Hi everybody,
Sorry for the lack of recent posts we've been very busy having too much fun! We have been to Boston and are currently in New York and we fly back in the wee small hours of the 5th. We will, at this rate, update the blog when we get back home and will be adding more details and photos.

Thanks for reading.

Toronto Pronto Tonto!

CN Tower
Baseball from above
Guess which one had their hood on?
Niagara Faaaaaaaaalls!

Well we crossed the border into Canada and reached Toronto after 19 hours on a bus and four changes(Phil's romantic notion that we avoid New York City until out last stop which added 2 hours to our journey). He said he'll make it up to me somehow, i'm still thinking of how he's going to do that.

If that wasn't bad enough we had a full day walking around D.C. the day before starting at 7 am. To cut a long story short we had gone 38 hours with only 4 hours sleep.

All I managed to do was make my bed and have a shower before flopping into bed. I had such a deep sleep that I didn't hear the Mexican singing and shouting that apprently went on in the courtyard right by my room.

This hostel 'Canadiana' is fantastic. My room had and ensuite bathroom with shower and my bed was lovely and comfortable with crisp sheets. Also they did a free pancake breakfast, although the pancakes were so stodgey that the maple syrup got absorbed instantly so I had to drench them( what a shame). It's the simple and free things that really count when you're travelling.

We didn't realise there was so much to do in Toronto and hadn't budgeted very much for this section of our trip and so mainly lazed about. We went up the C.N. tower on our first day. That was really good because the baseball stadium roof was open and so we could see them practising.

Also, while we were up there, I spotted a funny fan shaped glass roof on the harbourfront. We decided to go there after lunch at ' TimHortons', a popular food branch in Ontario. Phil felt he should have his food for free as him and this Tim chap share surnames.

The roof turned out to cover a stage where a concert was going on. There was a wonderful woman from Barbados playing with an excellent band. They played jazz,blues, soul and calypso and she had the most amazing voice, best of all it was free!

When we got back to the hostel I still needed sleep so had a 'siesta', it was really sweet as, when I awoke, one of my roomates had turned the light off and closed the curtains for me.

Phil loves the fact that he can get served here being 19 and all but I still can't buy alcohol. We should really have thought about that before we came!

Today, we went to Niagra Falls on the cheapest trip we could find. It was pretty decent for the money we paid. We went to a winery and did some wine tasting , not such a great idea at 11 am but hey its the only alcohol i'm going to get while I'm here. We then stopped at the worlds largest whirl pool and then got discounted tickets for Maid of the Mist.

Phil and I looked very fetching in our anoraches and i gave up with mine after it kept falling in my face( hence why Phil looks alot dryer than me). It was fun but I got water in my eyes and it stung like crazy so didn't see alot but there's so much mist that i didn't miss much anyway.

We then went for a walk along the rim and got really close to the Canadian Falls drop (there being 3 waterfalls that make up Niagara- American falls, a small waterfall called something like the bridleway and then Canadian Falls). I followed a certian bit of water with my eye down to the drop and it made stomach fall! I thought it would have been bigger but it was still impressive.

We've just been emailed a link from Caitlin(Phil's pen pal that we stayed with in Seattle) about the hostel we've booked in Boston (our next stop). We had decided to avoid HI hostels after our experience in Washington D.C. but this website says that the hostel we're now going to is horrific and that the manager is crazy and comes into your room in the middle of the night and shines a torch in your face. So we're trying to book some emergency accomodation and it looks like we'll have to stay in the Hi hostel after all, if they have some room. Don't worry Dad i'll keep you posted on that one!

Mr. Horton and Miss. Grundy go to Washington

I thought this got blown up in Indepedence Day?
Washington Monument...how phallic.
We got caught in a freak rainstorm!
Capitol Building
Lincoln Memorial at night

After a long day of travelling involving two buses, two planes and a shuttle minibus, we eventually arrived in Washington D.C! With so much to see, we had to plan our 3 three days with military precision in order to see what we wanted. And see things we did! On our first day, we walked the 6 blocks or so down to the White House for photos, then headed over to the Washington Monument, which is massive. We didn't go up, just took many worm's eye view photos! Then we marched to the Smithsonian area, to see the Museum of American History. Unfortunately the museum is closed for renovation - but no fear! - they've moved their main exhibits over the Air and Space Museum, where we just happened to be going to anyway. This museum holds every important plane ever, I think. From the Apollo 11 command module to the actual Wright Brothers' plane, to the Spirit of St. Louis. And the American History section had some amazing stuff - from the start you had Lincoln's top hat, the original Kermit the Frog. There was also C3PO and R2D2, and one of George Washington's uniforms.

