Living on the Ledge

Last day - boooo - but we have a jammed packed schedule to make the most of it!

So we are off on our boat tour along the river then out onto Lake Michigan. I love a boat trip and this one was exceptional. You get a great view of the buildings from the river from the one voted as the ugliest to Trump's new tower, then onto the lake to get a great view of the whole skyline. And on such a lovely day the city skyscape was in all its glory. Amazeballs.

Once we disembarked the boat we headed towards the Sears Tower - now called the Willis Tower via Grant Park to see the bean and the concert hall. A great open space and the public art works are fab - fully interactive from creating weird and wonderful reflections in the bean to splashing in the water created by the fountains. The concert hall is in all its splendour, another great Gehry piece of architecture. You don't feel like your in a city here - with the lake on one side and all the openness of the park - though you can see the buildings surrounding it obviously!

Our final stop before collecting our cases and heading to the airport is the Willis Tower. Last time I was here was 2007 when it was still the Sears Tower and had no ledge - the completely see through boxes that jut out of the main structure of the building. Up we went - great views obviously all around then into the glass box we went! I went for backing myself into it - Daniel was on his hands and knees looking through the floor! But we did it - we lived life on the ledge!

So our time in Chicago and the USA altogether has come to an end. It's a shame but you never like going home from a holiday - though you have to earn the pennies to pay for them! We've had an amazing time - which we knew we would do. Homeward bound......

Amazing Architecture

Chicago looks just as amazing in the day as night. The buildings are stunning so we took a walk to explore some. Daniel captured some fab photos of them mixed with the nature in the city also. We found our way to Navy Pier which is very patriotic with all the flags flying at the end of the pier.

We took a walk by the river and found an architecture boat tour which we are going to take tomorrow and also went along their main shopping street too - the Magnificent Mile. Everything is so easy to do here and easy to find. It's a very friendly city to get around. We stopped for lunch at a sports cafe which was great.

We mainly explored on foot today, our last day is tomorrow but as we have a night flight we still have all day to do stuff.

Tonight - wine tasting then off to RPM.

We didn't know what to expect for the wine tasting after all it is free so how good can it be? Well I wouldn't call it a wine tasting as such as you didn't really discuss or got told about the wine, it was more - here are loads of drinks (wine, beer, cocktails) drink as much as you like and eat nibbles!! Great!!!

RPM was a great restaurant, really busy for a Tuesday - I mean rammed! The food was fab especially the stuffed courgette flowers. We didn't see anyone famous but it didn't matter as the food was great and not over priced either. A great end to a great day - last one tomorrow though :(

Chicago Calling

Woohoo we're here and our hotel is in a fab location right in the loop - easy to walk to loads of places from here, it also has a free wine tasting every night with canopies - no joke! We'll be checking that out tomorrow.

As we arrived quite late we headed straight out for tea and found an amazing Italian bar/restaurant and gorged on loads of food! We took a walk round to catch our bearings and suss out the situ for tomorrow.

The city looks fab at night - all the sky scrapers lit up. We saw the marina city buildings in their glory and the river looks magical with the twinkling lights reflecting in the water.

If I was going to live anywhere in the US it would be here. It just has a great feeling about the place.

We headed back to the hotel and looked up where we could go for our final night - quids in we got a table at RPM - Giuliana and Bill's restaurant. Excited to try it out!!!

Following in Palin's Footsteps!

Today is a very exciting day - after years of watching Michael Palin and using his clips in lessons we are following in his footsteps and are crossing the border into Tijuana, Mexico. I'm very excited - Daniel however not so much - more scared lol.

It's actually very simple to do - straight tram down to the end of the tram line at San Ysidro then we're there!! We popped into a shop by the tram stop to get a drink and some change for the tram and as we're leaving the tram was already there so we hopped on thinking we can buy a ticket on board, however we reached our stop and no one had been round. Technically we bunked our way to Mexico!

10 minutes and we're across the border - no passport check, nothing. We walked past a couple of guards with big guns and we were in!! I have the feeling it won't be like that coming back!

We walked across the bridge into central Tijuana passing some sights on the way. We saw several people hanging by the river and several donkeys painted as zebras!

There was some kind of celebration going on and the pedestrianised part was decorated with some great bunting.

We picked, carefully, somewhere to eat and ordered some traditional fair - fajitas and margaritas! Wasn't great going to the loo though - a cockroach ran past my feet and I had to use the kitchen sink to wash my hands! Hmmmmmm. Daniel was paranoid he was going to get food poisoning but he was fine!!

Knowing it would take forever to cross back we made our way back to the border, taking some pictures for lessons on the way. We didn't get anywhere near the border when we reached the queue for it!

A few hours later, several passport checks and some questions answered and we were back in America! Definitely an experience and one I can talk about from personal experience now rather than just using film. Though Michael Palin will still feature in those lessons!!

As it's our last night in San Diego we thought we'd go back to the sushi place we found on our first night. Still great food and still happy hour!

Tomorrow we're off to our final city - Chicago. I love Chicago, it's a great city and I'm very excited going with Daniel. It's a shame we're not there longer than we are as there is so much to do. So signing off from California - mid-west America here we come!!

Holiday!!!

Woohoo we are finally on summer holiday!! Been a long time coming and school stuff is now all packed away for six weeks. To get in the mood off I went straight away to Majorca for a few days to get in the holiday mindset and returned chillaxed with a tan!

Now its planning all the way for our trip to the USA! Very excited obviously! So the itinerary is as follows:

San Francisco
Los Angeles
San Diego
Chicago

So far we have tickets booked for the 49ers and Alcatraz night tour. We still need to book our tickets for San Diego Zoo and Sea World. For LA we have a couple of things in mind but nothing booked in advance.

