So now you have read (all) my blogs about the holiday, have I made you sufficiently jealous? Am I right in thinking that some of you now want to go on a similar trip? Ok, I’ll take you on an all-expenses paid tour. Kidding (c’mon- wise-up- I’m a student with no money ). You’ll have to save up and go yourselves.

The least I can do is tell you who we booked our holiday with. It was booked via the Thomson travel agency and the tour itself is run by a company called Jetsave. The one which we embarked on was called The Big 5 (as in you visit 5 major cities). We ended up seeing a lot of places…

2 countries (USA and Canada), 6 states (New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware), 1 district (Washington DC), 1 province (Ontario), 1600 miles

A big thanks goes to *drumroll* British Airways (great flights- no turbulence), Adrian (JetSave tour director- very entertaining and knowledgeable), Diego (Escot driver- long days and fab driving), the staff at the Holiday Inn Manhattan 6th Av, the staff at The Oakes Overlooking The Falls, the staff at the Hilton: Crystal City, and to anyone else who helped us out along the way .

Admittedly, I’m still not entirely happy about being back in Britain. I want to see more of America and Canada and revisit the places I’ve been. I had the time of my life over there- so much fun. Waking up in a different place with something to explore every day. Never a boring moment.

Best holiday ever

Mood : awake   Music : Running Up That Hill  by  Placebo

“It’s easier to leave than to be left behind. Leaving was never my proud. Leaving New York, never easy. I saw the light fading out”

I had to start this blog with those lyrics from R.E.M. because their song “Leaving New York” was in my head from the very moment I woke up on that particular morning.

Weather-wise, it was an awful day. It was grey as I got out of bed and when I switched on the news, it said there was a high risk of thunderstorms later in the day: not exactly something I wanted to be in the middle of whilst on a plane. When we went downstairs for breakfast at the Prime Cafe, we saw the rain was much heavier than we first thought. The cafe sits at ground level and has a glass roof so when you sit in it, although you are flanked by skyscrapers, you have a clear view of the sky right above you. The rain was thundering down on the roof.

As I was eating my breakfast, I used my phone to go onto the Internet, so I could check my uni grades. I’d been checking every couple of days because I’d expected them to go up when I was in Canada. Perhaps I got the dates mixed up but I thought some of them were supposed to be published on the 5th June? Anyway, when I did eventually get online (damn GPRS!), I discovered I had 2B’s and 1A at that point. Yes, I was chuffed with that

Before we headed outside, I nipped back to the hotel room to grab my waterproof jacket- no way was I going out in the bucketing rain without it! At that point I then realised I hadn’t bought myself any Hersheys Caramel Chocolate Kisses. Whereabout was I going to get them?! Panic! First of all, I went to the Olympia Deli but they didn’t sell them. For a horrible moment, I thought I wasn’t going to get them, then, I glanced across the street. There was a CVS Pharmacy. I know what you’re thinking- “pharmacies don’t sell sweets”. Of course they do- Boots does. Luckily when we got there, they had some in stock so I bought a couple of bags for me (I’ve now eaten one of these bags and am gonna have to import some soon).

After that, we went back to our hotel room and watched tv. We could have gotten a later check-out time and could have asked the hotel to hold our luggage so we could spend another day wandering around but given the weather, and the risk of storms, we decided to head to the airport.

At 11am, we went down to the foyer and asked the front desk to call us a cab. I was expecting another ride in one of the traditional yellow cabs but not this time. The front desk ordered a limo taxi. When I say a limo, it’s not one of the huge long cars that you might be thinking of: it’s just a posh, normal-sized car. I felt really sad during the ride to the airport- I absolutely loved the holiday and loved everywhere that I visited. I wasn’t ready to go home and I didn’t want to return to normal life. I was perfectly happy in NYC.

I tried to soak up every last little sight that I could while I was riding in the back of the car. There were some great tunes on the drive, notably “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” by Aerosmith and “Breathless” by The Corrs. What did I see on the journey? Well the giant inflatable rat was out and about on the streets which amused me. Also, there was something being filmed by the side of the road at once point when we got stopped at some lights. I don’t know what it was though. Just before we went into the Midtown Tunnel, I looked back to glimpse the last view of the Manhattan skyline, before it disappeared out of sight. Another pang of sadness- who knows when I’ll be back in NYC and get to see this again? Yep, “Leaving New York” ran through my head again.

On the Sunday when we dropped the rest of the tour group off at the airport, Adrian gave us some useful advice. He said that if you’re early for a flight, you can talk nicely to the airline to see if they will bump you to an earlier one. We decided to give this a try, as we arrived at the airport just after 12noon (traffic wasn’t bad at all….sometimes it takes hours), and our flight didn’t depart until 10.30pm. We spoke to a woman called Robyn at the British Airways desk in JFK airport who looked into changing the NYC to London flight. She said we could get the 6.30pm flight although it would cost £50 plus $20 each to change flights. We said we were more than happy to pay but she told us to hang on another minute while she called her supervisor because she didn’t want us sitting on the plane next to someone who swapped their flights for free. After calling her supervisor, she said that we didn’t have to pay any extra and could go ahead and leave at 6.30pm. A big thank you to Robyn – saved as a lot of time and money.