After doing the museums, we needed to update our blog, so went to an area called Dupont Circle, which is a very fancy residential area. It reminded us of Kensington or Chelsea. Big townhouses and trees and such. Swish.

The second day we started at the International Spy Museum, which was very well put together, with lots of crazy gadgets on display (flying pigeons with cameras strapped to them?). There was also a slightly scary room full of anti-communist displays, with titles such as 'The Red Terror', basically saying that all communists are also terrorists. Good to see the Cold War isn't completely over!

After the Spy Museum we checked out the National Archives, which contained many interesting things, including one of the copies of the magna carta. The queue for the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights was massive, and seeing as they don't mean quite as much to us Brits, we thought we'd leave those. You can buy copies in the gift shops anyway!

In the evening we befriended some Swiss girls and walked to the WW2 memorial, which looked good when lit up at night. We also came across a evangelical gathering by the Washington Monument, where far-right Christians were handing us leaflets. But we weren't interested in being converted - we just wanted to use their porta-loos!

On the third day we started at the Capitol building, which was all very patriotic, but very impressive inside. It was good to learn the history of the place (including how the British burned it to the ground!)

From the Capitol we had lots of time to kill (our bus left at 12.45am) so after gettign some Canadian dollars we hung around a coffee/book shop like the cosmopoliatan people we are, then headed to the Lincoln Memorial for some spectacular night time views (see photos!). We also found the creepy Korean War memorial - a dozen or so white statues stood in various poses across a grassy area - it depicted a moment mid-battle, I guess, but they looked like ghosts to me.

So after 17ish hours awake, we then had to get to the Greyhound station for our 19 hour cross-country ride to Canada!

A big hole in the ground!

amazing view number 1
aamazing view number 2
fun and games at the canyon!
our little hostel
Our main reason for visiting Arizona was to see the Grand Canyon, and we got to do that, taking a cool little minibus up there with other travelling folk (who engaged in political and environmental discussion during the journey - the conclusion of which was 'our planet is screwed up'). I can easily say the Canyon is the most dramatic sight I've ever seen. You look out over the cliff and the just this unbelievably big hole in the ground, 10 miles across and a mile deep, with incredible shapes and colours inside it. It's near impossible to comprehend the scale of the place by looking at it - it just looks too big, or as if someone had put a 2D backdrop in the way. The photos can't really convey how big it is - it's a place you have to see with your own eyes. Rose and I did a trail about 2 miles down the South Rim, and by the end of it our legs were in great pain the the dust had covered our legs and shoes! And while we were slogging it back up panting and stopping every 5 minutes, there were people 40 years our senior striding past us. Show offs. Also. a mule farted at us whie it passed. A fond memory indeed! The best part about the hike was, looking across the canyon and being blown away by the size of it every time.

We stayed in a town called Flagstaff that night - town which seems to be run by children and students, with trains literally 1000 metres long passing through every 15 minutes or so. They were also playing The Princess Bride in the main square - so at least they have good taste in films!

We're in Toronto at the moment, after visiting Washington D.C. but judging by the length of time between blog posts, it might be some time before you hear about that!

Without the palm trees this could be Weston-Super-Mare!

One day our names will be on here...
Heaven knows why obesity's a problem in America
The one and only William Bradley Pitt!
How's that for a West Coast image?
They actually have canals in Venice! Ain't they pretty?

Well we've done L.A. now! We got the greyhound, which was a 9 hour trip. I was impressed with the route we took as there were only 2 stops( a 15 min for lunch and a 5 min loo break 3 hours after that). It was good because I knew we were getting there as soon as possible, but I was also worried as the driver looked pretty worn out when he dropped us off.

Our hostel was really nice in Hollywood. It was one of a chain known as " USA HOSTELS", a lot of thought went into the name I know. It was really nicely decorated, very new, and the rooms had their own shower/bath in. Unfortunately, they did not serve the free meals that we were used to 'The Green Tortoise Hostel' so I had to cook my own meal. Phil had wisely opted for a microwaveable thing but I decided to go for the more hardcore macaroni cheese from a box.

