Oh my word. It's nearly the end. And as much as I misseveryoneand I don't want to offend you... I don't want to come home! :( waaaaah!
So what I hear you ask have we been up to over the past week... Well if I'm honest a whole load of nothing! It's been GLORIOUS!
We flew into LAX last Sunday and after getting a bus (or three) we got to the house on the beach. It's so adorable. Tiny. Right on the sand. Tiki themed room. It's great.
We have spent most of our days just hanging out at the house/on the beach listening to the waves, reading, playing on the iPad, and just generally lolling about. We have ventured out... We went to the grocery store to but bits for the week (I made a chilli and pasta with sauce, nothing too adventurous. We are on holiday after all!) and we went outfor pizza and burgers. (Of course we did)
We have strolled up and down Venice broad walk, wandered through the canals, watched the sunset on multiple evenings, played a lot of gin rummy and poker. It's been lovely. I love not having an alarm set and waking up when I wake up. (Normally quite late... 11.30am so 7.30pm at home haha)
We have had one day out where we doug out our backpacks again and went to Hollywood. It was a bit rubbish but it's been ticked off my bucket list. Saw the sign and the walk of fame. Didn't see much else because you walk around continually looking down to see if you recognise anybody else's names (generally I didn't) we saw Robin Williams star which was so sad. :(
Then we missioned over (on another bus) to the dodgers stadium to watch a game of baseball... Being British we were 3 hours early... So we bought a foam finger, hotdog and soda and grabbed a seat to wait (un)patiently for the start. So I hate sports but it was really fun being in the crowd. We sadly hadn't got the memo to wear blue and stuck out like the British sore thumbs we were... But I super enjoyed myself and the fireworks at the end. Although the 2 hour bus journey back with a miles walk to the house wasn't sooooo great...
The gays from modern family were there... That was fun...
So anyway... We have one and a half days left on the beach followed by a long journey backf to London on Tuesday (arriving Wednesday) and I just don't want to leave. :(
Although it's going to be awesome to see all of the wonderful faces I've missed over the past two months!
Xxxxxxxxx Jess
Sunday, 24 August 2014
Saturday, 16 August 2014
The city by the bay
I love Vegas. I probably shouldn't, as it goes against my personality traits. But there's something about the place that entices me in. Perhaps I'm a sucker for bright lights. Either way, it is somewhere I recommend everyone should go at least once.
As with my previous two visits, the city is temporarily holding some of my money until I come back to win it back from them... I lost some playing poker (standard) but thoroughly enjoyed the buzz of playing alongside human beings again. The highlight was seeing a petulant early 20s kid throwing his empty can of Red Bull in the air when he lost his remaining tournament chips. Lovely lad I'm sure.
Didn't play much by way of table games. Lost about $30 at Roulette. Jess already mentioned her exploits at video poker. We also also played some video craps, but I still do not really understand the game!
We visited old Vegas, Fremont Street. Definitely a different vibe to the strip, but good fun and cheaper, which is nice for the money-conscious visitor.
Took an internal flight to San Francisco. Only took 90 minutes, which after some of our epic train journeys, was a nice change! The bus from the airport to the hotel took an hour, but for $2, cannot moan! Our hostel isn't great, but better than the cockroach room in Orlando. Thankfully the shower is 3 steps outside the room.
As with a few other places, we have been on some walking tours, using the 'Free tours by foot' company, where you tip at the end based on what you think it was worth and what you can afford. Chinatown tour was very interesting. Went into a Buddhist shrine, passed dozens of tat tourist shops, learnt a lot of history of the Chinese in San Fran (biggest Chinese population outside Asia), saw groups of old men playing cards and generally holding court in a park (I can see me doing the same when I retire) and saw a woman hand-making fortune cookies! Also passed through Little Italy and saw places where the Beat Generation (Jack Kerouac et al.) wrote and performed.
The next day we were guinea pigs on an inaugural Haight-Ashbury tour, which is/was hippy central. Less interesting tbh. Did go in a cool record store.
Our final tour was an all-in-one city tour, of which we only did half as the second part covered Chinatown again. We saw a lot of wedding parties at city hall, the interior of which was stunning.
San Fran has an interesting aboveground public transport system. Every form is either electric or bio-diesel. Some of the buses run on overhead electric wires which the geek in me finds strangely intriguing. The F line is a cable car which is hugely unreliable, but seemingly only in one direction (one couple waited 45 minutes when it is supposed to be every 5-12). By far the coolest is the cable car that goes up and down the hills of the city. The views are awesome plus it is very quaint. It is also the only US national historic landmark that moves...
We got a CityPass again (got one in Chicago). It included free public transport, which was a bonus. We went to the Exploratorium, which was as cool as it sounds. Lots of kids as it was a kid-focused place, but lots of neat interesting interactive exhibits, including some funky hand-eye coordination stuff. We created ice in a vacuum (ok, the machine did it, but we pushed the buttons!).
The California Academy of Science was another excellent museum, mainly for its mock-rainforest section, with its dozens of butterflies and other cool creatures. Jess got some good photos whilst I was busy turning and twisting to follow the butterflies! They had a skull exhibit, which was freaky but engaging at the same time. The size of certain animal skulls is quite surprising.
Finally today we went on a 90 minute cruise around San Francisco bay, taking in views of the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz. Seeing the top of the bridge disappear into the clouds was another cool sight, as was the unforgiving surroundings of Alcatraz. No wonder nobody escaped! Last on the city pass was a small aquarium on pier 39 (huge tourist trap) which was a lot better than expected, mainly due to two 25 metre-ish tunnel tanks full of rays, sharks and starfish. I touched a ray and a starfish in a different tank. Slimy!
Tomorrow we head back to the airport and head to our final stop, Los Angeles. Not much in the way of plans. The obligatory wander around Hollywood, plus an LA Dodgers baseball game. Jess wants to get a foam finger, a la mid 90s Gladiators!
Mike
As with my previous two visits, the city is temporarily holding some of my money until I come back to win it back from them... I lost some playing poker (standard) but thoroughly enjoyed the buzz of playing alongside human beings again. The highlight was seeing a petulant early 20s kid throwing his empty can of Red Bull in the air when he lost his remaining tournament chips. Lovely lad I'm sure.
Didn't play much by way of table games. Lost about $30 at Roulette. Jess already mentioned her exploits at video poker. We also also played some video craps, but I still do not really understand the game!
We visited old Vegas, Fremont Street. Definitely a different vibe to the strip, but good fun and cheaper, which is nice for the money-conscious visitor.
Took an internal flight to San Francisco. Only took 90 minutes, which after some of our epic train journeys, was a nice change! The bus from the airport to the hotel took an hour, but for $2, cannot moan! Our hostel isn't great, but better than the cockroach room in Orlando. Thankfully the shower is 3 steps outside the room.
As with a few other places, we have been on some walking tours, using the 'Free tours by foot' company, where you tip at the end based on what you think it was worth and what you can afford. Chinatown tour was very interesting. Went into a Buddhist shrine, passed dozens of tat tourist shops, learnt a lot of history of the Chinese in San Fran (biggest Chinese population outside Asia), saw groups of old men playing cards and generally holding court in a park (I can see me doing the same when I retire) and saw a woman hand-making fortune cookies! Also passed through Little Italy and saw places where the Beat Generation (Jack Kerouac et al.) wrote and performed.
The next day we were guinea pigs on an inaugural Haight-Ashbury tour, which is/was hippy central. Less interesting tbh. Did go in a cool record store.
Our final tour was an all-in-one city tour, of which we only did half as the second part covered Chinatown again. We saw a lot of wedding parties at city hall, the interior of which was stunning.
San Fran has an interesting aboveground public transport system. Every form is either electric or bio-diesel. Some of the buses run on overhead electric wires which the geek in me finds strangely intriguing. The F line is a cable car which is hugely unreliable, but seemingly only in one direction (one couple waited 45 minutes when it is supposed to be every 5-12). By far the coolest is the cable car that goes up and down the hills of the city. The views are awesome plus it is very quaint. It is also the only US national historic landmark that moves...
We got a CityPass again (got one in Chicago). It included free public transport, which was a bonus. We went to the Exploratorium, which was as cool as it sounds. Lots of kids as it was a kid-focused place, but lots of neat interesting interactive exhibits, including some funky hand-eye coordination stuff. We created ice in a vacuum (ok, the machine did it, but we pushed the buttons!).
The California Academy of Science was another excellent museum, mainly for its mock-rainforest section, with its dozens of butterflies and other cool creatures. Jess got some good photos whilst I was busy turning and twisting to follow the butterflies! They had a skull exhibit, which was freaky but engaging at the same time. The size of certain animal skulls is quite surprising.
Finally today we went on a 90 minute cruise around San Francisco bay, taking in views of the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz. Seeing the top of the bridge disappear into the clouds was another cool sight, as was the unforgiving surroundings of Alcatraz. No wonder nobody escaped! Last on the city pass was a small aquarium on pier 39 (huge tourist trap) which was a lot better than expected, mainly due to two 25 metre-ish tunnel tanks full of rays, sharks and starfish. I touched a ray and a starfish in a different tank. Slimy!
Tomorrow we head back to the airport and head to our final stop, Los Angeles. Not much in the way of plans. The obligatory wander around Hollywood, plus an LA Dodgers baseball game. Jess wants to get a foam finger, a la mid 90s Gladiators!
Mike
Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Hanging about Houston and living it large in Las Vegas
Last time I blogged I was sat in a cafe in New Orleans... It took so long to write! I thought I'd fit it in this time when I had time to spare. We are currently sat in a small mini bus on our way back to vegas from the Grand Canyon. We went on a sunset tour and it did NOT disappoint! :D
But before we get to that I'll run through a few bits and bobs we have done in the last week.
We left the coffee shop in search of fried chicken and ended up going to a place that the internet had suggested in the French quarter, it was a grimey bar where you don't want to think about the kitchen. It had long benches that you'd share with fellow patrons and it was pretty Grimm.. But the chicken was amazing and came with a side of duck jambalaya which was so good! I couldn't fault it. I think it's called Coles? I dunno it was a while ago!
The next day we walked a mile back to the bus station with our heavy backpacks and queued to get on the bus. After my last experience of the greyhound in America my expectations where not high... But if I'm honest it wasn't that bad! I mean the driver was a hilarious woman with a whole load of sass... The air con broke for the last few hours. But really it was fine (it was only an eight hours journey so only got chucked off the bus once. Which was a nice change)
We got into Houston and mike had googled how to get to the hostel on a bus so we went a few blocks away and the bus came pretty swiftly. It only cost 1.25 to ride(80p)!! It was awesome. It took 10 minutes and we had a short one block walk to the hostel.
We stayed at the Morty rich? It's a Hostel International and it was lush. It's apparently the 2nd best hi in the world. It had a pool and a lush garden, a pool table, breakfast included and was just super chilled out. Apparently it's an ex mayor house so it's a big lovely mansion. We were staying in the old guesthouse out the back and had our own balcony and bathroom. It was so awesome, even so when the air con broke (does anyone sense a theme, either I'm getting more laid back or mike has spiked my food with happy pills haha because I haven't been too bothered by these events)
Now Houston was always going to be a lazy stop where we did hardly anything... And it was exactly that. We even couldn't be bothered to go to the space station... It was like 2hours on a bus and fairly expensive. Instead we slept in late, hung out by the pool and on the balcony reading, watching films and just generally recharging our very exhausted battery's. It was - if I'm honest....BLISS.
We did venture out for a meal or two. One was a complete amazing find. It was the first night and after a whole day on the coach I was in no mood to cook so I looked on Google maps at close restaurants. I couldn't see any BBQ places... Go figure... But I did see a well rated Greek place. After deciding we wouldn't mide some falafel we set out to walk the whole 4 blocks.
