Back in New York!

Boooo, Hissssss. Its our last day today. We are leaving tonight.
Our last night in Vegas was great. I rode on the highest roller coaster in the world and nearly wet my knickers. It was terrible. But fun, but so scary. It loops over twice and at such an angle that I felt like my head was going to bang on to the car in front of me! The we decided that it was time to see if we were any better at gambling than before. We had had such a long night of spending money gambling, that we were scared to try again, until the last night! We had not eaten, and were flying out early in the morning, so we decided that we would only gamble for a while. So, of course, we start doing really well. Maurice on blackjack, and me on Roulette.... then it got later and later... and so I made us stop, cash in that money (not enough to make up for what we lost but.._) get dinner and crash.

Next evening we were in New Jersey, checking in to the hotel for my cousin, Phil's, wedding.
They got married the next day, Saturday, and it was a stunning service in a wonderful church. It was great to see all the family again, in high spirits and in another country! The wedding reception was great, it was in a country house, surrounded by a golf course, and we ate, danced, ate, danced the night away... congratulations you two!

and when we got back to the hotel, Maurice proposed to me, and I said yes!
On Sunday, we hired a car from the hotel and mum, dad, Hannah and Simon and us drove into New York and went our separate ways. In the evening, before mum and dad went back to their hotel, Maurice and I met up with them and went for dinner in the Rockefeller Centre (thanks Christine, for that tip!) where we had a lovely meal, and it was really nice to catch up (and celebrate!) .

Yesterday, we moved hotels as our one was fully booked, and we are now in an OK hotel on Times Square, a nice hotel room, despite the small bed but it has the most amazing View of Central park. FAB!
Yesterday, we spent ages walking the streets of Soho and Grenwich Village and walked for ages. Had an hour or so in the hotel recovering and then on to Broadway to see Avenue Q, the show based on Sesame Street. Is it just us or was that show really disappointing?

I have many many pictures to put on the site, but I'm doing that when we get home!

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Las Vegas still

I have just realised that I did not completely publish this post when I wrote it, so it has been sitting in my Drafts box for a while! sorry.

Its the last night in Vegas, and we have had a great time. We are exhausted, hot, but happy. The hotel is massive, we have sore legs from walking from one end of the hotel, through the casino and up the stairs to our room. Its such a massive hotel, and you HAVE to walk through the casino. The hotel is great but despite its fanciness, its quite impersonal and we have been spending more time at the other hotels as the people are nicer and want to speak to you more.

Yesterday, as I had decided that I couldn't go to the Grand Canyon this trip (8 flights in 3 weeks is too much, even for me!), we took a trip to 'Fire Valley' Its this whole area of desert with great landscape and different coloured rocks. Breathtaking and really worth the trip.

So, the rest of the time in Vegas we have walked up and down the strip a few times and seen most of the over-the-top hotels and their over-the-top decorations, especially the Venetian and Luxor hotels. Its pretty wild. Why do Americans need to travel when they almost have the whole world in Vegas?! We even have a lion enclosure in our hotel.

Maurice took me down to Downtown Vegas last night, where Vegas really started. Its very tacky and we had an awful buffet dinner, that must have been the cheapest in Nevada! we must learn that cheap price = bad food. I actually forgot to write in my last post of a food disaster in New York on our last night before we came here: we were talking about having Indian for days, so we finally went on our last night. The Restaurant was empty, the service was bad, the food was terrible and as we were paying the bill, a mouse popped its head round the corner. Delightful.
Downtown was OK, we watched some silly show. Downtown has most of its casinos down this enclosed area, almost like a shopping centre roof, and every hour on the hour the roof comes alive of a movie about aliens invading the world. Its all very strange and very tacky.

Well, back to the pool for one last swim....

Viva Las Vegas!

weyl Hello there and how r yew today?

