We finally arrived in London after the last few days of our big adventure and how happy we where to see two familiar faces to greet us at the airport. Patto and Hugh God bless had come out to meet us and escort us back to Finchley Road which would become our London home for the few days until we found a place of our own. After 4 depressing days of looking we found a little studio flat across the road from a tube station and a supermarket which meant it was super convenient. Now that was sorted we quickly needed to find some jobs to help pay our rent which at this stage we where still paying with Aussie dollars. 200 pounds a week is very average over here but when you do the conversion that’s 500 dollars a week and after a month of not working and few prospects it starts to add up very quickly. Fortunately Bec managed to get some temp work while looking for TV work and even managed to forward my CV onto someone who forwarded it onto someone else who gave me a job working on the London Red Bull Air Race. Since then I have picked up a few more shifts here and there and am currently training at ITN, Bec is still doing a bit of temp work in-between looking for her perfect London job. After travelling for nearly 4 months it was really nice to be in our own place and to just do nothing for a while so in terms of what we have seen of London it has been very limited. I am sure that once we have the job stuff more sorted and we feel a little more settled we will get out and about a bit more. We did get to go on a picnic in Regents Park on the weekend with Patto, Hugh and Erin which was lovely. The weather has been great over here and everyone keeps telling us to take advantage of it because it will soon be gone. From what I have seen London looks and feels like a really great place to live, of-coarse it has drawbacks and flaws but I think the positives far outweigh the negatives at this stage. I hope to have a bit more to tell in my next blog and I am going to try and go back and fill in all the gaps from our trip across the states that I didn’t blog (lazy), Later

Sandusky? I here you say, well so you should, A small town at the top of Ohio on the bank of the great lakes, a place with strange liquor laws and lots of hotels. It is also home to an amusement park called Cedar Point, voted the best in the world 8 years running, a place I had been looking forward too for over 6 months after I discovered it on the WWW. I could go on about all the rides but it would take to long our mission this day we went was to go on every one of the 16 roller coasters available. Unfortunately we forgot to consider that some of those 16 would be just for the kids and disappointingly 2 of them where, lucky for us the other 14 where up and running. Highlights would include the dragster a RC that sent you hurtling at over 200kmh up a 500-ft vertical track, twist and come down the other side at the same speed, another coaster that we stood up in while doing over 12 inverted loops and the coaster that we sat with our legs dangling as we twisted and looped the looped. There was so much more to tell but I think you are getting the picture lots and lost of really cool rides. Can’t wait to go back one day by then who knows how many RC’s they will have. J

We arrived in Chicago mid afternoon after a quick drive from Sandusky via the city of Toledo. My first impressions whilst driving into Chicago where not that good, what you could see from the freeway heading in was mostly huge factories and run down niebourhoods, through the smog in the distance was a city the size of which we had not seen on this trip. The City was soon upon us and if it looked huge from a distance it was even more intimidating driving through it’s streets not knowing which way to go. After a little bit of running around we found a flea-bag motel right in the heart of downtown, expensive for what it was cheap for it’s location. We had 2 nights and 3 days to explore this huge city and we started off by eating our first decent meal in a couple of weeks, Thai and then heading down to Navy Pier, kind of like a Darling Harbour jutting out into Lake Michigan. The next day we both did our own thing exploring the city, myself just looking around and Bec checked out the Chicago institute of art. We caught up in the afternoon and walked down to the 4th tallest building in the world and took the elevator to the 94th floor and took in the amazing views. Later that night we decided to dine on the local speciality “Chicago style deep dish pizza” one word “boooo” we both agreed Chicago you can keep your deep dish pizza’s. Day three and we did one of the great tourist traditions and took an architectural boat tour up the Chicago river, with a great enthusiastic guide and a city with a history of famous and beautiful buildings, this tour turned out to be one of the most enjoyable interesting things we have done on our trip. Next up was a visit to the famous Wrigley field, home to the Chicago Cubs, and a quick visit to the batting cages at the pub across the road, $1 for 10 balls, lots of fun. And we couldn’t leave Chicago without checking out Al Copones house which is now in a fairly dodgy niebourhood and does not in any way look like the home of a famous gangster. Chicago was a really cool city and I know we only scratched the service of things to do and see, we probably will not rush back to Chicago anytime soon but I know I will definitely be coming back oneday. J

It is said to be one of the best coast roads in the world and OMG it is…. totally amazing country side. I thought the drive from LA to Las Vegas was awsome this was another thing totally. Sheer cliff faces and rolling hills the country side was something of a privelage to see. It was a great time of year to be travelling because all the wild flowers are out and one thing that stuck out to me was that it was so clean; in Mexico there would be piles and piles of rubbish strewn along the highway; not here natural beauty at its finest.

