Author: Jon

America, done.

Well, it’s finally here, day 90 🙁

I think America has been fairly comprehensively ‘Done’. We’ve had an absolutely incredible time and we’ve been lucky to experience so many things for the first time, from riding a helicopter into the Grand Canyon to quad biking in the desert, standing atop 4 of America’s tallest buildings, swimming with some amazing animals, watching shows on Broadway, jazz clubs in New Orleans, driving a speedboat, flying a jetpack, standing where JFK was shot and feet from where Martin Luther King was murdered (and learning a lot of history in the process). We’ve seen Kurt Cobains house, Graceland, stood on the edge of a meteor crater, riden Segways past the White House,  visited Alcatraz, Roswell, stayed in a lighthouse, seen the most beautiful national parks….. I could go on…

It’s been an absolute dream come true and we both know how lucky we are to have got to experience it.

Anyway, I thought we should collect together a few stats and favourite photos to finish this blog off properly…

 

Days: 90
Miles driven: 13,059
States driven through: 35
Hotels stayed in: 41
Visits to blog: 1824
Friends met:  4
Modes of transport used: 15 ( car / airplane / seaplane / quad bike / jet pack / speed boat / catamaran / segway / zip line / ferry / bus / helicopter / team / monorail / cog railway)
Number of photos taken: 12,613
Number of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups eaten by Jon: We lost count.

 

People also keep asking us where our favourite place has been so we’ve given it some though and pretty much agreed on our top 5 places in America

  • Heceta head / pacific coast
  • Las Vegas
  • New orleans
  • Lake Tahoe
  • Boston

 

… and our top 10 things we’ve done while we’ve been here (we tried to do 5 but they didn’t fit).

  • Quad biking in the Valley of Fire
  • Helicopter tip into the Grand Canyon
  • Flying a Jet Pack in Key West
  • The world’s longest zip line in Whistler
  • Riding the speed boat along the Chicago shore
  • Swimming with sealions, dolphins and manatees
  • Seeing The Lion king on broadway
  • Visiting the jazz clubs in New Orleans
  • Taking a seaplane to Dry Tortugas and snorkeling there.
  • Riding Segways in Washingto D.C.

 

While we’re compiling lists, here are some our favourite things about being in America…

  • Turning right on red lights
  • Free refills on coffee and soft drinks without asking
  • Conversations with strangers
  • The food (most of it)
  • The weather
  • The scenery (it really is incredible)
  • Air conditioning, everywhere!!!

And there are a few things we won’t miss…

  • Not being able to get a cup of tea (Jen)
  • Not including tax in any of their prices
  • Mosquitoes
  • Their money (specifically the coins)
  • American Cheese, Bacon and Beer – they can’t make any of them.

 

We’re really going to miss being in America, but we’re both looking forward to a roast dinner and a good night’s sleep 🙂

Anyway, we tried to pick our favourite 50 photos from the trip but only managed to get it down to 74, so here goes…

 

 

 

 

Last day in New York

Today was our last day in New York and we still hadn’t seen the Brooklyn Bridge , Grand Central Station or Ground Zero itself. So with the few hours we had left, we decided to jump in several cabs and dart around New York seeing a few of the last remaining sights.

We started with Ground Zero and although all tickets to see the memorial sell out months in advance we were able to see it from a distance. The memorial garden has been designed around two square waterfalls that have been built on the exact same spots that the two towers stood. Its a fitting and beautiful memorial that sits next to what will be a great piece of architecture, the new World Trade Tower, currently almost half built.

After Ground zweo, the next cab took us to Brooklyn and over the Brooklyn Bridge, we walked the full length of the bridge back to Manhattan with great views of the skyline along the way before visiting Grand Central Station, which is far more impressive than any train station should be, and a quick dash around Macy’s for last minute shopping.

New York has been really good fun and has some of the best sights in America, especially the view from the top of the Empire State Building, the lights on Times Square and the Manhattan Skyline. Having said that, I couldn’t spend more than about a week here, the people are way too impatient and nowhere near as friendly as the rest of America. There’s also not really any green space outside of Central Park. I’d say it’s a very impressive looking city but it’s not very ‘pretty’. Maybe it’s just me because Jen says she could happily live here (although she concedes that she’d need to be very rich to enjoy it properly).

Anyway, after our last 200 mile cross country drive, we are now back in Boston, where we started 90 days ago, and tomorrow we fly home. So that’s us pretty much done and that’s this blog pretty much done. Dont log off yet though, we’re going to put up one more blog post later on with a few of our photos and our Jerry Springer like ‘final thoughts’.

 

New York Sightseeing

Our last full day in New York was totally unplanned and having seen some of the bigger sites like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty already we decided to do some “mopping up” of some of the sights we hadn’t seen by taking an open top bus tour of Downtown Manhattan.

These bus tours are always really busy and often not great, but they are the easiest way to see most of the sights in a city really quickly and that’s exactly what we did.

It took us through all of the districts we hadn’t seen yet like Greenwich Village , Little Italy and East Village . We saw Wall Street , Macy’s , the Brooklyn Bridge , Ground Zero , The Waldorf Astoria and most of Broadway . I think we can say we’ve done New York (or Manhattan Island at least) quite comprehensively. The photos aren’t great but remember they were taken from inside a moving bus!