We still had a long wait in the airport once we cleared security- 5 hours. During this time, I found myself a seat, stuck on my iPod and closed my eyes. I still felt really sad (to the point I could have cried) because I still didn’t want to go. I felt a bit better once we had some food at McDonalds (tsk tsk!) but wasn’t a-ok. Just before the gate opened for boarding, I decided to nip to the toilets. On my way there I did hear an occasional, ear-piercing whistling noise but few people seemed to care about it (well, apart from one woman who ran out of the toilets with a face that said “arrrggh”). I thought nothing more of it. Walking back to the departure lounge, I noticed what I thought were flashbulbs firing to my left. I was about to see what was going on (thinking, ooh, there must be a celeb) when I looked at the flash that occurred directly in front of me. It was the fire alarm. Ooops. Even when I returned to my seat, nobody seemed to care. It turns out there was a fault in the system and it just randomly went off.

The flight on the way home was a good one, even thought I’d been dreading it. I was sat inbetween my mum and an Australian guy who was really chatty, which was nice (I’m not used to this- 4 years of commuting on a train and only 2 people have ever talked to me). The in-flight entertainment was excellent- 30 Rock, Back To You, The IT Crowd (yay!) and Top Gear: Vietnam Special (seriously, I was laughing the whole way through this). I did see something slightly freaky but neat while on the plane. I was watching Top Gear when the Australian guy nudged me and said “do you want to see something cool?”. He noticed we were flying above lightening and it looked awesome from where we were sitting .

We arrived at Heathrow a bit earlier than expected (5.30am) but had to circle a little as planes aren’t allowed to land there before 6am. We had another wee wait at Heathrow because the connecting flight up to Aberdeen wasn’t until 11.40am (or something like that). We had breakfast at Giraffe then I found a comfy seat where I could sit with my iPod and have a snooze. Unfortunately it was near some plane spotters *rolls eyes*. Anyway, I managed to get into a deep sleep for 20 mins and woke with a bit of a start, fearing my mum and I had missed the flight (we hadn’t).

The flight to Aberdeen was another good one and we arrived bang on time, with the smoothest landing I’ve ever witnessed. My grandparents and my sister met us at the airport and a short while later, I was back home, feeling quite sleepy!

Mood : tired   Music : Leaving New York  by  R.E.M.

I awoke in the morning, feeling a little sad with the knowledge that this was going to be my last full day in the glorious city of New York.

My mum and I took the opportunity to have a bit of a long lie as we’d been up quite early on most of the other mornings (when I say long lie, I mean we got up just after 8am ).  It certainly felt very strange that we no longer part of the tour group.  We kept thinking that we should be meeting up with everyone, getting on the bus and heading off on our next adventure.  I kept expecting to bump into people that I knew in the hotel lobby but of course, they were all well on their way home by that point.  Honestly, you might think it sounds silly but when you’ve travelled huge distances with a fantastic bunch of people, it feels odd when they’re not there.

That morning, we ended up buying our breakfast from Dunkin’ Donuts and sat at a table in the middle of the road just outside Macy’s/Herald Square.  Yes, you read that’s right- the table was in the middle of the road.  Mayor Bloomberg recently made this street a pedestrian area with chairs and tables for a trial period.  It’s the same in Times Square and Broadway.  It’s quite odd to see actually!  It was a cloudy day (with the sun poking through) but it was still nice and warm.

Our plan for the day was basically to go shopping and explore the city a little more- pretty much make good use of our remaining time.  Me, my sister, her friends and my mum wanted a bag from Bloomingdale’s- you know the famous “Medium Brown Bag”.  Looking at the map, we noted that it was on 59th Street between Lexington and 5th.  My mum was a little apprehensive about walking all the way up there because we’d not been up that way before.  I assured her it would be fine because I had a map and knew what I was doing (lies, all lies! ).  I’m not entirely sure if I took the best route but anyway, we walked up 6th Avenue, until we got to 57th street, turned right, walked along that, passing 5th, Madison and Park Avenue.  Once we reached Lexington Avenue, we walked another 2 blocks and we were there.  Couldn’t believe that I had actually managed to read a map correctly!

Bloomingdales has a lot of nice clothes but it’s quite expensive (with it being full of designer clothes and all!).  Visitors get a discount so if you’re ever shopping there, be sure to take your passport to the visitors centre so they can issue you with a discount card.  After getting a little lost in the store, we found the area that was selling the bags we wanted.  We got a couple of medium bags and a couple of small ones.  I meant to buy myself one of the traditional “Medium Brown Bags” but a canvas one caught my eye so I bought that instead.  I saw a really nice scarf which I was going to buy until I saw the price tag- $250!  Yikes!

