Hi everyone,

We know it's been a while since we wrote the last blog in New York but it is amazing how impossible it is to find internet access in the US! Everywhere has wireless and our last hostel in Chicago that did have internet only let you go on for 15 mins... not long enough for me to waffle!

So since we left New York we spent a couple of days driving up to Niagara Falls and got to take in the lovely fall scenery as we went - all the trees are amazing colours, though i think I appreciated this more than Alex! We stayed on the Canadian side of the falls which has the more spectacular views and despite the frosty temperatures we had a great time exploring. The town itself is a little tacky and very overpriced - they charge you for everything, even a walk! We did all the must see touristy bits including the famous Maid in the Mist boat trip. This was our favourite bit as it is only when you are on a boat at the foot of the falls with the spray and wind blowing in your fave that you can really apprecaite the sheer power of the falls, particularly the horseshoe falls. Apparently one fifth of the worlds natural water flows through the Niagara river and over the falls and when you watch the sheer volume of water flowing over the top you can quite believe it.

We were lucky enough to be there on a Friday evening so at 10pm were able to watch the weekly fireworks display which was really huge. It is certainly the m,ost spectacular backdrop to any firework display I have ever seen, especially with the falls illuminated. We also spent an afternoon driving up to Niagara on the Lakes, a more classy neighbourhood that sits on Lake Erie and the Niagara river - lots of sailing clubs and expensive restaurants which our budget doesn't extend to!

After 2 nights in Niagara we started the journey to Chicago, stopping en-route at a pretty touristy resort on Lake Erie called Sandusky. After the peace of the lakes and waterfronts the traffic getting in to Chicago was quiote a shock and we were quite relieved to drop the hire car off as navigating through the city is not easy!

We had a great couple of days going through the parks, walking along the waterfront (Lake Michigan) and going up the Sears tower which is the USA's tallest building - the observatory is on the 103rd floor, so quite a bit higher than the Empire State building. We also sampled some of the famous deep pan Chicagoan pizza which was the best we've ever had and well over an inch deep. In the pizzeria we were lucky enough to be sitting next to a lady who gave us 2 access all area passes to a work conference after party at the famous house of blues. Unfortunately they weren't playing blues music but they did have a good dj and free bar all night so can't get much better than that!

From Chicago we flew 1000 mile to Denver, the Mile High City and from here onwards the scenery has been amazing and so diverse. Just north of Denver we went to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre which is a natural amphitheatre with accoustics so good that artists even record there. The scenery was amazing, huge red rocks rising up out of nowhere. Rosemary - we need a geography lesson on how these formed when we get home please! I do admit to panicing slightly when the bushes rustled and I saw a flash of golden fur having just read a warning about Mountain Lions but fortunately it was just a very large fox.

From denver we drove through and quite literally at one point over the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of over 12000 feet. The views were spectacular, the drops by the side terrifying and we were both surpised at the thinness of the air. When we got out at a viewing point at the top a brisk walk up a slight incline literally made my chest hurt - felt very unfit!

Luckily we cleared the mountains the day before the snow arrived, some parts of the mountains further north had about 3 feet of snow and some ski resorts are already opening, so although it's a shame we missed a chance to ski I don't think either of us fancied driving some of those mountain roads in heavy snow.

The scenery changes quite dramatically as you travel across the country and as we entered Utah it became much more desert like and you start getting amazing canyons and red rock formations. We spent a day visiting Arches national park which surprisingly enough has naturally formed arches and lots of other bizarre shapes such as the balancing rock where this huge boulder is precariously balancing atop a narrow pedestal, plus my personal favourite the 3 gossiping women! We'll upload some photos soon so you can see what we are talking about.

We then had a quick stop at the Dead Horse point look-out in Canyonlands where you get amazing views across these huge canyons with the Colorado river running throug it.

We were planning to visit Monument Valley too but the following day there were strong winds and huge sandstorms as we caught the bottom end of the cold weather front coming across the country so we decided to scarper further south to find some more sun. The drive down was definitely an experience though going through huge canyons along the colorado river and then going into electric storms and near zero visibility from sand storms... good fun though!