So here we are!! 16 states later and Im back where I started, in the hostel in New York where I spent my very first excited and terrified night in the city! Its actually mad to believe that so much has happened in the last 15 weeks, and even more amazing to think that it actually went all as I planned it, with an extra stop along the way!!! If you ask me, knowing my luck, its the most amazing yet baffling part of the whole trip, but hey ho!! My knee has pretty much completely given out at this point, its pretty painful and keeps swelling up and is refusing to be walked on mostly but I have a bus tour pass for the next 3 days on one of those hop-on, hop-off dealios so I should be ok, I dont have to walk up and down subway stairs and hopefully will get dropped off directly at most of the sights. Then I need to be at the airport at 3pm on Friday and have to check out by 11am so am just considering getting on the subway then and heading over. If JFK is anything like Heathrow I should be able to amuse myself there for a few hours quite easily!!
So what have I been up to since I last posted?? Well Ive been in 3 states, haha, so you have another epic post to read sorry!! Denver was lovely, its an absolutely gorgeous city and the university isnt bad either!! Didnt see any musuems in Denver in the end, in my defence I tried but the US minting place was closed by the time we got there so we went and got our nails done instead to get over our devastation!! :) Ha. We also had lunch in the cutest little clocktower cafe where I had a lovely pizza cooked in an outside oven and Julia had the randomest hotdog with apricots in it!! She says it was nice though......... We then went home and ordered a Dominoes (its not as good as in the UK, no complimentary crust dip!!!) and went to bed ready for my early start.
And early it was!! It was still dark, which was ridiculous and I got my shuttle and headed to Denver airport. Its a really nice airport, with the most hilarious underground train system that plays different pieces of jaunty (Im sorry I had no other word for it!) with every different announcement. I got on my flight, its true what they say about Americans treating aeroplanes like buses, mine stopped at Chicago to let some passengers off and more on, then in Louisville where I got off, then it was heading on to Birmingham, Alabama before finishing in Orlando, Florida. And this is all one flight! Bizzare! Met Brittany at Louisville airport, had the expected tearful reunion (haha) then went back to her house in Lexington, about 50 miles away. We dumped my stuff and headed out to meet Keara (her sister who was also at camp) for a southern dinner. I had chicken and sweet potato fries, with yeast rolls and mashed potato. I then had strawberry cobbler for dessert which was delicious! We then went for a tour of Brittany's old neighbourhood including her high school, which looked just like Grease :) We then headed back to hers so I could pass out after my ridiculously tiring day of sitting........
The next day was awesome, we went apple picking at an orchard!!!!!! We had apple cider slushies (wierdly apple cider here isnt alcoholic!) and went out and ate and picked a load of apples. We then took some ridiculous photos with some scarecrows and headed in out of the heat (it was a non-apple-picking-friendly 94 degrees!!) It was Brittanys birthday so we'd done present stuff that morning, my necklace I bought her in Vegas survived the trip and Keara got her a beautiful floor lamp that we put pink bulbs in and it looked awesome!! She had vouchers to spend so we went to a lovely air conditioned mall and had tea there in a delicious Chinese restaurant. We then headed back and put on Sweet Home Alabama to keep the southern theme going and fell asleep!! After Keara got home from classes the next day we went out to a village that had been run by a group called the Shakers. They are similar to Amish people (although different enough that there were some Amish people visiting, who I confused with the people working there, oops!!) They were a religious group with some pretty interesting and convincing religious ideas that I think I need to look more into to see if they actually happened like we were told!! We wandered around there for a few hours then went to a steak restaurant for a somewhat awesome steak dinner!! We then decided to go to downtown Lexington to see if anything was going on for the start of the World Equestrian Games that are being held there, but it was raining so aside from the concert we had nearly missed there wasnt anything!! So we went back to the house, put on 10 Things I Hate About You (which is still so sad coz Heath Ledger died!!) and fell asleep to a movie again!!
Had to get up at stupid o'clock again (I dont know why I booked my flights as early as I did, in hindsight it was an error!!) but once again had a smooth flight to Washington DC, with a boring change in Detroit, Michigan. Arrived at the airport and met Fatemah, the girl who was kindly letting me stay with her, who I lived with last year for a term when she was an exchange student at Lancs (so that damn flat gave me something good in the end!!) We got some food and went back to hers to eat it and to catch up, then went out and wandered around her town of Rockville, Maryland whilst eating frozen yoghurt with fresh peaches and strawberries, yum!! We then went back to hers so I could once again pass out from exhaustion, ready for the epic day of sightseeing the next day. And epic it was!! Im thinking of writing a book on how to see all a city has to offer in a day, coz once again I managed it, with the exception of the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress, but that wasnt my fault, they were closed!! I went around all the monuments, the Lincoln memorial is pretty impressive and saw the White House, which is a bit of a let down, as bizarrely its just in the middle of a bunch of other buildings and is actually quite tiny!! Finally got my museum trip in the form of the Holocaust Museum, which was a pretty awesome place. We then went to Fatemah's sister-in-laws for some food, she made us quesedillas, which are mince, tomatos and cheese in tortillas with sour cream and are delicious!! We then spent a couple of hours scaring ourselves watching Criminal Minds and then I was nearly asleep so we went home! Had another early start the next day, Fatemah dropped me off at the train station before she went to work at 7.15 and I got the train into DC. Dropped my bag at a storage place and went for a tour of the Capitol and then to the Library of Congress. Tour started with obligatory and hilarious video on how wonderful America is, but the rest was pretty interesting, had a very amusing tour guide called Brandon, who clearly loved his country and his job!! Library claimed to hold lots of interesting things but I couldnt find any of them so went back to station to collect bag and wait for train. Did some stuff to prepare for coming home, which was a bit depressing (making docs appointments about my knee, ugh!) and then slept for most of the journey. Was awake to see Philadelphia station and one in New Jersey so can say Ive seen the states :) Getting the subway to the hostel went very smoothly, and am now probably off to bed (at 7pm how sad!!) so I can get up and start my bus tour at a decent time tomorrow!!
I dont have that many days left to blog about now so there will be no more epic posts, Ill probably update you on what happens here from the airport on Friday. Im actually really excited to be going home, I didnt think I would be but Im definitely ready to stop travelling now!! Im so bloody tired!! Its been amazing though and Im so excited to see New York! So Ill write soon, and see you in less than a week, eeeeeeeee :)
Monday, 27 September 2010
Monday, 20 September 2010
Day 92......Hello from Dever, CO!!
Ive moved again!! I had a lovely week in Utah with my family and am now in Denver, Colorado with my friend Julia who I worked with last year, who is studying out here for the next couple of years on a scholarship (shes really very very clever!!). Theres currently a massive and very impressive thunderstorm, which is amazing to watch, the skys gone all sorts of gorgeous shades of orange and pink and the lightening is lighting up the Rockies, its so pretty!! And hopefully it will break the ridiuclous heat and humidity!!
