Watch Out America - I'm Coming Over ...

Watch out America; the Plastic Mancunian is coming.

It’s been a while since Mrs PM and I have been across the pond, so we’ve decided to inflict ourselves on the United States once again. The last time I went to the States was a few years ago, when I visited Las Vegas. Mrs PM had been there for a conference and I decided to join her for an extra week. We had a fabulous time.

During that trip, Mrs PM and I flew in a helicopter for the first time. I was really excited and was absolutely fine until the helicopter pilot flew over the Hoover Dam. I took a photo of the dam but the pilot swooped in a strange direction and made my stomach lurch; consequently I had to stare at the horizon as we flew over the Grand Canyon (for fear of puking). Thankfully with the aid of a few deep breaths I recovered. Mrs PM, on the other hand, was horribly air sick. I thought she was going to throw up on a couple of occasions. Our pilot showed off his flying skills and dived over a particularly high precipice prompting Mrs PM to utter the only words she spoke on the entire trip:

“DON’T YOU DARE DO THAT AGAIN!”

The scenery was breath-taking and I was really buzzing when we flew back over Las Vegas. I don’t think Mrs PM enjoyed it too much and had to lie down for a couple of hours after we arrived back at the hotel.

I loved Las Vegas and we were sensible enough not to blow our savings. In fact, we broke even, thanks to Mrs PM using her luck and judgement. She won a few hundred dollars on the roulette table and walked away rather than blowing the lot.

The temperature was a tarmac-melting 45 degrees Celsius (we were there in August) and I have never been so hot in my entire life. We coped by hotel hopping. We were staying in the Monte Carlo hotel and spent our time wandering down the Strip, hopping into hotels when overcome by the heat.

Anyway, back to our forthcoming trip.

The suggestion came from Mrs PM after watching “Fringe”, a series where nasty and horrible things happen to people. For those of you that haven’t seen the series, it is basically similar to the X-Files, where a group of FBI agents investigate strange happenings in and around Boston.

“Let’s go to Boston,” said Mrs PM while watching a particularly gruesome episode that involved a creature that was a cross between a snake, a scorpion and an eagle attacking people and laying it’s eggs inside their bodies.

“So we can meet that thing?” I asked incredulously. Pointing at the creature as it was about to devour one of the heroes.

Actually, I leapt at the idea because Boston and New England is one of the places I have always wanted to visit.

We have now booked the flights and are coming over during the last week in September. We haven’t planned our itinerary yet, but the idea is, I think to spend three days in Boston and then hire a car and head off to Cape Cod for four or five days before returning home.

I’m really looking forward to it and so is Mrs PM and I am hoping to produce a huge portfolio of photos, some of which may appear on my photo blog.

Of course, we hope to be fairly flexible, so if there is anybody in the area (or elsewhere), who has any tips or recommendations for places we can visit, etc. then I will be very grateful. One thing I wouldn’t mind doing is enjoying a pint or two of Samuel Adams beer in “Cheers”. I realise that may be something that dumb tourists do, but I don’t really care.

I have to say, however, that any suggestions involving climbing up a tall structure (for me) or flying in a helicopter (for Mrs PM) will almost certainly be ignored. I am not going to allow Mrs PM to persuade me to climb anything that is higher than a three storey building (unless I am safely inside it of course).

I’m off now to try to practice saying “Fall” instead of “Autumn”.