It took us awhile to get out of LA it’s Highways even with the sat nav was still confusing. Our first stop was Santa Barbara: I thought that Flagstaff was cute this was spanish influence meet cashola to the max. Santa Barbara is a combination of a retirement village and a university town; so pretty and if we had more time we would definitly have stayed the night but lunch had to do us.

Our aim was to get to Monteray but time got the better of us and we decided to spend the night in Morro Bay; at the moment it is Spring but it is still pretty cold, you could tell that in the summer Morro would be a booming but right now it was pretty dead; lucky for us we got a good deal on a suite that Jez smelled like his Grandmothers place. The night was young and so were we so Adam, Lisa, Jez and I hit the main street to try and scout out some Popov and check the scene… only there wasn’t much sceen to check out we soon gave up and headed down the seafront to get some dinner. The atmosphere was relaxing and the Popov flowed. Later that evening Lisa and I indulged in the hot tub in our swany motor inn… ohh la la. An early night ensured a good start for the next day of driving.

The second days scenery proved to be more impressive than the first… it was hard not to keep stopping the car to keep taking shots all along the coast. Along the way we stopped in for a tour of Herst Castle: Mr Herst’s life was the basis for the movie Citizen Kane and this construction was his Xanadu: it was so impressive… the decor was retained from the original 1920’s just the way it had been when Mr Herst died. It was lavish, decidant really breathtaking. If you ever get the chance go and have a look it will live up to your expectations and more.

Next stop was the elephant seal colony; there were alot of seals, they are cute, they were many of them and one even got the lipstick out to show the boys.

On ward ho… lunch in Monteray where we think the cheese is from but we didn’t stay there long enough to find out… we were very glad that we stayed in Morro bay instead of here. By that stage it was starting to get late and we didn’t want to get in to town to late so it was back to main highway to make a bee line to San Fran; and seeing this city appear along the highway was so welcoming… It looks like a cool city and it is!

We only had one day/night in LA so we had to make it a good one…

We managed to do…
1. The La Brea Tar pits… very interesting; saw many intact ice age skeletons including a saber tooth lion, massive anchient camels and best of all a Mammoth it was awsome.
2. The Hollywood sign
3. The Hollywood walk of Fame
4. Mann’s Chinese Theatre
5. Mel’s Drive In Diner
6. Beverly Hills
7. The Blue Blocker Dude - Jez was totally stoaked about this and I think this was his highlight of the US so far. He did a little rap on all of us that will be appearing on You Tube soon.

The next morning we had to high tail it out of there: but managed to fit in a quick trip to the Farmers Market… by far the best place we ate in LA… it didn’t have burgers and they knew how to make a decent coffee so it wasn’t hard to be the best. Then swung by Heff’s Playboy Mansion where we managed to see one bunny (we think… she looked like a bunny anyway). But by that stage we were ready to get out of there. Time to hit the 101 on our way to San Fran!

We thought that arriving in Anahime to visit Disneyland on Monday would avoid the crowds… well didn’t we think wrong. Talk about stroller city. Lisa, Ang and I were determined to get to the park for opening time but us being us we didn’t arrive until 1/2 hour after 9am opening. Jez had decided that he wanted the day to himself and was going to use the day to get his affairs in order and gave us strict instructions to go on all of the ‘gay rides’ so that he didn’t have to endure them the following day. Well much to Adam’s disappointment that is exactly what we went for… Pinochio, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, the tea cups, It’s a Small World, King Arthurs Carosel, Mr Toads Wild ride… we did them all… Adam was so happy. By the end of the day we were all gayed out!

There is not much you can say about Disneyland it is what it is… every thing is colourful, people are happy most of the time except when waiting in long ques, prams parked everywhere, kids chuck tantrums just because they are over whelmed by the whole place they just don’t know what to do with them selves and there are so many gunts it is unbelieveable. We saw one such gunt waiting in line at the Alice in wonderland ride… she was eating a burger while in the line; once that was gone she reached into her bag inside the bag was just a sea of tin foiled fat burgers, pies, and other calorie heart stoppers she proceeded to pull out another burger and eat more. She was as big as the side of a house and she wore a t-shirt that said ‘chocolate makes me smile’. Lisa, Adam, Ang and I couldn’t take our eyes off of her it was amazing.

