Boston, week one.

So I'm sure you all know by now that we arrived safe and sound in Boston. After a mild panic attack on the first couple of days... which we wont talk about... we settled into our place here for the month. We have been finding it hard to blog about Boston because we have been so darn busy exploring! We have yet to take the camera out into town I am afraid but we have got some pics from the highlights of the week.

There are all sorts of free money saving activities that we have been taking FULL advantage of. Our favorite so far came about from the rivalry between two local Boston beer companies Sam Adams and Harpoon. So we thought it was only fair that us beer drinking Brits go and show them what it is all about.


We had a nice early start so as to fit in the optimum about of beer tasting. Off we ventured on the T (Boston underground) to the far end of town in search of the fabled Samuel Adams. Arriving at our stop we made a point of looking gormless until a very nice assistant gave us directions. By the time we got there it was only about 9.45am... this was gonna have to be bloody good beer to settle on our stomaches so early. We got two tasters on arrival, a blackberry and a coffee one.


My God were they delicious, more than made up for the association of Sam Adams with the Boston tea party. The tasting continued through the tour and into the official tasting room. I have to say that there wasn't one that I disliked and to top it off I won a posh beer tasting glass for guessing the secret ingredient in their most expensive brew was (c: not bad for a mornings work eh!


After a hearty and delicious meal at a local pub with sweet potato fries and freshly battered onion rings we headed off to the docks to compare Harpoon. The brewery here tried a different approach to a beer tour, less of a tour more a open bar with free samples of all there beers. While drinking you would get a brief history of each drink and how it was made. Seeing from our ID's that we were British, the tour guide/barman immediatly assumed that we would allready know about different types of European Beer and so would regularly redirect questions to us (Are German beers fruity?, whats your option of French strawberry beer...etc etc) and at several points during the 'session ale' taste asked about how we would drink this at every meal and what an Englishman would consider a good alcoholic content for such an Ale...


Anyhoo maybe it was the 2 free tasting glasses, or the fact Tess won a prize, but we preferred Sam Adams, sorry harpoon.....

Ps .. my favorite moment came when a southern man , who proclaimed himself to be a true beer drinking American asked the tour guide at Sam Adams why they were effeminate beer by adding fruit and 'delicate girly' tastes. All he wanted was a real American Bud!. He looked proudly at his son, as if he had just beaten some sense into all these 'beer homos'. The tour guide sighed and asked us in the calmest manor ' i hear in Europe Bud is seen as an effeminate drink compared to Ales such as Sam Adams? Oh yes! Tess replied, something you would give to children..

Charleston

First off we need to say a BIG BIG thank you to Owen for letting us stay with him and carting us about the place for three days! You were an excellent host and tour guide... you should really go into the business!

Charleston was beautiful, even better than Savannah... I'm going to label it the Henley-on-Thames of the USA (although there were more dolphins, Spanish moss and quaint colonial homes.)

The shops were posh and pricey so we tried to stay out of them but we much enjoyed prancing about pretending to be part of it all. It was the first place that we have been where we felt we could live ... we would just have to win the lotto first so we could afford one of the plush, elegant homes on the seafront looking out for pirates whilst enjoying a gin and tonic. Owens place was gorgeous. Set into suburbia (just like on tele) with the rocking chair out front and a back yard overlooking the wildlife of the trees and pond. We got to feed the ducks, watch the local wild deer and see Owen prove that you can put a cat on a lead and take it for a walk around the back garden!
On our second day Owen took us out to see one of the old rice plantations called Middleton Place. It was incredible, with breathtaking scenery and charming French style gardens to wander round.

We also took the woodland path where we encountered some HUGE spiders... spiders are even yuckier when you see them that big... as well as some turtles, frogs and strange ducks whose necks make them look like snakes when they are swimming (creepy!).

Then we went off to the swamp gardens of another plantation to look for gators. We didn't see any but the swamp was pretty cool and lots of other wildlife to admire.

On our last day we explored the town a little more and went to the Charleston Museum. It was all very interesting and then... dun dun duh... we found the dressing up section. The day was made.

