The Garden State

This post has been a long time coming, and we are in fact back in Scotland. However, never one to start a job and leave it half finished, we are gonna finish this blog!

So! Crossing the border by land back into the US was pretty straightforward. The stern but pleasant CBP guy waved us through and wished us a pleasant end of trip. It was back on the bus and on to Burlington, a small city in the state of Vermont. We were only staying here for one night and had booked what promised to be a perfect little inn called University Inn. The drop off at Burlington Airport and the free shuttle to the inn was seemless and incredibly easy. Take note Chicago O’Hara Travelodge! We arrived at the inn around 2pm and the staff were very friendly and helpful, our room was a good size for an amazing price (around $30 each) and the best part? It had both an indoor and outdoor pool and a jacuzzi! We had definitely scored. So, after checking in, we decided to go eat at Applebees; a decent restaurant and bar that served good food and drink. Our server was one of the best we have had (after Carl in San Francisco) and he had an impressive moustache that we just wanted to twirl around our fingers. Think World War One era moustaches and you’ve nailed it.

Filling up on food, we decided to go and explore downtown Burlington before returning to the inn intent on taking full advantage of the free services.

The walk to downtown only took around 30 minutes. SB, our friend from LA, had told S that Burlington was very green and home to one of the most liberal universities in the States. Our liberal minded hearts were overjoyed to hear this and knew we’d feel immediately at home. The state is indeed green and we now understand why it’s called the Garden State. We can only imagine how amazingly beautiful it’ll look in the autumn. Passing the University of Burlington, we checked out what downtown had to offer. The town offered a city hall, a string of independent shops alongside more mainstream establishments, and quintessential all-American streets. It was perfect. We took a dander down to the harbour (visits to the harbour are becoming a common theme in the places we have been in) and S was kindly informed by an 8 year old that the steam coming from a small area of play park was in fact mist that people can run through to cool down. A future teacher perhaps?! It started to rain a little so we decided to head back to the inn. The thought of a swim and jacuzzi was most enticing!

S changed into his swim shorts and A into her bikini, both of us lamenting at how unfit we probably were although determined to do at least a few laps rather than just tread water. The pool and jacuzzi were empty so naturally S immediately pretended we were rich and famous with our own private pool. The water was warm, and after a few shaky laps we got into our stride. A few more weeks of practice and we may be blogging about our plethora of gold medals at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, destroying the records held by the likes of Michael Phelps and Jenny Thompson.

Finishing off the night of heart racing exercise, we chilled in the jacuzzi before heading to bed. We were beat. We could have spent an extra day in Burlington owing to the impression it had given us in the space of a few hours. However our megabus to Boston was booked and we were ready to get our historical hats on and see what Bean Town had to offer.

We leave you with a colourful picture S took in the street. Plus, this post is lacking on photos purely because the majority are on camera rather than iPhone and not easily accessible!

Much love,

S&A

Toronto: The start of our Canadian Adventure

A discovered prior to our trip into Canada that she has a lot of Canadian relatives. In fact, her grandfather was born in Toronto before moving to Scotland. Armed with this new information, A and S were ready to find out more about this great nation.

We got off the bus in Toronto and made our way onto the main thoroughfare called Dundas Street. Always nice to find a street that makes you feel at home. Toronto is the most ethnically diverse city in the world and we got a feel for this as we walked along Dundas Street to our accommodation. The food places looked amazing; burritos, falafels, pizza, noodles. We were sold.

We found our hotel, dumped our bags and had a shower to wash away our 12 hour bus journey. We decided to explore downtown Toronto and grab something to eat. After a delicious dinner of noodles and cocktails we headed into Toronto’s bustling Chinatown and experienced our first ever Tim Hortons.

Now, we were unaware of this very popular Canadian coffee chain until we were told about it by our Canadian chums at teacher training college. A had visions of sounding like a true Tim Horton’s veteran by asking for a double double but the nerves got to her as she approached the counter so she chickened out and asked for a plain coffee. Oh well, better luck next time.

We were feeling pretty tired after the bus journey so we decided to go and watch the Dark Knight Rises which had just been released. We booked tickets and went for a quick drink in the classiest of all establishments; Hooters.

It was our first time in the ‘delightfully tacky, yet unrefined’ bar and eatery. The girls were gorgeous, the beers were good and we left ready to be suitably entertained by Mr Bale and co. They did not disappoint and the film received a round of applause at the end of the screening. This was a good reminder for us as to what continent we were on.

