A pretty non event travel day really (in theory) with exception of our Country re-entry back into the States, ...On the way out of the USA ,… I must admit a couple of alarm bells went off when the Immigration officers couldn’t believe we hadn’t gotten an entry certificate stapled into our passports in LA… well sure enough it became a drama getting back in from Canada, to make matters worse we got “Mr NASTY IMMIGRATION FAT GUTS everything BAD you ever saw in the Movies Officer”, as well. Instead of treating us like the Mah, Pah and the 3 cute kids that we obviously were, he decided to take the Rambo route and treat us like terrorists… he imprisoned us in his office while he went through our motor-home, pulled out every cupboard spread our clothes everywhere, confiscated some fresh fruit and veggies, without telling us and found our Electric Tazor which we wouldn’t have minded using on him”, I thought this was going to send him over the top but after 2-3 phone calls and a lot of stern looks he gave it
back. Despite my best Geoffrey charm I couldn’t get the slightest flicker of a smile from the guy. After about an hour and a half of hassle we were fleeced of another $30 (Bernise thought it was for his dinner) and finally set free to move into the States again. Delayed and harrased we arrived into the huge Detroit KOA Campground, the kids disappeared and came back with the lowdown of all the activities, Go-karts, Bumper-boats, Baseball Pitch Machine, Mini Golf and more, Fun Fun Fun... so dinner ended up being 8.30, another late finish of after 12 before Bernise and I hit the 
sack
.
Hi it’s Lauren, today we went to Niagara Falls again but today we planned to go on the boat right next to the falls. Before going on the boat we got some lollies from Pop and Lolly’s. Yum yum. We walked to the boat, paid our money and got special blue jackets and waited. We hopped on the boat and off we went. We got so close to the waterfall that we got soaked, even with our jackets on (the force of the fall made it very windy). Did you know a seven year old went down the waterfall and survived, the boat from the Falls Mist rescued him? We should have brought some shampoo 
with us; it was so wet we could have washed our hair. It was so fun... bet you haven’t gone that close to the Niagara Falls! The boat started to head back. We got someone to take a photo of our whole family then hopped off the boat soaking wet. After that fun we went to the boat loch which Thomas is writing about. At the loch I was exited to find a four leaf clover which Im sure well bring me luck forever? After the boat loch we went back to the campground for a swim in the pool. Oh yeah, Grace I made you something at beading class here at the camp … sorry Dana. The 
camp is so cool there is also a big pillow you can jump on. It’s kinda like a kids club, there is an activity each hour which is fun. It’s got a game’s room too. That night there was karaoke, it was so much fun. That was our fun day. By the fabulous Lauren.
ncy pillow it was reall
y really bouncy. There was a swimming pool that I went in twice and 2 spa pools. There were 2 play grounds one was a baby one. There were heaps of games and singing. I didn’t go on stage. I made a bracelet for Abby. There was even a dog playground it was very small.
four – close the high loch gate again and let all the water out then open the bottom gate ready for the next boat. Altogether there are 15 lochs of the St Lawrence Seaway and it is very important because it carries lots of cargo from Montreal to Lake Erie. It has reached the maximum of 225.5 meters from the bottom to the top level. Every loch holds 91 million Lts. of water and takes ten minutes or full or empty. We were standing on the bridge, and we had to get off because the bell started to ring the cars had to stop and the bridge moved from 9 o’clock to 12 o’clock and back to 9 o’clock after the boat went through.
Well, we had to do a grocery shop this morning and it is especially easy as we woke up in a Wal-Mart car park again. After unpacking the groceries and getting organized taking care so everything does not go flying around the cabin when we are again ready to move on. We are off to Niagara Falls. We got to another KOA campground which was packed (US & Canadian long weekend)and settled in for the afternoon. The children started playing with the dog next to our RV (most camps allow dogs) when the owner of the dog came over for a chat and mentioned that the Falls are great to see at 9pm and that they have fireworks there too. So off we w
ent. 