I really enjoyed my time in Utah, its such a gorgeous state. Salt Lake City is one of the cleanest and prettiest Ive ever been in, and of course this is credited to the Mormons. Have to say I wasnt hassled nearly as much as I was expecting to be on my day jaunt to the city, and there was even a Starbucks!! Those of you who dont know the religion will be shrugging at this but as caffiene is banned, I was impressed. Of course it is a Starbucks and they do get everywhere, and Im not surprised even a divine intervention couldnt stop them :P
I really didnt do a lot in Ogden (the city just outside Salt Lake where my Auntie, Uncle and cousins live) and its been freakin wonderful! I cant believe I was only there for a week, it feels like so much longer, and the lie-ins, sunbathing, baths and general lazing around was definitely worth it!! I had a day of pampering on Friday and feel much better after having a haircut (my head feels about 10 pounds lighter) and an amazing pedicure from "an aggressive asian woman" (I have such pretty toes!!) I was taken to the states largest gift shop, The Rainbow Gardens, and was amazingly restrained and didnt buy anything! The only thing I was tempted to was a Christmas Decoration that was made from the salt from the salt lake the City got its name from, but was told the humidity in England would probably cause it to fall apart once I got it home, so I decided against it! Ive also done some shopping and bought a stock of the shower gel I love and some long sleeved tops, mostly as an incentive to come home, to a place where I can actually wear them! Its still at least 90 degrees in most of the places I have yet to go to, so I wont be wearing them for another couple of weeks! Its quite nice to see the rain here actually, although its a novelty Im sure will wear off quickly back in Lancaster!
I went to watch my baby cousin play football on Saturday, although not proper football, but American Football. (And technically at 13 hes not a baby anymore.......) I didnt really understand most of the game, although it made a lot more sense than the one I saw in Lancaster, but I still managed to "Woo" in all the right places, and had loads of people to talk to, parents who were attracted by the accent! We then went home and had a stir fry followed by the worlds most disappointing cheescake. It looked amazing, it was huge and made up of 2 slices of 6 flavours of cheesecake. Unfortunately in true American style they added damn cinnamon to EVERY flavour, even the chocolate ones!! It was totally ruined, and very sad :( The evening was saved however by me and my auntie and cousin snuggling up and watching "Across The Universe", which is a film much like "Mamma Mia" but with Beatles music. Its really good and almost made up for not getting to see Cheap Trick do the Sergeant Peppers album in Vegas. The lead guy was also really cute, its been a long time since a found a guy with a Scouse accent attractive lol.
The flight to Denver went really smoothly, it felt like we had only just finished gaining altitude when we started coming back down again, and got to Julias in time to distract her from her course reading for a catch up of the last months Ive missed by being over here. I went into downtown Denver today, which is really lovely, and spent a few hours wandering around the 16th Street Mall and going to the state Capitol building, which is really beautiful. The whole area around it is designed to look like Washington DC, and its made me really excited to see the real thing! Walking up 99 stairs to see the view from the top of the Dome really gave my knee a bit of a shock after a week of resting but its nothing some ice tonight couldnt cure! Im heading in again tomorrow with Julia (who had classes all day today) to see a museum or two (I feel like one of my stops should have a little culture!) and maybe the place they make money, one of only two US Minting factories in the country! I intend to ask them to at least make their note denominations different colours, if not different sizes!!
As an update from other blogs, I have a Utah magnet that I managed to find at the last minute in the airport, but as of yet still not Illinois one and a Colorado one didnt show itself today :/ I found a shop with all 50 in Utah, but in true my life style, Illinois and Utah were the only 2 missing!!! (Utah I get, but why Illinois?!?!) So I am endevouring to keep on searching, and then hit Amazon when I get home!! For anyone keeping count Im currently missing Illinois (I think I mentioned that, ha) and Nevada.
Also, Mum, Im sorry this post has a distinct lack of apostrophes, Im using Julias Spanish computer and they look weird!!
See everyone in 12 sleeps!!!! :)
I really enjoyed my time in Utah, its such a gorgeous state. Salt Lake City is one of the cleanest and prettiest Ive ever been in, and of course this is credited to the Mormons. Have to say I wasnt hassled nearly as much as I was expecting to be on my day jaunt to the city, and there was even a Starbucks!! Those of you who dont know the religion will be shrugging at this but as caffiene is banned, I was impressed. Of course it is a Starbucks and they do get everywhere, and Im not surprised even a divine intervention couldnt stop them :P
I really didnt do a lot in Ogden (the city just outside Salt Lake where my Auntie, Uncle and cousins live) and its been freakin wonderful! I cant believe I was only there for a week, it feels like so much longer, and the lie-ins, sunbathing, baths and general lazing around was definitely worth it!! I had a day of pampering on Friday and feel much better after having a haircut (my head feels about 10 pounds lighter) and an amazing pedicure from "an aggressive asian woman" (I have such pretty toes!!) I was taken to the states largest gift shop, The Rainbow Gardens, and was amazingly restrained and didnt buy anything! The only thing I was tempted to was a Christmas Decoration that was made from the salt from the salt lake the City got its name from, but was told the humidity in England would probably cause it to fall apart once I got it home, so I decided against it! Ive also done some shopping and bought a stock of the shower gel I love and some long sleeved tops, mostly as an incentive to come home, to a place where I can actually wear them! Its still at least 90 degrees in most of the places I have yet to go to, so I wont be wearing them for another couple of weeks! Its quite nice to see the rain here actually, although its a novelty Im sure will wear off quickly back in Lancaster!
I went to watch my baby cousin play football on Saturday, although not proper football, but American Football. (And technically at 13 hes not a baby anymore.......) I didnt really understand most of the game, although it made a lot more sense than the one I saw in Lancaster, but I still managed to "Woo" in all the right places, and had loads of people to talk to, parents who were attracted by the accent! We then went home and had a stir fry followed by the worlds most disappointing cheescake. It looked amazing, it was huge and made up of 2 slices of 6 flavours of cheesecake. Unfortunately in true American style they added damn cinnamon to EVERY flavour, even the chocolate ones!! It was totally ruined, and very sad :( The evening was saved however by me and my auntie and cousin snuggling up and watching "Across The Universe", which is a film much like "Mamma Mia" but with Beatles music. Its really good and almost made up for not getting to see Cheap Trick do the Sergeant Peppers album in Vegas. The lead guy was also really cute, its been a long time since a found a guy with a Scouse accent attractive lol.
The flight to Denver went really smoothly, it felt like we had only just finished gaining altitude when we started coming back down again, and got to Julias in time to distract her from her course reading for a catch up of the last months Ive missed by being over here. I went into downtown Denver today, which is really lovely, and spent a few hours wandering around the 16th Street Mall and going to the state Capitol building, which is really beautiful. The whole area around it is designed to look like Washington DC, and its made me really excited to see the real thing! Walking up 99 stairs to see the view from the top of the Dome really gave my knee a bit of a shock after a week of resting but its nothing some ice tonight couldnt cure! Im heading in again tomorrow with Julia (who had classes all day today) to see a museum or two (I feel like one of my stops should have a little culture!) and maybe the place they make money, one of only two US Minting factories in the country! I intend to ask them to at least make their note denominations different colours, if not different sizes!!
As an update from other blogs, I have a Utah magnet that I managed to find at the last minute in the airport, but as of yet still not Illinois one and a Colorado one didnt show itself today :/ I found a shop with all 50 in Utah, but in true my life style, Illinois and Utah were the only 2 missing!!! (Utah I get, but why Illinois?!?!) So I am endevouring to keep on searching, and then hit Amazon when I get home!! For anyone keeping count Im currently missing Illinois (I think I mentioned that, ha) and Nevada.
Also, Mum, Im sorry this post has a distinct lack of apostrophes, Im using Julias Spanish computer and they look weird!!
See everyone in 12 sleeps!!!! :)
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Day 86.......Time for a welcome week of sleeping!