After a long lie the next day we had some brunch at Fran’s Diner and visited the Harbour. Dundas Square was also having an Eco Festival and S noticed that none other than Fefe Dobson (?) was playing later that night. More of that to come.

We decided to take in Toronto’s sights by taking a trip up the CN tower. This is the highest building in North America measuring in at 553.33metres high.

We waited around an hour to get the lift up to the viewing platform which also had a glass floor. We managed to keep ourselves entertained during the wait……..

Once we reached the top S sauntered onto the glass floor as if he was John Travolta walking onto a dance floor. However, A had developed a case of vertigo and couldn’t bring herself to step onto it. She looked around at other tourists who were lying sprawled across the glass floor posing for photos. Jordan aka Katie Price could’ve picked up a tip or two.

With S’s encouragement and support A managed to back onto the floor backwards. No Michael Jackson style moonwalk here, it was more like a baby’s first steps in reverse. She took a few snaps before she returned to the safety of the glass-less area. After taking a few photos of Toronto’s skyline we headed down and made our way to meet another Moray House survivor for dinner.

We met CS at Union Station complete with a Tim Hortons in her hand. A true Canadian! We headed to a restaurant on our favourite of streets, Dundas, and had a lovely dinner of fish tacos and steak. After dinner we returned to Dundas Square to witness none other than Canadian pop star extraordinaire Fefe Dobson (you can Google her). She was well up for it and gave a good show. We were sad to see her go go go like a ghost ghost ghost at the end of her set (if you’ve Googled her you’ll maybe get this)

After we bid a fond farewell to CS, we headed to the gay village. S was keen to check out Woody’s bar which was used in the US version of Queer as Folk. We managed to find it and had a few beers. A was fascinated with what was being screened on the TVs in the bar. All we will say is that it wasn’t the Wizard of Oz.

Time had flown and by the time we had got home from Woody’s, after a trip to a 24hour pizza place, we had only 4 hours until we were up early to visit one of the natural beauties of the world.

We rose early on Sunday about 6.30am and caught the bus to Niagara Falls. We were a little naive in thinking that the Falls were in the wilderness on their own à la Yosemite. We discovered on our arrival that a short distance from the magnificent natural wonder was a strip that would rival Blackpool’s tackiness.

We were a little disheartened by this as we felt it took away the beauty of the Falls. However, we chose to ignore this and concentrate on the magnificat sight that lay before us. And you know what?! It was totally fricking awesome.

We saw the two most visited sets of Falls, the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls which are on the Canadian side. Niagara Falls is separated by the US/Canadian border.

We took some photos from numerous vantage points and went on the Maid of the Mist, a boat that takes you even closer to the action.

Our dignity soon came crashing down like the water as we were soaked by wave after wave of Niagara mist. Luckily we had our bright blue ponchos. It was fantastic being so close to the Falls and experiencing first hand one of Nature’s most spectacular shows.

It turns out that Nature wasn’t quite done with us for the day. After having some lunch and deciding to relax in the sun with our books, the heavens decided to open. We were witness to a huge thunderstorm that decided to soak us once more.

Unfortunately our ponchos couldn’t protect our feet which were now sodden with beautiful Canadian rain. A quick trip was needed to Tim Hortons to dry off before the 1 and a half hour journey back to Toronto.

Toronto has given us a good first impression of Canada and we look forward to seeing if Montreal can continue this.

Much love,

S&A

The Not So Windy City

Having survived Vegas, we decided to take the plane to America’s Windy City, Chicago. Fares for the train were ridiculously expensive and the journey time was over 35 hours. Compare this with a $80, 3.5 hour flight and it didn’t take us long to come to a conclusion. Although A isn’t a great flyer, she didn’t have any inflight breakdowns or drunken escapades a la Bridesmaids. The worst disaster was her spilling her beer over the poor man next to us. Touching down at O’Hare airport at around 1am in the morning, we had booked a hotel reportedly close to the airport – O’Hare’s Travelodge. We don’t tarnish a company’s reputation lightly, but our experience there has been the worst either of us have ever encountered at home or abroad. The advertised shuttle bus from the airport to the lodge didn’t turn up; S tried calling 3 times to no response resulting in us having to pay $35 for a taxi to take us there. On arrival at around 2.30am, we discovered our reservation wasn’t on the system. Luckily we had our confirmation and they had a room. It hadn’t been cleaned properly (a beer bottle lid was found under the bed) and the room felt dirty. So, if anyone is thinking of staying there, don’t. Book the Hilton right opposite the airport. We coulda stayed there for the same price we eventually ended up paying for the Travelodge (taxi fare plus hotel). The staff seemed to have no idea about running a hotel and our request for a shuttle to the airport in the morning took almost an hour to come collect us. We hope Cecil Joseph, the manager of the Travelodge, reads this blog. S is going to refer him to it in an angry email.