Unfortuntatly it was Ang’s last night so to comemorate you guessed it we pulled out the Popov. Once again our little group was getting smaller.

The next day we were ready for action; by far one of the coolest things was the Chilli Peppers had commissioned their music to be used on rides such as Space Mountain and Calafornia Screaming two mad rollercoasters…. the music coupled with the excitement of the ride just made the experience so much more fun rather than scary: totally awsome. After a whole day of thrill seeking rides and no Popov in sight we had all had enough; time to settle in for a quiet night the next day we were heading back to LA.

After saying good bye to Mik at the airport it was on to Hover Dam… what can a say about Hover Dam…. it’s a Dam. It is a feat in engeineering and worth seeing but I don’t think that I need to see it again. Oh and we saw some chipmunks which where very cute but I am sure that they had rabies.

Then on to our hotel room in Flagstaff… I don’t know why it took so long to get there but we arrived there at about 8pm at night well after schedule. After crossing the tracks to our hotel room at the lovely Motel Six we settled in and headed out for dinner at the Cracker Barrel… a chain which has a lovely feel to it and many old time candies and sweets to choose from in there extensive gift shop… at there was also our waiter Randy whom all the girls found so lovely.

We awoke the next morning to a strange sight it was ever so slightly snowing. Very exciting especially experiencing it in this little mountain town… it felt like we were in the town from Northern exposure or Men in Trees or something: very homely, humble and unasuming with very friendly people; the first Americans’ we have met with an ability to understand some of our jokes.

On the way we stopped in at an indian shop with every imagainable creature stuffed in their gallery, elk, moose, bear, cougur, racoon, deer, wolf even the elusive Jackaloupe (a rabbit with ears: think that they were pulling our legs on that one). The shop owner said that all these animals could be found around this area from then on Jez was itching to see an Elk (because they are so massive) and a free drink was up for anyone who spotted it first.

The next day we headed to one of the Natural Wonders of the World The Grand Canyon. Polly, Ang, Lisa, Adam, Jez and I was stunned… it was beautiful and the pictures will not explain how beautiful it was: and I won’t even try.

So back to our hotel: we stocked up on Popov for Pollys last night before heading back to the UK and to comemorate we all went to the Outback Stake house which was the only place close to our hotel that was serving drinks (and that we hadn’t been to). The next day it was back on the road to Vegas to drop Polly off for her final night in Vegas then on to Anahime to visit the Happiest place on earth.

Well what can I say about vegas… what a trip!

We picked up our American Tank from the Hire car place early to make a start for the trip. Jez was most relieved when the stat navigation device that he paid muncho deniro for in Aus land actually navigated us saftley to Mik’s hotel. Before to long we were headed in down on the high way for our vegas adventure.

It was some where outside of Barstow when the drugs began to take hold… well they didn’t acutally I slept through Barstow and was surprised to wake up in the amazing desert landscape. Imposing mountians, cloud formations and all framed by death vally and the Nervada desert. Even more impressive was the changes in weather at the top of the ridge it was raining with heavy clouds but 10mins later the skys were blue and the heat penitrating.

We were given a tip that just across the Nervada / Califorina boarder there was a rollercoaster that we just had to go on. And we found it… the desperado at Buffalow Bills Casio… this was the quote from each of the riders after the trip…

Jez: That was awsome
Adam: I agree man that was really cool: but I was a bit worried.
Lisa: I will never do that again! I need a cup of tea and a lie down.
Ang: That was fun!
Bec: FUCK ME!
Mik: some of those tunnels I thought were going to take Adam’s head off and we were going to pick Adam’s brains off our clothes. But that was still pretty awsome.

If you get a chance to do this rollercoaster it scared the shit out of me but worth the $7 we each paid just for the adrenalin to wake us up get us talking and excited for the rest of the drive.

We arrived in Vegas: we were all at the windows glass fangs bared; show us the gambling, hookers, coke and sin! We checked in to the Palms aka the playboy hotel… got upgraded to the fantasy tower and let me tell you the rooms were awsome, the beds were so comfy and the just the general feeling of the place was pretty smick and lush. The first few days was just organising (pretty pissed off that the chapel didn’t have my booking for our wedding… we would have been pretty stuck if they couldn’t fit us in). We checked out the buffet at the Fronteer hotel, checked out casios at the old end of the strip as well as the new strip.