So this post comes to you from the lovely state of Utah! Its actually really pretty, all one town of it that Ive seen!! My escapades in Utah so far are really easy to update you on, I arrived yesterday after a 6 hour drive from Las Vegas, which I slept through. I got here, ate dinner and fell asleep. I got up today at noon-ish, had some lunch, had a bath and read a whole book, then had dinner and now Im informing you all of my life in the past week before I go to bed again!! Its amazing, for anyone who is wondering travelling is EXHAUSTING!!!!! (and yes, I know I could sleep before I left, but even I wasnt this ridiculous!!)
So that's Utah so far covered. Before I tell you all about the bright lights of Vegas, Im going to go back a week or so and tell you all about San Francisco! Im going to be honest, I wasnt a massive fan of the city, the hostel we were staying was in the dodgiest area of town and it was honestly terrifying, even during the day, and especially at night. Amy (the girl we drove up with) had a horrible experience when she went out early the first morning we were there, with people yelling at her and harrassing her for money. She came back all freaked out and really worried me and Lorna, by the time we left the hostel it was much better but still not a holiday kind of place! We got a bus (for free coz we got on the wrong end!) up to the tourist part of town and it was much nicer, but Im still so unimpressed that a hostel would be in the worst area of town. As a tourist I didnt know to recognise the address and when they send me the survey asking for my views Im going to be very cross. It probably wont do anything but it'll make me feel better!!
Anyways, all was not lost and me and Lorna spent a very lovely afternoon on Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. Whoever said retail therapy makes you feel better was right!! :) We tried clam chowder from a traditional sourdough bowl and got most of our presents for people and I got some pajama pants that are actually long enough for me!! (Theyre New York Giants ones, a team I had no idea what sport they even played, but its upset my 13 year old cousin who is a massive fan of the team they beat in the Superbowl last year, the New England Patriots. He took some convincing that it was an accident, oops!!) We then booked our tours of Alcatraz Island for the next day and (very reluctantly) headed back to the hostel. Very randomly a friend of mine, who Im meeting up with in New York, was in San Francisco so we met up with her and her travelling companion and went for dinner in Chinatown. It was a really nice meal and the area is so cute! I could've bought so much stuff (being the souvenir whore I am!) but limited myself to just a beautiful silk purse. We were then insanely cold so headed back to the hotel for a rock and roll cup of tea before heading to bed.
Just as an aside, the weather in San Francisco is RIDICULOUS!!! Its so windy, especially on the piers, and cold even when its sunny! It did however give me an excuse to take advantage of the Gaps $35 jeans sale, and got some very nice skinny jeans, that serve the purpose of keeping me warm and fitting under my brace! I havent used them since I left San Fran but heyho, Ill use them when I get home!!
Our second day in San Francisco we actually got up and me, Lorna and Amy headed out to do stuff. We started with going to get our tickets for the Greyhound the next day, in yet another dodgy area of the city!! We then started our sightseeing with the Yerba Gardens, which were very pretty and contained a lot of people doing some morning yoga. We then wandered through the very attractive Union Square shopping centre and sought out a cable car stop to take us to the Wharf. We stood on the outside of the cable car which was very exciting, and went whizzing through the city for the bargain price of $5. We got off just before the Wharf at a place called Lombard Street, which is apparently the 'crookedest street in the world'. It was designed that way to make it easier for cars to go downhill safely. If you're interested Google it, its mad looking!! We then headed to the Wharf and hung out for a couple of hours, and maybe shopped some more, and then me and Lorna headed for our Alcatraz tour. The island was amazing, and if you ask me all prisons in the world should be designed like it!! It was a fascinating couple of hours, but eventually we headed off to get some slices of pizza to have while we packed and got ready for our bus journey at stupid o'clock the next day........... 4am is a really early start but we managed it and got onto the first of our buses for our epic trek to Las Vegas. It took forever but went fairly quickly and was fairly uneventful. We slept a bit and didnt eat much, and after several hours of boring landscape (the Mojave desert is really really dull!) we reached the bright lights of Sin City! We arrived at night, which was definitely the best time to get there as it was an amazing sight!!!!!!!!
The hotel we were staying in was called New York, New York and it was genuinely amazing!! It was designed inside to look like New York city, and it really did! There was a Statue of Liberty and a Brooklyn Bridge outside and a rollercoaster going around it. The inside was naturally Times Square and was very well done. We got to the hotel and said hello to Gill and Mike (my aunt and uncle) and Steve and Julie (my uncles brother and his wife) and then went to our GORGEOUS hotel room to get showered and changed for dinner. I had a very nice steak, Lorna chose to pay for cocktails rather than food, and then we headed out to check out the bars in the casino. There was a rowdy Irish bar, a dueling piano kareoke bar which was awesome, a 'nightclub' which as it was only one room we classified as a 'nightarea' and the Coyote Ugly bar. It was amazing at once but the girls weren't nearly as good looking as in the film, and it got pretty old pretty quickly!!! We were then on the verge of being up for 24 hours so headed off to our queen size bed each, which was dreamlike after the hostel beds we'd been in!!
We got up the next day and headed down to the box office to take advantage of the hotel's 3 for $54 offer, we got tickets for an aquarium, the CSI experience and Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden. The Secret Garden tickets were traumatic to acquire and we had to walk miles to get them, but they were so worth it coz we saw some incredibly beautiful dolphins and then some of the cutest tigers EVER!! They were white ones, and there were two 11 week old cubs that were the most adorable things I have ever seen!! Lorna got some gorgeous photos that Ill post as soon as I can! We then headed up the strip to the MGM and the CSI Experience, which was awesome and yes, I did indeed solve the case! In case you're interested it was the guy's twin brother :P We then went back to the hotel where Gill and Julie had rented a cabana, a private tent thing by the pool with a fully stocked fridge, sunbeds and a personal waitress!! It was awesome and we sat and ate some fish and chicken and chips (the hugest portion ever - 2 pieces of fish!) until the pool closed. Then we decided to take advantage of another of the hotels offers and bought tickets to the Cirque Du Soleil show that the hotel had on. It was amazing and they were clearly talented, unfortunately they were also showing us the sensual side of Cirque, so at times it was pretty uncomfortable, as Lorna said!! But we survived it, and it was in keeping with the tone of Vegas so we were happy!! We then wandered for a bit and had a couple of drinks at places like Caesars Palace and MGM before pausing to watch the Fountains at the Bellagio. Which are genuinely the most beautiful thing Ive ever seen. They are unbelievably elegant and graceful, which are odd words to use to describe water but they really are! They are so well choreographed with the music and they gave me goosebumps (or duckbumps as Simon and Tina re-christened them in Chicago!!) I could go on about them for hours but you can never really appreciate them till you're there so I'll shut up!! I was so taken with them Im ordering a book on them off Amazon so I can learn how they work, yup Im that geeky!! :)
So after another comfortable night in a gorgeously comfortable bed, we got up to say a sad goodbye to Steve and Julie, who were heading back to Denver, then the plan was to go to the Grand Canyon. However Gill had vastly underestimated the time it took to get there, she thought 2 hours when its actually 6, and after learning that a helicopter ride was out of the question ($450 per person plus tax and gas charges is ridiculous!!!) we decided to head for the much closer Hoover Dam, which was only 45 minutes down the road. It was a good decision as it was a really good day out, the Dam stuff is fascinating, although marred slightly by our insanely annoying tour guide that even the Americans among us couldnt handle!! We finished wandering around under Lake Mead and over the Nevada/Arizona border and headed back to the hotel. We then had a brilliant dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, with very good food and a balloon giraffe and turtle bracelet, then headed for one more look at the Bellagio fountains. We did this via a Hawaiin Market which was cute and I got some lovely jewellery. I also got harassed by a woman determined to sell me a dress but I managed to outrun her in the end!! We then had one last drink at Caesar's Palace and then went back to the hotel to gamble what money we had left! Which in mine, Lorna and Gill's case was $10, so thats what we put in the slot machines!! We were all up at one point, and all inevitably lost it!! And so went to bed for one last amazing sleep happy with our Vegas experience!!! :)
So that's about all Ive done since I last updated, and blogging about it was nearly as exhausting as doing it!! Lorna is now, very sadly, safely back in England and Im almost on a 2 week countdown till I join her!! Im now off to continue my week of sleeping and being looked after before I head to Denver on Sunday. So keep reading, coz the trip aint over yet!!!!!! :)
So that's Utah so far covered. Before I tell you all about the bright lights of Vegas, Im going to go back a week or so and tell you all about San Francisco! Im going to be honest, I wasnt a massive fan of the city, the hostel we were staying was in the dodgiest area of town and it was honestly terrifying, even during the day, and especially at night. Amy (the girl we drove up with) had a horrible experience when she went out early the first morning we were there, with people yelling at her and harrassing her for money. She came back all freaked out and really worried me and Lorna, by the time we left the hostel it was much better but still not a holiday kind of place! We got a bus (for free coz we got on the wrong end!) up to the tourist part of town and it was much nicer, but Im still so unimpressed that a hostel would be in the worst area of town. As a tourist I didnt know to recognise the address and when they send me the survey asking for my views Im going to be very cross. It probably wont do anything but it'll make me feel better!!
