Well where was I? Ahhh yes, we were flying to Boston, Massachusetts. Home of Harvard University and MIT – which as Jess found out stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is also home to the Dowtons – Polly and Bruce – who are family friends of Jess’ and who graciously let us stay with them in there beautiful home in the woods. Literally in the woods, with deer and large wild turkeys.

We did not know it till we arrived, but the Dowtons were also hosting another of Jess’ family friends, the Sommervilles from New Zealand. Crazy world. It would be a full house, with us, the Sommervilles and Polly and Bruce’s children who were coming home to eat their fathers delicious food. And it was delicious! Oh and Polly’s dog Cleo a caramel Bull terrier was there too. So it was a very festive time in Boston.

I think Jess and I walked every inch of Boston, starting with the Back Bay district with it’s trendy high street and amazing architecture. We then moved onto the Beacon Hill district, which is rather posh but again filled with wonderful architecture and lots of people who own dogs. It was very Christmassy in both these areas, with the streets filled with banners, flower boxes of Christmas colours, wreaths and lights.

We then checked out the freedom trail which leads you through the city and teaches you about the history of Boston, from the Boston public gardens, the Boston Common, extremely old and wonderful cemeteries, Churches, the sight of the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party and Faneuil Hall which holds the Boston Markets. It was here that I had the most amazing lunch. A pizza bagel. Will be taking that idea home with me! Oh and a giant brownie with chocolate icing and laced with m&ms. I will be recreating that one too!

Jess and I wanted to check out the Harvard yard, but alas those pesky Occupy protesters had taken it over – well 5 tents at least – and so the whole thing had been closed except to students and patrolled by police for the past 5 weeks. So we had to see the yard through the cast iron fence. Cambridge is a nice suburb though, so we checked that out and then walked back over the river through MIT. Jess was in heaven.

We finished our time in Boston by taking Cleo for a nice walk up Blue Hill. I have never seen a dog go so wild in the snow. Man made snow that is, because I don’t know if it has since – I doubt it – but the east coast of the USA has had no snow! So no white Christmas for us. We also went out for dinner and a movie with their son Angus. Loved Game of Shadows!

We met up with the kLarkins again on our train trip into NYC. We picked them up in New Haven from their icy skiing adventure and we headed into the big smoke. We then, luggage in hand proceed to take two subways to our hotel in the Italian/Chinatown/Bowery district. That was a fun experience. I’m sure all the people on the Subway appreciated getting hit by my backpack! But we made it, and settled in to our hotel and headed out to dinner at a B grade Chinese restaurant, which Jess swears was a C grade. I didn’t care, the food was good! I guess it was fit for human consumption?

The next two days consisted of walking and walking and walking and subwaying. We checked out all the sights, Central Park, Intrepid – an air craft carrier aviation museum, the massive Toy Shop FAO Schwarz, the crazy underground apple store, 5th Ave, Rockefeller Plaza and the Christmas Tree, Grand Central Station, The Empire State Building – didn’t go up it though, High line park – Jess’ favourite: a park made on the top of an old train line above the streets, The Macy’s Christmas display, Battery park where we saw the Statue of Liberty, Kat’s Deli and the amazing pastrami sandwich, Times Square at night, The 9/11 memorial – very moving and Wall Street – still barricaded off.

I have probably missed like a dozen other things that we did and saw but it was a rushed 2 days of sight seeing in an enormous city with a lot to see and do. Jess finally got a New York style pizza though. We travelled over to Brooklyn to a bar Andrew had heard about called Barcade – literally a bar with 25c arcade machines in it. It was very cool and even cooler was you could pretty much order anything in to eat. So we got the largest pizza I have ever seen! It was delicious though, and went down well with the tasty craft beers. On the third night we came home late from sightseeing and Sandrew went off to a Bar down the road from Sex and the City and Jess and I treated ourselves to what in my opinion is the best Malaysian food on the planet! Yes the restaurant was an A grade and the food was amazing!

Then it was off early on a bus to Kingston in up state New York to pick up our car to drive to our cabin in Margaretville. I just have to mention one thing I saw, well two things I saw on the way to Kingston so I can remember them forever. I saw a sign that went to Scranton Pennsylvania, home of everyone’s favourite show The Office, AND I saw the OCC shop from my least favourite show Orange County Choppers. Woah, I know, incredible huh!

We made it to the Cabin, in a car stocked with Christmas groceries just before dark. Along the way we saw a lot of devastation from Hurricane Irene, houses on their side, flood ravaged homes and bridges, a car in a tree and a lot of debris. We got to the cabin and tried the code only to find that it, and many others we all tried didn’t work. Lets just say that after many many phone calls, hours later and on the verge of trying to find somewhere else, the manager showed up with the correct code, an apology, a bottle of wine and bought our chocolate milkshakes for us.

Then we were in, and we settled down for a weekend of not really doing much besides playing cards, board games, drinking adult beverages, and making Christmas decorations out of paper for our awesome Christmas tree in front of the fire. We even had time to go down town and whilst buying smores supplies we each bought our ‘secret Santa’ a $5 gift from the dollar shop.