Our last few days in New york were quite easy going, walking round Soho, checking out all the shops where I purchased a wonderful pair of high heeled rain boots! Thursday we spent the day in Coney Island, a really old amusment park that was built years ago, and is quite run down now. I went on the rollercoaster that is nearly 80 years old. It was terrifying, expecially as when you are waiting in line, you can see the cars go past and almost jump off the rails!

On Friday evening Tom took us to see the Yankees game at the Yankee Baseball stadium.

Right. Baseball is very similar to Rounders, remember that game that most UK schools play, to make the kids run around and round in circles?. Very similar, just a little bit more complicated. The Yankee stadium is HUGE, and Tom bless him, had managed to get us (free) tickets 4 rows away from the front! how wild is that?! We were right in it man!

The next day, our last, we strolled around central park, didn't get lost, and went from north to south, it was beautiful. We lay out in the sun for a while and watched the park pass us by.

So, here we are in Vegas! You don't want to know how much money disappeared last night into the casino, and you don't what to know how much we didn't come back with either. But we had a darn good time doing it! Its so outlandish this place. Our hotel is so flash and fancy, our room, despite being in the rooms that are small is HUGE and really beautiful. The hotel is apparently the biggest hotel in the world, second to the one we went to in Malaysia a few years ago (see the other blog www.wherethedevilsbecci.com ) the pool area is massive, so many pools each for different activities, the drinking pool, kids pool, laps pool, volleyball the list goes on! they also have Cabanas, where you have your own personl marquee where you can sit on your sofa watch TV, drink out of your mini bar and have a massage next to the pool....this place has absolutly anything and everything for everyone.

Tom Jones was supposed to be playing here in our hotel, but has cancelled. boooo. So to make up for it we went to a show called Legends last night. Its where imitators take off all the big names. They were all there, it was cheasy as, and we loved it.

One observation that I feel I need to share is how wonderful and friendly Americans are. They have been welcoming, and we have been well looked after.

Love y'all

Check out this rollerdisco in Central park!

and these men singing next to the lake in the park

Yankees Game

They won of course!

Yankees Game

New York, New york! second update

So, what have we been up to since the last one? We have moved from Phils, into our Manhatten hotel. I booked this hotel over the internet, and because of the price, we have to sleep in bunk beds and have a shared bathroom. BUT despite that, its actually a very nice hotel. The bathrooms are always clean, and play lounge music in them. The rooms are also ok, with a tv for each bunk bed, an ipod speaker stand and aircon. Ok enough of the hotel review. The night we moved in, Phil took Maurice on his batchelors night, where they ate in a great restaurant and drank in various bars and clubs....while Becci styed at home. I was a very jealous young lady.
The next day (sunday) I woke early and went to a flea market, and got lost for about an hour in central park, ended up at the Gugenheim museum, where I planned to go and explore, but by then I had walked so much I knew that I wouldnt enjoy it at all. I couldnt even appriciate the building as was covered in scaffolding!

I got the bus back to our area and took a little walk around, then I found a massive food, and specialitiy market going down blocks and blocks on Madison Avenue. Called the man, and woke him up to come and join me. A couple of hours later, we decided to go to China Town, so we jumped on a bus and sat in front of a Chinese woman who talked and talked to us all the way, and told us that she would take us to a great place to eat. She took us there and we told her to order us what she thought we should eat, so she did and we got a table for the three of us. She came along, and told us, that she couldnt eat with us, but she had ordered the food for us, AND PAID FOR IT! how wild is that?! when the food came, we were flabergasted (I love that word) at the quantity of food that she had got for us, and just the fact that she had paid for it all! We sat in stunned silence for most of the meal.
look at all this free food!

We have done a very touristy thing and had 2 days of a hop on hop off bus tour. Its quite a good way to get around, and we have seen most of the main parts of city now.
The first day of it we did Manhatten, went to the gym (thanks for the voucher Phil!) got back on it and did the night tour ( we started off with a terrible guide who spoke like this "guys, guys, look, here guys, Empire...guys...empire state building...look...Look!...really high building, many stories high guys, guys, built real fast guys...babble, mumble babble ....... red tape man. You know what I am saying man. red tape ..guys. Guys............" we had to change busses to get away from him) then got off at Times Square, and Ozzy Osbourne started playing ontop of the Hard Rock Cafe! stood and watched for a while,

and then went for an average dinner in Grenwich Village.

