The day I made three cities one blog

The day we built an empire...

I won't lie, the reason I wanted to go to Atlantic City was because of the HBO show 'Boardwalk Empire'. Unfortunately for me the show is set in the late 20s/early 30s and its 2012. A lot has changed since then.
We caught a bus (shiy shit shit) from New York at around 1pm and pulled into Atlantic City at around 3. First thing we noticed was that a lot of the casinos were the same names/themes as the ones on Vegas and they were a lot more tightly packed. We hadn't booked accommodation so we called the Econo Lodge and got some cheap rooms for the night.
I was itching to get out on the Boardwalk so we got our shit stowed and ran out toward the ocean. I had mixed feelings about it. Being overcast, a monday and the off season I tried to take this into account but the landmark has definitely seen better days. I feel like they just slack off ths rules at this time of year and all the cool things are either being rennovated or closed until summer. We wandered down, me hoping to find some of the buildings or buisnesses from the show but alas, a wooden wall covered in pictures of the buildings featured in Boardwalk Empire showed me where some of these buildings used to be. I was disappointed that Babette's Supper Club was now an empty lot. The disappointment dudn't end here.
We saw the worlds smallest menu and ate shitty food.
We walked around a whole bunch. Then a whole bunch more.
We went and gambled a bit. Well, I watched. Rhys and Chris won some money at blackjack then bet 50 on black and won.
I didn't really enjoy Atlantic City.
I don't want to talk about it anymore.

...and saw where an Empire was built.

We caught another bus out of Atlantic to go 4 hours to Wsshington DC. It turns out that bus tickets for long trips are just sold unrestrictedly and they just let on the first people in the line, regardless of how many tickets they have sold. Genius.
After waiting an hour for them to clean up their mess and get us another bus we were on our way through Baltimore and got in at about 5pm. We went and did some washing (in Washington' teeheehee) and tried for about an hour to find a place to stay.
We ended up getting a room with 2 extra beds and had a terrible dinner at red lobster and a terrible sleep. Hurrah. MJ snored that night, louder than a rock concert so the other 3 of us didn't get much sleep. We got up early to transfer to our booked hostel and we discovered the reason we had such a hard time finding a room was due to some sort of childrens convention as there were school kids everywhere. Bummer.
We did the obligiatory Washington things: Gawked at the White House, laughed at the Washington monument, saw the reflecting pool midway through rennovations and old Abe in all his stone glory.
We also visited a few museums, primarily to see the 'Art of Video Gaming' exhibit at the Smithsonian Art Museum. We also stumbled across the 'International Spy museum' which was very cool, one of the exhibirs let you crawl through an air vent. I was totally John McLane.
That night we went and had a nice dinner for Rhys' birthday and I discovered an amazingly delicious cider imported from Ireland. For dessert we had some diabetes unducing cupcakes from a cupcakery and saw 'The Dictator', I won't spoilz but it was very.funny.
The next day we got up early again (uuuuugh) and flew out to Atlanta, Georgia.

No empires here.

Atlanta was definitely a place...

Happy travels friends. Next blog will be my last.
Reece.

The day we Broadwayed

What a city.
Now wonder it's featured in ALL the movies.
People write songs about it, write about it and video games oftem see it destroyed.

For those who still don't know what I'm talking about, it's New york, New York.
The adventure began rather bumpily as we pulled in from Boston and went to drop off our car at LaGuardia Airport which, the gps told us, was in southern brooklyn. After driving for half an hour in New York traffic (I finally get that now) we pulled up to a set of apartments which were apparently the car rental drop off at the airport. Literally the last time we needed the gps on the whole trip and it let us down for the first time. Turns out that the island had 2 addresses that were exactly the same. One north and one south. After cursing the gps we drove another half hour we dredged out the car and caught a cab to our hotel which it turns out was literally in the middle of times square (which is a lot bigger than I thought it was). Our rooms were great with a great view of the square and all the giant billboards. Nick Jonas' stupid face was staring in our window though and I had to look at his stupid, smug grin every morning.
Our first stop was the Nintendo world store in Rockerfeller Plaza. The short walk showed me just how ssturated New York is with people. Most streets were covered with people and you'd regularly have to dodge and weave throught the crowd if you were to have any hope of getting anywhere quickly. The nintendo store was full of merchandise and memorabilia, the first store was completely dedicated to Pokemon (since it used to be the Pokemon store I suppose) and the second floor was the typical nintendo stuff plus heaps of interesting nintendo historical items like a gameboy which was blown up in the gulf war and still works. I picked up a few things and we carried on to a few other shops in The plaza. Luckily Times Square is essentially the centre of everything interesting so we could rotate around the hotel for most events.
Our first event was my first ever Broadway show, 'Rock of Ages'. What a show. Our seats were literally st the back of the theatre but the view was perfect, we could see everything and hear all the awexosme 80s music that the show was comprised of. The cast was great, except for a few cast members who were clearly understudies the show was amazing. It was nice to see some theatre after having not been for so long. We retired after that and slept in some super comfy beds.

The next day we woke up and took a long walk all the way downtown to visit a few places. It was a long, long ways but it was worth it. Chris and I got to see the Friends building and took a few photos. We walked to the world trade center site but chose not to visit the memorial as you needed to prebook tickets (trust them to commercialize it) and walked all the way down to battery park to catch the ferry to Liberty island. Unfortunstely the Statue of Libertyh is currently undergoing rennovations so we couldn't actually go up inside it but we got to walk around on the island and take some sweet photos. There were some great views of the surrounding suburbs and cities as well. We discovered a discount ticket booth right near our hotel and picked up some tickets for the Broadway show 'Spiderman: Turn off the Dark' for about 40% off and we got awesome floor seats as well. We weren't expecting much due to all the problems the show had during pre-production (Actors falling of high wires etc.), but the show was actually marvelous. It was the origin story we all know with a few twists. For the most part it followed the movie plot but it added and subtracted a few things like no Harry Osborn, Osborn created the sinister 6 by mutating them with his machine (pretty sure Kraven the Hunter isn't mutated). The fellow playing Norman Osborn was hilarious and provided some of the best moments in the show like his finale song on a piano. Probably the best parts were all the high flying numbers where Spiderman flew over the crowd on wires (web fluid for those with imaginations) and the final battle fighting a flying Green Goblin. That night we also went to a pub called 'The Australian' to watch the GWS vs GCS game to determine who would be the ultimate loser. MJ ended up losing our bet and is now a proud GWS supporter as a result. It was nice to have proper cider on tap for the first time in a long time.

