In the time we have spent in America we have seen so many amazing sights (a lot more 'firsts' than I expected), met so many great people (who I'm sure we will keep in contact with and certainly hope to see again) and overall it has been an incredible start to our around the world adventure.
We haven't exactly been keeping the blog up to date so here is a run down of the things we have seen and done that were a highlight:
Northern California & Oregon:After leaving Adam and Sarah we went North in California into the Redwood forest, which just takes your breath away. The trees are some of the oldest living things on the planet and their size and magnitude just makes you feel insignificant!
Further North into Oregon state we visited Crater Lake, which is an active volcano that has collapsed leaving a giant crater atop the remains of a mountain which has filled with water. When we arrived there was still snow and the lake was as calm as any water I have ever seen, the reflection was magical.
Eugene is a town a lot of people back home have never heard of, it is also in Oregon and when we stayed there it took us by surprise. Every time we thought we were leaving we ended up booking another night, 2 days turned into 6! It must have helped our enjoyment that the Olympic trials were in town, but we just found the city to be great fun and the people friendly and welcoming. When we talked about it we both agreed that if we had to pick somewhere in the US to move to, Eugene would be near the top of the list.
For July the 4th we were further North still, in Portland, there was the annual Waterfront Blues festival on where we managed to see Isaac Hayes performing, the festival was great fun and just a donation for entry. Portland itself didn't really blow us away, a lot of people had said we would really love it so maybe we built it up too much.
Washington state & especially Seattle:Into Washington state and we visited Mount Rainier National Park, we were really happy to get back to nature and resume hiking and exploring. It is a wonderful place that is still recovering from damage from flooding in 2006, you can still see the trail of destruction and it makes you realise just how powerful water can be.
We then reached Seattle, the city that turned out to be not quite so rainy. I could probably write pages and pages about the fun we had but I'll try to summarise: We were a bit down as the time to hand the RV in was nearly upon us, so we decided on a night out. The Lonely Planet had recommended Capitol Hill as the place to go out so we hit a bar for some pre dinner drinks. While enjoying the sunshine on the patio we were approached by a nice guy named Rahul, as he liked our accents and used to live in Cambridge. Long story short he invited us out for the evening which we gladly attended and 4 bars, a nightclub, too many Martini's/beers to count and we were having a great time with his friends. We didn't get home that night till around 4am, so it must have been good.
The following morning my phone rang, with a number that I could only recognise as being local to Seattle. Who had I given my number out to? My head was pounding and I felt ill so I passed the phone to Fran and everything came flooding back. We had met a lovely guy called Will in the nightclub who was thinking about taking a boat out the following day – today! He was calling to invite us along, which we couldn't refuse. Now let me put something straight here, all across America we have been watching people on lakes, rivers and the sea, enjoying their boats and having a great time. We had been dying to get on a boat and here it was about to come true (I would like to think that we hoped so much that maybe we willed it to happen!), all we had to do was drag ourselves to the docks for 12.30. Simple.
Well we made it and had an incredible time. We met more of Will and Rahul's friends who were all lovely, we had a few beers and danced in the sunlight on the bay, it was one of the best days we had had yet. Seattle and its residents had come up trumps!
No more RV!Just a couple of days later and we had to drop the RV off, which was sad but in another way exciting as it meant the backpacking stage of our journey was just beginning. Having the RV turned out to be great for us. It saved us the hassle of finding hotels / hostels and not having to pack up bags every couple of days. We met a LOT of Americans through out travels too, which sometimes when you are in hotels doesn't happen, and certainly in hostels you tend to meet people from everywhere but the place you are travelling in. I do feel that we got a good taste of the American lifestyle and culture as we spent our time doing on of their favourite past times – camping! It may have ended up being more expensive than the alternatives but I'm glad we did it, staying in the National Parks was awesome.
Utah:So essentially homeless, with all our possessions in just 2 backpacks and a hold all, we went to visit Michael and Hayley in Salt Lake City, Utah. We received a very warm welcome and felt extremely at home the whole time. It was so nice to be in a house again for a while with friendly people, we recharged our batteries. Michael was a great host and tour guide and took us to see as many sights as our short visit would allow.
We went to see local ski areas, religious buildings (an important part of SLC and also very interesting), free concerts (evening affairs a la picnic!), to name but a few. Michael also insisted on taking us to a lake to meet some of his friends and go out on their boat, to try 'surfing' off the back in the wake. We arrived quite late in the day and I thought it was getting a bit cold, but we went out anyway. Having watched one of Michael's friends have a go it was my turn, and I thought it looked HARD! But I got in and gave it my best shot – I managed to stand up first time, even if it was just for 10 seconds! A couple more turns and I started getting the hang of it, I can't wait to have another go. After me it was Fran's turn and at first she struggled to get up but on the 3rd attempt she nailed it! Surfing pro baby! All we need now is a boat.
LA & San Diego:The time had come to leave Utah and so we flew to LAX. Now if you have never been to LA the first thing I need to get across is just how bit it is. It is really big, the city just goes on and on and on. To get from the South of the city to the North in a car, in rush hour, would take most of the rest of your life. I think I've given you an idea. We stayed in Hollywood, just above the walk of fame and spitting distance from Mann's Chinese theatre, in a hostel that was filthy, it was cheap though. Hollywood itself is quite good fun and seeing all the sights you know from TV is surreal. 5 minutes in either direction though and things start to decline and the area takes a turn for the worse.
While in LA we visited Santa Monica beach a couple of times which was really nice, but its still a little bit colder than we really like and the Pacific is just way too cold. The beach in LA also goes on for miles and miles in either direction.
We had previously decided that 12 days in LA would be too long so we had booked 4 nights in San Diego to break it up. We had a really great time there, staying in a place called Hostel Cat, basically just a warehouse split into rooms. The first night we were staying in a room with 40 beds called the party room! It didn't really live up to expectations and we got far more sleep than we thought. The following night and the hostel did live up to expectations as drink game proceeded and we got drunk till far too early in the morning (see the video I posted on the blog). San Diego is a nice city but was also cooler than I imagined, the upside is that everything is easily accessible as its fairly compact. It does suffer though from having a large homeless population (as does LA), which is a story you see all to often in American cities, sadly. We then had 3 further days in LA before flying out of LAX for Tokyo.
My final word on the USA:One thing I feel I should mention is the obvious effect that terrorism is having on this country. Whether it is the high level of security as you pass through an airport, or the new multi-million dollar bridge that is being built to direct traffic away from the Hoover Dam, terrorism is costing the American tax payer a lot of money in a lot of ways. You can no longer get within a couple of hundred meters of the Whitehouse without the correct level of security clearance, and there are metal detectors popping up all over the place. It must all be costing a small fortune, which unfortunately feels like a necessity right now.
So 4 months, 9,500 miles, over 25 states visited. I would fully recommend visiting this country that contains such contrasting and diverse scenery, populous and climate. Wherever we went we received a warm welcome, service with a smile, and genuine friendliness. I would still like to revisit the states and explore other parts of the country that we just didn't have time to see, at some point in the future. I really do look forward to seeing some of our new friends again in the future (you know who you are!).
A tired sombre suited man