A short sleep through the night didnt seem to affect my ability to get up on the morning as I woke up earliest, showered and helped myself to an apple and some toast for breakfast. It wasnt a great selection, but it was the best breakfast I'd had since leaving San Jose. I was awake so much earlier than everyone else that I even had time to clean out the car and briefly check my emails before we were ready to begin our day visiting Boston. The first place we visited was Harvard University, the oldest and most famous university in the United States. The drive there showed us how much snow the snow storm had dropped over the east coast with at least a foot of snow covering everything but the roads and people obviously ... read more

We slept in a car park just outside Toronto, beside McDonalds. It was only -12C outside and there was ice beginning to appear on the inside of the windscreen. The 7 seater car was slightly uncomfortable and it was not a good sleep, it was especially bad being woken up every so often from the car being switched on for heating - the cold did not bother me at all. At 10am, we went to the supermarket just beside us, it was called "Sunny Foodmarket." I bought some sandwhich meat - Halal beef - and some bread, to help ease the cost of food. The idea was to go to the CN Tower, but when we got there it was more than $25 to go up the CN Tower. Ace decided to go up there regardless, ... read more

We woke up early to hopefully catch a church service in Chicago. Today was the first day I decided to try out the complimentary breakfast we have with the hotel; it was nothing special, but certainly a treat compared to the last place. We left the hotel listening to cheerful Christmas music and parked in the cheapest car park yet. They had a special weekend rate - which we took full advantage of, accepting it as the first Christmas gift of the day. We walked to the nearest church - St Peters, and it was beautiful inside. It was modern and prosperous. We arrived shortly after noon to find the service had already begun, there was a full choir - who were very talented, and a large congregation. By the time the song had finished everyone ... read more

I slept in. At the first given opportunity I slept to recover from the previous 5 days travelling. We didnt leave the hotel until around 1pm to visit Chicago. We had to drive 30 miles to get into Chicago from the hotel. Driving through Chicago was really nice, the skyscrapers had really nice architecture and was really metropolitan. One thing I did find, is the designs weren't as innovative or new as Seattle - but apparently the first skyscraper was designed in Chicago. We parked the car under the city in underground parking. The first place we went was Millennium Park (which was actually first opened in 2004). We saw the giant bean and walked around the park (which isn't so big). The bean was really impressive and was surrounded by tourists with their cameras. We ... read more

After going to sleep shortly after 1am, I was woken up at 2.30am to view the full lunar eclipse. All 5 of us and our new friend Jamie from Couch surfers were all standing outside viewing the orange tinted moon with binoculars. Shortly after watching the eclipse, we all went back downstairs and slept. At 7.30am we woke up, showered and changed. Jamie made us all pancakes with pancake syrup, berry sauces and honey. The breakfast was really good, since the previous day we had missed the opportunity for all you can eat pancakes for 99c. We spoke with Jamie and his family for a couple of hours before packing up and leaving. It was a great experience meeting new people and staying at their house, and the people were really hospitable. We left Omaha and ... read more