Anyway! Not to be disheartened, we looked forward to what Chicago had to offer and made our way to our hostel for the three days – Getaway Chicago. It has genuinely been one of the nicest places we’ve stayed! So thanks to SB’s cousin for the tip.

S has been to Chicago before, but when it was a little colder and wetter so he was looking forward to sampling Chicago in summer. And boy was it hot. It was around 38 degrees celsius our first day. The temperatures cooled a little the subsequent days but it was still warm.

After checking into our hostel, we decided to explore the neighbourhood. We were based in Lincoln Park, reportedly one of the more expensive areas of Chicago. The architecture was impressive and the neighbourhood had quite a Victorian feel to it. We decided to take advantage of the hot weather and explore the city’s waterfront and Lake Michigan area. It was beautiful. We waded into the water and just absorbed our surroundings. Sometimes, when you’re only in a place for a couple of days, you take pictures without really appreciating what you’re snapping. The Chicago skyline was to our right, with Navy Pier in the distance, and Lake Michigan right in front of us. We spent a good couple of hours exfoliating our feet in the sand and strolling along the shore. All in all, a wonderful day and one that definitely made up for our previous night and arrival in Chicago.

Day 2 was our main tourist day. We headed downtown to see one of Chicago’s famous installations – the Cloud AKA The Bean. It is truly a fun and quirky piece of art.

We also marvelled at Chicago’s impressive architecture that surrounded us – skyscrapers and more European medieval style buildings alike. Chicago really has character and A often expressed her huge love for the city.

A bit of shopping and a trip to Navy Pier was next on the agenda. We were lucky to have gotten this far; A had an unfortunate incident of shoving a stick she found down what we thought was an empty drain when in fact it was an inhabited wasps nest. Cue a hilarious sprint and the best face S has ever seen A make as a swarm of angry wasps began to emerge from the drain. Don’t worry. They didn’t get us!

Our shopping trip was highlighted by A getting extremely excited about a shop named after us (although a different spelling of A’s name, which didn’t detract from the amusement!) They even had a special entrance just for us. As demonstrated by the following picture:

Getting over our new found celebrity in the city, Navy Pier had a great buzz and the music really brought the summer day alive. We both felt like breaking into a dance right there and then but we didn’t want to show up the pier performers. We’re selfless like that. Filling our stomachs with wings and quesadillas, we enjoyed the atmosphere of the pier for a while before taking a leisurely stroll back to the hostel to be greeted by an impressive thunderstorm. It was so loud that it set off 3 or 4 car alarms at 1am. We had never experienced anything like it.

Next day, we had to check out at 11am. The hostel had luggage storage so we didn’t have to lug our backpacks around with us. We decided to go for some cultural exploration and headed towards the Chicago Musuem. Unfortunately it was a tad expensive so we didn’t go in but we had a look around the neighbourhood and took some pics next to a Lincoln memorial, until our grumbling stomachs announced lunchtime. Chicago is famous for its deep pan pizzas so of course we had to have one – S knew of the famous Ginos that has been feaured on the show Man vs Food and had been there before so off we headed, salivating at the thought of pizzas larger than our faces combined. Ordering a medium 6 slice half and half we only managed two slices each, experiencing the kind of feeling that you wouldn’t feel hungry again for days.

We took a leisurely walk back to the hostel and chilled before our night time greyhound coach to Toronto. A little apprehensive about the greyhound experience (stories of beheadings and downright bizarre behaviour abound on the internet – the beheading one is true! Google it – and we also had a stop off and bus transfer in Detroit. To be honest, we lived it up in South LA for two nights and were pretty literate in ‘da hood’ so Detroit would be a walk in the park. Turns out, our journey from Chicago via Detroit to Toronto was perfectly normal and we both still have our heads. Passing the Canadian border was a breeze and we’ve now spent the past 6 days in Canada and 2 days back in the US. We promise to blog about them all soon. We’re a tad behind. It’s just what happens when you’re having fun!

We’d like to leave you with one final sentiment S snapped whilst strolling through Chicago.

