Cat and Alex

Better late than never! We got the bus back down from Toronto, through Niagara Falls, Buffalo and down to New York. We managed to make our way out to Queens and found our YMCA, where we would spend the next 5 nights and the last 5 nights of our trip. New York was hot but not unbearably so like it was in Washington D.C., our room was fine and there was a gym in the hostel too which was nice. We spent our first 2 days seeing the sights, brooklyn bridge, statue of liberty, empire state building (we went to the top of the roc for that) and we also got the statten island ferry. The last 2 days we spent shopping! We spent an entire day in the 9 storeys macys in new york, we ... read more

The bus journey from Boston up to Toronto started at 5am. We got the bus from Everett to the subway and then the subway in to the centre of town and the Greyhound station. Our Greyhound bus left at 7am and was due to arrive in Toronto at 20.55. It started off fine and our first three stops and driver changes were fine, everything ran on time, but then we arrived in Buffalo. We arrived 10 minutes after our scheduled arrival time at 17.55 and we were due to leave at 6pm, but due to the utter incompetence of our driver and his faffing around, we didn't leave until 19.30. 15 minutes later we arrived at the Canadian customs. Most of us were through within half an hour but after an hour there were still 4 ... read more

We flew up to Boston from Orlando and somehow Jetblue managed to not lose our luggage! The flight took the same amount of time that it takes to fly from London to Mallorca (2.5 hours) and we flew over New York and past/through the edge of the tropical storm that was giving New York some grief and some flooding. We arrived in Boston and it took an hour to get to our hostel which was out in a suburb called Everett. It was a really nice suburb with loads of Brazilians selling amazing pizza for stupid prices. You could get 2 huge slices of pizza (one slice each was plenty) and a drink for $2.63, so about 1.50 pounds with the current rate! We didn't do a whole lot in Boston, we spent the first day ... read more

One of our shortest train journeys (a mere 6 hours!), marked the end of our time with Amtrak. Whilst the 30-day pass has been very good to us, carrying us from L.A. all the way to Florida, I think both of us will be happy if we never set foot inside an Amtrak train again! Especially if it's an overnight train and we have coach class tickets! We got to our hotel on the first day and I was pleasantly surprised, Cat had spent the previous evening reading me less than flattering online reviews of the place! But it turned out to be just fine, the room was big, clean and had cable so we could watch the start of the Olympics! The U.S. coverage is shocking though, it's unbelievably biased towards U.S. athletes with seemingly ... read more

Our last overnight trip on Amtrak took us to Miami, we rolled in at around 6pm and made our way to our hotel on the famous Espanola Way in Miami Beach. We took a taxi from the station and Cat nearly had a heart attack as the meter rolled past first $20 and then $30 up to nearly $40! There wasn't a great deal of choice in the matter, there were not many buses from a deserted train station in an industrial area on a Saturday evening! The hotel was nice, if a little faded, it was probably much more glamourous in its prime. Previously we've experienced shared and private bathroom facilities, but the Clay Hotel offered something new, a 'semi-private!' We shared a bathroom with the room next door, every time you needed the loo ... read more

We arrived around midday into a sweltering Washington DC, (even at night it was high 20s and 90%humidity!), and made our way to our hostel via the subway. We couldn't find much in the way of cheap accommodation in DC, (Despite Mr Quantrells hotel recommendation!), so we stayed a little out of the city in a district called Takoma. The hostel was very relaxed, no locks, all windows and doors open, but we encountered no problems so it was all fine! After showering (night on the train) we went to see the mirror pool, Capitol building (complete with roof top snipers, the Pakistani Prime Minister was in town), Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Day two in DC was museum day and the great thing about DC is that the majority of the museums and the ... read more

After a relatively short, (by US standards), train trip we arrived in a boiling hot and humid New Orleans. We got to our hotel in the quaint French quarter and headed out to find an internet cafe and get some dinner. As soon as we left the cafe, the heavens opened and a massive thunder storm rumbled above us. The storm provided some welcome relief to the humidity, and the rain was refreshing after the heat after the previous few days. We awoke to clear skies and hot temperatures, and went to carry out our favourite chore - washing! Then we went into town to do a very touristy self-guided walking tour of the French quarter. The first stop was a French coffee shop called Cafe du Monde, where we sampled a New Orleans specialty, a ... read more

The home of rock 'n' roll and (more importantly!) the birthplace of blues. To sum up Memphis in one word i think we'd go for "great!" We planned to stop here mainly because it broke up our trip from chicago to new orleans, but it turned out to be, in my view at least, the best stop in the US so far. The place we stayed was a slightly decrepit motel that was in the middle of being renovated, but it was right in the centre of town, so perfect for us. Although we did wake one morning to find a plastic sheet across the doorway blocking us in our room, apparently the painters didn't realise we were there! We arrived in Memphis at about 11am, checked in, showered and headed out for lunch. We went ... read more

Following our 45 hour train marathon we headed to our motel, which was right in the centre of Chicago. It was nice to finally have some room to swing a cat after being couped up in a shoebox sized excuse for a room on the train. We went for a wander around the neighbourhood and went for a dinner at Chicago style deep dish pizza restaurant. It was the most filling pizza we've ever had, we only had a six slice medium, and still had to take two slices with us! It was so thick and had so much topping eating two slices each was a challenge! The next day with both of us down to our last few items of clean clothing, we needed to do some washing, the nearest one was several miles away. ... read more

We arrived in Seattle after a mere 4 hour journey up from Portland. We caught a free bus (always a winner) to near our hotel and then headed out to dinner in another microbrewery/pub. Alex had a sampler of all of their 6 beers and the best of a bad lot (in my humble opinion) was the Kilt Lifter - one made with scotch. They also had a whisky bar that sold over 200 different whiskies, we went in there and had a look but didn't stay for a drink! In Seattle, we went to see the Space Needle, went on the monorail, wandered around town, won a teddy bear on a 25 cent grabber machine on my first attempt - Alex tried a few times and only managed a little girl's purse in bright pink ... read more