Now the night before in new Orleans we had been flicking and diners drive in and dives had come on. It was this little greek place just outside Houston that apparently did the best honey glazed doughnuts. I thought awh that's too far out for us to visit. And kept flicking.
So we walked into this place and the queue is 20 people long, I'm not exaggerating, it was huge! And whose picture is sined and on the wall?! Only Guy Fieri! It was the same place! Spooky. I asked the people behind us in the queue what to get and they all said the pork without hesitation. It was the best pork I have possibly ever tasted. The falafel where good too! But the baklava and honey lemon doughnuts will forever stay in my amazing food memory brain section. PheNOMenal!
So being in Texas I was pretty adamant about getting BBQ. We missioned on 2 buses to get to the place I had read about that was fairly close by. It was amazing. I had brisket and mike had spicy pork. The smokey flavour was killer. So intense. The hot sauce was amazing. It was just so good. I love me some BBQ. The staff were awesome too. They gave USA voucher to use for a free meal if we went back within the month. And we would have to if it hadn't been our last day there. Gutted.
I made mike get a haircut. A TEXAN HAIRCUT. It's the same as a British one but it was done in Texas...
Then we made our way over tithe airport. Again on buses. So reliable and cheap! And hopped on a flight to VEGAS BABY!
So vegas is everything you read about. It's loud, crude, in your face, hot, and Um wow AMAZING.
I have learnt a few things here.
1. I like video poker.
2. So does mike.
3. I am lucky when I play video poker.
4. Mike isn't.
5. I have an addictive personality.
6. I'm really glad mike set a daily gambling limit.
7. Vegas is fun.
8. Mike enjoys poker.
9. Mike doesn't win poker.
10. Mike plays poker for fun.
11. Knees burn regardless of how much sun tan lotion you use.
So mostly we have mooched about gambling on occasion.... I managed to turn 5 dollars ona poker machine into 115... Which was pretty cool. I luckily got 4 aces and a 3 which gives you 400 times what you bet. I'd bet a quarter. Hahaa it was pretty cool. I was in shock for like 30 minutes just kinda like what just happened?!?! Haha I LOVE VEGAS.
We went out to celebrate... Hah. So much fun.
12. I'm getting very old when it comes to partying... Not sure I can handle it.
We went to Zarkana Cirque du Soleil. Uhhhhh amazing. These acrobats end are insane!
We have eaten pretty awesome food too. French food (as we are staying in Paris) which is just butter and a heart attack on a plate. NOM.
We went to hash house a go go. Epic food. Just epic. Thanks bec and dave for the suggestion!
AND TODAY... We went to the Grand Canyon.
Now I wanted to go on a helicopter. Buuuuuuut on closer inspection of reviews and costs I was ultimately put off. It was like 350 dollars each for 45 minutes in the air. Now I know that in vegas people chuck away money on machines but to knowingly throw away that much money on not much..... No.
Instead we posted for a 16 hour round trip with a guide, a glorified mini van, a picnic and a whole load of extra awesome.
For less than one helicopter ride we got picked up, given a maccy ds brekkie, shown Hoover dam, driven down Route 66 and stopped at the place of inspiration for the film Cars, a picnic, entry to the national park, a hike with guide and a whole load of photo opportunities. The guide is awesome and knows so much.
It has been so worth the money and so much more. The best part is that it's only ever 10 guest son the tour. So it was personal and all the questions answered.
We went for sunset, and even though it was cloudy it was majestic and just stunning.
WOW!
We are so lucky to have the chance to do this. Wow.
Until next time xxxxxxx
Jess
But before we get to that I'll run through a few bits and bobs we have done in the last week.
We left the coffee shop in search of fried chicken and ended up going to a place that the internet had suggested in the French quarter, it was a grimey bar where you don't want to think about the kitchen. It had long benches that you'd share with fellow patrons and it was pretty Grimm.. But the chicken was amazing and came with a side of duck jambalaya which was so good! I couldn't fault it. I think it's called Coles? I dunno it was a while ago!
The next day we walked a mile back to the bus station with our heavy backpacks and queued to get on the bus. After my last experience of the greyhound in America my expectations where not high... But if I'm honest it wasn't that bad! I mean the driver was a hilarious woman with a whole load of sass... The air con broke for the last few hours. But really it was fine (it was only an eight hours journey so only got chucked off the bus once. Which was a nice change)
We got into Houston and mike had googled how to get to the hostel on a bus so we went a few blocks away and the bus came pretty swiftly. It only cost 1.25 to ride(80p)!! It was awesome. It took 10 minutes and we had a short one block walk to the hostel.
We stayed at the Morty rich? It's a Hostel International and it was lush. It's apparently the 2nd best hi in the world. It had a pool and a lush garden, a pool table, breakfast included and was just super chilled out. Apparently it's an ex mayor house so it's a big lovely mansion. We were staying in the old guesthouse out the back and had our own balcony and bathroom. It was so awesome, even so when the air con broke (does anyone sense a theme, either I'm getting more laid back or mike has spiked my food with happy pills haha because I haven't been too bothered by these events)
Now Houston was always going to be a lazy stop where we did hardly anything... And it was exactly that. We even couldn't be bothered to go to the space station... It was like 2hours on a bus and fairly expensive. Instead we slept in late, hung out by the pool and on the balcony reading, watching films and just generally recharging our very exhausted battery's. It was - if I'm honest....BLISS.
We did venture out for a meal or two. One was a complete amazing find. It was the first night and after a whole day on the coach I was in no mood to cook so I looked on Google maps at close restaurants. I couldn't see any BBQ places... Go figure... But I did see a well rated Greek place. After deciding we wouldn't mide some falafel we set out to walk the whole 4 blocks.
Now the night before in new Orleans we had been flicking and diners drive in and dives had come on. It was this little greek place just outside Houston that apparently did the best honey glazed doughnuts. I thought awh that's too far out for us to visit. And kept flicking.
So we walked into this place and the queue is 20 people long, I'm not exaggerating, it was huge! And whose picture is sined and on the wall?! Only Guy Fieri! It was the same place! Spooky. I asked the people behind us in the queue what to get and they all said the pork without hesitation. It was the best pork I have possibly ever tasted. The falafel where good too! But the baklava and honey lemon doughnuts will forever stay in my amazing food memory brain section. PheNOMenal!
So being in Texas I was pretty adamant about getting BBQ. We missioned on 2 buses to get to the place I had read about that was fairly close by. It was amazing. I had brisket and mike had spicy pork. The smokey flavour was killer. So intense. The hot sauce was amazing. It was just so good. I love me some BBQ. The staff were awesome too. They gave USA voucher to use for a free meal if we went back within the month. And we would have to if it hadn't been our last day there. Gutted.
I made mike get a haircut. A TEXAN HAIRCUT. It's the same as a British one but it was done in Texas...
Then we made our way over tithe airport. Again on buses. So reliable and cheap! And hopped on a flight to VEGAS BABY!
So vegas is everything you read about. It's loud, crude, in your face, hot, and Um wow AMAZING.
I have learnt a few things here.
1. I like video poker.
2. So does mike.
3. I am lucky when I play video poker.
4. Mike isn't.
5. I have an addictive personality.
6. I'm really glad mike set a daily gambling limit.
7. Vegas is fun.
8. Mike enjoys poker.
9. Mike doesn't win poker.
10. Mike plays poker for fun.
11. Knees burn regardless of how much sun tan lotion you use.
So mostly we have mooched about gambling on occasion.... I managed to turn 5 dollars ona poker machine into 115... Which was pretty cool. I luckily got 4 aces and a 3 which gives you 400 times what you bet. I'd bet a quarter. Hahaa it was pretty cool. I was in shock for like 30 minutes just kinda like what just happened?!?! Haha I LOVE VEGAS.
We went out to celebrate... Hah. So much fun.
12. I'm getting very old when it comes to partying... Not sure I can handle it.
We went to Zarkana Cirque du Soleil. Uhhhhh amazing. These acrobats end are insane!
We have eaten pretty awesome food too. French food (as we are staying in Paris) which is just butter and a heart attack on a plate. NOM.
We went to hash house a go go. Epic food. Just epic. Thanks bec and dave for the suggestion!
AND TODAY... We went to the Grand Canyon.
Now I wanted to go on a helicopter. Buuuuuuut on closer inspection of reviews and costs I was ultimately put off. It was like 350 dollars each for 45 minutes in the air. Now I know that in vegas people chuck away money on machines but to knowingly throw away that much money on not much..... No.
Instead we posted for a 16 hour round trip with a guide, a glorified mini van, a picnic and a whole load of extra awesome.
For less than one helicopter ride we got picked up, given a maccy ds brekkie, shown Hoover dam, driven down Route 66 and stopped at the place of inspiration for the film Cars, a picnic, entry to the national park, a hike with guide and a whole load of photo opportunities. The guide is awesome and knows so much.
It has been so worth the money and so much more. The best part is that it's only ever 10 guest son the tour. So it was personal and all the questions answered.
We went for sunset, and even though it was cloudy it was majestic and just stunning.
WOW!
We are so lucky to have the chance to do this. Wow.
Until next time xxxxxxx
Jess
Location:Houston and Vegas
Saturday, 2 August 2014
Harry Potter and the really awful journey to the most awesome city on the planet (I know best title ever)
Right. I've been getting a bit behind when it comes to blogging. So are you ready for a monster blog?!
Fine. You asked for it....
So mike finished with us getting to Orlando I think... Now for some reason we have been following bad weather down the east coast. I think we just miss home and the rain ;)
So we arrived in the amtrak station in Orlando. I'd had an email from out hotel telling us it was just a short bus ride to them. So me being me was like well that will cost is nothing!! Let's do that. Firstly locating the bus stop was a bit of a nightmare. It was a singular sign post, facing the road, and on some grass. Not even with pavement slabs or anything... Also it just said the number not the bus name etc so yeah... Secondly the grass was covered in ants.gross. We ha been told by a savvy taxi man trying to get out custom a huge lie. He said there were no buses on the weekends. What a joker!! Although this started to make me worry there wasn't one coming. It was also the middle of the afternoon an the "bus stop" had no shelter. A storm was looming but at that point it was muggy and really sunny. We waited for 25 minutes before I have in and called the phone number on the internet to find out if a bus was due. I was told they are hourly and one was due in 10-15 minutes. Once the bus did arrive I felt as if we were the only tourists to ever have embarke on a bus journey in Orlando. The locals stared at us like we were crazy people. Maybe next time we will just get a taxi.... All thought we did save 24 dollars by getting the bus. It took about an hour, half an hour in the heavens opened and it peed the place down.... All I kept doing was hoping it would stop by our stop!! Luckily it did. Hooray. Only to start again as we walked the couple of blocks to our hotel.
I don't think I want to call it a hotel. It was more like a grosstel. If you have ever expirienced a days inn you may understand our circumstances. It was a motel complex and cost us about 35 dollars a night (including breakfast) so I wasn't expecting much and I was right to not. It was basic and still quite dirty in the bathroom. It was mouldy and yeah a bit gross. Now as we weren't planning on spending much time here I wasn't too bothered BUT.... On the second night after returning back from the parks I found cockroaches in the bathroom.... BESMKDJDBDKSKSHDNSSI so so so gross. Mike killed so many but a few got away. The worst part was I really needed a shower. :( I did have one only to see another cockroach on the wall, I freaked out and jumped out straightaway. I didn't condition my hair that night. Ergh. At least we never have to stay there again....
Anyway the whole reason for our stop in Orlando was purely to indulge me. Mike hates theme park rides. So um yeah selfishly I still booked us to go to Orlando. I've been wanting to visit disney for forever... But a few years back when they opened Harry Potter in Universal studios my dreams changed. An when they announced that the park now had another part opening for Harry Potter the trip changed to include the extra stop. WAAAAAH I <3 HP!!
So we (I) devised a plan. Having already downloaded the wait times app I had been keeping an eye on the times to see what the best option for the brand new harry potter ride would be. The wait had consistently read 2 hours plus. I decided to do it first. Get it out of the way so that I could then go on loads with less of a wait time. We got up at 6.30 and grabbed breakfast (it was pants so we didn't have it again) an made our way over for the 8am opening. I hadn't mentioned that our hotel had one good thing... It's proximity to the universal resort (like 3 blocks) but it was a fair walk as the parks do to start on the edge of the resort obvs. We headed straight to the ride. It said there was a 2 hour wait.... HOW?! Lol rage. So we bagan to wait. Not if you know met you'll know I'll talk to anyone about anything and knowing that this queue would be a fair wait I decided to start chatting to the family in front of us. I knew we would get along (anyone who heads straight to the harry potter ride first is an easy bet on being the coolest people in the park ;D) and it turns out this family were pretty cool. Which was a good thing as the ride started to break down... We ended up waiting 4 hours!! By which point we had talked a lot!! One of the girls had to leave to catch a flight and the mum drove her, the other girl (Berrit) decided to hang on and keep waiting (it had been like 3+ hours already) and I said we would mind hanging out and keeping her company. As mike was a wuss and didn't want to go on anything exciting it was ace as I got to have a ride buddy!!
Now if you like harry potter you will love the park. The dragon coasters are awesome and the simulated ride are amazingly hi tech and pretty impressive!! You can eat in the leaky cauldron and the three broom sticks, ride the hogwarts express an generally just bask in it's awesomeness. :D loved it. I want to move in. One other glitch of the first day... I got stuck on the ride in the castle for about an hour. It was pretty hilarious as I was a turn away from the end an just stuck without a phone an generally just dangling. Hahaa. We had to be 'rescued' pahaha. It would happen to me right!!??!!
So Berrit had to leave shortly after that and mike and I went on lots of wet rides and got thoroughly soaked which then kept us cool in the crazy heat!! It seems to get warmer mid afternoon about 3pm so odd. We went to the Simpsons bit (mike got fairly animated... Haha) we had Krusty burgers and duff and I had a flaming moe LOL. Lots of fun.
That evening we had tickets (FRONT ROW SPLASH ZONE) to see the blue man group. I have no words to explain what we saw... It was hilarious and amazing. Story line...? No clue. But I laughed so much I snorted.
The next day we did much the same. I started I. The other park and worked around all if the rides we missed the day before. I got turned into a minion, expirienced a duel between Poseidon and an evil dude, saw a twister, helped the transformers and Spider-Man and went to krustyland on the most unsafe coaster in animated history and so much more. We stayed until they kicked us out! I rode the dragons in harry potter again one after the other and felt really dizzy (it had been about 3 minutes inbetween) SO MUCH FUN!!
I want to go back.
We had a lovely surprise from the family after exchanging emails on the first day in Orlando they got in touch and offered to pick us up to go out for food. We went for breakfast with them which was really nice. They are very easily the nicest people we have met so far on the trip. We went to a Denny's!! ;) awesome.
We had a day to fritter away and no park tickets and with the weather looming the mini golf plan went out the window and we instead watched Lucy in the cinema. It was ok...
Wow!!! I haven't even got to talking about New Orleans (I've been writing for an hour)
SO HERE COMES THE AWFUL JOURNEY.
Now yes I booked it and yes I knew I was in for a night on the bus which I wasn't looking forward to. But it was made so much worse as I didn't realised that every like 3 hours they chuck you off the coach to refuel and change drivers. I'm pretty sure that's unique to America. Some rubbish about federal laws. So it's not ok for me to sit on a coach when you fill it up with fuel but is ok to let idiots own guns. Right. Ok.
It seems the same idiots were also in charge of loading and unloading the coaches. The staff are so rude. They shout at you for nothing, one told one person to keep their nose out of other peoples business or they wouldn't be allowed back on the bus. It was awful. All I know is I will never EVER travel over night on a grey hound if I can help it again. (We have a day journey this time fingers crossed these drivers have some manners and don't treat us like cattle)
So having travelled all thought the night we arrived about 8am in New Orleans. Grumpy and tired we walked a mile to our hotel in hope of dumping our bags. They were wonderful and let us check in early!! :D we went to bed and slept until about 3pm! It was glorious. Plus as a bonus the hotel is lovely. A little dates but the furniature is classy not ugly. It's cool!!
So New Orleans is an expirience!! You walk down any street in the french quarter and you'll hear trumpets and drums and just awesomeness! There are balcony a everywhere with people drinking and eating amazing food.
The first day we had food in the Gumbo shop. We tried gumbo, crawfish étouffée and delish desserts!!! Nom nom nom. The second day we wandered around getting a feel for the place and booked an evening dinner cruise down the Mississippi which was really awesome. It was a 40 year old steamboat with 100 year old engine!! Loved it.
We've been on a voodoo tour a swamp tour where we saw a whole host of alligators and we have watched a fair amount of jazz as there's a free jazz fest in the french market!
I really love it here. The city has it's own pace (slow) and I can imagine gettin a summer home here (well a march or April home to avoid some hurricanes!!)
You should visit. It's epic. AND THE BEIGNETS!!!!!!! So flippin good!!
We leave tomorrow and head to Houston for a few (we are planning on pretty lazy time there as we are getting so tired!)
I can't believe how long we have been travelling already!! We are well past halfway and I don't want to come home!! Haha I want to keep going!!
I'll try to stay on top of blogging! Sorry for the essay...
Xxxxxx jess
Fine. You asked for it....
So mike finished with us getting to Orlando I think... Now for some reason we have been following bad weather down the east coast. I think we just miss home and the rain ;)
So we arrived in the amtrak station in Orlando. I'd had an email from out hotel telling us it was just a short bus ride to them. So me being me was like well that will cost is nothing!! Let's do that. Firstly locating the bus stop was a bit of a nightmare. It was a singular sign post, facing the road, and on some grass. Not even with pavement slabs or anything... Also it just said the number not the bus name etc so yeah... Secondly the grass was covered in ants.gross. We ha been told by a savvy taxi man trying to get out custom a huge lie. He said there were no buses on the weekends. What a joker!! Although this started to make me worry there wasn't one coming. It was also the middle of the afternoon an the "bus stop" had no shelter. A storm was looming but at that point it was muggy and really sunny. We waited for 25 minutes before I have in and called the phone number on the internet to find out if a bus was due. I was told they are hourly and one was due in 10-15 minutes. Once the bus did arrive I felt as if we were the only tourists to ever have embarke on a bus journey in Orlando. The locals stared at us like we were crazy people. Maybe next time we will just get a taxi.... All thought we did save 24 dollars by getting the bus. It took about an hour, half an hour in the heavens opened and it peed the place down.... All I kept doing was hoping it would stop by our stop!! Luckily it did. Hooray. Only to start again as we walked the couple of blocks to our hotel.
I don't think I want to call it a hotel. It was more like a grosstel. If you have ever expirienced a days inn you may understand our circumstances. It was a motel complex and cost us about 35 dollars a night (including breakfast) so I wasn't expecting much and I was right to not. It was basic and still quite dirty in the bathroom. It was mouldy and yeah a bit gross. Now as we weren't planning on spending much time here I wasn't too bothered BUT.... On the second night after returning back from the parks I found cockroaches in the bathroom.... BESMKDJDBDKSKSHDNSSI so so so gross. Mike killed so many but a few got away. The worst part was I really needed a shower. :( I did have one only to see another cockroach on the wall, I freaked out and jumped out straightaway. I didn't condition my hair that night. Ergh. At least we never have to stay there again....
Anyway the whole reason for our stop in Orlando was purely to indulge me. Mike hates theme park rides. So um yeah selfishly I still booked us to go to Orlando. I've been wanting to visit disney for forever... But a few years back when they opened Harry Potter in Universal studios my dreams changed. An when they announced that the park now had another part opening for Harry Potter the trip changed to include the extra stop. WAAAAAH I <3 HP!!
So we (I) devised a plan. Having already downloaded the wait times app I had been keeping an eye on the times to see what the best option for the brand new harry potter ride would be. The wait had consistently read 2 hours plus. I decided to do it first. Get it out of the way so that I could then go on loads with less of a wait time. We got up at 6.30 and grabbed breakfast (it was pants so we didn't have it again) an made our way over for the 8am opening. I hadn't mentioned that our hotel had one good thing... It's proximity to the universal resort (like 3 blocks) but it was a fair walk as the parks do to start on the edge of the resort obvs. We headed straight to the ride. It said there was a 2 hour wait.... HOW?! Lol rage. So we bagan to wait. Not if you know met you'll know I'll talk to anyone about anything and knowing that this queue would be a fair wait I decided to start chatting to the family in front of us. I knew we would get along (anyone who heads straight to the harry potter ride first is an easy bet on being the coolest people in the park ;D) and it turns out this family were pretty cool. Which was a good thing as the ride started to break down... We ended up waiting 4 hours!! By which point we had talked a lot!! One of the girls had to leave to catch a flight and the mum drove her, the other girl (Berrit) decided to hang on and keep waiting (it had been like 3+ hours already) and I said we would mind hanging out and keeping her company. As mike was a wuss and didn't want to go on anything exciting it was ace as I got to have a ride buddy!!
Now if you like harry potter you will love the park. The dragon coasters are awesome and the simulated ride are amazingly hi tech and pretty impressive!! You can eat in the leaky cauldron and the three broom sticks, ride the hogwarts express an generally just bask in it's awesomeness. :D loved it. I want to move in. One other glitch of the first day... I got stuck on the ride in the castle for about an hour. It was pretty hilarious as I was a turn away from the end an just stuck without a phone an generally just dangling. Hahaa. We had to be 'rescued' pahaha. It would happen to me right!!??!!
So Berrit had to leave shortly after that and mike and I went on lots of wet rides and got thoroughly soaked which then kept us cool in the crazy heat!! It seems to get warmer mid afternoon about 3pm so odd. We went to the Simpsons bit (mike got fairly animated... Haha) we had Krusty burgers and duff and I had a flaming moe LOL. Lots of fun.
That evening we had tickets (FRONT ROW SPLASH ZONE) to see the blue man group. I have no words to explain what we saw... It was hilarious and amazing. Story line...? No clue. But I laughed so much I snorted.
The next day we did much the same. I started I. The other park and worked around all if the rides we missed the day before. I got turned into a minion, expirienced a duel between Poseidon and an evil dude, saw a twister, helped the transformers and Spider-Man and went to krustyland on the most unsafe coaster in animated history and so much more. We stayed until they kicked us out! I rode the dragons in harry potter again one after the other and felt really dizzy (it had been about 3 minutes inbetween) SO MUCH FUN!!
I want to go back.
We had a lovely surprise from the family after exchanging emails on the first day in Orlando they got in touch and offered to pick us up to go out for food. We went for breakfast with them which was really nice. They are very easily the nicest people we have met so far on the trip. We went to a Denny's!! ;) awesome.
We had a day to fritter away and no park tickets and with the weather looming the mini golf plan went out the window and we instead watched Lucy in the cinema. It was ok...
Wow!!! I haven't even got to talking about New Orleans (I've been writing for an hour)
SO HERE COMES THE AWFUL JOURNEY.
Now yes I booked it and yes I knew I was in for a night on the bus which I wasn't looking forward to. But it was made so much worse as I didn't realised that every like 3 hours they chuck you off the coach to refuel and change drivers. I'm pretty sure that's unique to America. Some rubbish about federal laws. So it's not ok for me to sit on a coach when you fill it up with fuel but is ok to let idiots own guns. Right. Ok.
It seems the same idiots were also in charge of loading and unloading the coaches. The staff are so rude. They shout at you for nothing, one told one person to keep their nose out of other peoples business or they wouldn't be allowed back on the bus. It was awful. All I know is I will never EVER travel over night on a grey hound if I can help it again. (We have a day journey this time fingers crossed these drivers have some manners and don't treat us like cattle)
So having travelled all thought the night we arrived about 8am in New Orleans. Grumpy and tired we walked a mile to our hotel in hope of dumping our bags. They were wonderful and let us check in early!! :D we went to bed and slept until about 3pm! It was glorious. Plus as a bonus the hotel is lovely. A little dates but the furniature is classy not ugly. It's cool!!
So New Orleans is an expirience!! You walk down any street in the french quarter and you'll hear trumpets and drums and just awesomeness! There are balcony a everywhere with people drinking and eating amazing food.
The first day we had food in the Gumbo shop. We tried gumbo, crawfish étouffée and delish desserts!!! Nom nom nom. The second day we wandered around getting a feel for the place and booked an evening dinner cruise down the Mississippi which was really awesome. It was a 40 year old steamboat with 100 year old engine!! Loved it.
We've been on a voodoo tour a swamp tour where we saw a whole host of alligators and we have watched a fair amount of jazz as there's a free jazz fest in the french market!
I really love it here. The city has it's own pace (slow) and I can imagine gettin a summer home here (well a march or April home to avoid some hurricanes!!)
You should visit. It's epic. AND THE BEIGNETS!!!!!!! So flippin good!!
We leave tomorrow and head to Houston for a few (we are planning on pretty lazy time there as we are getting so tired!)
I can't believe how long we have been travelling already!! We are well past halfway and I don't want to come home!! Haha I want to keep going!!
I'll try to stay on top of blogging! Sorry for the essay...
Xxxxxx jess
Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Strictly Come Charleston
So we departed DC and got on a train to Charleston. Given the distance between DC and Orlando, we wanted a short-ish break somewhere in between and decided upon Charleston.
It seems that the permanent status of Amtrak trains is late. It's just a matter of how much. The ridiculous length of the freight trains in the States means that if you have to wait for one to pass the other way it can be a lengthy delay. Anyhoo, the upshot is we got into Charleston about 90 minutes late. Thankfully we got to check-in before the staff left for the night!
The hostel was cool. It was effectively two houses turned into various rooms. Our bed was very squeaky, but comfy. Bagel breakfast and free use of the washer/dryer was a bonus.
The weather? MUGGY! I am certainly not designed for that level of humidity! We did hide in a coffee shop for 3 hours to avoid a thunderstorm. At the moment, it seems that when it rains, it really rains!
We got around by using the free 'DASH' trolley service, which was a real time saver. Downtown Charleston is not huge, but the trolley made getting to the separate destinations much easier.
Charleston is very quaint, steeped in revolutionary and civil war history. We visited a slave mart, where slaves were bought and sold. Chilling to think human beings were bought and sold where we were. We also visited 'Rainbow Row', a very pretty row of houses painted different colours.
We took a tour of an old jail, used by us pesky Brits back in the day to lock up non-compliant Yanks. Our guide was dressed in old-timey garb, which always seems a nice touch.
So Charleston is definitely a place to spend a few days in if you like your history. Plus it was quite a change from all the big cities we have stayed in thus far.
The worst part of the trip? We had to catch a 5.06am train from Charleston to Orlando, which meant getting up at around 3.45am. Fine for doing that again!
Jess will post about Orlando next. Expect lots of Harry Potter. Until next time muggles...
It seems that the permanent status of Amtrak trains is late. It's just a matter of how much. The ridiculous length of the freight trains in the States means that if you have to wait for one to pass the other way it can be a lengthy delay. Anyhoo, the upshot is we got into Charleston about 90 minutes late. Thankfully we got to check-in before the staff left for the night!
The hostel was cool. It was effectively two houses turned into various rooms. Our bed was very squeaky, but comfy. Bagel breakfast and free use of the washer/dryer was a bonus.
The weather? MUGGY! I am certainly not designed for that level of humidity! We did hide in a coffee shop for 3 hours to avoid a thunderstorm. At the moment, it seems that when it rains, it really rains!
We got around by using the free 'DASH' trolley service, which was a real time saver. Downtown Charleston is not huge, but the trolley made getting to the separate destinations much easier.
Charleston is very quaint, steeped in revolutionary and civil war history. We visited a slave mart, where slaves were bought and sold. Chilling to think human beings were bought and sold where we were. We also visited 'Rainbow Row', a very pretty row of houses painted different colours.
We took a tour of an old jail, used by us pesky Brits back in the day to lock up non-compliant Yanks. Our guide was dressed in old-timey garb, which always seems a nice touch.
So Charleston is definitely a place to spend a few days in if you like your history. Plus it was quite a change from all the big cities we have stayed in thus far.
The worst part of the trip? We had to catch a 5.06am train from Charleston to Orlando, which meant getting up at around 3.45am. Fine for doing that again!
Jess will post about Orlando next. Expect lots of Harry Potter. Until next time muggles...
Thursday, 24 July 2014
District of Jess gets a COLD
I woke up on Sunday with a cold. Now if you know me I'm pretty laid back when I'm ill, I hardly moan oooooooor pity myself.... Ahem.
So we got on with sightseeing, being in the political capital of the world and the capital of monuments we decided the best way to get truly aquatinted with the city was by having a tour. (I'm a bit obsessed being trained as a guide myself) we went for dc by foot. This is a company that offers FREE TOURS! I know... What's the catch, we'll the idea is that you tip what you can afford or think it was worth. Which I think is pretty cool, we have all been on some horrendous tours not worth the time or money and we have also all been on EXCELLENT ONES. (Mine)
So this tour... We chose (I chose) a 4 hour mammoth tour of the national mall in DC. (it's where you'll find all the famous bits.) not knowing I would be ill for it. We'll I got up regardless of the needed tissues and cold/flu tablets (yes we may have been over cautious but you see, Heavy Backpack, this is why you are so heavy, but ultimately I am the winner here) and we walked a mile down the road to meet up with our guid at 10am, cleverly grabbing a subway in prep for lunch.
We are living on subways at lunch... For 5 dollars we share a footlong... Epically cheap!
We signed in, ( the guide looked and sounded like the annoying one in hangover.... EPIC) at this point I'm regretting my shoe choice faced with the next 4 hours being walking and standing and not much else, stupidly I'd worn my new birks which I am still in the process of breaking in. Hello blisters. It's in the strangest place though, right at the bottom of the ball of my foot/top of the arch? ODD. Plasters just rub off after 5 paces... No joy. But I persisted and we had an excellent tour.
We started at the Washington monument, it's overwhelmingly LARGE. And has a pretty interesting story behind it, won't bore you with it, it's probably already written down on the internet somewhere anyway... We then wandered to the ww2 memorial, which was ok... It had a fountain. And some stars.
We walked down to the Vietnam memorial, this was surprisingly moving. It is really peaceful and the memorial itself kind of envelopes you at one point, it was sad to see wilting flowers, it's obviously still very recent to many families. There's also a statue that is so realistic! It's of 3 soldiers and they look as if they have just walked out of the jungle.
We moved onto the Lincoln memorial. Ahhh good old abe, he's very big. Very serious. I got a few cool photos here. And on instruction by the guide to check out the back of abes head from certain angle I saw general lee, sculpted into the marble. Now if your want to know who he is you'll have to ask mike as I don't... But whilst grabbing a snapshot of this a ranger told me that the general didn't exist. He was quite stern and very matter if factly about it. I verbally disagreed with him... I think he gave me evils as then a few other tourists came to check it out.... Lol. ( I totally won that encounter with the law)
We wandered down to the Martin Luther king memorial (I didn't like it)
Now before you all judge me I'll tell you why.
It's rubbish.
A) he looks like Han Solo trapped in the metal thing in the film my husband loves.
B) even though his face is very realistic, his suit is crap, it's not in a style of sculpture I like, it's cartoony and poop.
C) it was sadly outsourced as it was done on the cheap... (To china...) I was looking for the made in China logo...
D) it's rubbish
Google it. You'll see I'm right.
See, I'm right.
Then we walked through the FDR Memorial. Loved it. It's huge and interesting. Not rubbish. And we went on to finish at the Jefferson memorial. The tour was about 2.5 miles long and ended a good mile from anything else you'd want to do... So I was super tired and ill (don't forget) se we walked to a subway and got the train back to the area we were staying in.
Had a surprisingly awesome tea (surprisingly yum and cheap) it was a make your own pasta Sunday special. You chose the type (fat spaghetti for me) the sauce (pesto obv) and then just chucked whatever else you wanted in. I went for asparagus, broccoli and italian sausage. NOM.
I then went to bed. And pretty much stayed there for more than 24hours. I knew if I didn't stop I'd only get worse.
LUCKILY we had a TV in this accommodation so we have had a fair share of crap American TV. I feel we are getting the full package. ;)
So Tuesday was spent slowly meandering and not overdoing it as I'm still ill, we went to newseum. It had an anchorman exhibit. Which was pretty funny, especially as every other part was epically serious. But in a city where all museums are free (except this one) it's worth paying!! Very emotional 9/11 section. It's an interesting view on world events as you see behind the scenes from the medias perspective.
So then Wednesday was spent on a train. All 10 1/5 hours of daylight (hah) on a train. Although we had the sleeper car seats so it was comfy enough. We are now well trained at the art of train. We get a footlong sub each (half lunch half tea) and plenty of supplies as we are very aware that train food is poop.
Annoyingly the train was delayed by 2 hours.. So we got into Charleston pretty late last night. It was humid and gross. Buuuuuut I'll leave Charleston for the next post... :)
Xxxxx Jess
So we got on with sightseeing, being in the political capital of the world and the capital of monuments we decided the best way to get truly aquatinted with the city was by having a tour. (I'm a bit obsessed being trained as a guide myself) we went for dc by foot. This is a company that offers FREE TOURS! I know... What's the catch, we'll the idea is that you tip what you can afford or think it was worth. Which I think is pretty cool, we have all been on some horrendous tours not worth the time or money and we have also all been on EXCELLENT ONES. (Mine)
So this tour... We chose (I chose) a 4 hour mammoth tour of the national mall in DC. (it's where you'll find all the famous bits.) not knowing I would be ill for it. We'll I got up regardless of the needed tissues and cold/flu tablets (yes we may have been over cautious but you see, Heavy Backpack, this is why you are so heavy, but ultimately I am the winner here) and we walked a mile down the road to meet up with our guid at 10am, cleverly grabbing a subway in prep for lunch.
We are living on subways at lunch... For 5 dollars we share a footlong... Epically cheap!
We signed in, ( the guide looked and sounded like the annoying one in hangover.... EPIC) at this point I'm regretting my shoe choice faced with the next 4 hours being walking and standing and not much else, stupidly I'd worn my new birks which I am still in the process of breaking in. Hello blisters. It's in the strangest place though, right at the bottom of the ball of my foot/top of the arch? ODD. Plasters just rub off after 5 paces... No joy. But I persisted and we had an excellent tour.
We started at the Washington monument, it's overwhelmingly LARGE. And has a pretty interesting story behind it, won't bore you with it, it's probably already written down on the internet somewhere anyway... We then wandered to the ww2 memorial, which was ok... It had a fountain. And some stars.
We walked down to the Vietnam memorial, this was surprisingly moving. It is really peaceful and the memorial itself kind of envelopes you at one point, it was sad to see wilting flowers, it's obviously still very recent to many families. There's also a statue that is so realistic! It's of 3 soldiers and they look as if they have just walked out of the jungle.
We moved onto the Lincoln memorial. Ahhh good old abe, he's very big. Very serious. I got a few cool photos here. And on instruction by the guide to check out the back of abes head from certain angle I saw general lee, sculpted into the marble. Now if your want to know who he is you'll have to ask mike as I don't... But whilst grabbing a snapshot of this a ranger told me that the general didn't exist. He was quite stern and very matter if factly about it. I verbally disagreed with him... I think he gave me evils as then a few other tourists came to check it out.... Lol. ( I totally won that encounter with the law)
We wandered down to the Martin Luther king memorial (I didn't like it)
Now before you all judge me I'll tell you why.