Our next day was a little hectic, we walked to a comic shop and realised that it was saturday so we tried to catch a taxi to the show Chris and I were going to see, Rent, but the traffic was so bad we jumped out after a few blocks and hoofed it the rest of the way. The theatre for Rent was underground and the set was awesome. It split into heaps of different formations with rails and wheels, pretty much creating every scene they needed very easily. It really weirded me out since the actor who played Angel in the Rent movie (a cross dresser) was playing Roger in the play and I kept seeing him in drag evn though he wasn't meant to be. The actor playing Mark and the actress playing Maureen were probably the 2 best in the show. I love the play so I really enjoyed it, I was glad Chris csme with me as well since going alone would have been kinda lame. We walked down to the Times Square markets which were pretty lame as it was just the same stalls every block, so we walked back to the hotel, had dinner and took a walk to the Empire State Building. What a line. Turns out going there on a Saturday night isn't the most time effective choice, never the less we lined up and travelled to the 86th floor observatory where the view was sweet, you could see for miles and miles. We then ascended to the smaller but higher 102nd floor and looked from an even higer vantage point. I'm really glad we went at night, the lights of the city were quite a sight and I think in the daytime the magic just wouldn't have been there at all.

Our last day in New York was primarily dedicated to a visit to Central Park. We walked down around lunch time and went to the central park zoo which was awhole lot smaller then I had anticipated but it was clean, spacious and well laid out. I feel like the animals had a good place to live in thed zoo and that made the small zoo size ok. We then got lost in the weaving paths above the lake and took a while to escape but when we did we got tickets to the American Natural History Museum which gave us access to the planetarium show, an exhibit called 'Creatures of Light' (animals which have the ability to become luminescent), a butterfly enclosure and the rest of the museum. The highlight of the tour was the dinosaur bones which are something I've scarcely seen back home. They even had a triceratops! (my favourite).

Then we caught a bus to Atlantic City.
Happy travels friends.
Love Reece.

The day we got all Celtic

Boston, Massachusetts. Or however you spell it. We pulled into the city at about 1ish and set up shop in our hostel called 40 Berkeley street.
This hostel was strange because it's nicety belied it's failures. It was a huge nice looking building with an awesome interior, a great spacious courtyard, a fully decked out movie room, ample laundry facilities and to top it all off, free popcorn! However, this was all very well but there were cons to outweigh these (to be honest, cool but useless) features. The rooms seemed liie they'd been packed by a sardine company. Rhys and Chris kept playing footsies while they were asleep since the beds were jammed together so close. Rhys' head was often dangerously close to MJ's feet as well. I got off with only an uncomfortable bed. The hallway outside us echoed like crazy so much so you could hear people talking normally at the other end and thia resulted in us being yelled at a few times by the old lady who, I suppose, ran the floor. The rooms also only had 1 key between 4 which, if you ask me, is the stupidest idea ever and we had to constantly juggle it around depending on who was out at the time. At one point we left the key at the front desk so the others could pick it up and let themselves in but I ended up needing it so I went all the way down only to have the woman tell me I wasn't staying in the room and that some guy called Law Howarth was (My last and middle name). After much pain I managed to get the key back after being lectured as if it were somehow my fault.
It quickly became apparent that this was not a hostel for young people. If you want to stay somewhere cool in Boston my friends, don't stay there.
Anyways enough complaining.
Boston, very clean city. We went for a walk not long after we got in and saw the pub that Cheers was modelled off of. Dinner was average and after a pub or two we went and saw 'The Avengers' for the second time. There was a guy in the theatre who kept clapping for EVERYTHING. Even trailers. And every time something happened in the movie he'd loudly react. Some examples: 'Man, she's so hot', 'Oh snap look out!' and my personal favourite 'Oh shit! Skrulls!'.

Our first proper day we ended up shopping there, gitting up a few comic shops where I successfully got Chris addicted to Deadpool. He's since bought every since TP he can get his hands on. I also got a badass hulk belt.
Our next day was quite eventful. We went to the 'Mapparium' which was a giant stained glass model of earth which you could walk through. We took a 'Duck tour' which was basically an old WW2 amphibious bus thingy refitted to be a tour bus. The tour guide was quite a character (He was dressed like a pirate) and taught us a whole bunch about the history of Boston (turns out it was a penninsula that that filled in with soil over the length of 40+ years).
On the tour we saw the 'Warren Tavern' where Geroge Washington used to frequent so we decided to get a taxi there later that night and have dinner there.
Our last day we went over the river to visit the markets which for some reason had another comic shop in them so we spent more money there. That night I realised I hadn't had a Boston Creme pie so we went to the birthplace of the pie, the Omni Parker Hotel, to give them a try.
It was quite delicious.

The next day, we set out to New York.
Happy travels readers.
Love Reece.

The day we went over the falls.

With Chicagi at our backs and Cleveland in our sights we set out at about lunchtime to tackle the 4 hour drive. The scenery on the way was repetitive so we occupied ourselves with books, comics (I've been reading the all-time classic 'Akira') and movies (Rhys constructed a viewing apperatus out of a computer and a t-shirt which prevented screen glare). Cleveland was not so mentionable since we only drove through it to stay overnight in a suburb call Willoughby.
The only thing worth mentioning about our stay there is that we all went to see 'The Avengers' and holy shit. So amazingly good. I could rant on for a few pages about it but I'll simply say that it has kicked Kung-Fu Hustle out of my top three favourite movies of all time (I've now seen it twice).
The drive from Cleveland to Buffalo was also fairly bland.