Geoff and I were surprised when we saw the falls not realizing they are in the middle of the Las Vegas type town, not in an idyllic unspoiled landscape as we had visualized? The Falls still looked fabulous, and spectacular with the coloured lights on them. We waited around till 10pm for the fireworks which Lauren said were really really cool!
d Olivia from a old
phone to a new phone and it worked. I had a lot of fun and learnt a lot.
red the kids but 
was pretty interesting for us more mature types, they have a lower house with 308 elected members but also an upper house of 105 Senators who I reckon have a cruisey set up all elected from within their own matey ranks. Anyway as you can Imagine 413 Politicians is a lot and they fill up this working building that we were in to busting point. The Centre Block Parliament building also has a tower of London type clock at the front, at the end of the tour we visited the top which is above the clock and bells which gives an amazing view of the city. 
have not been restored to anywhere near the same level, throw in the new buildings dotted around for bad measure and the place just didn’t quite do it for us. It made us feel quite flat. On a brighter note was a fabulous church that we went to, it literally took my breath away when entering it. This was the Notre-Dame Basilica which was a modest wooden building until 1672 when they reconstructed it with stone and had a couple of extensions (and converted to Catholicism) in the 1800s. We then went to Pointe-Calliere, birthplace of Montreal, this museum is named a National 
Historic site, which protects authentic underground archaeological
treasures. We learnt a lot about the beginning and changes to Montreal and how the French arrived closely followed by the Poms. For sure you can feel the under-current today between the French and English speaking facets. We hopped back on the metro to visit the 1968 Olympic Stadium and the Botanical Gardens and again both not very tidy and a little run down. We took the elevator all the way to the top where the views were spectacular. The stadium would have been amazing in its day and don’t get me wrong 
it’s still pretty impressive now its just a shame they don’t try and keep it tidy since so many people visit it. The Gardens were same/same… great potential but not the pristine care taken that you would expect of a great site.
breeze so perfect for walking through the streets (which we spent hours doing). What amazed me was the kids loved this place Lauren saying its one of the best places she’s seen. Of course it’s spring here and it is so beautiful with fresh lime green leaves on the trees and tulips everywhere (especially around there parliament building) Dad you would love it here? The buildings and cobble stone streets are glorious, the food is fabulous and I got some shopping in which was great as we have not had much of a chance since arriving nearly one month ago. The old Quebec City is the most beautiful relaxing cities I have ever been in, but don’t think it would be much chop in the middle of winter. We finished off with a lovely meal at a café with some French wine and then the ferry ride back as it was getting dark, another super impressive sight. Geoff was not initially 100 
percent convinced on coming all the way up here as it is a big excursion, but even he has had to admit to being impressed with the beauty and history of the place, it truly feels as close Europe as you can get.
A relatively quiet day really, the highlight was entering a new country Canada, a new stamp in the passport for the kids. The border guards were intrigued to know what we hit with our bent bumper, we weren’t the culprit but I do know who is Dave how did you do that ?? From here a shortish haul into Quebec KOA campground, complete with free wireless internet so a great chance to catch up on the blog. Weather a pleasant 22 degrees C and oh yes the canooks are metric so back to kilometers. 
bounce of this thing. It’s being restored at the moment so could not look at all of it but the museum was great. Of course we stopped off at the Cheers front entrance and went into the replica bar, we had to buy some souvenirs, cool. Next was Thomas’s favorite the Maparium at the Mary Baker Eddy library. This is a giant globe about 30 feet in diameter and consists of 608 stained glass panels, seeing the world from the inside at a scale of 1:1.39 million (1 inch equals 22 miles) . Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos inside it. It was a strange feeling being inside it as there were some interesting acoustic phenomena! We were standing on one side and a couple was whispering to each other and we could hear them as clearly as if they were standing next to you talking it to your ear. Great experience and a very good hands on experience for 
the kids to work out NZ in relationship to the rest of the word. The time on the bus was about 90 minutes and was very funny and informative. We have 400 miles to knock off tomorrow so decided to move on and take a couple of hundred today. We ended up camping at Littleton’s Wal-Mart just short of the US / Canada border. 
Captain Geoffs turn… New York is such a cool place, you can spend a month here (I know we have missed some stuff)easily and even the weather has returned to semi normal spring type temperatures… but we gotta keep moving on. As a parting shot I was adamant that we had to hire bikes and cycle around Central Park, we looked up a hire place and then jumped on the underground (we are now experts on the system) and found the Central Park easy-peasy, what turned out not to be so simple was finding the hire centre… 2 hours of walking later we were on our bikes and it was worth it. Central Park is amazing given it is situated in one of the most densly populated spots in the world. We saw a fair amount on foot but you would need 2 days to walk all four corners so the bikes were just the ticket. That’s another tick in the Millikens travel adventure. From here we headed towards Boston only trouble was it was 5.00pm rush hour traffic and Betty our Sat-Nav Voice kept trying to take us out on a tunnel which in NY is a NO-GO scenario because of the propane gas cylinder on board, so after 3 tunnel detours we finally hit a bridge and away we went, another long day and night drive where we eventually camped at the Wal-Mart just out of Boston.