Anyways, all was not lost and me and Lorna spent a very lovely afternoon on Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. Whoever said retail therapy makes you feel better was right!! :) We tried clam chowder from a traditional sourdough bowl and got most of our presents for people and I got some pajama pants that are actually long enough for me!! (Theyre New York Giants ones, a team I had no idea what sport they even played, but its upset my 13 year old cousin who is a massive fan of the team they beat in the Superbowl last year, the New England Patriots. He took some convincing that it was an accident, oops!!) We then booked our tours of Alcatraz Island for the next day and (very reluctantly) headed back to the hostel. Very randomly a friend of mine, who Im meeting up with in New York, was in San Francisco so we met up with her and her travelling companion and went for dinner in Chinatown. It was a really nice meal and the area is so cute! I could've bought so much stuff (being the souvenir whore I am!) but limited myself to just a beautiful silk purse. We were then insanely cold so headed back to the hotel for a rock and roll cup of tea before heading to bed.
Just as an aside, the weather in San Francisco is RIDICULOUS!!! Its so windy, especially on the piers, and cold even when its sunny! It did however give me an excuse to take advantage of the Gaps $35 jeans sale, and got some very nice skinny jeans, that serve the purpose of keeping me warm and fitting under my brace! I havent used them since I left San Fran but heyho, Ill use them when I get home!!
Our second day in San Francisco we actually got up and me, Lorna and Amy headed out to do stuff. We started with going to get our tickets for the Greyhound the next day, in yet another dodgy area of the city!! We then started our sightseeing with the Yerba Gardens, which were very pretty and contained a lot of people doing some morning yoga. We then wandered through the very attractive Union Square shopping centre and sought out a cable car stop to take us to the Wharf. We stood on the outside of the cable car which was very exciting, and went whizzing through the city for the bargain price of $5. We got off just before the Wharf at a place called Lombard Street, which is apparently the 'crookedest street in the world'. It was designed that way to make it easier for cars to go downhill safely. If you're interested Google it, its mad looking!! We then headed to the Wharf and hung out for a couple of hours, and maybe shopped some more, and then me and Lorna headed for our Alcatraz tour. The island was amazing, and if you ask me all prisons in the world should be designed like it!! It was a fascinating couple of hours, but eventually we headed off to get some slices of pizza to have while we packed and got ready for our bus journey at stupid o'clock the next day........... 4am is a really early start but we managed it and got onto the first of our buses for our epic trek to Las Vegas. It took forever but went fairly quickly and was fairly uneventful. We slept a bit and didnt eat much, and after several hours of boring landscape (the Mojave desert is really really dull!) we reached the bright lights of Sin City! We arrived at night, which was definitely the best time to get there as it was an amazing sight!!!!!!!!
The hotel we were staying in was called New York, New York and it was genuinely amazing!! It was designed inside to look like New York city, and it really did! There was a Statue of Liberty and a Brooklyn Bridge outside and a rollercoaster going around it. The inside was naturally Times Square and was very well done. We got to the hotel and said hello to Gill and Mike (my aunt and uncle) and Steve and Julie (my uncles brother and his wife) and then went to our GORGEOUS hotel room to get showered and changed for dinner. I had a very nice steak, Lorna chose to pay for cocktails rather than food, and then we headed out to check out the bars in the casino. There was a rowdy Irish bar, a dueling piano kareoke bar which was awesome, a 'nightclub' which as it was only one room we classified as a 'nightarea' and the Coyote Ugly bar. It was amazing at once but the girls weren't nearly as good looking as in the film, and it got pretty old pretty quickly!!! We were then on the verge of being up for 24 hours so headed off to our queen size bed each, which was dreamlike after the hostel beds we'd been in!!
We got up the next day and headed down to the box office to take advantage of the hotel's 3 for $54 offer, we got tickets for an aquarium, the CSI experience and Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden. The Secret Garden tickets were traumatic to acquire and we had to walk miles to get them, but they were so worth it coz we saw some incredibly beautiful dolphins and then some of the cutest tigers EVER!! They were white ones, and there were two 11 week old cubs that were the most adorable things I have ever seen!! Lorna got some gorgeous photos that Ill post as soon as I can! We then headed up the strip to the MGM and the CSI Experience, which was awesome and yes, I did indeed solve the case! In case you're interested it was the guy's twin brother :P We then went back to the hotel where Gill and Julie had rented a cabana, a private tent thing by the pool with a fully stocked fridge, sunbeds and a personal waitress!! It was awesome and we sat and ate some fish and chicken and chips (the hugest portion ever - 2 pieces of fish!) until the pool closed. Then we decided to take advantage of another of the hotels offers and bought tickets to the Cirque Du Soleil show that the hotel had on. It was amazing and they were clearly talented, unfortunately they were also showing us the sensual side of Cirque, so at times it was pretty uncomfortable, as Lorna said!! But we survived it, and it was in keeping with the tone of Vegas so we were happy!! We then wandered for a bit and had a couple of drinks at places like Caesars Palace and MGM before pausing to watch the Fountains at the Bellagio. Which are genuinely the most beautiful thing Ive ever seen. They are unbelievably elegant and graceful, which are odd words to use to describe water but they really are! They are so well choreographed with the music and they gave me goosebumps (or duckbumps as Simon and Tina re-christened them in Chicago!!) I could go on about them for hours but you can never really appreciate them till you're there so I'll shut up!! I was so taken with them Im ordering a book on them off Amazon so I can learn how they work, yup Im that geeky!! :)
So after another comfortable night in a gorgeously comfortable bed, we got up to say a sad goodbye to Steve and Julie, who were heading back to Denver, then the plan was to go to the Grand Canyon. However Gill had vastly underestimated the time it took to get there, she thought 2 hours when its actually 6, and after learning that a helicopter ride was out of the question ($450 per person plus tax and gas charges is ridiculous!!!) we decided to head for the much closer Hoover Dam, which was only 45 minutes down the road. It was a good decision as it was a really good day out, the Dam stuff is fascinating, although marred slightly by our insanely annoying tour guide that even the Americans among us couldnt handle!! We finished wandering around under Lake Mead and over the Nevada/Arizona border and headed back to the hotel. We then had a brilliant dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, with very good food and a balloon giraffe and turtle bracelet, then headed for one more look at the Bellagio fountains. We did this via a Hawaiin Market which was cute and I got some lovely jewellery. I also got harassed by a woman determined to sell me a dress but I managed to outrun her in the end!! We then had one last drink at Caesar's Palace and then went back to the hotel to gamble what money we had left! Which in mine, Lorna and Gill's case was $10, so thats what we put in the slot machines!! We were all up at one point, and all inevitably lost it!! And so went to bed for one last amazing sleep happy with our Vegas experience!!! :)
So that's about all Ive done since I last updated, and blogging about it was nearly as exhausting as doing it!! Lorna is now, very sadly, safely back in England and Im almost on a 2 week countdown till I join her!! Im now off to continue my week of sleeping and being looked after before I head to Denver on Sunday. So keep reading, coz the trip aint over yet!!!!!! :)
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Day 80....... And a 12 hour drive later, we arrive!!!
