Day 17 of our Round The World Trip

Well the last time I left you we were going to the Ice Hockey the next night...

Day 10

Edmonton the place where we can catch up on all our sleeping.....zzzz.....Ok so we woke up pretty late again (Did almost every day in Edmonton) today was going to be pretty relax with Me going to jam across town at a cousins place and everyone else going to West Ed Mall for the day. Now google maps are great don’t get me wrong cause I got across town fine. The only problem is when I was coming back to pick the girls and Phil up I missed a turn......So here I am driving in Edmonton by myself with no map (as the car company didn’t have any at the local place where we picked up the car) and now directions that are useless. Oh yeah I was meant to pick them up at 4:30 so now I’m lost, driving in conditions that I’m not use to and in peak hour traffic. Well I eventually worked out that I’m heading to West Edmonton mall so if I keep on going west I should hit it right? Well I did at 5:45pm. So instead of going home to pick up our jackets etc for the game we had to meet Rick and Jeff at Denny’s up the road and then we would go in.

It was great to finally see my Edmonton Oilers in person and even better that they were playing the New Jersey Devils (which only happens every 4 years due to the schedules). This was so cool as the goalie for the Devils is a hall of fame goalie....Martin Brodeur. Well the Oilers lost 3-1 which was sort of expected as they were playing the 2^nd best team from the East.

Day 9

We are off to Calgary today!!!! So we pack up the car with only our little bags (still filled the boot – think we are going to upgrade our car in Quebec to a van) and we were on the road. Not that much of a drive only about 3.5 hours and the road was dry, little bit of wind and sitting just on -1, great conditions for driving except..........this is the most BORING road in the world. 3 hours of just driving straight with maybe 2 or 3 curves in the road and there is nothing around as we are in prairie country. Phil and I would get excited about going over a hill that is how BORING it was......The girls were fine they just slept in the back but we had to try and keep each other awake as we shared the driving. We arrive in Calgary and that night went to a cousins house for a dinner with the family down there. They have an awesome house it is huge!!! They are so lovely their sons gave Phil and I 2 game pucks from the Flames matches they went to last year. The cool thing about this house is they are installing a trampoline room!!!! That is cool!!!

Day 10

Ok so it was Phil’s birthday in Australia so we figured that we would try and see the Flames at practice, unfortunately when we arrived it was a closed practice. So next stop we were off the Calgary Olympic Park where the 1988 Winter Olympic Games were held. It was really cool and if we had some more time and money I would have loved to go down the Bobsled track. Then we did some shopping and later that night on to see the Calgary Flames play the New Jersey Devils. The Flames did a lot better than the Oilers did and it was a double shut-out at the end of regulation. However 35 secs into OT the devils scored on a breakaway to win 1-0.

Day 11 – Christmas Eve

Well it was an early rise as we were back on the boring road to Edmonton and this time we were staying in the country side with different cousins. It was a lovely day we went back grabbed or other bags and got some Tim Bits (mmmmm so yummy I’ll let you look them up, hint: you get them at Tim Hortons) and went to our new home. Later that evening we went to church which was great as we hadn’t been in such a long time and met some new people. After that we went back home and get ready for bed..... hopefully Santa would find us.

Day 12 – Christmas Day

Well we were up sort of early and you wouldn’t believe it but our stockings were full! We must have been very good boys and girls. We had a great breakfast with pancakes, berries and bacon with real Canadian maple syrup. We opened gifts and had a early dinner with some cousins. We went for a walk in the paddocks and saw a wonderful sunset. We tried to make a snowman but the snow in Alberta is just too dry. Hard to believe but you can’t even make a snow ball.

Day 13

Well today it was off to another cousins place for boxing day except Meaghann wasn’t feeling to well so Phil and her didn’t come. It would have been hell for her as one of the girls for Christmas got a karaoke machine, it was fun but can get very annoying if your not feeling too well.

Day 14

I’m still tired from this day. We were up at 4:45am and on the road by 5:30 as we had to catch a plane to Ottawa....more queues except the Canadian airports mustn’t be built right as there were no poles in the middle of the queues. With all the lines we had no time to do anything except line up to check our bags in, go through security and then straight on the plane. We arrived and Ottawa is amazing! So beautiful! We had a quite dinner and went to bed early to try and get over the flu which was going around. Ok Phil and I stayed up to 1am to watch hockey....I’ll admit it.