There were no measuring facilities in the kitchen and i had not cooked anything in over 3 weeks so everything took twice as long to do. I also had forgotten to get butter and the milk was fat free, so i knew this wasn't going to be the best dish from the start. As i was setting my meal on fire I got chatting to some Danish lads. I don't know why the mocked my food, they were trying to cook roast potatoes and chicken nuggets in a broken oven. when I asked how long they had waited for it to cook they said' so far 1 hour' and i said ' at this rate when do you expect it to be done ' In 3 hours' came the reply (it was already 8.30pm).

There was a free comedy night that night and we got served at the bar, so had a few beers (well i had one to Phil's three). It was very good.

In the morning we decided to go exploring Hollywood Blvd. The museums we wanted to see were shut 'because it's a monday' it was explained. Of course silly us expecting something to be open on a Monday, foolish Hollywood ways.

Instead we went to the Kodak theatre, where the Oscars are held,and walked along the walk of fame. It was all, to me, dissapiontingly ordinary. After eating the biggest slice of pizza I have ever eaten, we decided to take the metro to El Pueblo de Los Angeles (the oldest distrcit in L.A.). We went to an art musuem that celebrated the 'feminist movement'. There was some inspiring stuff but also some, I thought, unecessary exhibits. Unecessary in that they showed pictures, paintings and videos of female genitalia, as if that represented what being femimine and the feminist movement was all about. It angered me as the 'artists' were obviously just wanting to shock people rather than educate or move them.

The following morning we went up the road to see some of the 'Ocean's 13' cast doing the 'cement ceremony'. We got there around 9.30am and there weren't as many people there as i had thought, it being Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon. We lined up behind a metal gate slightly up from the entrance to the Kodak Theatre so we couldn't actually see action. Instead we watched from a live t.v. screen. It was an absolute shambles. The Mayor of Hollywood was presenting the ceremony and he didn't even know what film the gents were from. He made this big announcement and then he pionted to the door and it was like in a movie...everyone got ready and no one came out of the doors. It was so funny. He then had to ad lib for 10 mins until the stars were actually ready to come out. When Brad, George and Matt did come out everyone cheered and the mayor told everyone to quieten down. What? Hello! This is Brad pitt we're talking about.

Anyway, after the ceremony all three of them came down the red carpet and signed things for the fans and it was all very exciting. We then moved hostel, because a guy in San Fran had mentioned a hostel right on Venice Beach.

When we got there, the weather was cloudy and chilly and the hostel was pretty grim. As we walked along Venice Boardwalk we were pretty miserable and hence came up with the title of this update.

Phil: Venice Beach is a strange mix of tacky, dirty (like Weston-Super-Mare, you see?), bohemian and serene. The boardwalk is lined with tattoo parlours, souvenir clothing shops and fast food cafes, while further inland there are trendy clothes shops, arty homeware stores and cool little cafe's. We also discovered the Venice Canals, or rather the American version. But these are just as picturesque as their Italian counterparts, with gardens full of flowers and other carefully chosen foliage, ducks swimming along, and dozens of little rowing boats moored outside the little summer houses. I'll let the photo above say the rest. Also, in case you though rollerblading was a thing of the past, come to Venice Beach, where you'll find it's very much alive and kicking (or rather rolling)! It's like stepping 20 years into the past...

So all in all, a few days chilling by a California beach didn't do us too much harm!,

At last we're where we belong - in prison!

The ruins of Alcatraz
Upon arrival, all tourists were forced to be stripped searched, showered, and then wear their prison slacks.
Obligatory Golden Gate Bridge Photo!
and here is a seagull. See how she stares.
action shot of cycling

Phil: Hello again! Here to tell you about the various things we've been up to this past week in San Francisco. On Tuesday we visited Alcatraz, which was both insightful and creepy. After a quick ferry ride we stepped onto the island and immediately saw how the place has basically been left how it was in the 60s, albeit slightly in ruins. It's good that they haven't restored it all, as it would have lost the atmosphere. This meant what you see on the island is the same environment the prisoners saw. There are still grenade marks on the floor from the 'Siege of Alcatraz' back in the 1940s, and graffiti from the Native American occupation in 1969 still marks the walls.