After saying goodbye to Scott who flew home today, we spent our evening watching ‘The Lion King’ on Broadway. I know it’s a bit cheesy but we’ve seen it in London too and it really is an amazing spectacle. The sets, costumes, puppetry and special effects are just so clever and the cast were excellent, from the great comic actors that play Zazu and Timone to the very talented singers who played Simba and Nala. I imagine the standing ovation they got was a nightly occurrence but it was thoroughly deserved.

 

Empire State Building and 5th Avenue

Our second day in NewYork with our friend Scott was ear-marked for shopping, but having been to the top of the second tallest building (well, second tallest that has an observation deck) the previous night we thought we’d do the Empire State Building as well. I think we did it totally the right way round too because we went to the Top of the Rock by night which allowed us to see the midtown skyline at night (including the Empire State Building itself illuminated)  and do the Empire State Building during the day so we could actually see for miles. They say you can see for 80 miles on a clear day, which it nearly was.

The Empire State Building has two observation decks; one on the 86th floor and one on the 102nd. We went to the 86th first which is very big and also outside which allowed me to take some nice photos. Then we went in our 3rd elevator to get right to the top on the 102nd, which is a great thing to say you’ve done but actually not nearly as good for sightseeing as the lower one.

The view from the top really is incredible. We’ve been to the top of tall buildings in several cities, including Chicago and Seattle, but none of them have quite the number of famous landmarks visible from one place. We saw the Financial District, The Chrysler Building, The Rockerfeller Center (with binoculars you can see the people standing on the observation deck we were on yesterday the previous night) , Madison Square Garden , Central Park , Yankee Stadium , Times Square … I could go on… and the photo below of the tall skyscraper being built is the new World Trade Center going up.

After the Empire State Building we went shopping on 5th Avenue. The highlight for me was FAO Schwarz , the largest toy shop in New York and the oldest in America, famous for its massive piano used in the Tom Hanks film ‘Big’, which we had to have a go on. It’s also got a fairly large Lego department and a muppet workshop where you can design and build your own muppet!

The highlight for Jen was going to Tiffany’s . As far as Jewellery shops go it’s pretty impressive covering 5 floors and Jen has always wanted one of their little blue boxes. We finished with a really nice Dinner near Central Park and I couldn’t help taking a photo of Scott’s 3 mini cheeseburgers (all with different cheese apparently).

 

Philadelphia Independence park

We managed to pack quite a lot in during our fleeting visit to Philadelhpia on Thursday.

The main reason for going to Philadelphia was because of the part it played in the history of America’s creation and it’s independence and most of these historic sites and modern day museums are located very closely together in “Independance Park” .

The first thing we noticed when we got there though, was that the National Constitution Centre was closed that day (the only day of the year) because they were holding a ceremony to give out ‘Liberty Medals’ . Luckily, everything else was open.

The highlights of Independence Park included standing in the room in which the Declaration of Independence , the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights were signed. We also got to visit the original “Upper” and “Lower” floors of the original congress building where the very first senate and congress sat (which apparently is why they are still called the upper and lower house to this day) and we got to see the Liberty Bell , which hung above Independence Hall and was rung during the original reading of the Declaration of Independence (and was ironically cast by a London firm!).

So, all historied out and with a few more hours to spare before we had to head to New York we decided to take a duck tour. For anyone who hasn’t seen one of these, it’s basically a bus which can float on water, so it can give you a city tour vie the streets and rivers. It’s also incredibly tacky and usually involves a ‘crazy’ tour guide who tells bad jokes and makes everyone make quacking noises using their “quackers” as they go round. It was quite fun though and luckily they didn’t give out the quackers until the end. The tour covered a fair amount of Philadelphia, including Benjamin Franklin’s last resting place and the US Mint and Federal Reserve.Oh, and we also got to see the original building used as the tower block in Ghostbusters 🙂

We’re now in New York, our last city! We’re one day in already so I’ll update you tomorrow.

 

 

 

Washington D.C. by Segway

 

I was really looking forward to yesterday. Partly because we were going to be in Washington D.C . but mainly because I’d always wanted to ride a Segway .

The day started badly. It was chucking it down with rain as we drove into D.C. and there was an hour long traffic jam. If we actually made it there on time, which seemed unlikely, then we were sure the tour was going to be cancelled due to the rain. However, we were only a couple of minutes late and they don’t cancel due to rain so we quickly grabbed a couple of ponchos and jumped on our Segways.

We’ve tried quite a few new modes of transport this holiday; quad bikes, boats, even a jetpack! But I can honestly say that none of them feel as natural as a Segway. There were about 10 people in our group and they were all trained up in about 2 minutes.

They really are fantastic machines because you just lean in the direction you want to go and if you want to slow down you just lean back. You can’t go too fast and you can’t fall off it because it won’t let you.