Im in San Francisco!!!! It took 12 hours yesterday and 4 hours the day before, but we saw some beautiful coastline and I got to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge!!!! :) We set off from LA at about 4pm on Monday, and drove for about 4 hours till we found a random place to stay (Buellton, CA anyone?!). We did this via Malibu, where we had a quick wander on the beach and had our photo taken with a real life Malibu life-guard, who invited us to a Labor Day BBQ on the beach that night. Had we not needed to get further than Mailbu we would have gone, but it was only a half hour down the road!! After a comfortable night in a Motel 6, we got up and headed onwards towards Santa Maria. I should point out at this point that 'we' is not just me and Lorna, but a girl called Amy, who we met at the LA hostel and who wanted to drive to San Francisco and offered to share the costs with us. She's a really nice girl and it was nice to have someone else along for the ride!!
The incredbly long journey yesterday was broken up with several stops, mostly for Amy and Lorna to go to the toilet, but a few more interesting ones! We stopped at a place called Hearsts Castle, which bless the Americans is their idea of history (its been there since the 1940s!!) but was actually quite interesting. We didnt get chance to do the tour as it wouldve taken too long but we did look round the museum and obviously the gift shop!!! We also stopped at a look out point where we saw some elephant seals who had come in for a couple of months to shed their skins and to mate, to look at some Giant Redwoods (which really are huge!) and so take some pictures of the genuinely beautiful Big Sur coastline. We stopped for 'gas' once at a really cute gas station, it cost $30 to fill up a big Hyundai (small rental car my ass!!) which we all thought was amazing, and told everyone we saw for the rest of the day that it was!! We also stopped at some really randomly cute restrooms, that had a spiritual garden and an abundance of Bluejays. We had a slightly stressful time getting into San Francisco, the excitement of driving over the Golden Gate Bridge overtook us all and we missed the (not very well signposted) turning off to it and had to turn around. (For those of you who know the Gretna Green story, this one involved much of the same people!!!!) We then had to find the hostel in the complex one way system, and then had to take the car back to the airport (a very sad event, we had become very attached to Hilary) and then get back again. We managed it though and after having a Burger King promptly passed out! The hostel is much more what we expected than the LA one, which was genuiely lovely! This one has a much more hostelly feel to it, and I dont think we'll be sad to get to a proper hotel on Friday!!
We had a brilliant time in LA, we spent Monday before we left at Universal Studios, which is AWESOME!!! We did the studio tour and saw such amazing places as Wisteria Lane, the set of The Grinch, the set of War of the Worlds, the shark from Jaws (whos name is Bruce!), the set for Back to the Future and the cars used in Back to the Future, The Fast and The Furious and Jurassic Park. There's loads more that I cant think of right now, but dont worry, I have thousands of photos for you all to see :D We also went to a special effects show, which was fascinating. We would have done more, but time didnt allow it, but we saw enough to keep us amazed till now!!
Our first day in LA was a busy one, we started by taking a trip round all the stars' homes, seeing loads of random people's houses as well as some interesting ones (a house owned by the Beach Boys, Magic Johnson and Richard Gere!!) We also saw the place where Michael Jackson died, which is still very sad and covered in flowers, and the toilets where George Michael got arrested. Ha! We also saw Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, Graumans Chinese Theater and the Avenue of Stars. We then got the bus back with the intention to sunbathe on Santa Monica beach for a bit, however it had other ideas as it was very cloudy and pretty cold! So we went for a coffee instead and did a bit of shopping. I bought a lovely blue and white dress, that I wore out to dinner that night with Liz, a nurse from camp, and her son Greg. We went to a bizarre restaurant, a mix of Latin and Asian foods, and everyone who knows me should be incredibly proud that I ate enough to feel full by the time I left!!!! I had finally had some tuna the day before, after we landed in LAX and took a somewhat terrifying bus ride from the airport to the hostel. (Venice at night is not pretty!!) The flights from Chicago went smoothly (if you overlook the fact I booked me and Lorna on different flights.......oops) and I even managed to get a seat on the aisle with a spare one next to it so my knee brace had plently of room. Sadly no upgrade was available, despite the best efforts of the man next to me!!
I had had a lovely couple of days in Chicago, and was very sad to leave! Rachael's family are lovely, and their couch is really very comfortable so it was a good time!! Helen left us at 5am on the Friday to head for Green Bay (quietly God love her!) and the rest of us got up and went to do some touristy things. It turns out there aren't that many of those in Chicago lol but we did climb Sears Tower, the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and, discounting a random building in China, the world!! We were 103 floors up and at one point 40 feet out over the street below. Thank goodness for the cute Spanish football team who were also there to distract us :) We were going to track down the ER hospital but it was too far out of the way, so settled for a subway station instead!! We (who in this section is me, Tina, Simon and Rachael) then went down to a pier and wandered down it, have to say piers just arent the same without fish and chips!!!
For those of you who know about my souvenir magnets plan, it isnt going well :( not one place in Chicago had an Illinois one, and nowhere in LA had a California one. Its getting desperate, and Im going to have to hope I come accross a shop that sells all 50 or my NY and VT ones are going to look very lonely on the fridge!!
I think Im very overtired, and in hindsight should have gone to Gills first to have a weeks to catch up on sleep, because I keep having massive homesick pangs and teary moments. It didnt help being away for another baby's birthday (Tom was 3 on Sunday, very sad times!!!) To her credit Lorna is helping a lot with those, but thank you to everyone who's sending me messages and making me smile, I appreciate it lots and will see you all very soon!! If I dont look pleased to see you its coz Im massively jet-lagged, give me a week and I will be I promise :) And get ready for my next post from Utah with all my Vegas news........its gonna be good :D
The incredbly long journey yesterday was broken up with several stops, mostly for Amy and Lorna to go to the toilet, but a few more interesting ones! We stopped at a place called Hearsts Castle, which bless the Americans is their idea of history (its been there since the 1940s!!) but was actually quite interesting. We didnt get chance to do the tour as it wouldve taken too long but we did look round the museum and obviously the gift shop!!! We also stopped at a look out point where we saw some elephant seals who had come in for a couple of months to shed their skins and to mate, to look at some Giant Redwoods (which really are huge!) and so take some pictures of the genuinely beautiful Big Sur coastline. We stopped for 'gas' once at a really cute gas station, it cost $30 to fill up a big Hyundai (small rental car my ass!!) which we all thought was amazing, and told everyone we saw for the rest of the day that it was!! We also stopped at some really randomly cute restrooms, that had a spiritual garden and an abundance of Bluejays. We had a slightly stressful time getting into San Francisco, the excitement of driving over the Golden Gate Bridge overtook us all and we missed the (not very well signposted) turning off to it and had to turn around. (For those of you who know the Gretna Green story, this one involved much of the same people!!!!) We then had to find the hostel in the complex one way system, and then had to take the car back to the airport (a very sad event, we had become very attached to Hilary) and then get back again. We managed it though and after having a Burger King promptly passed out! The hostel is much more what we expected than the LA one, which was genuiely lovely! This one has a much more hostelly feel to it, and I dont think we'll be sad to get to a proper hotel on Friday!!
