Hello America - well the east coast

I have finally arrived in America! It took me long enough - two delayed flights - but finally I am here and really enjoying it. I spent the first few days in a lovely town Fairhaven which is south of Boston and the home of my cousin and her husband (Hi Mike and Jenny!) and it was idyllic. Fall in New England is impossible to describe but as I have no photos to post I will have to try. The colours are amazing. The trees are different shades of red, yellow and gold with a few splashes of green to remind you of what they normally look like. I took advantage of being down south to visit Martha's Vineyard. This is an island where anyone who is anyone has a house for the summer. It is not summer so the celebrities weren't there and neither were the crowds. This was a good thing but many shops shut for the winter as well so it was hard to find things that were open. It is good I was only there for the day but it was really nice to explore.
I am now in Boston for a few days and it is a great city. I went on the Freedom Trail which is a red line around the city (this is serious!!) that takes the walker to key historical sights. I opted for having a tour guide rather than self guided and it was worth it but I ended up spending most of the day following this red line. I didn't know much of the history of the War of Independence and so it was a great introduction to the city. I also went to the Science Museum which is aimed at children but was heaps of fun. I am only here for a few more days before I leave for New York. America is great. The people here are very friendly and they like Australians so once they here me talk they are always so helpful. The accent is very strange to get used to. Boston is 'Bawston' and coffee is 'cawfee' it is quite distinctive but nice.
Tomorrow I hope to see both the Museum of Modern Art and the Isabella Gardner Gallery before going to Harvard...too much? Hopefully not because I still want to see the JFK Library! So much to see and so little time!
I should say something about the election. In Europe there was barely any news about the election but for obvious reasons it is everywhere here. Almost every t.v. station has some sort of coverage of the issues or speeches and there are signs everywhere telling people to vote. It is hard to not get caught up in the whole thing and I might find that I visit a polling booth on election day and vote just for fun...or is that not allowed?