave them a save trip. Wendy and Deirdre had plans going to downtown Pittsburgh and meet friends. And Annette an me went to the airport to pick up our rental car. Annette would love to visit a town not far from Pittsburgh were was a memorial plate for a lost friend of hers. So that’s how we spend our afternoon.

August 15
We had no idea what to do today, but we’ve left the hotel and got on our way to Honesdale to visit Leslie and Patrick. First we took the wrong way out of town, and after that we were driving around country roads. Which was good for sightseeing but not good for us getting to the other site of PA. So when we finally got to “Groundhog city” at noon and wondered around some time, had some lunch, we decided to drive to Honesdale and see where we would strand …

[Randy & Betty in Pa]

Having you and Annette made our Year!!!! Even though you had to "rough it"...:o

Best to all our Dutch Rudies.... We love you...Come back soon...

Best R. from pa

[hoops]

glad you are back and had a good time can't wait to hear all about it
peace
hoops

[Annette]

Good diary, Marjan! Thanks.
I hope it will continue, because I am wondering what is going to happen next!:)

Randy, Betty and Carol, you made my year too! Best wishes to you!

Annette.

[Eva]

I hope it will continue, because I am wondering what is going to happen next!:)
LOL Silly woman, you! :D

Eva

[marjan]

The rest of the drive went smooth and we wondered if we would stay somewhere for the night before we would arrive into Honesdale or drive right through. And before we knew we found ourselves in parking lot of Leslie and Patrick’s J
As we didn’t noticed them before of our arrival, their welcome was great. We’ve got a tour around their house and before we knew, there was food and drinks served for us.

No need to say they took care of us that evening.

The next day Leslie took us for a tour around Honesdale, we dropped my poster at the post office, visited the Museum, and bought some food at a local store.
After that we joined together and went of to a lake nearby. Annette and myself did some rowing the boat ashore and Leslie and Patrick finally got time to do some fishing.

[Dar]

>>And it seems I did some stupid things as well…. But I can’t recall more details.<<<



Just so you know, you didn't do anything stupider than any one else.... ;)

[marjan]

Annette mentioned earlier about her memories of eating at a diner, so Leslie and Patrick took us for dinner at a nearby local restaurant that had the look of a diner and the food was delicious. Not to forget desert .. a big chocolate pie with strawberries and cream .. yummy .. it almost blew my stomach. And off on the road we were again, this time to a place where they held “open mike” nights. We had a great time seeing folks perform there best, and we had the privilege of seeing Leslie performing as well!! After getting home at there place we had time to sit around, did some talking and have a drink.

August 17
Time to say goodbye and travel further. After breakfast we went on our way to Easton. Randy did send directions to his place to Leslie the day before. So we drove south and after a short coffee stop we arrived in Easton shortly after noon. We missed the left turn to Randy and Betty’s place and when we turned and drove back I spotted Randy. It was just pure coincidence, he was just waving someone else out. After we parked our car Betty and Caroline came out to welcome us as well. They showed us our place to stay for the night, and they did a fine job to make us feel at home. The place was decorated with Janis posters, there was a cd player along with Janis cd’s and the fridge was filled with soda’s. Then came the question what we wanted to do with our time staying. Seeing the city, staying around in the garden or visit a free concert? Needles to say, we opted for the concert not knowing it was a 1,5 hour drive :)
We left about 3pm and arrived at the park where the concert was held well in time to get our seats in second row. Randy was in charge keeping an eye on the seats and the rest of us where on the road again to find a pizza restaurant to buy us dinner. And we found a great one nearby. Next thing we sat at our places eager for the show to start. It was Lou Christie performing that night, and he did a great show. At one time he introduced 2 ladies sitting in the audience who where his backing vocals in the 60th and asked them on stage. And they sung along with one song. I heard two familiar songs that night, but over all I had a great time. We drove home afterwards and did some more talking sitting in the garden.