San Diego

Hello again...

For our last day in Hollywood we actually went on a hostel ran tour of the Hollywood sign which was rather knackering! It took about 4 hours & we walked as close as possible to it & then hiked all the way to the top of the hills! Unfortunately I not only managed to break my flipflops but also got a thorn stuck in it without realising constantly stabbing into my foot everytime I walked so now my feet are suffering (along with all my muscles (hmmm I can't spell!) after going to the Venice Muscel beach the day before and attempting to do monkey bars lol.

Our last night in Hollywood we went to see X files rather than Bat Man & we ended up going to see it at the Chinese threatre (apparently where many premiers get held!) It was rather posh inside!

Then (hmmm I seem to say this a lot... you must be very bored of this account by now :p) this morning we got a 10am bus to San Diego, only took just over 2 hours so wasn't too bad. The hostel is in a nice location & seems good (apart from not having any air-con but I'm sure we will live, we have had worse heat!). This afternoon we had lunch in TGI (which handly is just across the road!) & then wondered down into the town areas.

ooohh I also forgot to mention the earthquake we had in Los Angeles! It was apparently 5.8 on the rictor (again bad spelling I'm sure!) scale! It was a bit random but didn't seem as bad as the news has made it out to be... well at least not what I saw anyways

It's not possible to get any photo's off my camera from the PC's here but will try get some in the next hostel. Will update again soon, bye for now

Hollywood!

Hello to anyone still bothering to read this!

I just read my last post & realised that I didn't actually finish telling the story of the mad off-road driving (was in a rush when writing it!). I forgot to say that we actually ended up driving 13 miles down this road - still continually expecting it to turn into a paved road, every corner we made we kept thinking "we must be nearly there" anyway after 13 miles & extremly worsening roads we see a fence shutting off the road to the visitor centre! Apparently closed for "Maintenance" so as you can imagine everyones faced dropped (I was still shaking! So sure we were going to topple over the cliff edge lol) we couldn't continue (god knows where it would go since our map was useless!). We thought it would be more sensible to turn around! 13 miles and another hours drive later we eventually made it back to paved roads! Thank god Mike was driving is all I can say he handled it VERY well, theres no way I could have done that! luckily we can look back & laugh (but certainly couldn't at the time!).

There were many more awesome times on the road trip but I won't bore you with the details on here. Anyway as the title suggests we are currently in sunny LA! Our first night we went on a tour with the hostel, wondered through the hollywood area & got fantastic view of the hollywood hills (& some stars houses and where they might hang out pointed out to us! although we didn't see any). The bar in our hostel then had a free comedy night so we went along to that... certainly needed a few beers to find it funny is all I can say! They were all upcoming comedians but it was a laugh! Today we went to the beach - YAY! Although I was only 'allowed' to sit for 15 mins on the actual beach since the others get "too bored", although there was plenty more to do in the area & we even ended up playing paddle tennis lol. We saw an amazing sunset on the beach (whilst eating take away pizza lol) but then had the joys of an hour and half journey to attempt to get back to the hostel lol.

Tomorrow we are going on another tour, this time to get as close as possible to the Hollywood sign (& hear lots of 'gossip' apparently). I believe Caroline wants to go see Batman at IMAX cinema tomorrow night so no dount we will all go, be nice to have a relaxing evening :)

Anyway better go, need to sleep since Caz/Dan will no doubt be waking me up at the lovely hour of 6:30am! Bye for now xx

Road Trip

9 days of road tripping & random motel hunting has come to an end! We had a great time (well apart from aching legs from the constant trekking! we literally walked about 6-8 miles up & down mountains everyday!) Although I'm suffering it was totally worth it!

We have been to 9 national parks and really have seen some fantastic views! My personal favorite was Bryce Canynon, although Grand Caynon was massive I think the stunning scenery was better at Bryce. I will try get some pictures online in the next couple days since I'm limited on time at the moment.

