Day 42 : Flagstaff

A lazy day in Flagstaff today – nice little university town with lots of art galleries and microbreweries. Watched a reggae band in the afternoon and night in watching a film in the hostel. Tomorrow we get the greyhound to Las Vegas along with Will and Joel, a couple of guys from Portsmouth we met in the hostel.

Thomas enjoys Canyon

Day 41 : The Big Ditch!

The Grand Canyon: We took a tour to the grand canyon organized through our hostel. We walked up to a view point looking at the floor (following instructions from our guide) then closed our eyes facing the canyon then opened them. It was amazing! So incredible it literally brought a tear to my eye. It feels like your brain will explode because the canyon is impossible to comprehend. Photos don't do it justice. It's the most amazing thing I have ever seen! We went to lots of view points and went for a short hike into the canyon.

Animal count: 1 coyote! Close up chipmunk. Lizards. A squirrel that was so tame I gave it a squidge. Cuddled a mule.

Dinner: Food we cooked at the hostel. Sat by the window watching a bluegrass band play in a beer garden across the street.

Weather: Not too hot as at 7000ft, but sunny and very exposed. Some thunderstorms which made our guide a bit twitchy as hikers have a tendency to be struck by lightening!

Day 40 : Show me the way to Amarillo

20 hours of fun: Overnight Greyhound Fort Worth to Flagstaff via Amarillo. Amarillo bus station seems to be the place to be at 2.30am! We got some sleep despite having to keep getting of the bus for re-fuelling etc. The scenery going through New Mexico and into Arizona is beautifully barren and goes on and on beyond comprehension. The landscape is so flat with loads of hills that look like lots of Ulurus. Somehow we have reached 5000ft without having noticed any sort of incline.

Flagstaff, Arizona: Seems to be a really cool place with dramatic mountains in the backdrop. Lots of laid back bars and microbreweries near our downtown hostel. The hostel we are staying in for the next 3 days is really nice.
 
Animal count: A family of some sort of gopher or prairie dog yet to be identified (write in if you identify it!)

Day 39 : Where the west begins...

Sam showed us around the Texas Christian University campus where he is studying / teaching American history (including the impressive new American Football stadium of course!). In the afternoon he gave us a tour of downtown Fort Worth (notable sights were the water gardens, used in the film Logan's Run, and the Worth hotel, where JFK gave his last public address). We passed through the historic stockyards to see the longhorns and watch the cowboys drive them down the road. It's still uncomfortably hot.

This evening we're catching the greyhound to Flagstaff via Amarillo.

Animal count : lots of Texas longhorn cows!

Day 38 : Happy Birthday Laura!

To celebrate Laura’s birthday we drove about 500 miles from New Orleans to Fort Worth, Texas, where Sam and Laura live.

Food: Before leaving we sampled the best of New Orleans breakfast at Stanley’s.
Animal count: Mike the tiger (a real tiger – it is the mascot of Louisiana State University football team) Another cute gecko / lizard thing. The Count of Monte Cristo, Sam and Laura’s giant rabbit – he’s so cute!

Day 37 : See you later alligator

Swamp tour! Amazing flat boat tour of the swamps in Jean Lafitte national park. Saw the beautiful swampy landscape and saw loads of alligators of varying size (including a huge one) and held the cutest baby pet alligator.
Street cars –  are cool, they use the original carriages from the 20s.

Food today:

• Chicken gumbo and turtle soup
• Po-Boys for dinner (huge sandwich things) and fried green tomatoes .

Animal count: 2 really cute little lizard/ gecko things. Great blue heron, egrets. About 15 alligators (they like raw chicken and marshmallows).

In general: New Orleans is a totally amazing place – everyone should visit!

