New York

We flew to New York via Chicago where my friend from home, Fraser, popped to the airport to visit us 🙂 We arrived in New York and caught a Lyft to our AirBnB. It was in a rather nothing part of the city and quite far away from anything, but it was right by a subway line and the guy whose place it was was away so we had a whole apartment in New York to ourselves for NZD$50 a night.

By this stage we were pretty tired. It had been about 5 and a bit months on the road, and the pace since we arrived in the US had been much much faster than previous. New York is one of my absolute favourite places but we were just really tired and knowing we had a few days there meant we kept it really chill. We visited the Brooklyn market, walked around Dumbo, met up with Scott’s cousin Rob for lunch, visited the World Trade Memorial (really beautiful), bought stuff for a platter from Wholefoods, and chilled on our little deck. After two days here, we dropped our big bags at Rob’s and caught a bus to Washington D.C. for three nights. (See below)

Once we got back to NY we spent a night at Scott’s cousin’s place in Brooklyn. We visited the Fort Greene Market with some good friends from home, saw the Statue of Liberty and Wall Street, ate some pizza, did some laundry, went to a comedy show and had quite a big night out at a speak-easy. Our last two nights were spent at an awesome AirBnB in Bushwick. The space was so lovely and the host was awesome, let me know if you would like the link. Again, we kept it pretty chill. We went to another comedy show, strolled the Highline, visited the top of The Standard, Central Park, Fifth Avenue, and the Met. I only saw one famous person and that was Christina Ricci #Casperforever.

On our last night in New York we went to Sleep No More. It takes place in an abandoned old hotel and involves everyone putting on a mask and following characters around the hotel for three hours. You just wander into different rooms, rifling through drawers, reading notes left on desks, looking at jars of god-knows-what in hospital rooms, until suddenly a character will run past you or burst into the room that you’re in and a whole scene will play out. It is quite amazing. All these little scenes happening around a massive hotel, making up one big story. I won’t tell you how it ends incase you go, but it is really full on and awesome. The acting is beautiful, the theatre is fantastic. The whole experience, from the moment you enter the smokey bar area before it ‘starts’ until the end, is pretty seamless and totally unique. I was thinking afterwards that my favourite character was actually the audience. Wherever a character went there was a stream of silent audience members in Scream-like white masks running after them. I would be watching the actors but then look around at the full scene in front of me and there are 50-60 strangers all wearing masks, heads tilted like creepy horror movie children, watching on in silence. It made the whole experience a million times more creepy, a million times more effective, a million times more wow. And then you just leave the hotel, all going your separate ways, like you didn’t just have this crazy intense experience together.

On our way home Scott and I stopped into Bathtub Gin. Rob had recommended it to us, but when we turned up, it was just a closed coffee shop. We walked up to a woman that looked like a waitress cleaning up and she said ‘table for two?’ I wasn’t sure what to say as all I could see were chairs on tables and the day’s leftover croissants still in the cabinet. But we nodded, slowly, and she pushed a wooden panel in the wall and the whole freaking wall opened up. There, behind it, was a real speak easy, jazz band and all. It was awesome. This red velvet-walled, secret den. We ordered a delicious cocktail each and spent the whole time just taking it all in. It was a very cool, very New York night.

The next day we explored Bushwick before heading to the airport to catch our plane to London and leave the America’s for the first time since we started.

Washington D.C.

We loved the place. Yes everything to do is touristy, but it’s touristy stuff with actual meaning. Once again we were AirBnb-ing a little bit out of the city, but it was cheap and easy enough to get in. We started the first day with a big brekky and walked around The White House. For some reason I was very giddy with excitement. Obama isn’t really just a president, he’s a celebrity. And I have a weird fascination with celebrities. So we stood in front of The White House taking silly photos like all the other muppets, and got told off by Secret Service for standing on the road. I was quite surprised at how many security guys were standing around, but then as we got to the corner of the building, three massive helicopters took off from The White House and flew right over us. A Secret Service guy pulled up behind us on his bike and I picked up the nerve to ask, ‘Excuse me, was The President in one of those?’ ‘Yeeep’, the man responded. I think I actually squealed. If only Obama had known there were some Kiwis down there he would have said whaddup, surely.