After decorating the tree (4 branches of the spikiest conifer!) and wrapping the presents, we decided to have a Christmas eve camp fire and make smores. I think it was -8 or 10 because it was freezing! Although we had had a light dusting of snow, it wasn’t anything substantial BUT it was still freezing and icy! The smores kept us alive with there melted chocolate marshmallow goodness! Then it was off to bed because Santa was coming!

Christmas day was sunny but cold. I stoked up the fire – the fire was my job – and we settled into opening our gifts and drinking hot cocoa. I got 1 toy unicorn, a toy pony and a necklace; Jess got a toy helicopter that didn’t fly but moved along the ground and made noises; Sarah got me as a secret Santa so she received a random assortment of things from princess Aurora lip gloss, a Christmas CD for kids, cow udder moisturiser and a hair towel thing and Andrew got a Nerf style tommy gun that far out did all the other presents and became the centre piece for all the mischief that happened throughout the day.

Christmas lunch was roast chicken with roasted and steamed vegetables and dessert was apple pie and cream and ice cream. Very traditional. A great day was had by all and we enjoyed our cabin lifestyle for the weekend. I don’t think any of us wanted to leave the next day, but alas we had a car to return, a bus back to NYC to catch and then a 5hr wait at the airport to endure, before a 6hr flight to Vancouver. All in a days work for us travellers. Was fun adjusting to the fact that although we landed at 1am Vancouver time, it was really 4am for our brains still on the east coast. Can’t wait for that feeling when we fly home!

In Vancouver Sandrew were treated to some great rainy weather – a staple for the west coast. But they made the most of it and explored the city while Jess and I had to cut all our ties to Canada. Then it was off to Whistler for some amazing boarding and skiing and a New Years Eve to remember. Although there wasn’t as much snow as there should have been, we were still able to get on some amazing powdered runs or Pow Pow as it is now known. Jess even had time to twist his knee on the last day, but boarded through it and suffered afterwards. Well done Jess!

Back in Van we said goodbye to the kLarkins who were off to Seattle before finishing their trip, while we spent the rest of the week relaxing, visiting friends, walking, I knitted a scarf and we even fitted in going back to the Theatre Sports – HILARIOUS! Now we are sitting in the Vancouver airport ready for the long flights home. LA then home to Sydney.

It is a sad but happy time. Jess and I are so happy to have shared this whole thing with you all – whoever you all may be. We need to thank everyone who has helped us along the way, let us stay, fed us and looked after us. All those who may have just chatted to us, and all the new friends we have made – thank you. Thank you to Harlequin for the 26000km or so you survived to let us drive across Canada and America! And last but not least thanks to all our friends and family back home who – had no choice really – but let us go on this adventure without really knowing what this adventure would be. Oh and Jess would like me to thank him for coming up with this `Great` idea.

Bye for now but not forever. Here`s to a great 2012 and a new adventure – going home!

So where did I leave you? Ahhh in Disneyland, the land of Andrews apparent secret imagination, or something like that. Good times. By this time the four of us had only been in California, now it was time to move on to state number 2 – Navada!

We ventured on from old Anaheim, the land of childhood fantasies, to a world of adult fantasies…i.e. Las Vegas! It was an enjoyable ride across the desert, past hills and mountains of scrub bush and dodging tumble weed on the highway. It isn’t as desert like as you might think. No sandy lands of nothing at all, but more a really cool landscape of amazing natural architecture…and scrub.

We hit Sin City at night. It certainly is an oasis of lights in the desert, or a thorn of lights? Anyway it was night time and we were staying in the MGM Grand for less than $100 a night, Boo YAH! One word for the strip would be amazing! It’s like people come to Vegas to not be in Vegas but in whatever world each casino takes you to. MGM was hosting a rodeo event so it was FULL of cowboys and gals, country music and a mechanical bull which the boys failed miserably but hilariously at. Ahh cheap country beer.

We checked out the strip and ventured into pretty much all the main casinos including – The Venetian: My favourite with the canals, ahhh Venice! Bellagio: Great fountain display and classy Christmas display inside and Cesar’s Palace…wow, I now don’t have to go to Rome. I will though…just to compare and see if Rome got it right. We had some fun nights out too – cocktails, dancing and an amazing Circ du Soleil show called Zumanity – lots of great bits for men if you get my drift.

Our last night was spent in The Stratosphere, Vegas’ highest restaurant where we got to eat a very classy dinner for Sarah’s birthday – Andrew had his in San Diego, a BBQ by the pool – watching over the streets of Las Vegas. On top of the tower are some very scary rides that will take you over the edge and possibly to your death. Probably not, but I’m not interesting in finding out. It was fun when the restaurant spun around to the section where people actually jump off the side for fun! Yeah, not my thing. Great lamb cutlets though!

