Tag Archives: USA

USA 2009 – Day 2 (San Francisco)

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Apart from a brief moment when we woke up at 3am for about half an hour, Mat and I managed to sleep through the whole night. We woke up a bit groggy the following morning, but forced ourselves downstairs to meet up with the crew. Mum, Amy, Pauline and Fiona opted to go for a drive to one of the universities, while Madonna, Sue, Mat and I decided we would explore the surrounding blocks of the hotel a little more.

First we went and waited for a cable car, but it looked so incredibly packed we decided to walk. After about 3 – 4 blocks, we entered into what we thought was just a normal shopping centre. Wrong. It was so impressive inside, it looked like somewhere designed for people only with wages in excess of $100,000. We looked at the price for some breakfast in a small cafe downstairs, but instead opted to walk back towards the hotel and look for places that had some appealing pancakes. We came across Lori’s diner, an interesting looking 50′s diner only a short walk from the hotel. We apologised to Aunty Sue for making her walk a fair distance (she was fine with it) and headed inside.

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USA 2009 – Day 1 (Brisbane to San Francisco)

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After having spent the previous two days packing (yes, I procrastinated quite a bit during this time) when I woke at 5am in the morning it felt quite surreal knowing we were going on an international holiday. I’ve dreamt about it for a long time, but when the day arrived it just didn’t feel right. I kept wondering when I was going to wake up and discover there was still 6 months to go.

We got up, showered and double checked our bags for the 50th time. Dad arrived right on time at 6am to pick us up, as he was kindly driving us to the airport (saving us about $50 in shuttle costs in the process). We had dropped Turbo off at the dog kennel the day before, so the house felt very empty. After double and triple checking the house was locked up, we packed the bags in the car and we were off! For a few minutes at least. Thankfully we hadn’t driven very far when Mat realised he’d left his (only) jacket back at home, so we turned around so he could collect it. We all teased him about being the one to forget something, then headed off again (I later discovered on the plane that I had forgotten the pashmina my mother had given me, but purposely neglected to tell Mat this for several days).

My dad's flatmate, my dad and Mat

My dad's flatmate, my dad and Mat - just before we left for the airport

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USA 2009 – An introduction

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The plan:

To visit California and Nevada over a 2 week timeframe

The dates:

May 10th through to May 24th

The participants:

  • Kelly – me
  • Mat – my boyfriend
  • Amy – my sister
  • Lynne – my mother
  • Pauline – Amy’s partner
  • Sue – my aunty
  • Fiona – my cousin
  • Madonna – my aunty

Amy, Pauline, Lynne, Sue and Fiona had already been travelling the east coast of America, and we were due to meet up with them in San Francisco. Madonna arrived a day earlier than us, and joined us for the entire 2 weeks.

Anything else:

I decided I would video tape this holiday, as video is so much more fun. It’s easier to see the emotions we expierienced, you can relive the funny moments, and it’s more interesting to share with others! Of course, you can’t quite tell the whole story by video, thus each day of our holiday will be explained in a blog post with a video highlights reel afterwards. Enjoy!