To much dismay we discovered that the hostel we were booked to stay at was a 14 bed dorm which, fod me, meant security was an issue. Luckily I had my tsa locks to stow all my valuable shit away in or I would have worried. The place was also quite possibly an old hospital, which added quite significantly to the creepy factor it already exuded. The basement ('Social area') was tricked out with a wonky pool table, an old dart board (Where I practiced playing like The Blue Raja) and the finest collection of VHS tapes I had ever seen [/sarcasm].
Seriously, we were worried that we'd somehow driven through a distortion in space time and ended up somewhere in the 90s.

That night, after some heavy drinking (MJ and I had left at about 12, this story takes place at about 3) Rhys blustered into the room after, we assume, he guessed the door code since in his state he probably couldn't have accurately punched a large turtle. He was angry about something and pulled down my cave (I take the bottom bunk and drape blankets all around it) and spun in the blankets while grumbling. Containing my sleepy anger, responsibilty took precedence and I half pushed, half carried him to the bathroom to check if his 'head was bleeding'. His head was fine but he'd definitely hit something. He cleaned himself up and stumbled back into the hall, trying to open the door. I told him he could be stupid in the morning, but now he had to be quiet. He complied. As he was on the top bunk he jumped at the bed and desperately tried to pull himself up but no amount of leg swinging could complete his goal so he gave up. Resorting to plan b he picked up his pillow, placed it on the top of his head and basically headbutted the ground. Trying my hardest to contain my laughter I checked if he was ok. At first he didn't respond but my second attempt yielded a weak but relieving 'Ouuuuch' and with that I covered him with a blanket and went back to bed.
Good times.

The next day, after a significant recovery period for the two drinkers, we set of toward the famous Niagara Falls. It was only about 30 minutes by car so we took in the sights on the way and pulled into the American side at around 1pm. We crossed the way from the parking lot and walked into a Niagara merchandise shop where a guy asked if we wanted to join the last tour of the day. We all decided it would be a good idea to gave a guide so we psid the 80 dollars and jumped on the bus. We were greeted by an eccentric toud guide named Ricky who, it turns out, was an ex-dj who ten years earlier overdosed on a drug cocktail and died in a pool from a brain anyerism (pretty sure I spelled that wrong) and when he awoke he 'found jesus', deciding to become a tour guide. Eccentric indeed.
Our first stop was the 'Whirlpool Gorge' where science tells us is where the actual falls were 12,000 years ago. Turns out yhe falls rapidly destroy themselves and, until recent conservation measures had been implimented, they moved back over 3 feet a year. Thd gorge was, as the name suggested, a giant whirlpool with rapids feeding into it which produced waves nearly 20 feet high. This is also where the spanish cable car dealy is situated. We headed from there onto 'Goat island', the land seperating the American falls from the Canadian Horseshoe falls and we ventured down to my favourite part of the tour the 'Cave of the Winds'. Interestingly enough it's not actually a cave but more like a walkway actoss the front of the American falls. They decked us out with a shoddy rain poncho and some sandals then we took the elevator down to brave the water. It was a relatively hot day but the water was very cold. As soon as we got into the mist my hands and toes stared going numb but I didn't care, I wad too busy running around with my arms outstretched screaming 'Wooooo, this is awesoooooome'. We climbed up to 'The Hurricane Deck' where you could literally reach out and touch the falls. With the right amount of luck we were splashed with a huge slosh of water which drenched most of our panta and seeped in the front of Rhys' coat, soaking his chest.
We left the cave a few pounds heavier and continued on to view the American Falls from the top as well as the 'Three Sisters' islands. After we'd braved the islands we jumped back onto the bus and drove all the way around to get our ticketw for the famous 'Maid of the Mist' boat ride which, for those playing at home, is a boat which drives you right into the middle of the Canadian Horseshoe falls. It was ok but we didn't go as close as we thought it would.
After the ride we drove up to see the Horseshoe falls from the top side and it was magnificent, seeing a 24 hour mist cloud was definitely weird.

After the tour we bid Ricky adieu and decided to go to Canada for the night. Canadian customs was fairly straight forward and we were in the great white north within minutes. Realising that we needed canadian money half way through dinner was pretty funny but we paid with card so we averted a crisis. The Canadian side was definitely a whole lot more interesting for a young person. Where the Americans had preserved the wilderness and only had dinky little merchandise stands, the canadian side had hyge casinos, pubs, clubs, funhouses, midways and DINISAUR MINIGOLF. After some pre-historic putting we took a walk along the Canadian falls side to see the water all lit up at night. It was an even better view from there. I'll never forget it and I'd reccomend any readers make the effort to get over here and see them.

We left Canada at around 12am after trying for 25 minutes to find the way out. The American customs dude was far less relaxed than the Canadian one and asked us a whole bunch of questions before he let us through. We drove back to Buffali and took a much needed rest so we could wake up to the 8 hour drive to Boston.

As always, hug yourselves from me.
Happy Travels.
Reece.

The days we Chicagi'd

Can someone please tell me where the term 'Chicagi' is from?
When we first started seeing the Chicago signs MJ said: 'Hey look, Chicagi!' and it clicked in my brain that I'd heard it be called that before, I just could't figure out where. As usual, I tried google but my effort was for nought as my search showed up no results remotely helpful tomy quest. My confusion was compounded when I told mum where I was and the first thing she said was: 'Oh, Chicagi!?', I asked her what it was from but she couldn't remember either. If anyone knows, please, tell me where. I feel like it's from an animated film.