Day 36 : New Orleans–French quarter

Accommodation: A beautiful hotel apartment room (courtesy of Sam and Laura’s friend who is part of a hotel rewards points scheme.
Company: Sam and Laura
Highlights:

• A walking tour of the French quarter. Amazing Spanish architecture and the Quebecan symbol (Fleur de Lis) everywhere. Surprised by what the origins of Creole and Cajun people are.
• St Louis no. 1 cemetery – amazing place! In New Orleans they bury their dead above ground because the water table is so high when you bury underground the caskets will pop up when it rains! We got caught in a torrential rain shower and thankfully no caskets popped up!
• A random marching band on tour from Holland
• The oldest Catholic church in America
• Having a specialist in U.S. history with us!
• Amazing jazz at the Spotted Cat on Frenchman street

New Orleans Food:

• Muffaletta gorgeous bread with layers of ham and olives
• Beignets in cafe du monde. Amazing doughnut type things covered in powdered sugar (strangely not too sweet). The cafe is open 24 hours a day. We had ours at 2.30am, yum yum

Animal count: 6 mules carting carriages
Bitey bitey count: Through the roof (mainly acquired from sitting in Katherine and Ryan’s garden at night.

Day 35 : Columbus to NOLA

Today we packed up and got ready to leave Katherine. Her and Ryan hosted lunch with Katherine's family and we were joined by Sam and Laura. This afternoon we travelled down to New Orleans with Sam and Laura. The hotel is fantastic - we have a large suite so plenty of room for the four of us!

Day 34 : Columbus, Mississippi

We had a lazy day in Columbus today - a welcome break after a hectic couple of weeks on the road. Katherine took us to the Columbus farmers market (she helps to run it for the council), which was similar to those in Stroud and Cowbridge, although possibly more "real" farmers have stalls at this one. Columbus is a lovely town. The main street seems like it hasn't changed since the 1950s and, as many of the Antebellum mansions here were untouched by the civil war, has a huge diversity of architecture (from the plantation-style houses to trailer parks). It was one of Bill Bryson's favourite towns in "The Lost Continent" and I'm sure he does a much better job of describing the place than I could.

We were kindly invited to lunch with Katherine's family (apparently Saturday lunch at the Chinese is a family tradition!), and hoped to go and see some racing at the local speedway in the evening, though this was unfortunately rained off. It's still hot here, and very humid (lots of swamp and river about).

In the evening we had a meal out with Ryan and Katherine, and they gave us a driving tour of Columbus before having a few late beers back at their house.

We have a bit of a change from our original plans this week - Sam and Laura have arranged a trip to New Orleans for a few days, so we're heading their tomorrow instead of going to Texas as expected. Should be fun!

Day 33 : Memphis - Tupelo - Columbus

Today we caught the greyhound from Memphis to Tupelo where Will's old Bristol uni house mate Sam and his wife Laura came to pick us up and drive us to their friends in Columbus. Before leaving Tupelo we visited the house that Elvis was born in. Sam and Laura have gone away to a wedding in Alabama so we are staying here in Columbus with their friends Ryan and Katherine. The house is amazing - its a huge old house they have recently bought and are renovating. We will learn more about it in the next two days I'm sure and will try and capture its amazingness on the camera.

Day 32 : Beale Street

After an early start to dismantle the tent for the final time (for a few weeks at least) and return our hire car to Memphis airport, we enjoyed a lazy day in our motel catching up on emails and the like. We're staying right next to the greyhound station as we need to catch an early bus tomorrow and, conveniently, it's right next to Beale Street (the tourist centre for blues and jazz clubs in Memphis).

We spent this evening in B.B. King's Blues Club, one of the many bars in Beale Street. Despite it still being very hot, there was a torrential downpour in the evening which was quite impressive from our comfy perch at the bar.

Day 31 : Walking in Memphis

Today we went on a tour of Sun studio “birthplace of Rock N’ Roll”. This was the place that started the careers of Elvis, BB King, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. Its a cool little place (no bigger than where Chill Winston rehearse). It was good to learn about some music history concerning people that I know and love (not like when we learnt about Country music).The place is still in its original form and still in use today.