Day 15

We really wanted to go skating on the Rideau Canal (the main reason why we came) but we found out that it was still closed as a few days earlier it was 8 degrees and it rained which unfroze the canal. So we walked around the beautiful city full of really old buildings and wonderful architecture, had a beavers tail, went to the Canadian mint and then went and toured around parliament hill. That night we had dinner at a Australian themed pub called Swagman Jacks which was actually really nice.

Day 16

Ok so this is today, well we are currently travelling to Quebec City on the train which was been quite nice however we have had a couple of problems on the way. On our first train from Ottawa to Montreal the back carriage (one behind us) had a fire in it so we had to stop a couple of times as the engineers had to look at why it was happening. Needless to say we arrive a little bit late only 10 mins. So we had breakfast in Ottawa, lunch in Montreal (mmmmm Montreal smoken meat sandwich which was literally 2 inches think of meat) and we will have diner in Quebec. Ok so the train we are currently on very very nice seats are great and they have power for laptops. We are about 1 hour late was we hit a Ski-doo! Luckily no-one was injured however we did have to wait for the police to arrive to take a deposition. Well I better go as we are just arriving into Quebec. I will attempt to update this in the next few days if not I will tell you all about it once we get to New York.

Cheers,

Dan

Day 9 of our Round The World Adventure!

Day 6

Well this was a massive day and a very amazing day. We did not expect the Boeing factory and Museum of flight well and truly surpassed our expectations! First stop was the Boeing factory were I got to drive the Hummer H3 too. It was awesome and so much fun to drive. Anyway back to Boeing, it was amazing!!! Words can’t really explain it you just have to visit it. The day that we went we visited the 747 production line. It was so awesome to see how the plane we flew over to the states in was made, and a bit scary how thin the aluminium is between you and 40,000 ft. Well after that we went and visited the Future of Flight at the Boeing factory and got to sit in an old 727 -200 cockpit. One of the best things was seeing and reading all about the new 787. The interior is so cool and looks so nice. The windows are great and have a touch slide on it that adjusts the brightness on the window.....electronic shades.....soooo cool. Alright so after I spent ages in the gift shop it was onto the Museum of Flight. This totally blew our minds away.

They have a British Airways Concorde there that you can walk all through. They also have the first Boeing 707 Air Force One, that’s right we were walking where presidents had walked. It was a surreal experience. Here they had a WWI and WWII section, they had the original “Red Barn” also know as the original Boeing factory. They had a space section and also heaps of other aircraft. The best thing for me was they had the only remaining M-21 Blackbird stealth fight that flew in the 60’s and still holds the fastest speed and highest ceiling for an aircraft. Another really cool thing was we all got to sit in the cockpit of a SR-71 blackbird cockpit. This was a dream come true for me....well the closest I’ll get. It has always been a dream of mine to fly a SR-71 and to sit in the cockpit of one was awesome!!!!!!!!! OK so after that we went to the Space Needle and then out for dinner and had the coolest bar tender/waiter/cook his name was Ollie and he was to put it in his words......awesome! Seattle was a real cool and we absolutely loved it. OK so everything was closed by 9pm (a little bit different to Vegas) but it was great and we would go back in a heart-beat.

Day 7

This was a bit of a nothing day which was great as all we did was check out of our awesome and cheap hotel (Comfort Suites – Downtown) and flew into Edmonton on a Canadian Regional Jet. What a great international airport to arrive into. We had no wait for customs or immigration and we were waiting for our bags which was a bit of a change. After Jordie picked us up we had some dinner and a nice relaxing night.

Day 8

Snow Time!!!!! What a great day! We all dressed up in our snow gear and went playing in the snow. One of my cousins had to take a photo of us making snow angels in the snow.....it was so childish and so much fun. We also ran through the forest climbing over snow covered logs and throwing snow at each-other. It was a balmy -9C. After this we decided to brave the pond and slide all over it much to the enjoyment of some people walking by. We then walking back home along a small creek which Phil and I happened to break through the ice.....oops. After this exhausting running around we had dinner and then went and saw Enchanted at the movies. What a great movie!!!

