G’day USA - Noah’s American Adventure 4th February - 5th March 2009

Chapter 1. I’m leaving on a Jet Plane

We started our adventure early (6.30am) on Wednesday 4th of February. Picking G-dad and Mim up on the way we headed up to Brisbane International Airport. Noah had a great time running around the massive concourse with Fiko while Mum and I checked in. We asked the lady if it would be at all possible to get a seat for Noah (as we did not pay for him to have his own seat). Thankfully the plane was pretty empty so she said it wouldn’t be a problem. WOO HOO! That offered some relief and we hadn’t even started yet.

After a quick snack and some sad goodbyes at the departure gate. Mum, Noah and I headed through customs and onto the Qantas Lounge!!! Yes very luxurious I know. So we enjoyed some more snacks and drinks in the lounge for a while before it was time to board. I had my stockpile of drugs all ready to go incase we needed them to make Noah go to sleep, but thanks to the extra seat they were not needed. Noah traveled soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo well. We were both very impressed with him. As I had hoped Noah stayed awake all morning and almost instantly after we sat down he fell asleep!!!!! I know great right! So I was like “let’s go people we’re wasting time.” I think he managed about an hour or so which was great. For the rest of the day he was pretty happy just playing on the seat, eating, going for walks, playing peek-a-boo with the flight attendants and watching Dora the Explorer (who I now love). Then he slept again for most of the night and the through the turbulence. Unfortunately the night was only about 5 hours!

But ever the trooper Noah carried on like all was normal unlike Mum and I who were suffering badly from lack of sleep. Luckily the American Airlines Lounge (partners of Qantas) had a kids room so we went in there and let Noah run around while Mum and I took turns in dozing on the seats and before we knew it, it was lunch time and we were off on the next leg of our trip to Denver, Colorado to see Mum’s friend’s Marsha and Jerry. Again we were able to get 3 seats and Noah slept for about half of the trip. Missing out on seeing the Grand Canyon as flew over it. I was amazed at home much the scenery looked like Central Australia, very dry, red and vast….but then came the snow covered mountains in Nevada and the Rocky Mountains as we crossed into Colorado. As we came closer to Denver the lakes and rivers were frozen over so we prepared ourselves for the cold.

We were so excited when our plane arrived ½ an hour early, we collected our bags, 3 suitcases (2 were mum’s), stroller, 2 backpacks and a handbag. Yes we are traveling light!!!! What we’re ready to hit the outlet shopping!!!!! and headed off to pick up our hire car. We boarded the shuttle bus (a mission on it’s own) and then sat back for what we thought would be a short ride to the car hire place. It turned out to be a ½ hour trip and then they wanted us to pay all sorts of fees cause we were not American’s so we told them to forget it and got back on the bus to the airport. By the time we organized another car we had lost daylight and about 2 hours! Finally after what was a very loooooooooooooooooooong day we arrived at Marsha and Jerry’s house in Ft. Collins. We were greeted with big hugs and a home cooked meal. Yum! Not long after we were all ready for bed.

Chapter 2. Ft Collins and the Rocky Mountains (Estes Park)

We woke up refreshed and ready for a day (hopefully of snow) up in the Rocky Mountains at Estes Park. About an hours drive from Marsha and Jerry’s house we were high up in the Rocky Mountains. The Colorado Rockies are part of the North American Cordillera that stretches 3,000 miles from Alaska through western Canada and the United States into northern Mexico. The centerpieces of this dramatic uplift are the 54 peaks over 14,000 feet, or "Fourteeners," as climbers affectionately refer to them. Colorado is the only state in the Rocky Mountain Region that has mountains that qualify as Fourteeners. Nearly 500,000 people visit Colorado's Fourteeners each year. While some of the more remote peaks remain pristine, increased recreational use has seriously impacted many peaks and their alpine basins. Denver is also known as the Mile High City (enter your own Mile High Joke here) as it is exactly 1 mile above sea level.

Marsha took us to the beautiful Stanley Hotel where stopped to stretch our legs and had a look around their beautiful event facilities. The hotel was also the inspiration for Steven King’s novel The Shinning (some of the movie was also shot on location at the hotel). Up and up we went till we arrived at the Rangers Station at 8,292 ft to be precise. After a lovely chat with the lady Ranger we continued to climb higher into the Rocky Mountains. We pulled over at a lookout and had a play in the snow. The started to blow so we headed further up but just around the corner the road was closed cause there was too much snow. Time to turn around!!!! On the way back down we saw a sign for a play area and warmer centre, which sounded good at this point so we took the turn off and found ourselves surrounded by even more snow. Noah and I had a lot of fun on our first real snow walk sinking in up to our knees and falling all over the place!!! Unfortunately we discovered after we were covered in snow that the warming station was not open. As you can imagine after all this excitement we were starving so we went to the main street for some lunch. Noah had a traditional American lunch … grilled cheese (toasted cheese sandwich). After lunch we had a bit of a wander, I tried another American specialty … Saltwater Taffy (very chewy). Then it was time to head home as Jerry had planned to cook us a local specialty Bison (buffalo) steaks and bean salad for dinner. Which was soooo yum I enjoyed it much better than steak. Noah went to bed early and we stayed up and chatted for a while but went to bed early to as we were getting up at 5am to head to the Big Easy and the Big Surprise!!!!

Love to all, the next one will be shorter I promise

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