Route 66 - USA

The Place: From New Orleans, we flew to Phoenix to begin a road trip up to San Fransico, via the old Route 66, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and Yosemite.
Highlights: Travelling the old Route 66 is like going nowhere slowly, just for the fun of it. We came across road stop diners, low riding Harley's, James Dean cut-outs, Western town facades, Aliens, Elvises, Hollywood icons, walking travellers, American flags, and pretty much any celebration of American culture.

New Orleans - USA

(July 2014) The Place: There is a house in New Orleans... and there are some funky streets, restaurants and jazz clubs too! We had a brief but awesome visit of the city's colourful, festive and crazy French Quarter which sits right on the Mississippi in Louisiana.
Highlights: The food was delicious, mainly Bayou style consisting of Gumbo, Jumbalaya, Shrimp, and Crawfish (yes, with a 'w'), and Chilli Sauces of all descriptions! Just off famous Bourbon Street, which following hurricane Katrina is slightly on the dodge side, is Frenchmen St. where we were lucky enough to watch some authentic jazz, including Washboard Chaz at The Spotted Cat. Also soaked in the art and colour and stories of the french quarter which included the haunted 'La Maison LaLaurie'.

New York - USA

(July 2014) The Place: Having had a great time in upstate New York (near Port Jervis) for Stuart and Amanda's wedding, we (Liz, Tim and I) headed down to the Big Apple for 5 days.
Some highlights: Meeting Michelle, Timon and their two kids at a New York Mets vs. Miami Marlins baseball game, followed by watching the World Cup final (Germany Argentina) within the Mets Stadium and watching the Americans get loose. Michelle took us out to a Broadway show to watch 'Kinky Boots' (2013's Tony's winner) which was brilliant! Straight afterwards we met Stuanda and co. in an Irish pub in Times Square which was yet another great catch-up. To top the night off, we hopped in a cab and headed for a midnight galavant up the Empire State Building with no queues, and apparently 'No visibility!' but we still got some good intermittent views between passing clouds and a great view of the iconic Chrysler building from above. The days followed with touring both the City and Central Park on bicyles, checking out the Italian quarter and Chinatown, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, getting the free trip to and from Statten Island for a view of the Statue of Liberty, visiting the Ground Zero memorial, and strolling through the city's streets; 5th, Broadway, Lexington, Wall Street, to name a few.

Tasmania - Australia

The Place: Off the mainland of Australia, we took a drive from Hobart through the centre of Tassie, via Queenstown to spend a long weekend in Burnie. The scenic drive took us about 8 hours via some very different Aussie landscape including vast lakes and snowy mountains. On the way back to Hobart we headed via 'the Nut' (last pic) to spend a night and then onwards to Cradle mountain for a hike down to the lake. We missed a view of the mountain due to overcast conditions, however were rewarded with some amazing wombat and wallaby spotting. We must've seen about 50 wombats in the space of a few hours of walking, most were pretty active, some running alongside us.