We're Here!!!

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Howdy y'all....

Thankyou so much for all of your comments on the website- we promise that we have been checking it regularly but this is really the first chance that we've had to update it! Its a busy life being a hard core traveller...

Well as we currently sit, we are just leaving Texas this afternoon for the Grand Canyon for a few days and gambling the rest of our money away in Vegas- we really could be back sooner than we thought...

We've been away for 6 weeks today and while the time has flown by, it feels like months too. Contrary to popular opinion, we haven't just been lazing around and discovering new bars in every town but have actually managed to see quite a lot too! While we thought the back packs were huge when we left, we do seem to be accumulating more things- Amanda was probably right - it may be a matter of time before we have to pick up another bagt but I'm not sure about carrying it. We have done a few marathon sessions with our rucksacks when we thought somewhere was just over the hill and it turns out to be a good hours walk away half way in the middle of the countryside. Thanks for the helpful suggestion Nick of cutting the time down and getting more taxis but we are having too much fun and there is just so much to see and do.

Lets see, the higlights so far have been:

1. Walking nearly every street in New York
2. Chilling our in central park at the weekend watching softball
3. Watching our first baseball match in Toronto (a historic victory too!)
4. Meeting up with relatives that we've never met before
5. The Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls
6. Cycling through the Niagara wine peninsular with a few tipples at the local wineries (although not the journey back)
7. Driving through the Icefields Parkway in Jasper and seeing bear, moose and elk
8. Camping in Jasper National Park in the middle of no where next to a beautiful lake (also see downlights...)
9. Hiking up a glacier with a guide
10. Hiking up a mountain to find a little tea house perched next to a frozen lake (the hike was eventually worth it!) and having a cup of lemonade (and I shouldn't complain about the hike as the staff did it every day with supplies!) while chipmunks try to steal your scones
11. Hiking up another mountain to find a complete snowfield on a hot day down in the valley with Laurence wearing only sandals and trying to tip toe through knee deep snow
12. Having a snow ball fight in the snow field where Laurence couldn't run away very fast!
13. Watching proper Texans line dancing while eating probably the best steak in the world (and yes I am now the pround owner of a cowboy hat!)
14. Going whale watching and seeing a whole pod of killer whales with the baby determined to show off by jumping out of the water in front of the boat
15. Meeting tons of new people and learning so much about new cultures that we just didn't know


Downlights / Learning Experiences:

1. Learning that hiking up a glacier is treacherous without a good guide as there are huge caverns hiudden under the snow
2. Camping in zero degrees half way up a mountain with no facilities and a cursed tent that draws the rain as soon as it is put up!
3. Needing to go to the bathroom in the middle off the night with the bathroom being about half a mile from the tent and even more serious than normal warnings about bears and then hearing wolves howling along the way (also a highlight but not at the time...)
4. Carrying to heavy rucksack- just round the next corner...

More pictures and updates to follow but although we're having so much fun, we do miss you all back home.

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