America Week 3: Back to Chicago, the Long Way Round

 Hello there!

Hope everyone's doing well! I definitely am - I'm having a lot of fun!

July 4th fireworks display!

So, when I left off, the Murrell-Festen road-trip was drawing nigh to its penultimate day in Andrews. As it happens, our penultimate day was July 4th, otherwise known as the celebration of the day America escaped the yoke of those pesky British. We had an action-packed July 4th: we started off with a late-morning walk up a mountain, which was very hard work, but also very fun. It was totally worth it - when we got to the top, we climbed up a fire tower and got to see absolutely amazing views. I only fell over twice, as well - not bad for someone without balance canals! When we got home, we ate a nice American lunch of salad and burgers and had a long conversation about the political situation in America. Fun times! After that, we spent the afternoon preparing for our departure, and went to a fireworks display in the evening. I do think that, while my highlight was the mountain hike, I really enjoyed the fireworks display - it was out of this world!

On Wednesday, we got back on the road. At this point, the Festens and Murrells parted ways, with the Festens heading directly back to Chicago, while Murrells took a 'detour' to Washington D.C. The journey was about 10 hours long, but it went alright. On the way to the place we were staying, we stopped at a Salvadorian restaurant - we've never had food from Salvador, so it was a new experience! My mum noted how it felt like the end of the holiday, even though we were only half way through.

Behold the works of the Lord our God and praise His name!

On Thursday, we went into D.C and spent the day looking round. We started on a circuit of the various memorials, and we saw the White House! We also saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial! There were also various war memorials, which were quite impactful, because there's so many names that the memorial towers above you. The most striking to me was the Vietnam War Memorial, because it is massive. You approach from the distance, and you see a wall encircling what looks like an enormous, dark lake. But as you get closer, you realise that lake's actually just a continuation of the wall, reaching high above you. I wouldn't call it beautiful, but it's striking - a powerful reflection of the sheer number of people who died, just in the Vietnam War.

After lunch, we split into groups, with Karys and my mum going to a natural history museum, while my dad and I went to a museum dedicated to the Holocaust. The Holocaust museum was a very...stark place. A glaring, powerful reminder of just how despicable humans can be. It really goes into detail about the atrocities of the Holocaust, and how the countries of the world stood by and let it happen. Two of the most striking things, for me, were the names. Two walkways have names inscribed on one side; one for towns and villages annihilated by having their entire populations slaughtered, and the other for the victims of the Holocaust. And there is a heart-breaking number of names, in both cases - more than could be effectively read or remembered. The second thing was the names of those who risked their lives to protect Jews and other victims of the Holocaust. And while there's an impressive number of names...it still has nothing on the number of victims. So many people suffering...and such a small percentage of the human population tried to save them.

After the Holocaust museum, we reunited with Karys and my mum, and we went souvenir shopping, which was pretty fun. We then travelled back home, all feeling very tired and worn-out. Apparently, we walked a total of 13 miles that day! (I can believe that, as my legs could attest...)

I dunno if it's illegal or something to post pictures of the White House, so instead I present to you...Martin Luther King Jr.! 

Friday was a much shorter journey than Wednesday, happily. We had a very gentle drive to Pittsburgh, stopping along the way to visit the site of a famous Civil War battle, Antietam (pronounced an-TEED-am). When we arrived in Pittsburgh, we met up with Beth Knapp, a colleague of my parents. I mentioned the cats Lucy, Mont-Morency, and Tom in an Africa blog: those cats belonged to Beth. It was very nice to see Beth! Tom's actually still alive, and very fat.

We had a meal out on the Friday, and the next day, Beth travelled with us to an Amish community, where we all had a tour. It was very fascinating to learn about the Amish way of life! Beth turned round and went home after the Amish community, while we continued on to Columbus. When we arrived at Columbus, we stayed with Aunt Maria's mum, who's a very nice woman. In fact, she reminded me very powerfully of Nana - in particular, her no-nonsense attitude and warm sense of humour. Sadly, nice though it was to get to know Aunt Maria's mum, we had to leave quite early the next morning, as we were having lunch at our next destination. This next destination was Plymouth! (Not Plymouth, Devon - that would have been a long drive!) Some friends of my parents lived in Plymouth - the Cones and the Danforths. We ate lunch with the Cones, then, after a walk, we went to the Danforths' for supper. It was very fun - the Danforths and Cones are lovely people. Funnily enough, they live in the Eastern Standard Time zone, but live only a mile away from the zone border with the Central Standard Time zone, so my phone decided we were in CST (an hour behind EST).

A memorial at the site of the battle of Antietam.

On Monday, we reached Chicago at last; happily, Plymouth is only two hours away, so it was a short journey. When we arrived, we went to an arboretum with Christi and the kids, though Matt had work. It was reasonably fun, though I feel Immanuel and Raphael got the most out of it. After the arboretum walk, we all had supper at the Festens - it was spicy couscous, salad, and meatballs. I enjoyed it. Raphael decidedly didn't; his first mouthful had him bawling his eyes out. He cheered up after supper, though, and I got to spend some time playing with Immanuel and Raphael, which was really fun!

Today has been quite chill. My parents, Karys, and I went to Walmart in the morning (clearly the true highlight of the holiday!) I made millionaire's shortbread in the afternoon, and we ate roast chicken at the Prechters' house, which was nice.

Aunt Maria reading a story to Raphael and Immanuel (Immanuel's in the blue shirt, Raphael's in the red shirt)

The second portion of the road trip's been very fun! It can get quite exhausting, though. It's nice to be back in Chicago - though at the same time, it's sad, because we now have just 3 days until we go back to England. At any rate, America's certainly been a lot of fun!

My highlight of the return road-trip was probably D.C - it was very interesting!

Random stats:

-Distance travelled: 1,346 miles (wow!)

-Distance walked: About 35 miles? I'm not sure exactly.

-Days left in America: 3, sadly

-States visited: 11 out of 50 (Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana)