Canada, Seattle, San Fran, Yosemite and back to L.A.

Hi all,

Banff was great, like I said it was Canada's first National Park and it was a little different to the American National Parks we had already seen because it had a town and a town and civilisation. We spent our first day looking around the town and went out in the evening for Gary and Lauren's birthdays, who are another couple on our trip. We went out to a few bars and found one that had loads of English Football shirts on the wall (No Tottenham shirt but they did have an Aston Villa shirt, obviously no class!). The next day we headed back into the town and did some laundry and found an internet cafe.

Our third day in Banff was a little more special because we travelled for about an hour through the park to Lake Louise. It is a huge lake fed by a Glacier and the process of "flowering" gives it this amazing turquoise blue colour which looks really beautiful. A few other of the trekkers went on a hike but me and Jen decided we were just going to hang by the lake and wait for them. I decided to have a paddle, bad idea, the water made my feet hurt it was so cold! When the hikers got back we headed for van and a CRAZY guy was swimming in the lake. I asked him how it was when he got out and he went on for ages about how the latitude that Lake Louise sat on gave the Lake mystical powers that will make you live forever! Yeah, good luck with that one guy! All I know is that you got COLD!

The next day we headed for Emerald lake. This lake was green, also due to "flowering" (I don't get it either!) but myself and a couple other of the guys decided to ignore the lake and go on a big hike. Me, Stu and Rob hiked 10 miles up the steepest hill I've ever hiked and I was knackered afterwards! We hiked to get a good view and even hiked above the cloud level, which ruined the view a little. It even had snow! After we hiked (or rather ran) down the mountain, we headed for the next campsite, Beaverfoot lodge. It seemed at first that this was going to be a nightmare campsite with no toilets, no showers and no drinkable water... but then we realised we were in the wrong site... the next site had most of the ammenities and the field had deer in it qwhen we got there. The campsite itself was beautiful and had a real character which was refreshing. The lodge was 5 minutes walk away and had REAL showers, not the stupidly weak, cold showers that you mostly get! We had a really big bonfire and played cards. That night, we heard things running around outside the tent. It turned out to be deer but at the time I thought it was a bear! Pretty scary stuff!

The next day was an overnight stay in Kamloops which was not ver eventful at all. We had dinner and went to bed! Whoop!

The day after we travelled to Vancouver. I had had high expectations of Vancouver, people had told me it was a really nice city and I always see it on those lists of the safest places to live! I have it on my own list... titled "Dumps that are full of homeless people and that you should never visit!". It seemed like one big ghetto! I mean there were nice parts but the bad parts made them seem insignificant and the good parts were right next to the bad parts and it all spilled over. I was not impressed. Luckily, our campsite was 40 miles outside of the city itself. We had an evening in the hottub and using the internet. The next day we had a choice of going into Vancouver or going to bungee jump. Now, unfortunately our budget wouldn't stretch to the bungee jump but we decided that we wanted to go and watch our mates do it so we got in the van and travelled to Whistler. Whistler is a famous ski resort, we were just outside. The guys all did their bungee and we headed back for Vancouver. We went out in China town for chinese food and managed to hit a place that was obviously suffering after the recession. The food was awful and... well, let me put it this way, the food didn't make it home with me!

The next day we were leaving Canada and travelling to Seattle. This was a one night stop in a Hostel. We got there nice and early and went to see the city. I went with Rob to the Experience Music Project. The museum for music was an impressive building made from metal bent into strange abstract shapes and the city monorail goes through it! Inside, the museum was one of the coolest I've ever been to, there was a section about Seattle's contribution to music which had a big section on the grunge era, with Nirvana and Pearl Jam exhibits and displays. There was a Jimi Hendrix Exhibit and then there was a place where you could go into a Studio and play some instruments and lay down a track! Me and Rob had a blast on the drums and guitars in there. Attached to the Music place (and included in the price) was the Science Fiction Museum, which we happily geeked about! There was an exhibit on Jim Henson which was awesome, it had original Kermit the Frog puppets that were in the shows and Me and Rob got to play two muppets in our own show! I was Animal and Rob was a Jimi Hendrix muppet and we played Louie Louie... as Muppets! After the museum we headed for the marker where the guys throw fish and there are lots of crazy shops. In the evening, we ate in Cheesecake Factory (AMAZING!) and went to bed.

The next day we headed for Oregon, this was another over-nighter that was uneventful too!

The day after we arrived in Redwoods National Park. We were here to seee some BIG TREES! Redwoods grow big and tall and the tallest tree in the world is in this park. The best thing though, this was the best campsite we'd been to in ages. We did some laundry, played table tennis and used the internet, and then took the van and tried to drive through a tree! That's right, the trees are so big you can ALMOST fit a van through it! This one was living still and they had cut a huge hole through it! After that, some crazy hunter guy took me and a couple other of the trek guys out to the river on his POWER golf buggy! We went off roading, in a golf buggy! it was awesome!

The next day we headed to San Francisco! This was a two night stop in Hotels and was welcomed after all the camping we had done! We got to the city and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. We got to our Hotel and got settled, then went out for a Curry! Having not had a curry in about 2 months, I was very excited! I didn't expect the curry house to have items like tikka masala on the menu but they did and it was great! After that we all went for a few drinks as one of our trekkers was leaving the next day, leaving the trip early!

The next day, Jen and I went out to explore the city. We walked through Chinatown and through Little Italy to the Fisherman's Wharf and went to Pier 39 where all the Sea Lions were after that we headed for the Golden Gate bridge, checking out some other sites on the way. The city has a great vibe and I love it.

The day after, we headed for Yosemite. We walked though another tree here and went to see the tallest waterfall in America. We also got pictures of El Capitan. We headed for the campsite next where we had a pool. The next day, in a very lazy way, we decided not to join the crazy few people who were doing an 18 mile hike in the blazing heat up a mountain but instead we decided to laze by the pool and top up the tans!

The next day we headed to the Pacific coast for our last night. We had a few drinks in celebration and commiseration and everyone was in a great mood.

We're now back in L.A.

We fly home tomorrow evening so we'll be back in Blighty on Tuesday!

x x x

Niagra Falls, Chicago, Yellowstone, Glacier and CANADA!

Hi all,

Again, long time no Wifi!

We met our new tour guide in New Jersey... luckily, our old tour guide dropped us off at the hotel, which was just outside Giants old and new Stadiums! We picked up 4 more passengers too, since we lost a couple in NY. First stop, Niagra.

We got to Niagra and our proximity to Canada was very humurous... literally across a river! We stayed at a campsite on one of the Great Lakes (the name escapes me) but you could see Toronto across the lake! We slept there for the night, freezing cold, and got up the next day for Niagra Falls. We headed down to the falls in the morning to catch the first Maid of the Mist boat. We picked up our souvenier ponchos (free!) and climbed aboard. We first decided that we might get a bit wet when we saw the state of the boat already... but what's a bit of water!? We cruised off towards the falls and before we knew it, we were soaked! The falls are colossal, its amazing to withold that much water and the power that that much water creates. I later learned that Niagra Falls is the greatest source of renewable energy in the world!

Later we set off towared Sandusky, Ohio. There's not much to do here.

Chicago next. We got there, checked in to our Hostel and then headed out for Dinner. We had Deep Dish Pizza... Oh My God! Now, think of the kind of "Deep" pizzas we get here? All crust, right? Not here... It was HUGE! Imagine the thickness of a quiche and you're nearly there. The crust isn't that thick, its almost all filling! Anyway, enough about Pizza... we went out later that night in search of Blues music but they all had a cover charge on the door of about $8-$10 so we decided not to.

The next day we went sight seeing. We went up the Sears tower, which is the third tallest building in the world, and saw most of the city from there, then we travelled to Millenium Park to see a sculpture which can only be described as a massive, reflective Bean. The surface of the bean is completely mirrored so you can always see yourself and it makes for some great photographs. It reflects the skyline too and is really quite remarkable! We went for a look round some shops and in the Evening went to a Whitesox Baseball game. Everything was typical, like you see in the Films, with the national anthem and fireworks at the start and the music and the vendors shouting "HOTDOGS!"... the game itself was boring but you had to love the atmosphere!

The next day we set off for Sioux falls and then to Cody, Wyoming. These were both very uneventful. It seems that the start of the North side is a lot of driving to get West where all the interesting stuff happens. We were supposed to see a Rodeo in Cody, but it was too cold! The other thing about this end of the World is that it's the Miswest; Cowboys and Indians, Hunters, Guns and Left Wing Politics! We stayed in a Ranch on of the nights and there were Turkeys, Deer and even a Mooses head mounted on the Walls. These people loved their guns and loved killing things which was rather unnerving! The night in the Ranch was fun but I was glad to get out of there! At some point in these few days, we attempted to see Mt Rushmore. Our luck with the weather had not been so good and this particular day, it was so foggy, you couldn't even see it! Not even faintly!