What surprised me most was how compact the whole place is. I was expecting a big, maze-like prison but it's just the one big jailhouse, with three rows of cells on 3 floors, special 'D' wing for violent prisoners, a dining room, and offices for the guards. As we walked round, an audio tour gave information and had soundbites from guards, prisoners, and others who lived on the island. It really added to the mood, especially in places where famous events happened, and you're standing right in the spot where it happened and can imagine it in front of you.

Outside of the prison, there are hundreds of seabirds all skwarking and nesting and pooing, and the ruins of the guards' houses. The lighthouse still lights up the bay at night.

Rose:Friday we went on a bike ride across Golden Gate bridge with some English girls we met on the Yosemite trip. It was quite a funny sight as none of us had ridden a bike in years. We also kept on forgetting that Americans drive on the other side of the road and there was at least one occasion where I nearly got run over. It's near death experiences that make you appreciate the finer things in life!

It would probably have been better to walk across the bridge as I couldn't take my time to look over the side and see the view. Instead I was busy making sure I didn't bash into pedestrians, as much fun as that would have been, I didn't want to get blood on the bike wheels as I would have probably lost the deposit!

Something I was surprised to see on the bridge was lots of emergency phone booths with slogans like 'There is hope, just ring this number', obviously aimed at the more suicidal members of the public who had chosen Golden Gate Bridge as their final destination. We stopped off in a village called Sosalitas, or something like that (Phil:It's Sausalito!), for a spot of lunch. We must have looked attractive with our helmet hair and red puffed out faces.

Phil: This past week, we've also been to Castro (full of large men with small dogs), Haight Street (full of small men with large beards), Golden Gate Park (small gardens with large entrance fees) and Pier 39 (large seals with small baby seals). San Francisco is certainly an eclectic mix! Next stop, Los Angeles...

MOS ATTACKS!

To the right you can just about see the mist trail
Rainbow!
The soup line for the homeless
Sleeping headquarters
See what I mean?...boils i tell ye

The Green Tortoise trip to Yosemite was amazing! We travelled and slept on a bus for three days, I felt like such hippy! There were 36 of us (maximum amount of people allowed) and our group was made up of people from 18 different nationalities.They were all stereoptypical of the country they came from and had typical names,such as, Klaus from Germany, Bernado from Mexico, Jorgen from Denmark and Carlos from Spain.

All the youngens(the cool peeps)sat at the back of the bus and we slept on this gaint mattress(16 of us). It felt like we were the grandparents in 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' all sharing a massive bed.I was very cosy and comfortable, but maybe that's because I'm small. The taller members of the group had to sleep diagonally.

On the first day at Yosemite a bunch of us went on the Mist Trail.It was probably the worst time to go ( Mermorial day bank holiday weekend) The walk was beside a giant waterfall and there was only a metal rail between us and the rocks below. The closer we got higher up the trail the closer we got to the waterfall and the mist coming off of it (hence the name 'the mist trail'). We got absolutely soaked.

That night we stopped at a campsite and I was suprised that I was the only one out of all the group (including hardcore travellers) who knew how to make a campfire. Phil and I demonstrated how to make splints out of newspaper and I was the only one who went and got kindling.

In the morning we awoke to a terrible sight. Phil, amongst others, had been attacked by mosquitos during the night. I don't want to be to graphic but it looked like he had giant boils all over his face.I could have given sympathy, I could have found him some lotion to soothe his wounds, instead I took photos of his horrible disfigurements( to Phil's family- they weren't that bad and I did give him lots of sympathy like a good friend should... honest).The mossie's didn't seem to go for me. Probably because I smell bad, but I'm not complaining.

On the last night we went to the oldest bar in California. This amazing saloon type place with massive Deer heads on the walls and dolar bills stuck to the ceiling. That night there was a live band and I had to dance, it just had to be done.Unfortunately, because the law is that you have to be 21 or over to get into a bar here, alot of people were I.D.'d and Phil had to go back to the bus. Thankfully, I got missed out and so carried on my getting my groove on. Because I don't mind making a fool of myself on the dancefloor I think the others felt more comfortable to join in and soon everyone was up shaking their bootay!

We got dropped back off at the hostel at 6am and sneakily had showers (as we weren't technically allowed to check in till 12pm). Phil and I went to Union Square park and slept on the grass like hobos.We then stumbled across the Yueba Buena Gardens where we found a kids play area, which had hand rails that you could talk through the ends and hear the other person speaking. We had a great conversation whilst 5 year olds were pulling at our t -shirts to make us get off and allow them to have a turn.

