You will be pleased to know this journal definitely wont be as long as the last one. We know just how annoying it is when people send huge emails. It is so tempting to delete them (in fact I bet some people on our mailing list didn't even reach this far LOL), generally you get about 1/3 of the way in and get bored. All a product of life in the fast lane. Have you ever sat through someone's holiday snaps as they speak about it with such excitement, yet you cannot take in the energy of the place they have experienced. Aren't life's most precious moments just like that. You try to capture the essence of what you have seen or experienced in a photo or a movie. It just is never the same when you look over it again. Neither are people filled with the same excitement. We just figured that some moments are just for us. One thing we hope to do with these journals though is inspire.
Now please don't take that as an insult those of you who visit the same resort in Majorca every year, but get out and explore. We just posted on our myspace a world map of the places we have been so far and the places we are going. We thought we had seen a lot, and I guess we have but we haven't even scratched this huge world we live in. The sad thing being as the human populous expands some of the worlds natural beauty is being lost. We're trying not to be all hippy about this, but to break from our comfort zone is relieving in it's own right. Even if you have only ever flown 2 hours from home, go for 3 hours, you will be glad you did.
One thing travelling does is gives you time and space to think, to ponder and question your purpose.
Well, we now write from Burnsville, Minnesota. A leafy suburb of the Twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Minnesota is the state of 10,000 lakes, nestled right in the northern states of the Mid-West. In fact it is more central, although the US has 4 time zones (we are 6 hours behind GMT). Burnsville is the home of the Cooksey's, Jane (Amy's sister), Brett, Daniel and Caleb. On the scale of other east coast states, this isn't famous for much, but boasts lots of variety. Big lakes (including Lake Superior), forests, mountain bike trails, big cities, scenery and more scenery, trees and more trees. Lets just say it is very natural, free from the smell of pollution like other overcrowded states. This is the ideal place to experience the American outdoors. Lots of opportunity for camping, boating, fishing, swimming and sport. Basically a nice flavour of urban and rural life can be found here, but still all of the creature comforts that us humans like. Sadly this journal entry also talks about food a lot, but hey we all know (including our American readers) Americans love food. The reason for those of you who have never taken the flight across the Atlantic, they make great food. You will be pleased to know however Brett has inspired us to start running so we are shedding those pounds with a daily run! Yes, folks we have started to run.
We arrived in from Denver to Minneapolis on a Northwest flight arriving at 2:17pm with the time zone change about 1hr and 40mins flight to be greeted by the family. It was great to be with family again, and Daniel and Caleb soon got us active. We really spent the next few days relaxing, sleeping, chilling out in the forest (their back yard). Yep, eating lots of food but by now it's time to cook on the grill, oh yeah baby! Of course being full of South Africans now, we braii. Great practice for getting us all shaped up for Oz, and "slinging a few shrimps on the barbie, mate". We have played tons of XBox360 and James has had time to complete a few games (Ben, if you are missing your regular butt whooping on Fifa07 let me know, we'll duel on XBox Live). James is getting his daily reprimand for too much screen time! Amy is of course enjoying being with her big sister again, and they didn't take long to get to Michaels. Their favourite art and craft supermarket for some creative inspiration.
So, yeah what else. Well lots of Jet skiing, XBox360, PC gaming, Nerf gun battles, food, parks, turtle watching at the local pond and jacuzzi's at the Hall's around the corner. Lot's of action and lazing around.
After our first week here we both got colds. James started the trend and then Amy of course being competitive as she is had to catch it too. We passed it backward and forward about 3 times until about a week ago. We are now fighting fit and ready for battle once again. We got out to the local Minnesota State Fair, lots of food, and action in the streets down Grand Avenue. I think pretty much the whole of Minnesota was there so it was heaving. After that we headed to 'Punch' pizzeria, basically THE best pizza we have ever eaten. All served by waitresses in Serie A Italian football shirts, which made it a little more authentically Italian. We were served by Miss Roma!