Anyway, Chicago. The so called 'Windy City' was very cold when we first popped in and we checked into our hostel after much confusion about where the actual place was (turns out it was in a different building). This room was terrible as it had absoultely no ventilation and it was right in the middle of the floor. It was too hot inside and too cold outside...
On the bright side, we finally got to see Sam Homan after 1-2 years which was awesome. He's picked up a bunch of canadian slang and he slips in and out of his australian accent when he says certain words, but he's still classic Sam. He took us to a pub where we all got horrendously drunk but that's a story for another time which should not be shared on the internet.
The next morning we ventured into the downtown area and walked down onto the Navy Pier, which was quite a sight to see. It was fairly long and was covered in retail gift shops and attractions which included a rather large ferris wheel, a mini golf course, a 'funhouse' maze which was very strange and a whole host of lake tour boat companies. Sam joined us for some rounds of golf and then departed as we took oir fateful journey to the famous 'Giordano's' pizzeria which served 'the best deep dish pizza in chicago'. It did not disappoint. I was bold and thought I could take on an entire pizza solo so I just got a small which had 6 pieces. The guys played it safe and got a medium to share. After a long wait as the place was packed (we were about to learn why) we sat down and got our pizzas. Gigantic was an understatement as my pizza was pribably bigger than my head and about as deep as my hands clapped together. They were also big on deliciousness. I managed to eat 2 3/4 pieces and ended up sharing the rest of mine around.
It was sp delicious Rhys overate and threw up.

The next day we did the tourist thang, venturing up the Willis Tower (the sears tower for those playing at home) and getting mega ear popping from an amazing 103 floors straight up. As the tallest building in the western hemisphere it completely topped (literally) stuff like the space needle in Seattle. We walked all the way down to the 'Fields Museum' to see the worlds most complete T Rex skeleton and browse the ancient relics from Egypt, Africa and Ghengis Khan (to our delight we found out that he invented pants). Our last day there was fairly uneventful as we made some poor visiting decisions. We saw a fair few malls and saw how shit chinatown was. We ended up in a bar with a very, very drunk bartender lady who kept overfilling the guys drinks with alcohol and she only ended up charging us 10 dollars for at least 120 dollars worth of drinks while putting her finger to her lips and 'shhhh'ing all the time. We gave her a hefty tip and headed off.

So that's Chicago in the books. As always, send me your love if you feelin' the love

Happy travels,
Love Reece

The day we went to the bad place

'Were they sent to Hell?'
'Worse. Wisconsin.'

I finally understand that joke.
We flew feom rainy Seattle into cloudy Minneapolis for a breif 45 minutes before jumping on another plane to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Now, I didn't have anything in particular I wanted to do there as I'd never heard that there was anything interesting to do in the city. Turns out thrre's a reason for that. Apart vfrom getting a far better car in the ford edge this tme around, Wisconsin was horrible. Milwaukee was boring and full of cold, cold nothingness. There was little to do there amd even after admittng defeat and trying to find a movie theatre it was about ten miles away so we gave up and planned a day trip to Green Bay to find something to do the next day. Green Bay was similarly uninspiring. While it looked nice and well kept, we ended up losing all reception as we got too close and while we found a nice mini golf course and driving range we ended up leaving disappointed. So dear readers, if you take anything from this short blog. Please, never. Ever, ever. Never ever go to Wisconsin. Happy Travels, Reece

The Day we were had, Part 2

So we decided that Sweden would join us and sit in the middle seat of the worst car known to man.
Our destination, Portland Oregon. Our knowledge of Portland Oregon, minimal. Our mistake, large.
It took us about 5 or 6 hours drive from the magnificent San Francisco and we drove into Oregon refreshed as the scenery of said state was quite stunning. We passed through a whole bunch of mountainous areas covered with trees and moss carved through by large lakes an long rivers. This marvelous scenery gave us false hope about Portland. While the layout and look of the city were fairly nice, the people and the place were rather bland. Not particularly bad, just forgettable. We picked up a 5 person room which had a bunk with a double bed underneath it, which Chris and Rhys shared in order to make sweet, sweet love. I'm pretty surre I heard them deep in the night. I was particularly chuffed with the top bunk as it allowed me to create a tent like situation by using the pipes above me and a large blanket we found in the closet. That night MJ stayed in due to his sickness and Sweden, Chris, Rhts and I braved the cold to go to the pub. The food was ok, but again, forgettable. We wandered for a while then gave up and returned to sleep. Chris and I got bagels to use the vegimite with that we'd bought in San Francisco at the Australian Store. It was awesome and made me a little homesick. I'm craving a Cherry Ripe so badly. On our way out of Oregon we stopped at Powell's books which was literally as big as a city book. The place was divided into 8-9 sections ranging from comuics to romance to biographies, anything. I picked up 4 mangas and had to resist getting more cause my wallet was not safe. We then took a drive up a faily steep hill to visit the japanese garden which was, according to the japanese ambassador the 'Most authentic garden outside of Japan''. I'd recommend it to anyone who appreciates that kind of thing, it was amazingly peaceful. The drive from Portland to Seattle was covered with heavy rain. So heavy that Chris considered pulling over at one point. We drove past Mt St Helen, the active volcano which exploded in 1980 killing 50+ people and generally screwing shit up. We wanted to see it but the rain would have made a satisfying viewing nearly impossible. Seattle was very cold, to the point that we were afraid that MJ was going to keel over and die. The best thing was that our beds were already caves and double, some of the best sleeps on the trip. We tried to do as much as we could in the short time we were there so we zipped down the markets and I picked up some goodies from the various gift shops and the well stockef comic shop. We got coffee from the worlds first Starbucks which still sported the original brown mermaid logo. It was good that they'd pretty much kept it in it's original look with creaky wooden floors and old style menus. That night we went and had Terminator Stout at a pub up the road then went to play pool and go bowling.. After I schooled the boys at pool I realised they had cider and needless to say I was a little too drunk to bowl properly. We didn't do much the next day apart from going up the Seattle Space Needle. The view was amazing from all the way up there but freaking freezing and you could only stay outside for so long before getting too cold. I also tried 'space chocolate' from the gift shop and realised I should't have done so. I'll leave you all there dear readers. Give my love to all the d-bags who don't read my blog and give youselves hugs from me. Happy Travels, Reece