We also went to the Stax records museum of Soul Music which is built on the site of the studio which was demolished in the 80’s. It is in a slightly dodgy area of Memphis (although that seems to be what most of Memphis is like) so I was glad when we found the place that Will said we need to go to. This was also full of history about music I love and also told the story of greatness from humble beginnings, but ended in a rather sad demise. Acts that recorded here included Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, The Bar-Kays, and basically lots of people you might not have heard of but you would definitely know the songs.

Lunch: On Beale street – ribs and brisket of beef sandwich (better than a cheese slice or honey on bread which we’ve been eating for lunch for the past week).

Road signs: The USA is very centred around having a car and lots of the shops etc. have massive road side signs. So do all the churches – saying things like “Jesus loves you” etc. My favourite sign I saw yesterday on the way to Memphis “If you think it’s hot here, imagine what hell’s like!”

Hot hot: It’s hot here! I envy my neighbour two pitches down with air-con in his tent (which is quite normal here – and why not as you pay for hook ups here so you might as well use the electricity).

Day 30 : Jack Daniel

Another scorching day today – 34 degrees – so it didn’t take long to dry out our soggy tent this morning. We got on the road to Memphis via Lynchburg, home of the Jack Daniels distillery. The tour was really good and the place has a surprisingly small-company feel (all of the JD in the world is distilled here, but most of the operation is around maturing and distribution, so the actual whiskey-making process is still quite small). The tour was free, but really made you want to try some of the whiskey. Technically, the distillery is in a dry county, although the only town in the county seems to be Lynchburg, so most people must work for JD, and all the workers get a free bottle a month. Also, they have a special license allowing them to sell special edition bottles in the distillery, so it seems like the owners have done a pretty good job of making sure that the only alcohol consumed comes from the distillery!

We resisted the urge to by a bottle and continued along the hot and slow route 64 to Memphis, eventually arriving at Meeman-Shelby Forest state park, on the banks of the Mississippi, where we pitched for the night. The car was immediately bombarded by large wasp-like insects (Louise thinks maybe cicada wasps) which does not bode well for the bitey bitey count. We also saw 3 racoons, a mother and two babies, at dusk.

Day 29 : Nashville

We spent today in Nashville, going on a backstage tour of the the Grand Ole Opry House (purpose built in the 1970s to host the show 3 times a week). It was a good tour, but we both felt that the tour of the auditorium used from the 1940s-1970s (used famously by Johnny Cash and June Carter) would have been more interesting. Still, it was a good intro to country music history. We went for a drink in a saloon bar in downtown Nashville and listened to some guys playing country music – it seemed like a great place to be in the evening, but on our budget we were limited to a lunchtime drink.

We’ve seen enough of Nashville, so going to head to Memphis tomorrow so we have an extra day there with the car, which has to be returned on Thursday.

Day 28 : Lakeside view

Today we drove to J Percy Priest lake national park (near Nashville) and set up camp. We are camped in a wooded area by a lake. We went for a dip but its so hot the lake is barely refreshing. We’re having a chilled day not doing much. Tomorrow we will head into Nashville to learn some music history.

Animal count: Lizard, more squirrels, red cardinal, giant butterflies, some sort of cute woodpecker.

Driving in America has been fine but sometimes confusing as you can do things like drive through red lights. On the motorways there is no fast lane as such, so people undertake and overtake constantly and also drive bumper to bumper. I also find crossroads where there is no right of ways to anyone quite odd – they need more roundabouts. We have been getting on fine with the driving and no one seems to notice any accidental bad driving we do.

Day 27 : Cedars of Lebanon

The night walk last night was good, if a little wet. Fortunately for us, this meant that there was a small crowd of 14, rather than the usual 100, taking the 2 hour stroll around the woods near our campsite. The walk was fun, although we didn’t see any animals other than a toad and a bat. We did hear stories from the ranger and the other walkers about the number of bears spotted that day, however, so this morning we set off on a 6 mile hike around the nearest mountain in the hope of spotting some black bears (one ranger told of seeing 15 bears on this loop yesterday). Sadly, we didn't see any bears, though we did see 2 elk, a wild turkey and an owl.