The next location I wanted to visit on the map was a Dog Boutique.  It was called Billy somethings (forgotten the surname!) Le Chien.  Ok I know that sounds quite posh for a dog shop but I wanted to get my mutt something because I felt bad leaving her at home.  We’ve had Gypsy for nearly 11 years and this trip was the longest I’d ever been away from her.  Anyway, we had a little bit of difficulty finding this place because we’d come out of a different door at Bloomingdales.  I think we ended up on 62nd Street before we’d realised our mistake.  Once we were on the right track, we passed a furniture store which had real wee pug dogs inside it, asleep under a table (seriously cute!) so we figured we might be getting close.  When we did arrive at the correct location, we discovered the shop had actually closed down!  Disaster!  Instead, we wandered along to Radioshack to buy some last minute gifts for my sister.

We needed to take our shopping back to the hotel but on the way, we felt quite hungry so bought some food at an international supermarket near 57th street and walked down to Bryant Park to eat it.  I think I mentioned it in an early blog but there’s a nice relaxed atmosphere in that place.  You might recognise the park if you’ve seen the Sex and the City movie.  Remember when Big and Carrie have a bit of an altercation on the street involving some flowers?  Well, that’s Bryant Park you see in the background.

Right before we got back to the hotel, I mean literally just before we turned to go down 26th street, we found a pet store.  How we could have missed it I don’t know!  We’d walked all the way to 62nd street and back- nearly 5 miles in total and there was one 5 minutes from the hotel!  Yep, we felt pretty stupid.  At least we finally got toys for the dog.

That evening, we went for a walk round the block as we realised we always turned left when leaving the hotel and wanted to see what was to the right.  It turned out there was a Baskin Robins 2 minutes away!  Had I known this, I would have eaten there everyday haha.  For tea, we went back to the Prime Cafe where I had Nachos again and some ice cream (I know- I’m trying to be healthy but hey, I was on holiday!).

We had a bit of an early night, preparing our suitcases for travelling the next day.  After getting organised (and watching an episode of Bones), I went to bed, feeling extremely sad that it was my last night in such a great city.

Mood : sleepy   Music : Possession  by  Sarah McLachlan

We’d been given the option of taking a cab from the airport ($55) or remaining on the bus with Adrian and Diego and paying just $10.  We decided to stay on the bus because it was a much better option, plus, Diego is a brilliant driver.

On my previous journey from the airport into Manhattan, it had been dark, so this made the journey a little different.  One thing we did see was a massive graveyard.  It reminded me of Arlington in that it stretched as far as the eye could see.  The gravestones were packed together very tightly which seemed a bit odd so we asked about it.  We were told that the graveyard contained more bodies than Arlington National Cemetery (which holds around 300,000).  And the reason for the graves being so close to each other?  Space has always been an issue in Manhattan so some of the bodies were buried standing up, meaning more could be fitted in.  Sounds grisly, doesn’t it?

My favourite part of the ride back to the hotel was travelling through the Queens–Midtown Tunnel on the Long Island Expressway.  Just before you enter the tunnel, you can see Manhattan in the distance.  When you exit at the other side, Manhattan is right there in front of your eyes and it’s a magnificent sight.  I was all excited when I saw it the first night I arrived in NYC and was just as thrilled this time round.  Definitely an image which will stick in my head.

On the bus we were talking about what sightseeing things we could do on our last couple of days in NYC when Adrian mentioned that the Tony Awards would be happening in the city that evening at Radio City Music Hall.  He suggested we could have a look in that area if we wanted to and experience the atmosphere.

When we arrived at the hotel, it was time to say goodbye to Adrian and Diego.  A few hugs and kisses later and we were in the elevator, going to our room.  We thought we might be given the same room as we’d had before (604 if you really wanted to know) but instead, we got room 907 (ok, you didn’t really need to know that).  We didn’t spend that long there- basically dumped our stuff, got changed and went out again.

We figured we should head to Radio City Music Hall at Rockefeller Plaza to see if any stars were arriving early at the Tony’s.  As we were walking up 6th Avenue, we could see a huge amount of people in front of us and they weren’t just on the sidewalk; they were all over the road too.  My mum and I continued walking so we could see what was going on.  Turns out that part of the Avenue was closed off to traffic (probably because of the Tony’s) and there were stalls up both sides of the street.  One thing I will say- what a fantastic atmosphere!  It felt like a festival or something- a hot summers night, an awards show nearby, homemade lemonade stalls and a variety of clothing and music on sale.  There was even a stall which was blasting out some reggae music.  Great

When we arrived outside Radio City Music Hall, there was a crowd but it wasn’t too big.  We were stood at the opposite side of the road because the red carpet, along with the World’s media were on the other sidewalk.  We stood next to this dude who was talking to someone saying “oh yeah, I had to queue for like 4 hours to get this spot”.  I smirked a little because my mum and I had just walked along the street and waltzed right into a spot on the barrier.  No need to queue!  We stood around there for a bit and there were some famous people who arrived (because the paparazzi went nuts) but I didn’t have a clue who they were.  I know Neil Patrick Harris was hosting the awards (think Dr Horrible) but I guess he was already inside.  As I’ve already mentioned, it was a hot, humid summer evening and we started to get a bit too warm (even more people had joined the crowd on our side of the street).  Soon after, we left because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was now early evening.  Still, it was a fab atmosphere in that area too and I’m glad I got to experience it – it’s not something you get to see everyday, is it?

