Advertisement
Published: July 15th 2014
Edit Blog Post
July 1st-So this morning we left Raleigh and made our way to Washington, D.C. via Arlington cemetery which was beautiful.....never thought I'd say that about a cemetery. It's full of just white headstones and is a military cemetery. We visited the tomb of the unknown soldier which is guarded 24/7. We watched the changing of the guards which was pretty cool 😊 After that we visited JFk's grave. He's buried at the top of the hill as apparently he once said that was his favourite spot to look out over the city.
Shortly after we arrived in dc we went for our included dinner at the hotel and then headed out on a 4 hour night tour of dc with a hilarious guide! We visited the Capitol visitor centre which I think he said was for congress. We then wandered past the national monument....looks like an obelisk....it might be one lol! We then visited the Thomas Jefferson memorial and Franklin Roosevelt area. I particularly like his quote 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself'. There were loads carved into stones. Looked cool all lit up at night. It was the same sort of thing in the Martin Luther king jr bit....I liked his quote 'out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope'. We finished off at the Abraham Lincoln memorial where you had a great view over the water to the national monument. It was the water that the president gives speeches by and where Forest Gump showed the bullet wound on his bum in the movie.
July 2nd-So this morning we set off into the city for sightseeing. First stop....the White House! We only saw the back of it though as the girls didn't wanna walk around the front of it :/ We then visited the national museum of American history, some other museum and the national archives building....yawn! You know me, I don't do museums. Seeing the Declaration of Independence in the archives building was pretty neat though. We then gave up and went for lunch in my favourite bakery over here....think it's called panera bread or something. You can have your soup in a crispy bread bowl...nom nom!! Then I hit one of their stores called forever 21 and got me some dresses and bigger shorts 😞
We then nipped back to the hotel to change for the local baseball game woop woop! Washington nationals vs Colorado Rockies. I backed the Rockies coz someone had to...they lost :/ I don't really get baseball, it just seems like a game of posh rounders to me. I found this apple ale thing that tasted like cider so that was me sorted! There were fireworks at the end so if we don't see any in nyc for July 4th at least we have here 😊 We headed to a bar near home for a couple before bed.
July 3rd-We had another free day today so me and the girls headed to the local zoo down the road to see the pandas....cute! He was passed out on a rock though and the baby was concealed in the trees. After that I took the liberty of getting my shellac redone on my toes....I got red this time lol! Only cost me 20 bucks too....bargain! Me and my New Zealand friend Sunny then nipped back into town as she hadn't seen the White House and I really wanted to see the front....so worth it! We went for lunch and were going to visit the Holocaust museum, which really I should've seen and kind of wanted to, but we were in need of a nap so went back to the hotel.
So technically tonight was the last night of our tour wah!! It's gone so fast! Kind of wish I'd done the whole thing. We went out for our final included dinner before heading back to the hotel for some predrinks and hitting town. Our tour guide took us to this tiny bar with shit music so a couple of us ditched that, bumped into some black girls and went booty popping! Best fun dancing I've had in ages! Loved it! 😊 I was still dancing on the bed when we got back haha!
July 4th-Happy Independence Day America! So today we set off for nyc baby! We went via Philadelphia so we could get Philly cheese steaks.....most fattening thing I have ever eaten...the grease was literally dripping off it. I was really looking forward to running up the Rocky steps but they were blocked off in preparation for the 4th of July celebrations 😞 needless to say I was devastated! We got to New York around 3ish so I just chilled in my room, ordered room service and caught up on TV until we were ready to go out. In hindsight I wished we'd gone to watch the fireworks. We still had a good night of drinking and dancing in our little bar though 😊 Had to say goodbye to my little group of friends which made me sad but hopefully I'll meet up with them in Auz.
July 5th-I was up bright and early this morning with great difficulty. I rode the subway to the Rockefeller center where I finally got to do top of the rock yay! It was a gorgeous morning and the views were amazing! I then did a bike tour across the New York harbour, through battery park, past the new world trade building, past Statue of Liberty ferry port and over the Brooklyn bridge. I've been waiting to do that bridge for ages! Wished I could've gone over into Brooklyn though...oh well! I shall have to come back again. We also visited this little garden memorial for the Irish potato farmers. Apparently the soil and plants were brought over from Ireland.
I then picked up my bags and jumped on the Long Island rail road train to go see Jessie (my American friend who used to live in Wales). I fell asleep and missed my stop, so hurried off at the next one and forgot my pillow damn it! So I'm stuck with my neck cushion for camping. Jessie met me at my new stop with her boyfriend Drew who is lovely. They took me back to his parents house for a BBQ and tried to teach me how to bat haha! I love American suburbia! After that we went to her friends housewarming where I ate away too much! I did drink a bottle of my very missed prosecco though so it's not all bad. We ended the night by visiting a club on the waterfront. Unfortunately they have a sound curfew off 11pm so the dj had to finish and there was just music by the bar.
July 6th-Jessie has her own little annex added onto her parents house which is cool. I hopped on her scales only to meet the very harsh realisation that I have gained just over a stone in the past 10 weeks. I have never been this heavy! Everyone's telling me not to worry until I get home...I'll end up having to buy an extra plane seat! The diet begins tomorrow! Today we visited long beach and I burnt my belly a bit, but it's nice and brown now 😊 We went to her friend's birthday BBQ before catching an earlyish night.
July 7th-I said goodbye to Jessie as she dropped me off at the train station before she went to work, and made my journey to my hotel in Newark. Really I should've gone to my tour friends hotel in the city and left my bags there so I could've spent the day with them. Oh well! I got to my hotel at like half 10 so used their pool and gym. Yes I did just say the gym lol! I mean business. I've bought these raspberry ketone gummies too. Something better work! I'm also doing a 30 day beach body challenge. It's day 1 and I can't make it to 50 crunches or hold a plank for more than 20 seconds....this is definitely going to be a challenge! How embarrassing is this...I met one of the guys off my new tour in the gym when I had sweat dripping down my neck! We had dinner in our hotel bar (salad for me) and also met some of the other guys on our tour xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.147s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0345s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb