Becky and Kate

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 local country club with Bob and his friends. The national gallery and the air and space museum were on the cards for the second day and they were both amazing places. We did however get ... read more

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 of famous paintings, we managed to while away a good few hours. Near to the gallery in a park there was a fab sculpture called the cloud gate (although basically looked like a giant bean) ... read more

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 but Becky realises she has forgotten her waterproof and there is so much spray comes off the falls that it would mean getting soaked. Thankfully though the Maid of the Mist tours give out free ... read more

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 the website! it is really like they show. ... read more

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 of the river and empire state building, rather sweet. The guys we were staying with were fab, took great care of us and threw a cool dinner party, where we were somewhat of a novelty. ... read more