We also managed to wake up in time to fit in a day trip out to Hoover Dam. Not as awesome as the movies make it out to be, but still pretty cool. We did the Power Station tour where you get to go underground and see the generators and turbines and other things that make hydro electricity. It was a pretty impressive dam in its day though and kept a lot of families fed during the depression. We walked and drove over it and we even spotted some big horned sheep too. Crazy desert sheep!

From the MGM Grand now to something that is naturally beautiful and grand, The Grand Canyon! If you want to see something that will blow your mind, go there. You think, “I know it is big, the name pretty much says so”. Then you get there and your mind has to snap a little to really comprehend just HOW big it really is. It goes on, and on and on some more and it was freezing and snowing. Fancy that in the middle of Arizona – state number 3 for those playing at home. Lucky the days that we went to look at the canyon were sunny with clear blue skies, but still around -5 deg.

It is not fenced either, well some of the lookouts are but not the ridge trail or the ones down into the canyon. We went down a little on the bright angel trail and saw: some mules coming up, incredible scenery and some 1000 year old pictographs on the wall of an overhang. It was fantastic, but icy and slippery in some parts which made looking down the cliff even scarier. We went up and down as far as we could on the south rim and with every corner you turn there are thousands of kilometres of canyon to see, as well as views of the Colorado River below. Nice sunset too, and an incident with two buck elks which decided to trap us on a hike for an hour, a story that will take too long to explain.

It was onto state number four now, Colorado. We realised at the Grand Canyon that Andrew had made a mistake with the planning – I’m going to blame Andrew because it is an in joke… and true – and we only had nine days to make it to Toronto and our flights to NYC and Boston. We had a long drive ahead of us!

Here is a rundown of the Great Road Trip of 11’ and some highlights:

The Grand Canyon, Arizona to Cortez, Colorado; great desert views of canyons and mesas, a town full of dogs that run in front of cars and amazing rock formations!!!!

Cortez, Colorado to Colorado Springs, Colorado! The ‘skip challenge, scissor paper rock iPod system’ was well established by now, soon to be overshadowed by Andrews constant ‘redactions’. We drove through mountain passes, snowy roads, laughable hot springs and brewery lunch and ran up and down – the boys dangerously rolled down – the giant dunes in The Great Sand Dunes National Park.

(cheated a little here on the way and the four of us stood in 4 separate states – here!)

State number 5! Colorado Springs, Colorado to Russell, Kansas; Walked through the Garden of the Gods – amazing rock formations – and walked though the 1500 BC Manitou Cliff dwellings of the Anasazi people which was incredible! I was sooooooooo excited to touch and walk though those ancient buildings. We also saw frozen fields and small town Kansas!
State Number 6! Russell, Kansas to St Louis, Missouri; Fields, fields and a night out in the extremely quiet city of St Louis. Andrew did not wear a coat and it was FREEZING! We also drove over the Mississippi River!

State Number 7, 8 and nine! St Louis, Missouri to Columbus, Ohio! Don’t believe me? Well in one day we drove through four states, Missouri to Illinois to Indiana to Ohio. Yeah take that! We stopped in at Sarah’s cousins’ house to see her new baby and they provided us with a fabulous Taco lunch – so Indianapolis of them! More friends met and made.

State Number 10 and 11! Columbus, Ohio to Buffalo, New York. We passed through another state today, Pennsylvania on our way to NY. Andrew and I walked around German Town Columbus and checked out all the nice houses, the sausage and fudge factories and Schiller Park with the crazy ducks and geese. We also saw snow again on this leg, although it hasn’t snowed for weeks on the east coast. In Buffalo we went to the home of the first chicken wing – Anchor Bar – for 40 very deep fried spicy wings…between four of course! Andrew and Jess even had a competition involving 6 suicidal wings and no water allowed, which ended up with Andrew forfeiting after 1 wing and Jess powering through to eat 5 of them. He was a little sore afterwards though!!

From Buffalo it was back to Canada and onto Niagara Falls. It is only a 30min drive from Buffalo, but you have to cross a good old boarder which takes time. Then it was into the funfair that is Niagara Falls. I would really like to know who the person was that decided to make an amazing waterfall a theme park surrounded by haunted houses, the worst looking put puts and what seems like hundreds of arcades. America Falls and Horseshoe falls are very nice, not as big as I thought but pretty impressive. No Maid of the Mist – closed – but we ice skated right next to the falls and went up the tower to view the falls all lit up at night.

Niagara on the Lake and then off to Toronto next and back to the good old Super 8 in Chinatown. We said goodbye to our excellent chariot Harlequin who went onto a better life in a scrap yard. Yes it was a sad end, but I personally would not have felt comfortable selling that car on, and besides, we had no time and it had developed a nice shake. That and he would go onto be recycled, very environmentally friendly!! We have kept our plates though as a souvenir…we will never forget you great Volvo!! Tomorrow we are off to Boston, while the kLarkins are off to Vermont.

Our next adventure should be fun, Boston and then meeting up in New York and spending Christmas in a cabin in the Catskills. Not long now till we get home which is both happy and sad, but there you are, all good things must come to an end as they say.