Michigan, Chicago, Michigan

Ok so you dont reallly get an idea for how big the States is (or how far your friends drove down to pick you up - a solid 18hrs!!) until you go on a road trip - and Texas to Michigan is pretty much right up through the middle of the country and my biggest leg yet. We went through about 5 different states, a time zone, and countless bottles of pop (fizzy drink) and movies but managed to arrive safely in Michigan at 6:30am Thurs driving through a couple of nights and napping in Chicago before continuing the final 8 hours up to Rogers City

Rogers City, Michigan
Ah, Michaela's home town, its always really nice to see where your friends grew up and meet their family. Well in Mick's case she has the best of both worlds - a beautiful house right on Lake Huron and an awesome family - had deep and meaningful's with her mom, her dad took me rifle shooting (scary but good to learn how to shoot a beer can) and I was even cool enough to tag along to glow bowling with her little sister and her friends! Rogers City was a great place to take a couple of days out and relax (but we still managed to get a lot done!)



The three days included a day trip on the ferry to Makinac Island to get some delicious fudge and pasties and of course to learn about some history too. There are no cars on the island so the whole place smells like a mix of horse dung and fudge - its a beautiful place! Also got to pick heaps of fresh veges at Mick's childhod friend's Grandma and Grandpas and learnt how to jetski and kneeboard (Im much better at the first : P we went all the way out to 40-mile point and saw a sunken ship!) Had a bonfire on the beach and cooked hot dogs on sticks and made s'mores - yummy!! Ate a lot of delicious home cooked food and had a great time learning about this quaint town right on Lake Huron. Thanks to the Lynch's for having me : )



Chicago
Went to see Blue Man Group (http://www.blueman.com/) which I'd seen advertised at the Venetian in Vegas but didnt have the time to go so sooo stoked I got to see it in Chicago - what an amazing show!! If it ever comes anywhere near where you are ever you should definately go and see it!!! Ive never had that much fun at a show with toilet paper, vacuum cleaners, and electronic sign boards - it was really interactive and such a great way to finish off our trip : )


Chicago Downtown is really nice, I spent about 2 1/2 days just wandering around (and taking the free shuttle buses) there's actually quite a bit to do here (even on a budget - Im paying for the skydiving now!!) Managed to see the Field Museum, Solider Field, Adler Planetarium, Buckingham Fountain, Art Institute of Chicago, Millenium Park (with Crown Fountain and the awesome liquid mecury reflecting bean), Navy Pier, Sears Tower, Federal Bank of Chicago (which was actually really interesting - got to play a monetary policy game and see one million US dollars in $1, $20 and $100 bills), Daley Centre, Cultural Centre, Gallery 37, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Hancock Observatory, Water Tower, Hershey's Factory, Stained Glass Museum and even got to pack up some freight at Hankyu Cargo. Oh yeah, and of course we cant forget the delicious deep dish pizza!!




Muskegon/Holland, Michigan
Spent a week and a half chilling with Don and his family/friends in Muskegon/Holland, Michigan. Thanks to everyone for having me :) I had a great time in these smaller towns - great to visit places that you wouldnt come unless you knew people, Holland - as you can guess - was very Dutch influenced and is where Don (and Michaela's) university - Hope College is, and Muskegon is about 30 mins drive north. While here I managed to catch a couple of local festivals - Friday night in the park, Shoreline Spectacular for Labour Weekend, Roosevelt Park Days (pancake breakfast, parade, market, beertent) and the Tulipanes (a latino art and film festival where I saw an amazing movie - Goal:The Dream Begins!!! I think it might almost be a new favourite - and thats saying a lot from the chick who doesn't really like movies! so if you get a chance, go see it, it made me laugh, cry, cheer, smile from the heart and ended with the whole audience in applause).


Spent a lot of time chilling watching movies/the boys play video games as the only real thing we had planned was to visit a couple of the oldest homes in the area and make a trip to the local theme/water park, Michigan Adventure, which has a huge wooden roller coaster and the Funnel of Fear Waterslide. But highlights of my stay were the things more spontaneous including convincing Don's friends to get a 30pack of beer and play Circle of Death, go mini golfing at 9:30pm, play giant chess at 2am and invest in a 4L tub of chocolate icecream.




We ate quesadillas, pizza hut buffet (with cinnamon sticks instead of chips!), Japanese, homemade chicken fried rice and omlettes, pop tarts, huge fresh pretzels, homemade "instant" choc chip cookies, animal crackers, fudge, gravy train and my first PB&J sandwich (well technically it was a roll but still!) Had lots of deep and meaningful conversations about cultural differences and perceptions, got a lot of love and attention from Don's cats (especially Pauwz) and generally just had a great time getting to know the people around here (including Louie who doesnt believe in lounge furniture because it leaves less space for pianos and whose dining room is an American diner!) Thanks Michigan, I've had a great time!!