We were really lucky with motels found somewhere pretty easily every night & all were reasonable price, we did stay in one 'proper' American motel (very very cheap too $50 for all 4 of us!, rather rundown and probably a bit creepy (but we were too tired to notice). We also experienced completely empty highways (I had a picture stood in the middle of the road! ), 2 American Diners (Just like the films :p lol), saw a forest fire, saw many scary wildlife creatures & and had an extremly scary off road driving experience.

The driving experience is probably the one that will make u laugh the most! So here we were driving towards Canyonlands National Park and on the map it says unpaved road (but apparently leading to a paved one in 10 miles) so we were driving along and the road was fine at first and then it just continually got worse and worse! We were literally driving along the cliff edge & I would say the roads weren't even safe for a 4 x 4 ! Remembering that we are in a hire car & any scratch/damage we will get charged for we were all really scared (insurance didn't cover off-road either!) the car was rocking everywhere & we bumped it several times! We were sooo lucky that there wasn't any visible damage (no doubt there is some underneath though! - just keeping our fingers crossed it wont be noticed!).

There is soooo much more to say about the last 9 days but I don't have time now, will update again soon. Off to Hollywood tomorrow!

Hope your all well, looking forward to seeing you again! Bye for now x

Vegas done & now road trip has began

Vegas was awesome, it was actually a nice break from the hardcore walking! We had an awesome hotel (which cost us about $70 each for the whole 4 nights - such a bargain!!!) it even had a pool! We saw most the Casino's, watched a random pirate show, saw some AWESOME water fountain displays & boiled to death when outside!!

Caz tought me how to play the 1cent slot machines & I had good luck both times!! First time I went from $1 to $10 and then the second night I had another go and went from $1 to $15 - not just beginners luck :P

We left Vegas this morning picking up our car around midday....not just any old car but a GIGANTIC one!! seriously it is massive good job i dont have to drive it!! Bit posh for us as well :p even with leather seats! I think we look a bit odd driving to run down hostels & motels :p lol. Since we have no accomdation sorted for the next 10 days we (I mean Dan & Mike of course) are attempting to decide what to do tomorrow...is it Grand Canyon or Sedona??? I'll update once I know!! It's all part of the fun not knowing where we are going.... hopefully we wont die :p (cheery of course!!) Anyway will post again soon (I have faith in living!)

Bye bye for now, hope everyone is having a great summer (& enjoying the heat if i have any in England haha) xx

We are now in sunny Washington DC

We had a one-day stop in the city of brotherly love - Philadelphia! Again extremly hot & lots of walking with the main highlights being the liberty bell & the rocky steps!

We left Philadelphia on Thurs & the crazy (super cheap!) chinatown bus dropped us an hour walk (although Mike seemed to think it was closer :p & lied about exactly how far it was going to be!) with massive HEAVY bags & lots of lovely sweating & cursing we made it to the hotel in Washington...which actually turned out to be pretty good (with free internet & nice brand new showers!)

After an early start this morning to avoid the heat we have seen many of sights including Capitol Hill, the White House, the Library of Congress (which is apparently the biggest library in the world and where national treasure 2 was filmed), the air & space museum, the national gallery & of course the Washington monument. We also came across some presidential campagine where many people were ranting about "WE KNOW THE TRUTH"although we doubted that very much...just lots of people randomly agreeing! After having seen all that we then saw everything again by night (and now here I am sat on PC with very sore feet & need to sleep...but its the only time the computer is free!)

Tomorrow another long day planned ..will escape into museums to avoid afternoon sun, I think the plan is Hollocast museum & Natural History... Also the Pentagon & some Japanese thing... lol

Have added a couple more pics to facebook but it takes FOREVER so given up for now, might try add couple more tomorrow night before we leave.

Hope your all well, speak to you soon!

Boston

Just a very quick update as I'm running low on time. Everything still going well just extremly knackered from the constant walking in the heat (was 90 degrees today! not sure how I'm even surviving!).

