Montreal, Canada

Over the weekend, we drove an estimate of 5.5hrs to Montreal, Canada. Its a long ride along the way, we had to pass throught part of New Hampshire and Vermont to the Canada border. The markings on the roads are similar to Australia. And the speed limit is in kilometers and not miles per hour. Its feels like we are driving in Singapore, where everyone is such a hurry when it comes to driving. After a long drive, our first stop was Ikea Canada. If you noticed, price tags, the dollar sign is written on the right. This places is so big, it took us very long to walk to the exit and stopped by the cafe to get hotdogs and ice cream.

Feeling refreshed already, we then head back to the car and drive on to the hotel where we will be staying at for the night. Holiday Inn Pointe Claire! Its a great place, considering the fact that we went on priceline.com to bid for it. Its a full service hote, with Gym, Indoor Pool, Spa facilities, Laundry machines, Gift shop, Restaurants and many more. We're staying on the 11th floor. Here is a view from our room.

In the evening we popped by one of the local supermarkets called Metro to shop around. I found quite a few interesting items like this purple cabbage, i wonder how it taste like. You know the refrigerated milk sold here are not stored in those plastic containers or cartons. They are actually sold just in a bag like that! How do u pour/refill? Im still wondering....

We checked out early the next morning to tour around before heading back home. We went to visit this local market, Marche De Lachine, St Joseph Oratory, and Olympic Park.

This is the view from the garden.

Olympic park

Rhode Island

Today we took a day trip to Rhode Island. Its the smallest state in U.S. Our first stop is at the city of providence. It has very old buildings with long history, the structure of the building are very unique and special. After a 1.5hr drive from out home, we stopped at Prospect Terrace park, its on top of a hill, with a panoramic view of providence skyline. There is only street parking, dont worry, its free to park for a few minutes.


Our next stop, we drove south down to newport to see the famous mansions. Unfortunately, there wasnt any parking space to park and stop around to take some photos, therefore i just took some photos from the car.

Thereafter, we drove down to fort adams state park to relax. Its a beautiful place to relax, bbq, picnic, fly kite, sun tan. The bridge behind in the background is Pell bridge. Its connected from Newport to Jamestown. Up on the bridge, you can see a breathtaking view of the whole place. From Jamestown, there is another bridge called Jamestown bridge that connects back to the mainland. We have only travelled a small part of Rhode Island, but its definately a very memorable experience.

Trip to Michigan and Niagara Falls

We did have a great holiday at Niagara Falls. But the begining of the trip didnt turn out well. The flight was delayed for one hour at Boston AIRPORT due to bad weather at west of massachusetts, thus, they have to find an alternative route to go chicago. By the time we reach chicago, we couldnt catch our next flight to detroit. The plane had already left. Alot of people in the same plane as us, has also missed their connecting flight. And you know, in chicago, we landed in terminal one, but our next flight is at terminal 3. There is no such thing like singpaore, got sky train. You have to walk very very far to the next terminal. One carry RYAN, one push Phobebe. We run, we thought left few mins still can catch. but the plane had already left. The next flight available is only the next morning. We then have to stay overnight at chicago. Went to find out if there is a transit area, for people to sleep,but there is no such thing like what we have in singapore. The united airline staff gave us a piece of paper to call up and find a hotel to stay for the night. Of course, we have pay out of our own pocket. United airlines, wont bear the cost, because this is not their fault. its the bad weather. In other words, Suay lah.

Not bad, we managed to find a hotel, 49 USD per night. Got free shuttle bus service to the airport. Not bad.. for 49USD. End up we get to see abit of chicago at night! The next morning, 4am, we have to wake up, catch the shuttle bus at 5am to go the airport. The flight is at 7.17am. Reach airport, it takes quite sometime to clear customs. You know when you have kids, its better to go customs very early. Because, they will check your baby bag very throughly and also you have to open up all the milk or water bottles for testing. They take a dip stick and put in on top of your milk, and test it. Very strict. The officer told me that you can only bring 3 ounce of milk. They dont serve milk on board, then what am i suppose to do right? lucky the officer gave me chance after i explained to him.

I have been through the customs so many times, until im so familar, everytime got to re-pack the baby bag a the customs. Here, go thru customs also must take out shoes.

So if you all come to U.S, you have to prepare for all these. best is if you dont bring any liquids. Everything in the pocket have to empty, shoes have to take out. belts and anything else that is metal also have to take out. Worst is if you have children, you will take longer to clear customs. Because they will test everything.

And, must prepare to run and walk fast.... because, there is only very limited time in between flights for you to walk to the next connecting flight gate to catch your flight. We always run until very tired.

