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Salt Lake City, Utah
As we headed inland on the Greyhound we started to pass some really nice scenery with the journey to and through Utah consisting of mainly desert with lots of different rock formations that made us feel as though we were in the middle of a western. We had to cross a mountain range in the night so when we awoke on the bus nearing Salt Lake we found we were surrounded by goodness knows how many snow topped mountains which encircled the city.
This was our first taste of really cold weather, with snow on the ground and the sight of our breath in the air! We had 2 days here and on the first day we mainly walked around the residential streets where our hostel was along with relaxing in the hostel after our restless night on the bus. Salt Lake City is known for being an area highly populated with Mormons and is their 'base' if you will. This was evident on our second day here when we walked to the city center. There is an area called Temple Square which is several large buildings, fountains, and a church all belonging to the Latter Day Saints. Why they have an enormous 'office' building is a little baffling but makes us even more skeptical of the religion. The area was architecturally very pretty but must have cost an absolute fortune, so why it is needed or why the 'members' hard earned money has gone on these aesthetically pleasing (but serve no purpose) things is confusing. We continued on through the city to a large empty building which although now empty, used to be the grand hall of the Victorian railway station that was here. It was enormous with the murals on the ceiling around 30feet in the air. Now it just serves as a walk through to a modern area that is the city's main shopping center. We grabbed some lunch and had a wander around the shops before returning to the hostel where cooked some dinner (the first time we've cooked since arriving in the U.S!) and used the internet to arrange the continuation of our journey. Salt Lake was pleasant and not filled with bible wielding people trying to convert us as we had first anticipated! Sadly the pretty parts were pretty for the wrong reasons, still the beautiful mountains surrounding more than made up for it.
Glenwood Springs, Colorado
We may have been surrounded by mountains in Utah, but when we arrived in Glenwood Springs we were among them! The scenery and the place itself was beautiful, a nice village type feel although it was a town, a ski village if you will without the uppity people! The hostel we stayed at (complete with resident dog) and especially the owner, was just as nice and we spent a lot of time there! We decided not to go to Colorado's capital Denver as we didn't want to just city hop and we'd read that Glenwood was a nicer place as a whole. We are really pleased with our decision as the 5 days we ended up staying there were really nice and relaxing, aside from the last one! The reason we had such a nice time is because we didn't really do anything for the first time in a long time, so it was really nice to stop and stay in the same bed for more than a couple of nights! Our days here were spent doing only a few things. We walked around the town (of course, as you'll know by now we do this everywhere first of all!), we relaxed in the hostel, and we took the dog on a few walks. One of the walks we took him on led us up a rather steep hill (a section of it was covered in ice so getting up that was like the travelator from Gladiators!) into the snowy woods and toward a cemetery situated overlooking the town. It was a very pretty vantage point and home to many elders from the town as most people had passed away in the late 1800s or early 1900s, yet the tombstones mostly looked new. They were either very well maintained or belonged to people with enough wealth to be able to purchase new ones. The dog had a great time and was running around like a lunatic burning off all the energy he gets from being stuck in the hostel every day. We really enjoyed walking him as it reminded us of home, and walking the dog along the banks of a river one afternoon felt very peaceful.
The one day we did leave the town was to head up to Sunlight Mountain and the ski resort there. We had booked a 2hour snowboarding lesson and an all day ski-lift ticket so that after being taught the basics we could venture off up the mountain on our own. To really master snowboarding you need to learn several techniques but we would only have time to learn one, not a problem as we could still board down the slopes but just using the one technique (heel side if anyone is wondering), as well as knowing how to slow down/stop. With snowboarding it's a given that you WILL fall over, there's no two ways about it. Well actually there are two ways about it, you either fall on your face or fall on your tailbone - neither one a particularly pleasant experience when travelling at any kind of speed. We were fortunate enough to experience both of these - at speed! Prior to this we actually took to it really well and got the hang of it quite quickly and were gliding down the slopes with no problems, a couple of slips backwards onto our bums but nothing that wasn't expected. After the lesson was over we had some lunch before heading halfway up the mountain on the chairlift where we would be boarding down a green run (the easiest). Again we did really well and went round again with no real issues (apart from getting off the ski-lift which was the hardest part!) and had a really good time. With our new found confidence we then went up 2 ski-lifts all the way to the top of the mountain.
The views from the top were more than spectacular; it felt like we were on top of the world as we could see for miles in all directions. There were 2 green runs that went from the top so we weren't too out of our depth, or so we thought. As we headed down we were fine but then sections got steeper, and there were points where you needed to gain enough speed in order to climb areas too as it wasn't constantly downhill. The run was also far longer than we'd anticipated and seemed to go on forever. We'd both taken a couple of tumbles when Andy went a little faster and headed off ahead of Nikki. After boarding off at his own pace he found a section where he could sit and wait for Nikki. He waited and waited (but couldn't go back up to find out where Nikki was) until finally, Nikki appeared at the top of the hill carrying her board. It seems she had taken one fall too many and had really hurt her tailbone to the point where it hurt to walk let alone get back on. So, Andy went on to the end of the run where he summoned help. This came in the form of a snowmobile with a stretcher on the back, and as Nikki had been reported as injured rather than just tired, she had to be strapped onto the stretcher where she was pulled the rest of the way down the slope with everyone staring! Andy had a nice overview of it as he was on the ski-lift heading back up as Nikki passed underneath! Fortunately it was nothing serious, probably just bruised the bone but painful enough where continuing was not an option! As Nikki relaxed Andy had one more run down the first green track we'd been on before deciding that for the last run of the day, he'd head right back up to the top to go on the final green run named 'The Grizzly'. It was a strange name for a 'beginners' run but as I was about to find out the name was suited perfectly.