Day 9

Today! Well it was off to the West Edmonton Mall today to do some shopping for each other for Christmas. We spent about 6 hours running around shopping and Phil and I had so much fun with all of the shops that had Ice Hockey gear! It was so cool to be in a country where they love hockey just as much as us!!!! Well this evening we had some dinner (Mona is a great cook) and then went out to Spruce Grove Central Park where they flood the footpath with water to make an ice skating surface. Well as we didn’t have any skates we slide along the path which was really good as it SNOWED today and the path was covered. Every tree in the pack is covered with lights and look so pretty, oh yeah the temp was -14C with a wind chill that made it -27C......now that is cold!!!!!

Anyway it is time for me to sign off for another time. I will update you in the next few days hopefully. If not I hope you all have a great Christmas and for the Ice hockey match tomorrow GO OILERS GO!

Dan

Day 5 or our Round The World Adventure.

WOW what a whirlwind it has been!!! We are now sitting in Seattle after going through the city of sin, Las Vegas.

Day 1

Well the 12^th of December finally came around and as we said our see ya later to all of our families it was the beginning of the queues. First we had to queue to go through customs, then security and then a second security station because we were travelling to the USA. After that we boarded our Qantas 747-400 for our 12.5 hr flight to LA. So we left Australia on the 12^th of December at 12:50pm and arrived in LA on the 12^th of December at 7am, almost 6 hours before we began. Anyway back to our trip once we were off the plane it was another queue to go through US immigration, collect our bags then another queue for customs. Then another queue for the hotel shuttle bus to NY NY. Once we arrived at NY NY we were in another queue to check in. Ok so the first day was mostly travelling we also went to M&M world (yummm), had a few drinks and went to a Vegas dinner show. So as we travelled back into time to the medieval days of Excalibur we were part of the Tournament of Kings. There were horses and fighting and the dinner which was awesome as there was no cutlery. Then we went to sleep about 1am after a 41hr 12^th of December.

Day 2

After a bit of a sleep in (11:30am) we decided to go do for some breakfast.....well lunch. After lunch we decided to go and tour the strip and went to heaps of different hotels and casinos. We went to MGM Grand, Casers, The Bellagio and went back to M&M world where I bought some really cool M&M guitar picks. That night we went on a helicopter tour of the Las Vegas Neon lights it was awesome and one of the best experiences I have done. If you go to Vegas you definitely have to do it.

Day 3

2 days down and it is time to change hotels. So we checked out of New York New York in the morning. Got our bags stored and went shopping at the Outlet mall just outside town. We had the craziest cab driver I have ever met. I was tell us about all these stories about how he met a hooker one night and they went to a hotel (don't worry it is not a dirty story) Then all of a sudden she brings out a piece of crack that was the size of a cookie. That was it for him we was outta there. Oh yeah apparently he is trying to be a comedian also. He was very nice though and drove up over the curb in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard so we could take a pic of the famous Las Vegas sign. The mall was amazing so much stuff at such cheap prices. We didn’t buy much though as we figured that we still had heaps to go and well room is at a bit of a premium at the moment as we have Christmas gifts for people to deliver. Later that afternoon we booked into Circus Circus and the queue just to book in was huge it took us about 30mins before we got to a desk. Later that night we watched a couple of circus acts and had a flutter on the pokies with the really old skool slot machines. The 4 of us decided to share a yard long Margarita! Soooo good....but soooo big.

Day 4

Well this morning Katherine and I were up early as we flew to the Grand Canyon’s Western Rim. WOW what a sight! It was amazing! We flew out on a little 19 seater aircraft which I loved. The first thing we did once we got there was to go on the Skywalk (which is a glass walkway that goes over the edge of the canyon where you can see straight down 1.2km to the Colorado River below you). I must say it is a bit of a surreal feeling that you are walking on air with birds flying below you. We then sat in The Chair which is a crack in the rock were you can sit with your legs dangling over the edge. After that we went to Guano Point where we had lunch with the most amazing view I have ever had for lunch. We were perched on the edge of the canyon. We later flew back to Vegas and caught up with Phil and Meaghann. That night we decided to go down to Fremont Street and see the old Vegas and it was amazing with the world’s largest TV. It is on the roof that covers the length of the Fremont Street for about 3 city blocks. After that we went and say the Amazing Jonathan who as Meaghann so elegantly puts it He is a Comedian and Magician who doesn’t really do any magic.