We have just done lots of sightseeing, we saw Harvard, MIT & we also did a guided walking tour. Although it has been boiling here we actually got caught in a really bad thunder & lightning storm just as we arrived at Harvard & I was only wearing tiny shorts and strappy tops... thought might as well make most of the "shower" so did 'dancing in the rain'....don't think we quite fitted in lol.... and def looked like drowned rats when we arrived back at the hostel! haha

Tomorrow we leave got Philliadelphia and after this we are staying in motels so might not get internet access. If I can't then I wont be online for a couple weeks now.

Speak to you all soon!

Still in NY but movin to Boston tomorrow :)

After an extremly hectic few days I am chilling out tonight (whilst Mike & Caz go to theatre again). On Sat afternoon we went to Broadway & saw Greece which apparently had the winners of the American 'find Danny & Sandy' show and some winner of American Idol aswell. Afterwards we went up the Empire state building & then had a nice meal in "little Italy"

Sunday was non-stop walking -I'm certainly getting a lot of exercise! I won't bore you with every detail but I'm pretty we have seen every famous building there is to see since Mike is attempting to get every picture that we have in our tour guide lol.

Today we got up at the lovely hour of 6 am and went to Liberty Island & went half way up the statue (cant go all the way up any more because of fire safety regulations or something) we also went to Ellis Island Museum and then hired a bike to go round central park this afternoon. It seems we still don't have the hang of using the subway since we AGAIN managed to get on an express train which went straight past our stop... which again meant more walking!

So I am completly utterly knackered! Looking forward to the 4 hour bus ride to sleep tomorrow! Although we do have to see the lovely hour of 6am again! I've had a good time in NY but looking forward to leaving the hectic'ness, MASSIVE que's, boiling hot room and the redickulous (I know I can't spell before someone points that out :p) shower. Seriously to have a shower u literally need to do a chicken dance lol... there is a tiny drizzle which randomly sprays in any direction so to wash hair u actually have to do a chicken dance (or any other animal that dances randomly :p teehee)

Tomorrow moving to Boston which the internet claims has 90 something % rating so I'm looking forward to having a nice hostel :D...

Thanks for all your comments... & yes Keeley I am somehow surviving seeing many horrible bugs (although they still freak me out!). Will post again soon x

Niagra falls & New York

I'm running low on internet time so this is going to have to be brief! Far too much to say in so little time so will try get online again at the next hostel to fill in the gaps!

Niagra was truely amazing ! Maid in the mist was my highlight, really really was fantastic!! At nighttime the falls are lit up so they looked awesome! We only stayed in Niagra for one night and left there on thurs morning (we had some travel issues - will add details another time and came across a really nutty women. She was ranting on about salad pills wtf lol!!)
With about 11 hours of travel we finally made it to New York and had a quick trip to Times Square at night. Yestreday was Independance day so there was loads going on and an awesome fireworks display down at the Harbour!

Today we are going to try get cheap broadway tickets and then have a nice meal (since we have eaten shite so far!)

Omg the hostel here in NY is not good! We had a cockcroach in our room and i HATE all creepy crawly things :( there are also only 2 showers for like 100 people!!! not good :( looking forward to moving onto Boston (fingers crossed its going to be better!). We are here in NY til tues morning so got a bit more to put up with yet! Lets just hope we dont get sick :(

Will try post again sooon!!

We made it to Canada

With a special thank u to Jonny we successfully made here! We arrived at lunctime Canadian time with only a light grilling from Canadian customs...and a slight mishap where only half of us made it onto a tube (doors dont stay open even when Mike is holding it!) . .. OOhh and we also managed to break the law within an hour of landing here :-) Pilling too many people into a car! Whops but o well..
I'm sat round a PC with everyone around me (Nil, Nish, Caz & Mike) staring at what I'm writing, they all say hi!! Yesterday we went up the CN tower & now we are about to go on a boat trip! It's very sunny here and we done a whole lot of walking.

Tomorrow we are off to Niagra Falls (getting the bus at the lovely hour of 7am!) we are planning to chuck Nilusha over if she doesn't start behaving herself :p

Will update again soon...
Love from us all :D