There were tons of restaurants in the area near our hotel (ok, there’s heaps and heaps of restaurants *everywhere* in NYC) but we couldn’t be bothered walking back there.  Being the rock music fan that I am, I mentioned we could eat at the Hard Rock in Times Square.  When you go in there, you have to get a ticket to be seated and then there’s then a board which tells you who’s “up next” (as if you were going on stage), which displays your surname.  We had about a 20 minutes wait so we looked around at the Rock n’ Roll Memorabilia.  There was Billy Joel’s motorbike, suits worn by The Beatles, stuff from the Offspring and signed posters/ guitars from a variety of artists.  Seriously cool place .  Oh, and yes, I got my picture taken in front of the wall of guitars.

Just before you get seated, the staff there take your picture in front of the wall of guitars anyway (and then try and sell it to you….glad we took our own).  The food there is great- I had a yummy chicken sandwich/burger and fries and it’s reasonably priced.  The music played while I was there made me smile .  Some of my all-time favourite artists including R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen (they played a bit of a gig) and Sheryl Crow amongst others.  On the way out, we bought a few things in the shop (a guitar hoodie for me) and I ended up having a wee conversation with the guy who served me because he noticed my Scottish accent.

After all that, we slowly wandered back to the hotel.  We were planning on staying out later but it was quite hot and we’d travelled quite a bit during the day so we were tired.  Once we got back, the air conditioning was put on full blast for quite a while!  We decided we needed snacks for the hotel room so we went to the Olympia Deli which was about a 2 minute walk from the hotel.  If you’re ever looking for a huge, extremely yummy chocolate chip cookie, then this is the place to go.  Of course, they sell a variety of other food as well.  Back at the hotel again, we watched sitcoms – Everybody Loves Raymond and Seinfeld amongst others before falling asleep.

Knowing that my adventure was soon coming to a close and that I only had one more night in NYC, I couldn’t help but feel that it was going to be very weird returning to “normal life” after all of this.

Mood : tired   Music : A Pain That I'm Used To  by  Depeche Mode

On the way to Newark Airport, we ended up passing through the state of Delaware, yet another place I didn’t know we were going.  It’s a relatively small state so we drove through it in no time.  Next state: New Jersey!  I was all “yay New Jersey: home of Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen” when we crossed the state line (if you didn’t already know, they are 2 of my favourite artists).

It seemed to take a little while to reach the airport so I just sat back and enjoyed the scenery.  Once we arrived we said goodbye to about 4 people off the bus.  Next stop JFK airport.  The bus was going to become very empty after this stop- only me, my mum and the Welsh couple were extending our stays and returning to the hotel in NYC: 17 people had to get off at the next stop.

Due to the traffic, it took a few hours to get to JFK.  There was still lots to see though.  At one point, we got stuck on a bridge because of an accident on it.  Again, my memory is failing me at this point so I’m not sure which of the bridges I was on (if it helps, when you looked left, you could see the Statue of Liberty in the distance.  The accident that occurred on the bridge looked pretty bad- the entire back of a car was seriously crumpled.  I only saw that one car so I’m not entirely sure what happened.

The journey was pretty funny though, with Adrian telling tales of cats and wigs (someone on the bus suggested wigs made out of cat hair ).  Ok, maybe it doesn’t sound that funny right now but trust me, it was- tears of laughter at one point.  I’m sure someone pointed at a lady on the street as the bus was stopped at a light and said something along the lines of “See that lady there?  She wears a wig.  I can tell.  I know.” which was hilarious as well because it clearly wasn’t true.

There was a slightly scary moment as we were going along Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn, NY.  We were told something along the lines of “if you hear something that sounds like a bullet, it probably is a bullet”.  After being told this, we were (jokingly) asked if anyone would like to get off the bus.  Everyone was sitting there thinking “..errr….yikes!”.

Before we knew it, we were at JFK, dropping people off at their respective terminals (each terminal is for a different airline) and the bus became oddly quiet.  It was a strange feeling, having to say goodbye to the majority of tour group (6 people were left on the bus).  I didn’t know everyone that well but we’d travelled 1600 miles together, had a good time and looked out for each other.

Next destination: the hotel we’d previously stayed in when we first arrived in Manhattan.

Mood : tired   Music : Stand  by  R.E.M.

Today was going to be the last day we were spending with the tour group. My mum and I got up at 5.30am to sort out the suitcases, have breakfast and prepare for another packed day. At this point in time, I took the opportunity to swipe a few bits and pieces from the hotel room (the pen, the laundry bag and the shampoo ). I was last out of the room and placed the swipe cards in the back pocket of my jeans, with the intention to hand them in at the front desk. Well I kinda forgot about them….oops…. We headed down to the foyer of the hotel with our cases at 7am so we could get them loaded on the bus. For some reason, my suitcase felt like it had doubled in weight. Maybe it felt heavier because I was tired, I don’t know?