Day 5

Well this is today and we haven’t really done that much except check out of Circus Circus and catch a flight to Seattle. Oh yeah did I mention queues? We had to queue up for about 45 mins outside on the sidewalk of the Airport to check-in. Once we checked in we had to then queue up again to go through security. It was INSANE!!! The queue was as long as a new ride that opened at Dreamworld on the opening day of holidays! It took us about 1 hour to get through the security check point and they had about 4 or 5 lines going at once. Once we arrived in Seattle we went down to Avis and got our hire car. It’s just a little run of the mill HUMMER H3!!!! It is so cool!!!

Okay now before I sign off I have to tell you about the elevators here. Now I assume you know the size of a regular hotel lift. Well we have been putting these to the test. As there are 4 of us each with big travel backpacks on, a rolling duffle bag, carry-on luggage and a guitar. It has been very funny. So far I can report that the NY NY hotels are quite tight as are the lift in Circus Circus. Seattle’s lifts seem to be a bit bigger than their southern relatives.

Anyway I have gotta sign off now as we have to get some sleep before we get up early tomorrow morning so we can go to the Boeing factory.

Hope you are all doing well and thank you for reading.

Until next time

Dan.

Round the World Trip - 9 Days 22 Hours and 08 Mins to go.

Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on
Jupiter and Mars.

Well what a week it has been we have moved!!!!! Thats right we no longer live in our house anymore. We are currently staying with our friends who are traveling with us. Finally the pressure is off as we are all packed up and everything is in storage. So we are starting to get really excited now as we only have one more week of work!!!!!

This week we are finishing up everyone and trying to see everyone and tie up any loose ends.
So I will sign off this short one and talk to you all next week with only a few days to go.

Dan

Round the World Trip - 18 Days 21 Hours and 41 Mins to go.

You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
A sigh is still (just) a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

Well it has been another couple of weeks since my last update. Well it has sort of been the same story for the last few weeks. Packing, packing, packing. We also got our bank account in the UK which is very cool and high recommend getting one before you work otherwise you have to wait 3 months until you get your first utility bill. It is a bit of a rock and a hard-place situation as you can’t get paid until you have a bank account, and you can’t get a bank account (if you wait until you get there) until you have your utility bill. You can’t get a utility bill until you have a unit and for that you need a bank account to get that. Aaarrrgggg! So get a bank account before you go.

Well with only 18 days to go it is a bit hectic as we move out of our house next weekend, so have to finish packing the house and our bags. Have to change mailing address for banks, credit cards, etc. Have to set up a mail forwarding thing just in case. Have to pay for our storage unit. So as you can see still a little bit more to do.

Anyway will do another blog entry soon. Hopefully before we go.

And when two lovers woo
They still say: "I love you"
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by

Round the World Trip - 39 Days 23 Hours and 41 Mins to go.

Out of the tree of life, I just picked me a plum
You came along and everything started to hum
Still its a real good bet, the best is yet to come

Well it has been awhile since I last posted and I’m sorry for that bit it has been a bit hectic. Well what has been happening since I last posted…WE GOT OUR VISAS!!!! And wow what ha turn-around. We sent them on the Thursday, they got them on the Friday, They sent them back on the Monday and we received them on the Tuesday. The British High Commission really must be commended. We also have got our travel insurance, we had to do a lot of shopping around as there are quite a lot. However there is a site which has a review on all of the different ones. Just search for “compare travel insurance” in google.

Now for the stuff that we had to get done for Australia. We have done quite a lot, booked a storage unit, book a truck for moving, continued packing up everything. Cancelled out electricity, wrote off a car, complete electoral roll OS forms, put our health insurance on hold. We also had to cancel some of our donations to charities, found out about moving our compassion account to the UK (child sponsorship). We still need to cancel phones, internet, mobiles, find a home for our dog. Well I’m sorry I have to cut this short but until next week.

Dan.

Round the World Trip - 60 Days 22 Hours and 56 Minutes to go.

A foggy day,
in London town,
it had me low,
and it had me down
I viewed the morning,
with much alarm,
the British Museum,
had lost its charm

Hi Everybody…..that’s right this last week and a bit have all been about the UK! (Sorry I missed a week but really nothing much happened anyway) This week we could finally apply for our visas!!!! So we were busy running around getting all the documentation for it such as birth certificates, marriage certificates for 3 generations (all original of course as the Brits won’t accept anything JP’d), we also had to get bank statements and letters from our UK employers (recruitment agencies) and last of all we had to send down our passports, the applications and fees. It is all really quite scary when I think about it as they currently have all of our identification papers for 4 people.

