http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/JennyandJu/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from JennyandJu en-us Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:42:09 +0000 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:42:09 +0000 Disclaimer This entry was started the first week we arrived so some of the opinions expressed being over four months old now are a little outdated...JennyandJu September 2006Well here we are then. LondonApologies for the severe bloglag. We've been extremely slack since getting here probably because... we've got here. It's so strange after having travelled across the whole of the Unit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Bayswater/blog-62925.html New York. What can we add to the endless amount written about this place The classic white T and coffee mug hat keychain and handbag says it all reallyI lt3 NYWe arrived from Boston on the Wednesday on our comfortable Amtrak train a little tired a little hot and a lot exhausted. Penn Station proved easy enough to find our way around. The subway was a little less transparent in fac http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-64934.html Fresh from seeing the Queen the Saturday before and enamoured of all things Royal I was looking forward to Amy's birthday she was set for a celebration in style having organised a trip to the Royal Ascot racesWith all the planning and shopping beforehand it was set to be an exciting day. My wonderful mum hugs mum and thank you once again packed off my dress which only took one week t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Buckinghamshire/Ascot/blog-70908.html Elizabeth II Her Majesty the Queen of England was actually born in April. But as they say over here the weather's better in June It was certainly hot on Saturday which was the official day for a huge parade from Buckingham Palace along the Mall to the Horse Guards Parade for Trooping the Colour and a parade back again followed by a flyover and a Royal Gun Salute. The whole thing was pre http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-68170.html Boston MassachusettsThe impending deadline for our car's return hanging over us like something odiferous encroaching perilously on the corners of our conciousness hah say that ten times fast we made our way south into Boston leaving in our wake both the quiet and the bustling seaside downs that pepper the New England coastline. Boston had a warm welcome prepared for us....innumerable roadw http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Boston/blog-57757.html Excuse the excessive use of capital letters in the title but perhaps in this case it is warranted. Sadly there was many a fine example of the signwriters' art along our trip passed by on dusty highways especially town names in the Western US desert and a memorable tortoise in forests and mountains leaping deer and stolid elks not to mention signs so encrusted with snow as to be pure whit http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-59818.html After a restless last night in Buffalo lots of street noise ambient light and spontaneous beeping from charging cellphones and cameras and a roommate who got up at 5am to spend an hour packing before catching her 630 train we set off north east on the dot of ten past ten to check out a certain famous strait between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario The Niagara Falls.Avoiding the main highway to s http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/Niagara-Falls/blog-57755.html We were very sad to leave Chicago and our lovely friends. The weather seemed to reflect our gloom going from sunny to cold and grey within miles. Driving out of Chicago we took to the tolled 'Skyway' with a wonderful view of factories and the chunks of arbitrarily placed tar seal we've become so fond of and soon entered Indiana. The novelty of being in another state wore off pretty fast w http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/blog-55374.html ....ContinuedAfter arriving home from the hockey on Tuesday night we found Sam fresh from a band rehersal and wanting to further educate us by having us watch the original Blue Brothers movie in Chicago. So we did. And got to bed bright and early on Wednesday morning. This of course necessitated a sleep in and a morning catching up on couch potatoism. Pasta for breakfast was the correct sta http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-57358.html Navigating our way through the myriad interweaving freeways which form the central nervous system of the metropolis of Chicago we found our way through the dusky skyscrapers surrounding us and with a little luck and our cellphone travel guide handy we fought our way through traffic to find that Chicago miracleofmiracles a spare carpark at Mark's apartment.Pulling in we were greeted with hea http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-54044.html States visited 22California Nevada Arizona New Mexico Utah Colorado Oklahoma Arkansas Tennessee Kentucky Illinois Missouri Indiana Ohio Pennsylvania New York Vermont New Hampshire Maine Massachusetts Rhode Island and Conneticut.Okay so we just walked in Utah at Four Corners and we trained through Rhode Island and Conneticut on our way to New York but I jumped out on the pl http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-54429.html Jenny's top 5 US destinationsBecause I can1. San Francisco California. The place has a hippy rep and I confess warrants it...it's friendly offbeat extremely walkable and is home to my fave hostel of our trip the Green Tortoise. Also it turned on beautiful weather for us thanks SF Aging hippies dancing with brooms in Golden Gate park has got to be one of the highlights of my trip.2. B http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-56432.html Cutting across Kentucky after leaving Tennessee we found a detour to a pair of long thin lakes separated by a strip of land just a couple of miles wide so crossing Lake Barkley we stopped at the Land Between the Lakes Park for lunch and windshield bug removal. A very pretty area we just couldn't stay long because of the oppressive heat over 90 degrees Moving on we crossed Kenlake Lake K http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-54041.html Well we've been bad little bloggers and have got a little behind so this entry may be somewhat condensed. Please address complaints to the US Department of Useless Travellers who can't find cheap internet anywhere.So we made our way from Yosemite tired and full of mountains back to Merced by train and then onto a bus. We should mention this entailed waking before 6 to catch the bus to the tra http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/West-Hollywood/blog-50411.html Well it was easier said than done. Despite the strange sacharrinsweet superficial commerciality of Las Vegas the town was really quite moreish. And yet the excitement must pall very quickly when all's said and done there is not a lot more than gambling and drinking to do there. The general consensus was that it's a fantastic place to visit....but to live there full time you'd have to be m http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Arizona/Flagstaff/blog-52520.html So dragging ourselves out of bed to leave Denver we planned and plotted our next move. The South beckoned. However sleeping in was much more important naturally so we left Denver at around 4 after a lunch of garlic bread..big hugs to our host Matt who kindly burned us some music boo for dying ipods We headed South through Colorado arriving in the agricultural crossroads town of Lamar just http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oklahoma/Oklahoma-City/blog-53784.html Heading into the glittering array of lights we pondered the reasons a town built at a railroad junction in the middle of the desert could possibly have for becoming a beacon of showy capitalism consumerism and probably every other kind of ism. We couldn't think of any justification and after a little while in Vegas you realise there isn't any there's pretty much no reason for any of it ot http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Nevada/Las-Vegas/blog-52500.html After waking at Matt and Crystal's in LA to aforementioned pancakes and Jenny being lovingly woken by Mia the dog sneezing in her face...more fun than an alarm clock it took a while to leave the tentacles of Los Angles behind. First there was the obligatory trip to Rodeo drive where we felt appallingly undergroomed but then decided we were just stars going incognito then we contended with http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Death-Valley-National-Park/blog-51610.html Having driven into the charming mountain town of Durango Colorado through various trials and hardships ok not that many....but we did curtail our drive the destination of which would have been Silverton but for icy conditions we woke from a good night's sleep at the delightful Siesta Motel in Durango to see snow softly falling outside.Our full kitchen unit and fantastic shower were worth wha http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/Durango/blog-52184.html With our usual impeccable timing we arrived back in LA from Santa Barbara at the same time Matt got back from his morning appointments so we grabbed a late lunch at In n Out Burger across the street and headed off to Anaheim The freeway traffic wasn't too horrific and we arrived at the Timon parking lot at 4pm caught the connecting Lion King Tram to the entrance and we were at Disneyland http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/Anaheim/blog-51279.html