Chapter 9 – The Bahamas on a Cruise

Ecstasy at Half Moon Cay

We boarded the Carnival Ecstasy cruise ship in Cape Canaveral and leaving the USA we sailed out into the crystal blue waters of the Bahamas. The cruise was for 5 nights and we stopped off at Half Moon Cay, Nassau and Freeport.

We were totally pampered on board with massive buffet breakfasts, lunches and three course dinners. There were daily shows, activities and parties that kept us well entertained on board. At our destinations we got off the boat and explored the islands.

Half Moon Cay

Half Moon Cay

We spent the second day lazing at the beach of Half Moon Cay, next to the bluest, clearest water we had ever seen. The beautiful lagoon is privately owned by the cruise line and is part of a larger island that is a bird sanctuary. 

The gaudy interior

The next day we arrived in Nassau and were whisked away on a charter boat to another private island, Blue Lagoon for more swimming, sunbathing, beach BBQ’s and rum cocktails. On the way back we got a tour of the beachfront mansions belonging to Oprah, Tiger Woods, Chuck Norris and our old acquaintance from New Orleans; Nic Cage.

Prepared to snorkel in Freeport

Blue Lagoon, Nassau

Towards the end of the week we found ourselves in Freeport, where we boarded a catamaran and sailed out to an open water reef called Treasure Reef. When Esther realized that we were going to get in the water at this landless spot, she felt the need to prepare with a hyper-inflatable life-vest. We spent an hour bobbing about looking at the reef, tropically coloured fish and corals. Esther’s hour was cut short when she heard someone say “ shark! ”. After escorting Esther back to the ship, Andre decided to jump back in and go shark hunting. He soon found the four-foot shark as it lazily swam around the reef. We later found out that, that particular shark had no teeth and the brave Andre was safe all along.

Treasure Reef - kilometres from land

We sadly said goodbye to our cushy ship & pampered lifestyle, boarded a plane and headed to New York, New York.

Not quite the way the pirates drank it but still rum!

Chapter 8 - Orlando

Pick your own music and hold on!

After the old world feel of New Orleans we arrived in Orlando and stayed far away from the city center near Universal Studios. The taxi ride in was interesting as the taxi driver, who was Haitian, was adamantly trying to get Andre involved in his business in Haiti. Andre considered it seriously, but then realized that it probably wasn’t the best of ideas, knowing very little about business or for that matter Haiti. So after that slight distraction from our purpose, we turned our eyes on the prize again; the Hunt for Harry!

Butterbeer

We are of course talking about Harry Potter World in the new Islands of Adventure theme park that sits next to the older Universal Studios park. We spent two days exploring the two sister parks and had a blast. Harry Potter World was awesome and they have recreated the village of Hogsmead with all the shops that go with it. There was quite a line for Olivanders as you can have an appointment to select a wand just for you. 

Hogwarts

In Seuss Landing

Honeydukes was also there, and we both tried Butterbeer, which Amy had tried so hard to recreate. There was also a smaller version of Hogwarts that housed an awesome ride, our favourite of the park: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.


After our previous stops Orlando was more relaxed and we spent our days & nights at the theme parks and outlets, going out for low-key dinners, and relaxing next to the pool. After four of these tough days we headed out to Cape Canaveral. We were on our way to the Bahamas!

Chapter 7 – New Orleans

Jackson Square

We arrived in New Orleans (N’Awlins to the locals) for the Jazz and Heritage Festival late at night and headed straight to our hostel. We arrived at a low lit building which looked to us like a mental asylum; the St Vincent Hostel (As it turned out it used to be an orphanage until the 50’s). After two attempts to find a clean room to sleep in, verbal abuse from a half naked drugged war vet in a wheelchair and the crushing of many cockroaches we finally found a room that had been tidied, even though it was nowhere near clean. Turns out we should have paid better attention to the online reviews. Finally exhaustion kicked in and we fell asleep.

St Vincents

The next day our luck changed and we found a nice room in the center of the French Quarter, which they gave to us for half price. We took it and happily left our creepy backpackers behind.

Voodoo

New Orleans is a great city and if you are heading to the States then it is well worth seeing. It’s an old city and has a very mixed history involving the French, Spanish and African people. All of these cultures mingling created the city as it is today with its rich mix of food, peoples, voodoo and of course the music!