We ate out on a pretty harbour where Owen's mum works. It looks just like Amity Island but without a great white killer shark. Anyway I swear she must be the luckiest woman in the world as wild dolphins swim and play about the boats every day and were great fun to watch. I ate my first Mahi fish and it was delicious... Adam tried it too aswell as Owen's Flounder and declared that he like them both! He may turn into a fish eater yet...

Savannah!

soooo.... Savannah is pretty, lots of green space, nice buildings. It was especially beautiful to Tess who had her warm hued tinted sun glasses on. she kept exclaiming 'look at that pretty wall, and that tree, and that back alley full of trash bins!' ... seriously I have the photos she kept taking as proof. Also the people sitting about the parks all seemed very and genuinely hopeful that we had a good day and kept asking us as much... we thought that was all an act that you only got from shop assistants but it seems not. anyhoo, what is much more important - we found our first gun shop (yah!) well it was a hunting shop, lots of guns, silly clothing and archery stuff, basically a warehouse of death. (for any american readers who find this neither interesting or exciting please remember in the UK our idea of hunting is dressing up in dashing red jackets on noble steeds chasing foxs and using dogs to do the dirty work then having high tea and crumpets). Also when we went around some shops people made fun of our accents (we dont see people like you in these parts!) ohhhh and the hunting shop had a camping size icecream maker.....why?!

anyhoo here is the first video from orlando, on the last day mom looked after my camera , when i got back I found that she had taken over 300 random photos. It provides an interesting introduction to my family...sorry Aunt Tracey, seems you were moms favorite model...the bit of Paige (in the blue) dancing on the pier cracks me up every time!

Three weeks sumed up in a few lines

Sooo... we arrived in the USA and our blogging kinda went down the drain. Sorry about that!

• Landed in Miami, spent Tessa's birthday getting her hair cut, cinema and shopping. Then we attempted to walk back. Ha! we failed miserably and ended up lost in a HUGE hospital (we thought there would be cabs there... there wasn't).

• Took a bus to Orlando and met the Madge/Moriarty clan. We spent two weeks with them enjoying all the fun stuff of Universal, Seaworld, Nasa, Gatorland and Hollywood Studios. (Thanks soooo much everyone for a wicked time if you are reading!).

The 'Clan' at Gatorland

Favourite rides: Cracken, Mummy, Poseidon's Fury, Jaws and ET
Fav shows: Murder mystery dinner and the Seaworld shows... and the stunt shows...
basically everything!

Today we drove up to Savannah in Georgia from Orlando as our first US road trip. 300miles in 6 hours with two stop offs. The second stop was at a stereotypical American roadside diner. It was just after we crossed the state border into Georgia. Country music jukebox, strong Southern accented waitress and truckers sitting at the counter with their caps hung up at the door. The best moment was when the old guy sitting beside me said that he was going to go get his chainsaw! I almost spat out my drink before he went on to explain that it was to cut down a tree.

This was the view for basically the whole 6 hours (Tess liked the 'big pretty trees')

Arriving in Savannah we got a cheap but nice motel and headed into town... just in time to be hit by the eye of the most terrifying storm I have ever experienced (and we saw some pretty awesome ones in Florida). The lighting was striking literally on top, in front and to the side of us. We couldn't even see the rear lights of the car a few metres infront. The lightning was sooo close to us that several times we actually saw where it hit the ground. So we'll say more about the town tomorrow.

Sorry to be such bad bloggers, we promise to be better from now on.

Bye bye mexico!

Well after 89 days, countless corn tacos, mohitos, spells of food poisening and amazing sights we are finally leaving mexcio. Got ourselves free internet here in the Bubba Gump shrimp shack in the airport ( waiting for my ameriacan breakfast, 2 eggs, scrambled, 3 pancakes, 3 bits of bacon and 3 bits of Ham and cheese! yum). i got uus here really early thinking that it would be busy, no que at check in or security, so total time from getting off bus to departures, 10min. so i thought we would make a quick list of what we will be missing from mexico and what we will be glad to never see/ do again!.

Tess will miss....
- cenotes, jungle, sea, outdoor eating/drinking, sense of national pride and the sites of course! The chocolate...ah cacao!