Finally when we reached detroit the next morning, we couldnt find our luggage. we went to the baggage lost claim office to check out. But the united airlines officer say no baggage tag, they cannot track our baggage. We lost our baggage tag. There is a room, behind the counter where all the lost baggage are, she didnt even bother to go in and take a look after what we try to describe to her. She just merely based on her computer system. Very bad attitude. This kenny gave up and walk away. But i was so angry, i went to the united airlines officer and raised my voice and told her off. How can it be, no other way to find out where is our baggage is.. when i have a personal tag, with Lao ma house address is. After bragging about it... she and another staff went in to the room and took our luggage out. Its so obvious, there is still the airline tag attached onto the bag's handle, saying UA flight 541. She could just go in and find which baggage has the tag UA 541 ! This United Airline staff in charge has a very bad attitude.

We finally got our bag and go to the car rental shuttle bus. Must take this bus to get to the car rental area. It applies to all car rentals. This is how it works here in U.S. When we got our car, we drove 30 mins to Kenny's friend, Ning Kang house. Shortly after, we left for niagara falls. 7hrs drive.... Faints... Two persons take turns to drive.

We stayed at Holiday Inn express. Not bad, there is a free breakfast, with hot entrees. After breakfast we drove 30 mins to Niagara Falls state park. We took the famous Maid of the Mist boat ride to get up close to the Falls. Its a life time experience. There is also a observation Tower where you can have a better view of both the American Falls and the Horseshoe falls.

Everything was so rush, that we only sleep 2-3hrs a days only. When we came back home, everyone is so tired. rested a while, go buy groceries, and come home, eat dinner and sleep early. So tired.

P.S : Canada is like Johor Barhu. we thought canada is a nice place. when you see across the border, its like our MALAYSIA. ha ha ha.

Trip to New Hampshire

Before this trip, i went internet to research on the tourist attrations and i had even requested for the tourist guide book. Because we had only two days to spend there, so i just picked a few places to visit. As you know, the whole state itself is so big, most of the time spend is always on the road. There are about 3 byways in the white mountains region. Each byway is a long stretch, takes at least an hour to drive through the whole byway.

So we planned our whole route and started by going to Colebrook first to visit the Beaver Brook Falls. 7.3 acres in size and is a popular place for hiking. You can view the falls from the carpark itself. There are also some picnic chairs nearby.

We also stopped along the way to visit The Basin. The beautiful waterfall at the Basin, has at its base, a granite pothole 20 feet in diameter. Below the Basin is a water-eroded rock formation called the Old Man's foot.

Late in the evening, we drove to our hotel to stay overnight. On the way, there was an accident. so many cars just stop by the road, waiting for the accident to clear. Because its going to take hours for the road to clear, people start coming out of their cars, to play ball, walk around, some went around asking what is happening, some came out to chit chat. The people there, just dont mind waiting. After waiting for an hour, we decided to turn back and find another alternative route to our hotel. So our surprise, the alternative route is a scenic byway. Very nice scenary.We basically drive through the mountains.

At last we finally reached our hotel at 10pm. Moose brook motel.

The next morning, we drove up to Mt Washington, the highest peak in the northeasten united states. at 6,288 ft (1,917 m). It is famous for its dangerously erratic weather, holding the record for the highest wind gust. There is an auto road up to the summit, but you have to pay a toll, car and driver $23, additional adult is $8. When you reach the submmit, there is an Observatory, and a musuem inside to know more about Mt Washington. Not to mention, also a souvenior shop in there too.

Trip to Maine

This was my first trip to another U.S state since i set foot on Boston on 5th March, 2009. It all started from a long drive down from Revere, where i live to Acadia National Park. Its the only United States National Park in New England. It is on the coast of the Down East region of Maine near the town of Bar Harbour. It took about 5hrs drive. I took turns to drive with Kenny. When reached Bar Harbour, we quickly search for our hotel on the GPS and checked-in. Without wasting further time, we all quickly get back into the car and drove up to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. Its one way up and another way down. Single direction. As you drive up the auto road, there are a few scenic spots for you to stop and take some photos. At the summit, there are paths for you to walk around to take photos and enjoy the breathtaking view of the whole area. It can be quite chilly up there. There are many other tourists there too.



Before its dark, we then quickly descend and head on for our lobster meal. Kenny's friend, Adrian, recomend us to try the lobster at this place called Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound. Looks good, but after eating it, poor Kenny vomitted most of the lobster out. His stomach went queasy after eating it. I think he ate some part of the lobster meat that looks greenish. I was ok, no problem, ate all the white part.



As this was Ryan's first trip without his smelly bed and bedsheet, he didnt sleep the whole night until early morning. Argh! We end up sleeping only a few hours and by 11am, we quickly check out and drive further up north to Millinocket, where, we going to stay for the 2nd night.