We ended the day playing table football, drinking a bud and having a free meal provided by the hostel.

Make sure you wear flowers in your hair!

Well we made it to San Fran after a 22 hour train journey. Lovely. There were no smelly people or crying babies this time, just incredibly uncomfortable seats.When trying to get to sleep every position I got into I started to seize up, imagine what it was like for 6 foot 1 inch Philip!

The 15 min walk we were promised, by one of the reps at our hostel 'The Green Tortoise', turned out to be more 35 mins. The odd wrong turning here or there may have added a few mins but not 20!
We got to the hostel around 11.30 ish and weren't allowed to check in till 1.00pm so we dropped off our bags and went investigating. We sat down in a park, phil will know the name of, and watched an old chinese man doing tai-chi ( i hope that is spelled correctly) and a bearded hippy trying to imitate him. Reminded me of Olympia for some reason!

After checking in we went to China town. If china town is anything like the actual country I have no desire to go there. For me it was hot, smelly and intimidating. That wasn't the main reason I disliked it, but even now i can not put my finger on why i just wanted to get the hell out of there, I just did. Phil seemed to enjoy himself though.

We have booked to go on a trip to Yosemite National park tomorrow. A trip organised by the the same company that run the hostel, so it should be good and hopefully we'll get to know some of the people here better. There certainly is no internet there so you may not hear from us for a few days. But guaranteed we'll be having fun, well hopefully.

Is it America or Switzerland?

we found a random snow drift
and posed on the rocks
a made a mighty snowman!
ain't it pretty?
this is the shanty house we've been forced to stay in all week

Here be some additional photos from our frolicking at Mt. Rainier today! (and Caitlin's house)

Well i've seen some bad public toilets but this....

Giant Caitlin and hobbit Rose!
One word - wet
Pike Place Market
Downtown Seattle
This is possibly the strangest sign I have ever seen...

Rose: On Saturday I had realised I had turned into an American. I had an urge for apple and caramel pie with ice cream, for breakfast. As I said this to Caitlin she went 'oh yeh, why didn't I think of that?'. Saturday was a lazy day. As the Odell parents were still away and had left a house full of tennagers we did not rise from our beds until around 11am. Caitlin's friend Nicole came round and cooked us clam chowder with grilled cheese (it's like a cheese toastie but fried instead of being put into a toastie machine). Apparently this is a very American dish but one I had never heard of. It was extremely tasty but not so good for the old cholesterol levels.

We then did what us girls (and Phil) do best, we went shopping. We went to a mall which had some great clothes shops in it, just my style, but Caitlin managed to talk me out of buying any clothes as she quite rightly pionted out I would have to carry them around for another 6 weeks. Phil, however, was unpersuaded and bought a 'Transformers' t - shirt, see what I mean about the geek status!

That evening we went out with Caitlin's sister Kelly to a Thai restaurant. Olympia is meant to be famous for it's huge variety of Thai places to eat. As one guy said as we were getting onto the plane to Seattle said' You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Thai restaurant in Olympia'. At the restaurant we had a dish called ' Pud Thai' or something to this effect, which turned out to be be flat, thin, translucent noodles in a sweet and sour sauce. Yummy.

The dishes that Caitlin ordered were unfamiliar to both Phil and myself, so you can hardly blame me for what was to happen next. On this one particular dish there were lots of red, long vegetables which looked like oversized chillis. So I decided to try one in good British manner and as I took a great hunk of it, i realised that my first impressions of the vegetable were true. This was a chilli and not a vegetable that looked like a chilli. I heard somewhere that the smaller the chilli the more powerful the kick. Well not this time. This was a big chilli with a big sting. Half my face went numb and i felt like I'd had a stroke. The motto to this story is if it looks like a chilli...then it is a chilli!

Sunday we went to Mount Rainier National Park. Mount Rainier is the highest mountain in America, I think. Unfortunately, it was grey and spitting that day so Mount Rainier was covered in cloud and fog. However, lower down there were trails that hikers could walk along. I have to describe the toilets at this point as they were so horrific they have to be mentioned. The experience is burnt in my memory forever.