The other exciting thing we did this week was today we applied for our UK bank account. So we should get everything from these guys a week before we leave to go abroad. It is starting to get right down to the business end of this whole adventure where we will actually start to experience all of this planning.

ell in the coming weeks we are planning to get our travel insurance, organise the buses between Edmonton and Calgary and also book the cars for Seattle and Quebec. Although I’m sadden to see the Wallabies and the All Blacks out of the rugby world cup I must admit that I’m very happy as the NHL season has officially started. Although Phil’s team the Calgary Flames are off to a rocky start I’m proud that the Oilers are 2 for 4 which is not too bad considering their young team.

A few months ago I gave the coffee girls from Extract (Best Coffee Shop in the World) a challenge to get me to not just drink coffee but also enjoy it. Well I can finally say that they have achieved this very difficult task. I’m currently really enjoying Lattes and have also had a couple of Macchiatos (which some people would say is real coffee) when I really need to wake up. As many of you who know me this would have been no mean feat. So congrats to them and if you are ever in town make sure you go to these guys and say you know me. They are located on Adelaide street just opposite Queens Plaza. Not only will you get the best coffee but these gals are great and they are also kiwis which is always fun.

Anyway I must be off I think that that is enough of me for this week. So until next week this is Dan saying goodbye

“Goodbye”

How long I wondered,
could this thing last,
but the age of miracles,
it hadn't past
And suddenly,
I saw you standing right there
And in foggy London town,
the sun was shining everywhere

A Foggy Day – Frank Sinatra

Round the World Trip - 72 Days 2 Hours and 56 Minutes to go.

Who will buy? Who would like to sample my supply?
Who's prepared to pay the price for a trip to paradise?
Love for sale.

Last week was a bit slow, but this week…everything happened so fast this week. It was like being strapped to a rocket and being shot into space. Well where to begin… Well we finally worked out where we are staying in Vegas and booked it, New York New York and Circus Circus (seems like I have a stutter). We decided to do the split as it is going to save us about $100USD a couple which is awesome! Turns out that the price basically doubles on the weekend funny that huh. We also booked our tour for the Grand Canyon this week. We are going out to the western rim (where the new sky-walk is) for our tour and Indian cultural experience. It is only a 6 hour tour and if you are going to do a tour I would highly recommend searching on the internet for the cheapest deal as they vary quite a lot. We ended up going with Las Vegas Grand Canyon Tours.

I have also started to look into getting a bank account in the UK. If you are going to go to London then it is not that hard as HSBC will set one up for you before you arrive. You just have to go to their London office when you get there to sign some paper-work. If you want to set-up a bank account from anywhere else in the UK…almost impossible at this stage. I will still search and keep you up to date on this one.

Now for the hectic part of last week, we found out on Monday last week that our house was going on the market to be sold. So we had to make the living areas of the house nice for Tuesday for the photographer. After that we found out that the house was having an Open House Inspection on Saturday. Needless to say we were up very early on Saturday and spend about 5 hours cleaning and tidying the house from top to bottom. All of this paid off as the house was sold that afternoon.

So this week will be another short week as this update has been late. So I will talk to you all later and share what exciting things happen this week.

Dan

Who will buy? Who would like to sample my supply?
Who's prepared to pay the price for a trip to paradise?
Love for sale.
Love For Sale - Frank Sinatra

Round the World Trip - 81 Days 22 Hours and 14 Minutes to go.

Out of the tree of life I just picked me a plum
You came along and everything's startin' to hum
Still, it's a real good bet, the best is yet to come

Well not much has happened that much this week in terms of booking accommodation or anything of the sort. The biggest thing that has happened has to do with activities we have to do before we leave. Out of all the different little things to do what happened this week will help fast track all of that. Our rental house is getting sold!!! That’s right we have to be out of the house by the start of December. So packing up the house has really taken a big jump in the priority stakes. So we have started packing up more boxes and looking at storage (about $1400 a year with insurance for a 1.5m x 3m x 3m unit). We also have to find a home for or dog we which a praying we can find. So the last couple of weeks before we go we will be nomads traveling from friends houses to parents houses. Guess that will get us ready for traveling. Anyway that is really all I have for this week really the only tip I can give is make sure you do get too far ahead of yourself when planning and forget about all of the stuff you have to do before you leave.

