Washington DC.

After the hell hole that we stayed in in New York City, there was no way we were staying in a hostel in DC if we could help/afford it. Danny found a website called hotwire.com that basically lets you look really cheap accommodation that you choose by star rating. The catch is that you have no idea of the name of the hotel or where exactly it is. Well we took the risk. The risk paid off. We stayed in the most lovely hotel in downtown DC with amazing views, a huge bedroom and a rooftop pool and bar. It was fabulous, we were very happy. But less about the hotel, and more about the city.

Of course the first place we went to whilst we were in the capital of America was the White House. I was so surprised that the closest you could get was still this far away! I mean I know the President is a very important man and he needs his privacy and security, but still - we can get 10 times closer to Buckingham Palace and the Queen is a pretty important lady too! My ideas on this frustrated Danny a lot as he tried to explain to me the difference between the Queen and the President and so we moved on to a much more fun environment - The Smithsonian Air and Space museum.

Museums in Washington are awesome!!! They are all completely free and fun and interactive - just my kind of museum, where there is actually something to do and get involved in. The thing that I was most looking forward to about this particular museum was the Planetarium. I have never been to one before and I've seen such amazing videos so I knew it was going to be impressive, and it really really was. I absolutely loved it, I could have spent hours in there watching film after film after film. Ah it was amazing. Because we are such big baseball fans now we went in search of a sports bar for dinner, and to watch the Mets and have a couple of beers. I absolutely love baseball now, I really enjoy watching it so it was great to do that and see the Mets win as well. Fingers crossed that keeps going. Our beautiful hotel room was enticing us so we had a relatively early night ready to jam pack everything else in in the morning.

You know how I mentioned how unbearable the heat was in Philadelphia, yeah well it's much worse in Washington. Much much worse. When you walk out of a lovely air conditioned building into the humidity it is like being draped in a damp hot towel, it's really really unpleasant. So we decided that in this awful heat, we were going to spend three hours walking around the zoo. The zoo is huge! We finally saw some Bison! Unfortunately it wasn't in the wild in Canada like we had hoped, but we saw some none the less. We also saw some lions being fed, an elephant having a shower and a huge pat of flamingos. After that we then headed back into the city to meet Danny's friend Gabs who he did a few seasons with back in the day. We went and had some lunch with him and had a catch up which was lovely, and then he took us to his office and showed us the view of Washington and of the Pentagon from his window. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go and see the Pentagon up close (well as close as you can get) so this was the next best thing!

Danny had one more Patagonia store to visit in Georgetown to complete the collection so we wandered around the shops there and stopped off in one of the bars to have a beer and a bite to eat. I think it's official to say that I am now a beer drinker, which makes me even more excited to go back to England and have a few pints with the boys at the Ship! On the way back towards downtown we walked past the Four Seasons Hotel where there was 15-20 black cars outside and lots of security, after a bit of ear wigging we then found out that the King of Saudi Arabia was staying there which is pretty cool I think you will agree!

As the night drew in we made our way over to Capitol Hill to watch The Sound of Music. Over the summer in many places across Washington, they put up a big blow up screen and play a different movie each week, inviting people to bring a picnic and lay under the stars to watch whichever film is on offer that day. The Sound of Music is one of my favourite movies and this was the last week of summer they were going to be throwing the event - it was fate. We sat there and ate a take out, had a drink and sang along to all the songs - well I did anyway. It was great, I couldn't help but think how much my Mum would like it if she were to be there too! By the time that was done it was gone 11pm so we went back to the hotel to sort out all of our packing ready for the long journey home over the next couple of days.

We didn't have to check out until midday so we got up early and made the most of the time we had left. We went up to the pool and relaxed for a little while before the sun got too hot, and then went to take a few snaps of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. It is absolutely massive. I mean I've seen it in pictures and I knew it was pretty big but it really was something else in person. The view behind was rather spectacular also. The reflection pools, with the WW2 memorial and the Washington Monument in the sunshine looked beautiful. We then walked as quickly as physically possible in the scorching heat to The Natural History Museum. Again another free museum, with lots and lots of exhibits to see. We paid a few bucks to go and see the Live Butterfly Exhibit and got to walk around in an enclosure with hundreds of butterflies flying freely all around us which was so so cool. I tried to take a video/some pictures but they were just moving so quickly it was impossible!

Time goes so quickly whilst you are having fun, and boy had we had a lot of it over this trip - but now it was time to head back to Banff and pick up our stuff before then going on to England. We shall see you all soon, cannot wait...

Philadelphia.

The first thing I noticed in Philadelphia was that it was so god damn hot. Unbearable. There was just no escape from it. We only had one and a half days to explore the city which wasn't great, but it was made better to think we only had to endure the heat for that short space of time. Every cloud...

