29th & 30th September 2009 Simply the only word to describe the scenary of Yosemite National Park. Yesterday we had travelled from Mammouth Lakes via Mono Lake and the Tioga Pass to Yosemite National Park. It was also the first day that we hadn’t had wall to wall sunshine, and the first day we had to dig our jumpers out of the bag (typically at the bottom!). ...
27th & 28th September 2009 Yesterday we drove from Death Valley up to Mammouth Lakes through some stunning scenary. Various mountain ranges formed many millions of years ago through volcanic activity and shaped by subsequent ice ages. We arrived at our lodge in Mammouth Lakes, basic, but clean and with its own cooking facilities (well a microwave, fridge and sink) but enough to cook for ourselves for a few nights and have some fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. ...
26th September 2009 From the lowest point in the USA at 282 feet below sea level, to the high-level elevations at over 11,000 feet above. The hottest, driest climate in North America, with temperatures regularly reaching over 100 degrees farenheit (it was 117 today!), Death Valley is perhaps one of the most extreme environments on the continent. We entered at the aptly named Hell’s Gate (hot doesn’t even come close to describing it!!) and were delighted to learn that today the ususal $20 park fee (for a week’s access) was not payable because it was a public access day for parks across America. ...
23rd September Early start today - up at 4am - ready to be picked up at 4:50am. We had always planned to visit the Grand Canyon whilst we were in Vegas but due to a lack of research on our part we hadn’t realised just how far it was from Vegas to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon - some 330 miles or about 6 hours drive each way. After a fair bit of umming and ahhing we decided to do a fly and bus tour. ...
24th September 2009 We decided to take it easy today after quite a few hectic days. Also Vegas is so hot during the day it was lovely just to relax by the pool for a few hours. After our relaxing day, we headed into the Strip for an early tea at the Rainforest Cafe. This was a fascinating restaurant designed around a rainforest complete with gorillas, elephants and storms. Our meal was followed by a trip to the purpose built theatre in the MGM Grand to watch a performance of ‘Ka’ by Cirque de Soleil. We have seen a Cirque show before, but nothing compared to this utterly jaw dropping performance. The stage not only moved back and forth and up and down and rotated, but also went completely vertical. This, combined with colourful costumes, circus performances and martial arts made for a completely awesome show with a hugely talented (and brave!) cast. Our only regret was that we’d left it too late in the week to go and see any of the other Cirque shows - they currently have 5 running in Vegas. With Vegas being their base, it’s definately the place to see them as it would be almost impossible to take this show on tour. ...
25th September 2009 Today we move onto Beatty, which is a base for exploring Death Valley. First though, we had some unfinished business in Vegas with a different sort of fountain at the Bellagio - the chocolate variety. We had seen pictures of this fountain before leaving the UK and certain members of the group were keen to track this down. I was not disappointed either - surrounded by delicious looking cakes we simply HAD to try some, a chocolate muffin (with soft insides) and a vanilla slice kept us going until tea. ...
September 21st We left Barstow and joined the I-15, which takes you straight up to Las Vegas, some 160 miles north. After 60 miles or so, you reach Baker where we left the freeway and took a circular detour into the Mojave National Preserve. This puts you onto dead straight roads which run as far as the eye can see, before disappearing in the heat shimmer. ...
22nd September We headed out to the Hoover Dam today, which is about a half an hour journey out of Vegas when the traffic is clear, which it was for us. We’d read that it could get busy as the day went on, so decided to get out there fairly early. It was easy to get to, and by crossing over to the Arizona side of the dam we were able to get free parking, as opposed to the $7 parking on the Nevada side - bargain! ...
September 19th & 20th 2009 Saturday afternoon we left Chicago and flew over the vast desert on our way to Los Angeles. We spent a night in the Rennaissance Hotel at the airport which was real luxury compared to the hostels and treated ourselves to a really lovely meal with a bottle of wine to celebrate arriving in California. After picking up the hire car on Sunday morning, the rest of the day was spent driving to our overnight stop in Barstow. ...
September 16th 2009 On Wednesday we headed north of downtown Chicago up to Lincoln Park, a really nice leafy suburb with a university. We sat by the lily pond in the park and enjoyed our picnic lunch. Then we headed into the park zoo which is free. We didn’t stay in the zoo for long, it was like something out of the dark ages. Having visited places like Marwell where the animals have large areas to use this was really sad because all the big cats we saw just had small cages and were all pacing back and forth. It was too upsetting to stay so we left having only seen the cats. ...