Much love,

S&A

Prison and Wine in San Fran

We’ve been in San Francisco for the last 4 days and our time is unfortunately coming to an end. The last time we left you we had arrived and were heading to Alcatraz for the night time tour. We made our way to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to ‘The Rock’. We walked there from our hotel near the Civic Centre and experienced some of San Francisco’s famous steep inclines. Edinburgh is relatively flat in comparison! We made it to Pier 33 and joined the queue (line) for the ferry. In the queue we had our photo taken by a photographer to buy on our return. Let’s just say the subsequent photo would put Al Capone’s mugshot to shame.

We boarded the ferry and made a very windy 10 minute trip to Alcatraz. San Francisco’s climate is similar to Scotland bar the rain. We were glad to be kitted out in jeans and hoodies. We docked at Alcatraz and were greeted with a sign that told us we had arrived at one of America’s most notorious high security prisons. The buildings are wasting away and run down but this all added to the atmosphere. After a history free start to our trip in LA S and A were glad to have an overdose of facts, anecdotes and trivia which they are sure to bore their nearest and dearest with on their return. Did you know that a pig’s gestation period is 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days? Now you do!

We were met with our enthusiastic tour guide who led us up a steep path to the main prison. She regaled us with a story of a prisoner who tried to escape, drowned and was eaten by crabs. Not sure if we ever will fancy crab from the San Francisco area any time soon.

We then embarked on an audio tour of the prison which was fascinating. We don’t want to give too much away as we would thoroughly recommend the tour. It was totally awesome!

Our ferry trip back was windy and cold but the nighttime views of the San Francisco Bay made up for it. We then decided to take a gritty walk back to the hotel through San Francisco’s downtown where A was asked by a homeless man if she could buy him a cheeseburger. A pretended she was poor and quiet, the latter requiring all of her acting skills to pull off.

After our walk on the wild side we headed to bed to rest before our trip to check out the rest of San Francisco in the morning.

We had definitely been bitten by the tourist bug as our second day in San Francisco was an explosion of sightseeing, wide eyes and compulsive photo taking. We took in the Castro district which is decorated with rainbow flags that celebrate its LGBT roots and culture.

We visited the shop that Harvey Milk set up in the 1970s before he was assassinated and bought some items from the Equality for Everybody shop that has now taken its place.

After some more exploring of the shops in Castro we had a spot of lunch and headed to the landmark that is synonymous to San Francisco; the Golden Gate Bridge. S drove like a true professional over it and we parked on the other side to take a walk (and numerous photos) over it.

It was every bit as good as it looks. It was fog free and we managed to get fantastic views of the city. It was one of those surreal moments when you can’t quite take in what is in front of you. We also had a reminder of home with the blowing wind.

Keeping with our tourist behaviour we visited the zig-zag street at Lombard street and S drove perfectly down it. We then headed to Fisherman’s Wharf where we dined at Boudin’s Bistro. We shared a goats cheese starter and S opted for fish tacos and A had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Delish!

Our waiter, Carl, was great and even treated us to a pint of San Francisco Ale as well as two glasses of Napa Valley’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon. A was in heaven! He also gave us directions to Napa Valley so we could go and check out the vineyards in person.

After our meal we decided to go and check out the nightlife of the Castro and headed for a nightcap. By the time we got to bed we were zonked. It had been a busy day.

We had a bit of a long lie the following morning and didn’t wake until 10.00am. We decided to check out Napa Valley which is an hour’s drive from San Francisco and famous for its vineyards and winemaking. It was cold as we left San Francisco but as soon as we were over the mist enveloped Golden Gate Bridge the temperature began to rise. By the time we reached Napa Valley it was 102degrees, about 38degrees celsius. It was hot! What else to do but taste some wine at one of the vineyards that line the main road of the valley. We opted for Beringer Vineyard which is just after the town of St Helena at the top of the valley. We took a tour of the wine cellars and caves and tasted 2 beautiful wines. A and S felt they had won the lottery and forgot their teacher salaries for a while. They were brought back to earth with a bump when they discovered the delicious wine was $30 a bottle.

The grounds of the vineyard were perfectly groomed and home to a spectacular house built by one of the first owners Frederick Beringer who was an immigrant from Germany.