We arrived in Yellowstone for the first two day stop in a while. National Parks tend to have worse facilities that normal, so there were no showers at the camp and we had to Bear Proof everything (Bear Proofing means locking all food, cosmetics and toiletries in the trailer or the Van at night!). On our first day in Yellowstone we hiked up a Mountain to get a good view of Lake Yellowstone. Half way up, we encountered snow! There was snow on the ground (in some places it went up to your thigh!) and it was snowing while we walked! It made the whole forrest look incredibly beautiful and picturescue! We got to the top and the view was stunning. The rest of the day we were vanned around by Andy, the tour guide, and he showed us a lot of the cool spots like "Old Faithful", one of the biggest geysers in the park and to "paint pots", smaller geothermal spots that had claylike liquid in them that just bubbled away.

The next day I did another hike, this time without Jen as she pulled a muscle in her leg, and we hiked around a sulpher lake, through some sulpher hotpots and to a place called Artists Points, a huge waterfall at the start of a canyon. Then we went to some other bits in the north side of the park. To shower that evening, we decided to sneak into a Hotel and use their communal showers! Take it to the Man!

The next day we headed for Glacier NP, a park dedicated to... yes you guessed it... Glaciers! We did more hiking here, some of it quite gnarley (we hiked across sheer faces that used to have footpaths but were now covered in snow and one slip would lead to a long fall!). We then hiked across a Glacier to a Frozen lake!

The next day we were crossing the boarder... into CANADA! We were taken into a room, had to strip off and... ONLY KIDDING! The Canadians were very nice, actually! and they do all say "eh?" at the end of every sentence, it's not a myth! Our first stop (and where I still am this very moment) was Banff NP. Banff is lovely, its a National Park, Canada's first and contains, amongst other things, Lake Louise. It also has a town, unlike most other Nationa Parks, and is very nice! Tomorrow, we hike the afformentioned lake and then on to Golden... wherever that is.

Nice talking to you, eh?

Take care, eh?

bye now!... eh?

Orlando, Key West, Daytona, Charleston, Washington DC and NYC!

Hi all,

Long time no WiFi, sorry!

Orlando was the rainiest place on earth... but nevertheless we ventured into the Magic Kingdom and got Rain Ponchoed up! We arrrived at the opening and were keen to take in some of the parades and shows... except Mickey doesn't like rain... Wuss! So instead we wondered round and did the rides and attractions, had lunch in Pinnochio's place and met Ariel from the little Mermaid. Then we went to Mickey and Minnie's house and met them too. And we met the Disney Princesses! What a day! The best atttraction by far was a very dated ride called the "Carousel of Progress"... some old mechanical dude bantering on about the different decades!

The next day, a slighly sunnier morning, we ventured Universal Studios. We decided to get the Roller Coasters done in case the weather turned on us and went straight for the Hulk and Jurassic Park. After that, as predicted, the heavens opened again and we went to the indoor rides. We rode the new Simpsons ride which has replaced the ageing Back to the Future ride! It was good... and even better was seeeing that they were homaging the Back to the Future ride with fresh snippets of the Simpsons cartoon playing on the TVs while you queued.

After Orlando we headed for Key Largo and the Key West. Key West is a craqzy place... one road goes from Gays to Bikers to Yuppies, all Bars! We went out and partied in Sloppy Joes and had frozen margaritas.

The next day, the weather was too hot to do anything so we lazed by the pool and did some laundry, nothing special, except topping the tan up... which by the way is coming on very well!

Daytona was really just a stop off but to pass the time we learned a game called Beer Pong. I lost!

The day after, we headed for Charleston, SC, a lovely city and a great change of pace. The city's historical department won't let them knock any buildings down so it has a very historical feel. They have a very deep south feel as well which I find endearing and everyone downtown was very friendly.

The next day, instead of stopping over a day in The Middle Of Nowhere, North Carolina, we decided to do huge drive (12 hours) to Washington DC a day early. We camped in a little pavilion in the woods! That night, Jason took us on a tour of the city by night, we saw the Washington Monument, Thomas Jefferson's Monument and Abraham Lincoln's Monument. We also saw the War Memorial.

The next day we went to see the White House. We stood outside and took pictures like usual but then we were asked to clear the road... something was happening in the White House, and I noticed to guys dressed in black on the roof. We later found out that he... B-rock... Mr Obama himself was coming out and getting into a car to go to New York! The rest of the day we looked around Downtown (we found the only Nando's in the entire USA) and in the Smithsonian Museums.

The next day we headed for New York. We'd done all the sites in New York so we enjoyed a couple of days just wandering round... we also had to find the new Topshop, NY for Jen. It was a nice couple of days but then we had to say goodbye to our tour leader Jason. He does stand-up comedy in his spare time but might be making it big because he got a gig that meant that he couldn't take us for the North. We now have a new tour guide, Andy.

Next time, Niagra falls and Chicago!