September 18th 2009 Our last day in Chicago and we decided to take one of the free tours of Millenium Park, since we had already spent so much time there we thought it would be good to learn some more about it. Some of the highlights were ‘Cloud Gate’ or the ‘Bean’ as the locals refer to it which is the first outdoor public installation in the USA by the British artist, Anesh Kapoor. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city’s famous skyline and the clouds above. ...
September 17th 2009 Up early this morning to visit the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, the largest science museum in the Western hemisphere. We kicked off our visit with a tour of the Harry Potter exhibition featuring many of the props from the films. I even got to try the sorting hat on and got sorted into Ravenclaw (for the bright people!) I really enjoyed, the exhibition was really well laid out and staged with various ‘wizards’ popping up from time to time to guide you through and excerpts from the films showing amoung the props. A thoroughly enjoyable hour. ...
September 15th 2009 The hostel in Chicago is much bigger and much less friendly than our little home in Toronto, and doesn’t offer the cooking facilities we were hoping for, but it’s clean which is the main thing. It also provides free breakfast which although basic is enough to get you started. The Millenium Park in Chicago is an area dedicated to art, music, architecture and landscape design. There are free tours of the park available which we plan to take later in the week. They also hold free lunchtime concerts every day all through the summer until the end of September. ...
September 13th & 14th It was our last day in Toronto today. We needed to be at the bus station for about 5pm to catch our bus to Chicago, and had to vacate our room at the hostel by 11am, so we packed up our stuff and left it at the hostel and headed back down to the Music Garden by Lakeside. We had a couple of pleasant hours sat here reading books in the sun before heading back to the hostel to have a late lunch and grab our bags for the 20 minute walk to the bus station. ...
September 11th & 12th On Friday we hired a car to go and explore Niagara falls. On the way we stopped off in the picturesque village of Niagara on the Lake where we had some delicious cakes to tide us over until lunch. This is a historic little town, full of independant stores and which is famous for its annual celebration of the work of the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw. ...
10th September 2009 With a really good nights sleep under our belt (probably something to do with missing out the night before) we wandered down past exhibition place to lakeshore, the area along the banks of the lake which has been landscaped with parks and paths. We arrived at the music garden which was inspired by Bach’s suites for the unaccompanied cello. A park which represents the six musical movements in the piece with six garden areas. Really pleasant just to sit back and enjoy with tidy lawns and blooming flowers. ...
8th & 9th September 2009 Since we were leaving on the overnight bus to Toronto, we didn’t check out of the hotel until midday, using the morning to make some calls back to the UK, before We made our way via the subway (old hands now!) to the bus terminal and left our bags at the Greyhound desk. Free of our bags we went off to the famous Carnegies Deli (where people like Bill Clinton have eaten) to buy a sandwich for lunch. My what a sandwich! Masses and masses of meat squeezed between a small amount of bread - glad we went for one between both of us, absolutely delicious. ...
7th September 2009 We had decided to slow the pace down for this morning, so a leisurely breakfast was followed by some time sorting and uploading photos from last night’s trip to the Rockefella Centre. Late morning we headed out to Brooklyn for the 42nd Annual West Indian Festival Carnival. Wow! What an experience, the sights, sounds and smells of the Carribean come to Brooklyn where people from these places celebrate their heritage. Lots of flags, amazing costumes, typical carribean food, colour, noise and laughter with everyone just enjoying the carnival atmosphere and the sun (hot again today!). The carnival procession kicked off with the people running for various positions in government, some with their own drum crew and rapper (our politicians could learn a thing or two - talk about the opposite of stuffy!!). ...
6th September 2009 An early start this morning so that we can get to the Empire State Building early to avoid the (frankly horrendous) queues we saw yesterday afternoon. Bingo! We managed to get there just before 9 and pretty much went straight through to the lifts and up to the 86th floor. An amazing view right over the island of Manhattan awaited, a bit hazy, but still with a visibility of 20 miles. We took loads of photos (again!). Besides the view, the building itself was pretty amazing inside with gold, silver and bronze marble floors and its art deco style. ...
5th September 2009 Well, we’ve arrived stop 1, day 1, New York. Yesterday, after flying from Heathrow, we grabbed a yellow cab from the airport to our hotel just off Wall Street (although he couldn’t drive down Wall Street to drop us off as traffic is now not allowed in much of the financial district). Nice, clean and fairly quiet hotel, even though our room overlooks a row of pubs and restaurants. We had a quick meal at a Mexican restaurant and retired to bed. ...