It was a bit weird when we got on the bus. Looking around, I realised the majority of people I’d spent the week with would not be returning with us to NYC. We hit the road at 7.15am in preparation for a long day. We passed Baltimore and once again, “Good Morning Baltimore” from the musical Hairspray popped into my head. I’m trying to remember exactly what time we arrived in Philadelphia but I can’t. The first thing I noticed when I got off the bus was the intense heat! Seriously, it was roasting! Part of me wonders how hot it would have been had we arrived in the afternoon.

We went off to see the Liberty Bell. If your visiting there, I must warn you, the security checks there are very stringent. Now for most of my trip, I carried my pink rucksack with me and inside it, I had a bag for my SLR, an over the shoulder bag, and a bag with my inhalers inside. Stupidly, I took this off the bus with me and into the Liberty Bell Center. Security took forever to check my rucksack, taking each individual bag inside of it out and raking though all the pockets. Yes, I realise that security checks have to be performed but c’mon! Wouldn’t an x-ray machine have been better as it would have done a more thorough job?

The Liberty Bell Center is quite interesting and there is a series of exhibits to work your way through. When you get to the end of these, you finally get to see the Liberty Bell right there in front of you. It’s impressive but the crack in it is huge! After we’d seen it, my mum and I decided it was time to go get some breakfast. We walked passed the Independence Hall and went into The Bourse Food Court, which is a huge breakfast buffet. I decided to have pancakes with maple syrup there. That’s when my mum had a slight mishap with the jug of syrup. She was pouring it on my pancake but didn’t realise how runny it was. I ended up with half a jug of syrup on my breakfast pancake but it was extremely yummy haha . I tried to check my uni grades on my phone there but they still weren’t up- gutted!

After eating, we popped to the shopping mall next door where I bought a few more things for myself (a couple of music themed scarves, with me being a guitarist and all). To get back to the bus, we walked through the Independence Mall State Park and stood in the sun a little while. Just after we left Philadelphia, we found out that it’s nicknamed “Killadelphia”. Scary, huh? Apparently if we’d gone 5 blocks in either direction of the Liberty Bell Center, we could have run into trouble…

So that was our last official stop as a tour group. The next destination was Newark Airport in New Jersey (a state I didn’t even realise we’d be passing through).

Mood : sleepy   Music : The Great Beyond  by  R.E.M.

Adrian had told us what time we had to meet up for the evening tour but both me and my mum had totally forgotten. Not wanting to be late, we headed down at 5.10pm. As it turns out, we were early ,but some of the others had forgotten so they were down there too. We all sat around chatting for a bit before we headed onto the bus. I’d had my SLR camera with me for most of the day but couldn’t be bothered lugging it around with me for the evening tour. Instead, I took my wee Samsung camera- it’s a decent wee camera.

Union Station was the first stop and was where we were going for tea. There wasn’t a set place where we were all eating: we got told to go explore. When I entered the Station I was surprised by how beautiful it was. Of course, this is coming from the girl who has spent a great deal of time in Dundee Station over the past four years (mainly due to the huge number of train delays and cancellations I’ve been subjected to). Dundee Station has a cafe which sells overpriced food, a WHSmith’s you can’t access if you’re waiting for a train and then decide you want food (because you’ve already gone through the ticket barriers and can’t go back) and a bar where I once had a £4 glass of wine (shocker)! In comparison, Union Station in DC is a royal palace: gorgeous architecture (the ceiling is particularly beautiful), a number of restaurants containing a variety of food styles, lots of shops (it was more like a shopping centre than a train station) and it was squeaky clean.

My mum and I ate at a place called The Station Grill. I ordered a “Willy D’s” Grilled Chicken Sandwich which was yummy but the service was pretty slow (and ate into the time we were going to spend looking around). After eating quickly, we still had plenty time to look around and purchase gifts.

Once we were done, we met both Adrian and Tom at the elevators and boarded the bus, ready to see Washington DC by night.

Our first stop was at The Capitol Building, which I’d caught glimpses of during the day. Following that, we drove around the centre of Washington, seeing a number of important buildings. I’m a huge fan of both the X-Files and Bones so I was quite happy to see the FBI building en-route (that makes me sound a little sad, I know).

You know how I love a good sunset? Well, check out Washington on the evening we had our tour. Beautiful!

We got off the bus again to visit the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial, also known as the FDR memorial, which is a series of outdoor rooms (best way I can think of describing it). I have to say, this was probably my favourite memorial out of the ones I’d seen all day. Why is it my favourite? Because of the concepts behind each part of the memorial for example, the large blocks strewn over the ground in one area represented WW2 and the chaos/destruction that ensued. The final part of the memorial was rather poignant: a still pool of water representing the death of Roosevelt. The statues in each of the outdoor rooms were fantastically crafted too- being a dog lover, I like the one of Fala.

Once we’d exited the final room, we stood by the edge of the Tidal Basin for a bit. The moon was out and there was a beautiful view of both the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial across lake.

As we were walking back to the bus, I thought my eyes were playing up. I didn’t say anything to anybody but I kept seeing these little flashes of light in front of my eyes. I figured that I was overtired or that I was about to get a migraine. Then, I saw my mum blink and shake her head- she was seeing them too. No, we weren’t both seeing things- it was fireflies! I’d never seen them before in my life and I didn’t really expect to see them in DC! Kids were trying to catch some to put in a jar hehe.