The day I left my heart in San Francisco

Do yourself a favour, visit San Francisco.
What an amazing city.
We pulled in from the lovely Bakersfield around 3ish and pulled into our Hostel to realise that we were staying at 'The best party hostel in America', The international hostel. Turns out that this place, which houses over 800 guests serves free beer after 9 and has a nightclub with beer pong and poker beneath it. And that's in the slow season!
The first night we decided to get dinner and see what this party was like. The club itself was fairly small but it was a nice and intimate. Also we found out that not only is proper beer pong really fun, but Rhys, George, MJ and Chris are quite good at it winning all three games that night and securing ultimate victory for Australia.
We also met a fine gentleman named Daniel Andersson who is from Sweden, which we have made his nick name. He essentially partied with us every night proving quite the formidable beer pong player as well.
The next day we took the 'Historic F Tram' all the way down to the piers and went shopping on Pier 39. I bought the X-Men beanie you may have seen in a few pictures and we stumbled our way through a rather confusing mirror maze which was a first time experience for me.
After a terrible meal at the Hard Rock Cafe, we strolled down to pier 31 and caught our cruise boat.to the infamous 'Alcatraz' island. I didn't know what to expect on The Rock since I've heard a lot of different reviews about it in my time. A lot of people have said to me that it's just a big old building but seeing it first hand was a log better. After the fairlt taxing hike up to the main cell block we strapped on our headphones and began the audio tour which was primarily narrated by ex-prisoners and guards who served on the rock when it was operational. The tour taught us about living conditions which were scarce but seemed like they were looked after if they behaved, most rooms were single dwelling and had a small seat, toilet and fold down bed. A lot of the cells were allowed to add their own things to them to create a home as a lot of them thought they would die there. The solitary confinement block waz fairly intimidating, the rooms were a little more spacious than the normal ones but they literally had a small drain in the middle and a door. One of the prisoners said: 'I used to pull a button off of my shirt and throw.it up in the air, spin around, bend down and try to find it, then do it again.'. I'm not sure if that would help stave off insanity or help it along. As we walked around we learned about a foiled escape attempt when a prisoner and a group of his cronies used a home made bar seperator to break into the gun gallery (The walkway equivalent you see in modern prisons). They locked the guards all up in some cells but one guard hid the key that would let then outside. This guy was the one dude who was killed before the other guards raised the alarm and made the escapees yodel. I like heroes. That guy was definitely a hero.
The walk down was a little easier and we caught one of the last boats back to the pier at around 5. That night we wandered up toward chinatown and saw the Dragon's Gate (Wu Zi Mu!) and I finally got to have some Japanese food at a cool place called Sushi Rock. This was the first time we experienced San Franciscos hillyness, but it would not be the last...
That night I relaxed while the fellas tried and failed to uphold our title of Beer Pong champions and then got amazingly drunk.
The next day after a hangover killing breakfast for those afflicted we took the long, steep walk up to Coit Tower. Why I thought it wouldn't be too taxing is beyond me. All I know is that by the time I got to the foot of the tower I'd already lost 5-10 kilos and was looking down the barrell of way more stairs. We eventually got to the top of the tower and the view up there was great, offering a 360 view of the beautiful city.
Chris and Rhys gave up after the tower and returned to the hostel to take a nappy-nap while George, MJ and I carrief on toward 'Ghiradelli Square',an allegedly famous chocolate production factory and collection of retaurants, all chocolate-centric of course. We all bought blocks of chocolate to couter-act the exercise we'd just inflicted on ourselves. George got Dark Chocolate + Raspberry, MJ got White Vanilla and I picked up my personal all time favourite; Dark Chocolate Orange. Om nom nom. It was delicious and we also had some hot fudge sundaes before we moved on.
We stumbled along down to the shopping district by accident where we found a bunch of half naked women modelling infront of a nice car while a bunch of photographers took photos of them. George and I are also photographers.
Nearly missing it, we turned back to visit the Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium which was one of things I really wanted to visit and experience. I won't go into detail but some of the exhibits in there are very weird. I believed them, but they were weird. Ripley's also had a mirror maze which had a layered level of difficulty; they gave us weird, psychadellic glasses which made all the lights in the maze flip out and shine in your eyes all crazy. It was a little harder than the other one.
The wharf also yielded a 'Vintage Arcade' which was full of old pre-80s, fully functional arcade machines ranging from fortune tellers to bowling games. As a user of modern machines it was great to learn the history of the industry I love so much.
We eventually caught the F tram back to the hostel.and after a quick detour to a comic shop we went to beer pong party and then went off to bed eventually.
We took a trip up to the Muir Woods the next day in the afternoon and got to spend a little time walking among the gigantic redwoods and looking for 4 leaf clovers in the green sea of them. One thing that really struck me, besides the height of the redwoods, was how different the colours of the flora were from the ones back home. Evergreen takes on a while new meaning when you see the bright colours on some of the trees. Fungi in abundance as well as miles and miles of moss covering almost everything! I wish we coukd have stayed for a little bit longer to soak it all in but alas, we had other things to attend to, like accidently leaving George behind.
George and Chris went to see Chuck Ragan and the revival tour while Rhys and I went to plag beer pong. Sweden and I formed 'Team Ultimate Victory' and made Rhys' team yodel a few times. Not long after we went and danced for a while and played limbo, allowing me to show off my secret skill and win. Now, I know what you're thinking, 'Reece, you couldn't limbo for shit'. If that's you, bring it. Also turns out a 12 pack of Budweiser is a little over 13 dollars over here, it's pretty easy to get drunk in America.