After our wine tasting we headed back to San Francisco and checked out China Town. We got some food in one of the restaurants and decided to hang out in the most Chinese of all places-Starbucks. This, may we add, was to get free WiFi. While we were engrossed in our phones a homeless man came in and poured milk all over the floor. Cue a confrontation between him and a sassy Starbucks employee. We were oblivious to all of this until we were asked to leave as they decided to shut early. Another reason for us to love the grittiness of San Francisco.

Yosemite was our next call. Blog post imminent.

Much love

S&A

4th of July and First Friday Fun

The last time we wrote, we were preparing for 4th of July. We understand the irony of two Brits celebrating the independence of a nation that gained that independence from defeating, well, us. However, 4th of July is more than just a celebration of America’s birthday, it’s a celebration of freedom and an excuse to drink and who doesn’t love that right? We hit up Santa Monica Beach in the morning, savouring the sea air. We ate at a great place called Bubba Gumps and practically filled up on shrimp. The thing we always forget about the States are the portion sizes, and S confesses to hiding some of his shrimp in a napkin so it appeared he had eaten more than he had. The waiter was full of banter and we felt bad. He was also kinda cute (that was S). Now, Bubba Gumps is inspired by the film Forrest Gump so our waiter/waitress (the latter was new so was being trained) treated us to a Forrest Gump quiz. Thank God for A and her compulsive film watching as S was pretty bad. We got a perfect score of 3/3.

After lunch we donned our Stars and Stripes underwear and prepared to party in West Hollywood with a bunch of Americans and the friend who was putting us up. It was awesome! All day drinking, BBQing, games of corn hole and general merriment make for a good party. Oh, and sparklers! How could we forget? S and A felt like celebrities with the constant attention – ‘oh my god! I love your accent, where are you from?’ A was asked if she was from Ireland… No comment.

Surprisingly, we felt perfectly fine next day. Our friend, let’s call him SB, had to work on the 5th which sucked for him but we decided to set off for Venice Beach and Pier to check out the apparent freakshows who parade up and down the boardwalk. We walked past Muscle Beach, took in a skate park, and was offered marijuana for medicinal purposes more than once. Did you know marijuana goes well with ice cream? No, us neither.

The beach was perfect, and the weather just right. Considering there are floods and rain that would cause Noah to start reaching for the wood back home, we are appreciative of every piece of sunshine. The tan is coming along nicely.

Driving back to SB’s we noticed a school that A thought looked very familiar. After a thorough investigation we found out it was the school that was used in Grease. A posed for probably too many photos outside doing the ‘well-a-well-a-well-a’ dance move. S expressed the same enthusiasm when he discovered Britney filmed her debut video at the school.

After overdosing on vitamin D all day, we headed back to SB’s apartment and took him and his roommate out to dinner as a thank you for having us. We went to a great diner called Swingers and had delicious shakes and food. The diner was used in the film Knocked Up in the scene the morning after the two characters do some knocking up. Thank goodness there was no awkward ‘I’ll call you’ chat at our table and we left feeling totally stuffed and about to burst. After dinner we and SB decided to go to West Hollywood and party with our American gay brethren. S and A literally had vodka on the rocks all night because it was more or less 5 parts vodka 1 part Sprite. The best bit about the night? Practically naked buff dancers on the bar in the Abbey. A couldn’t hide her blushes (and eyes).

Heading home, we all decided to strike a pose next to the Beverley Hills sign. Cue 25 photos and A’s best pout. S decided to recreate a scene from Scary Movie by running through the sprinklers next to the BH sign. 10/10 for Mr Mackenzie who managed to keep his composure and run elegantly while being sprayed with water. I don’t know if the residents of BH would agree though… We also went and got Sprinkles cupcakes…at an ATM! Cupcakes from holes in the wall? Why doesn’t this happen more often? A is ready to pitch the idea to Lord Sugar when she gets home ©

Our first Friday in the City of Angels saw a return visit to the beach at Santa Monica. The sun was out in all it’s Californian glory and we soaked up the rays while admiring the natives to Santa Monica. In the morning we made our way to a lovely little diner on Washington Blvd called Maxwell’s. If you ever go to LA you should visit. The food was delish. A finally got to sample some Mexican food which everybody had been raving about. After chilling on the beach at Santa Monica we made our way to visit the house that is used in American Horror Story.

After our initial challenges navigating the roads of LA we now have it down to a fine art; we are now experiencing the same road rage that some LA drivers display extremely well. We’ve been flipping people off and hooting the horn left, right and centre. S even ran a stop sign. Accidently.