It started off fine with a steep drop but nothing unmanageable and there were some amazing views out to the left hand side of the run of jagged mountain peaks, really pretty. This run was a lot harder that the other two as the track was much narrower, at one point with big trees 1m to the left and a big drop 1m to my right! Needless to say I was being very cautious, especially when inexplicably the track suddenly turned into a blue run! Unfortunately time wasn't on my side and I knew I needed to get down the mountain reasonably quickly to catch our bus back to town. This meant that I had not 1, not 2, but 3 head-over-heel-slammed-face-first-into-the-snow-at-speed tumbles which were VERY painful. As soon as the front edge of the board catches the snow you slam face first into the (not particularly forgiving) snow but your momentum means your legs continue over your head so you are bent the wrong way round until you are forced to flip. It hurts, a lot, in fact as I write this it's been 2 weeks since boarding and I'm still in a lot of pain. We thought at first it may have been a ribs injury but it's my left pectoral muscle that is giving me a lot of problems so we think I must have torn it or split it or something as it isn't getting better! (Please don't worry, it's not so severe that I need to seek help as I am still able to carry our big bags etc.) When I finally made it to the final section of the mountain I found that I was alone, in fact I was the last person left on the mountain! I hadn't realised but it had taken almost 40 minutes to get back down to the bottom. We had missed the bus but luckily someone working at the resort offered to give us a lift back into town. Despite our falls and the amount of pain we both ended up in (for many days afterwards!) we did have a great time and it hasn't put us off too much, we've just realised perhaps sticking to the very basic of slopes would be a better idea on your very first day of trying snowboarding! A lesson learnt.
Denver Colorado - for 6 hours!
Our bus from Glenwood to our next destination meant we did get to stop in Denver after all for a whole afternoon before catching our connecting bus. We left our bags at the bus station and headed into the city where we took photos of the skyscrapers, had some lunch and wandered up and down the pedestrianised main street. We had a nice afternoon and it's nice to say we've seen Colorado's capital, but it confirmed we'd made the right decision by staying a few hours away in Glenwood Springs instead as, well to be honest, it was just another city - we could have been anywhere. So a nice place to see but there was nothing to make it stand out.
Des Moines, Iowa
Everyone we spoke to wondered why on earth we wanted to stop in Iowa. A huge flat state with fields of corn as far as the eye can see in all directions. Well firstly it meant the long journey from Denver to Chicago was broken up, and secondly Nikki has 2 friends, Ben and Chris, who live there who she had met on a previous trip to New York. We had contacted them only a couple of days before arriving and they had gone above and beyond to welcome us into their home, booking the day off work and setting up a place for us to sleep. It felt a little strange but very relaxing to be able to be in a house rather than a hostel. Their house is beautiful and Andy instantly fell in love with it. It was a little upsetting at the same time to know we could never have a house like it back in England yet we could definitely afford it in terms of what their mortgage is compared to the price of houses back home. From the outside it looks like a bungalow type cabin with a big front garden and an in & out driveway set in amongst trees away from the road. When you enter though, the house doubles in size as the 'basement' is in fact a second floor with a bathroom, 2 bedrooms and a laundry area. It was just as beautiful inside and very prettily furnished. We sat watching the squirrels, chipmunks and birds (including the amazing Red Cardinal) as they fed on the feeders and jumped around the trees outside the windows, we were in wildlife heaven! Unfortunately there was another animal in the house, Kyo their Shiba Inu, who is the first and only animal EVER that hasn't bonded with Andy. Over 2 days the best we could get was sharing the same sofa! Andy's 'Real Life Ace Ventura' title has taken a knock!
We were tired from the overnight journey so after having a shower, freshening up and catching up with the guys we headed out to explore Iowa's capital. Our first destination was a strange one, a large cemetery just outside the city. One of our favourite bands is from Des Moines and their bass player passed away last year. We asked the guys if they knew where the cemetery was so that we could see his grave and pay our respects so we headed over there. It was very big and instead of the headstones sticking up out of the ground, most of them lay flat so it wasn't going to be an easy task finding it. We all split up to look but to no avail, so we finally popped into the building there to enquire. We weren't sure if they were able to disclose information to strangers, but in fact they were courteous about it. They informed us that his family had asked that they didn't disclose the location of his grave which is more than understandable, they apologised (as they could tell from our accents we weren't local!) and thankfully let us know that although we were in the right cemetery, he didn't yet have a headstone so it meant we didn't go off wandering around for the next hour! We certainly never thought we'd ever be in Des Moines, Iowa but we felt it was worth doing as we may not ever get the chance again.