Ok, it's a massive national park so you're probably thinking ' Well what does she expect it's out doors, up a mountain'. Well yes, but if they're going to bother with a toilet they may as well make it sanitary! As I went through the door, there was that unmistakable whiff of public tiolets, unlike any other smell there is. It was pretty roomy, as most things in America are, but as i lifted the lid of the seat, to my horror i was looking straight down a pit, onto bare rocks. I won't go into details about what happened after that but after i had finished i looked for a basin to wash my hands in.... but there was none. Instead there was a moldy box on the wall with faded peeling letters saying ' Hygiene spray'. I probably had more bugs on my hands after i had used this ' spray' than when I had gone in. An OCD sufferer's worst nightmare. But as i left the toilet, still stunned by the trauma I looked at the next victim in the queue. I could have said something, anything to warn them of what they were about to witness but instead I did nothing except walk away, silently.

So enough of the tiolets, we went on a walk and as we started the trail there was a notice warning that due to recent storms parts of the trail may be blocked. We carried on regardless, being the fearless teenagers that we are. After about half an hour of flat ground surrounded by pine trees as far as the eye could see I started to get weary of the trail and slightly disappionted. As our enthusiasm started flagging we came to a dead stop. There below us was a fast flowing river and part of the trail had just collapsed into this river. we then noticed that this had not put off other hikers would had made a trail of footprints going down the side of the rocks into the river. We decided to follow this path. We felt like Ray Mears battling through the though terrain. Our first problem was crossing the river, which was quite deep. Eventually, with the aid of a stick Phil had picked up along the way, ( you know how blokes can be ... ooo a forest, i must have a big stick and hold it like a staff to make me more manly and leader like) we managed to hoist ourselves over the various obstacles in our way. We then had to blance ourselves and walk along a fallen tree trunk to get up the other side of the river bank. We then started walking again but this time up hill and we got higher and higher and higher, but again we only had a thick forest of pine trees for company. After another half an hour of this we got fed up and sat down on a rock to look at the map to see how far we had come. We had only travelled about a finger nail's length of a hand sized trail and got so disheartened by this that we turned round and went back to the car.

Perfect timing as it started raining heavily as soon as we got back to the car, and not even Phil's 'macho stick' would have helped us cross the river. When we got back the Odell parents were home and the household felt complete again, even though Phil and I were relative strangers.

Yesterday we went to Pike Place market with Caitlin's mom after looking for Phil's camera for 40 minutes. Caitlin's mom eventually had the nouse to look in the back of the sofa and low and behold there was Phil's camera (and phone, which he did not realise had gone missing until then). It was great fun but I'll let Phil fill you in on that.

OH SO VERY FISHY

Phil: Still keeping up? Good! Feel free to go and get a cup of tea or something at this point, we have a lot to write about! Yet more incredible scenery and vibrant city life these past few days - it's tough I tell ya. When we're not journeying deep into dark Endor-like forests, we're exploring bustling markets full of enthusiastic Chinese people sellng 'authentic' oriental wares.

So Monday Rose and I went back to Seattle with Caitlin and her Mum. One thing I've noticed is that the sense of distance here is warped compared to Britain. Seattle is seen a 'local' city, but it's about the same distance as Southampton is from London! Everything is really spread out here, like an ice-cube that had melted over a large area. People have a lot space to stretch out. Anyway, we were exploring downtown Seattle, starting with the Pike Place Market. The downstairs is full of loads of eccentric little shops that sell things like antique photographs, magic show props and giant steering wheel size lollypops. Each shop caters for a specific clientele, so if you're interested in Afghanistan textiles, you'll find some here! The upstairs is a covered food market with meat and fish stalls, more art and crafts and a bakery selling amazingly huge cakes! I'm thinking of trying a brownie in every city we visit...Seattle's brownies are very impressive so I'll see how the others compare! We also checked out a famous fish stand where they shout the orders in chorus and throw fish to each other. There's a constant crowd surrounding this stand - not buying anything, just watching theses guys work. We sampled some salmon and it tasted amazing so we bought some to barbeque the next day. Notice the amount of food we write about?

After sampling the delights of the market we headed to the central shopping area, and witnessed a rap battle (I don't know the ghetto term) takng place outside the mall - it was like a scene from 8-Mile come to life! Even a policeman was watching in the crowd - he loved it.

