For those who haven't felt the buzz of LA and Hollywood, it quickly wares off. Don't let the crack addicts and wannabe celebs fool you, from day one the city was pretty busy promoting itself as "the place to be". Even though this turned out to be a bit of old Hollywood smoke and mirrors, we did check out some cool things (hello Playboy mansion... gate). The city is one giant highway/ parking lot, so us poor vehicle-less bums had to rough it on the bad public transport. Well enough of my whinging... there were highlights including; the people/freak watching at Venice and Santa Monica beaches, the Getty Centre and of course DISNEYLAND!! We lived every child (and a lot of adults) dreams and had a fun filled day visiting Mini and Mickey, riding Space Mountain and going wild on Dumbo and in the Tea Cups. Fun fun fun!!
After about five days in LA we jumped the first bus full of crazies and headed into the desert to a little place known as LAS VEGAS!! In summary, Vegas is the adults equivalent of Disneyland with gambling, booze and entertainment on every seedy corner. We took this rare opportunity to live like rock stars and stayed in a nice hotel, had an amazing limo ride and then helicopter trip out to the grand canyon and front row seats to Cirque du Soleil (no magic mushrooms unfortunately) Edwina ensured we squeezed in some outlet shopping and I ensured we squeezed in some rockin' out with a giant guitar-shaped cups filled with frozen cocktails. (Thank you Boca you dirty Brazilian for the heads up!) Both of us being very amateur gamblers kept it really low key but managed to come up a little on top. After our time in vegas I think we both started planning our own separate return visits. Start saving boys!!
Riding high on the fun of Vegas we jumped on board a plane and hit the free lovin' San Fransico. Everyone who has been to San Fran are mostly in agreement that it is one hell of a town! It has turned out to be a highlight of our USA trip. We were blessed with amazing fog free weather so hit the great outdoors and rode across the golden gate and strolled the parks, explored Chinatown and downtown and did a night time tour of Alcatraz. Our hostel was perfectly located so we could walk from the piers to Chinatown to downtown without much fuss. The city radiates a welcoming, very liberal and liveable vibe. A+
Next stop would be the very sunny (not) capital of coffee (Starbucks at least) Seattle. We had mostly okay weather though and checked out the pike place markets (fish throwing included) and the amazing interactive music museum which had a fascinating Nirvana and punk exhibition. I managed to bribe Edwina into also visiting the Boeing factory just outside of town which has the largest (in volume) building in the WOLRD!! Yep... it was pretty big. Super interesting tour if you are into anything mechanical/ aviation related. Even if that isn't your thing, we found just watching how this amazing massive building worked was pretty damn cool. Seattle proved to be a hub of awesome tours which included the "underground tour" which meant we ventured under the streets of Seattle and could see the remains of the "old town" from before the city was raised to address massive flooding issues. Pretty odd concept but cool.
It was time to chalk up another country on the scoreboard as we crossed over from Seattle to Vancouver and the Great White North that is Canada. Often voted one of the most liveable cities in the world, it was hard to argue during our stay. We were lucky enough to spend the time with Edwina's friend from college Sarah "Fitz" and her boyfriend John "John". (sorry no nickname for you yet!) It was soooo amazing to be staying in a proper house with proper people we (well Edwina) knew. They were the definitive hostesses with the most-ess-es and showed us the best bits of Vancouver life. I think Fitz may secretly work for the Vancouver Tourism as she did not lead us a stray the whole time. We ate and drank ourselves silly, strolled the city and local parks/ nature areas and even managed to watch the Cunnucks win a ice hockey game. (from the pub - tickets way too expensive!) They were kind enough to even include us in their weekly pub trivia team and I tried hard to live up to the massive hype Fitz had given me. Sadly we didn't go that well... no thanks to Edwina... but it capped off an amazing visit.
It was sad to leave the comfort of a good air mattress and even better company, but "thems the breaks" of the globe trotting superstars.
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