Hi it’s the fabulous Lauren! Today we got up at 6am to walk up the statue of liberty! So we walked to the boats and we arrived 1 ½ hours early (they said the boat leaves at 8pm and to be there half an hour early, well the first boat did not leave till 9am). Wait wait wait muffin wait wait. We went through security and hopped on the boat off we go to the statue of liberty. We arrived and put all of our gear in the lockers bye bye water. Before going up we looked at the museum. Finally it’s time to go up. First lot of steps was 182 just for the base so not in her yet. Olivia and Thomas stayed in the base with Dad. Me and mum went up 354 steps! It was so scary but fun. Huh 
huh huh water. The steps were so narrow. Up the top was so cool, so high and wow!!!!! Got some pics and down we went. When we got to the Crown there were some camera crew and it was rolling I said that it was so cool when we past the camera crew so I’m hoping that will be on TV! After dad went up and came down while we looked after Olivia and Thomas. We went down got our stuff and had lunch [I had yogurt cup and French fries.] We went on the boat [jammed pack] we were the absolute lucky last to get on that boat (the next one was half an hour). Next we went to the memorial where the 2 tallest Building towers fell to see the 9-11 Me
morial Museum. 
After we went to the rv for a nap because tonight we are going to the lion king show. Zzzzzzzzzzzz. 6pm up and awake a little late. Dinner yum yum in a hurry. Run run, train train walk walk and arrived just in time. It was pretty realistic with all the costumes and affects. My fav. character was the monkey she was a great singer and really funny. It was exactly like the lion king book but way funnier. Out of 5 I give 4 ½ it was really cool. my fav bit was when the hog pig thing who was a little coo coo said I think those sparkly things in the sky are big balls of gas and romone said the smarter one said no 
they are fireflies stuck to a wall it was funny when you were there. It ended in a blasting finish it was soooooo cool. The boy who played samba wasn’t that good. We caught the train back at 12: oo at night to the rv and slept. That was a marvelous day. I miss my fans in NZ it was hot that day get it ha ha.
really seeing much as it just looks like a giant construction zone, there is fencing all around, they are well on the way to completion of the new memorial. It was after five and we were disappointed that the memorial museum had closed already. The significance in history of this event is to big not for the kids to try and grasp, so we will make time before we leave to come back.
r or jacket luckily we did not have to take off our p
ants?? We put owe clothes on again and went up to the 102nd floor, way to the top. It is the 3rd tallest building in America today and the 15th tallest in the world. The building was built in 1938 and was the tallest building for 40 years. How many kids go up the empire state building on their 10th Birthday?? It is the most famous building in America. It was a beautiful view and the cars looked like ants and you could hardly see the people. After we did that we had lunch and I picked going to a sushi place. I had tuna sushi because it is my favorite. We went to a Toys R Us Store because mum though it was amazing ther
e 
was a huge dinosaur it look real. I wanted to go to the M&M store it had 3 floors. We went back to the motor home and I had a sponge bob cake it looked nice.
te. Geoff got me all exited the other day in central Washington DC…..Not for reasons you are thinking. He said there was a Starbucks (the only place you can get a good coffee around these parts), so we walk in, by then I’m very excited, weak at the knees and nearly drooling at the mouth,…….. until I find that they only had heated hot coffee sort of instant coffee or iced coffee WHAT PLANET ARE THEY ON????????????????????Starbucks. Another odd thing is in many parts you have to go to the gas station for beer (which sells beer but no milk), wine at a liquor 
outlet (which does not sell beer) and other drinks from the supermarket (which does not sell beer or wine)? Got it Anyway we are off to NEW YORK, NEW YORK ……...yippee. We had a bit of a slow start this morning, hitting the road later than normal. It was enjoyable cruising through the narrow but idyllic Easton countryside Streets, which have lovely stone walls bridges and homes. We got into New York about 4pm and were pleasantly surprised at how central the RV campground was, it was right on the harbor overlooking the statue of liberty. We decided to take 
the subway into central New York, sort of get our bearings and sort out the subway system here. I warmed to NY very quickly, it’s a fantastic place, the sounds, lights, smells and different cultures are fantastic. The first thing you notice is the huge police presence on the streets, at any time you can see two police officers near you. We went into Macy’s to get a jersey as it is very cold which they say is not normal for this time of year. Then went to Toys R Us (which was amazing feels like a theme park) to get a birthday present for Thomas’s Birthday tomorrow. Looking forward to the next few days.