Today we returned to Rainier with better weather to go a little further up the mountain. We went up to the suitably named Paradise - an area famed for spectacular mountain views. An very strange experience it was to drive up the mountain in late May with the temperature in the high teens and be surrounded by snow. I felt like I had stumbled into the Swiss alps - all I needed was a cheery Bavarian named Ludwig wearing lederhosen. Ahem. But yes, the largest snow drifts I've ever seen, and we ate our lunch on a wall surrounded by birds, very Snow White!

Tomorrow we leave for our day and night long train journey to San Francisco! I'm really looking forward to seeing a new part of the country and experiencing a whole new city. And Rose and I have to look after ourselves now! We couldn't have asked for a better start to our trip - I'm the happiest I've been for the last year easily, and I hope the adverntures continue to be as unforgettable as they have in Washington State. All for now,

Phil and Rose x

Amtrak-Shamtrak!

Olympia Harbour
Seattle view from Space Needle
Mt St. Helens
Caitlin and Rose at Boston Harbour
The view from Caitlin's kitchen (see Mark, I can take sunset photos too!)


Rose: Hey everyone,
Our first few days in Washington state have been great! Caitlin and her family have made us both so welcome. Caitlin lives in a village called Boston Harbour in Olympia. It's really beautiful and there are so many trees. Her kitchen looks out over the Puget Sound, a great mass of water... i would hardly call it a river, it is huge. We both made sure that we stayed up and went to bed at the same time as the Odell family on our first night, to settle in to their time zone as quickly as possible. That was the longest May 15th ever!

The next day (wednesday16th) we went to the Marina, a short walk from Caitlin's home and we then went to the train station in Olympia to sort out our train tickets for San Fran. Well that's where it all started. They didn't have ticket printing facilities at the station so I had to ring up a number and get our reservation numbers( i checked 3 times with the lady that they were the correct numbers, this will be an important fact later on in our story so remember it!). They had a self service machine if you were going to pay by card, which I was. So I put my travellers cheque card in the machine and pressed the button several times and nothing happened.

Phil wanted to pay by cash. I explained this to the 'agent' on the phone and she said he would need to go to either a travel agent or another station that did having ticket facilities over the counter. So we went to a travel agent in Olympia and they explained that we would be charged $25 dollars for the printing service. Also, ( and this is where the me checking 3 times fact comes in) Phil's reservation number was not coming up on the screen.

By this time we gave up for the day and Caitlin gave us a guided tour of Olympia, a very relaxed and hippyish place with very friendly people.

That evening we went out for a meal with Caitlin's parents. We went to an Italian restaurant where I ordered spaghetti with chicken but the spaghetti turned out to be what we Brit's would call noodles! It was tasty all the same.

On thursday we went to Seattle for the day and went up the Space Needle. It was a really beautiful day and you could see for miles. The sky scrapers were awesome( one of the many phrases i have picked up) and being so high up we got to see the layout of central Seattle, which turned out to be really straight roads vertically and horizonatally. The landscape was cut up into giant blocks. There was not much grass at all, just trees and pavement, an odd mixture.

We had some lunch from a Greek restaurant, and I had a cheese burger lol! But I have to say it was the best cheesburger I have eaten so far! We walked off our meal by exploring the rest of central Seattle. We stumbled across a gaint fountain. Phil dared me to run through it and as I'm a girl I didn't want to look like a whimp( actually it looked kinda fun) so I ran into it, fully clothed but as i got closer to the jets, the fountain stopped! So I started to walk slowly back out of the fountain and it suddenly started up again and caught me unawares. I got soaked.

There was also a children's fair going on in this park and there were gaint exercise balls, so all three of us (Caitlin, Phil and myself) raced on them bouncing hilariously until we almost fell off of them. The fun would have continued but we noticed small children with their arms folded giving us evils, so we reluctantly gave the balls back!

We also visited the Experience Music Project next to the Space Needle, which was great fun. It's a gaint interactive museum to get people interested in music. There was this exhibition called ' The Stage Experience' where you stand on a mock up of a stage with instruments and microphones, alomst like glorified kareoke. Caitlin and I were very excited by this and we wanted a go so we queued up next to some 8 year old girls. Phil thought it was to above him, but finally succumbed and joined the queue with us. It was good fun and watching the video afterwards was brilliant because none of us knew what we were doing!