Dan.

a-Wait till you're locked in my embrace
Wait till I draw you near
a-Wait till you see that sunshine place
Ain't nothin' like it here

Round the World Trip - 86 Days 15 Hours and 41 Minutes to go.

You'd never know it but buddy, I'm a kind of poet
And I got a lot of things to say
And when I'm gloomy, you simply gotta listen to me
Till it's all talked away

It has been a bit of a boring week in terms of getting ready to go but I guess we all must have some weeks off. We haven't really done much at all. Nothing has been booked, we are still deciding where to stay in Las Vegas. We had a look at some different tours in Seattle and there are a few aviation museums there which I'm getting so excited about (being an aviation buff and all). The Museum of Flight has the only M21 Blackbird left in the world!!! There were only 2 ever built and the other one crashed so that is going to be pretty special. Well this is going to be pretty short this week but hopefully next week I will have some exciting news!!!!!

Ok tip of the week for all you travellers out there. When you are looking at how to get somewhere don't rule anything out! This week we looked at tours to the Boeing factory which is about $15 USD each. The factory is about 25miles away so how do we get there? Well we can do a tour which will pick us up from our hotel and take us there and back which is about $51 USD each so that is a total of $204 for the four of us. Now we worked out that if we make our own way there the tour would cost $60 for the four of us plus we can hire a Hummer H3 for $100 a day and still be $40 dollars ahead. Ulternatively we can hire a compact car for $40 a day and be $100 ahead. But for my money how often do you get to drive a Hummer......I mean come on for the boys it isn't that hard to choose.

Anyway that is it for this week, until next time

Well, thats how it goes
And joe I know youre gettin anxious to close
So thanks for the cheer
I hope you didnt mind
My bending your ear

(Frank Sinatra - One for my baby)

Round the World Trip - 95 Days 23 Hours and 55 Minutes to go.

“New York, New York,
a helluva town.
The Bronx is up,
but the Battery's down.
The people ride
in a hole in the groun'.
New York, New York,
it's a helluva town!”

That’s right this week was all about New York and booking accommodation! Well after creating a google map and pin pointing all the places that we want to visit and see that gave us a really good idea about where we should stay. We then had a look at all the hotels around there that where available at a reasonable price. Now we considered all places that would fit this criterion including hostels. The only thing with the hostels was that they were just as or more expensive than some of the hotels. Well last night we finally booked a place after much discussion and deliberation. So we now only have Las Vegas to book.

We decided to start to look at Vegas stuff as well since we found out that it is NFR (National Finals Rodeo) week in Vegas when we are there so things will book up pretty quickly. We haven’t booked anything yet as hours of looking at this stuff turned our minds numb…….the bundy helped though. Now you may be thinking to yourself that this blog isn’t entirely about New York as he has mentioned Vegas. You would be correct to some extent but I haven’t told you that one of the hotels we are looking into is in fact called …….. wait for it………nearly………NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!!!!

Well we are off to the country this weekend so do know how much stuff will get done, but you never know!!!!

As Frank and the gang sang in that movie “On the Town”
“New York, New York, a helluva town.
The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down.
The people ride in a hole in the groun'.
New York, New York, it's a helluva town!”

Dan

Round the World Trip - 100 Days 1 Hours and 26 Minutes to go.

Well it has been a bit hectic this week and I wasn’t able to do an update on Friday as I was sick and so was our internet. Anyway what has happened since my last update….. We have firmed up and booked our accommodation at Mont-Tremblant and we made an executive decision to stay 2 nights up there and only 1 night in Montreal. 2 Days of skiing can’t wait!!!!

We started to look for accommodation for Ottawa and we have finally booked a place call Lord Elgin Hotel (sounds fancy) through the mob that did our Mont-Tremblant accommodation (The Lodging Company) and it was fairly cheap. It is located steps away from the canal (which freezes in winter and becomes an ice skating freeway) and close to museums etc.

We also searched and finally found a place in downtown Seattle about 600m away from the Space Needle. The best thing of all is it is only $95USD per night for the 4 of us! That’s cheaper than a backpackers!!!! Now a note for all would be travellers, if you are travelling with a few other people it may end up being cheaper to stay in hotels rather than a backpackers, it has ended up that way for us in all the places we are visiting…..well maybe not all but we don’t mind paying a little bit extra for a place which has got a lot better location.

