Those of you that follow me on Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr will have seen me reminiscing about mine and Helen's holiday to America 4 years ago this weekend.
The holiday was in aid of seeing 30 Seconds To Mars but it ended up being so much more and is probably my favorite holiday I've ever been on. Firstly it was the first time I'd been out of the country without parental supervision (see I was fine!!) so had a real sense of adventure, secondly it was mine and Helen's first holiday together and was so much fun.
The holiday started on an funny vein when we spotted a pilot in the departure lounge of Heathrow (I recommend the Cath Kidston shop - super cheap!) who was the spitting image of Dave Grohl in the Learn To Fly video ....
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| Hello Dave! |
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| Contrary to what Helen says,this is not a video representation of me .... I don't have plaits or wear pink! |
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Our plane
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As a plane geek I love flying, particularly the take-off, and as we took off and pulled above the clouds we had a really cool sight of the planes that were landing appearing to 'skate' along the top of the clouds. I wish I'd been allowed to have my camera at that point!
Contrary to popular belief the food on the plane was really nice (we flew with KLM) even if it was a little bizarre to have Cajun Chicken for breakfast. Most importantly on the flight we saw Despicable Me for the first time as an in-flight movie! It's now one of my favourite films because, although it's hilariously funny in it's own right, it reminds me of our holiday.
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| Unfortunately it has lead to me being called Agnes ever since .... I can't understand why ....... |
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| Flying over Nova Scotia |
We landed in Detroit about 8 hours later, what staggered me as we came into land was how huge the city was, when you fly in or out of Heathrow you can see London out of one window and countryside out of the other. When we came into Detroit it was city as far as you could see out of both windows! When I flew into Standford in Florida it was effectively 'out in the sticks' so I really wasn't prepared for a city that big. Myself and another passenger managed to get ourselves told off before we'd even entered the country by not noticing the large signs telling us not to use our phones ...
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| Our first glimpse of America |
From Detroit we flew to Buffalo, flying over part of Lake Michigan but the best part of the trip was the in-flight shopping magazine that sold the most hilarious items from under-table cat and dog cages to stone Yetis for your garden!
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| To this day I regret not buying a Yeti |
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| Buffalo - yes this is an airport fully functioning in the snow! |
Our hotel was just a short hop from the airport in a small town called Amherst. We stayed in the American equivalent of a Premier Inn.
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| View from our hotel room window |
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| Sunset over Amherst |
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| Super comfy bed! Yes you can tell it's mine as there is a Panda on the pillow and a photo of the buns stuck to the lamp |
I slept so well that night, better than I had in a long time (I've never been a deep sleeper). We were awake bright an early the next day, however my morning peace was shattered when, as I was about to jump in the shower, I heard Helen scream. After running out I discovered that everything was fine and she'd been having a Dug from Up! type reaction to seeing a Squirrel (It later turned out to be a chipmunk .. small details).
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| Helen's first morning in America |
We thought it best to leave our own cuddly Dug on guard whilst we went for breakfast -
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| Point! |
The coolest thing was the waffle maker in the breakfast bar, I also love that in America it's sociably acceptable to eat multiple muffins for breakfast....
We decided to spend the day visiting the local mall and shops. When we set out the thing that surprised me was that, despite the deep snow and it being about -8c, it didn't feel as cold as the UK. We figured it was because the UK has a very wet cold whereas it was a dry cold there which made it far more bearable (along with the 10 layers we had on!).
What I wasn't expecting when we approached the 'small' mall that the girl on the desk had described was quite how big it was! It was about twice the size of Brighton's Churchill Square, I'm slightly scared at the thought of a big mall. We thought it best to sample the local cuisine (a cookie shop) and whilst eating we observed 'power walking grannies' doing their circuits of the mall, hilarious! There were loads of cool shops including a shop absolutely full of Yankee Candles.
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| Who knew there were so many types of Yankee Candle? |
I bought a strawberry scented one that is thankfully sold in the UK as whenever I light it, it takes me straight back to the holiday. My favorite shop in the mall was
Hot Topic it was possibly the coolest shop I've ever been in! I could have bankrupted myself in there on cool tops and accessories. I restrained myself to a skull dress, a belt, some nail polish, star earrings (which Helen promptly stole), a hat and some fingerless red gloves (more of them later!).
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| My hat! |
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In their equivalent of HMV I found this copy of 30 Seconds To Mars' Beautiful Lie with "The Kill" artwork that I'd not seen in the UK so I snapped it up!
On the way back to the hotel we found Helen-heaven a huge Barnes & Noble store! Sounds silly to say but I had never seen so many books in one place! Best of all I was able to have my first cup of tea in 48 hours!