We also went to the Sci- Fi Museum next door, only because it was free and for no other reason. Sci - fi is for geeks.( Phil cough). He was in his element at the museum!

Friday Caitlin's grandma came over and cooked us breakfast and brought a massive box of food with her! ( Caitlin's parents went to thier eldest daughter's graduation on wednesday) We had french toast, known to the rest of us as eggy bread, made with this apple bread and we had it with bacon and maple syrup and blueberries, the biggest balckberries i have ever seen and peach segments. the most amazing breakfast I have ever tasted.

Phil will fill in any gaps i have left and will tell you about the fun and game we had in Centralia and all about Mount St Helens.

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (AND BOATS)

Phil:Hello! To avoid confusing issues with posting and which order the posts are in, I'm going to tag my musings onto the end of this one, thereby making this first entry essay-length! But bear with me, for I too have wonderful tales to tell (I don't think I need to emphasise the food we've eaten though - Rose has covered that area in detail!) Right - stop rambling and get on with it.

So we are in Washington State amongst copious trees and moutain ranges and lakes. After the smelly plane ride (not B.O. but the stench of unwashed human) we found ourselves at the Odell household - the kind of multiple bathroomed, big kitchen, big t.v., big fridge and incredible-moutain-view house that we unfortunately have had to slum it in all week. From now on we'll expect all our hostels to have living-room size showers as standard.

Olympia is a town very much in the liberal, peace and love and coffee vibe that Washington is known for. A town where the old men grow there hair and beards long, and walk down the street smoking something that definately WASN'T tobacco. A town where, if you wanted to, could practise your yoga and kendo moves in the middle of the park and not have anyone bat an eyelid. A town where (so Caitlin tells me), students sit in circles and braid each others' armpit hair. We're talking boys AND girls here. It's that kind of town.

As well as our urban adventures in Olympia and Seattle (read Rose above) we have been seeing the dramatic landscape that Caitlin is lucky enough to call home. On Friday we drove down to Mt St. Helens, the volcano that erupted sideways in 1980 and flattened 100sq miles of forest in a matter of seconds. Add to that the largest landslide in history travelling at 200mph and clouds of ash going 30,000ft into the air you've got a beast of an eruption. Luckily all was quiet on this day, but the area still had a sense of massive destruction. The statistics don't convey the real scale of it all. The closer to the mountain we got, the more barren the hills became and the more dead trunks and stumps we saw lying on the ground. I couldn't imagine the force it must have taken to lay waste to the hundreds of horizontal trees and stumps that surrounded us. It looked as though loads of giant pieces of 20ft long driftwood had been thrown on the mountain range. We stopped at the Johnston Ridge Observatory and listened to a talk on the current eruption (solid lava coming out at a rate of 2-4ft per day) and even had a picnic.

As you've read above, the simple process of buying a train ticket is for some reason the most complicated and drawn out process in the world in the USA. For reasons beyond me, not every station can actually print out tickets, which means a ridiculously drawn out chain of events involving reservation numbers, extortionate admin costs (whoever heard of paying for a train ticket via a travel agent?) and possibly the biggest arsehole I have ever encountered working at the Centralia train station - some old wanker who ignores you when you approach the ticket office, then after you ring the bell when we walks off, comes back with 'Could you not see me?' and continues to act like a arse. Sad sad little man. But the good news is that now we actually have tickets for San Francisco hooray!

So we have 3 1/2 days left in Washington, and so far it's been a lot of fun and the Odells have been really welcoming. It's quite scary thinking of everything that lies ahead of us, but I say bring it on! Oh and Rose has developed an American twang disturbingly quickly. Hee hee!

Welcome to the 'Penniless In Seattle' blog, written by Rose and Phil!

This blog will chronicle our seven-week journey across North America, starting in Seattle, then San Francisco, L.A., Grand Canyon, Phoenix, Washington D.C, Toronto, Boston and finally New York! Along the way we will see many iconic landmarks, and meet many strange backpacker types in the hostels. We'll update this blog as often as possible so you can see what adventures/misadventures we have gone on.And if we don't post for a while, do not assume we're dead, we're probably just sleeping/lazy/stuck in the middle of the Arizona desert.

So yes, we hope you'll join us for the trip starting in 2 weeks, but for now enjoy this cheesy blog logo - it captures the spirit of adventure nicely. Mmmm...