Texas

Had an awesome time in Texas and managed to do a lot of things and meet a bunch of cool people as well as catch up with some people I already knew were amazing.

Flew on Southwest Airlines from LA to Austin, Texas (with a short layover in El Paso) was met by Tom and went to Whole Foods (an organic supermarket meets a food court) for a break from your stereotypical American lunch. Got an awesome tour around San Marcos and saw a dry formed cave, the fault line that divides the state, an antigravity house and rode a boat with a glass bottom to look down into natural springs where Tom scuba dives.


We drove to Houston and got to spend some time chilling in the Museum distric with Tom and his family, Saw the Menil collection, Rothko chapel, contemporary art museum and walked around Hermann Park before meeting up with Micheala and her boyfriend Joe who had driven all the way down from Chicago to pick me up!! Its a huge drive so really appreciate it guys :)


Had a great time in Houston getting a personalised tour from Jonathan (Mick's friend from High School - thanks so much for letting me stay at your place dude, was great to meet you!) In 4 days we saw alligators (got to touch a 4 day and one year old as well as a Texas Rat Snake) drove past Nasa and Enron, swam in the Gulf of mexico (pretty dirty water but nice and warm), toured around the USS Texas (the only US naval ship to be in commission for both World War One and Two) and saw where Texas won back her Independence.








While in Houston we ate a wide variety of foods; mexican (quesadillas are my fave), curry, sushi, pizza and of course Texan BBQ but the craziest thing by far was jumping out of an airplane at 14000ft and freefalling 8000ft (at 120mph it only takes 60 seconds) before parachuting back down to land, all with a 40 year old man strapped to my back - aweome experience, would definately recommend it - although I must warn you, its kinda addictive

Los Angeles (31 July - 7 Aug)

We ended our tour in LA but not before visiting a viewpoint to see the famous Hollywood sign and the Chinese Theatre where I saw heaps of famous people's feet/hand prints and signatures - the most exciting being Adam Sandler - done only last year!

LA Cuisine
In'n'out burger is traditional Californian cuisine. with a menu of Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger, Fries and Drinks its pretty basic so even someone as indecisive as me can fill their belly - bonus is the burgers include a decent serving of lettuce and tomato (much better than your $1 double cheeseburger at Macas!) And to top it all off visit Westwood (in the university district) to indulge in a true ice-cream sandwich at Diddy Riese, for $1.25 you can choose two fresh cookies and they will chuck in a scoop of any ice-cream flavour you want!

Fogo de Chao in Beverly Hills is about the fanciest and most amazing restaurant Ive ever been to. Its a buffet salad and then they have 13 types of meat where once you've flipped your table card over to green the waiters bring pieces over to you and cut them straight off their skewers! (to get the real idea check out their website http://www.fogodechao.com/) So full from lunch that all we could have for dinner was Coldstone Creamery where you choose your flavour of ice-cream, sauces and candy and they mix it together for you on the spot!

LA Attractions
Okay so there's a lot of theme parks in LA - Universal Studios, Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland just to name a few. We decided to go to a true thrill park - Six Flags Magic Mountain. In one day we managed to ride 11 coasters (Tatsu, Psyclone, Riddler, Batman, Superman, Ninja, Goliath, Scream, Viper, X, Deja Vu) I think I tired Kyle out a bit and we lost a couple of brain cells but it was time to go when the last coaster we went on (Deja Vu) decided to lock up near the end and not let us off - kinda relaxing but definately glad we weren't stuck upside down.

Went on a day trip with Kyle in his Mustang down to San Diego to go to the Zoo. Despite running into a lot of the famous LA stop-go traffic it was definately worth the trip - the zoo was awesome we saw heaps of animals; 18-foot snakes, hummingbirds, galapagos turtles, flamingo, apes, gorillas, monkeys, tiger, okapi, hippo, otter, polar bear, zebra, gazelle, giraffe, meerkats, kangaroos, koalas, bats, lion, elephant, panda and even kiwi and tuatara!

A walk along Venice and Santa Monica Beach proved that the lifeguard towers from Baywatch were actually real - and of course I had to get photos with the sexy lifeguards to prove it! Spending a couple of hours walking along, chilling and swimming at the beach was a great way to spend a Saturday morning and then in the afternoon Kyle taught me how to play table tennis!



And on Sunday what better way to spend the afternoon than at the ball game! We went to watch a baseball game at the Angels Stadium in Anaheim where the home team beat visitors Texas Rangers 9-1 it was an awesome game, and we had pretty good seats in the shade (much needed after getting burnt at Santa Monica Beach) with a good view over the pitch

Downtown LA can be a little scary (even during the daytime) as there are a lot of bums around and the streets are kind of dirty - but there are a couple of places worth mentioning. Grand Central Market is pretty cool (like an indoor farmers market meets a foodcourt) and Angels Flight (was under repair while I was here but seems like a cool little cable car) leads to Watercourt Park - a cute place to relax especially if you had to walk up the steps rather than taking the cable car. And finally Olera Market in North Downtown near Chinatown is a taste of a Mexican Market and also houses LA's oldest house, built in 1818.