I should probably talk about the sights we saw on the way, although they felt secondary to whizzing about on the Segway. We saw the White House , Lincoln Memorial , Washington Monument and the Korean War Veterans Memorial . All of them were very impressive actually. The Washington Monument is currently closed because of the earthquake last month (they’re still checking it to make sure it’s safe) and the reflecting pool (You know the big one Forrest Gump ran down?) is currently being restored so has no water in it, but the Lincoln memorial was very impressive (see photos) and the Korean War Veterans Memorial seemed very fitting and very original.

As fun as it was seeing those and The White House though, the star of the show yesterday was the Segways.

I can’t wait to have another go on one.

 

 

Busch Gardens

Orlando has most of the world’s biggest theme parks, including Disney World and Universal Studios, obviously, but if you want to ride the biggest coasters and thrill rides then you have to drive to Busch Gardens in Tampa .

Unfortunately Jen wasn’t feeling great on Friday and we’d already got our tickets to Busch Gardens so she decided to sit this one out and stay in the villa (lounging by the pool and drinking wine I might add!).

Again, the park was pretty empty because of the time of year so Robin, Esp and I managed to spend the whole day getting on and off the biggest rides with virtually no wait. ‘Sheikra’ is a lot like Oblivion at Alton Towers but has TWO very large vertical drops. ‘Kumba’ has lots of tight upside down loops and ‘Montu’ is just massive. You can see for miles from the top and it lasts a couple of minutes with plenty of inverted loops and spirals.

The best ride of the day, though (and the best coaster I’ve ever ridden) is their new ride ‘Cheetah Hunt’. It’s very long (nearly a mile), very smooth and launches you from “zero to cheetah”, which is zero toaround 60mph in under two seconds. It’s not the first ride to use magnets to accelerate you very quickly from a standing start, but it does it three times over the course of the track. At one point you’re coasting along a straight track towards a very large incline and you haven’t got the speed to get up to the top, until something kicks the train forwards at an incredible speed and you sail over the top, losing your stomach in the process. Next to the Tower of Terror it has to be the best ride in Florida!

Busch Gardens is also a zoo/safari park so you get to see lots of cool animals as you walk about.

It was our last day in Orlando where we’ve all had a great time. Robin and Esp have now flown back to England so I hope they enjoyed Orlando as much as we did. We continued our drive on to Crystal River ready for Saturday’s trip to see the Manatees.

 

Discovery Cove

On Wednesday we got to go back to Discovery Cove in Orlando.

It was a fairly early start again but it’s worth getting there early so you can fit everything in. We started by visiting the aviary and feeding the birds and had a swim round the lazy river. Robin and Esp had bought their underwater camera which is much better than the rubbish disposable one we used last time we went so we got some cool photos on the lazy river.

Before our dolphin swim we spent some time snorkelling in the Grand Reef which has been expanded since the last time we went. It’s full of huge manta rays and thousands of tropical fish, not to mention the sharks and barracudas which are (obviously) behind glass.

We finished with our dolphin swim and another go round the lazy river. The dolphin swim was with two dolphins who showed us some great tricks and posed for some photos with us (to follow, once I get near a scanner). Our second dolphin was Jenny, who actually “proposed” to Jen for me two years ago so it was pretty cool to see her again.

I think it goes without saying that Discovery Cove is one of our favourite places in the world and I think Robin and Esp had a great day too.

Enjoy the photos. Tomorrow, Disney World!

 

 

 

Universal & Islands of Adventure

We’ve only got six days in Orlando, which means we’re having to cram in as much stuff as we can in as few a days as possible, which means I haven’t had time to update the blog. We’re taking lots of photos tough and I’ll add lots more over the next few days.

On Monday we did two theme parks in one day, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, which is easier than it sounds because (A) The’re right next two each other and you only have to buy one ticket and (B) we’ve been there before so we know which are the best rides to go on if you haven’t got much time. Also at this time of year there are no queues to get on the rides so we managed to do all the big coasters in IOA and all of the best rides at Universal without any problems.

We also got to visit the new “Wizarding World of Harry Potter”.

I haven’t read any of the books or seen any of the Harry Potter films so I had no idea what most of it was about, but it was still pretty cool to see how they had recreated all the locations and characters from the book. It’s not easy to do two theme parks in one day but when there’s no queues and you already know what the best rides are then you can just run round all day riding all the best ones! We did the same at Disney World yesterday but I’ll post all about that in a couple of days

 

Kennedy Space Centre

We arrived in Orlando yesterday and we’ve been joined by our mates Robin and Esperanza.

Our first day was spent at Kennedy Space Centre, Cape Canaveral . Jen and I have been before but personally I couldn’t wait to get back there and was happy to repeat the tour and see some of the sites again, like the real Saturn V rocket which blasted the Apollo astronauts to the moon and the Rocket Garden (see pics).

This time though we had the added bonus of getting to have lunch with a real astronaut. We got to meet Gerry Carr , who trained for the Apollo missions and eventually got to blast off on a Saturn 1B rocket and spend 84 days aboard Skylab , the precursor to the International Space Station . I’m generally not particularly fussed about meeting ‘celebrities’, but the chance to talk to somebody who’s actually flown into space left me quite starstruck (no pun intended). It really was an amazing honour and he’s a really interesting guy so I’m so pleased we did it.