We had a brilliant time in LA, we spent Monday before we left at Universal Studios, which is AWESOME!!! We did the studio tour and saw such amazing places as Wisteria Lane, the set of The Grinch, the set of War of the Worlds, the shark from Jaws (whos name is Bruce!), the set for Back to the Future and the cars used in Back to the Future, The Fast and The Furious and Jurassic Park. There's loads more that I cant think of right now, but dont worry, I have thousands of photos for you all to see :D We also went to a special effects show, which was fascinating. We would have done more, but time didnt allow it, but we saw enough to keep us amazed till now!!
Our first day in LA was a busy one, we started by taking a trip round all the stars' homes, seeing loads of random people's houses as well as some interesting ones (a house owned by the Beach Boys, Magic Johnson and Richard Gere!!) We also saw the place where Michael Jackson died, which is still very sad and covered in flowers, and the toilets where George Michael got arrested. Ha! We also saw Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, Graumans Chinese Theater and the Avenue of Stars. We then got the bus back with the intention to sunbathe on Santa Monica beach for a bit, however it had other ideas as it was very cloudy and pretty cold! So we went for a coffee instead and did a bit of shopping. I bought a lovely blue and white dress, that I wore out to dinner that night with Liz, a nurse from camp, and her son Greg. We went to a bizarre restaurant, a mix of Latin and Asian foods, and everyone who knows me should be incredibly proud that I ate enough to feel full by the time I left!!!! I had finally had some tuna the day before, after we landed in LAX and took a somewhat terrifying bus ride from the airport to the hostel. (Venice at night is not pretty!!) The flights from Chicago went smoothly (if you overlook the fact I booked me and Lorna on different flights.......oops) and I even managed to get a seat on the aisle with a spare one next to it so my knee brace had plently of room. Sadly no upgrade was available, despite the best efforts of the man next to me!!
I had had a lovely couple of days in Chicago, and was very sad to leave! Rachael's family are lovely, and their couch is really very comfortable so it was a good time!! Helen left us at 5am on the Friday to head for Green Bay (quietly God love her!) and the rest of us got up and went to do some touristy things. It turns out there aren't that many of those in Chicago lol but we did climb Sears Tower, the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and, discounting a random building in China, the world!! We were 103 floors up and at one point 40 feet out over the street below. Thank goodness for the cute Spanish football team who were also there to distract us :) We were going to track down the ER hospital but it was too far out of the way, so settled for a subway station instead!! We (who in this section is me, Tina, Simon and Rachael) then went down to a pier and wandered down it, have to say piers just arent the same without fish and chips!!!
For those of you who know about my souvenir magnets plan, it isnt going well :( not one place in Chicago had an Illinois one, and nowhere in LA had a California one. Its getting desperate, and Im going to have to hope I come accross a shop that sells all 50 or my NY and VT ones are going to look very lonely on the fridge!!
I think Im very overtired, and in hindsight should have gone to Gills first to have a weeks to catch up on sleep, because I keep having massive homesick pangs and teary moments. It didnt help being away for another baby's birthday (Tom was 3 on Sunday, very sad times!!!) To her credit Lorna is helping a lot with those, but thank you to everyone who's sending me messages and making me smile, I appreciate it lots and will see you all very soon!! If I dont look pleased to see you its coz Im massively jet-lagged, give me a week and I will be I promise :) And get ready for my next post from Utah with all my Vegas news........its gonna be good :D
Friday, 3 September 2010
Day 75........ Welcome to the Windy City!!!!
So its all over!! I left camp 4 days ago, and man has a lot happened since then!! After a fun staff party (that Ive only really been told about, as I left at 10pm to ice my knee coz it hurt coz I was dancing on it and fell asleep!!) so the 5 hour coach trip to the city was full of some very hungover people! Luckily no-one was sick (that I know of!) and we arrived in a massively over-heating NYC at about 3pm on Monday. We drove via New Jersey, and I got very excited thinking Id seen all the New England states, as it would turn out I havent, flipping Rhode Island is part of it, so if I want to complete the set I have to go there....and who wants to do that?! I was amazed to see that the cost for a car on the toll roads here is only 35 cents, how ridiculous is that!? We also stopped to cash our cheques (or checks as they are here) which was amazing as Ive genuinely never held $1000 in any currency, it was awesome!! We changed it into travellers cheques when we got into the city, and task that was more stressful than it seemed, as only one place did it and it was hidden in a hotel that not even the locals knew it existed!!
The hotel we stayed in in New York was lovely, quite central to things, and we headed out to see Times Square, which was insanely busy! Honestly its not great during the day, the lights are all on and it doesnt make a lot of sense, but at night its amazing! A guy tried (not very hard or successfully) to mug us by saying things like "your shoes are untied" (I was in Birkenstocks so that worked!) or "you dropped your sunglasses". Luckily we all knew he was an idiot and carried on!!! We trawled round for a few hours then went and ate at The Hard Rock cafe, sadly then I had to miss out on the night out everyone had as my knee was not happy with the amount of walking we did, so it was just me and a bag of peas for the night! The sleep was good though, we were all so tired!
Tuesday saw us sleeping in then get up and go out to see some more of the city. We started at Times Square and moved out, we saw the Rockafeller Center (and Tina Fey filming outside!) and 5th Avenue, I bought some books from Barnes & Noble (the 2nd and 3rd Hunger Games books, which are awesome and English people should get ready to read/hear all about when I get home!!) and wandered round Saks, which is pretty much a smaller version of Harrods. Also saw The Rainbow Room, where Blondie was playing, and Radio City. We were going to go up the Empire State Building but its $20 and that seems a bit ridiculous, so we settled for just seeing it!! We ran into some girls who were from camp, seeing people you knew was really strange, and then went and met up with Simon, who Im at university with. Me and him went to go and get Wicked tickets, which sadly sold out just as we got there, so we got Jersey Boys tickets instead which was amazing!! Helen and Brandon (one of the guys from camp who was staying with us till he flew back to Florida) went to see Mary Poppins and LOVED it, they went on about it for hours!! Jersey Boys was really good, Simon had never seen it and really enjoyed it, the tickets were only $27 which was a bargain!! The guy who played Tommy actually was from New Jersey unlike the guy I saw in London, and his accent was a little hard to understand at times, and 'Frankies' voice could hit the high notes but was very nasally, but it was a fantastic show!! We sat in Times Square for a bit, and at 98 degrees it was still to hot to be outside at 10.30pm but it was still amazing. The atmosphere is great, we sang 'happy birthday' to a random girl who got all overwhelmed and cried, it was really nice! We then got a slice of pizza, which is the best idea ever, and went back to the hotel. The subways are confusing but much like the Tube, although like most of New York, I prefer it to London. Its so very very hot on the subways though, Ive devided vitamin water is the best invention EVER!!!!!
