Ice Queen in America

[Ice Queen]

Thought I would put a couple of pictures on here of my trip to Indiana, more to follow if folks would like to see them. My first job was to chat up two rather lovely 'cops' - pity I couldn't take them home with me. Second job was to try to learn to shoot, I think I did hit the target, but not too sure. Shooting did cause me to use a 'naughty' word the first time I fired a gun for real, but once I got used to it, I really enjoyed it and would love to be able to learn more.

 

[thcri]

Yes please more pictures. Anita we would love to see all of your pictures of your trip to the United States.


I am waiting.

 

[Melensdad]

It should be pointed out that Ice Queen squeezed to butt of the officer on the right in that first photo.

Oh, and as for the shooting, when she pulled the trigger on the yellow rifle (AR15 chambered in 6.5 Grendel) she yelled "Bloody 'ell" loud enough to be heard OVER the muzzle blast from the round. I believe a Browning Hi-Power slide is what 'bit' her hand and caused a newbie shooting injury. As is typical with those things she didn't know it until we saw the blood dripping.

I've got some photos too. . . but not on this computer . . . I'll add to the thread tomorrow.

 

[Ice Queen]

Bob, stop telling tales out of school.....I am sure I didn't shout that loud, and it didn't actually bleed, just went all messy. No I wasn't feeling for his 'butt' as you put it, perhaps I should have as he was rather yummy. I was putting some pictures of the 'new' snowtrac on another thread and having posted it, was suprised to see that this thread had got posts on it. Still I suppose it is afternoon over with you folks, it is 10.00 p.m. here - any snow yet Bob? There has been none here, just very hard frosts so hard work keeping breaking the ice for the animals and birds. Has the parcel reached you yet?

 

[Melensdad]

Yup we have more snow. Just a little, maybe 3" of fairly heavy snow over frozen ground.

And yes, we got the package yesterday. I'll have to take a picture of Snowball. He's wearing his vest and looks rather handsome (so says Melen) but I think dogs in cloths look like sissies.

 

[Ice Queen]

Glad the parcel arrived safely and hope that Snowball likes his vest, yes I would love to see a picture. Don't forget the measurements of the other hounds as I have sweaters in mind for them. If you have 3" of snow I bet he is glad of his vest as his coat is not very thick and I doubt if you would want to go out in the snow with only a very thin fur coat even if you were labelled as a cissy by some unfeeling people! As we are discussing Snowball I though people would like to see Santa's little helper so here goes and a couple more piccys of my visit.

 

[Melensdad]

Just to help out with the photos above, photo 1 is snowball and Melen.

Photo 2 is the Chinese "8 Dragon Wall" near the entrance to Chicago's Chinatown. We went there shortly after springing Melen free from LaRabida Children's Hospital. There are similar Dragon Walls in other parts of the world.

Photo 3 is taken from the foot bridge in Lincoln Park, looking south past the "Farm in the Zoo" portion of the Lincoln Park Zoo. Downtown Chicago, and its tall buildings are just out of the photo to the left, the tall buildings in the photo are apartment buildings in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood.

 

[Mith]

Great pictures, it looks like you all had a great time.

IQ, I'm surprised to hear you have not shot before?

 

[Doc]

Good pics Anita. Glad you had a good visit here.

 

[Ice Queen]

1. Thank you to Bob for the captions for the pictures, I am not good at that sort of thing.
2. Mith, no I have never shot a 'proper' gun before, only an air gun many years ago and my Country and Western gun which only fires blanks.
3. Doc I had a FABULOUS time and am longing to return one day. More piccys to follow, but it is too late tonight, I have been trying to find a good picture of my original snowtrac for you. Email to come to you with explanation etc.

 

[pirate_girl]

GREAT pics!!
Anita, you looked like a pro to me with the guns
I know you had a fabulous time.
.. Bob... Melen is adorable.. I hope she's doing well!

 

[Melensdad]

Some more photos of the visit...

A few shooting in the corn field behind the house and a picture in front of the old court house in Crown Point, Indiana. Notice the 10 Commandments are right on the court house property?

One thing that Anita noticed, and commented upon was the number of churches and the religious influences she saw here, compared to Wales. Just driving through the cities (from Chicago on the large size to Lowell for a glimpse of small town America) she noticed that there were churches everywhere. She attended mass at our church on Sunday after Thanksgiving and was amazed to see that almost all the seats were filled. When I was in Wales I could not find a Catholic Church, could not find any of the non-denominations type churches, basically while I was in Wales all I saw was the Anglican churches, typically 1 or 2 per larger city and none in the small towns. I found it similar around much of the UK. Although in other parts I was able to find some Catholic churches.

 

[Spiffy1]

If Anita can put those kind of looks on full grown men [officers in the first picture], I sure hope you didn't leave her alone with Melon long enough to be a bad influence!

Thanks for the great pictures, both of you! Anita with with both the yellow and hot pink rifles cracks me up.

 

[Melensdad]

If Anita can put those kind of looks on full grown men [officers in the first picture], I sure hope you didn't leave her alone with Melon long enough to be a bad influence!

Yes, Anita is a BAD GIRL around handsome young men Those two officers were totally outnumbered that night.

It was cold but she was smoking hot!!! Those guys were on traffic duty in town. We have a little "Parade of Lights" festival that runs down main street and those two were the designated officers stationed to block off the intersection where we were standing. I think she was as interested in the 'cop car' as she was in them, but I know that one of them was smitten with her Welsh/English accent. She kept trying to peek in the car to see the radios, computers, etc that the car was equipped with . . . or maybe she was scoping out the back seat to see if she could stuff the officers in there for a snuggle???