We spent three days at the renowned Jazz fest listening to bands on each of the 12 stages and enjoying great Southern cuisine. The amazing line up consisted of local brass bands, blues & jazz 

Deep fried crawfish

legends and gospel choirs. Some of the headliners we saw were The Beach Boys, Tom Petty & the Heart Breakers, Bruce Springsteen, Gomez, Iron & Wine and Celo Green. After Jazz Fest we decided to stay on a bit longer to enjoy the city. 

The Boss

Haunted tours

Original LaLaurie mansion entrance

 The heavily populated and boozy Bourbon Street was crazy, just the people watching alone is worth checking it out. We went on a haunted tour around the French quarter. The tour was great but it did disturb our sleep for days. One of the stories worth checking out is of the LaLaurie mansion, which was around the corner from our hotel. Until recently, the house was owned by Nicholas Cage. In all the years he owned it he only slept there once! It originally was home to the serial killer Madame LaLaurie and her husband Dr Leonard LaLaurie during the early 19^th century. Just a warning that this is not a story for the faint-hearted in case you go hunting for it.

Louisiana swamp

We headed out of the city for a look at the surrounding swampy wetlands. We met a couple of 12 foot alligators called Brutus and Big Al (both around 50 years old), we learnt a lot about their environment, and learnt how catch crawfish (a small type of crayfish).

Brutus 

  

The city still seems to be healing from the devastating Katrina although you wouldn't know it when walking around the touristy areas. After visiting the Museum it seems that the event was censored and underreported not just around the world but in the USA as well. 

After over a week of amazing southern food, music and hospitality, we headed southeast in search of Harry.

Chapter 6 – Coachella Valley (Desert Palms/ Palm Springs/Joshua Tree)

Thousand Palms Oasis

After leaving Vegas we drove our way down to the Coachella Valley, home to Palm Springs, the Coachella music festival and a whole lot of desert. The valley is also home to a lot of golf resorts and movie star homes. Elvis lived here for a while as did Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra.

Trail in Joshua Tree

We spent the next week with Andre’s family – Ruben, Myriam and their gorgeous array of animals (3 parrots and two dogs). The Valley was uncharacteristically hot (temps reaching approx 40 C most days) so our days were spent relaxing in the house (with Chloe the African grey parrot chattering away in the 

background) trying to dodge the heat and venturing out after long lazy delicious lunches and dinners.

We visited the local natural oasis – beautiful palms and a clear pool of water in the middle of the desert. We also tramped around the beautiful Joshua Tree National Park where as well as the stunning landscape we saw a rattlesnake and loads of lizards and cacti.

Joshua trees and rock formations

With sadness we left our American home away from home. The next part of the trip was upon us and we traded in the dry heat of the Coachella Valley for the swampy heat and Cajun spice of the Deep South and New Orleans. 

Chapter 5 – Las Vegas & the Grand Canyon

We rolled into Vegas the old fashioned way, driving for hours through the barren desert landscape to cruise down The Strip to our hotel. It is one of the oldest on The Strip and perfectly central to the whole show. It is the one, the only Flamingo. This place even smells pink. An oversweet highly oxygenated pink. 

Las Vegas, which is Spanish for The Meadows, in the Nevada desert is a must see for anyone heading to the US. Not saying you are going to like it but it is worth a seeing. We settled into the Flamingo hotel and then wandered from casino to casino for the next couple of days. The size of the hotels themselves is unbelievable. Besides the gambling areas each hotel has shopping areas, restaurants and displays of art. At the moment the Bellagio has transformed their lobby into a life sized Dutch garden. The atrium is filled with fragrant flowers, windmills and carousels. They have even replicated a Monet with real flowers.

On our second night we saw a show called Absinthe, which was great. It was a mix of burlesque, circus acts, song & dance and comedy in a circus tent. We sat next to a very friendly journalist from Boston who was doing a travel piece on Vegas. She told us the show was great but very offensive and that it was a good thing we were not sitting in the front rows as they were all at risk of being thoroughly insulted. The show was great, the acrobatics top notch, the burlesque very suggestive and as we had been told those in the front rows were insulted about their age, race, sexual preference and nationality and made to perform some strange things in front of the rest of the audience. Our new friend also told us she was heading to see the Shins play tomorrow night and as she had 2 extra tickets did we want to tag along with her and her friends? Um, yeah!

The next day we got up at 5 am and though we didn’t know it then it would become one of the longest and worst days of our trips: the day when we took a bus tour to the Grand Canyon. Now this may sound like a grand idea (pun intended) but as it turned out our day was extended into a 20 hour one by a series of unfortunate events.

