Walk to Explore

I've been motivated to walk since moving in a new place. Being in an unknown area, i'm finding my sense of direction is getting a little better. Each walk I thank God for the beautiful views, surrounds and the exploring I can do. 

P.S. Spontaneous orange buying paid off. I have just realised how good they are at this time of year. Smile orange face! Happy Wednesday everybody!

Let's Get Physical!

Mr J and I are doing exactly what Olivia Newton John said in her song "Let's get physical" and have joined a gym! No backing out now, we have to make the most of this year of monthly payments. One week down, plenty more to go. I thank the treadmill and bike for time to un-wind, listen to my out-dated music and contemplate life.

P.S I'm still enjoying Mum's homemade carrot cake, a little too much!

Last day on Contiki, Last day in Canada

Last day of contiki therefore last day in Canada. After a hot breakfast Jamie and I explored parts of Vancouver. Chinatown and their Chinese garden received a visit from us, it was beautiful and we also got to meet the biggest goldfish we have ever seen {at least a foot long!}. We walked the streets, visited some interior design stores and grabbed something to eat from 7 eleven, including two free slurpees! Slurpees are the biggest cause of brain freeze ever. We relaxed in front of some live music for an hour before we headed to the local Sears for some shopping therapy {keeping in mind that we need to save money for our last adventure in the States, we resisted many ridiculously low prices}. On our way back to our hotel we visited the local candy store and then rested prior to meeting our fellow Contiki-ers for a dinner cruise at 5:30pm.

The dinner cruise was wonderful. 49 of us made a little extra effort to smell nice and look fancy. We sailed around the entire Vancouver Island which took over two hours. During this time we relaxed, socialised and consumed a very tasty buffet dinner followed by chocolate cake for dessert. We finished the cruise in the dark, dancing under a disco ball. The group traveled on our Contiki coach for the last time back to our hotel. After we got dropped off we walked to a night club for a couple drinks, a dance and to say goodbye. Saying goodbye was hard - we had spent the last 10 days with such a lovely group of people, people that live all over the world. Where possible we have all connected on facebook and now have contacts in Germany, England, New Zealand, Dubai and other areas in Australia in case we need a bed in the future. What an experience we have had - Jamie and I would recommend travelling this way to anyone {between the age 18-35}. Go here if you are interested.

Tomorrow we say hello to San Francisco and cable cars!!

Riding Banff

We got to sleep in until 9:00am this morning. We had a ‘home-made’ hot breakfast with A&S, plus another couple who visited. That gave us enough energy to ride another Gondola, here in Banff. More amazing views. The rest of the day was ours – we experienced the shopping and ice-cream of Banff. A $2 bus ride took us back to our chalet and we prepared ourselves for a riding experience. Tonight we went on a 45 minute horse ride into the forest for a steak fry, horse shoe throw and lasoo before we road our horses back to the stud. I rode ‘Shorty’, Mr J had ‘Rayleigh’. We walked most of it but occasionally had to trot and gallop, which made your heart race a little faster than normal. We had a well needed, quiet night tonight - ready to move onwards tomorrow. 7 days of Contiki down, its moving along fast, we love it. Contiki is a great way to see areas of the world without the stress of organising it yourself. Transport, accommodation and many meals are already sorted! Thankyou contiki.

Views of Canada

Mr J and I woke up this morning not realising what amazing views were in store. After a free breakfast we were joined by two other males on our tour for a Peak to Peak Gondola experience. We were lifter higher than all the trees and mountains. The views were breathtaking. We reached the top of the Peak and were able to touch snow for the first time {technically second time, we don't remember the first time though}. Many photos were taken.

Next, we met with the bus to drive 5 hours to our next destination. This trip included official introductions, embarrassing stories, views from every angle and some lunch. We arrived at Kamloops, where we discovered our average hotel rooms that smelt very odd. Many of us distanced ourselves from our rooms as long as possible. Mr J and I joined a lovely couple {A&S} for a drink before dinner. We strolled to a local pub where we were all asked for ID, shared stories and got to know each other a little better. A&S are residents of England and have excited us to explore that area of the world in the future. Burgers for dinner with the group was yum. The restaurant had a beer menu of over 130 beers, regardless of that I tried a cocktail called 'Kermits Third Leg' {yes, it was green!}. I sat next to someone who has been to over 40 countries in five years and is doing five contiki tours in five months - what experiences he is living! After all our munchies were gone, we joined four others for a walk through the Main Street. There wasn't much there therefore we were back at our hotel relatively fast. Great day.

Last Day in NY

Jamie and I started our day heading towards 5th Avenue in search of New York's Public Library. We found it. It looked impressive from the outside but was very hard to navigate around on the inside, it was as though they had made it hard for tourists on purpose. After some photos in front of the library we started our walk to Central Park. Along the way we stopped at a few stores including a Lindt store. Bad idea - Chocolate was bought. This store had so many flavours of lindt that I had never seen before, Jamie and I had to try some. We only could afford to look through the 6 floors of Tiffany & Co. and visited the apple store which is open 24/7!! Jamie and I located Central Park and started our stroll. It is massive. 843 acres is quite hard to navigate through therefore we bought a map. We sore baseball fields, green 'paddocks' to kick the ball or have a picnic, volleyball courts, cafes, restaurants and lakes. We paid US$12.50 to hire a row boat and paddle along one of the lakes in Central Park. We had the boat for an hour which was enough to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

It was around 4:00pm when Jamie and I decided to catch our first New York taxi. Definitely an experience as it had its own TV for the passengers and very comfortable seating. We got dropped off at one of the biggest department stores in the World, Macy's. Nine floors of every shoppers dream. After fighting temptation to buy something Jamie and I walked 8 blocks back to our hotel room to get ready for The Lion King in broadway. The show was everything we could have hoped for and MORE. We had goosebumps from start to finish and would do it again any second. Money well spent and definitely recommended. Incredible.