Scott walked while I pretty much skipped our way to The Mall. We hired bikes and rode from the Washington Monument right down to the Lincoln Memorial. It really is a beautiful city, and I loved reading about all the history and seeing places I’d only seen in Simpson’s episodes and Forest Gump. To get out of the sun we the rode to the Natural History Museum where we watched an Imax film about all the National Parks we had just visited. The footage was so spectacular and we felt so grateful and proud that we had just experienced all of it. After walking around the museum we hired bikes again and rode along the waterfront to Georgetown, to a restaurant called Farmers Fishers Bakers that was recommended to me by Ash. Her main reason for going was the cheese dip and holy moly it was worth it. After eating, we went to drop our bikes off at one of those little stations but they were all full, like, every station, everywhere was full. It was verrryy hot and very frustrating, but finally we dropped them and headed home.

The next day we went to see the Capitol Building and had an awesome tour around the old government rooms. Our tour guide was absolutely fantastic and her passion and enthusiasm were contagious. It’s a very cool building steeped in important history and I loved it. Afterwards we headed to the Space Museum where we watched two films in the planetarium one of which was narrated by Neil de Grasse Tyson. We then walked around and saw the actual space suit Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in and THE ACTUAL Wright Brother’s plane. The actual one. Coming from New Zealand, there is never anything ‘actual’ so this was very exciting to us. After the museum we went to get highly recommended ramen from Daikaya and went back to our room to chill.

It was from about New York that the idea of impending admin was dawning on us. Getting a flat, a job, bank account, all that, had started to creep into our conscious despite our valiant attempts to ‘live in the moment.’ Any ‘chill’ time was now spent tweaking CVs and convincing landlords to take us on despite having no income…

Finally got around to writing the US part of the trip… 

Los Angeles and Vegas

After our whirlwind Cancun adventure we flew to Los Angeles, picked up our Jucy van that we’d be living in for the next month, got some In’n’Out and went to see my sister, Alley, and Lewis. It was awesome seeing family and just as I thought it couldn’t get any better, there was a knock at their motel door and my beautiful muma walked in. Needless to say I dissolved into tears and spent the next week squeezing her. Scott and I spent the next two nights in Los Angeles sleeping in our van in a carpark and on the side of the road (free accomm!) We had some delicious fresh food, saw Radiohead play, strolled along Santa Monica Boulevard, and tandem-biked along Venice Beach.

On the third day we loaded up our van with everyones luggage and mum, Ash, Scott and I drove to Vegas. (Lewis and Alley flew). I loved catching up with my muma and sis, and singing obnoxiously loud to the Chilis all the way.

Once in Vegas, we checked in to our hotel and some of my very best friends – Grace and Ben -turned up 🙂 We got dressed, had some drinks in Ash’s fancy room and went out for dinner. Grace and Ben had come from a manic few weeks at home, and Scott and I had come from a very chilled 5 months travel, so none of us were really in the mood for Vegas…and it’s definitely a place you have to be ‘in the mood’ for. Still, so fun to be out with everyone 🙂

The last day in Vegas I chilled by the pool with mum, Ash, Alley and Lewis, Grace did some shopping and the boys walked the strip. That night we all went to a Cirque Du Soleil show which was super saucy and really good, had a funny dinner that was very hit and miss and said goodbye. The goodbye was unexpectedly tearful and once again, for a fleeting moment, the thought of ‘why am I moving away from family?’ crossed my mind. And I reminded myself that it was an adventure: one that could last as long as I liked. One that I had to give a good go.

Grand Canyon

The next morning mum, Scott, Ben, Grace and I set off for the Grand Canyon via the Hoover Dam to do our overnight hike. We stocked up at Whole Foods (the best place ever) and set up camp just outside the Canyon entrance at a campsite called Ten X. Two days prior, mum had a taxi driver who told her people die doing the overnight Grand Canyon hike all the time and Grace told us their Search and Rescue team was the busiest in the country, so that night we all ate Scott’s delicious dinner a little nervously, not really knowing what was in store.

