American Birthday

We then went for breakfast at the IHOP, International House Of Pancakes, which isn't actually international.

I had oaty blueberry pancakes which were really good and grainy.

I then gave Tom a birthday card that I'd made in a few rushed minutes before leaving the house.

Tom then let me have a quick look around Michael's Art & Craft store.

I always get a bit emotional in Michaels as I feel like a poor kid getting to see how the rich kids live in terms of craft supplies. If I lived in America, I'd be able to craft so much easier.

We went for a drink in the soda fountain as it was the only place open.

There were lots of cool antiques including an awesome mechanical piano.

I had a pecan praline milkshake which was delicious.

We then continued our drive down to Beaver Lake which was so pretty and peaceful.

Lady Gaga's song Cool Nebraska Guy is always on the radio and was the perfect soundtrack to our drive through the cornfields.

We then drove to a little town called Louisville which had a crazy shop.

Tom picked himself up a trucker sized drink for the road.

We then drove to the shooting range but the Nebraskan laws are a little tougher than the ones in Texas, so we'll just have to wait until we're in Austin to give it a go.

It was still fun looking around the shop though.

We then drove to Village Pointe and perked ourselves up with a coffee in the bakery.

Tom took a break from driving by playing a driving game.

We then went to see Crazy, Stupid, Love at the Rave cinema which was pretty good.

We got some photo stickers take in the photobooth.

We then went to Shirely's Diner for dinner, which was very cool and covered in retro American kitsch.

We sat at Marilyn Monroe's table but they had one for every retro American star.

We tried fried pickles for the first time which were delicious and I had a cheese Texan toast sandwich which was tasty but a little too fried for my liking.