We flew out of San Francisco across the country to Washington DC, with a brief stopover in Phoenix (middle of the desert, hot even in the air conditioned air terminal!). Stayed with Bob and Jamie Craft in Georgetown just outside DC, in a lovely house complete with a gorgeous garden and pool! Our first day saw us naturally paying a visit to the White House (although sadly not allowed inside without special permission) and we did a bit of culture too in visitng the natural history museum and also the national portrait gallery. We had a sophisticated evening dining at the [View Full Entry]

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Decided that a greyhound from San Fran to Chicago for 48 hours might be a little tedious so we flew instead, even stopped off at Las Vegas en route (every bit as tacky as we thought, even slot machines in the airport). Stayed with Neil and his daughter Cloud in the Castro, formerly the gay district but not quite so much now. A very interesting area though and still full of rainbow flags. Spent our first afternoon wandering around Haight and Ashbury, where the summer of love has remained frozen in time. We visited the very cool chinatown in the evening, [View Full Entry]

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Spent our first day in Chicago pretty much recovering from the trip here, which left us a bit jaded. However, went out for cocktails in a posh hotel on Michigan Avenue with some Oxford alumni and got treated to an expensive meal as well, all rather nice. Got our act together the next day and ventured downtown. Saw the Chicago cultural centre, another John Hancock tower (there is one in Boston too) and the view from it and walked the magnificent mile. Spent our third day in the city being cultured and decided to hit the art institute. Filled with lots [View Full Entry]

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Made a last minute decision to dive across the border to Canada for the weekend. Influenced by the shattering of our illusion that the Great Lakes were of similar beauty to the Lake District (in fact they are unbelievably industrial) and also that we can legally drink there. Stayed in Toronto in a cute little hostel downtown and had a pretty relaxing weekend seeing the city and sampling the nightlife. Went on a hostel pub crawl only to duck out at the second bar, as we found an cool live band. Stayed till the early hours to listen and get free [View Full Entry]

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Flew from Boston to Buffalo early on Friday morning. Arrived mid afternoon at our hostel (very nice, has been voted best in North America) and then caught a bus to Niagara falls to do the touristy bit. Arriving at Niagara it's actually pretty depressing, very much the tacky holiday resort in a run down area (think Blackpool). The river itself and the falls are spectacular though. The water is the most amazing turquoise colour and the falls are huge and very impressive. We wanted to walk up the path that takes you right up to the side of the American falls [View Full Entry]

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Left Hartford on a Greyhound on Tuesday morning for Boston. Met up with our host Rich (Univ chemistry graduate) who picked us up in his Barbie and Ken style open top jeep. Had a drive around Boston in the evening and then went up to see the view from the prudential tower. Wednesday was spent walking around lots and exploring the shops a little. Went to Boston common, saw the Cheers bar and generally had a lovely day, but quite chilled out. Thursday was slightly more action packed. An early start at 7am to go whale watching for 4 hours meant [View Full Entry]

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We made a quick dive back into NYC for one night before we left for Connecticut, kindly being able to crash at Adam and Kat's again. Had a fun night in the East Village where we were ordered a pint of margaritas each (not our doing) which were fab. Not a hangover in sight the next day however. Headed on to Connecticut the next day, staying in a small town called Farmington in an unbelievable house. Sadly, we didn't take any photos, which is a shame (we were kept busy, so didn't get a chance), so we have borrowed some from [View Full Entry]

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Eventually, we were able to drag ourselves away from the buzz of NYC and hop on a train upstate, about 90 mins away to a place called Suffern. It's a sleepy little town, almost in New Jersey and picturesque, a nice contrast to the city. Mainly spent our time there hiking in the local county park (complete with bears, snakes, and deer ticks). However, didn't bargain on having to share a room with an iguana called tephys... [View Full Entry]

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OK, firstly apologies to those of you that were hoping to read about what we've been up to but not seen anything yet. We realised that we'd saved the entry but not published it - d'oh! Now hopefully we'll be able to keep you more up to date/provide a welcome distraction at work. :-) We moved on from Adam and Kat's to stay with Fred Myers another old member from Univ. We made our way across to the Upper west side on the subway, not so easy when you're backpacking and found the awesome guest apartment we were staying in. View [View Full Entry]

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Currently sitting in a VERY cool apartment in Soho, it's gorgeous! The young couple we're staying with are so nice and took us out for drinks last night, though unsuprisingly we didn't pass for over 21 and ended up drinking Coke. :-) Did a tiny bit of touristy stuff yesterday and wandered down to the World Trade Centre. Saw a fireman sitting on the front of his truck as we were walking back and cheekily went up and asked for a photo, resisted buying the "firemen of NY" calender for now though. Off to get breakfast from an American diner, pancakes [View Full Entry]

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