Day 5 31.7.2011 – The mountain and the factory

Hello,

So today we woke to and for breakfast were treated to freshly made pancakes!!! (You can’t beat homemade!) to start out the day we headed off to smuggler’s notch, which is a ski resort in the winter and great for trekking in the summer, so myself, Steven, Michael and Michael headed up on the cable car to begin our ascent. We tried one way which was washed out and would have had to traverse over a 20 foot drop for about 10 feet and so didn’t fancy risking it, so we tried the other route which proved to be much more fruitful.

The view at the point where we stopped (at roughly I think 3000 feet) was breathtaking as you can see here:

After heading down we went out to lunch at a place called ‘the shed’ which severed some great food and then for desert we decided to head out to one of the most famous ice cream makers in the world....some of you might have heard of it .......Ben & Jerry’s....just a small company that do some odd flavours of ice cream. We took the tour of the factory to see how it was all made...even though it was a Sunday so there was no one working the factory floor...but we were treated to some free samples of ice cream which were happily taken!!

Oh also we stopped off at a shop where the owner makes stautus and carvings out of trees using a chainsaw!

We are going to meet more of the family this evening and who knows what they have planned for Steven’s birthday for tomorrow!!!!!

This is me signing off...J

Day 4 30.7.2011 – The Train

Hello all,

So it rained last night in NYC which was nice as it was warm! We decided to buy Steven a Hard Rock Cafe shirt for his birthday instead, it looks really good. Now we are on the 7 hour train from NYC – Plattsburgh, NY, to visit Stevens’s side of the family, Uncle Peter, whom we haven’t met before but Steven has quite a few times. It’s nice we get to meet some more family and also Steven gets to spend his 22^nd birthday with them all. We got up at 6am this morning to get ready and leave the hotel by 7.....which we did....however when i first woke up and looked at my watch I thought it was 6am, so got up and got ready, I woke the guys up and they roused quite quickly only to my dismay i had read my watch wrong as they pointed to the clock that it was only 12.30!!! So there I was all ready to go and had to get back into bed!! Oh well!

So yes a 7 hour train journey on a very comfortable Amtrak train with plugs so i can plug the laptop in and passing some very stunning views as we go.

This is me signing off.....J

Supplemental

The journey took 8 hours instead as we were delayed by some rolling freight trains (that actually take prioirity on these tracks) but eventually got to Plattsburgh and met Uncle Peter and his son Michael. They took us across the ferry to get to Burlington and welcomed us into their home, which is lovely and so peaceful

This is me signing off...J

Day 3 29.7.2011 – Harry Potter, Heroes and Villains

Hello all, today we had a bit more of a relaxed day as we stayed around time square. We went to the Harry Potter exhibition at the discovery centre, I would show you pictures but due to copyright of Warner Brothers we weren’t allowed to. But I can safely say that the outfits and props are amazing, some of the details that you see up close just cannot be appreciated on the big screen. Also we just did a bit of souvenir shopping and went to the M & M store and Toys ‘R’ Us. On our walk back to the hotel this afternoon we decided to go to the comic book store that we had seen....but before we get to that there is the most amazing celebrity spot Michael has made........that would be .........Claire from Heroes!!!! Hayden Panettiere in the flesh and we walked right past her!

So after that excitement we headed off the comic book store, as some of you may know (and others about to) Michael and I are rather big fans of sci-fi, anime and the like so walking into a New York comic book store was a bit of a dream come true for us! It was huge and had everything and anything to do with being a geek/nerd/whatever you want to call us! (Steven was a bit blank as he isn’t part of our world in that respect!) but hey you only get to do these things once.

 

We went to planet Hollywood last night which was great and are now going to take Steven our for a birthday dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, which he doesn’t know we are playing for yet!!

This is me signing off....J

Day 2

Day 2 28.7.2011 – More of New York

Hello all, today we woke up and looked out the window and saw a large crowd gathered on a corner down in time square, Steven zoomed in and we saw ABC’s Good Morning America signs posted around, so turned on the TV and could see them in the two places at once, which was a very weird thing indeed.

 So we walked along to Grand Central Station this morning to look at the insides, we also grabbed breakfast, our first pancakes and syrup!! Steven thought they were ok and naturally I ate all of mine up rather quickly! After we headed down Lexington Ave, towards Bloomingdales so Steve n could get a little brown bag for Caroline. After much heat and walking we finally made it to Central Park!! It is huge!!! We hardly saw any of it but did walk around central park zoo  (and know it is not like in Madagascar L), we have just been walking back and some more things are going on in Time Square we might go and check it out or head out for dinner somewhere

This is me signing off....J

Day 1

Day 1 27.7.2011 – The adventure begins

Ok so have woken up at a nice healthy 5am due to my body not being used to the time zone yet as it still things it was 10am in the morning but it’s ok, we are all feeling refreshed and ready to get out there and explore NEW YORK CITY BABY!!!

This is the view from our first room:

Now moved into the new bigger room overlooking Time Square, it is a great view that you can just watch the world go by.

We have explored time square, and a bit of the surrounding area, went for a walk to the Empire State, will have to investigate that further later. Mikey was feeling abit under the weather so we took him back to the hotel, then Steven and i headed down to battery park to take some pics of the Statue of Liberty and the construction site of the new world trade centre.

We also came across a place called ‘Essex World Cafe’ and as usual it was full of builders!!!!

 








And I have found the largest bag of skittles in the world!!!!

To round off the day we went to see Cars 2. Which was really good fun then asked where we could get pizza from......the lady in the cinema told us of a place that did large pizza slices for 99 cents so we thought sounds like a plan. We got there and found 18” pizza for $8!!!!!!!!  It was fantastic and so cheap compared to the UK. Finally,  we head up to the rotating bar and just watched literally the whole of New York slide past us with some very tasty mocktales.

This is me signing off....J

Day 0

Day 0 26.7.2011 – the prologue

Ok its 10.20pm (or 3.20am UK time), we arrived at Heathrow and all went well from there, the plane was fine even if Steven and Michael both had very little leg room (so we will look into that for the other flights as they are that much longer). Steven was sick on the descent (but credit to him this is his first long haul flight!). We got through immigration nice and easily to be greeted by very hot rain and a welcoming driver at the exit we got in his car and said it would be 85 bucks, we thought ok but to our dismay and horror we ended up paying $220 (I KNOW, CRAZY, OUTRAGEOUS AND WE ARE ALL VERY PI**ED OFF WITH THAT) but are so very tired and that’s the last time we are getting ripped off, so we told the staff at the desk (of the most amazing hotel we have ever seen and been in).....and we get given a FREE upgrade to a bigger room and facing onto Time Square J

So all in all a mixed day filled with excitement, sick, disappointment and tiredness....but hey it’s all an adventure and we are bound to have an eventful time.

Ok so now to see what tomorrow holds and some very welcome sleep........this is me signing off...J