So once we had arrived and checked into our apartment (which was lovely by the way) we headed straight over to John F. Kennedy plaza, or as it's more commonly know, Love Park. For some reason I thought that the statue/sign/art was so much bigger. I seem to have this memory of people climbing in the 'O' of the image for photographs and whatnot. Regardless it's a fun statue, and there are lots of other pieces of art work similar near by. Just across the road is 'Board Game Art Park' where there are over sized monopoly pieces, giant chess pieces, and human sized dominoes. If only you could actually play a game with them, now that would be fun!

We spent a lot of time just wandering around the city and figuring out what to do and where to go. Philadelphia was without a doubt the city that we knew the least about so we had to do our research to make sure we did everything that we should we the short amount of time that we had there. After exhausting ourselves in the heat, we walked right down to the piers and sat and had a few drinks and some dinner which was lovely. The menu was really fun and there were lots of local beers to choose from which Danny enjoyed. And then after a long day of travelling and walking we settled into bed, with the aim to be as productive as possible come the morning.

Day two began with a visit to the Eastern State Penitentiary, which is a now closed prison which is falling to pieces, but back when it began it was pretty revolutionary. We did a little audio tour and learnt so so much in the short space of time we had to look around. The prisoners all lived in solitary confinement and had to be completely silent at all times - a bit different to prisons nowadays thats for sure. We also found out that America has the highest rate on incarceration at 700 in 100,000 people in prison as opposed to in the UK where it is just over 100 per 100,000. Some crazy numbers on that board! Next we went to Independence Hall and to the Liberty Bell. We went in there and took some pictures, and as we left, realised we knew absolutely nothing about the Liberty Bell other than that it is a symbol of American Independence. This trip certainly has been a learning curve.

We then took a walk over to Franklin Square and had some fun playing mini golf. It was a really cool course and we had a lot of laughs competing against each other. In the end it was a draw/Danny took pity on me and gave me extra points, but regardless, it's the taking part not the winning that counts hey! We then went to the US Mint in the hope of seeing some money being made, but unfortunately production had been closed down for the day. We got to see the factory and learn about the design process of each of the coins, which was pretty interesting. I saw a ring that had been made many years ago out of a half dollar coin by using just the man's hands and a spoon. It was awesome! I've asked Danny to give it a go so we shall see what becomes of that request. I haven't got high hopes, it is a rather tall order.

Dinner time was soon approaching so we began to make our way to the complete opposite end of the city to try what is supposedly Philadelphia's best philly cheesesteak. It was ok. I don't really know on a scale of 1 to 10 what makes a good cheesesteak, but to me it was just cheese in a can, squirted on some dry thinly shaved steak in a basic hot dog bun. I don't know, maybe I had hyped it up in my mind to be much better than it ever could be, but in reality it was pretty average. On the way back to the apartment we went past somewhere called the Magic Gardens. It's basically a series of winding mazes created using mirrors and glass and tiles to make a continuous mosaic. It looks incredible, really really captivating; and the idea just kind of continues throughout that area of the city. We also spotted another mural/art piece just around the corner from our apartment that we had to go and investigate. It was basically a crashed aeroplane statue that was a greenhouse. It was super weird and dark so I could not get a picture of the plants inside, but it's certainly an interesting concept. And that was that, Philadelphia was done and we were packing up ready for the last stop on our trip. Washington DC here we come... 

New York City.

NEW YORK BABY!!!!!! God was I excited about this leg of the trip. Ever since I came 4 years ago I've wanted to come back, and here we finally are. We booked an extra night here over everywhere else because there is just so much to try and squeeze in. But we did it, and a fair bit more. The only downside is that we were in a really horrible hotel/hostel that I don't even want to begin to explain . We didn't let that ruin things though, I mean hey it's New York, we didn't exactly spend much time in the room there is way too much to see and do!

The first stop of course was every New York tourists destination - Times Square. I could just sit there for hours watching all of the people and looking at the lights and the billboards, it's captivating, if completely crowded and overwhelming. From there we walked over to Rockefeller Center to buy our City Passes which basically give us discount to all of the big tourist destinations and mean we don't have to join all of the ridiculously long queues, so it's money well spent. My Lord Rockefeller looks different to the last time I was there. In December it is an ice rink, full of skaters with over an hour long queue and Father Christmas taking pictures with happy holidayers. In the Summer, the ice is gone and there are tables and chairs and a set up bar and hoards of people eating overpriced and delicious looking food. We also heard a tour guide telling his group that they do weddings there for anything from $350 to $1500! Crazy!

