The USA Trip Diary – Part 4

The USA Travel Diary series starts HERE.

Diary Entries From 26 November to 14 December 1981

Date: 26/11/81–2/12/81

Place: New York and Boston

Weather: New York not bad. Boston cold.

Thursday 26th November. Thanksgiving.

Everything is closed as it’s a public holiday. Bart drove us to Brooklyn Heights where we had a lovely view of New York at night.

Saturday 28th November

Caught the bus to Boston. Stayed the night at the Ramada Inn.

Sunday 29th November.

Moved into a beautiful house just out of Boston. The woman who looked after us is called Rockeema. She’s 74 but she’s really young in character. She lives in this house with her husband, her daughter Jo, and Jo’s five sons.

Trenna Seckington standing in the snow with a young woman and 2 older people — “T, Papa, me, Rocky”. 6 December 1981. My understanding is that they were relatives of Toni’s.

4 boys of varying ages and their mother — “T, Papa, me, Rocky”. 6 December 1981. My understanding is that they were relatives of Toni’s.

The house is two storey with an attic and a huge cellar. They have a beautiful pool but it was just a bit cold to go for a swim.

There’s an intercom in every room and to get hot water for coffee or whatever you just turned on this tap next to the sink and boiling water came out.

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much in all my life. Rocky kept feeding us all the time.

We didn’t do much during the week apart from eating and watching TV and sleeping.

Thursday 3rd December

Caught the subway to Boston city. Bought a pair of shoes.

Friday 4th December

Went on a tour around Boston. Saw the sites of the Boston Tea Party and Harvard University and a few other sights.

Trenna pretending to pour tea off the side of an old ship. — “Boston Tea Party” 4 December 1981

Date: 5/12/81

Place: Boston

Weather: cold first snow flurry

Saturday 5th December

Caught the subway to Quincy Market (which is like what the Haymarket was like in Perth except about 50 million times bigger).

Well today it finally happened, we have seen our first glimpse of snow. Only light flurries. But enough to get wet and get us all excited like big kids.

We had a Chinese meal in Chinatown. I had sweet and sour pork and fried rice. It tasted delicious but it was completely different to Perth style Chinese food.

There was enough for four people instead of one.

This is what was in the fortune cookie.

“you may attain to wisdom if you do not assume that you already possess it”

Date: 6/12/81

Place: Boston

Weather: worst snow storm in three years

Sunday 6th December

I looked out the window when I woke and the site I saw was like looking at a Christmas card. There was snow everywhere.

Toni and I rugged up and went outside. We played chasie with the dog, or tried to. The snow was 2 feet deep. We had snowball fights and tried to pull each other along in a sled, what a joke!

Trenna going down a snowy slope on a small sled — “Sledding”. 6 December 1981

Trenna making a snowball the size of a bowling ball — “Sledding”. 6 December 1981

We tried to build a snowman that we didn’t seem to have the knack. We had such a good time today we laughed until we were in pain.

We were supposed to leave for Niagara Falls today but we were kind of snowed in. Most of the evening and night we spent sitting in front of the most glorious log fire drinking hot chocolate and marshmallows.

I wrote all my Christmas cards today.

Monday 7th December

We went to the local shops and bought Rocky a floral centrepiece as a thank you for having us. We started to walk home through the snow and several times nearly slipped. It was quite an ordeal.

Luckily Jo was passing in her van and we got a lift. Although the snow was still thick, the street had been cleared so we would be able to leave today.

Rocky took us to the Greyhound station and she got quite upset to see us go.

Date: 8/12/81

Place: Niagara Falls, Canada

Weather: cold, light snow

Tuesday 8th December

Arrived Niagara Falls around 9:30 am. Within about one minute we had a taxi, hotel and a tour.

Me and my head spun. I feel we got ripped off. The tour bus picked us up from the hotel at 11 am. I wish I had remembered to take a photo of the bus (if you can call it that) it was an old school bus, and I mean old.

The best part of the tour was when we donned raincoats and big rubber boots to go through these tunnels under the falls. I had a yellow raincoat and Toni had a black one. She looked like Mother Superior and I can imagine what I looked like.

2 young women in wet weather gear in front of a wall of water — Trenna and Toni in front of Niagara Falls, Canada on 8 December 1981

Trenna in an oversized yellow raincoat — Trenna and Toni in front of Niagara Falls, Canada on 8 December 1981

I couldn’t stop laughing and when we did laugh it echoed through the tunnels. Which made us laugh even more.

I lost my newly purchased hat somewhere on the tour.

Date: 8/12/81 – 10/12/81

Place: Niagara Falls and Sania

Weather: Eskimo style

Wednesday 9th December

Checked out a few shops. Nothing much.

Date: 10/12/81 – 12/12/81

Place: Sania

Weather: still snowing

Thursday 10th December

Caught several buses to Sarnia. We arrived at about 8 pm. The bus station there was closed but the bus driver opened it for me to ring Mark.

He wasn’t home so we went to the cafe next door. After about half an hour I finally found Mark at home. He said he had already been to the bus station, train station.

He came back and picked us up. I must say I was surprised he was better looking than I had expected. But nothing to go crazy about. We went back to his place and then we went to a pub.

When we came home Toni went to bed and Mark and I sat up and talked till 7 in the morning.

Trenna sitting in doors with a young man. — “Mark pen pal Sarnia, Ontario”. 14 December 1981

Friday 11th December

Mark drove us to his parent’s place in Wyoming. We met one of his brothers and his sister. We then went to the same pub as the previous night with Mark’s sister and her boyfriend. Mark’s birthday is 30th of August.

Saturday 12th December

Mark drove us down and around the lakes then we went to his older sister’s place for a few drinks. Mark had to go to a wedding tonight so his sister and her boyfriend took us to see John (Mark’s oldest brother) play ice hockey in Detroit.

He plays for Buffalo. They won 4 to 2 it was a great game. I really had fun.

The stadium wasn’t full but there was still about 14,000 people there.

An ice hockey match taken from a spectators point of view. — “Detroit pro Hockey- Buffalo John” 12 December 1981.

When we went back to Sarnia we nearly didn’t get back into Canada. We were given a bit of a hard time at the border but we finally got through.

We went back to Mary’s (Mark’s sister) and gate crashed her party. It was fun.

Sunday 13th December

We just sat at Mark’s place. We were supposed to leave Sarnia today but Mark didn’t return from the wedding until about 7 pm. Long wedding or what.

We bought a pizza then again Mark and I stayed up chatting until about five in the morning.

Monday 14th December

Didn’t do anything during the day except talk again. Mark and his friend Rob drove us to London to catch the bus to New York. We just made it.

A delightful, snow covered 2 story house — “Our home with Tony’s Boston rellies”. 6 December 1981.

3 replies on “The USA Trip Diary – Part 4”

Was Mark a penpal of Tren’s or was he a friend of Colin’s whom he’d met on a kibbutz??
Lovely to read about Tren’s excitement as she experienced new sights 😻

Or, was he both? Perhaps Colin, who seems to read every post can clarify that. I had forgotten Trenna told me about the kibbutz connection.
I have some recollection that when Trenna’s brother was in a kibbutz, someone, presumably Mark, had asked for contact details of someone to be a pen pal. Colin gave him Tren’s details. The caption “Mark pen pal Sarnia, Ontario” is Trenna’s words.

Let’s hope Colin can shed more light on this query 😊