All in all there's a lot to do in this big city, be careful because many places are closed on a Monday and be ready for the stop-go traffic but definately glad I had a mate to visit all the sites with and a car so we could get to see all the things there were to do around the city - thanks heaps for having me Kyle!

Camping tour of California, Nevada and Arizona

Stick 13 randoms in a van with a tour leader and a couple of tents and what do you get - an awesome week, visiting some amazing places and some great new friends. Signing up for a Trek America tour before I left NZ meant Id had a good couple of months to look forward to it but it definately lived up to expectations - and then some

Yosemite National Park
Saw Half Dome, El Cap, Seqouia Forest (the largest living things on earth - one fallen one was wider than my old room!), also saw Bridalveil and Yosemite Falls but the highlight was definately the 8 mile hike to the top of the Nevada Falls!! It was a pretty tough hike but we'd allocated most of the day for it, which included time for a sunbathe at the top. We came back down the Mist Trail and walked through the mist - and rainbows - coming off the Vernal Falls which was amazing!
Las Vegas
Okay, this place is amazing! We drove through the Nevada Desert to get to the 110degree heat but it was definately worth it for the limo ride in a Hummer Limo for 2 hours down the strip when we first got there, followed by a stop in at the Bellagio and dancing the night away at The Beach! We had a free day in Las Vegas the next day and it was another solid 14 hours of walking around trying to cover all the casinos with their amazing themes. We saw Caeser's Palace (complete with Statue of David), The Mirage (with a white lion and aquarium), The Venetian (set up to look like Venice complete with gondolas), The Wynn, Circus Circus, The Stratosphere, The Sahara, Riviera, Paris, MGM, New York New York, The Pirate Show at Treasure Island, Excalibur and finally Luxor. Even managed to get in a couple of hours tanning at the pool in!

Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon was amazing - words cant really describe it so heres a couple of pictures (for more check out my photos online http://kiwigirlnextdoor.spaces.msn.com) In one day we managed to watch the sunrise, take a helicopter ride down into the canyon and hiked a mile down to Ooh-Aah point. A pretty wicked place to hang out and spend a day!

A week on the West Coast

Seattle, WA 13-15 July 2006
Stayed with a friend I met through couchsurfing called Scott who plays bass in a band called sea.mine (you can listen to my favourite song of their's "Knives" at http://www.myspace.com/seamine ) so got to hang out with the band - awesome guys, hope they make it to NZ some time! Also got a lot of touring of Seattle done even though I only had a couple of days there. Saw the Space Needle at the Seattle Center, the first ever Starbucks and the fish throwers at Pike Place Market, Capitol Hill, had some delicious Thai in the U-dub district and went for a swim in Green Lake

















Spokane, WA 16-20 July
Took at 6 hour train ride east to go and visit Matt in Spokane. Spent 4 days there mainly just chilling at his house which was definately needed to recover a bit from my glandular fever. Got to know his flatmates (thanks for having me!) awesome to know they'res some good people taking care of our Matt!! Managed to get into the city centre and cruise around Riverfront Park for the afternoon which was awesome and got to see some pretty cool sunsets too!



San Jose and San Francisco, CA 21-23 July
After taking 3 buses from Spokane and meeting three new people I finally arrived in San Francisco and took the train out to San Jose to stay a night with Daniel, we went clubbing with is friends and I had my first mojito - yummy!

Stayed two nights in a backpackers in San Fran, did a walking tour around the city the first day and saw Union Square, Chinatown, Little Italy (North Beach), Churches, Washington Square, The Bay Bridge, Coit Tower and finished up the day with a big bowlfull of clam chowder in Sourdough Bread and got a caricature done at Fishermans Wharf.
















The second day I rented a bike from my hostel and covered the Japan Center, Alamo Square (the famous houses from Full House), Golden Gate Park (where I went into the Conservatory of Flowers to see the butterflies), Ocean Beach, cycled across Golden Gate Bridge, Chrissy Field, Palace of Fine Arts, Ghiradelli Square, Lombard "crookedest street" and finished the day with an Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe.


12 hours of biking is a lot but it was the best way to see as much of the city as possible. San Fran is probably my favourite place so far so would definately recommend a visit. Remember if you want to see the rest of the photos you can visit http://kiwigirlnextdoor.spaces.msn.com

Love you and miss you
Stay safe and don't do anything I wouldnt do
- Melissa xx