Top 10 Travel Moments

We’ve now been home for a month and are already back into our normal routines so needed to write this post before I forget all about our incredible trip. We did so many things that I could never have dreamt of but here is our top 10 (not in any particular order as it’s too difficult!):

Fresh Tracks on a Powder Day in Whistler
Picture this – it’s 5.30am, you’ve just woken up & checked the snow report and you see 50 whole cm has fallen overnight. You’ll soon be in the queue to be one of the first people up the mountain for the day to enjoy a big buffet breakfast. You’re full from bacon, sausages, hash browns etc (and have filled the tupperware you brought) then at 8 a bell rings, you and your friends rush out to be literally the first to experience fresh runs in 50cm of powder! And if you know the mountain you can keep getting fresh tracks all day long!

Seeing the Glaciers Melt in Patagonia
This was never something we planned but was absolutely incredible. From buenos aires down to El Calafate, Patagonia was a 48 hour bus ride but believe me it was worth every minute. The views of the glacier were stunning but the sounds were just as impressive. We were on a boat ride for literally 5 minutes before we witnessed a huge piece of ice fall off and explode into the water.

Visiting the Amazon Rainforest
Thanks to England getting drawn in Manaus for their World Cup group, we were in the perfect place for a trip into the amazon. We did a three day tour of the jungle which included – alligator spotting, trekking through the jungle, canoeing down the river, piranha fishing and watching an amazing sunrise. Something we will never forget!

Before

Seeing Machu Picchu
Who doesn’t want to visit one of the greatest wonders of the world?! We opted to do a 4 day/3 night jungle tour as our way to get to Machu Picchu – highly recommended. Despite not being able to walk on the day we got there, it didn’t put us off and the views from the top were like nothing else.

Salt Flats Tour
For miles and miles all you can see is well, salt. I’ll admit it doesn’t sound the best but it was one of the best 3 days we had in South America. We drove around the desert stopping at incredible places and eating surprisingly good food that our driver made on the road. We even got a stint at driving the jeep through the desert!

19 Days, 4900 Miles, 11 States, 8 National Parks & a Tornado Warning

And the USA road trip part of our travels is over… What an amazing few weeks it’s been! In the 19 days we had the car, we clocked up almost 5,000 miles and more impressively 0 speeding, parking fines or crashes – good job Kyle!

After California it was onto Vegas baby! I had been to Vegas about 8 years ago with my family so I was looking forward to visiting again and taking advantage of true Vegas now I’m of age. As much as we were excited, we were almost just as nervous…. about our gambling tendencies in the big city. Our gambling wins once paid for us to go on a ski holiday! As tempting as it would have been to blow our daily budget in a couple of hours minutes, we were well behaved. We actually came out about $100 on top. I say we, but it was Kyle that did the winning to cover my overall losses!

It was a flying visit in Vegas as we only had 2 nights there. The weather let us down and we didn’t get the ‘lazing by a pool’ hotness that there was before and after our stay (this seems to be a reoccurring theme with the weather – read on), but we had a great few days.

Busy taking photos instead of navigating

View from the room

My winnings

Another win for Kyle

Best fountains in the world

California Dreaming

The road trip part of our USA travels has begun, we are now in Utah after visiting Vegas and the Grand Canyon but I’ll leave that for the next blog. I started writing this on the way to San Diego, so the next issue may be a while!

After our stop offs at Seattle and Portland, the next stop was San Francisco. We had a 21 hour bus journey from Portland to Seattle, which suprisingly wasn’t too bad, apart from a 5 hour stop at 2am in Sacramento. For the price we couldn’t really complain and it saved splashing out on a hotel for a night… every little helps when you’re on a budget!

I loved San Fran. I don’t want to make a hasty decision but it may just have made it to the top of my favorite city list…. For now! (Vancouver is now second FYI!). In the three days we were there we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, visited Alcatraz, went to the Golden Gate park, spent time at Fishermans Wharf, went to a baseball game for a bargain of £4 each and saw the house of a childhood hero of mine – Mrs Doubtfire!

Alcatraz in the distance

San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge

Sunset at Fishermans Wharf

Fishermans Wharf

Alcatraz

San Fran skyline from the boat

In the hole

San Fran Giants vs San Diego Padres

First baseball game

Mrs Doubtfire’s House

So the USA Journey Begins…. First Stops Seattle & Portland!

‘We’re not interested in the travelling/backpacking thing’ said Laura and Kyle a mere 7 months ago… We are now owners of backpacks and I’m currently sat writing this from a hostel about to travel for another 6 months-ish! Ah, how things change!

Our first stop was/is Seattle, where I am currently writing this where I started writing this (We are now on a 21 hour bus journey to San Fran, but I’ll get to that!) We had planned to take a trip to Seattle whilst we were in Whistler but never got around to it. So, Seattle was always going to be our first stop after Vancouver plus it made sense logistically.

We made a decision to not visit Vancouver Island (on this trip) as the weather wasn’t looking great and it’s best to go in summer to take advantage of the beaches and activities. So the day after deciding this we headed to Seattle. With it being a very last minute decision, our choice of affordable accommodation was slim pickings. We found a hostel, The Green Tortoise for $38 a nights in a great location, we couldn’t pass this up.

I’ve been somewhat of a sceptic of staying in hostels but we were both surprised how good it was. The free tacos been served an hour after arriving definitely swayed us! The rooms were pretty good, although we couldn’t get in the same room due to booking the previous day and the bathrooms for a hostel were great. Highly recommended. We even bumped into some people we knew from Whistler!

Seattle was good, we saw the main things we wanted to – The Fishermans Market, The first Starbucks and The Spaceneedle.  The Fishermans Market, as become a tourist attraction (Google – Seattle Fish Market videos), so that was really cool to see. Although there wasn’t quite as much fish throwing as seen on the video. The Space Needle was also cool to see, albeit from a distance and the ground.

We met up with a fellow travel blogger who lives in Seattle, Kimberely from On This Trail. It was great to meet someone from the blogging world and even better a local who could show us some of the sports not all tourists would get to see.

 

The famous fish throwing market

The Space Needle at night

Thanks for showing us this spot Kimberly!

Where did I park my boat?!

USA Road Trip Plan

With just over 4 months togo until we depart to Canada, we’ve got most things sorted for the first part of our adventure. Our jobs are pretty much sorted now, as we’ve decided to go through The Working Holiday Club. Accommodation in Whistler is included with this, so we just need to book flights once we get our start dates. Then just travel insurance and we’re good to go (I think…). With that all almost sorted, we can now start to plan our USA road trip (woohoo!)

The rough plan so far is:

1 – San Francisco – LA & California – Spend a few days there to chill out a little after a working ski season in Whistler

2 – Grand Canyon – Couldn’t go all this way and not see it

3 – Vegas Baby – A week or so to drink, gamble, relax and generally enjoy Vegas related things!

4 – Mount Rushmore – Another site we’ve got to see. Probably will be a brief visit through

5- Chicago – A few days to explore the city

6 – Michigan / Detroit – I have family there so will hopefully spend a week or so there

7 – New York, New York – A few days to enjoy the food, explore the city and hopefully catch a few sport games

8 – Washington DC – A day there before moving on just to enjoy the touristy things

9 – Toronto – I’m aware this isn’t USA, but going to hop back over the border to visit Toronto for a few days