Continuing on our road trip, we chose to take what looked to be the most direct route from our campsite towards the interstate to Nashville. This actually turned out to be 12 miles of unpaved gravel track over a mountain, which was a little hairy at times, but Snowy coped well.

We’re camped today about an hour away from Nashville at the Cedars of Lebanon state park. Thankfully there are showers.

Day 26 : Smoky Smoky Mountains

We left Linville Falls in the rain and drove along the parkway towards Asheville. The roads were really cloudy / misty and the visibility was only about 10 metres for much of the 90 miles we covered. The road seems much more interesting in this sections but obviously we couldn’t see the views! We drove through Asheville (not much to see there) towards the Great Smoky Mountains. Things have an “alpine” feel about them now.

The drive took us through the Cherokee Indian reserve (which was surprisingly small and had little there except a casino) and we crossed the mountains in search of a campsite. It’s a Friday night and apparently this is the most visited national park in America so, unsurprisingly, a lot of the campsites are full. We eventually found a pitch at Cades Cove on the far side of the park; no showers again but quite a lot going on – we’re going on a ranger-led night hike tonight (in the rain by the looks of it).

Animals seen : Wild turkeys (twice, once with babies), 2 elk, more fireflies

Day 25 : The Blue Ridge Parkway

We got up early and headed out with “Snowy” (as Louise has christened the car) onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, joining it about 170 miles into its 450 mile length. The speed limit is only 45 miles an hour so it is pretty slow going at some points. We stopped a few times to look at the views and the various attractions along the way which included a good little music centre where we listened to some live guitar / violin / mandolin folk music (the area around the parkway is home to bluegrass music).

Our campsite tonight is at Linville Falls, around mile 314, and at about 3000ft. The campsite is cheap but pretty basic (i.e. no showers). We’re also in more serious black bear country now, so the campsite required us to use bear-proof containers and bins.

Animals seen : 2 groundhogs, chipmunk, white tailed deer.

Day 24 : Fairy Stone State Park

Today we drove the 200-odd miles from our campsite in Williamsburg towards our target, the Blue Ridge Parkway near Danville. The roads are stereotypically wide and straight dual carriageways where almost every building is either a church or some kind of garage (this is NASCAR country). The radio stations seem to be either Christian rock or country and western.

We’re camped for the night in the Fairy Stone State Park, still in Virginia but only just (bordering North Carolina). There is a cluster of hiking trails (will maybe try one tomorrow before we leave) and a lake with a diving board in which we had a welcome dip this afternoon. The campground is woody and thankfully much cooler than our previous base in Williamsburg. There was a “bear warning” notice where we came in.

Animals seen : 1 lizard, lots of birds (but only 2 identified as the American Robin and the Red Cardinal)

Day 23 : Colonial Williamsburg

We woke up early today after a patchy night's sleep thanks to a combination of the heat, noisy insects, freight trains blowing their horns every hour or so (apparently right next to the campsite) and a lack of camping mats (first thing on the shopping list today). Fortunately, we had a cooked breakfast to wake us up; our temporary camping kit proving its worth. Since we have to either bin any camping kit in 10 days time or carry it around without a car until we get to California, we have only bought budget essentials. We cooked breakfast (stored in a polystyrene cool box) on a tin of smokeless gel fuel, which seemed a great idea until we realised that we had no stand to place the saucepan on, and placing it directly on the tin extinguished the flame. A penknife and 2 drink cans later and we were back in business, and had a very welcome breakfast of bacon and egg rolls.

We drove into Colonial Williamsburg, which seems a bit like an American Stow on the Wold; there's not much to do for free other than walk around, but it's so hot today that we were happy to just do that for an hour and then head back to our shady campsite and swimming pool.

