Jenny's top 5 US destinations (well, sort of!)

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Jenny's top 5 US destinations
Because I can!

1. San Francisco, California. The place has a hippy rep and, I confess, warrants it...it's friendly, offbeat, extremely walkable and is home to my fave hostel of our trip, the Green Tortoise. Also it turned on beautiful weather for us, thanks SF! Aging hippies dancing with brooms in Golden Gate park has got to be one of the highlights of my trip.

2. Buffalo, New York. OK I imagine it may not be quite so cute in those harsh winters, but it is the perfect combination of big city and small town highlights...really managable to walk around, amazing beautiful town hall, really cute quirky bars and shops, right next to lake Erie and a really active night life for such a small town. The main strip is a delightful collection of old houses converted into shops and we spied an awesome Addams familyesque gothic castle thing in the park which I like to think was the psychiatric hostpital. We just wished we had more time to explore the city at night here!

3. Santa Barbara, California. Yes it was a little retirement villagey, but again really lively restaurants and bars even on weeknights, really pretty and relaxed, with a lovely stretch of coast and cliff dwelling squirrels...would love to have had time to go whale watching and rent bikes to ride down the beach of this picture perfect Californian town.

4. I can't leave Chicago off or Mark would kill me. The pizza! And more importantly, the company! The actual city is really surprisingly pretty with beautiful parks and flowers, and the gastronomical experience is one that shouldn't be repeated too often unless you want to end up like Santa Claus. I could have spent all day clothes shopping in town (but was good instead!)...a super cosmopolitan city....we got a night view over Chicago and it was just gorgeous, sparkling lights to the horizon wherever you looked. And you can take a short drive to the outer suburbs for the small town America feel if you start to feel citied out.

5. ALL of the national parks! Haven't been to any that I haven't been blown away by....if you come to America make the time to see them, this is a truly beautiful country and there's so much to see even if you're not particularly outdoorsy....our photos don't show the half of it, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon were just jaw droppingly magnificent. No excuses!

6. I know, I know! It's supposed to be top 5 but there are sooo many awesome places! Number 5 was totally cheating too. I loved Boston to bits for its cute old pubs and beautiful parks and adorable accents, and New York is just wow! You have to come here. Compulsory. In fact, just go everywhere, it's all great!

P.S. Apologies for not updating in a while, internet has been patchy and we are trying hard not to post before we can get our pictures up. Rest assured there's lots more on its way!

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