The other strange thing I noted while walking around the FDR memorial was the fact that it wasn’t cold. I was wearing a thin Muppets t-shirt (with Animal on the front ) and it was about 9pm at night but there wasn’t so much as a chill in the air. Not like in Scotland- if you venture outside at that time of night wearing a t-shirt, you’re gonna feel the cold!

Once it was properly dark outside, we went to the White House again, this time, viewing the front of it. After that, we headed to our final stop, the Kennedy Center, passing the Watergate Complex on the way. I’m guessing you’ll all know about the Watergate Complex .

The Kennedy Centre was exquisite in the inside- red carpets, flags and chandeliers. I was tip-toeing around because the place was extremely quiet. It made me feel really small because the ceilings are so high! The centrepiece of this place has to be the statue of JFK. It’s so like him.

There was a play on there that evening so we took the elevators up to the balony where there was a good view over the Potomac River and Washington DC. We were only out there about 10 minutes but just as we were about to get the elevators down, the play finished and out came the audience. Total nightmare trying to get down! We managed in the end, bid our farewells to Tom and boarded the bus back to the hotel.

The following morning, we were leaving at 7.15am and realised we wouldn’t have a lot of time for breakast so we had to pop back over to the 7-11 (well, I needed more Lucky Charms).

After a quick shower, it was straight to bed. The very, very, very comfortable Hilton hotel bed

Mood : sleepy   Music : Go Your Own Way  by  Fleetwood Mac

We got off the bus when we reached the West Potomac Park, an area where there are a number of famous memorials.

First off, we visited the Korean War Veterans Memorial. This consists of 19 statues of soldiers; not one of them looking in exactly the same direction. The faces of each of the 19 statues are supposed to represent how the soldiers would have looked while fighting the war: the weariness, the fear, and the longing to go home. Opposite these statues is a highly polished black granite wall which is 164ft long. Pictures taken during the war are sandblasted into it and, because of it’s reflective surface, the 19 statues are also mirrored, giving the impression of 38 statues.

The group was also led right round a wall which had the names of soldiers who had died in a number of wars (can’t think of the name of this memorial at the moment- help?). The wall started off really small (about an inch high) and got larger the further you walked along. It must have reached 8-10ft at it’s highest, before diminishing in size again. It was amazing to see but really sad at the same time, thinking of all those who died. While I was walking along here, I noticed someone with the surname Shepherd. Could that be a relative? Who knows?

After this, I walked up to the Lincoln Memorial. In the humid heat, climbing up those steps was hard work! Definitely worth it once you get there though- you get a great view of the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument. The inside is quite impressive too- great statue of Abraham Lincoln.

Walking back down the steps was so much easier than walking up them. We still had plenty of time so we went for a look around the reflecting pool. Guess what? There’s ducks in it! My mum mentioned Forrest Gump while we were there and said it made her think of the scene where he runs into the reflecting pool yelling “JENNY, JENNY!” (I had to watch the film when I got home because I’d totally forgotten about this).

Back on the bus, we headed for the back of the White House. When we got there, I was shocked by how close you are actually able to get to it. I thought we’d get to see if from quite a distance and thought that it would be surrounded by a massive garden but no. President Obama wasn’t there that day but there was someone on the roof. I’m fairly certain it was a sniper.

We had a quick tour along the Mall and those of us who wanted to see the museums got off the bus outside the National Air and Space Museum (part of the Smithsonian Institution). I felt like a bit of a big kid when I went into this museum- everything inside it was “cool”, simple as that. There were replica Space Shuttles, The Wright Brother’s plane and some of the first bags/uniforms used on postal planes. If you’re ever in DC, you have to visit this area. We had forgotten all about lunch so ended up eating at McDonalds (yet again). Afterwards, we headed off to another museum/garden.

Next stop was a butterfly garden, however while we were there, we didn’t see a single one. False advertising! We went further along the mall and ended up in the National Museum of American History (again, part of the Smithsonian Institution). There was a reason I chose to visit this place. You may or may not know that I’ve been a fan of the Wizard of Oz since I was a very young kid. Even before I watched the film, I loved the story and used to have it on cassette tape. Anyway, the National Museum of American History houses a pair of the Ruby Slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film. There was a bit of a queue to get into the wing of the museum which contained the slippers but it was well worth the wait.

Amongst other things I saw Seinfeld’s puffy shirt, a puppet of Oscar the grouch (from Sesame Street), Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves and Jim Henson’s Kermit puppet. Pretty cool

It was still a nice, hot day outside so my mum and I headed to The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. It was a pretty park, with lots of sculptures (as the name suggests ), with a large pond containing fountains in the middle. We sat too close to one of these fountains and ended up getting sprayed a little (you think we’d have learned our lesson in Albany but noooo). There were 3 sculptures which I was particularly impressed with-

- House I by Roy Lichtenstein. When you walk around it, it looks like it’s rotating. Great optical illusion.

- Thinker on a Rock by Barry Flanagan. It’s based on The Thinker by Rodin, which I caught a glimpse of when I was in Paris a couple of years ago.