After a swim and a go on the giant inflatable slide they have, we went for a walk in the woods by the campsite, where we saw a 5ft black snake speeding through the undergrowth; we think it was maybe a black rat snake as they're common around here.

Tomorrow we're on the road again, driving out towards Roanoke to join the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Bitey bitey count : L : just one new, W : no new

Day 22 : Road trip

Today we left the hovel and picked up our "little car" from Washington airport. The lady at Dollar car asked us if we had a sat nav and wished us luck when we replied no! Once actually out of Washington, navigation was OK and we made our way to Williamsburg, Virginia. We spent the time listening to country and western music on the radio, Will played with the cruise control and I counted the amount of blown out tyres on the road. I had my first "Wendy's" - it was lush and gave me an opportunity to steal more plastic cutlery.

The camp site is lovely. We have pitched our tent in a shady spot in a big field with only one other tent (everyone else is in RVs). There is a nice swimming pool but the water is really warm and not very refreshing.

I'm loving having the car and our little tent - our own little home. I am now sat in the tent (writing on a notepad). The noise of the crickets (or cicadas??) is deafening and the fireflies are so bright they light up the tent like flashes of lightening. Fireflies are amazing (don't get me wrong, glow worms are cool too), because they can fly! You will be walking along and they light up in your face like blobs of fire! It is still really warm so the tent is open apart from the bug netting. The moon is streaming through the trees into the tent and, as the sound of crickets singing and bugs dropping from the trees doesn't send me to sleep, we wonder if there are any bears in the wood...

Today's temperature: 35C

Local accent: changing to a more southern twang

Day 21 : Museumed out

This morning we went to the National Archives to see an exhibition on "the government's effect on the American diet". They also have things like the Declaration of Independence. I feel like we've seen so much American history stuff that when I come back to the UK I need to read a British history book so that Britain doesn't think I'm neglecting it! We saw a little bit of the Smithsonian Folk Festival then went to the National Air and Space museum before heading back home.

Any plans made about what to do next whilst standing in cold air-conditioned museums are always scuppered within 30 seconds of leaving by the immense heat! Its only going to get hotter (but the frequency of pools, sea and lakes nearby will increase).

Day 20 : Memorials, memorials...

Today we went on a guided walking tour of Washington. It was good but really hot. We saw the Washington monument, the White House and Jefforson memorial in the distance, the relatively new WW2 memorial, the Vietnam war memorial and the Lincoln memorial. I've come to realise that most of the famous landmarks I recognise in America are due to watching the Simpsons! Sadly the reflection pool was empty for rennovation so it is just an expanse of mud. Nevertheless, the view sitting on the Lincoln memorial looking across to the other memorials and buildings was impressive. I also cuddled a cute police horse which was nice. I continue to enjoy the free toilets and water fountains everywhere.

We are now back in our hovel with ants and daddy long legs everywhere. For dinner we shared some microwave pasta (there is a microwave but nothing else, so my collection of plastic cutlery from museum cafes is proving useful). We bought a giant road map today and ripped out all the pages we don't need in preparation for our road trip.

Bitey bitey count: reducing but set to increase.

Day 19 : Washington D.C.

A very tiring day today. We caught the overnight bus from Boston to Washington and neither of us slept much. We're staying an another homestay through Airbnb for the next few days, although the house is more like a hostel. The area (Takoma Park) seems nice enough, but the room is a bit dingy and there are no cooking facilities. We're staying in the basement of a large 19th century mansion (we were supposed to be staying in a different room upstairs, but the downgrade gave us both a cheaper rate and an early check-in).

We managed to drag ourselves into town for a few hours and visited the Museum of the American Indian and the American History Museum, both of which were very good. Tomorrow we're hoping to go on a free walking tour of the main sights, although today was very hot, humid and stormy, so not ideal conditions for wandering around outside. One piece of good karma came our way as we were given some spare unlimited metro travelcards by an Australian lady, so at least transport will be free for the next few days (we did the same with our Boston and New York travelcards).