Yesterday we took the Harlem loop, and got off for a while, walked the streets where an African woman sang " who wears short shorts, you wear short shorts at me" and had fish and chips in a place near 125 st station.

Last night, we met up with a friend of a friend (thanks Charles and Suzana) who runs a great restaurant here round the corner from where we are staying. Tom was great, he comped most of our meal, which we really appriciated, and had the best food that I have had for a long time. I had a beautiful seabass, that I can still taste (thats in a good way!) and Maurice had a MASSSIVE Tbone steak..guys, you all know how much that man can eat, but you have never seen the look on his face when that came out. It was utter shock, and he said in avery small voice " I cant eat all that!" yes, its true. Neither of us could finish our dinners, but there is always space for dessert in my book. NY cheesecake of course!
So, Love NY, want to live here forever. The people are so nice, and friendly. Love it.
Love y'all you be good now!

OK had to get a photo of food here somewhere...eggs benadict .... yummy

Central Park

New york - Hoboken

Having a wonderful time here, we arrived into JFK early and went though customs with no hassle, with Phil waiting there for us with water and zoooooomed us through Manhatten and into Hoboken. We were really spaced out, and the traffic was going SO fast. As soon as we got home, Tracy had a big pasta just coming out of the oven for all of us (after the dog introduced herself a couple of times) and we sat down to homemade real italian pasta.

After dinner we all took a walk down the road to see the view of manhatten. Ohmygod the view from over here is spectaular. We were really zombiefied by then, and colapsed in bed. We had missed the Tornado that hit New York that morning, but it was still BAKING hot in the evening.

Tracey is wonderful. Shes really friendly, warm and funny and has made us feel so welcome. We approve!

Yesterday we woke early in nthe morning (blasted jet lag) and Maurice chatted to Tracey for a couple of hours while I dozed on and off. When we left the house we were suprised that it was only midday. It felt like about 1400! So, we walked into Johny Rockets. For those of you who are not in the know, JR's is a retro cafe where every table has its own jukebox, and at every hour, the staff sing and dance to a song. Well. When they did that the only way for me to describe it is how Maurice told me my face looked while I was watching it. He said that he didnt know if I was really embaressed for them or wether I was going to jump up and join in. Thats just how I felt!

Next stop was a park that overlooked Manhatten again, and we had taken a blanket from Phil and Tracey to lie on in the park, out came Becci in a bikini, and we caught a few rays. The we were approached by a couple with a video camera, who were interviewing for Montel Williams (chat show) and we were asked what we do we want to get off our chest's, anything bothering us? we told them that they had probably picked the happiest people in New York at that moment, but they still continued, so we talked a little about global warming. The the lady told us to basically repeat this after her " Hi Montel we are in Hoboken and are spending quality couple time with each other, and we think that the whole of New York needs to learn how to make time for each other" as thats what they were wanting to hear about but we felt too much like prats just repeating what she said, so they went away! you never know though. You may still see us talking about global warming on Montel Williams in the future!

A few minutes later, we were lying there watching a guy catch crabs out the river, and maurice joined him, and joined in. Maurice "are you going to sell these?" Crab dude "hell no! Im gonna eat em!" Then we took a picture of him with one that he caught and his comment was

"even the crabs styling it!' doing the homeboy rapper hand sign!

We met up with Tracey and Phil later on, and had a few drinks in Hoboken, and when walked to a great restaurant called Liberties and had an Awesome dinner.

Today its tipping down with rain, and I think we did too much yesterday still being jet lagged. Or thats just an excuse for us to hang around doing nothing!

---

Draw a leaf and make a pledge on the Live Earth Tree