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| Thank you god |
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| My first ever Red Velvet cupcake, yum yum yum |
The next day we decided to visit the falls themselves one word .... wow! They were absolutely spectacular so high and the river was so fast moving. It was really strange that Canada was just across the river, that you could look into another country. Here's a few photos of the park.
I was really excited when we found that there was a Hard Rock Cafe! They even took pity on us waiting outside in the snow and let us in before it opened.
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Helen outside the Hard Rock
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The first place we explored after ordering our food was the shop (naturally) and I got this cute punky bear.
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Reminds me of someone .....
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The best part of any Hard Rock is the memorabilia and I was super excited to find some Nirvana pics!
Upon perusing the cocktail menu I discovered there was a cocktail called a Hurricane, seeing as that's the name of one of my favorite 30 Seconds To Mars songs I felt it best to indulge and the glass has pride of place in our glass cupboard.
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Yum!
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It turned out that two of the waitresses were going to the Mars show the following evening so we spent most of the afternoon swapping gig stories and discussing favorite songs and videos.
The next day was gig day .....
When we woke up there'd been a snowstorm overnight and about a foot of extra snow. People just carry on as normal, attaching snow ploughs to the front of cars and just going about their business. We spent the morning on the comfy chairs in the lobby reading. Helen decided it would be a good idea for me to try coffee since I was incredibly tea-deprived. Unlike most people who enjoy the caffeine kick coffee sends me to sleep so it turns out, much to Helen's amusement! Luckily she resisted the temptation to take a photo.
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So much snow!
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Comfy lobby chairs
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In preparation for the night ahead we decided to order pizza, known for it's healthy and energetic benefits, we thought a medium between both of us would be just right. When it arrived it was the biggest pizza we had ever seen!!!!
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Scary to think what a large would have looked like!
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Soon it was time to get ready ....
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Mars Glyphs and hats are tres chic don't you know?
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We ended up being 'adopted' by the taxi driver who took us to the show, he was so lovely and insisted on picking us up after the show even though it was after his shift had ended. I still have his card in my wallet, I'm sad like that. We went to a bar on the way to the show on the recommendation of the Hard Rock waitresses
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Possibly the strongest Jack n Coke I've ever had!
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What we weren't quite prepared for was the route march to the Rapids Theatre that was 'just along the block' it was ok for Helen with her long legs, I must have looked hilarious hopping between Helen's footprints to keep up!
The sprint was well worth it The Rapids Theatre is a beautiful Art Deco style theatre and also relatively small. The stage was basically at audience level and it was the closest I've ever been to the stage.
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So lovely
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Me on the barrier!
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The show was just amazing, it was the best feeling being so close to my favourite band and to get some really decent photos of them in action.
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Finally got some decent photos of Shannon, not hard since he was sat two foot from us!
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Jared in action
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The highlight of the show was Jared coming right over to our section and pretty much leaning off the stage onto us, I managed to snap my best ever photo of him 'on the way down' so to speak....
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Hi Jared
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After the show was the meet and greet we had paid extra for, we figured why go all the way to America and just go on normal tickets? I was kind of nervous, I'd had stuff signed by them in passing before but never actually 'met' them. You hear stories of people being really disappointed after meeting their heroes. I needn't have worried, they were absolutely lovely. I mentioned to Jared that we had traveled thousands of miles for the show and he told me that I was really cool .... I'll take that!
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It's that CD again!
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As part of the meet and greet I got to have my photo taken with the band too, I'm glad I was wearing my big boots as they actually gave me an extra 3 inches of height so I didn't look too short! Now I must also take this opportunity to clear up a rumour started by Helen that is not at all true! In the below photo of me with the guys she has pointed out quite rightly that you can only see one of my red gloves. However the 'missing' hand was in fact BY MY SIDE and not anywhere else. Thank you for allowing me to clear this up!
I woke up the next morning wondering if the night before had been some amazing dream but the signed CD cover confirmed that it actually happened! We spent our last morning eating the rest of the world's giantest pizza (TM) and watching Clueless - don't say that we don't live the rock n roll lifestyle!
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Last photo of Buffalo
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Flying back to Detroit
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The cool underground tunnel at Detroit airport
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In Detriot I was distracted from feeling too sad about going home by the sheer amount and variety of Jellybeans on sale and also the monorail (Helen threatened me with violence as I kept commenting on it).
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Yum!
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MONORAIL!!!
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Last photos of America
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Bye Bye:(
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I miss America so much, every single day. Not just for the show or the shopping or the scenery or all the lovely people we met. It was the silly things that me and Helen laughed at, it was 5 days out of reality like a dream. It was a holiday with my best friend in the world and the memories cheer me up on bad days.
I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Love Jen
XxxX
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