Thomas joined us for clam chowder in Portsmouth

Day 18 : Wallis sands

We are currently on a bus from Portsmouth to Boston bus station in order to get an overnight megabus to Washington. Today Kieran was off work, the 3 of us had Dunkin donuts (much much yummier than Krispy kreme) and iced coffee (all the rage over here) for breakfast. This morning we picked up Will’s newly hemmed shorts (thanks Seth!) and headed to Walmart (to buy hats and sleeping bags) on the way to a lovely beach in Rye just down the road. We did some sunbathing, pebble skimming and went for a very brief dip as the water was chilly but beautifully clear. We chilled out in the afternoon and Will learned from the net how to survive a bear attack: the first thing you have to do is figure out what species of bear you are facing (black or brown – which are not always black or brown and vice versa!) and then decide whether there are cubs around, before deciding whether to fight or play dead!

Bitey bitey count: L= 15 W= 20 (but 7 of them don’t count)

Since arriving in the USA….

• Number of new beers = 17. Note we’ve hardly drunk the same beer twice.
• Number of new supermarkets = 4. Note: I thought food was really expensive but it turns out we had only been in expensive supermarkets in expensive cities. Food is the same price as the UK if not cheaper so we won’t starve and suffer nutrient deficiencies.
• Number of times in Boston south Bus station = 3

Day 17 : Lazy day in Portsmouth

Kieran and Helen were working today so we had a lazy day in their house, using the time and available internet to sort out some of the next leg of our trip (Washington and the drive to Memphis). Before Kieran went to work he took me to an outdoor shop to purchase a tent for our road trip; we're going to get other camping kit once we have the car, but wanted to make sure that we have a tent so we're not hunting around for one in Virginia.

In the afternoon we booked some more hotel / hostels for Fiji and a camp site near Nashville. Seth from Eppy's Slacker Shorts, whom we met last night, came over with a suitcase full of shorts for me to try. I picked out a nice pair of vintage trousers and he measured me up, so we should be collecting a great pair of bespoke shorts in the morning! They're certainly going to get a lot of use over the next 10 months.

We planned to have a picnic dinner in the evening but had to abandon due to a thunderstorm, so we headed into town to the Portsmouth Brewery pub where they run a microbrewery. There is a lot of good beer over here (I'll write another post on that later) and the beer culture is surprisingly close to that in the UK - we had a great blonde ale and a stout that were brewed right on the premises.

Day 16 : Kieran, Helen and Cowboy’s place

Kieran drove us from Boston to his place in Portsmouth where we met their cool cat, Cowboy, and had some lovely BBQ’d prawns for lunch in the glorious, but very hot, sunshine. We then took a look around Portsmouth; the seaside town is a very old settlement (for the USA), established in the early 17th century, and has lots of old colonial-style buildings and a historic naval shipyard. The town is fairly small (Stroud sized) and is close to lots of nice beaches.

We had some sangria and blueberry beer on the waterfront and then went to a cafe for our first taste of clam chowder (which is really nice) and cake. We had beers at Kieran’s old house with his previous housemates then went to watch some fireworks (postponed from independence day celebrations due to weather). We met a guy called Seth who has an etsy shop selling shorts made from vintage and reclaimed trousers. He’s coming around tomorrow so that Will can choose a pair of shorts (on the house – yey!).

Bitey bitey count: Louise 7 mosquito bites Will: 9 mosquito bites.

Day 15 : Independence day

After claiming free Starbucks pastries and coffee courtesy of the Marriott check-in clerk, we walked with Kieran and Helen over to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, to soak up the atmosphere and have a quick beer before the baseball. The pre-game ceremony was, of course, very patriotic, and included music from the US Army field band and a fly past. The game itself was great fun, despite the Red Sox getting hammered early on by the Blue Jays. Baseball games can be pretty long, so after 3 hours in the sweltering 33 degree heat and diminishing prospects of a Red Sox victory, we decided to call it quits and heat back to the air-conditioned comfort of our hotel.