Adam will miss....
- The bus service (sad or what buts its amazing), the cheap beer, cheap food, the music, some of the food, the friendly, patient people who allowed us to try and speak spanish

Tess will not miss...
- lack of down pipe guttering on buildings so they just shoot out water on your head, lack of reasonable pavements (they either just stop or are impassable from concrete objects that jut out of them), drivers who just stop right in front of you when you are waiting to cross the road... they are not going anywhere so they make sure its an arse for you to.... argh!, being accosted on the street by taxi drivers "taxi taxi taxi" The voices on mexican TV (ear piercing!), badly dubbed movies.

Adam will not miss
- Having to put used toilet roll into a bin next to the loo (once i flush, that should be the last i see of it), mexican driving, sweating so much the salt stains my shirts.. leading to tess forcing me to take a re-hydration drink yuk! corn tacos (man i hate them) people standing outside shops shouting to get to you to come in by attempting to guess your nationality and shouting across the street..italy!, France!, Germany!, England!

We have really enjoyed our time here....Bring on USA!

Xel-Ha, all inclusive rocks

So yesterday we went to Xel-Ha (pronounced Shell-ha meaning 'where two waters meet' in Maya). It is an absolutely stunning natural inlet where fresh water springs and underground rivers meet the sea. The good people of the Yucatan have very tastefully made it into a water park, with snorkeling, Kayaking, inflatable tubes, swing ropes and cliffs to jump into the water from and some tropical animals. Oh... and the best bit restaurants, bars, lockers, towels, snorkels and loungers all included in an entrance fee. We ate like kings (and queens- Adam actually ate his own body weight in steak, chicken and pork loin) and drank like them to - frozen Pina Coladas and Margaritas are the way forward. We started the day off with a good snorkel swim right at the point where the sea met the inlet. The fish we saw were AMAZING and some quite scary! We saw little tiger-striped fish, manta rays, big bright blue fish, some scary looking and HUGE bulbous eyed fish and some things that looked like small barracudas but we think may have been pike? It was a great morning and we swiftly followed it up with cocktails and muchos food! But the problem with these places is the fact that they are always packed ... hmmm

You may remember that I saw my first dolphin but 5 days ago in Xcaret, well at Xel Ha I got to swim with one! It was absolutely incredible. As I walked to the water he poked his little head out of the water and swam along with me. He was called Jake ... or at least that is what it sounded like but the trainers Spanish accent was pretty strong. I had a full hour in the water with the dolphins but it felt like 15 mins! I got a kiss, a hug, a dance, a belly rub, a foot push (which I am assured will make Sea World all the more cool.) a whirlpool where he danced around on the spot. I fed him a fish and got lots of strokes. Check out the pics... Am mighty chuffed right now, I literally could not stop smiling! So thanks Mum for my early birthday prezzie, it was just, well, fantastic!


We have definitely learnt to appreciate the tourist attractions here in the Yucatan. They have been a really great way to end our time here and remind us of all the beautiful landscapes (and cocktails) of the Caribbean tropics.

Xcaret

Ok so we finally did it, we have been to a big American-style tourist attraction. To be honest, we loved every minute of it, it was a really great day. That is right, we loved all the cheery folk greeting us, the safety signs, the photo points and the moron guide as to how to put on a life jacket. Its not that we are not proper travelers, honest, but this park just put together all the little bits of the Yucatan that we have loved so much elsewhere. Underground rivers to swim down, archaeological ruins, amazing wildlife, cenotes, beautiful beaches... the list goes on. Tess saw her first dolphin, manatee and sea turtles so was gleaming all over, there are three more things that we have to add to our list of pets we aspire to own, urgh.

To top it all off there was a wicked night show where they performed the infamous 'ball game' of the Maya, hockey with the ball on fire, loads of traditional Mexican dancing which made us reminisce of our 3 months here in Mexico, oh and lots of Gay singing cowboys (don't know what that was about!). The show ended with a flock of parrots flying over the huge auditorium and streamers falling all over us from the roof. They even flew a British flag right in front of our seats! So much fun! Check out more pics on flickr!