On the Road - Maryland to Georgia Jan 6th-7th

Time for the first big leg of our roadtrip - getting from the DC area down to Atlanta. We wanted to take the scenic route through Shanandoah National Park, which has one of the most amazing driving roads through the mountains in the USA. Unfortunately, it was closed due to the snow so we had to take the interstates, nevertheless I-81 is one of the prettiest routes down through the east coast.

Over the two days we went through Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and finally down into Georgia. We made a couple of stops, at Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville, stayed the night in Colonial Heights (some tiny ass town in Tennessee), Asheville, went through Spartanburg, and Greenville.

Interstate billboards are also very interesting - especially the increase in billboards advertising guns, weaponry and $2.95 bales of hay (we will definitely get some of this) as we got further south.

Washington, DC Jan 5th

Sue & Gary took us in while we were in Maryland

The Capital. Obama's House. There are a lot of famous sites and buildings in DC, and we managed to cram most of it into the one day we were there. It was cold as hell, but even as a foreigner, there was something strangely patriotic about standing in front of Lincoln as he presides over the national mall from his huge BOSS chair.

Simply put though, the day was pretty much filled with standard tourist stuff. Oh, and Sas didn't realise that she was being hit on by the black Starbucks dude. She never realises - she's apparently exotic and from South Central.

New Jersey Jan 2nd - 4th

New Yorkers have something against New Jersey, but we loved the place (except for the cold weather). I got to flip the giant tyre at DeFranco's Training Systems (no Marcus, I didn't get to use the Prowler), Sas got to go shopping twice (Paramas Mall and Jersey Shore Outlets) and Phil got to eat WhiteCastle's.

We stayed with Phil's family friends Barbara & Tom who were kind enough to have us for 2 nights. Their daughter Marissa was around our age and she and her boyfriend took us out to a bar the first night. Second night I got myself engaged in a 4000 or-so piece puzzle and got addicted. It was so not satisfying.

Next stop - DC!

Road Trip!

We picked up our ballin' PT Cruiser 2 days ago and set off from the middle of Manhattan - final destination: Miami, Florida. Straight away I managed to find myself driving the wrong way on a one way street.

The freedom is awesome. And our GPS, Eileen (named by Phil), although temperamental, has managed to get us everywhere we've wanted to go so far. Lots of interesting things on American interstates: cars with roadkill strapped to the back, highway police everywhere, and a Macca's pit stop every 10 miles.

I'm going to try and keep track of where we are, so you can follow us on our epic trip. So, before we got the car, we've covered San Francisco - Las Vegas - New York - Montreal - Mont Tremblant - than back to New York.

Plane travel = black
Train travel = white
Bus travel = dark green
Car travel = dark blue

New York (New Years) 30th Dec - 2nd Jan

NYC during the New Years period is on a whole other level. It all revolves around a crystal ball dropping 23 metres. People have to wait in the cold from 2:00pm onwards, penned in cages and peeing in bottles to see that. But you gotta do it once.

We didn't though. We got VIP tickets to a rooftop club in Times Square instead. Even so it was crazy having to get a police escort to take us through the crowds in Times Square to get to the place. There were loads of people, and probably just as many police.

Anyway, the night was real good.

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE! Best wishes for the rest of the year - love you all!

See more at:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/album.php?aid=364130&id=676440424

Montreal (Mont Tremblant) 26th-30th Dec

Got our appetite for snow in New York. Montreal definitely satisfied it. Had a blast watching Sas step into huge puddles of melted snow thinking it was pavement, snow tubing, skiing the slopes of Mont Tremblant, and finishing off the cold days with a nice relaxing session in the outdoor spa outside our condo.

First time skiing for all three of us, and there were some pretty huge stacks, but it was a shitload of fun after the first couple of runs. Don't worry, Sas's knees survived. Just.

It's also extremely cool to be able to chill your beers by just leaving them outside on the balcony for 5 minutes. It is not extremely cool to go ice-fishing in minus 25 C weather and catch nothing for 3 hours. We ended up hiding in the heated tent, warming up our hands and feet over the gas burner. Sas managed to burn her Converses, I burnt my jacket and Phil melted one sock onto the other.

See full album:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2885087&id=764974345#/album.php?aid=364105&id=676440424

New York (Xmas) 22nd-26th Dec

This place really does inspire you, its an amazing metropolis. Empire State Building, Central Park, Madison Square Garden, Times Square, Rockefeller Centre, Wall Street, Brooklyn Bridge, 5th ave, Madison ave and Soho - all these unique and distinct places are woven together to create this amazing fabric of humanity. Apparently it takes 7 years to learn how to live in New York City, and we only have 7 nights to try and get a taste of it (4 nights over Xmas, then back again for 3 nights over New Years).

A few highlights include the landmarks we visited, such as the amazing views from Empire State and 'The View' (a revolving restaurant/bar on top of Marriot Marquis in Times Square), the huge sandwiches at Carnegie deli (2 pounds of meat standard), making snowmen in Central Park on Xmas eve, watching the Knicks vs Heat at MSG and of course, bumping into Ol' onion bag Tommy Smyth at PJ Moran's.

See the full album:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/album.php?aid=364125&id=676440424