In the evening, there way a concert / fireworks show by the Charles river featuring the Boston Pops orchestra - a great way to cap off our few days in Boston.

Day 14 : The Freedom Trail

In the morning moved Marriotts to Boston Copley Place. The room has a great view from the 19th floor and we were charged the the cheap rate today, so a bit happier about our budget for the next few days. The check-in clerk generously gave us a free $10 starbucks voucher to spend in the hotel, so that's breakfast sorted for tomorrow! After another picnic lunch we took a guided walking tour of the Freedom Trail (well, half of it anyway), so now we have some idea what all the fuss is about on independence day tomorrow.

Kieran (whom I lived with when at university in Bristol) and his girlfriend Helen arrived in the evening and took us out to a couple of great beer bars near the hotel. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a great day as we're going to see the Boston Red Sox in the afternoon, and then there is a big fireworks display in the evening.

Day 13 : Cambridge

This morning we said goodbye to the Hyannis hostel, jumped on a bus to Boston and finally checked into the Boston Cambridge Marriott (next to MIT) about lunchtime. After some confusion about the room rate, we ended up with the “friends and family” rate which was not as cheap as we had hoped, but still half the price of the standard rate. For tomorrow and Monday we should get the full employee discount rate as Kieran (who works for Marriott) will be staying as well.

In the afternoon we had a stroll around Havard Square and tagged onto one of the walking tours for a bit. The subway (the "T") station underneath our hotel as a very fun musical interactive sculpture between the tracks (see the photo) which allowed people to ring tubular bells between the subway tracks by turning handles on the side of the platform.

We took the T to Boston Common and had a walk past the “Cheers” bar (now a tacky tourist attraction) and along Newbury street which was full of designer cloth shops and galleries. One highlight was the International Poster Gallery which showcased original vintage posters – sadly there were no postcards for sale as we couldn't afford the many thousands of dollars that the items were fetching. Once you get past all the shops, the area seemed nice; lots of al fresco bars and restaurants and good street entertainment.

In the evening we had a budget picnic in the room and had a swim in the small hotel pool. Tomorrow we’re moving to another Marriott across town and plan to walk the Freedom Trail.

Day 12 : Last day in Cape Cod

Today we enjoyed another lazy day in Hyannis, taking the opportunity to use the hostel's free internet to research and book some of our holiday in Fiji and sort out a few loose ends at home. It's been another warm day so we sauntered down to the beach in the afternoon to read and swim, although the latter was cut short by a rather close encounter with a pair of crabs!

It is the Friday night of a bank holiday (Independence day) here, and people seem to be swarming to Hyannis for the weekend - we're going to try and find a spot to have a quiet drink around the harbourside as it's our last night here. Tomorrow we're off on a relatively short coach journey to Boston (90 minutes) and the comparative luxury of the Marriott in Cambridge. We're staying in 3 different Marriotts over the holiday weekend and undoubtedly they will charge an extortionate fee for internet access, so I expect we won't have a chance to update the blog until Tuesday when we're going to stay with my university friend Kieran in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (about an hour north of Boston).

Link to ongoing photo album...

For those that are interested in the full set of our photos, you can view them here. We'll update the album as we go.

Day 11 : Whales Ahoy!

Today we caught an early bus to Provincetown - a seaside resort where the first pilgrims landed in the U.S. We went to a little museum and up a big pilgrim memorial tower.

After a budget picnic lunch we went whale watching! It was amazing - we saw minky whales, humpback whales and finback whales (the 2nd largest whales in the world; see the photo). They looked huge but we could only see probably a small proportion of them above the water.

Provincetown is like any nice seaside resort, with lots of restaurants and art galleries. It also has a doggy bakery and a doggy boutique that sells dog nail varnish! There was almost the same ratio of dog:human as in New York.

I managed to get sun burned again (not too badly) and Will has been nibbled by an insect (for once not me but there's plenty of time for that!).