So stay tuned for the travels from London to LA (with a few extra stops too)!!

Oh and in other news we have our first chilli growing!!! Yay!

Summer Holiday booked!!

Stateside here we come!!

Summer holiday is booked - in advance I know but due to last years highly busy wedding season we are getting our holiday booked in now! So the plan, fly to San Francisco, see the sights, then live it LA style, then onto to San Diego via train. Finally the stop off on the way back is two nights in Chicago. I love the windy city and as Daniel has never been and we've both be to NYC a few times we thought Chicago would be a great shout.

Now to figure out what to see, eat, do...

American Adventure 2007 - revisited!

I know it's a long time coming but i have finally got round to sorting out photos and other bits and bobs from holidays gone past. I found all the America bits from when i went with Vicki in 2007 - i know a long time ago! But in amongst leaflets and nick knacks i found two sheets of paper where i had written a mini travel diary for a couple of places we visited - this was long before i decided to blog it. So here are the accounts of my travels to Chicago and San Francisco of times gone by:

"Where do i begin? Obviously i look like a criminal as was on a list to be searched at Heathrow and after a long delay arrived at Chicago only to be questioned at passport control! Answered the questions sweating like a pig even though I'd done nothing wrong! Our journey was good, the view from the airplane of the snow capped mountains of Greenland was amazing. The hotel is great - The Hilton Chicago!! We have bell boys! They upgraded us so we've got a great view of the park and Lake Michigan, a double bed and bathroom each. The TV is way bigger than ours at home, and Clinton stay here when he visits Chicago!

Did a lot of sightseeing on our first day. Went up the Sears Tower which had amazing views of the city and the lake. Saw a number of other nice buildings, Chicago Board of Trade, Wrigley's chewing gum home and Tribune Tower. Also went down the pier, got a boat onto Lake Michigan which had excellent views of the skyline and went through one of their big parks - so manic day. Evening was completely random too as started by being chatted up by a bell boy, chased after a car who had left all their drinks on their roof and i was certain i saw a dead body hanging from the roof of a building!! Found out later it was a piece of art but how weird is that! Also accidentally strolled into a dodgy neighbourhood - when we saw a 'men's only hotel', we quick footed it out of there!!

Went shopping down the magnificent mile and went on a bus tour round the city too which was good. Turns out Oprah and Jerry Springer live opposite each other here! The guide also said i was morbid for trying to take a picture of the 'dead body', but it was too high up. We went up the John Hancock centre at night which is the second highest building here which also had great views and watched fireworks on a bridge over the Chicago river which were going off at the harbour - ahhhh.

So our last day here and we'd pretty much seen the entire city so we went to the beach! I'm determined to come back tanned! We stumbled upon a beach volleyball tournament - mmmm :)

So a little bit long winded from 'the windy city' but we have been up to a lot in a short amount of time and all that jazz! Next stop San Francisco!!!"

"After queuing for no reason at Chicago airport just because everyone else was we made it to San Francisco. Not really with it when we got there as let go of my suitcase and watched it roll down the escalator!!

My god how windy and hilly is it compared to Chicago? Thought we'd take a little walk round, knackered after 5 minutes because it's all up hill and down dale! I also announced to everyone that i didn't know what a ferry was in a ferry terminal!! We got the cable car back to the hotel only for it to break down on the top of a hill!

And the Sunday sun shines down on San Francisco bay...not while we were there! Took a long........walk to Golden Gate Bridge only to get there and find we couldn't see the top because of all the fog - apparently typical San Francisco weather! Walked a little way on the bridge then back the the Exploratorium, a hand on type science museum which was cool. While taking the walk through the national recreation area we also saw some kind of sailing competition round Alcatraz! We went on a small pier with all the fisherman which was cool.

The following day with the weather colder and windier we thought we'd see about getting a boat to Alcatraz only to find it was booked up for weeks...booo. So took a walk down Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 which was lovely and quaint with the sea lions in residence there - had a chat with them, arg arg!! We went to take a tour bus and walking to it a homeless person made us jump out of our skins by hiding behind a branch and shouting boo! I screamed and ran! We made it to the bus and went round all the sites - city hall china town, union square - shopping again!

We came back to Pier 39 for dinner at a cool restaurant overlooking the sea lions at one window and Alcatraz out the other. Got to draw on the table cloth which was fun, most interesting meal yet - left a message on the table cloth for the waiters! On the way home we watched some break dancers on the street - who was outdone by someone in the crowd!

So final day here and no improvement in the weather! We started the day going to Lombard Street, the crookedest street going but had to get up there first - mentally up hill - a wall had one brick on one side and 7 on the other, we were knackered - a concrete Everest! Decided to go on a boat trip down to the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz - very cold but could see the entire bridge today. Everyone else is taking pictures of the bridge all excited and there's me saying ooooo nice land taking a picture of the landscape - came out rubbish so it got deleted! Alcatraz looked really cool - hard to imagine it existed as a prison not that long ago. Took a final walk round - not scared by homeless people today. Went over to the Transamerican Pyramid but you are not allowed up it any more so went back down to the wharf.

So did we leave our heart in San Francisco - yes, but won't miss the weather!"

Re reading these i remember some things that i had completely forgotten happened! We had a great time - after San Francisco we went onto Las Vegas, Boston and New York so it was an epic holiday, we did so much even though we were only in each place for 3-4 days! Clearly amazing places so much so i went back to some of them a couple of years later which is all blogged here! Great times!!