We got up on Wednesday and checked out of the hotel, posted my giant parcel home (I had too much stuff to carry, it took my lovely roommate at camp 4 attempts to pack my bag for me, coz I had a tantrum after trying twice and gave up! Then when I got it unpacked in NYC there was no way it was going back in so I just posted a load of it home, look out for that Mum!!) then we dropped our bags at the train station and headed to hang out in Central Park till it was time to leave. We met up with Mary-Liza, one of the nurses from camp and had ice cream for a couple of hours, then went to get our train to Chicago. The trains are amazing, they have so much leg room its insane, and we were so very impressed......until it was time to sleep on them. It turns out that although they are wonderfully comfortable to sit on, to sleep on they're like panes of glass! I woke up somewhere in Ohio, having been asleep for about 2 hours, FREEZING cold from the ridiculous air conditioning with a massively stiff neck and two very grumpy travelling companions. I slept through all of Pennsylvania, so there's some debate as to whether it counts as Ive been there now, but saw Ohio and Indiana, both of which are very boring once the excitement of seeing traditional red and white farmhouses with big silos next to them has worn off!
It was raining when we arrived in Chicago, as it had been the whole way through OH and IN, typical seeing as me and Helen had posted our waterproof coats home the day before! It was still warm though and we didnt have far to go to get the train to Rachaels house, one of the girls from camp who very kindly let me, Helen and Simon descend on her, as well as already having another girl, Tina, there!! Her parents are awesome lol. And very patient!! We had showers and food and a nap and headed back out into the city. We met up with Paul who taught bass last year at camp and had dinner with him, then he became the world's most enthusiastic tour guide and took us round some of the Chicago sights, then we sat and listened to a jazz concert in Millenium Park. It was a great end to the day, and after braving a thunderstorm to get back to Rachaels we finally got into a comfortable bed and passed out!!
Helen set off at stupid o'clock this morning to go to get a bus to Wisconsin to see some friends, and me, Simon, Tina and Rachael are about to head out to do some touristy things in Chicago! Then tomorrow my LA adventure starts when Lorna lands in Chicago, which Im so very excited about its insane!!! I shall update again when I can, although be warned it may not be until I get to Utah so it'll be a longer post than this one!! Hope everyone's ok and missing me lots :) Ill see you all in about 4 weeks!!!!
The hotel we stayed in in New York was lovely, quite central to things, and we headed out to see Times Square, which was insanely busy! Honestly its not great during the day, the lights are all on and it doesnt make a lot of sense, but at night its amazing! A guy tried (not very hard or successfully) to mug us by saying things like "your shoes are untied" (I was in Birkenstocks so that worked!) or "you dropped your sunglasses". Luckily we all knew he was an idiot and carried on!!! We trawled round for a few hours then went and ate at The Hard Rock cafe, sadly then I had to miss out on the night out everyone had as my knee was not happy with the amount of walking we did, so it was just me and a bag of peas for the night! The sleep was good though, we were all so tired!
Tuesday saw us sleeping in then get up and go out to see some more of the city. We started at Times Square and moved out, we saw the Rockafeller Center (and Tina Fey filming outside!) and 5th Avenue, I bought some books from Barnes & Noble (the 2nd and 3rd Hunger Games books, which are awesome and English people should get ready to read/hear all about when I get home!!) and wandered round Saks, which is pretty much a smaller version of Harrods. Also saw The Rainbow Room, where Blondie was playing, and Radio City. We were going to go up the Empire State Building but its $20 and that seems a bit ridiculous, so we settled for just seeing it!! We ran into some girls who were from camp, seeing people you knew was really strange, and then went and met up with Simon, who Im at university with. Me and him went to go and get Wicked tickets, which sadly sold out just as we got there, so we got Jersey Boys tickets instead which was amazing!! Helen and Brandon (one of the guys from camp who was staying with us till he flew back to Florida) went to see Mary Poppins and LOVED it, they went on about it for hours!! Jersey Boys was really good, Simon had never seen it and really enjoyed it, the tickets were only $27 which was a bargain!! The guy who played Tommy actually was from New Jersey unlike the guy I saw in London, and his accent was a little hard to understand at times, and 'Frankies' voice could hit the high notes but was very nasally, but it was a fantastic show!! We sat in Times Square for a bit, and at 98 degrees it was still to hot to be outside at 10.30pm but it was still amazing. The atmosphere is great, we sang 'happy birthday' to a random girl who got all overwhelmed and cried, it was really nice! We then got a slice of pizza, which is the best idea ever, and went back to the hotel. The subways are confusing but much like the Tube, although like most of New York, I prefer it to London. Its so very very hot on the subways though, Ive devided vitamin water is the best invention EVER!!!!!
We got up on Wednesday and checked out of the hotel, posted my giant parcel home (I had too much stuff to carry, it took my lovely roommate at camp 4 attempts to pack my bag for me, coz I had a tantrum after trying twice and gave up! Then when I got it unpacked in NYC there was no way it was going back in so I just posted a load of it home, look out for that Mum!!) then we dropped our bags at the train station and headed to hang out in Central Park till it was time to leave. We met up with Mary-Liza, one of the nurses from camp and had ice cream for a couple of hours, then went to get our train to Chicago. The trains are amazing, they have so much leg room its insane, and we were so very impressed......until it was time to sleep on them. It turns out that although they are wonderfully comfortable to sit on, to sleep on they're like panes of glass! I woke up somewhere in Ohio, having been asleep for about 2 hours, FREEZING cold from the ridiculous air conditioning with a massively stiff neck and two very grumpy travelling companions. I slept through all of Pennsylvania, so there's some debate as to whether it counts as Ive been there now, but saw Ohio and Indiana, both of which are very boring once the excitement of seeing traditional red and white farmhouses with big silos next to them has worn off!
It was raining when we arrived in Chicago, as it had been the whole way through OH and IN, typical seeing as me and Helen had posted our waterproof coats home the day before! It was still warm though and we didnt have far to go to get the train to Rachaels house, one of the girls from camp who very kindly let me, Helen and Simon descend on her, as well as already having another girl, Tina, there!! Her parents are awesome lol. And very patient!! We had showers and food and a nap and headed back out into the city. We met up with Paul who taught bass last year at camp and had dinner with him, then he became the world's most enthusiastic tour guide and took us round some of the Chicago sights, then we sat and listened to a jazz concert in Millenium Park. It was a great end to the day, and after braving a thunderstorm to get back to Rachaels we finally got into a comfortable bed and passed out!!
Helen set off at stupid o'clock this morning to go to get a bus to Wisconsin to see some friends, and me, Simon, Tina and Rachael are about to head out to do some touristy things in Chicago! Then tomorrow my LA adventure starts when Lorna lands in Chicago, which Im so very excited about its insane!!! I shall update again when I can, although be warned it may not be until I get to Utah so it'll be a longer post than this one!! Hope everyone's ok and missing me lots :) Ill see you all in about 4 weeks!!!!
Monday, 23 August 2010
Day 64...... Its The Final Countdown......
........do do do dooooo. Do do do do dooooo!!! (Random bit of 80s singing there for you all!!)
