Charleston to Orlando

The next part of our journey took us down to Charleston to visit Andrew’s school friend Gabs and his girlfriend Melina. Gabs kindly organised the whole 4 day trip, picked us up from the airport and even got us free accommodation. Thanks Gabs!!

A little walk in the woods……and a trip to the beautiful beach. The day we drove from Charleston to Orlando was Andrew’s birthday. We went to a great Japanese restaurant with Gabs & Melina to celebrate. Andrew even scored a free birthday dessert!
The highlight of the trip was a visit to Island of Adventure in Orlando. The Harry Potter section was SO cool. I’m not even a massive fan & I geeked out over it. Thank you to Melina who let me use her camera to take these few photos 🙂

Washington DC

Next destination, Washington DC.A stars and stripes elephant in your front yard…why not?!Obama’s pad…
The Lincoln Memorial. Truly amazing.The CapitolMartin Luther King Jr Memorial. The quotes at this memorial are beautiful but upsetting at the same time as the many things King wished for still aren’t a reality today. A typical Washington DC street.Our host’s dog Hermosa. She would go and fetch her owners shoes on command and was like a big, gentle bear ❤
Our street for the week.Adam’s MorganWe had a wonderful day at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. It is by far the best zoo I’ve ever visited. The environments the animals are kept in are really well designed and maintained. And the animals didn’t look depressed like in most zoos!Watching the world go by…A presidential mural.Air & Space Museum……where the Wright Brother’s plane is kept.Georgetown, a sweet leafy neighbourhood just outside the “serious” part of Washington.

Chicago

Chicago was amazing! Maybe it was because we weren’t expecting it to be as amazing as it was but it was really fantastic.

The train station that greeted us when we arrived gave good first impressions.

We had spectacular weather and really enjoyed walking all around the city for the first few days. The gardens are all beautifully maintained, Lake Michigan is gorgeous and the Chicago cityscape is wonderfully unique.

The Bean!

The underside of ‘The Bean’ is even cooler!A lot of The Dark Knight rises was filmed in Chicago so given the number of times we’ve watched that film, we recognised many parts of Chicago.
They’re totally serious about this too…ask for ketchup and they’ll just say “This is Chicago.”We had a wonderful evening watching the sun set from the John Hancock Centre. We went up to the cafe and ordered an overpriced drink each and stayed for as long as we possibly could. Watching the lights come on was really magical and a definite highlight of the trip so far. Mmm…banana & nutella crepes – nice healthy treat 😉We paid a visit to the very educational Adler Planetarium……and also learned that we need to start wearing something other than Havaianas!Our Air B’n’B host gave us free admission to the Art Institute of Chicago which was really good.Van Gogh is a particular favourite of ours. This is his self portrait and a gallery full of Monet’s work.There was a wonderful photography exhibition too which really inspired me. The guy can make a brown paper bag look good! That’s talent!The Chicago Cultural Centre with the amazing Tiffany dome.We also visited the Lincoln Park Zoo which is free and really quite good. How good is this guy’s tongue!Our last night in Chicago happened to coincide with the 30th annual Chicago Blues Festival which nicely capped off a jam packed and really enjoyable 5 days in Chicago.

New Orleans

What a wonderfully crazy place! We spent a week in New Orleans and it was just fantastic. It’s all about two things – food and music…nothing else matters. And they do it well – REALLY well 🙂Our home for the week.The legendary Kermit Ruffins!

San Diego

I loved San Diego. It was so amazing to get back to the beach after our time in the desert.

Everyone had told us how much warmer the water was in San Diego than up further on the west coast but it was still freezing for us spoilt Queenslanders.

Love this guy’s solution to getting around quickly with a broken leg!The place we stayed in San Diego was amazing. Great location where we could walk everywhere and a very animated Air B’n’B host and his dog Cinnamon.

The view of San Diego city as the sun was setting from our private deck.The dinner at this amazing Italian restaurant in Little Italy is one of the best meals we’ve ever eaten! If you’re ever in San Diego, do yourself a favour and get down to Filippi’s. There’s the added fun of decorating the ceiling with your old wine bottles. Looks fantastic!The biggest pancake EVER! Not sure if you can quite gauge the size from the photo but just trust me when I say the strawberries sitting on it were big…We explored beautiful Balboa Park for hours. Other than the beaches this is the most fantastic part of San Diego.La Jolla beach and surrounds.There’s a huge sea lion colony there and they’re so funny.

Every time a wave comes they prop themselves up like they don’t want to get wet.

San Diego is gifted with some truly gorgeous coastline…

Bisbee

We did a day trip to a charming little town called Bisbee with our new friends Jeremy & Brian who we meet at Cochise. It was a really fun day and a great town to explore with lots of quirks.

Cochise Stronghold

While visiting Cochise Stronghold for Andrew’s meditation retreat we stayed in this wonderful yurt! It was so comfortable and beautifully decorated. The quiet time at Cochise was very welcome after our hectic schedule. I really enjoyed the nature and met some of the most amazing people who made my stay there really wonderful.

Zion Part Two

Our second day in Zion National Park was amazing…
We did the Angel’s Landing hike which is quite a strenuous hike but so worth it. For the last part of the hike you have to hang on to chains to keep you balanced.

A nice little chipmunk we saw at the end of the hike who had become quite crafty at snatching food from unsuspecting hikers.

We made it to the top…

…and the view was definitely worth it! (click for a larger version of this one)

Then it was time to hit the open road again. The sky seems so big in the desert.

This was our camp spot for the night. Andrew can really work wonders on a camp stove! No-one in sight and deers walking by which was amazing but it was freezing cold at 7000 ft.

Zion Part One

Next on the road trip was Zion National Park.

It is so stunning and unlike anywhere I’ve seen before. We did a 3 hour hike the first afternoon we arrived. The sun came out just as we reached the peak which was wonderful as the colours were all so much more vibrant. We had a lovely campground for the night right next to a stream…and an RV with a labrador 🙂

The Streets of San Francisco

There’s so much to see on the streets of San Francisco that we spent hours everyday just walking through different neighbourhoods, soaking it all in.

There are beautiful Victorian homes,

Colourful houses,

Vine covered arches,

LOTS of steep hills,

Amazing houses…

…and amazing gardens,

So many gorgeous parks,

Complimentary colours,

Reeeeaaalllly wide streets,

Long shadows,

Cute cafes,

Markets…

…with beautiful fresh fruit & veg,

Stunning views,

Talented street performers,

Fun street art,

The famous Painted Ladies,

Street cars,

Old jeans as planters,

A very windy street,

and more amazing views of this beautiful city.