We also started to pack up more of the house……this has got to be the worst part of this whole experience. Although I must admit at times it is very liberating through out old stuff and also fun considering I have to pack up all my lego. Anyway where to from here I hear you asking yourselves. Well hopefully we will finally book New York this week after much debating, searching and deliberation (this has got to be the hardest place to work out where you want to stay). We will still pack up more stuff and put more things on eBay we may start to look at booking some tours through the Grand Canyon and out to the Boeing factory. So anyway will sign off and I’ll get back on track this week and have an update put up on Friday (fingers crossed). As Franky use to sing “Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away” Until next time I hope your seats are in the upright position.

Dan

Round the World Trip - 109 Days 20 Hours and 41 Minutes to go.

Well what an interesting week it has been this week. We had our Mont Tremblant accommodation fall through at the start of the week which then started us on the hectic path or trying to find some more accommodation there. I eventually found a place that was cheaper and they are fantastic! (The Lodging Company @ www.skihills.com) The very next day they called me all the way from Quebec on my mobile about our booking……Talk about Customer Service. It is so funny to hear their French-Canadian accents, I love it.

Well also this week I caught up with a friend from Uni – Naomi who turns out she now works for flight centre. She is currently helping us with our accommodation as tell me that places like New York are really start to fill up as it is peak season over there.

I also went to a seminar put on my myOE (my UK agency) with Brendan (my brother-in-law) about working over there. It was very good and 99% of their services that they offer are FREE!!!!!

So next week hopefully we will finalise some more accommodation…..well that is the plan. We will also have to pack up more of the house I guess……not the most enjoyable part of this whole experience.

Anyway I will sign off for now as Frank puts it "Come Fly with me, come fly, lets fly away".

Dan

Round the World Trip - 116 Days 22 Hours and 20 Minutes to go.

Ok now we have 116 Days 22 Hours and 20 Minutes to go before RTW D-Day. Not that much has happen this week, we have found out where we are going to stay in Quebec and Mont-Tremblant but have not booked them. We will probably book them on the weekend. At the moment accommodation is priority especially for Quebec and Mont-Tremblant as we are staying in these places right around new years. Next after that will be Montreal, Seattle and New York as it will still be peak season and last of all Las Vegas.

In terms of the house we have gone through all our clothes and donated the huge piles of clothes to charity that we will not be using in the next few years…….it is amazing how much stuff you collect when you don’t have to move. Have also have packed a couple of more boxes of stuff up and sell some things on e-bay.

We can’t apply for our visas till October which is a bit of a bugger and might be a bit of a close call. Will also have to start to look at some of the tours that we might do and some of the shows we want to see. But most important we have to book some Ice Hockey tickets to see the Oilers (my team) and the Flames (Phil’s team) play while we are over there.

Anyway must sign off till next week and as Frank Sinatra put it so well……

“Come Fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away”

Dan

Round the World Trip - 4 Months, 1 Day, 8 hours and 41 minutes to go

4 Months, 1 Day, 8 hours and 41 minutes to go before Round The World Departure Day (RTW D-Day).

As some of you maybe be aware we are going overseas at the end of this year for a while with Phil and Meaghann. This is my blog for that. Well we 4 months to go things have started to ramp up, tickets have been purchased, visas submitted and now the laborious task of packing the house needs to begin. 4 months may seem a long time but there is a whole heap of stuff to do before then. I will give weekly updates up until we leave and then during the first month of our trip when ever I can get on the internet.

Well before I sign off for this first one I'll tell you all where we are all goin'. We leave on the 12^th and headed straight to the neon lights city, Las Vegas. We are there for 4 nights where I'm sure there will be little sleep. After that on to the home of Boeing, Seattle for 2 days. Then over to Edmonton with a couple of day trips down to Calgary (to see the Flames play for Philby) and hopefully up north to see the northern lights. We will be in Edmonton to see an Oilers game (ice hockey…….finally live) and also for a White Christmas. After that we have a few short stops in Canada's Capital – Ottawa, The most beautiful city in Canada Quebec, the snow village of Mont-Tremblant and then down to Montreal. We round out our North American adventure with 4 nights in the Big Apple, New Your City. After that we are on a plane and arrive in Edinburgh on the 9^th of Jan. I will bid you farewell until next week……bye bye……Dan.