After a busy last day in New York, we managed to see the end of the Olympic 2012 opening ceremony. We will be cheering our home country on from the states and Canada, go Australia go!

Sights to Amaze

This morning Jamie and I walked 45 minutes to The American Museum of Natural History - the museum that Night at The Museum was filmed at. We saw animals and other objects that starred in the film including the Easter Island Head "Dum Dum" who we got a photo with. We then experienced our first Subway ride home before eating subway for lunch.

Shopping time!! Money was spent and time flew. I gained some dresses, jeans with a difference, a jacket and top. Jamie gained some bargain shorts, shirts and jumper. Fun. A good 4 hours later we found some dinner and trekked to Rockefeller Plaza where we used our New York Pass to get us to the Top of the Rock Observation Deck. Sixty-seven floors later we felt as though we were on top of the world! We had a view over the entire New York City and eye balled the Empire State Building. Amazing was what it was. Some time later we walked back to our hotel just in time for midnight and sleep.

Rest, Cycle and Food

We woke up tired today. Jamie and I forced ourselves up this morning to eat breakfast before it was close time. Once we finished eating out cereal, bacon, eggs and pancakes we snuck a doughnut and some yoghurt back to our room to save for lunch. We tend to fill up on breakfast which will generally last our stomachs until dinner, therefore less money spent. We touched base with home on skype and relaxed in our hotel watching a movie {I may have fallen asleep, or as my Dad says "I watched the TV with my eyes shut"}.

After a couple hours in an air conditioned room we hired two bicycles and went for a ride along the Pinellas Trail. It was a chance to drive in American traffic, on the wrong side of the road {for Australians} and experienced more 'all way' STOP signs. Fun. It was warm but the breeze was cooling. After riding for one and a half hours we stopped for ice-cream and went back to our hotel to jump straight into the pool. After not seeing a squirrel at all this week, today we saw at least three.

Showered and fresh now. Jamie's relatives visited us at our hotel to say goodbye. A taxi picks us up after a morning wake up call, early in the morning. Due to such an early start we cleaned and packed up our room before heading out for dinner at a American style pub tonight. Jamie filled up on a porker combo {pork sausages, pork ribs and 1/4 chicken) with sweet potato fries and garlic mash, while I enjoyed my rainbow trout salad baguette with greens. It was nice.

Jamie and I are looking forward to starting our days as big kids tomorrow. Preparing ourselves with sunscreen and watching the disney channel on our widescreen tv.

A Busy Friday

Mr J and I can't complain we didn't get our exercise today. We left our hotel after breakfast on a mission to get to the closest mall by foot. It didn't look too far on the map but after a good hour of walking we had done a lot of talking and laughing but had no sight of a mall. We estimated that we had walked a good 3 miles (almost 5km) and decided to stop. We went into a walmart to see what they had instead. This wasn't the common walmart, instead it was a 'neighbourhood store' which is closer to a supermarket. All I can say is... cheap!! Mr J bought one litre of Gatorade for US$1. You can buy a large bag of M&M's for just over US$1 also {my brother would love this at home!}. We bought some necessities and found a bus stop nearby. We caught the bus back to our hotel after realising we had not put sunscreen on and were quite pink {there may be an ozone layer here compared to none at home but the sun still burns, it just takes a little longer}.  The bus trip was US$2, again very cheap! Mr J and I got off a stop early and picked up homemade ice-cream from a store nearby. It was a struggle to eat it faster than it was melting but after a messy face and a few giggles we got there. Back at the hotel, it was pool time. We then got ready for the wedding rehearsal and dinner.

At the rehearsal dinner we experienced our first American barbeque. YUM! I can't tell you what I was eating but it was tasty. Mr J went back for seconds, a big seconds! We ate cream pies, cake pops and we had Australian chocolates and lollies {candies} for the Americans to try. By this time there are a few Australian friends and family of the groom in Florida.

I have an American gentleman trying to teach me how to come across as a local. He is ATTEMPTING to teach me their accent and slang, I need a lot more practice. I was introduced to a lot of people tonight and none of them had heard of my name before. They like it {at least that's what they are telling me}. It's amazing to see how intrigued the Americans are about us, our culture and our accent. We often are getting people come up to us to hear us speak - quite frankly, I don't mind as I like hearing them talk too. Mr J has met the other men in the bridal party and gets along with them very well, one in particular has made time to get to know us and is picking Mr J up for the wedding tomorrow. All Americans are lovely, their service is incredible as they have to work for it {tips} and they have manners.

Mr J's cousin, who we havent seen for a couple of years lives with his wife and son, 4 hours away from here. They came across for the wedding and are staying in the same hotel as us. Its great! We grabbed a ride home with them from the dinner and as Mr J will be doing his groomsman duties tomorrow, I will be driving with them to the wedding also. Mr J and I also have organised to catch up with them over breakfast in the morning.

Jamie loved the bucks show yesterday!! They played dodgeball and other games at the venue. He ate pizza, talked guy stuff and went for a swim.

Wedding day tomorrow. Bliss!