After our interesting start to the tour, Ben and Chris took us to a vegetarian coffee house in town (bless them, they had done some research to find out where the best places would be for us to eat) where we grabbed some lunch before wandering through the centre of town. There was a small park that was full of these amazing sculptures, all different and created by different artists from around the world that we spent some time looking at and getting some funny pictures of. We then hopped back in the car for a guided tour of the city before heading to the outskirts where we drove past some enormous and very pretty houses (well, mansions!) as we discussed the differences between our countries, we were staggered at how cheap (in terms of the UK pound) the houses were. It was then back to their house for a little more relaxing before we all went out for a really nice dinner which the guys graciously paid for. Sitting in a proper restaurant was bizarre to say the least, we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves!
The following day was amazing. Amazingly simple, but still amazing. The guys had to go to work but again, were generous enough to allow us to stay in their house as our bus wasn't until 11pm. We had a great day where we were able to call home to our parents, do some laundry and then spent our afternoon (with Ben who had finished early) watching a film on tv whilst eating fruit and various cheeses. As we said - AMAZING! It was so nice just to relax in a house for a day, it's the little things! The three of us (sadly Chris had to work in the evening) went out for a Vietnamese meal before we were dropped off extremely thankful but a little sad back at the bus station.
Ben and Chris if you read this, we had such a wonderful time staying with you and we are both humbled by the kindness and generosity you showed us. We have learnt a lot about how to treat a guest and hope to try out our new found wisdom on the pair of you if/when you come to London! Thank you.
Chicago, Illinois
'The Windy City', a name we assumed came from the fact it sits on the shore of the enormous Lake Michigan and so experienced high winds. In fact, there are many other cities that are windier than Chicago. It's nickname comes from politics, as back in the day the politicians from Chicago would always talk and boast a lot but never deliver on their claims or promises, and so it's nickname was born (if anyone wins a quiz or any money thanks to this piece of information, you owe us a cut!).
We were only here a couple of nights but did everything we wanted to do. It's easy to see that the fictional Gotham City (the home of Batman) is based on Chicago especially with its metro system that runs along tracks above the streets making everything seem a little dark. Despite the cold temperatures we went for a walk along a section of the shore of Lake Michigan (Andy dipped his finger in the water and can confirm it's a little chilly) until we reached the pier. It was closed as it's the wrong season but on the pier is a ferris wheel, which in fact sits on the site of the very first ferris wheel in the world which originated here. We then headed in toward the city center where we found ourselves at the gothic looking Tribune Tower, home to the Chicago Tribune. At street level all the way around the building set in the concrete are various different rocks from famous things all the way around the world; from the Houses of Parliament in England to the Colosseum in Rome to natural rocks from deserts and other areas. Very cool and very interesting.
We wandered among the shoppers and had what Chicago is famous for at lunch, a deep dish pizza. It was very nice and different to any pizza we've ever had before; they put the tomato puree on top of the cheese so that it all melts underneath, very nice! In the evening we rode on the metro and headed for a very popular restaurant which also happened to have a completely vegan menu. We had to queue for our table but it was well worth it. When we say 'vegan restaurant' you probably think of a small shop down a street full of hippies and people with dreadlocks smoking goodness knows what. Well, this was an upmarket restaurant full of businessmen and socialites (we were the ones who looked the odd ones out!) who come here simply as the food is delicious. Nikki had the 'haddock' which not only tasted like fish, it flaked as you would expect and even had a 'skin' on it! Forget tofu, the American's seem able to create the most amazing mock meat dishes that taste and look exactly the same - just meatless! Sadly we won't be able to return to the same standard of food back home!
The following day we headed back into town where we paid to go up to the top of the John Hancock Center (the sixth tallest building in the States) which gave us views of the city and out over Lake Michigan from 1000ft in the air. As we walked around the four walls we had headsets on and were told all about the city and the various buildings and areas we were looking down upon which was narrated by Chicago resident David Schwimmer, otherwise known as Ross from Friends. It was the first time we'd been 'toured' around one of these places and it was excellent as we weren't just going 'ooh, aah' and looking at everything, we were actually learning more about the city around us WHILST looking at it and going 'ooh, aah'! There's a big difference haha! Once we'd finished admiring, it was back down to street level, back to the vegan restaurant for lunch (yes it was that good, and we had to queue again so everyone else seems to agree!) and our final act in Chicago was queuing up for 30 minutes, for popcorn. Yes I did type the right word you aren't seeing things; half an hour, for a sample, of popcorn. This company and the popcorn it makes is apparently a Chicago tradition and we had a voucher that would give us a free sample. Now under normal circumstances we'd have seen the queue and turned around. But, when you're backpacking, if it means not spending money then we're all for it! We got our sample which yes was nice, but nothing special (don't tell the Chicagoans (is that a word?!)) and we had the option to purchase some but, it was too expensive! We'll just have the free sample thank you!
U.S.A. part 1, complete. Why? Well because we have decided it would be foolish to be this close without doing so, and we are hopping the border to spend a few days in Canada! Impromptu country visit number 2 on this trip, who needs organisation!
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