We quickly check in, drop our things and head off to visit Baxter state park. Before i came to maine, i read up on the website, then you can spot many moose, deer, bear, etc in this park. To my disappointment, we drove about 4hrs inside the park and only spotted a deer running arcoss the road. Lots of flies came to visit us. Ha, this Phoebe was so busy using the road map snapping
the flies and bees away. And No, no sign of any moose.

After driving for so long, we felt that its pointless to keep on driving further into the park, so we decided to head back to the hotel and rest. The next morning, we asked a staff at the Gas station on places where we can spot a moose, he told us, that you have to hike into the forest at Baxter State Park in order to spot a moose.

we headed back home, a 7hrs drive back to Revere, Massachusetts.

First week in Boston

After a long haul flight all the way from Singapore to Boston, we finally step foot into the city of Boston, Massachusetts. When we reached Boston Logan International Airport, we were so exhausted, Jetlag. Without wasting any time, we quickly went to claim all our 7 luggages at the belt. Meanwhile Kenny went to find out where to take a taxi to the hotel. Its actually just right outside the door. Because we have so much luggage with us, we had to take the Maxi cab to Marriott Courtyard, Chinatown, where we will be staying for the next 7 days.

I cant believe that Phoebe is so tired that she actually slept all the way from our flight at San Francisco, to the hotel. The cab driver was very kind to help Kenny move up and down the luggages from the taxi to the hotel. After everything is done, we finally settled down in our hotel room and rested. We woke up at 4am to inform everyone back home that we have reached Boston.

So the following morning, the first thing we had to do is to go to Citibank to bank in the cheque, so that we will have access to some cash. When we reached the bank, there were some problems faced. You are allowed to open a bank account, but your account will be freezed, until you have mailed letter with your home address to certify that you are living in Massachusetts. Lucky thing we have some cash on hand to hold on for a while till we have access to cash. My main prioity now is to look for a place to rent. Before i came to Boston, i already made some arrangements with a housing agent that my friend Daphne recommended to me, and we were suppose to meet her downstairs at the lobby to view the apartment. She brought Kenny to view one apartment near Harvard Square, Kenny tells me that its quite a quiet area, and he doubt it might be suitable for us to live there. So the search for an apartment continues...

We also had in mind on some other apartments near Longwood medical area. Those housings at Fenway, and Brigham circle. We contacted the leasing office, and was told that according to the state law, we cannot all live in a studio apartment, each person need to have a certain amout of space. And that the four of us, can only live in a 2 bedroom apartment. We did try to appeal, find out more information with the real estate officials. We also did called up the leasing office at Fenway apartments to enquire. The person in charge told us to come down to view the apartment. With some hope in us, we went there early to explore the area and try to familarise ourselves with the neighbourhood. But after meeting and viewing the apartement, we were told that we have to wait for the management to decide whether we are eligible to live in a studio, or one bedroom apartment.

By the way, those old apartments, dont look very fantastic to live in, the heating element is in the living room, and the metal parts are exposed. Its very dangerous when we have two very young children with us. Not only that, the laundry room is at basement, coin operated for both washing machine and dryer. It doesnt look like a suitable place for us to live in. The only advantage about the apartments there, is that its about 15 mins walking distance to Kenny's work place.

The next day, we were told, that our application has been rejected and Kenny have to go back to Fenway to get back his deposit. Still at a lost... we try to search and call up more agents to help us look for an apartment. Otherwise i really dont know where we are going to stay at the end 7 days.

Its another new day for us, and we decided that we should just wait for the agents to contact us. So we just take a break and walk to Copely Square and explore the area. While exploring the prudential building, we coincidentally met Adrian, Kenny's friend at the pathway. He's like God-sent... Kenny didnt think of meeting up with him until we settled down. But hey, he told us alot of information that we didnt know. He told Kenny where to get his social security, report to havard office, and told us more about the apartment in Revere that he is currently staying.

There were so much to talk about, that we all walk together to chinatown to meet his wife, Liz. Adrian brought us around chinatown, introduced us to this $5 veg rice meal and brought us to C-supermarket, where you can buy all the chinese grocery. In the evening, we invited them over to see our hotel room nearby.

At this moment, we decided that we should just stay at revere where Adrian is staying, else we are left with no other options. The rental for two bedded room in the city is way beyond our budget.

The following day, we followed Adrian's instructions and took bus 426 from haymarket station to the Alterra Overlookridge to view the apartment. We are lucky that there still apartments available for rent. We went to view the apartment and we were very satisfied with it. So Kenny went to get a cash cheque and make the deposit. About one day later, we moved in.


The coming weekend, Adrian and Liz showed us around where to buy our groceries, other essentials, etc.