Days 1-3: blues and bullets

Wow!  Here we are, on the third day of our trip.  After so much planning and preparation we are actually doing what we have talked about for so long.

On Monday morning, after a wonderfully relaxing (and sometimes invigorating - the Atlantic ocean can be bracing this time of year; did I mention that we body surfed - just about...) week in Cornwall with various friends and family of Katharine's, we jumped on a plane and eight hours later touched down in Chicago.  By the time we had got through immigration and negotiated the public transport system it was early evening in the Windy City.  Though by BST it would have been 2am, we fought off our desire for a bit of shut eye and found our way to Buddy Guy's Legends establishment where we spent a thoroughly enjoyable time eating great burgers, drinking great beer (Goose Island Amber Ale, since you asked) and watching some great Blues performers do their thing.  The highlight (apart from a brief and rather chaotic appearance by Buddy himself) was the 65 year old Jimmy Burns and his band.  It was a really fantastic evening and a great start to the American leg of our adventure.

The next morning we had to get up early and walk about a mile to our prebooked bus to Minneapolis.  Having panicked when told by someone that we were still a couple of miles away from the bus station with only 15 minutes to catch our bus, we hailed a taxi, which took us all of the actual 150 yards to our destination.  The taxi driver felt sorry for us in our confusion and charged us less than was shown on the meter.

 

Having slept fitfully for less than we would have liked the previous night we snoozed intermittently on the bus, waking once when the man behind us announced that the driver was clearly lost somewhere in Milwaukee and that he was going downstairs to tell her.

We were met in Minneapolis by Amy, a friend of Katharine's, who showed us around before we met up with Tim, Amy's husband, who treated us to a great meal in The Spaghetti House.

Wednesday was a fantastic day for two reasons - 1 I got to shoot guns! 2 Unbelievably (but perhaps less so as I was out of the country and was not there to see it!) England beat Croatia in their own back yard - Slaven Bilic, Goran Ivanisovic (don't know any other Croats; fill in appropriate names if you do) - your boys took one hell of a beating!

But back to the guns...

Tim kindly outlined the possibilities for the day he and Amy were going to spend with us, and suggested that we go and shoot some guns. Well, when in America...  Anyway, we ended up on a shooting range and, basically, shot some guns.  Highlight was shooting and actually hitting (!) some clay pigeons, and yes, they were moving!

The rest of the day passed in more peaceful mode - a riverside walk, a visit to an apple orchard, a lovely lunch (highlight homemade apple pie) made by Tim's mum and a second burger fest before (hopefully) a jetlag free night's sleep before we hit Seattle tomorrow.