It's rubbish.
A) he looks like Han Solo trapped in the metal thing in the film my husband loves.
B) even though his face is very realistic, his suit is crap, it's not in a style of sculpture I like, it's cartoony and poop.
C) it was sadly outsourced as it was done on the cheap... (To china...) I was looking for the made in China logo...
D) it's rubbish
Google it. You'll see I'm right.
See, I'm right.
Then we walked through the FDR Memorial. Loved it. It's huge and interesting. Not rubbish. And we went on to finish at the Jefferson memorial. The tour was about 2.5 miles long and ended a good mile from anything else you'd want to do... So I was super tired and ill (don't forget) se we walked to a subway and got the train back to the area we were staying in.
Had a surprisingly awesome tea (surprisingly yum and cheap) it was a make your own pasta Sunday special. You chose the type (fat spaghetti for me) the sauce (pesto obv) and then just chucked whatever else you wanted in. I went for asparagus, broccoli and italian sausage. NOM.
I then went to bed. And pretty much stayed there for more than 24hours. I knew if I didn't stop I'd only get worse.
LUCKILY we had a TV in this accommodation so we have had a fair share of crap American TV. I feel we are getting the full package. ;)
So Tuesday was spent slowly meandering and not overdoing it as I'm still ill, we went to newseum. It had an anchorman exhibit. Which was pretty funny, especially as every other part was epically serious. But in a city where all museums are free (except this one) it's worth paying!! Very emotional 9/11 section. It's an interesting view on world events as you see behind the scenes from the medias perspective.
So then Wednesday was spent on a train. All 10 1/5 hours of daylight (hah) on a train. Although we had the sleeper car seats so it was comfy enough. We are now well trained at the art of train. We get a footlong sub each (half lunch half tea) and plenty of supplies as we are very aware that train food is poop.
Annoyingly the train was delayed by 2 hours.. So we got into Charleston pretty late last night. It was humid and gross. Buuuuuut I'll leave Charleston for the next post... :)
Xxxxx Jess
Location:Washington
Saturday, 19 July 2014
Have you got any tea?
Loved Boston. Boston is great. If you imagine everything you love about Britain, Boston is the closest you'll find in the USA. It's super quaint, brick pavements to match all brick buildings, quirky neighbourhoods, wagamamas, interesting diverse humans, history geeks and so much more.
It's the only place so far I'd genuinely consider moving to... (And I'm a home bird!) it's so pretty too. The roads are lines with trees and most building are covered with foliage (or at least they are in Southend - we're we stayed) (it's nothing like Essex).
So due to bad feet (and bad weather) we took it well easy which maybe another reason I kind of love Boston. It felt really laid back and easy going. But I suppose it's because we were. For the first time this trip we both just relaxed. We wandered instead of missioned and we strolled instead of stressing.
The first day was all about finding half decent shoes for Jess as the sketches that we bought turned out to actually be too small (oops) and the I soled for my shoes are good for the bottom of my foot but make my heels pretty bad as my shoes then don't really fit... Dilemma! So I decided to give in to my inner hippy/traveller and find some Birkenstocks... This meant shopping (mike was really excited, as you can tell)
Now... They are comfy, but do rub a little but I've read that you have to break them in, which I'm in the process of doing, so fingers crossed by the time we finish I may have a pair of comfy shoes. In the mean time I've been living in flip flops and it's not too bad :)
Post shopping... We had a DUCK tour. Much like the London ones (same vehicle and worry about them bursting into flames) we survived the trip and the awful guiding banter. Being British on the tour was a bit of an eek as of course in Boston the tea party happened and war broke out with the Brits etc.... But you know our guide didn't make a big deal out of it at all..... (Rolls eyes, personally I was waving a miniature British flag the entire time and wanting to stand up and declare war as we wanted our land back... Mike did actually ask if the driver had any tea. I found it funny, I guess it's why I married him aye?) If you don't know why this is funny Google Boston tea party... See hilarious #somuchbanter
That night we went to a wonderful French restaurant around the corner and eat EXCELLENT food. I love France. It was just like a small independent authentic French restaurant except for the Americans... Who I've noticed shout. ALOT. I just want them to tone it down, just a tad. Eek 5 more weeks :/ lol.
The next day after A VERY EXTREME MIDDAY THUNDERSTORM (which we spent wasting time in the hostel... I love my iPad) we went on a proper tour of Boston on the trolley (ding ding) with lots of different drivers (it was hop on hop off kinda vibe) all of them with similar jokes, kind of dad jokes. It was just like a normal Burton holiday so I felt right at home! ;) one actually just talked about his daughter costing him a fortune in college fees (we had hit traffic and I guess he had run out of material) it was fun. In all honesty it was great because it was raining seeing everything with out getting (too) wet. Especially after a very heavy shower the other day I've realised my mac is not waterproof.... Stupid Asda. (The pic below is the rain, not fog... It was insane. But you know a normal summers day in Wales if I'm honest)
THAT night we went to an American live underground jazz club called the Beehive, where the food was great! It wasn't greasy or dinnery it was classy and the food was actually very nice... I had a veggie lasagne with ricotta. It was amazing. There was live jazz and it was just really cool. It felt like the club would fit perfectly in the east end (you know... Where all the hipsters hag out in London) I tried a few cocktails... One tasted like smoke... Like smokey. It was the weirdest thing... I only ordered it because it said cherry... It wasn't cherry. It was odd. "Trendy" I'm not very trendy...
So the next day we had more trolleying as it was a BOGOF deal on ticket days... But we also went to the Boston Tea Party Museum. Which had lots of geeky live actors ourselves included as we were given rolls to play. I was a doctor. I (wrongly) declared mike dead (I was suppose to - just to clear that up) as he has knocked himself unconscious with a box of tea... Silly mike. That's was a silly hour. I did have to disagree with the name of this attraction... I don't think you can call yourself a museum if you only have one artefact. It's all they had. Maybe they should call it an experience... Anyway we came away with a free feather. So all in all it was pretty good deal! (It was free with the trolley tour)
We then went on a mission for lunch, found an Irish pub. Standard, they are everywhere! Where are all the welsh pubs?
We wandered to the park and then decided to make our way back to the hostel and went out for a lobster roll for tea. Sadly that was it for our time in Boston. I want to go back.
Now I haven't mentioned the hostel. It was gross. If you'd like to hear my thoughts on it I have left an honest opinion on trip adviser and I can't be bothered to copy and paste.
We left yesterday and had a long journey down to DC and went back past New York. Today again was kind of lazy. We slept in until about 10 then left the hotel about 11.30 and we found lunch in a dodgy diner and saw the Washington monument and the White House. We sat in Starbucks for 2 hours then grabbed some dim sum in china town before a movie in the cinema. LAZY!!
Tomorrow we doing a 4 hour walking tour of just the national mall... Hahahaaa whoop where are my birks?!
Xxxxxx Jess
It's the only place so far I'd genuinely consider moving to... (And I'm a home bird!) it's so pretty too. The roads are lines with trees and most building are covered with foliage (or at least they are in Southend - we're we stayed) (it's nothing like Essex).
So due to bad feet (and bad weather) we took it well easy which maybe another reason I kind of love Boston. It felt really laid back and easy going. But I suppose it's because we were. For the first time this trip we both just relaxed. We wandered instead of missioned and we strolled instead of stressing.
The first day was all about finding half decent shoes for Jess as the sketches that we bought turned out to actually be too small (oops) and the I soled for my shoes are good for the bottom of my foot but make my heels pretty bad as my shoes then don't really fit... Dilemma! So I decided to give in to my inner hippy/traveller and find some Birkenstocks... This meant shopping (mike was really excited, as you can tell)
Now... They are comfy, but do rub a little but I've read that you have to break them in, which I'm in the process of doing, so fingers crossed by the time we finish I may have a pair of comfy shoes. In the mean time I've been living in flip flops and it's not too bad :)
Post shopping... We had a DUCK tour. Much like the London ones (same vehicle and worry about them bursting into flames) we survived the trip and the awful guiding banter. Being British on the tour was a bit of an eek as of course in Boston the tea party happened and war broke out with the Brits etc.... But you know our guide didn't make a big deal out of it at all..... (Rolls eyes, personally I was waving a miniature British flag the entire time and wanting to stand up and declare war as we wanted our land back... Mike did actually ask if the driver had any tea. I found it funny, I guess it's why I married him aye?) If you don't know why this is funny Google Boston tea party... See hilarious #somuchbanter
That night we went to a wonderful French restaurant around the corner and eat EXCELLENT food. I love France. It was just like a small independent authentic French restaurant except for the Americans... Who I've noticed shout. ALOT. I just want them to tone it down, just a tad. Eek 5 more weeks :/ lol.
The next day after A VERY EXTREME MIDDAY THUNDERSTORM (which we spent wasting time in the hostel... I love my iPad) we went on a proper tour of Boston on the trolley (ding ding) with lots of different drivers (it was hop on hop off kinda vibe) all of them with similar jokes, kind of dad jokes. It was just like a normal Burton holiday so I felt right at home! ;) one actually just talked about his daughter costing him a fortune in college fees (we had hit traffic and I guess he had run out of material) it was fun. In all honesty it was great because it was raining seeing everything with out getting (too) wet. Especially after a very heavy shower the other day I've realised my mac is not waterproof.... Stupid Asda. (The pic below is the rain, not fog... It was insane. But you know a normal summers day in Wales if I'm honest)
THAT night we went to an American live underground jazz club called the Beehive, where the food was great! It wasn't greasy or dinnery it was classy and the food was actually very nice... I had a veggie lasagne with ricotta. It was amazing. There was live jazz and it was just really cool. It felt like the club would fit perfectly in the east end (you know... Where all the hipsters hag out in London) I tried a few cocktails... One tasted like smoke... Like smokey. It was the weirdest thing... I only ordered it because it said cherry... It wasn't cherry. It was odd. "Trendy" I'm not very trendy...
So the next day we had more trolleying as it was a BOGOF deal on ticket days... But we also went to the Boston Tea Party Museum. Which had lots of geeky live actors ourselves included as we were given rolls to play. I was a doctor. I (wrongly) declared mike dead (I was suppose to - just to clear that up) as he has knocked himself unconscious with a box of tea... Silly mike. That's was a silly hour. I did have to disagree with the name of this attraction... I don't think you can call yourself a museum if you only have one artefact. It's all they had. Maybe they should call it an experience... Anyway we came away with a free feather. So all in all it was pretty good deal! (It was free with the trolley tour)
We then went on a mission for lunch, found an Irish pub. Standard, they are everywhere! Where are all the welsh pubs?
We wandered to the park and then decided to make our way back to the hostel and went out for a lobster roll for tea. Sadly that was it for our time in Boston. I want to go back.
Now I haven't mentioned the hostel. It was gross. If you'd like to hear my thoughts on it I have left an honest opinion on trip adviser and I can't be bothered to copy and paste.
We left yesterday and had a long journey down to DC and went back past New York. Today again was kind of lazy. We slept in until about 10 then left the hotel about 11.30 and we found lunch in a dodgy diner and saw the Washington monument and the White House. We sat in Starbucks for 2 hours then grabbed some dim sum in china town before a movie in the cinema. LAZY!!
Tomorrow we doing a 4 hour walking tour of just the national mall... Hahahaaa whoop where are my birks?!
Xxxxxx Jess
Location:Boston
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Beaten by a salad... twice!
So it is currently pouring down with rain in Boston, which is delaying our plans for the day until it subsides. Given I haven't blogged in ages, now seems the perfect time!
We went to one more show on Broadway, titled 'Bullets over Broadway', written by Woody Allen and starring Zach Braff of Scrubs fame. As they did not sell out, we got directed to better seats, which was nice. It was pretty funny.
