Weather today was intermittent Showers and temperatures reaching a maximum of 8 degrees Celcius. Caught the bus downtown and attended another weight watchers meeting. Staff were real friendly - insisting we stay for the meeting and happy to show us around the venue. Its been fantastic having the opportunity meeting other WW staff and members. From there we walked along Pine Street looking at all the xmas stalls and decorations along the way. We stopped by the Pikes Place Market Place again - it's hard not to keep dropping by - the whole market place has a great vibe about it! The Pike Market Fish Place, founded in 1930, is an open air fish market located in Seattle, at the corner of Pike Street and Pike Place. It is known for their tradition of fishmongers throwing ... read more

With a 10 hour stop-over here in Sacromento we checked in our carry on luggage and took a walk downtown. What a surprise it was to learn this is the home of the polar express train! Tickets sell out months in advance. They go on sale in September and sell out in 15 minutes. So no ride on the polar express for us but it was still it lovely to see such xmas spirit happening in town. We watched the Macy's Xmas theatre light show in the street centre - really feels like xmas here - very different from home in Australia. The train left Sacromento at midnight By which time we were a bit over sitting in the lounge. The Coast Starlight left on time at 12.15am. We got into our sleeper , grabbed a ... read more

Jet lag is starting to hit home today. Geoff has a sore throat and we are both extremely tired...but still the day goes on. We did a bit of morning shopping picking up cold/flu tablets and few essential winter clothing pieces before heading off to a Weight Watchers meeting at La salle Street. Being a WW leader myself I was keen to see how it operates from this side of the world! We were welcomed with open arms by the staff - we enjoyed the 30 minute meeting and purchased a few snack products to take in our upcoming Amtrak journey...going to places like a local is what we live about being independent travellers. Next we headed to the Hancock Centre where we caught the elevator to the 96th floor - signature lounge - here we ... read more

It's been a big week but the day has finally arrived! The anticipation is nearly over and soon our adventure will begin. Brisbane international airport was certainly busy at 7am - guess it's the holiday season - today was the last day we were able to book airline tickets at a reasonable price - hence our departure today! We leave Brisbane on a Fiji airways flight stoppng at Fiji for a stopover of just over 4 hours. Next flight will be with Fiji airways direct to LAX - arriving at 11.25am Tuesday. Another stopover of 3.5 hours before arriving at Chicago o'hare airport at 9pm...that's the plan anyway! The stopover at Fiji seemed to drag on but the flight was full of mid to retired Americans who have just got off a cruise ship touring Australia ... read more

With just over 100 days to go Geoff and I are madly finalising our itinerary for our winter holiday in North America. I hope you will enjoy following our blog as we tour North America and the Caribbean. Can't wait to arrive in the Windy City of Chicago where we will begin our adventure...love Chicago so much and can't wait to see the city in the winter! Exciting days ahead :)... read more