- Four-Sided Pyramid by Sol LeWitt. Loved the way this looked.

There’s so much stuff in each of the museums/gardens, you’d probably need to spend about 3 full days in each one to take in everything. In total, I think we were in the museums for about 3 hours, then Diego came to pick us up and take us back to the hotel.

Enroute back to the hotel, a member of our tour group decided he was going to be the new tour director so he picked up the microphone and began talking (his wife and Diego were egging him on).  I can’t remember everything that was said but it was friggin’ funny (there were tears!).  He constantly referred to Diego as “Domingo” and attempted to get me and the Welsh dude sitting behind me to sing- that was not happening!

Once we got back there, it was time for a bit of a rest (and a lie down) before getting ready for the evening tour.

Mood : creative   Music : You've Got A Friend In Me  by  Randy Newman

I honestly can’t remember what time we started our tour on the Saturday. One thing I was aware of was how difficult it was to get out of bed when I woke up in the morning. Nope, I wasn’t ill or anything, it’s just that the beds in the Hilton are so damn comfortable! You know you get these people who steal things from hotels (towels etc)? Well, I’d like to steal a bed. These beds are so amazing that they made my one at home seem like a bare slab of concrete.

The first location we were visiting was Arlington National Cemetery (technically in the state of Virginia), where we met our local guide- a man named Tom. While I was waiting for the rest of the group to get off the bus, I noticed a wee white squirrel running around- so cute! Once everyone arrived, we headed for the Kennedy Graves. Wandering around, I was struck by the scale of the place. Right in front of you were rows of white gravestones. There weren’t just small groups of them- they stretched right into the distance, as far as the eye could see.

According to Tom, there are approximately 300,000 bodies buried in Arlington National Cemetery which makes the place even more surreal. While looking at the gravestones and the way they were laid out, we were told to imagine a soldier standing there instead of a stone. This explains the layout of the cemetery: uniform lines of soldiers.

Although it was a cloudy day, the sun was beginning to break through, providing a humid atmosphere. I hadn’t noticed that the previous evening, probably because it was raining. It was a bit of a walk to the Kennedy grave site but nothing too strenuous. On reaching the Kennedy Family grave site, I noticed there was someone sitting on the grassy hill where Arlington House is situated, overlooking the grave site. That struck me as being a bit odd because we were told that you need to have a very good reason to tread upon the grass. I thought no more about it, and walked around the grave, taking pictures of the Eternal Flame (the person on the hill later turned out to be a photographer). As I was doing so, a car pulled up and several people got out: and older woman dressed in black, a middle aged woman, a young girl wearing a green football strip and a Catholic Priest.

I knew that the 5th June was the anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s death so I figured that the people who got out of the car where there because of that. The priest started a small graveside service and said several Hail Mary’s. Later, when I got back to the bus, I found out the priest was a friend of Tom’s, the older lady was Ethel Kennedy (Robert Kennedy’s wife) and she had one of her daughters and a granddaughter with her. Despite the fact these are important, famous people, I couldn’t see any bodyguards and there was nothing put on with them. They simply stepped through the masses of visitors to the grave site, and stood there, just like everyday people standing at a grave.

I’ve recounted this story to a few relatives and some of them have asked “well why didn’t you take a picture or two?”. Why didn’t I take a picture? Because it felt disrespectful and completely inappropriate. Sure, these are people who have lived their lives in the public eye to a degree so they’re probably used to the attention. In fact, there were many other tourists around the grave site who were freely taking pictures. This doesn’t make it right though, does it? From my point of view, this was a family that were mourning for the loss of loved ones. Personally, I wouldn’t take kindly to people photographing me and my family when we visit my dad’s grave: treat others as you wish to be treated.

We wandered around a little more before heading back to the bus to continue our tour. Our next destination was the West Potomac Park in Washington DC.

Mood : thoughtful   Music : Open Road  by  Bryan Adams

After waking up quite early (5.30am), we got dressed, grabbed our luggage and headed for the bus at 7.15am. None of breakfast places at Niagara were open at that time of the morning so we bought water on the bus and planned to grab breakfast at the first stop.

30 minutes or so later, we were at the duty free shop, which happens to be one of the largest. A woman from the store came aboard the bus to read out the specials and gave us all a number, signifying which bus we were from (bus number 2 of the day). There was then a prize draw where 2 members of the tour group got money off what they purchased. Once inside the shop, my mum and I had a quick look around then figured the best idea would be to grab some breakfast. There was a choice of either Tim Horton’s or McDonalds. Normally, I don’t eat McDonalds (trying to be healthy you see) but they had a cinnamon melt on the menu which looked delicious. Guess what? It was delicious. After eating, we did some shopping and I finally got round to buying my sister a belated birthday present- Lancome make-up (she keeps trying to steal mine).