We dropped off the boys for a day and went to the sculpture park, it was scorchio so we got a little further bronzed. We took a walk around the city and met Brett after work for a Greek meal at Christos. The next day we decided to head downtown for a little British familiarity. We had some time in and around the city and went to 'The Loon' for lunch (Loon = native Minnesota bird). We then rounded the day off with the afternoon at Brits Bar in downtown Minneapolis. Yep, it is what it says it is. Serving authentic British cuisine, a bowling green, lots of British, donned with about 40 Union Jacks and heaving with Brits. But to crown it all off we got to watch England vs. Brazil. We sat next to a few eccentric American's trying to work out "soccer", which was quite entertaining. Of course due to their summer trip to Brazil they were cheering for Brazil. However, they thought it was a dull game. On the contrary David Beckham's return was enough to make the game the best for James. C'mon Becks!!!
On the Friday night we went to the launch of an album by Romantica, headed up by Ben Kyle. The Kyle family came here from Belfast 13 years ago and built a massive house with a chapel on it. In their home congregate a home church of about 30 people. Its an inspirational place to be, a really peaceful home. They are an amazing family who have lived through the troubles of Northern Ireland as a family of 10 and now reside in Minneapolis working with the Native American Indian tribes seeking forgiveness for the way their people were massacred by the invading British and other European settlers. We talk of the recent atrocities by the Nazi's towards the Jews, check this. Something many of us Brits were not aware of, but our ancestors massacred and ethnically cleansed approx. 70 million native Indians from the land. Yes this is something caused by past generations, but many of the correctly termed "First Nation People" now are in so few numbers spread across North America. It is exactly 400 years this year since the first British settlement on American soil in Jamestown, Virginia. The same time period that the Jews were in exile in Babylon, in the Old Testament. Significant?! I don't know, but maybe we need to seek forgiveness on behalf of our ancestors greed for land and dominance from these people?!
We had a cultured night out at the theatre (Minneapolis/St Paul has the third highest concentration of the theatres in the US) to watch Seussical. A musical based on the stories of Dr Seuss's kids books. Not a regular fixture in UK homes but we love them anyway. It was so good and a great night out crowned with cheesecake downtown. We had a day at Cascade Bay, a water park with lots of tubes and slides etc. A day out at Lake Merrien, where James lost his Oakley's jet skiing. We went to Hot Sam's an antique village, the only way to describe it was something like Hitchcock's Bates Motel. This place was FREAKY, but we found some authentic old cars, and basically tat. It was a feast for horror film fanatics. We had a day of bike riding down in Lanesboro, a 46 mile bike track through the country side. We decided to do about 10 of it in the blistering heat, followed by a hunt around the Amish stalls selling jam's, furniture and patchwork quilts. We then went fishing for some trout, only Caleb was successful after 4 hours. Oh well, they say the taking part is the most important thing. We finished the day off in a German sausage restaurant where we were serenaded with Polka by the family who run the place. Of course no day is complete without some Kemps ice cream!!
The Weekend of the 15th to the 18th of June was spent about two hours north in the town of Duluth. This is one of the main harbour towns on Lake Superior which has an outlet into the great oceans that surround the Americas. It's a very industrial town with not a lot going on, but a great campsite which we stayed at with our pop-up tent (called a trailer tent in England). The campsite called Indian point was fully equipped with wi-fi so we took the laptop so that we could wish our dad's a happy Fathers day on the Sunday. The main reason for going was that Brett took part in Grandma's Marathon along with about 10,000 others. Which takes you all the way down the side of Lake Superior. The weather was hot and gruelling for the runners, so quite a few quit at the halfway mark. Brett with injured knee battled on to complete in 4hrs 50mins to collect his medal. The camping was fun, and we were introduced to 'Smores' around the camp fire, marshmallow with melted chocolate and sweet crackers. No mosquito bites but lots of thunder and lightning, so we spent time inside watching Star Wars and then headed home via Jay Cook state park on the Monday.
On Tuesday we hit the Arboretum, and the maze park. A nice stroll around the gardens, all very American and quaint. Then on Thursday we hit Valley Fair for homeschool rates day with the kids. Daniel and Caleb braved their first rollercoaster's, and that need for speed in little boys was booming in them. It was real quiet so we didn't have to wait long for the rides, but a great day.
Not long until our flight into Chicago, but between now and then we will be celebrating Independence Day on the 4th of July, to celebrate the Independence of the British from the Americans. We got our independence right not the other way around?!?! Only joking our American friends, "we love ya'll".