Next was Grand Central Station which I didn't have a chance to visit last time, so I was looking forward to seeing the big clock that the giraffe got his head stuck in in Madagascar. It was pretty cool, a beautiful building and of course, like the rest of New York, absolutely heaving with people! There was also this archway outside of the Oyster bar that is nicknamed 'The Whispering Gallery' that Danny had heard about that we had to check out whilst we were there. Basically you each stand on opposite corners of the archway and whisper into the wall and the other can hear what you're saying, just like magic. It's super weird and I have no idea how it works, but it's a quirky little thing to go and check out whilst you are in NY that a lot of people don't know about.

By this point the evening was already upon us so we decided to go out for a few drinks. We put our name on the waiting list for a rooftop bar that we heard was good, and went round the corner to a sports bar for a couple of beers and to try to figure out the basics of baseball before we were to watch a match the next night. I think we got the gist of it by the time we had to go grab our reservation. Wow. Just wow. This rooftop, in the middle of Manhattan was just spectacular, it's no wonder there was such a long waiting list. It was like being in another world, all the glittery lights, the view, the hustle and bustle of the city, it was something else. A little bit tipsy we headed back to Times Square, ended up on a billboard, ate some pizza and then off to bed. God is this travelling malarkey tiring...

Day Two began with the Statue of Liberty. A pretty standard sight in NY but she is magnificent and we got some great pictures from the side of the boat. Like most people, we didn't spend more than 10 minutes on Staten Island before we got straight back on the boat to the mainland. We then went to Wall Street and passed the New York Stock Exchange and all the men in their funky sales jackets, and then round the corner to the World Trade Center. When Danny last came it was all construction, and when I came the museum was just being built so we had a look at the memorial and spent a long time in the museum, a long long time - it is HUGE. Honestly the size of the place is insane, you could spend an entire day in there easily. There were some really interesting exhibits and some you hear some really emotional stories. It's an incredible museum and I urge anyone to go who has the chance.

Back out in the sunshine we took a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. Well not quite all the way, maybe halfway, we took some pictures and turned straight back around. My God it was hot, so so incredibly hot. By the time we had done that, again time had escaped us so we got on the subway and began to make our way to Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets! I won't lie I was pretty dubious about how I was going to manage watching baseball for a minimum of three hours, but I actually really enjoyed it, we had a great time! The Mets may not have won, but it was a great game that left us hanging until the last pitch - I'm definitely going to try and keep up with watching it, it's the only sport that I've ever shown a slight interest in, so we shall see how that goes. As the game went into extra innings we weren't back in Manhattan until gone midnight, so it was another late night pizza stop and bed.

And then it was Saturday, already! We started off the day at the American Museum of Natural History. I took a picture of the giant talking head from 'Night at the Museum' and we looked at a load of stuffed animals, and of course the dinosaur exhibit. It was rather cool. Then we began our walk through Central Park which is just beautiful in the sunshine. We arrived at the Rockefeller Center and went to their observation deck 'Top of the Rock' and Danny had a good old time using the binoculars to see all the way to the WTC. It's always cool to see cities from so high up and get a completely different view. After that we made our way to Soho to visit the Patagonia shop, look around Chelsea Market and just have a little wander. We found the most delicious cupcake shop called 'Georgetown Cupcakes' so got some goodies from there and then went down to the driving range on the pier where Danny thoroughly enjoyed himself hitting a load of golf balls over the Hudson River, or trying to anyway. And then it was time for Aladdin!!! I am a huge musical fan, so any opportunity I get I will go and see one, and you can't possibly go to New York without catching a show on Broadway obviously! It was incredible. Amazing props, amazing costumes, amazing dancing/singing and it was so so funny. My sister tells me it is in production in the West End for next year so I will definitely be going to see it with her when it opens to compare the UK and US version. But yeh I loved it, it's definitely made it into my top five!

I've just noticed how long this blog post is getting and I don't want to bore you all, so I'll quickly flit through our fourth and final day and let you get onto the fun part - the pictures! We went to the MET which is the art museum, I was completely bored because I have no appreciation of 'art' I'm sure would be most peoples response. I fail to see how a canvas painted red with one green stripe is art. There was one picture I thought was amazing but that was it. Just one. I'm sure I'm very uncultured and have no idea, but for this reason we went and looked at the Guggenheim as a building for it's funky style and then left for the good stuff. Shopping!!! I finally went to Bloomingdales and got myself some treats and proceeded to skip for the next hour out of pure joy. I swear to God shopping releases endorphins. It makes me so happy. And then as night fell we made our way up the Empire State Building and ogled at New York City in all of it's sparkling beauty. And that was it, another destination done, just like that. Bye bye New York, I have no doubt that we will be back...