A short ride on the bus later, and we were at the US Border. The guard came onto the bus, asking to see everyone’s passports. Just after he checked mine, he asked my area of the bus what “bollocks” meant and what context it could be used in (he’d been watching a Guy Ritchie movie). I sat there with a bemused smile, thinking of what would be the least offensive way of explaining it to a Border Guard (yeah, I still find crossing the border a little scary and I didn’t want to come off as a cheeky little brat). Luckily, the guy in the seat behind me answered which caused much hilarity . 5 minutes later, we were on our way again

Now this is the day when I got a little confused as to all the places we’d visited/passed by. Once we were in the state of Pennsylvania, I’m sure we passed/stopped at/near Williamsburg, Williamsport and Harrisberg. I could be wrong though (forgive me, we covered a lot of ground). We did visit a truck stop somewhere around 11am once we were back in the USA. There were several tours occurring at the same time as ours and we bumped into a group of Germans so the snack shop was a little crowded! Here, I bought my first Mountain Dew of the trip. That was something I hadn’t drunk since I was about 7 years old!

The German tour group had been ahead of us for most of the morning however, we saw that they had stopped at the side of the road at one point. I think there was a cry of “ha- big mistake!” on our bus as we overtook them and knew that we were going to reach Wegmans first (this is the name of a supermarket, in case you’re wondering).

Although Wegmans is a supermarket, it had a food court and a sandwich shop within it. We were warned that the subs they serve are massive but my mum and I decided to have one each anyway (plus I had more Mountain Dew). Once we’d had a quick bite to eat, we got some snacks for the road and decided to buy a couple of fresh muffins, so we could have them for breakfast the following morning at our next hotel. Of course, we picked up some chocolate, as I’m quite partial to a Hershey bar.

Once on the road again, Adrian came up the bus, saying he had some chocolate kisses. I’d had some once before and only thought they were just ok (I think I had cookie flavoured ones) however, these kisses were amazing- Hersheys Caramel Chocolate Kisses. If you haven’t tried them (and you seriously should), they are kind of like Rolos (you still get these here, right?) but a million times better. I knew I had to buy some of these to take home.

We drove along the Susquehanna River Valley in the afternoon and as were were driving, it occurred to me that the scenery looked extremely similar to that on the road to Loch Ness. Of course at that particular time, it was pouring of rain, making it seem even more like Scotland. I tried to point this out to my mum but she was asleep, along with most of the other people on the bus. On some of the previous (much shorter) bus rides, I’d felt pretty tired so I couldn’t understand why I was still awake. Then it dawned on me: the Mountain Dew. American Mountain Dew is really sweet and has quite a bit of caffeine in it- I think that’s what kept me awake. I’m not complaining- although it was raining, the scenery was fantastic.

When everyone had woken up, Adrian said he had another surprise for us. We weren’t really sure what to expect because we were under the impression we were just travelling for the day. We were wrong- we were going on a wee visit to the Waterfront in Baltimore, Maryland. As soon as I heard we were going there, the song “Good Morning Baltimore” from the musical Hairspray popped into my head and it wouldn’t go away! In fact, it’s still lingering in my brain…

Luckily, it just stopped pouring of rain as we got off the bus at the Waterfront. My mum and I wandered around the harbour, with her constantly worried that I’d fall in. Yes, I’ll admit, I’m a little very clumsy but she’s not a huge fan of water. There’s a lot of boats that you can see there and a couple of shopping centres. Basically, we just went for a walk there and bought a couple of souvenirs in a shop and that was about it. It’s a nice place but the weather was rubbish on that particular day! 2 minutes before we got back on the bus, on came the rain again, so we timed it just right.

At about 6.45pm, we arrived on the outskirts of Washington DC and Adrian announced that we were approaching our hotel. The bus began to slow down in what I can only describe as a dodgy looking neighbourhood. When the bus finally came to a halt, it was stopped outside a vacant lot. Everyone on the bus was like “err what’s going on?” and looked worried. Where was the hotel?

Yes, both Adrian and Diego had decided to play a little joke on us(which by the way, everybody fell for). Our hotel had not disappeared. Instead, we were staying at the Hilton, Crystal City (ok, technically it’s in the state of Virginia). We had about another 30 minutes before we got there. After leaving the vacant lot, we began to believe that we really we in DC, crossing the Potomac, and catching glimpses of the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument, and the Pentagon (which wasn’t that far from the hotel).

We arrived at the Hilton at 7.15pm, 45 minutes ahead of schedule. After we’d sorted out all our stuff in the hotel room, we decided to venture out in search of food. First of all, we looked for a restaurant, of which there were quite a few, in close proximity to the hotel. In the process, we saw some dude getting interview by NBC just across the road from the hotel (no idea who it was though).

Tired of wandering around in the rain, my mum and I decided to take the risk of crossing the highway, keeping in mind the advice we were given on the bus “go in a group- they never kill 10 people at once” . Actually, it wasn’t that bad- we made it to the 7-11 in one piece where we stocked up on cookies and Lucky Charms (something I hadn’t eaten since I was very, very young!). When we returned to the hotel, it was time for an early night after a long day.

I’ll end this blog with the last tweet of the day I sent on Friday 5th June- “2 countries, 1 province, 4 states, 1 district, 500 miles, 2 bottles of mtn dew & 1 bowl of lucky charms. Bedtime. Night xx“

Mood : sleepy   Music : Sky Blue And Black  by  Jackson Browne