The next morning was an early start – though not early enough – as we only ended up starting the walk at 8am. They recommend you avoid walking from 10am-4pm, and as our walk to the bottom was about 6 hours…yeh.. it was hot. The consolation was that it was also seriously stunning, and there were hardly any people – maybe that was because they did what they were told… The walk was actually pretty mellow right up until the last 2km or so. We were right down at the bottom of the canyon by this stage and there was zero breeze. Thankfully at the campsite there is a little river. We peeled off our clothes and sat in it for hours, each taking a while to feel alive again.

Down the bottom was actually the most unpleasant part of the experience and was what for me, made it such a challenge. There was no respite from the heat or a way to get properly clean. The dinner we made was horrific and overnight it only ‘dropped’ to 26 degrees. One thing though – the stars were insane.

Listening to the advice from the ranger, we woke at 3am the next morning and were walking by 3.30am. Seeing as it was an estimated 7 hours uphill, we wanted to be done before the sun found its full power. We spent the first two hours walking by flashlight, watching the dreaded sun creeping its way across the canyon. It felt like a race against heat, a race we were definitely going to lose. We ended up getting out at around 10.30am feeling very tired but very proud of ourselves and eachother. I must say I also felt pretty cool walking past all the day hikers feeling very profesh.

By that stage mum was very keen for a good shower so she got a hotel room for the night and i reluctantly (lol, not) joined her. Grace, Ben, and Scott had showers at the hotel and went to set up camp while mum and I bought some Peanut M&Ms, blue cheese, chips and sparkling apple juice, and ate it in bed while watching Friends. Bloody good. Unbeknownst to us Scott had been caught in a flash storm, sheltering from lightening in a campsite toilet while Grace and Ben had taken the van for supplies. I would have felt bad…if i’d known.

I can’t remember feeling more snuggly or satisfied from endorphins as I did that night. All the while trying not to think about the fact it was mums last night with me.

The next morning Grace, Ben, and Scott picked us up and we drove mum to the Greyhound bus station. Once again, there were tears. Not fun.

Zion National Park

The four of us then restocked the van, and continued on in the direction of Zion National Park. That night we found a great little campsite in the middle of nowhere, had some G&Ts and an epic burger made by Scott and went to sleep.

The next day we drove the rest of the way to Zion National Park but found the entrance was closed due to a ‘tractor-sized boulder’ blocking the road. Fair enough. We had to drive all around the other side and were worried our plans of getting a spot at the popular and small campsite would be foiled. Alas, we ended up getting the last spot at the campsite – hurray.

We set up and Ben got to his usual handyman routine of setting up a very necessary tarp. After a bloody good lunch of gas cooker quesadillas (seriouly the best and easiest camp lunch ever – thanks mum) we set off to do two very short walks to the Weeping Wall and the Emerald Pools. Zion National Park is stunning but it is also very small, which means the tourist numbers are very concentrated. As these two walks were really short, there were a lot of people on them and they weren’t overly enjoyable. Still, we had to do something to earn our G&Ts.

That night Scott and I went to the ranger talk on dinosaurs they had found in the park. That’s probably not necessary for you to know but there it is anyway.

The next morning we tackled a slightly harder walk – The Watchman. This was wayyy better as we passed about six people the whole time, and the views from the top were really cool. That afternoon we did The Narrows, which is a walk through a knee-high river through a narrow canyon. Very cool, verrrrrryyyy busy. Grace and I gave up a wee way in and sat on the side while the boys went a bit further. It was very entertaining watching people struggle over wobbly rocks and mini rapids. Sorry, but it was.

We went back to our van for dinner and set off the next morning for Bryce Canyon. Bryce Canyon is again really beautiful with tall skinny (rather phallic) rock formations clawing at the sky. We didn’t do any walks here, but instead parked up at a few spots and walked to some lookouts. That night we stayed at a motel in Salt Lake City which was a welcome change from the cramped quarters of our van. Plus, we got to shower and wash our undies – luxury.