The night was fun, despite the 10-degree temperatures. Our "Parade of Lights" consists of people and organizations in town dressing up their cars, trucks, trailers, etc with Christmas lights and decorations and drive them down the street, nothing fancy, just small town fun. The lamp poles are all illuminated with decorations. The big tree at the end of the parade route is then lit for the official start of the Christmas season. Well that is the plan. As we stood in the crowd counting down 3 - 2 - 1 the tree failed to light up. Several minutes later we did another count down and still the tree failed to light. Lots of laughs. Then spontaneous Christmas caroling rang out from the crowd as people tried to pass the time in the cold night. More workmen came to the rescue and we did the countdown again for the 3rd time and again the tree did not light. While everyone was milling around trying to figure out if we should all just go home the tree finally lit, with no warning and less fan fare. It was good for a laugh.

 

[Melensdad]

I'll leave the photos of Lake Michigan and Chicago's shoreline for Anita to post, but she was very surprised to see 2 things about the lake. #1 was the size of it. She didn't realize that our lakes here are roughly the size of the Irish Sea and #2, she had never seen a lake that was so large it had big waves and tidal effects.

 

[Ice Queen]

I was amazed at the number of churches in Indiana, but I did not notice so many in Florida. Bob wasn't looking in the right places for Roman Catholic churches, they are about, but probably a bit hidden. For example, the one in Aberaeron (about six miles from me) is hidden in a back street and is a little 'tin' church, I have been once, but as I am Anglican I cannot receive communion. Most of the churches here are Methodist or Chapel and definitely not my 'cup of tea', I feel far more at home in a Roman Catholic church than I do in these and also they are not really Anglican, but Welsh, which is quite different.

Back to photos for you, some of Chicago, two of the lake, yes, I did find it difficult to realise the size of it and I certainly did not know that you could have waves on a lake, I thought that only happened to the sea. The first one is of the zoo in Chicago, well of one of the camels anyway. I will post some photos of Florida next time, but don't want to bore anyone with holiday snaps!

 

[Melensdad]

Anita, you surprised me with the camel photo. I figured you would have posted the picture of the zoo that had the tall apartment building right behind the animals!!!

Also, what about our semi-truck (you call them lories)? Anita was surprised by our double and triple trailers. We visited a truck stop one day and she talked to a driver or two, got some photos of a double trailer, but the only triple trailer we saw was on the road (and it was at a distance so no picture).

 

[American Woman]

Where were you in Florida Anita? Most smaller towns have a church on every corner You may see one Catholic Church in a town of 20 churches.
(not ALL the small towns for the argumentative lol)

 

[Melensdad]

She was in Tampa.

 

[American Woman]

She was an hour from us Tampa is a big place.

 

[Melensdad]

She was an hour from us Tampa is a big place.

Based on the Yahoo! map of where she was going, she was on the beach in one of those fancy condo units!

 

[American Woman]

Based on the Yahoo! map of where she was going, she was on the beach in one of those fancy condo units!

Well....she had a good time with out us. lol

 

[Ice Queen]

I went to Sarasota, not Tampa, Bob. I will post pictures later of this. Meanwhile in response to the comment about the trucks, a couple (three actually) of piccys for you. I was amazed at the double articulation and would have like to have had further chats with drivers of these and learned more, also to see how they hitch up. I would have loved also to have had a ride in one, or even driven one a short distance. Are they automatics or do they have a stick shift, I think that is what you call it, we would call it a manual? We only have artics (as we call them) over here or lorries and drags - these are trucks with a trailer incidentally. If you tow more than one trailer you are limited to 20 mph - a bit slow for distances, but I think the fairground people have slightly different rules, but I am not sure of this.

 

[Ice Queen]

A few more pictures for you of my visit - this time some Florida ones. The first one is the car that I drove - very scary when I didn't know your road rules and regulations and also didn't know where I was going. The second one is the rear of the house I was staying in, showing the pool, pity it was just that bit too cold for swimming, but I did paddle. The third one was taken on a trip to Myaka State Park, where I saw the vultures - in the picture - and some aligators, glad they were none of them too close to me.

 

[American Woman]

Nice pics Anita The back yard looks like one you would find in Sarasota....It's all Floriady like LOL

 

[Ice Queen]

Here's a few more. I visited the Van Wezel theatre a couple of times, once to see The Pyjama Game and the second time to a Sarasota Orchestra concert and I took the first photo from the steps of the theatre looking back towards the bridge to the Keys. I crossed that bridge, driving, every day, the second shows the bridge from Bird Key, which is where I stayed and I only walked across the road to take the picture. The last picture is the same bridge at night. Boring...? or do you want more?

 

[American Woman]

Wow....I've been here all my life, and I'm still in awe at how beautiful Florida can be. I even appriciate the scrubs.

 

[Ice Queen]

A few more photos for you - first one is another of the swimming pool where I stayed. I would have loved to have had a swim in it. The second one is the Gulf of Mexico, I picked up lots of lovely shells here and paddled in the sea. The third on is of Sarasoto from under the bridge leading to the Keys.

 

[Pigtails]

IQ,

Thank you so much for sharing those great pics. I hope you had a great time while you were in our fair country?

 

[EastTexFrank]

You drove a Jag .... you devil you!!!!!

Great pics. I hope you enjoyed your stay in our great country.