So yesterday marked the 'one week till camp is over' point! A week today we will all be (probably asleep) on a bus merrily making our way down to New York City. Where we will have a night of excessive drinking and merriment before everyone goes their separate ways for the rest of the summer. Or in my case stay another night and then move west to Chicago :D I somehow volunteered myself to book a hotel in NYC for people, a task which of course has become epically stressful, with people changing their minds that they want to, or dont want to, stay, a week before we go! So Im very close to just telling people to book their own hotels and Ill stay in this one on my own! My temper remains calm so far though haha.
I have physio later, hopefully he'll say I can come off my crutches as Im pretty much walking without them now, the brace is enough support. Stairs are still a bit of an issue, but I can work on them in a week!! So travelling looks safe for now, keep your fingers crossed for me though! I went to the doctors on Thurs, (yay fun last day off!!) and he was so lovely I suspect last time I saw his evil twin, and told me I was doing well, ran through the various surgery options he'd consider if I was staying with him (they all sound very fun, Im very excited!) and wished me good luck! I got a refill of my lovely painkillers, but the pain has become more bearable so Im taking them less, which is good because I dont enjoy the nausea they cause!!
For those of you who knew she was doing it, Lorna survived her jump out of a plane for charity and so will be joining me in one piece in LA 13 sleeps from now. Which is VERY exciting! Tech week starts tomorrow, so its a joyous week of shows and rehearsals, then parents weekend (yum lovely food!), camp clean up, staff party and done! Woop!
Am still planning on calling people, sorry if I havent got to you yet, Im working on it!!!! :)
So yesterday marked the 'one week till camp is over' point! A week today we will all be (probably asleep) on a bus merrily making our way down to New York City. Where we will have a night of excessive drinking and merriment before everyone goes their separate ways for the rest of the summer. Or in my case stay another night and then move west to Chicago :D I somehow volunteered myself to book a hotel in NYC for people, a task which of course has become epically stressful, with people changing their minds that they want to, or dont want to, stay, a week before we go! So Im very close to just telling people to book their own hotels and Ill stay in this one on my own! My temper remains calm so far though haha.
I have physio later, hopefully he'll say I can come off my crutches as Im pretty much walking without them now, the brace is enough support. Stairs are still a bit of an issue, but I can work on them in a week!! So travelling looks safe for now, keep your fingers crossed for me though! I went to the doctors on Thurs, (yay fun last day off!!) and he was so lovely I suspect last time I saw his evil twin, and told me I was doing well, ran through the various surgery options he'd consider if I was staying with him (they all sound very fun, Im very excited!) and wished me good luck! I got a refill of my lovely painkillers, but the pain has become more bearable so Im taking them less, which is good because I dont enjoy the nausea they cause!!
For those of you who knew she was doing it, Lorna survived her jump out of a plane for charity and so will be joining me in one piece in LA 13 sleeps from now. Which is VERY exciting! Tech week starts tomorrow, so its a joyous week of shows and rehearsals, then parents weekend (yum lovely food!), camp clean up, staff party and done! Woop!
Am still planning on calling people, sorry if I havent got to you yet, Im working on it!!!! :)
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Day 58....... Does anyone remember what sleep feels like?!
So the countdown to the end of camp has begun! We have 13 sleeps left here before we all pack up into a bus and travel back to New York City. Where I will be spending 2 nights before moving onto Chicago (this is all a hopefully scenario at the moment, my knee needs to keep improving the way it is for it to all go to plan :/ but more about that later......) A few things on my travelling plans have changed, so for those of you who are interested here is a link to my new and improved Google map, which, yes, I updated all by myself :D http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=109629027493582904002.000487588e1fda26f9ebd&ll=38.959409,-98.261719&spn=32.907523,78.662109&z=4
I quite like the new plan, it looks much better on the map, more of a circle than me crossing myself several times! I still get 3 stop offs in NYC but Im sure there's enough there to see on all my visits!!
As for my knee, well I went to physio yesterday and he was pleased with my progress. I remembered some of the things I was told from last time this happened and so had been doing some of them and it seemed to have done some good coz he said I had much better range of movement than he expected based on my notes. The pain is still ridiculous but its at a stage where regular painkillers will stop it and its become more of a background annoyance than the only thing I can think about!! I am currently sporting a fetching 'hinged brace' which 'provides both stability and movement' (ha Americans make me laugh) which seems to be doing the trick. Its a bit uncomfortable coz under my kneecap is still pretty swollen but the guy said that would get better as my knee does. So fingers crossed it keeps going the way it does and that my travelling will be ok, Im still refusing to admit defeat and look at what effect cancelling flights etc will have :/
Work-wise things are plodding along. Devastatingly I didnt get in the pit for Fame :( but Im doing 'Into The Woods' and 'Once Upon A Mattress', both of which are fairytale type shows. The music is really pretty, 'Mattress' is fairly straightforward, I switch between clarinet and flute only ever in between songs and not during so thats all ok, 'Into The Woods' is a bit more of a pain, Im reading of a piano/vocal score and picking the parts that are needed. Which would be awkward enough except Im doing most of it for clarinet, and from the bass clef, and sight transposing the bass clef is not an easy task! Those of you who understood that please feel sorry for me, and those of you who didnt can marvel at how impressive it sounds and what a genius I am :) (its really not that hard!!) I have more advanced students this session so Im putting together a flute ensemble, which is really good fun, the kids pick things up really quickly! Other than that there's nothing really new to tell, we're all just focussing on getting this session done with!!
Ill try to call everyone before I leave camp, I probably wont get much of a chance to when Im travelling. Ill have my cell phone so feel free to text or call, but I cant dial international numbers so I wont be able to call you :)
I quite like the new plan, it looks much better on the map, more of a circle than me crossing myself several times! I still get 3 stop offs in NYC but Im sure there's enough there to see on all my visits!!
As for my knee, well I went to physio yesterday and he was pleased with my progress. I remembered some of the things I was told from last time this happened and so had been doing some of them and it seemed to have done some good coz he said I had much better range of movement than he expected based on my notes. The pain is still ridiculous but its at a stage where regular painkillers will stop it and its become more of a background annoyance than the only thing I can think about!! I am currently sporting a fetching 'hinged brace' which 'provides both stability and movement' (ha Americans make me laugh) which seems to be doing the trick. Its a bit uncomfortable coz under my kneecap is still pretty swollen but the guy said that would get better as my knee does. So fingers crossed it keeps going the way it does and that my travelling will be ok, Im still refusing to admit defeat and look at what effect cancelling flights etc will have :/
Work-wise things are plodding along. Devastatingly I didnt get in the pit for Fame :( but Im doing 'Into The Woods' and 'Once Upon A Mattress', both of which are fairytale type shows. The music is really pretty, 'Mattress' is fairly straightforward, I switch between clarinet and flute only ever in between songs and not during so thats all ok, 'Into The Woods' is a bit more of a pain, Im reading of a piano/vocal score and picking the parts that are needed. Which would be awkward enough except Im doing most of it for clarinet, and from the bass clef, and sight transposing the bass clef is not an easy task! Those of you who understood that please feel sorry for me, and those of you who didnt can marvel at how impressive it sounds and what a genius I am :) (its really not that hard!!) I have more advanced students this session so Im putting together a flute ensemble, which is really good fun, the kids pick things up really quickly! Other than that there's nothing really new to tell, we're all just focussing on getting this session done with!!
Ill try to call everyone before I leave camp, I probably wont get much of a chance to when Im travelling. Ill have my cell phone so feel free to text or call, but I cant dial international numbers so I wont be able to call you :)
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