From the South to the North

We've almost made it to New England. We're currently in Catskill, NY, staying with my Aunt Lisa and her husband Dick at their lovely house right on the Hudson River.

It's amazing to think that our US portion of the trip is coming to a close. We're staying in Catskill for the long weekend visiting with my Aunt and Uncle and my sister and her wife came up from Boston for the weekend as well. The foliage is turning and today turned out to be a beautiful fall day.

After camping and hiking in the Smokies we went to Durham, NC to visit some friends of ours who moved there from Seattle last winter. We actually have seven Seattle friends who have moved to Durham. They moved there for cheap real estate, more sun and change of scenery. I thought Durham was a pretty nice place. There were some nice places downtown and you can have up to ten chickens at your house, unlike Seattle which only lets you have four! Here's our friend Mike dealing with one of his chickens.

There's also a lot of cool history in the area, much of it involving the Civil War. We went to Bennett Place, the site of the largest Confederate surrender involving over 20,000 troops.

From North Carolina we made our way north, stopping in Snow Hill, Maryland to stay with a couchsurfing friend who had stayed with us in Seattle. Mary and her husband Dave were super hospitable and we got to stay in their historic house from the 1800s.

We also went to Ocean City, Maryland for dinner with Mary and Dave. Ocean City is kind of a cross between Atlantic City and Cape Cod, but apparently with antique cars. There was some sort of car show so people were cruising the strip in their cars.

The next day we traveled north through Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and finally into New York. Luckily we didn't run into very much traffic and got to my Aunt's house . We did conquer one more "peak" on our way - Ebright Azimuth, at a lofty 448 feet it's the high point of Delaware. I'm not going to count it as Peak #35 but I thought I should record the "accomplishment".Now, for the next two weeks before we head for Australia we'll be visiting family and friends in New England and do any last minute preparations for the international portion of the trip.