Its been over a week since we've been in touch and we've been sooo busy! After an overnight train journey we were grateful to hayleys friend mark who picked us up from the train station at Raleigh, North Carolina. We spent the morning relaxing by the pool in his apartment complex and he took us out for lunch to a nice salad bar..much appreciated after tooo many hot dogs and fast food! He showed us around Chapel Hill and the university of North Carolina, he lived in a really nice area of the US. We stayed with Sarahs family in the evening and we had a lovely home cooked meal :) it was nice to be taken care of and watch a bit of TV!
The next day we caught the train to Washington D.C and arrived at a hostel without a reservation with the hope of a bed for the night!! We were very lucky and able to stay. We went for a wander round the city and caught brief glimpses of the white house.
The following day we were up very early and out by 9 to see all the sights! We hopped on an open top sightseeing bus for a bargain $10 ( reg price $30). We couldnt get off but it meant that we saw all the monuments, memorials, famous buildings and museums in one hour and a half. This was great as we then decided what we wanted to see more closely. After getting off we walked to the capitol building and got some great pictures then headed to the museums. We went into the natural history museum and saw dory and nemo and the dinosaur from night at the museum! We also saw the hope diamond...very beautiful and impressive.
Then we stopped at the national history museum and learnt some american history. There was an impressive display to do with abraham lincoln in particular, and we saw his top hat!
We also saw an american flag that had been handmade in 1814 but we werent allowed to take any pictures as they were trying to preserve it.
After an enormous amount of history we had a short break at the washington monument and headed for the holocaust museum however we got there quite late so we only saw one exhibition.
The Lincoln monument was very impressive with a huge statue of him sitting in a chair. From the steps you could see for miles, the reflection pool, WWII memorial, the washington monument and Capitol Building.
We wandered to the white house for a proper look and we saw both the north side and south side. Unfortunately Obama was on vacation and to get an appointment to see his house takes 6 months lol!!
Before heading back we hopped on the metro to see the Pentagon building. When we arrived there the sun was setting and we walked to see the memorial which was very moving. Each person had a bench dedicated to them and depending on which way the bench was facing depended on where they were at the time of the attack.
The next day we went to New York. Upon our arrival we realised we were staying opposite the manhattan Inn, a place we stayed at 5 years ago! It felt like home! We got changed, went out and bought broadway tickets to see Mary Poppins for that evening. We had dinner at Mr Biggs where we caught happy hour, appetizers and drinks half price each so we ordered 2 appetizers, each one the size of a full meal!
Mary Poppins was AMAZING, so magical and we had some really good seats near the front. Highlights of the performance included bert walking upside down on the roof and Mary Poppins flying into the audience!
The next day we went to Philadephia, Sarah dragged Hayley to the Edgar Allan Poe national historic site which was rather interesting. Then we went for a tour round Independance Hall where the declaration of Independance was drafted and signed as was the american constitution and we also saw the Liberity bell with a nice big crack down one side!
The next day we went sightseeing in New York. The views from the top of the rockefeller center were breathtakingly spectacular. It was great to see the city in the daylight because we had only seen it at night last time. We had the most amazing soup at grand central station. Hayley had chicken pie and sarah had creamy chicken,rice and masala..yummy! Grand central station really was very grand! We then went to find the New York public library ( day after tomorrow) however it was closed because it was Sunday :( We ended the day at ground zero, still an excavation site as they are still clearing debris and planning for the future.
After a day on the train we arrived at Niagara falls, the canadian side. In the evening we went to see the falls lit up at night with all different colours..it was fabulous to look at and we ate chinese whilst watching the falls with some people from the hostel.
We had one day to see the falls so we bought an adventure pass. We first went for a walk alongside the rapids. Then we took the aero car across the whirlpool, which wasnt so whirly but the water moved really fast so you wouldnt want to end up in there! We took the maid of the mist into the falls where we took some brilliant photos and got a little bit wet but we were given plastic macs to take home with us! aka blue bin bags lol. We were able walk behind the falls in tunnels that had been created in 1944 , so we could get as close as possible to the cascading water, it was really noisy. From the outside we also saw a spectacular rainbow forming across the water and generally the views all around were just amazing, like nothing we'd ever seen before! We bought a few souvenirs, and got the wettest of the entire day inside a building. They've created niagaras fury which shows how the falls were formed. You stand on a platform experiencing the ice crack and get blasted with snow, cold mist and water!
This eveing we are heading into Niagara for dinner and drinks. We head back to New York tommorow for shopping and US open tennis!
And we are going to have an overnight stop in Boston before we come home.
Speak soon
Sarah and Hayley xxx
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