Our usual routine was pick up some Popov (a cheap vodka that has a funny name meaning to fart) then head out to strip at night time check out a couple of casinos… Lisa and Mik would clean up; we assosicated Lisa luck to being a begginer and Mik luck for just being totally money. Then once they came back loaded we would hussle it back to our room and play some poker within our group with high stakes of a $1 or $2 buy in. While watching the lights of the stip twinkle though our window.

To take the cake was the bucks/hens night. It was the night before our wedding and we hadn’t organised anything enter Lisa and Adam stage left to set everything up for us. Jez and I were told that we had to be dressed and ready by 8pm in the Palms lobby. Adam was pretty stressed by the whole being ready on time… but we were there waiting this massive stretch hummer pulled up… And it was for us… Jez and I couldn’t believe it. Our jaws dropped and we couldn’t whipe the smiles off our face. We hopped in with our Popov’s and inside was just insane check out the pictures but we felt like the pimpinist dudes on the strip. We then were dropped off at our first desitination the Pepermint Rhino the famous strip club. This was were Jez and I broke up to boys and girls only. From there it is a bit of a blur but we got a lovely stripper called Suzie who gave me a lap dance lesson and Steve who was an honorary girl for the night got a lap dance that could have make him turn. But lots of Jagar Bombs made the night from then on very fuzzy. I cracked my knee dancing in the Club Studio 54 which when I asked for ice got all of the security gards paying alot of attention to me… I reasured them that I wasn’t going to sue and they calmed down. But lets just say the night ended up with some of our party ending up in hand cuffs and not the kinky type.

The next day we were majorly hung over… not good for your wedding day. Major snaps to Lisa and Adam for organising me a hair appointment at the Salon in the Palms to get my hair done. It looked totally awsome. But the wedding was pretty low key… everyone looked amazing in their outfits and the pastor was everything an evangalist should be, Elvis was wearing so much orange makeup that we thought he was an oompa lumpa, our photographer looked like he needed to take a million photo’s just to get one in shot and our videographer only had three teeth; so it was pretty funny. Some of the photo’s should be up by now so take a look… Video soon to follow.

Since we where all so tired we decided to have an early night: Jez and I had the room to ourselves presumably to consumate the marriage but we were so shagged metaphorically that all we could manage was a glass of champers and bath before hitting the sack.

The last couple of nights were much more relaxed… we caught the Cirque Du Solie show Zumanity - which was very sexy, lots of boobs and double entendres I really enjoyed it.

At the end of the week we could safely say that we had experienced Vegas.
It was sad to see Mik leave us and Jez and I realised that the group is only going to get smaller from here.

As I have said before we where recommended Chitchen Itza by our German friend in Campeche and we where not dissapointed with our stay. C.I is an ancient Myan city on a massive scale, it’s most famous building is the huge pyramid that dominates not only the park it’s in but all the postcards and souvineer shops. We arrived late in the afternoon and had already decided to go and see the sound and light show held every night for the tourists. Walking down a path in the dark towards the seating area it would not be until the next day that we would see and realise how big this ancient town of ruins actualy was. We took our seats enjoyed the sound and light spectacular that was projected onto the pyramids and which lasted about 40 minutes. The next day we got up and headed back up to the ruins for a look around, what we thought would take an hour ended up taking over 2, there was so much to see and alot was in good condition. We had been blown away by the light show but seeing it all during the day was a great experience you could almost see the ancient Myans running around this town only they where replaced by thousands of tourists and it was hot. After a couple of hours wandering around we headed back to the hotel and across the road to the Ikill Cenote. Cenote’s are underground lakes and rivers that run through this part of Mexico and sometimes these rivers pop up on the surface and form sink holes for swimming. Ikill has been set up for the tourists with ladders helping you into the 40 meter deep pool and there was also a diving platform to one side. The water was slightly cold very refreshing and crystal clear, you could see hundreds of tiny fish swimming around you, another great Chitchen experience. The next morning we were up early to catch the bus to our next destination, Tulum. J

We arrived in LAX: we couldn’t find the big blue bus or anything else for that matter - I will say this LAX sucks it is poorly designed and there is not organisation what so ever… bring back the days of HK and the MTR system!

We finally got to our hotel in Venice beach after some confuision and met up with Lisa and Adam; and settled in for a restful evening of Vodka drinking something that has become something of a ritual with us now.

A bottle of smirnoff later and some sore morning heads we headed out to see what this city had in store for us. We expored Venice beach, uncovered the reason why so many american postal workers go crazy and bust a cap and found a very jet lagged Ang but were unable to find Michael S.

Before we knew it we were all rested and ready for a day on the road in our mini van speeding towards Nervada begining our American Odessy.