Making Memories

As is our want, roughly a year ago, Malcolm and I started planning a trip to the States, for Thanksgiving, a time of year we really enjoy in America to include a trip to New York, one of our favourite cities. Our plan was to spend Thanksgiving in Washington with an American friend of Malcolm‘s from his time at American University, to experience a proper American Thanksgiving and then to move on to Leeds University friends of ours from England who now live in America, for Shabbat.

The plan was then to go onto New York, however, we thought it was a shame to go to the States and not include a new destination in our trip. So, as we wanted to use a British Airways companion voucher, we decided to fly BA direct to Nashville and then on to Memphis to visit Graceland, the home of one of Malcolm’s favourite singers Elvis Presley, before travelling to Washington. When Malcolm noticed that Andrea Bocelli, whom we had seen a couple of years earlier in Tel Aviv, was playing in Las Vegas a week after Thanksgiving, he wondered if I fancied going to Vegas instead of New York for the concert. Well, geography never was my strong point and I thought, of course, why not, not realising that going to Vegas from Washington was the equivalent of going from Israel to almost anywhere in Europe to see him, so what started out as a simple two destination holiday became somewhat more complex. 

As I have said in a previous blog, the hazard of booking trips in advance is that plans can change and as the date grew closer we had resigned ourselves to not being able to go.  Tzvi had been called up on first day of Rosh Hashanah, at the beginning of October, and was on the Syrian border on Mount Herman. Without a date for when he would be coming back there was no way we were going to go leave Gila for three weeks, nor would we want to be so far away if we had to come back in an emergency. We would still spend a week in England as planned, as we had a wedding and wanted to see the family, but then we wouldn’t go onto the States. However, we all got lucky and two weeks before we were due to leave Tzvi was released and was told that he wouldn’t be required again till March. More of that at the end of the blog.

To add to the craziness of our holiday, British Airways cancelled our direct flight to Nashville a few weeks before we were due to leave with no alternative offered. We did manage to book a flight to Nashville via Chicago just adding one more destination to the trip!  A number of doom mongers had said there was no way our hour and a half change over in Chicago would be enough time, especially as we had to collect our bags, go through American passport control and go to another terminal, and other doom mongers said there wasn’t enough to do in Las Vegas for a week and that they had hated it. Not terribly helpful, but more of that later.

We had a lovely week in London with a lot of family time and the wedding, although not time for much else and we set off rather nervously on Monday for our trip to Chicago. Miraculously our flight was an hour early and we sailed through American security and made our connecting flight to Nashville with time to spare. Neither Malcolm nor I are country music fans, although I have always been partial to Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, but we are sufficiently aware of it to be able to appreciate and enjoy Nashville. It has an interesting mix of modern and old architecture and Main Street is lined with bars and restaurants, each of which have a live band playing and most of which have windows opening out onto the street so passers-by can stop and listen.  It was a cacophony of noise but a really fun experience. Most of the other shops were selling cowboy boots and souvenirs. We spent a morning at the Country Music Hall of Fame which was absolutely fantastic.  

We had picked up a car at Nashville Airport so the next day we drove to Memphis staying in the Graceland Hotel which is opposite Graceland itself.  I was a bit disappointed as I expected it to be really kitsch and full of Elvis memorabilia but actually it was just a perfectly nice ordinary hotel.  The next day we started our Graceland tour. I don’t think you have to be a huge Elvis fan to find it very interesting, albeit sad, and as you would expect it was all presented extremely well. The house and gardens with an audio commentary was fascinating but additionally there were several museums on the site across the road from Graceland, covering his car collection, his time in the army, his movie career, his costumes and his two planes!  We spent pretty much the whole day there and went straight from there to Memphis Airport so we didn’t actually see Memphis itself at all!

Our few days in Washington were everything we had hoped they would be, catching up with old friends and spending quality time together. Glen and Carol Bolger hosted us for Thanksgiving dinner with their family. Carol put on a fabulous spread and Glen roasted the turkey in an hour and a half on the barbecue.  To be part of a family gathering was very meaningful and we all gave thanks for our blessings.  