We spent a few days with one of Jess' best friends Debbie, who was one of the signees of our wedding register. As well as seeing the musical, we chilled out in Central Park, wandered through Chinatown and Little Italy and had some yummy breakfasts.
Oh yeah, the blog title. So I've had a few salads recently, to try and counter the sugar/fat intake of other meals! I had a Cobb salad in a deli called Sarge's, but ended up eating just the meat/cheese/egg part of the salad, and then topped that with a mahoosive slice of carrot cake (Jess had New York baked cheesecake). Yesterday I had another salad for lunch and again, could not quite polish it off!
Boston is pretty cool. A very different vibe to New York. Brick houses and sidewalks, more old timey buildings, churches, etc. It is much less busy, and far fewer beeps of the horn from taxi drivers!
The hostel in Boston has no air-con, which has made sleeping uncomfortable. The heat has been stifling at times. We went out in a thunderstorm the other day, which of course stopped after we sat for dinner.
We had a Boston Duck tour yesterday, in the same vehicles that give Duck tours in London and Liverpool. That was a lot of fun, especially telling the driver/guide that we were British! I asked if he had any tea. :) (search Boston Tea Party).
When the weather subsides, we are going to jump on the Boston trolley and take a tour of the city and also go to the Boston Tea Party museum. Once a history geek...
We went to one more show on Broadway, titled 'Bullets over Broadway', written by Woody Allen and starring Zach Braff of Scrubs fame. As they did not sell out, we got directed to better seats, which was nice. It was pretty funny.
We spent a few days with one of Jess' best friends Debbie, who was one of the signees of our wedding register. As well as seeing the musical, we chilled out in Central Park, wandered through Chinatown and Little Italy and had some yummy breakfasts.
Oh yeah, the blog title. So I've had a few salads recently, to try and counter the sugar/fat intake of other meals! I had a Cobb salad in a deli called Sarge's, but ended up eating just the meat/cheese/egg part of the salad, and then topped that with a mahoosive slice of carrot cake (Jess had New York baked cheesecake). Yesterday I had another salad for lunch and again, could not quite polish it off!
Boston is pretty cool. A very different vibe to New York. Brick houses and sidewalks, more old timey buildings, churches, etc. It is much less busy, and far fewer beeps of the horn from taxi drivers!
The hostel in Boston has no air-con, which has made sleeping uncomfortable. The heat has been stifling at times. We went out in a thunderstorm the other day, which of course stopped after we sat for dinner.
We had a Boston Duck tour yesterday, in the same vehicles that give Duck tours in London and Liverpool. That was a lot of fun, especially telling the driver/guide that we were British! I asked if he had any tea. :) (search Boston Tea Party).
When the weather subsides, we are going to jump on the Boston trolley and take a tour of the city and also go to the Boston Tea Party museum. Once a history geek...
Thursday, 10 July 2014
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of..... You know the next bit.
Yep that's right NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!!
So it's midnight and we have just got in from an amazing show (our second of three this week....uh huh!!!) we went to see Idina Menzel in the new musical If/Then. It was awesome. We had amazing seats (and even though we arrived at 7.58pm we still managed to get in!!! We read the wrong ticket and ended up at the wrong theatre... It's a hard life) BUT WHATEVER.... It was so good!! And as we were in the middle of the circle we were her spot for the entire performance and it felt like she was personally singing to me! EPIC. I'm still a bit WHSSKCNDJSJSVAKPALAVH about it!!
Back to the rest of the week. Well... I've managed to walk my feet into oblivion... So I've been hobbling around as much as I can but really we haven't taken New York by storm but rather leisurely and slowly (like the true old married couple we are ;)) but we have seen the Statue of Liberty, and listened to a rather over stretched 30 minute "tour" about the green beauty, we wandered around Ellis Island a bit and watched a rather stretched 30 minute documentary about it, then realising the artefacts had indeed been removed from the island (due to sandy? Or something?) we moved on...
On to the 9/11 memorial. Now I don't know anyone who was involved that day, but even I objected to the awful tourists posing and smiling next to it.... Talk about DISRESPECTFUL!! It's not even 15 years passed and yet it was trawling with globe trotters posing and selfie-ing. I got a bit moody about it. It was really sad. There were fresh flowers on various names around the memorials. It's really still quite fresh. So so sad.
So we then meandered towards City hall and walked a fair way around downtown ( saw Brooklyn bridge we agreed that it looked like batmans one in arkham city) and up through Chinatown an little Italy. But it was way too hot and my feet were in shreds so we caught the subway back to the hostel. (Which is pretty decent again... We've been very lucky so far!!)
At this point I decided to get last minute tickets to a show. And when I get an idea I have to do it... Soooooo for 25 quid each we went to see HARRY POTTER ahem... Daniel Radcliffe in the Cripple of Inishmann. He was really very good, but I had to stop myself from shouting 'Accio Harry Potter!!' At various points throughout the evening!!
Today we took it slowly, got up late, ate breakfast late, wandered to Macy's and begrudgingly bought myself a pair of sensible 'touristy' walking shoes. Sketchers memory foam ones. GROSS. But I care more about seeing America than how I'm seen by America (that's totally a lie, but I figured the more I say it maybe the more I'll believe it)
We then came back to the hostel and watched a few breaking bad episodes... Final season. It's so good!!
Then off to broadway again!! Waaaaah (see top of post)
Oh em gee! I haven't mentioned the food!!
Oh my gosh, so the first night (as we are staying in koreatown) we went for a Korean... Yup it's a thing... We had sashimi, the best beef dumplings of my life, teriyaki (I know it's Japanese but I was scared of the menu... Half of it was octopus) chicken and mike had a random spicy pork belly thing with a huge pile of bean curd. Needless to say he left the bean curd... But it was awesome all the same!
Yesterday we had an epic breakfast as a Tunisian deli, fit!! Then burgers before Broadway (if you're gonna do it... Do it right!) and today we tried to eat cheap so subway and a true 80s Jewish deli!!! Oh my goodness!! They gave you a bowl of gherkins (pickles) and coleslaw before any food gets ordered. Loved it. We had the corned beef and pastrami open hot sandwich. It came with the best chips ever, no french fried here, and gravy.... Literally heaven. *drools everywhere*
New York is a beast of its own design. I've meet been anywhere like it. It stinks. It never sleeps. It's gaudy. It's in your face. It's... GROSS. But I love it.
We are not done here yet! We don't leave until Monday. And tomorrow I get to see my bestest friend! AND go to see Zach Braff on Broadway. So many celebrities so little stage time!! ;)
Waaaaaaaaaah!
Xxxxxx Jess
So it's midnight and we have just got in from an amazing show (our second of three this week....uh huh!!!) we went to see Idina Menzel in the new musical If/Then. It was awesome. We had amazing seats (and even though we arrived at 7.58pm we still managed to get in!!! We read the wrong ticket and ended up at the wrong theatre... It's a hard life) BUT WHATEVER.... It was so good!! And as we were in the middle of the circle we were her spot for the entire performance and it felt like she was personally singing to me! EPIC. I'm still a bit WHSSKCNDJSJSVAKPALAVH about it!!
Back to the rest of the week. Well... I've managed to walk my feet into oblivion... So I've been hobbling around as much as I can but really we haven't taken New York by storm but rather leisurely and slowly (like the true old married couple we are ;)) but we have seen the Statue of Liberty, and listened to a rather over stretched 30 minute "tour" about the green beauty, we wandered around Ellis Island a bit and watched a rather stretched 30 minute documentary about it, then realising the artefacts had indeed been removed from the island (due to sandy? Or something?) we moved on...
On to the 9/11 memorial. Now I don't know anyone who was involved that day, but even I objected to the awful tourists posing and smiling next to it.... Talk about DISRESPECTFUL!! It's not even 15 years passed and yet it was trawling with globe trotters posing and selfie-ing. I got a bit moody about it. It was really sad. There were fresh flowers on various names around the memorials. It's really still quite fresh. So so sad.
So we then meandered towards City hall and walked a fair way around downtown ( saw Brooklyn bridge we agreed that it looked like batmans one in arkham city) and up through Chinatown an little Italy. But it was way too hot and my feet were in shreds so we caught the subway back to the hostel. (Which is pretty decent again... We've been very lucky so far!!)
At this point I decided to get last minute tickets to a show. And when I get an idea I have to do it... Soooooo for 25 quid each we went to see HARRY POTTER ahem... Daniel Radcliffe in the Cripple of Inishmann. He was really very good, but I had to stop myself from shouting 'Accio Harry Potter!!' At various points throughout the evening!!
Today we took it slowly, got up late, ate breakfast late, wandered to Macy's and begrudgingly bought myself a pair of sensible 'touristy' walking shoes. Sketchers memory foam ones. GROSS. But I care more about seeing America than how I'm seen by America (that's totally a lie, but I figured the more I say it maybe the more I'll believe it)
We then came back to the hostel and watched a few breaking bad episodes... Final season. It's so good!!
Then off to broadway again!! Waaaaah (see top of post)
Oh em gee! I haven't mentioned the food!!
Oh my gosh, so the first night (as we are staying in koreatown) we went for a Korean... Yup it's a thing... We had sashimi, the best beef dumplings of my life, teriyaki (I know it's Japanese but I was scared of the menu... Half of it was octopus) chicken and mike had a random spicy pork belly thing with a huge pile of bean curd. Needless to say he left the bean curd... But it was awesome all the same!
Yesterday we had an epic breakfast as a Tunisian deli, fit!! Then burgers before Broadway (if you're gonna do it... Do it right!) and today we tried to eat cheap so subway and a true 80s Jewish deli!!! Oh my goodness!! They gave you a bowl of gherkins (pickles) and coleslaw before any food gets ordered. Loved it. We had the corned beef and pastrami open hot sandwich. It came with the best chips ever, no french fried here, and gravy.... Literally heaven. *drools everywhere*
New York is a beast of its own design. I've meet been anywhere like it. It stinks. It never sleeps. It's gaudy. It's in your face. It's... GROSS. But I love it.
We are not done here yet! We don't leave until Monday. And tomorrow I get to see my bestest friend! AND go to see Zach Braff on Broadway. So many celebrities so little stage time!! ;)
Waaaaaaaaaah!
Xxxxxx Jess
Tuesday, 8 July 2014
A short stop at the famous falls
Well after an awfully long boring wait in the middle of nowhere(!) for a stopover, the second train FINALLY arrived and we got out of the festering cesspit that is Depew Buffalo.
To my relief it wasn't long before we arrived in Niagara Falls. We were met by the owner of the local #1 hostel (of 2... They are very proud) on the station with a sign saying "Jess". I felt really glamorous... We'll not really I had day old clothes on, I was burnt from an unsuccessful hike that morning, cranky and fairly hungry after only eating doughnut holes and vending machine food from the train station in depew.
Anyway he drove us to the hostel (for a small fee) and we checked in. It was a lovely afternoon, and as it was due to potentially rain the next day, under instruction from the wife of the owner of the business, we went out to explore.
We used the map she had provided us with and missioned a mile and a bit down to the falls. They are SPECTACULAR. If you haven't seen them go. Its only a day trip that's needed but factor it in next time you are close. They are so majestic. Mike and myself spent at least 10 minutes just staring watching the water fall... I guess that's all you can do really at a waterfall....
Anyway, we walked over to the Canadian side (GOD SAVE THE QUEEN) we got a stamp in our passports wandered down to the horseshoe falls and just looked. Stunning. If you are going to see them visit Canada. Best view. There is no comparison. It's about a 10 minute walk over the bridge and then 20-30 minutes down to the falls. Not too bad (not when all you have done for the past week is walk!!)