The next day began rather fruitlessly so George and I split off from the group and took the 'Zero Emissions' bus to Golden Gate park which was very nice. We'd managed to get out there on Earth Day so the hippies were out in force dancing and playing haki-sack. There were a bunch of people having an outdoor roller disco as well, which George and I found rather entertaining. The science museum beckoned and we entered about an hour and a half before closing. The planetarium was impressive and we watched a short film called 'Fragile Planet' which was narrated by Sigourney Weaver.
We also had access to an indoor rainforest which let us find out that George was terribly afraid of spiders, especially the Orb Weaver which, if you google it, is quite creepy. Especially at close range.

All in all, San Fransisco was easily the best city I have visited so far.
All my love.
Let me know you're reading and happy travels,
Reece

The day I was days late with blogs

Hello world!
How ya'll doin?
Well it's been an interesting few days since we left Vegas. The drive was not as painful as I had anticipated, Rhys was nice enough to let the fatman sit in the front and this let me relax a little more. Plus I'm sure the back seat had a lot more room thanks to my absence.
For those new to the blog George has joined us for a while through Vegas and San Francisco. It's good to have him along for our adventure. Poor guy had to have the middle seat all the time since he's the slimmest.
All if our luggage ended up covering the drivers view out the back window which I'm sure is quite dangerous. We tried our best to get a view out there but despite our efforts we gave up and decided to rely on wing mirrors. We didn't crash at all. That was good.

On our way to Bakersfield, where we were planning on spending the night to break up the 8 hour drive, we saw some interesting things;
A town called Yermo which was primarily burnt down. There were at least 5 burnt out gas stations which led us to believe that the townspeople got mad, set things on fire and realize how silly it was in the morning, later deciding to build the new one next to it, promptly setting it on fire a few weeks after its completion.
We also visited a 'Ghost Town' called Calico. It was an old mining town which had over 1500 people at it's peak and then ended up having like 8. Turns out ghost town doesn't mean ghosts.
We made our camp in a town called Bakersfield (Where the band Korn come from for those playing at home) and slept at the Motel 6 there. We slotted in a game of mini golf and I made everyone yodel. We them decided it was a good idea to walk half an hour to the cinema to see 'Cabin in the woods' which was really impressive, as to be expected from Joss Whedon. We then realized that Bakersfield has quite a high murder rate. Them walked home.
We're smart.
The drive from Bakersfield to San Francisco was fairly uneventful except that we had American KFC. It was pretty much the same.
I'll try and do a San Francisco blog when we're driving.

Happy Travels,
Reece

The day we Viva Las Vegas'd

Wow, what a place this town is!
I'll admit that I was a little apprehensive at the the thought of Las Vegas initially since I rarely gamble (Predisposition to addictive behaviour makes it too dangerous to do it) and as much as I can slam them down I'm not the kind of person who'll go hard on the sauce night after night.
To my surprise there is a lot more than just drinking and gambling to do here and we've been busily adventuring for the past few days wandering up and down Las Vegas Blvd which is amazingly long by the way!
We managed to get rooms in the Bellagio which made us feel rather classy and we would have held that level of smugness if we hadn't visited the Wynn later in the stay. That was by far the swankiest hotel and casino that we saw. Though, on reflection, I feel like the Trump building would have been nicer. Nevertheless the rooms we did have were very nice and served us well as a base of operations.
George has come over the ocean to spend just over a week travelling with us which is pretty cool. He'll be with us through San Francisco as well.
We managed to go shooting while we were there at range just off the strip and finally got to shoot some automatic weaponry. I paid 165 dollars and got to fire:

50 rounds from an MP40, which was probably the easier of the 5 to fire and I unloaded an entire clip in one burst. Very satisfying.
25 rounds from an M4, this was the coolest of the 5 guns since it had a red dot sight which made it super easy to aim and hit what you wanted to. There was barely any recoil, even when you flicked it over to full auto it was not a problem to keep hold of the weapon.
20 rounds with a Glock, pretty sure it was a 9mm. Very easy to fire and I would have felt comfortable shooting it one handed. Just a pop gun comparatively.
5 shots with a Coach Gun, a double barreled shotgun for those playing at home, was amazing as it was painful. The handler informed us as we prepared to fire the coach that the range had run out of low recoil slugs for ask shotguns so we all had to use 'Power Shots', which are exactly as they sound. Bracing the butt of the gun on your shoulder only provided more pain. But, it was an awesome gun, George managed to nail hit target right in the face with his last shot and Rhys bitched out at 3, leaving Chris to become ultimate badass and fire his remaining shots plus his own.
5 rounds from a Mossberg Shotgun or Pump Action Shotgun. SO much fun shooting. Always been my favourite gun and it did not disappoint. Reloading it and seeing the spent slug flip off to the side, very nice. It didn't hurt your arm as much as the coach either. My only regret is that I wasn't able to hold the gun vertically and reload it with only one hand.
Chris and George also got to fire a Sniper Rifle, which I imagine was difficult but accurate.

I'll fire off the casinos we managed to visit as well:
The Bellagio, our home base and definitely one of the classier ones probably second to the Wynn.
The Wynn, see above.
The Cosmopolitan, pretty swank but otherwise boring.
Planet Hollywood, was pretty cool as we shopped there quite a bit. Seemed like a good place for younger people as well.
New York New York, one of my favourites that we saw, had a roller coaster we had a ride on and it had a loop the loop! The atmosphere was also amazing, everyone there was excited and having fun.
The Excalibur, medevil themed casino complete with a fun dungeon, which isn't as bad as it sounds. There was a laser maze there which we all ran through and I emerged supreme champion! MJ and I also played 6 rounds of DDR.
The Luxor, an egyptian themed casino was the only place that I managed to get a buffet and my first glass of milk in nearly 3 weeks!
Treasure Island, pirate themed casino. Rhys, Chris and MJ all lost monies on Blackjack here, pretty sure MJ ended up in the green somehow though.
The Mirage, was full of plants and dolphins apparently but we didn't really get a chance to see much.
The MGM Grand, definitely a standout casino on the strip, big, full all the time. And we went to Brad Garretts comedy club which was amazingly funny. He wasn't billed for the night but he came out and did 3 sets. He's so full of hate and spent most of the time picking on the front row. He also kept making fun of Ray Romano's family humour and explained that he got fired from their duo act at the Mirage for asking a 6 million dollar asian high roller where his laundry was!
The Mandalay Bay, where we got tickets to see Steel Panther for 20 dollars. They put on an awesome show and got Joey Fatone up to sing with them for a few songs. Not only was the music great, they also really played off the crowd and their banter was hilarious. If you can get out to see them, please do yourself a favour, do it.

