Heather Nick and Ollie visit Nashville Buffalo and Chicago

Taken a little while to organise, upload and pick out some photos for mine and Heathers latest trip over the pond to the US of A, but I'm very slow, this is what I'm good at!

We took our friend Ollie Whyte over with us this time, and he was very very excited that our first stop was Nashville, to visit Aunt Nancy (where I first learned that my blog is now worldwide famous, and viewed by people I hadn't even met yet!(Anita, that's you!). This image below is of Nancy's house in Nasville, and that's her in front of it:



This was taken the day before we left, as our plane was taking off, and going to Buffalo, Nashville was hit by horrible storms, which flooded roads which we'd previously been travelling on only days before.

In fact, one of the first pictures I took in Nashville, was at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, which was devastated with the flooding. The bar in the middle, which was a cool rotating bar, was under water a week later.



This was taken a week later inside the hotel (not my own personal photo):


The hotel was really nice though, the flowers and everything in there made it very special, here are some more photos of the inside:





And just round the corner, is the Grand Ole Opry, which I'm told is very famous, where all the big acts go to play in Nashville. Also, being in Nashville, the Music City, and famous for its country music, we had to buy cowboy hats, didn't we....







Outside the Country Music Hall of Fame

The blue suede shoes




This is Alan Jacksons house, I don't really know who he is, but Ollie was very excited about it

Some live music in Tootsies


Lynchburg - Mary Hobo's Boarding House


Jack Daniel's Distillery



One of the best tours ever, and also the best ever tour guide, Randy




Apparently Jack Daniel kicked this safe one morning in frustration, which caused an infection, which eventually led to his death.


Me outside the Jack Daniel store in Lynchburg

Nancy's friend David kindly took us out on his boat, being from England, we couldn't handle the heat, got rather burnt!





Relaxing back at Nancy's, with some Miller High Life!


We don't get these back in England, so had to take a photo of this Red Cardinal

Nashville airport waiting for our flight to Buffalo

First day in Buffalo, and it's to the batting cages we go



Then some indoor mini golf next door, I'd just like to add that I won....


PINCHY!!!!! My first ever taste of lobster, he was innocently swimming free only a few hours previously...


Buffalo Bisons vs Louisville Bats, unfortunately we choose a game that Buffalo chose not to turn up to, and got thoroughly thrashed. But, we did get to see a guy pitch a ball faster than I could keep up with to see, and got to meet the now famous RA Dickey after the game. He's since been called up to the Mets, and made some big headlines. This isn't him by the way, this is just Ollie...




Also got this dude's signature, who's been called up for the Mets as well.




Ollie and Adam just chilling in the players family room...

At Niagara Falls, now crossing to Canada


View from Canadian side

The Canadian side







At the Hershey's store, still on the Canadian side

A squirrel eating bread out of a bin

Some pictures from back in the day when the falls iced up



In our gear for "Cave of the Winds"










Me and Ollie underneath the falls, you can click on this one to make it bigger, was cool, in both senses of the word







Now in Rochester, and watching Adam play some hockey. (You can click on this link too to make bigger)









It was quite nice weather when we arrived in Chicago, but when we started walking around, it soon clouded up, and the mist dropped in, causing some dramatic scenes.






Later on from the top of the John Hancock Tower (again, you can click on it to make it bigger - the building with the purple lights on the top is the Sears Tower, previously the tallest building in the world, before Dubai got competitive)



We were supposed to just spend one day in Chicago before flying home. That ash cloud had other plans though, and spent another day, mainly sorting things out and planning on getting home - but we did get to walk around Chicago again though. Firstly, we had an all you can eat, hope it would last us the day, breakfast buffet at Houlihans

There was a Celtic themed festival going on in Chicago, which is why Heather's posing like a folk star...

There were Segway's everywhere, seemed the way forward in travel. They all seemed to gather next to this fountain like some kinda scene out of Mad Max






And that's it, a small selection would you believe it, of our trip to the USA. We took quite a bit of video as well, might be a little while before I get that uploaded on here. Thanks for browsing and getting this far, hope it's been worth it, you can relax now, just like me and Ollie here!