We then headed back to SB’s where a gathering was in full swing for a trip to Venice for First Friday. We experienced a short LA bus ride to a strip in Venice that is lined with food trucks and packed bars and clubs to celebrate the first Friday of every month. A and S became quite excited when SB told them that Bill and Sookie from the hit HBO TV show True Blood lived in the area. Cue a rendition of ‘Sooooookieeeees’ for about 5 minutes.

We decided to take advantage of the food trucks on offer along the street. S opted for fish and chips from a truck called ‘Cod Save the Queen’. You can take the boy from Scotland…… A decided to make up for her lack of fruit and veg by having a slice of salad pizza. It shouldn’t work but oh my god it does! After some drinks in a bar and a walk home we hit the sack to rest ahead of our coastal drive to San Francisco. Which we have almost completed. We’re currently checked into a hotel and about to rest up for the final leg of the drive. We’ll leave you with a picture of part of the Pacific Coast Highway.

Much love,

S&A

Little Mexico and Hollywood

We’re finally getting a chance to post a blog update. We’ve been in LA two days now and having a blast! Those that are Facebook friends of ours will have seen more status and photo updates than they probably want…

Anyway, LAX Customs and Border Control took ages and is a lot more tiresome than either Newark or JFK, which we’ve also both experienced. However, we did it! And we collected our car. We had to resist the temptation to upgrade to a fancy convertible for an extra $300 (S kept thinking of A doing a ‘Katy Perry’ in the Teenage Dream video…which is no bad thing) and settle for the compact Toyota. After a shaky start, with S turning a corner headlong into a massive truck but calmly cutting across the road to make it to the right side whilst A screwed her shuts and hoped for the best, we were riding the LA roads like locals. It’s fair to say that we would now pass the CA driving test with flying cars.

Cruising around for an hour or so, totally on purpose of course and not lost at all, we found our motel, complete with a No Prostitution sign. Think quintessential American motel in a part of town we’ve nicknamed Little Mexico and you’ve got it. Probably a part of LA not many people would want to visit. However, it has character and is all part of the experience!

Anyway, we hit the sack pretty early that night to be energised and refreshed for Day Two – Hollywood! Yesterday was pretty amazing. We drove to Hollywood Blvd and grabbed a great breakfast at Denny’s Diner to fuel up for the morning. S had a delicious pancake breakfast topped with strawberries, blueberries and cream, with eggs and sausages on the side and A had a steak omelette with toast. We climbed up a track to get amazing views of the Hollywood Sign and the city at large. We met a family from Arkansas at the top who kindly took a picture of us (otherwise there was gonna be a lot of dodgy self-portraits) and who’s son told us we had the Scottish accent, which is always good to know. The picture below isn’t us, as that one is on the camera.

After the Hollywood Sign we headed to our lunch reservation at The Ivy on Robertson Blvd. We wish we could say we were sat next to Lindsay Lohan passed out in a drunken stupor at the table next to us, but alas! We were not. The meal was nice, particularly the Bellini and Scarlatti drinks; the atmosphere very relaxed; and the day glorious. Watered and fed, it was time to find the Walk of Fame. S was only after one true star – Britney Spears – and A had developed a recent obsession with Arnold Schwarzenegger. She found no star but did find his handprints! He has big hands, and you know what they say… This part of town was true Hollywood style and pretty amazing. The on-street actors looked great (most of them!) and we were particularly impressed with one busker who needed money for his entry fee to Hogwarts so we chucked him a couple of $s. He better send a thank you card by owl when he gets there.

Driving home at night, it finally sunk in we were in LA and the bright lights met us on the skyline as we cruised along the freeway. We’re ready for today – July 4th – to celebrate America’s birthday! We’re gonna bring some Brit action to the house party we’ve been invited to 🙂

Until next time.

Much love,

S&A

‘To Do’

So, with just over a week to go, I thought it time to start going through my ‘To Do’ list. Everyone loves a list; everyone loves ticking off a list more. I can now officially say the ESTA is updated so I’m now authorised to travel to the US again (I always find the question that asks if you were involved in the Nazi regime an interesting one…); one cheap motel is booked for the first night; and the car…well, I went to book it only to find out I had to update my credit card address first so that it matched my driving licence address. That’ll be a job for Monday then.

On another note, I watched Mark Wright’s Hollywood Nights earlier. I was primarily looking for any LA hints and tips and I found the perfect one. Yep, I’m booking a vagacial for A as soon as I can. I’ll sip coconut water straight from the coconut whilst I watch. Just like this kid.

Much love,

S