So that's our Vegas trip. Stay tuned for our 2 day drive blog soon.
Happy travels,
Reece.

PS. I miss you all. Send me love back.

The day I got half way to first base with Buffy Summers

Finally, Buffy admitted her undying love for me and let me kiss her on the cheek. If you don't believe me then look at the photo, doesn't she look impressed?
So LA has probably been one of the nicest cities we've visited so far. I know, sounds wrong? Trust me when I say, go to Santa Monica and you'll be well impressed. We managed to jump on a tour bus and get an amazingly talented tour guide named John who really spiced up the trip with his wit and extensive knowledge of the city. He pointed out Nakatomi plaza building (Die Hard for those playing at home) on the way to our first stop at Rodeo Drive which, to be honest, was pretty boring. It was a really fancy upscale shopping street which I think they mainly take you to for celebrity sightings but unfortunately there were none. Back on the bus we drove to  Hollywood Blvd to go to Madam Tussauds (Or however you spell it) and I got to see the amazing wax sculptures up close which, I must admit, was as impressive as it was creepy. I remember catching Briteny Spears' eyeline at one point and getting weird ed out. The photos will all be up eventually, but attached is my favorite one.

The Blvd was closed off for the premiere of The Avengers and there was security everywhere. We didn't really have the time to hang around too long so we saw the Hollywood sign and took the tour bus up Mulholland drive which was impressive, the view up there was amazing. Coming from Perth it really made me realise how small my home is in comparison.
Traffic is different too, for one thing, horns are used a lot more but not really aggressively. And theres a lot more of it!
The Santa Monica pier was pretty cool and the beach induced memories of San Andreas and Los Santos. They basically lifted everything from real life.

A bit tired so I'll save everything for another blog.
Happy Travels,
Reece

The days we got had

I want my money back.

When we went to see a basketball game I was so excited to see it. I was expecting Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to be there battling some weird and wonderful enemy from beyond the stars with Michael Jordan and Bill Murray, but no. To make things even worse, when we went to a so called 'ice hockey' game, I didn't once see Emilio Estevesz, nor did the team win by forming a flying V. Plus neither goalie had a witty pun for their last name.

But in all seriousness, Ice Hockey was pretty sweet, it reminded me a lot of soccer as the game was quite low scoring. Interestingly enough the loudest cheer was let loose when one of the players gloves got caught on the others helmet and the helmet one took exception to this accident and violence ensued. The Dallas Stars, the home team, lost by one goal and most of the stadium left disappointed. However we noticed that the hockey fans were not nearly as one sided as the basketball ones.

MJ and I managed to get a sleep in this morning while Chris and Rhys went exploring and then we went to do our laundry at the laundromat. Remind me to make sure I always have a washer and dryer wherever I live, it was genuinely depressing and a little creepy. Not to mention boring.

Rain has been following us which kinda sucks. Hopefully it hold out nice for the San Diego zoo tomorrow and Legoland the day after. We found a giant comic warehouse in San Diego though... My wallet is not ready.

Waiting at our delayed flight out of Dallas now which is frustrating, I was hoping we'd avoid any kind of delays and up until now we had. Guess we had to have it happen at some point.

Anyway, thanks for taking an interest and reading!

Happy travels,
Reece

The Day we Space Jammed

Wow, already in city number 3. Time flies when you're adventuring. Quick update on New Orleans closing days since I haven't updated ya'll for a little while.
Most people who check facebook will know about our adventure to Bebes Cabaret, I mention it only for memory (Also I may as well face it, it was pretty funny) and we'll leave if at that.
The second last night we were there we saw an amazing band featuring 'Big Al', an amazingly jolly singer who's size was matched by his talent as a singer and his inappropriate sense of humour. Very rarely do I manage to get out and actually see great live music and I feel priveliged to have seen a local legend at 'The Funky Pirate'. We also briefly went to a club called duelling pianos, which was also awesome and for those playing at home the premise of the club is exactly as it sounds, it was impressive to say the least.
Our last day was a little more relaxed, we took a trip to the Hard Rock cafe which, to be honest, was not amazing. When Rhys was defeated by his entree order of Nachos we left and went to the 'Insectorium' which was interesting. For those who've known me long enough, you'll know I've ways been interested in crawly creatures so this museum was a little trip.down memory lane. It was rounded off with a 'Bug Award show' featuring voice talent of Jay Leno and Brad Garrett. Sure, it doesn't sound that interesting excepf that the seats and room was rigged to bump you back and ass and shoot perfume and squirt water... It was horrible. We all got molested by that machine and we'll never be the same again.
The fellas met a bunch of other Australian at the hostel and decided to go to Bourban street again but my blistered feet couldn't really take another walk like that so I stayed behind and relaxed (Turned out to be a good decision cause I can walk properly again now) while really getting into the Shaman King manga, I highly recommend it.

We left for Dallas at 10:20 Louisiana time and the flight time was very low, only about and hour and a half. We ended up ditching the hostel we'd booked cause we felt like we'd probably get raped or murdered there and we booked the Marriott Hotel. Totally worth 99 for 2 nights.
This afternoon I got to fulfil a dream, by visiting the Grassy Knoll and the 6th floor book depository to polish my knowledge of JFK. To be honest the museum was a whole lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be and even found myself a little emotional listening to some of his speeches. Was nice to see such an important place from our worlds history.
We're currently at The American Airlines Center about to watch The Dallas Mavericks vs. The Portland Blazers and I was filmed up on the big center screen. I did the robot.
I was amazing.

