Seattle and Orlando

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Our trip has now progressed and we’ve now made our way from Canada back into the USA again. Right now I’m writing this blog in Manhattan, New York.

We left Vancouver on the 13th Jan and traveled by bus to Seattle, Washington. The trip by bus was about 4.5hrs and there wasn’t much scenery, except that it had been snowing all week and there was snow from Whistler all the way to Seattle. We’d planned to travel by train, however they only ran at night, so we settled for the bus.

We only had a brief 2 nights stay in Seattle but we made the most of it. Seattle was cold with an average of -6 degrees. “we just weren’t meant to be warm, were we ?” We stayed in the city and saw as much of downtown Seattle as we could by foot. The most famous attraction Seattle offers is the Space Needle, which is a tower similar to Centerpoint in Syd. We had a great meal at the top of the tower and definitely recommend it. The restaurant revolves and provides a fantastic 360 degree view.

Seattle is the home of Starbucks, Microsoft and Boeing. We all went on a tour of the Boeing factory and saw how the planes are made. We were pleased to know that all planes are put together with precision in the largest building in the world (by volume). The planes are built in sections and then each piece is joined using huge built in cranes. When the plane is complete it’s driven out of the factory where it waits to be tested by test pilots. Boeing have a little saying; “If it not Boeing, we ain’t going”.

We left Seattle and embarked on our 9hr journey across America to the east coast and landed in sunny Orlando. Yes you read it right, SUNNY 27 degrees shirt and shorts weather.

Orlando reminded me of Queensland. We stayed at the luxurious Crown Plaza resort and they even had a pool with jacuzzi … and it wasn’t frozen.

Orlando is flat and it’s spread out for miles. It’s full of theme parks and there are plenty of tourists. We hit 2 of the 7 Walt Disney theme parks, Magic Kingdom and Epcot oh and Pleasure Island (Disney’s idea of adult fun where there are 7 night clubs and bars on 1 island.) The theme parks are really kiddy and there’s really not many adrenaline pumping rides. There was one great ride at Epcot which was a simulation of being launched to Mars in a rocket. The ride gives you an exhilarating rush of 4g’s during the launch and then when you break through the atmosphere into space you experience a floating sensation. All the visualisations from the cockpit are displayed on a small LCD in front of you so it feels as close to the real deal as possible. A great ride Mickey!

Apart from the theme parks Orlando was a great place to relax and enjoy the warmer weather and the sun.

Our plane was delayed leaving Orlando, apparently there was an ice storm in Charlotte the hub of US airways and that’s where we were picking up our connection to New York. After wasting all day in air ports and planes we finally arrived in the BIG APPLE. More about NY later.

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