Day 2, 19th August 2011. Los Angeles.

Woke up at 3.40am, WIDE AWAKE. No chance of going back to sleep, I tried.  about 4.30am I gave in and got up and rang my mum, which woke Gary up with my apparently loud talking. Started just re-organising our stuff and found notes from my sister in our bags :)

My note

Managed to make ourselves wait until 7am to go and get breakfast, which of course had to be at Ihop, a first day in America tradition. I love American breakfasts, it was so nice to have real pancakes again, it made me so happy! We ordered so much food because we hadn't eaten for like a day!!

Ihop

Walking back to the Hacienda, it was grey and very un-California-ish.

A pretty flower

When we got back we got a taxi to the mall, it was about a 10 minute drive away. The first thing we had to do was get a USA sim-card for my phone which was really easy to do, we went straight into the T-Mobile shop and they sorted the whole thing out really easily for me. Then did a little bit of shopping (the first of many trips to Victoria's Secret)

The mall (Westfield Culver City)

Got a taxi back to the Hacienda, and spent the afternoon sitting round the pool, after getting stuck in the lift for 5 minutes first and wondering if we would ever get out (haha it was quite scary)

Pool at the Hacienda

Random photos around the hotel



We had an early dinner at Sizzler at about 6pm because we knew we would fall asleep really early. After dinner when we got back in the hotel, a list had gone up of the people on our trip. It was not the people we were expecting from the Trek America website so we were quite freaked out about that. I was feeling quite worried this evening, anxious about starting Trek tomorrow, doing something completely new and meeting people. Gary re-packed the bags and and we went too bed. I was scared of something in the night (I can't remember what) and climbed into Gary's single bed with him.

Day 1, 18th August 2011. London-Los Angeles

Woke up feeling so strange. This was definitely one of the weirdest morings of my life, being in my bedroom for the last time in over 3 months. Was super excited to start our adventure but so so scared. I don't know why.

Us outside my house about to go to the airport

We got to the airport at about 12.30pm. It was very sad saying goodbye to our mum's and dad's, lots of crying....

At Heathrow (terminal 5)

Checked in our bags, then went through security and ate as much as we could because Gary hates plane food. We also bought a load of food in Boots just before we got on the plane.

Gary getting ready to eat

Our plane

Goodbye London :) I was so ready for this!

And we're off...!

The sky

The flight wasn't too bad. It was the longest flight we had ever done at that point in our lives. It didn't pass too slowly, we watched a few films, read books and starved. The food we bought from Boots before the flight lasted us about 2 hours. We were so hungry for the rest of the flight.

America... :)

We landed at 7pm in LAX. When we were waiting to go through security they were playing Illuminations music (I don't know why, but I'm 100% sure that they was, has anyone else heard it??) ayway, that got me all excited to be in the USA! By the time we got out of the airport it was about 9pm. We had a big confusion waiting for the shuttle to pick us up and take us to the Hacienda Hotel.

YAY! Finally in the USA! Waiting for the hotel shuttle.

We stayed at the Hacienda, which is the hotel that Trek America books for us. It was OK, better than I expected, apart from the single beds!!

We had been up for 22 hours by the time we got to the room, so we went straight to sleep!



Glacier and Yellowstone

Once we got back into the USA our first stop was Montana. We went to Glacier National Park which was really pretty, and we
did a 11.6 mile hike. We then moved on to Yellowstone National Park which was so amazing! Saw some really pretty sights, and saw some geysers erupt!!

Canada

We were in Canada for just under a week. We visited Vancouver for a few hours, then we had 2 really long driving days to get to Banff. On the way we spent a day at Lake Louise, which was super pretty, it even snowed when we hiked quite high up! We spent 3 days in Banff, it was really nice to spend some time in just one place. We had 2 really good nights out and had time to do some other fun activities too. The only problem was how COLD it was there, even in August! Hardly got any sleep most nights because I couldn't stop shivering!

Seattle

Seattle was a nice city. We only had a few hours there so we didn't get to see as much of it as we would have liked. We arrived early afternoon and went to see the Space Needle. We went up it and had some lunch up there, then we wandered down to the Market to have a look around.

San Francisco

San Francisco was so much fun!! The first thing we did when we got there was walk across the Golden Gate bridge, which was super cool!!
Our first night in San Fran was a bit rubbish, we went on a boat tour, but it was too foggy to see anything, and we went out for dinner which was horrible!!
The next morning we had a lovely breakfast on Pier 39 in the Eagle Cafe, then walked around San Francisco looking at all the sights. That evening we went for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which is always fun, and the food was really nice. After dinner we went to see the Giants vs. Padres baseball game at the AT&T stadium, which was so cool! It was so amazing to see a real American baseball game, we loved it!!

Yosemite

Had a crazy time at Yosemite. It was so beautiful :)
We hiked (for 8 hours) up a mountain to Upper Yosemite Falls, it was the toughest thing EVER, but the scenery made it worth it!!

First day

We met our tour group at the hotel and started on our way, we drove through Beverly Hills, then drove to Hollywood Boulevard!
We walked along and saw the stars on the walk of fame (saw loads of Disney ones) and saw the Chinese theatre, and the Disney Soda Fountain.
We then drove into the hills to see the Hollywood sign and views over Los Angeles





It was so pretty up there!! We then had a long drive ahead of us to the campsite where we learned to set up our tents




We had dinner, had a few drinks and then went to bed, the tent was not fun to sleep in and we have realised we need pillows!!

First morning in the USA!

After a loooong flight yesterday, we arrived at LAX last night! Super tired after being up for 22 hours, we went straight to bed (in a hotel room that had 2 single beds)
Woke up at 3.40am this morning, WIDE AWAKE could not get back to sleep, it's now 7.30am and we are sitting in IHOP after having a lovely American breakfast!! We have soooo missed proper pancakes!