We then made the mistake on trying to go for an Indian... We aimed for the destination circled on our map from the hostel, only to be greeted by a buffet (what's with Americans and buffets?!?!? Gross) and (this is the worst part) RED PLASTIC TRAYS TO EAT OFF. And I mean like the ones you get in schools and prisons... Now call me a food snog if you want, but anywhere that treats their customers like school children/criminals will not get my custom. So we walked out...
Just down the road when we thought all options had evaded us another little Indian restaurant turned up. And boom, it was quiet, had normal plates, and even though it had a buffet... It also had a menu..... Hurrah. We didn't order any meat (food snob) but the veggie options were delish!!!!
Cheap Indian in Niagara Falls 0 - 1 Jess
So any who, we went to bed early after a long day... I feel it was totally justified.
Next day, up with the sun, PANCAKES, COMPLIMENTARY PANCAKES. Winners all-round. With a happy Jess full of pancakes, off we trotted again, a quick Starbucks break then over we walked to Goat island (in-between American falls and the horseshoe ones) and down we went with our sexy cave of wind shoes and ponchos.
Now for those of you who don't know the cave of winds is NOT A CAVE. I learnt this on the day, small bit of false advertising... Apparently it collapsed some time ago. I felt mildly robbed... Anyway so we plunged down a lift and emerged close to the bottom of the American falls and walked closer to them all the time getting more and more wet. It was actually.... Quite fun! We got about 15 feet from the actual falls and got splashed by more that 15feet worth of water I reckon!
Then we popped over to the top of the falls restaurant for a dirty burger and fries and jumped on the trolley to go on the maid of the mist. Now it's not the longest boat ride but it's super fun! Again you get wet... It's a big selling point of the falls you see.
All in all the falls are big and wet and pretty amazing!
We had tea at the Hard Rock Cafe. I had the worst mojito of my life. It cost far too much money. Then we went back to the hostel. Another early night as we had a Very early start this morning to catch a 6.35am train to New York.
We have now arrived and can see the Empire State Building from our hostel.
I'm having a GREAT TIME. :D I'm pretty sure mike is too.
Catch you soon!
Xxxxx Jess
Ps. Not many pics as I took a disposable to the falls...
To my relief it wasn't long before we arrived in Niagara Falls. We were met by the owner of the local #1 hostel (of 2... They are very proud) on the station with a sign saying "Jess". I felt really glamorous... We'll not really I had day old clothes on, I was burnt from an unsuccessful hike that morning, cranky and fairly hungry after only eating doughnut holes and vending machine food from the train station in depew.
Anyway he drove us to the hostel (for a small fee) and we checked in. It was a lovely afternoon, and as it was due to potentially rain the next day, under instruction from the wife of the owner of the business, we went out to explore.
We used the map she had provided us with and missioned a mile and a bit down to the falls. They are SPECTACULAR. If you haven't seen them go. Its only a day trip that's needed but factor it in next time you are close. They are so majestic. Mike and myself spent at least 10 minutes just staring watching the water fall... I guess that's all you can do really at a waterfall....
Anyway, we walked over to the Canadian side (GOD SAVE THE QUEEN) we got a stamp in our passports wandered down to the horseshoe falls and just looked. Stunning. If you are going to see them visit Canada. Best view. There is no comparison. It's about a 10 minute walk over the bridge and then 20-30 minutes down to the falls. Not too bad (not when all you have done for the past week is walk!!)
We then made the mistake on trying to go for an Indian... We aimed for the destination circled on our map from the hostel, only to be greeted by a buffet (what's with Americans and buffets?!?!? Gross) and (this is the worst part) RED PLASTIC TRAYS TO EAT OFF. And I mean like the ones you get in schools and prisons... Now call me a food snog if you want, but anywhere that treats their customers like school children/criminals will not get my custom. So we walked out...
Just down the road when we thought all options had evaded us another little Indian restaurant turned up. And boom, it was quiet, had normal plates, and even though it had a buffet... It also had a menu..... Hurrah. We didn't order any meat (food snob) but the veggie options were delish!!!!
Cheap Indian in Niagara Falls 0 - 1 Jess
So any who, we went to bed early after a long day... I feel it was totally justified.
Next day, up with the sun, PANCAKES, COMPLIMENTARY PANCAKES. Winners all-round. With a happy Jess full of pancakes, off we trotted again, a quick Starbucks break then over we walked to Goat island (in-between American falls and the horseshoe ones) and down we went with our sexy cave of wind shoes and ponchos.
Now for those of you who don't know the cave of winds is NOT A CAVE. I learnt this on the day, small bit of false advertising... Apparently it collapsed some time ago. I felt mildly robbed... Anyway so we plunged down a lift and emerged close to the bottom of the American falls and walked closer to them all the time getting more and more wet. It was actually.... Quite fun! We got about 15 feet from the actual falls and got splashed by more that 15feet worth of water I reckon!
Then we popped over to the top of the falls restaurant for a dirty burger and fries and jumped on the trolley to go on the maid of the mist. Now it's not the longest boat ride but it's super fun! Again you get wet... It's a big selling point of the falls you see.
All in all the falls are big and wet and pretty amazing!
We had tea at the Hard Rock Cafe. I had the worst mojito of my life. It cost far too much money. Then we went back to the hostel. Another early night as we had a Very early start this morning to catch a 6.35am train to New York.
We have now arrived and can see the Empire State Building from our hostel.
I'm having a GREAT TIME. :D I'm pretty sure mike is too.
Catch you soon!
Xxxxx Jess
Ps. Not many pics as I took a disposable to the falls...
Location:Niagara Falls
Sunday, 6 July 2014
Uncle Samtrak
So we've left Chicago, stuffed full of deep-dish pizza and wonderful memories.
As I type, we are coming to the end of a 10.5hr train journey from Chicago to Buffalo in upstate New York. We then have a 6 hour layover in Buffalo before we head to Niagara Falls. Speaking to people in the queue for the Buffalo train, the falls are apparently way better from the Canadian side, so we'll see if we can get across the border.
The Amtrak train and service has been a pleasant surprise. Picking up all our various tickets was a doddle, and for some journeys we can check our bags. In the carriage, the chairs recline quite a bit, plus there is an extension and foot stool, which made sleeping much easier. Jess said I looked like a dog all curled up trying to sleep (I cannot sleep sat up). I'm going to assume she meant a cute dog...
We had doughnut holes and coffee for breakfast on the train. They'll make a nice addition to my developing 'pizza-belly'. :)
Update:
We pulled into Buffalo-Depew station and decided to have a wander. After 3 odd miles, we found a huge charity shop for war veterans, a motel, various haulage shops and various masonry shops. Basically, do not come to Buffalo-Depew for a good time.
Mike.
As I type, we are coming to the end of a 10.5hr train journey from Chicago to Buffalo in upstate New York. We then have a 6 hour layover in Buffalo before we head to Niagara Falls. Speaking to people in the queue for the Buffalo train, the falls are apparently way better from the Canadian side, so we'll see if we can get across the border.
The Amtrak train and service has been a pleasant surprise. Picking up all our various tickets was a doddle, and for some journeys we can check our bags. In the carriage, the chairs recline quite a bit, plus there is an extension and foot stool, which made sleeping much easier. Jess said I looked like a dog all curled up trying to sleep (I cannot sleep sat up). I'm going to assume she meant a cute dog...
We had doughnut holes and coffee for breakfast on the train. They'll make a nice addition to my developing 'pizza-belly'. :)
Update:
We pulled into Buffalo-Depew station and decided to have a wander. After 3 odd miles, we found a huge charity shop for war veterans, a motel, various haulage shops and various masonry shops. Basically, do not come to Buffalo-Depew for a good time.
Mike.
Friday, 4 July 2014
Chic a go go.
The first post from abroad. Exciting!
We'll so far so amazing. (Apart from the stressful queues in immigration whilst on a short stop over in Philly... I nearly posted a rant called 'I'm a tourist not a terrorist' but mike thought it wouldn't be wise... As always he is the voice of reason.)
So having been in Chicago for three days we are fairly sure we have done most of what we want to do here and can just hang out and relax for a bit in the glorious sun. So we are currently sat in the amazing millennium park, shoes off and being very social on our phones, thanks to PARK WIFI. Amazing. There is wifi everywhere here. It's pretty epic.
It's the 4th of July and all Americans are celebrating independence from us Brits so the place is full of American flags on clothing etc, there's even a guy in the park draped in a flag asking people how they feel about America and filming it, probably for an artsy student type project. It's fairly entertaining. Later we will be having a free BBQ courtesy of our hostel and then straining our necks and watching some fireworks for our last night in Chicago. :(
I have to say, Chicago has it all. There is so much to see and do here and the pizza is undeniably WOW. (With two literally under our belts I can say it's easily the best pizza of my life, and I'm not even keen usually)
So we arrived on Tuesday night about 9pm here (3am at home) I was exhausted and convinced mike to get a taxi from the airport. Staying north of the city means it wasn't too expensive a journey and I stand by the decision. It caused no arguments, which with a tired and grumpy all travelled out Jess was a pure victory!
Our accommodation is very basic! But it's very clean and the bathrooms are pretty nice for a hostel. We even get a free breakfast which consists of a bagel and some cereal but I'm not complaining, I love bagels!!
The second of July was spent visiting the willis tower ( previously known as the Sears tower- it's something to do with the British company leasing a large amount of space and the contract they singed saying they could change it. It's nice to see that Brits are still conquering parts of the new world and claiming them as their own ;) ). We then popped over to the aquarium which made me feel awful after seeing a sad sea lion... It was blind though and had been rescued which made me feel a bit better. But on the whole it was a good place, got to touch a sting ray.... I freaked out a bit, it feels like wet slug. Gross.
We then went for pizza that was huge in gino's east just of the magnificent mile (Oxford circus of Chicago). It was epic- you can write on the wall, it's also where we found out Murray had lost... Wah. I stupidly ordered a side that came with its own side of fries.
Only in America.
We treated ourselves to an early night then due to full bellies and jet lag!!
The third was a more civilised day, we went on an expensive boat architecture tour. I took a million photos then we went wandering in the millennium park ( we saw the famous bean!) and then the art centre in Chicago. We went into the Magritte exhibit which was surreal...ism. It was pretty awesome seeing a few VERY famous bits and bobs! We then went back to the park and listened to the warm up for that evening free concert.
We then meandered down the mile again to the John Hancock centre and grabbed a coffee at the top and took in the view for a good hour or so ( it was mostly so I could rest my feet).
Today was the field museum which is natural history. It was ok... I think it's aimed at families. But we did get to meet sue... A very big t-Rex. Cool. Then we ambled down the shore line to the park. (I love this park!)
So this city is awesome. It's been a great start so far. Epically enjoying it but my feet are in shreds.
Anyway let's get our 4th of July on. There's a huge bottle of Disaronno with my name on calling...
Xxx Jess
Ps. We will be following hurricane Arthur down the coast apparently :/ bye bye sunshine. Glad we brought macs!!!
We'll so far so amazing. (Apart from the stressful queues in immigration whilst on a short stop over in Philly... I nearly posted a rant called 'I'm a tourist not a terrorist' but mike thought it wouldn't be wise... As always he is the voice of reason.)
So having been in Chicago for three days we are fairly sure we have done most of what we want to do here and can just hang out and relax for a bit in the glorious sun. So we are currently sat in the amazing millennium park, shoes off and being very social on our phones, thanks to PARK WIFI. Amazing. There is wifi everywhere here. It's pretty epic.
It's the 4th of July and all Americans are celebrating independence from us Brits so the place is full of American flags on clothing etc, there's even a guy in the park draped in a flag asking people how they feel about America and filming it, probably for an artsy student type project. It's fairly entertaining. Later we will be having a free BBQ courtesy of our hostel and then straining our necks and watching some fireworks for our last night in Chicago. :(
I have to say, Chicago has it all. There is so much to see and do here and the pizza is undeniably WOW. (With two literally under our belts I can say it's easily the best pizza of my life, and I'm not even keen usually)
So we arrived on Tuesday night about 9pm here (3am at home) I was exhausted and convinced mike to get a taxi from the airport. Staying north of the city means it wasn't too expensive a journey and I stand by the decision. It caused no arguments, which with a tired and grumpy all travelled out Jess was a pure victory!