From there we went on to our friends Jonny and Gilly Cannon who after initially starting married life in London then moved to Hong Kong ,and from there to Washington. We have managed to visit them in all of their homes and have stayed with them in DC on several occasions.  As always, it was so comfortable to be with such long-standing friends and Friday night dinner with two of their sons was also an opportunity to give thanks.

And so on to Las Vegas where we had been told a week was far too long to spend there and had also been warned that it was Sodom and Gomorra, but where we only just had enough time to fit everything in. We loved it!

Aside from the strip which is obviously very garish with enormous crazy hotels, the city itself is surrounded by low-level suburbs and beautiful mountains, and waking up every day to the view of the mountains was a real pleasure.  The weather was very mild so we had lovely blue skies for most of our week. We have also hired a car in Vegas, treating ourselves to an open top Mustang, and had really excellent trips out to Death Valley.......................

the Grand Canyon...........................................

... and the Hoover Dam.

We saw absolutely fabulous shows.  Andrea Bocelli was as good as we expected, but we were also recommended by a friend (shout out to Mandy who also loves Vegas) to go and see Barry Manilow! Yes he is 81, but I had enjoyed his music when I was a teenager and Malcolm was happy to indulge me. He was absolutely brilliant. Malcolm was in complete agreement that he put on a really good show and his voice is still superb. He may be very plastic and quite stiff when moving, but it was a really great evening.

I think my favourite show, however, was the Cirque du Soleil.  I was just blown away by it. Being an acrobat was one of my childhood dreams. I may have fulfilled my dream to be a librarian but I was only ever an ok gymnast (although I loved it) but struggled to reach level 2 of BAGA.  I have no intention of even attempting to fulfil that dream, but I just loved loved loved the acrobatics, the high wire, the balancing and the trampolines.  It was absolutely magic and I would travel the world again to see it.

We were told we must go to the Sphere, which is the largest spherical building in the world, but didn’t have a spare evening to go to a show there so we saw a movie.  Amazing.  IMax on steroids.

We obviously made time for some shopping in outlet malls and enjoyed some of the Kosher restaurants.  People have asked what the highlight was of our trip, but it was such a good trip overall that I don’t think I could choose one.  However, having said that, the experience that I have thought most about since our return was the joy and wonder of seeing and experiencing people living different lives to us. A few days after we arrived in Vegas, The National Rodeo Finals came to town and Las Vegas was suddenly filled with cowboys and cowgirls.  Apparently over the five days they were expecting 170,000 people for the rodeo.  The taxi drivers said they love the cowboys because they’re very polite and they spend a lot of money. They all wore magnificent cowboy hats and splendid boots, both the men and women, they were all smartly dressed and beautifully turned out.

Talking to the taxi drivers who lived in Vegas, seeing cowboys everywhere we went, spending time in our American friends' homes… it was just such a wonderful glimpse into lives different from our own. And as for the gambling, well we actually spent $20 on the fruit machines and that was it for us! But saying Vegas is dreadful is a bit like saying you should never go into a bar or a pub. Yes, it is tragic that some people ruin their life gambling but I think for a lot of people there, they were just having fun and I’m a huge advocate of having fun.

The children were very good and managed not to disturb our holiday with any dramas although we were upset to hear that Tzvi’s unit will be called back to the Syrian border on 1st January.  He has spent over half this year in the army and whilst physically it’s very hard and emotionally exhausting for him, it’s also a terrible strain on Gila and Eliya. All the more reason to make the most of his time at home and we were glad that we had made another slightly crazy decision to go back to England for Chanukah taking Gila and family with us, even though it meant we were only at home for 10 days before packing up again!  With Alexander also joining us for a few days it will be the first time we have all been together since June.

It's been over two years since Gila and co. have been in the UK so there is a lot of family to see but the rare confluence of Xmas and Chanukah means that everyone is around.  Mum's birthday is Xmas day so it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Gila and Tzvi really need a change of scene and a holiday. Whilst this holiday won't be a rest for us the memories will be worth it. As our lovely friend Natanya said to me on Shabbat prior to her birthday trip to England with her children, their partners and grandchildren - sometimes it's just about making memories.

Wishing every one a happy, healthy and peaceful Chanukah, Christmas and New Year.