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World Tour 06
hello everyone,
welcome once again to the monthly installment of World Tour '06. Last time you heard from us we were sunning our chiselled physiques on the shores of California, now we find ourselves thousands of miles away, just outside of Philadelphia(cue Springsteen). Were currently making the most of our extensive friends and family network and are staying with Chris, Sue, Ben and Abbie Rains, who are taking fantastic care of us, despite going through the process of having a new kitchen fitted. None of us are complaining that the BBQ's working overtime!
After leaving California, which was an amazing experience staying with the extended Phelan family and going to a fantastic wedding, we headed to Las Vegas. This journey was our first taste of the infamous Greyhound bus, although weve all come out alive, we cant say we would try it again. We came across some interesting people during our extensive layovers. Anyway, back to the point, Las Vegas. We arrived at night which was probably the best time to do so because it meant that we were greeted by the famous LV skyline. The place is crazy, the amount of money that goes into the hotels, restaurants etc is unbelievable. Its definately the most excessive place weve been. But we have to admit that we had a really good time. The hotels are like nothing youve ever seen, rivers going through, pirate ships, ferrari garages, just about anything you can think of. Despite all this, we stayed in a travel lodge and ate at Denny's. Probably best that were not old enough to gamble there as we still had a while left and the parents wouldnt appreciate that phone call! We saw one bloke who just lost $2000 and was panicing becasue his wife was going to leave him..haha..youve got to laugh.
The highlight however of our trip to LV was the plane tour of the Grand Canyon. Although it wasnt cheap, this was one of our best experiences and was well worth it. The vastness of the canyon is amazing and were glad we got to take it in via air. you'll have to check out the photos and see for yourself.
After Las Vegas we flew to the place we were staying South Carolina. We had a timeshare week in Myrtle Beach which is famous on the east coast for being a holiday destination with over a hundred golf courses. The resort was great and we had no reason to really venture out because we had 3 pools, jacuzzi, our own kitchen and lots of sunshine. We saved some moeny that week by going back into our old habits and cooking for ourselved, which went down very well, one mexican meal in particular was cracking!
There was much deliberation as to what we would do with our last few weeks, there was a couple of places we were definately goin but we needed to fill out 3 remaining weeks. We eventually decided to get a flight to Toronto and see Niagra Falls as well. We leave for Canada on Saturday so we'll let you know how it goes.
Meanwhile, after Myrtle Beach, we rode that angry Greyhound to Virginia Beach, VA. Fancying ourselved as seasoned travellers we werent fussed that we had no accomodation planned, we'd worry about that nearere the time. This cocky attitude backfired horribly, we arrived in Virginia Beach at 11pm on a saturday night, discovering that this is where everyone comes for the weekend. As we trundled down the high st on a saturday night amidst the drunken masses with our stupid backpacks on, every hotel turned us down. We searched for over an hour and everntually has to pay a ridiculous nightly rate at a swanky timshare resort, which was the most expensive 10hours of our lives, considering we had to check out at 10am. The next day was much more successful. We found oursleves a nice cheap hotel which had a pool and eveything and was right on the beach. We spent the rest of that day on the beach, some old guy asked if he could join in playing american football with us..were not particularly gifted at american footy but we thought, this old guys not gonna do any harm so we let him join in. seems he may as well have been the NFL's 1972 MVP, he was throwing that ridiculously shaped ball like an bullet. a few of us bailed out after a while but he may as well have had james doing shuttles..poor lad got ran of his feet by the old timer.
The next day we were just relaxing by the pool, minding our own business, when out of nowhere, our natural British charm attracted some attention. Next thing we know we're at the local mall with some of Virginia beaches finest young talent. It really is like the movies..thanks Hugh Grant. We had a pretty funny evening and stayed up much later than we should have done, bearing in mind that we had to be up at 5am to get our good old friend the greyhound to Washington DC.
We arrived in DC early afternoon, not really feeling like going sightseeing but this was our only chance so had to rally ourselved round. We saw all the main sights like the Whitehouse, Lincoln memorial, war memorial etc etc and enjoyed ticking this off our list as another memorble place to visit. And despite hearig stories of murders and shootings etc..we found that DC was pretty nice.
The next day we had a relatively simple journey to Philadelipia where Sue picked us up from the staion and took us to there house a few miles out of town. We spent a day in Philly, seeing the main tourst attractions, particularly the stairs at the Philly art gallery which are in Rocky 1.
Yesterday we got back from spending two days in New York. i think we all agree that the big apple lived up to its reputation. we were taken back by the size and busyness of the place the minute we walked out of the train station into madision sq garden. our hotel was ideally placed off times sq and we spent the two days walking around the city. we saw the statue of liberty, empire state building, ground zero, and all the other places we see so often in films and tv. im sure you'll find out eventually. we got some amazing photos, had some greasy NY pizza and did a little bit of shopping to add to the experience. although we got thoroughly lost in Macys. We had a great time in NY and would definately reccomend it and go back there ourselves someday. This trip has taught us that its not really that far!
Tonight were going to a minor league baseball match and weve got a few more thing lined up so keep an eye on the photos and we'll keep you informed.
Looking forward to seeing you all in a couple of weeks.
Adam, James, Sam and Ali
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