Two Guys a Girl and a Backpack each

It’s been a while but we’re back to wrap up our North American adventure with a look at the good (snowboarding), the bad (Canadian beer) and the ugly (again the beer). We started in Canada by meeting up with Heather and her friend Amy and getting ridiculously drunk, Canadian style. We followed that by getting up early the next morning to catch a bus to Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna, BC. This was the start of a week snowboarding which was awesome but very painful. Having never snowboarded we took lessons for the first couple of days before letting loose on the slopes on our own. Overall we did pretty well apart from a few bumps and bruises, some strained muscles and the flu. But as they say on the mountain “If you’re not ... read more

As the title suggests San Francisco is full of hills and they are all too bloody steep. The first day we thought that an old fashioned walk around San Fran would be in order. We started by walking from our hostel in Union Square (downtown) out to the famous Golden Gate Bridge. We walked up and down, up and down and then up and down again and we finally got to the bridge. Being on foot our only option to get across the bridge was to walk. So we walked the approximately 1.2kms across to get some great views of San Fran from the other side and then walked back again. We oohhed and aahhed at the bridge for a while as it is a very impressive bridge. After this we wanted some lunch so we ... read more

Our first day in San Diego consisted two parts. The first was a walk downtown and the second was a superbowl party. Firstly to downtown. This is one of the nicer cities we have visited thus far mainly because of the weather. The whole time we were there it didn’t get below about 10C. Downtown is really nice with a Gaslamp Quarter devoted to the historic section and a riverfront with parks and shops. We walked through both areas before heading to Balboa Park which is where the zoo is located. We didn’t go in but we walked around the park which has some cool Spanish architecture amidst some manicured gardens. After that we went back to the hostel for a superbowl party they had organised with a free keg. The keg lasted to the end ... read more

Some of you might be saying “What about Houston?” I am omitting that city due to a complete lack of anything interesting. We visited their number one tourist attraction which is a shopping mall that is the 4th biggest in the USA. The last night we were there Emma had to leave for her next destination, AFTRS in Sydney, so now all you hear about is Ian and Nick’s antics. Emma, you’re calming voice of reason will be sorely missed. We rolled into Dallas, or The Big D as the locals call it, and headed straight downtown via the trusty (but not so frequent) train service. It was Australia Day eve so a few drinks were in order. We headed uptown via the trolley to a pub doing a happy hour $2 beer special. Excellent. Happy ... read more

We left Toronto headed for Detroit Rock City. On the way however we hit a slight glitch with some -9C temperatures and snow. The tortoise was performing to its maximum capacity although this didn’t include heating and we were all freezing and losing feeling in our outer appendages. The snow subsided and we eventually reached the border. We couldn’t resist the duty free again. Ian got a $15 bottle of 1L Jim Beam Black and Gell really lived it up with a litre of Bacardi 151 which is, as the label states, 151 proof (about 75% alc). This stuff could actually be used as rocket fuel. The border crossing took slightly longer coming back into the USA with their over zealous border control and customs officers who think they’re comedians. When we told him we were ... read more