Happy travels and don't forget to send me love,
Reece.

The day the sky exploded

It's raining like an absolute bitch today. Apparently there's a whole bunch of tornadoes in Texas ripping the place up (Our next destination might I add) and sending all sorts of bad weather our way, which kinda sucks.
We went Airboating yesterday, which was amazingly fun. Such a rush when the guy opens up the engine and lets fly. We saw a few smaller alligators swimming about but due to the weather the bigger gators were nowhere to be seen.

The rain has partially let up now, but the skies are still very dark and I expect it'll probably rain at some point later. The humidity has done a number on my feet and I've developed 4 nasty blisters, 2 of which are on my on my little toes, turns out the shoes I bought are too small for me and push my little toes under my others and frictions them to shit. Basketball game tonight which should be pretty cool, Rhys is really excited but it sucks the times didn't line up so he could see his favourite team. Burning through money a little faster than I thought I would but like I've said, I didn't come here to be frugal! Also going to hit up the famous Bourban Street tonight, hopefully we can find some great music somewhere and have some dinner. Let me know if you want to know anything and Mum, make Scott or Shelby make yoy a google account so that you can comment. Happy travels, Reece

Wrestlemania XXVIII

Dear readers, today was a landmark day in my life because I have gained something I feel every person needs to have and know before
A defining momemt. A moment where you stop and think to yourself: This is right, this is perfect. For some people, it's things like getting married or having a child or attaining max level on an MMO of choice. For me, it was an event.
This event, an extraveganza that only happens once a year in the month of April.
Wrestlemania, the showcase of the immortals, my boyhood idols out for a night of fanfare and fireworks.

I just wanted to share with you all that I now know, without a doubt, that April 1st, 2012 was the greatest day of my life.

Happy travels,
Reece

Wrestlemonier

Hello everyone! Had quite the adventure today.
We had an early night last night after having dinner at the eleventh street diner where I had the Southern Style Chicken. It was pretty good, but not all it was cracked up to be. Maybe it was the extreme sleep deprivation shutting down my taste buds though.
Flying is hell. I tried to sleep on the flight to Miami but couldn't so we had an early night and got a decent sleep. Hotel beds really helped.

We accidently had breakfast at The Birdcage (Which is actually called The Carlyle) which was amazingly awesome. My meal was massive and it barely cost me ten dollars. Plustyhe service here is amazing compared to back home I suppose due to the need for tips which, for this kind of friendly help, I'm happy to part with.
We took a taxi into downtown and bought sim cards for our phones which was good, being connectedagainas a relief.
Then we went Wrestlemnia ticket hunting which took us all the was to Sun Life stadium where I also bought the following:
A HHH vs Undertaker shirt
An Edge Hall of fame shirt
A Miz You aren't awesome shirt
A Wrestlemania 28 Jersey
A Wrestlemania hoody
A Wrestlemania ticket Plaque
A CM Punk sign thing

Goodbye money.
We also had lunch at Bubba Gump which, for those playing at home, was a Forest Gump themed seafood restaurant. I ended up going with olx faithful fish n chips but I was well rewarded with a delicious meal.

Then, out of no where, it started raining like a friggin cyclone was coming, torrential.
We ended up running for what I'm fairly sure was the dodgiest taxi on the planet. The guy had a leak in the front which he decided to fix by placing a childs stool beneath it to catch the water, his windscreen wiped was busted and he constantly had to get out and bash to fix it, his bonnet was nearly flipping up and his metr was broken.
Stay classy Guy.

Now we're gearing up to go get some dinner and drinks.

Sling me a comment if there's anything you want to ask me about.
Thanks for reading and happy travels,
Reece

LAX

Dying. My body is dying.
Turns out my 'I can't sleep in planes' theory was true. Running on, maybe, 3 hours sleep tops and getting ready to jump on our last connecting flight to Miami where we can finally rest.

Had my first taste of American food at Burger King and it was as I expected. The portion sizes for a medium meal exceed that of an Australian large.
Also, if you sit on a toilet for too long it autoflushes... It felt weird.

Waiting to get on the plane now and we're all really feeling the effects of long flight times. Rhys has nearly fallen asleep a few times and MJ doesn't even have the energy to get mad.

The airport has no wifi so this blog will probably go up with my Miami check in.

Happy travels,
Reece

The Adventure Begins

Well folks, in a few hours I'll be hopping on a place to Melbourne to catch my transfer flight to the USA!
Whoosh. Fuck plane's. I used to love the idea of getting on a plane. Playing gameboy, eating weird airline food, fighting for the window seat.
Now... fuck that. God damn pain in my ass is what it's going to be. They should have some sort of hammer sedative at the door of the plane so they can knock me out for 12 hours.
A few people have been suggesting some sleep medicine stuff for me but I'm not sure if I will take it or not since the longest flight I've ever taken would be 7 hours tops and that's my only gauge for knowing whether I can sleep on a plane or not.
To be fair, I can barely sleep out of my own bed, let alone in a seat.



For those who don't know, our first port of call is Miama, Florida where we'll fulfill one of my lifelong dreams to attend Wrestlemania! Having the chance to experience the atmosphere and actually see 3-4 of my all time favourite wrestlers is too good to be true. I can't wait to hear the 'You think you know me?' when Edge comes out for his hall of fame showcase and I finally get to see my favourite wrestler (Probably for the last time ever too since he's retired).
Of course, we have to mention The Rock, the great one. I can't say that this wasn't the initial motivation for me to get off my ass, get a job and get my butt to the states. It will certainly be a great show and to see The Rock in action will be another childhood dream realised.

I'm going to try and keep this blog updated as much as I can so people who're interested can track my progress across the country. Let me know in the comments if there's anything you want me to tell you about!

Happy Travels,
Reece