Our accommodation is very basic! But it's very clean and the bathrooms are pretty nice for a hostel. We even get a free breakfast which consists of a bagel and some cereal but I'm not complaining, I love bagels!!
The second of July was spent visiting the willis tower ( previously known as the Sears tower- it's something to do with the British company leasing a large amount of space and the contract they singed saying they could change it. It's nice to see that Brits are still conquering parts of the new world and claiming them as their own ;) ). We then popped over to the aquarium which made me feel awful after seeing a sad sea lion... It was blind though and had been rescued which made me feel a bit better. But on the whole it was a good place, got to touch a sting ray.... I freaked out a bit, it feels like wet slug. Gross.
We then went for pizza that was huge in gino's east just of the magnificent mile (Oxford circus of Chicago). It was epic- you can write on the wall, it's also where we found out Murray had lost... Wah. I stupidly ordered a side that came with its own side of fries.
Only in America.
We treated ourselves to an early night then due to full bellies and jet lag!!
The third was a more civilised day, we went on an expensive boat architecture tour. I took a million photos then we went wandering in the millennium park ( we saw the famous bean!) and then the art centre in Chicago. We went into the Magritte exhibit which was surreal...ism. It was pretty awesome seeing a few VERY famous bits and bobs! We then went back to the park and listened to the warm up for that evening free concert.
We then meandered down the mile again to the John Hancock centre and grabbed a coffee at the top and took in the view for a good hour or so ( it was mostly so I could rest my feet).
Today was the field museum which is natural history. It was ok... I think it's aimed at families. But we did get to meet sue... A very big t-Rex. Cool. Then we ambled down the shore line to the park. (I love this park!)
So this city is awesome. It's been a great start so far. Epically enjoying it but my feet are in shreds.
Anyway let's get our 4th of July on. There's a huge bottle of Disaronno with my name on calling...
Xxx Jess
Ps. We will be following hurricane Arthur down the coast apparently :/ bye bye sunshine. Glad we brought macs!!!
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
First stop... Heathrow
It's here the 1st of July is here. The first official day of the trip!
It started fairly civilised...ly. A reasonable 7am start with showers, coffees and a quick chat with mark and vicky before they left for work and we left ladened down with the surprisingly heavy backpacks. Looking like matching his and hers turtles in
blue and pinkwe set off.
I could feel the hatred from other commuters as we got the tube, I chose to see it as jealousy rather than them having to navigate around the monster luggage! Luckily as soon as we got the Piccadilly line we joined a whole host of people making the same route to Heathrow(BABY).
So we have just checked in, said ta'ra to our bags, gone through security and had a loo break. Now we are waiting for our breakfast in a overcrowded bar/cafe in Terminal 3 Heathrow (with rounded knives... Silly airport) and it still just doesn't feel real.
The magnitude of what we are about to do has NOT sunk in. I'm not sure when it will, I think it's because having never been to America before I have no idea what to expect. I just I've also shoved the trip to the back of my mind as I have had
ALOTof other things on my mind, like being unemployed, moving to Cardiff and cleaning for what felt like an eternity to ensure we get the deposit back (vital money we need to live on when we get back!!) I've been trying to not get to excited because generally then I find it really hard to sleep.
Christmas Eve is the worst... I know Santa isn't real ( or is he ) but Christmas is too exciting to accidentally sleep through!!! What if you miss it?
So it's been put out of my head.....
Foods here.
I just paused for the most anaemic breakfast I've ever had... It was pretty gross. I had bubble and squeak that just tasted like old food. It was gray...Why can airport restaurants get away with having sucky food! And why hasn't Jamie Oliver revolutionised it yet?! He's done it everywhere else pretty much. I begrudge paying this bill.
1 hour until take off. Two flights. Hope we don't lose our bags aha. Not funny.
Anyway so to summarise... We are at the airport and it doesn't feel real.
Love you all, wish us luck on our flights.
Jess xxx
It started fairly civilised...ly. A reasonable 7am start with showers, coffees and a quick chat with mark and vicky before they left for work and we left ladened down with the surprisingly heavy backpacks. Looking like matching his and hers turtles in
blue and pinkwe set off.
I could feel the hatred from other commuters as we got the tube, I chose to see it as jealousy rather than them having to navigate around the monster luggage! Luckily as soon as we got the Piccadilly line we joined a whole host of people making the same route to Heathrow(BABY).
So we have just checked in, said ta'ra to our bags, gone through security and had a loo break. Now we are waiting for our breakfast in a overcrowded bar/cafe in Terminal 3 Heathrow (with rounded knives... Silly airport) and it still just doesn't feel real.
The magnitude of what we are about to do has NOT sunk in. I'm not sure when it will, I think it's because having never been to America before I have no idea what to expect. I just I've also shoved the trip to the back of my mind as I have had
ALOTof other things on my mind, like being unemployed, moving to Cardiff and cleaning for what felt like an eternity to ensure we get the deposit back (vital money we need to live on when we get back!!) I've been trying to not get to excited because generally then I find it really hard to sleep.
Christmas Eve is the worst... I know Santa isn't real ( or is he ) but Christmas is too exciting to accidentally sleep through!!! What if you miss it?
So it's been put out of my head.....
Foods here.
I just paused for the most anaemic breakfast I've ever had... It was pretty gross. I had bubble and squeak that just tasted like old food. It was gray...Why can airport restaurants get away with having sucky food! And why hasn't Jamie Oliver revolutionised it yet?! He's done it everywhere else pretty much. I begrudge paying this bill.
1 hour until take off. Two flights. Hope we don't lose our bags aha. Not funny.
Anyway so to summarise... We are at the airport and it doesn't feel real.
Love you all, wish us luck on our flights.
Jess xxx
Location:Heathrow
Monday, 30 June 2014
Not long now...
So, we're pretty much finally here. It has felt a long time coming. I finished work Thursday 26th, helped Jess clean the flat Friday, checked out of the flat and drove back to Cardiff Saturday, went to an American Car show Sunday morning and finally got back to London today!
Because of all that, I have not focused too much on the trip, but now I am getting excited to be criss-crossing the USA with Jess. I have done a similar trip in the past, on my own. My only regret from that trip was that I did not get to share some of those experiences. Now I do, and with my wife. :)
I am probably most looking forward to Chicago and San Francisco, as I did not get to those places last time. Plus, of course, Las Vegas, which is just a sight to behold.
Having gone to an American car show on Sunday, I am looking forward to seeing some classic cars, some of which are just ridiculous (20ft long)!
Just one more sleep to go. Catch you in a different time zone.
Mike
Because of all that, I have not focused too much on the trip, but now I am getting excited to be criss-crossing the USA with Jess. I have done a similar trip in the past, on my own. My only regret from that trip was that I did not get to share some of those experiences. Now I do, and with my wife. :)
I am probably most looking forward to Chicago and San Francisco, as I did not get to those places last time. Plus, of course, Las Vegas, which is just a sight to behold.
Having gone to an American car show on Sunday, I am looking forward to seeing some classic cars, some of which are just ridiculous (20ft long)!
Just one more sleep to go. Catch you in a different time zone.
Mike
Monday, 9 June 2014
The Plan.
Ok so I know the blog title is a bit presumptuous but it took Mike and I we'll over an hour of ideas to find one we both liked that wasn't too cheesy or just random (although I was leaning towards Unemployed Spend-Aholics, but I know that's fairly abstract) anyway I've made the blog now so I can't change it...
For the best part of a year Mike and I have been planning a trip to America. We have eight weeks planned in the USA this summer and I just can't believe we are actually doing it!
The idea came about when I was ill and had nothing to watch on TV except Man Vs Food and Diners Drive ins and Dives - essentially American food porn. I have always wanted to go so I text Mike asking if we could go this summer - as he was in work at the time said we'd discuss it when he got home. Some how I've managed to convince my wonderful Yorkshire husband that it's a good idea to spend all of our savings on a trip of a lifetime (although Mike has done this before so maybe it wasn't that hard to convince him). I'm still shocked he agreed!
So an idea became a plan... 8 weeks, 12 cities.
We fly out west on the 1st of July, arriving in the Windy City (Chicago) and are there for 4 nights. We get an overnight train on the 5th to Buffalo and then a connection to Niagara Falls for 2 nights. Another train journey to New York on the 8th and we stay there for a week (seeing a good friend for the weekend!). On the 14th we travel back up the coast to Boston and stay for 4 nights until we leave for Washington DC on the 18th. We have 5 long days to see a lot of culture (I hope) in the Capital and then head down on the 23rd to Charleston for 3 nights. Our last train journey is on the 26th to Orlando and we are there for 3 nights (this part is just for me, Harry Potter here we come!!). We then have a horrific overnight bus journey planned for the 29th to get us to a long jazz weekend in NEW ORLEANS!! (The only silver lining to the awful bus plan). On the 3rd of August we have another long stint on a bus to get us to Houston for 4 nights. We go up in the world on the 7th and get an internal flight to (and this bit was a deal clencher for Mike) Las Vegas for 5 nights. Then we are off flying to San Francisco on the 12th for 5 nights and then to Venice Beach, Los Angeles on the 17th for 9 nights. And we fly home(less) on the 26th arriving more exhausted than when we left on the 27th of August.
At which point we start a whole new adventure moving to Cardiff together.
For the past two weekends we have been organising the big move and juggling plans until then. We have already packed half the flat (and half of our boy and girl backpacks) countless lists have been made and now we are just on countdown until we fly... 21 sleeps
Jess xxx
For the best part of a year Mike and I have been planning a trip to America. We have eight weeks planned in the USA this summer and I just can't believe we are actually doing it!
The idea came about when I was ill and had nothing to watch on TV except Man Vs Food and Diners Drive ins and Dives - essentially American food porn. I have always wanted to go so I text Mike asking if we could go this summer - as he was in work at the time said we'd discuss it when he got home. Some how I've managed to convince my wonderful Yorkshire husband that it's a good idea to spend all of our savings on a trip of a lifetime (although Mike has done this before so maybe it wasn't that hard to convince him). I'm still shocked he agreed!
So an idea became a plan... 8 weeks, 12 cities.
We fly out west on the 1st of July, arriving in the Windy City (Chicago) and are there for 4 nights. We get an overnight train on the 5th to Buffalo and then a connection to Niagara Falls for 2 nights. Another train journey to New York on the 8th and we stay there for a week (seeing a good friend for the weekend!). On the 14th we travel back up the coast to Boston and stay for 4 nights until we leave for Washington DC on the 18th. We have 5 long days to see a lot of culture (I hope) in the Capital and then head down on the 23rd to Charleston for 3 nights. Our last train journey is on the 26th to Orlando and we are there for 3 nights (this part is just for me, Harry Potter here we come!!). We then have a horrific overnight bus journey planned for the 29th to get us to a long jazz weekend in NEW ORLEANS!! (The only silver lining to the awful bus plan). On the 3rd of August we have another long stint on a bus to get us to Houston for 4 nights. We go up in the world on the 7th and get an internal flight to (and this bit was a deal clencher for Mike) Las Vegas for 5 nights. Then we are off flying to San Francisco on the 12th for 5 nights and then to Venice Beach, Los Angeles on the 17th for 9 nights. And we fly home(less) on the 26th arriving more exhausted than when we left on the 27th of August.
At which point we start a whole new adventure moving to Cardiff together.
For the past two weekends we have been organising the big move and juggling plans until then. We have already packed half the flat (and half of our boy and girl backpacks) countless lists have been made and now we are just on countdown until we fly... 21 sleeps
Jess xxx
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