First off though, the Grand Canyon was spectacular. It is a massive rift in the earth that has to be seen to be believed. We walked for a few miles along the edge of the canon, enjoying the view of this gigantic space. However once we were on the bus things started going wrong. First first there was a couple who decided that they hadn't seen enough and made us wait for almost an hour and then about 2 hours from Vegas the bus broke down in the middle of nowhere. We spent 3 hours on the side of the road waiting for the replacement bus. Not only did it turn into a 20 hour day on a bus, but we missed out on meeting up with our journalist friend and getting into the Shins gig!! Gutted. The only good things were we had briefly seen the Canyon and the tour company refunded us the fee so we got a free trip.

The next day we left Vegas, still grumpy from the day before. This was the first place that we were happy to leave. 

Chapter 4 – Yosemite National Park

El Capitan

 It is difficult to do Yosemite justice with language and pictures. This place has a feeling of consciousness and a quality of stillness. 

We spent our two days in the park exploring the meadows, mountains and waterfalls. The landscape changes quickly from chilly snowscapes to warm valleys of wildflowers with an ever present smell of dry pine.

Yosemite was designated a national park in Abraham Lincoln’s time but it was John Muir, a great naturist and preservationist who personally convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to take control of the park away from the state of California and deliver it into federal hands. Muir explored Yosemite from the late 19^th century onwards and was the first to observe that Yosemite had been sculpted by alpine glaciers carving their path through granite, thereby creating the magnificent and sheer cliffs that are a hallmark of the area.

We spent only 2 nights in Yosemite at Curry Village, a quaint camp with tents and cabins that opened in 1899 and is still going strong.

Yosemite Valley - El Capitan to the left, Half Dome
 in the distance and  Bridal Veil Falls to the right.

This was the perfect time of year for waterfalls as the snow is melting and they are everywhere. There were deer and squirrels everywhere and while there are bears these were mostly hibernating.

There are strict rules on food here as bears have been known to break into cars after smelling toothpaste. Bears are so intelligent that every few years the bear locks on the food containers have to be changed as they figure them out. Currently they are working with locks that require opposable thumbs.

Lower Yosemite Falls

After full days of wandering in this natural wonder we reluctantly left the natural redwood skyscrapers and headed south to the glitzy and hedonistic Vegas (via Wofford Heights, Kernville & amazing burgers + beer).

Vernal Falls 

Chapter 3 – San Francisco

We arrive at our backpackers in downtown SF just off Union Square at the end of a day of driving and unwittingly hit San Fran gold! A free carpark right outside of our hostel. As this joke illustrates -  a car park can be hard to find here :

Chinatown

Painted Ladies

“ A man is walking down a street in San Fran and sees a guy lying in a carpark. Curious he walks up and asks “ Excuse me, what are you doing?” The man on the street replies “ I’m saving this carpark while my wife goes to buy a car” ! ”. (David) 

Halfway across Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco is a great city and we enjoy many amazing eateries and endure (at times enjoying) many touristy things. We cycle the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and go see Fisherman’s Wharf; where instead of the local marine fare we end up having amazing American cheeseburgers (no less than those served at this years Oscars). We venture into the reputedly dangerous Tenderloin at night for a great Vietnamese Pho amongst the drug addicts, dealers and homeless people (maybe not your usual touristy attraction). We have a great matzo ball soup in a Jewish diner on Pesach and visit the Jewish Contemporary Museum.

Never know what you'll find when you look up!

A great highlight of our time in San Francisco was meeting and being shown around by David, a family friend. We saw parts of the city we would have completely missed otherwise and learnt more about the history of the city and how much it had changed in the last 50 years in that evening then we had the whole week. Dinner that evening in Chinatown still stands as the best dinner we’ve had so far! 

On our last day we head out to Alcatraz along with hundreds of other people. Alcatraz is legendary and its easy to see why. Named by the Spanish for the pelicans that call it home, Alcatraz started off life as a fort protecting the harbour. It continued in this role through the Civil War which is when it started to be used as a prison. At one point it was one of the most famous prisons in the USA, with such notorious criminals as Al Capone serving time there. It was also the only prison in the US at the time that provided hot showers to the inmates. This was to prevent successful escape attempts by making sure that the prisoners didn't get accustomed to the cold water surrounding the island. After it was closed it was the site of a 18 month occupation by Native American activists in the '60s before becoming the tourist attraction that it is today.

Alcatra - nobody ever escaped alive

Isolation cell 

We were sorry to leave SF but we were happy to be on our way to one of my (Andre's) favourite places in the world : Yosemite National Park!