Been Away....My American Road Trip 2014

Where do I begin?

Sorry I haven't posted in a while guys, I have been travelling around America since May and haven't really had the time to blog...I know I've been really bad. 

But I had a fantastic time and got to see a lot of really incredible places and do a bunch of amazing things. 

It all started when my family and I decided we wanted to go to Nashville for the Country Music Festival (being hardcore fans) so I decided I was going to stay and travel around America by myself, and my sister Josie decided she was going to come with me, so off we went, to America.

We flew into Atlanta, but the next day drove to New Orleans, which is such a vibrant place and after that we went to Memphis, which was amazing, visiting Sun Studio's is definitely up there with one of the best things I did on this trip. 

(Inn on St. Peters, our hotel in the French Quarter)

(Elvis, Cash, Lewis & Perkins microphone, Sun Studios)

Then after Memphis we headed to Nashville!!! And my god it was incredible, I want to make it an annual occurrence, all the performers where amazing and the atmosphere was definitely something you need to experience once in your lifetime. 

 (CMA Festival in Nashville) 

(Photo-booth at one of the exhibition stands at the CMA festival)

When we were in Nashville Josie's and my friend Lucy decided she wanted to come out and join us, so when we were headed back to Atlanta for everyone else to catch a flight home, she flew out and joined us. 

When we were in Atlanta we went to a baseball game and got foam fingers. It's so much fun, but just like rounders (my UK readers will understand what rounders is). After Atlanta we went to Washington D.C, which is such an amazing city! I definitely recommend visiting, we did all the touristy things while we were there and even used their version of Boris Bikes and cycled to Georgetown (which if you are there, go and get a cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes, they are to die for!!) From there we made our way down the coast stopping at Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach, Charleston (where we got our car stuck in a huge pothole), Savannah and then made our way into Florida. 

 (Atlanta Braves baseball game)

(THE White House)

 ($2 Mimosa in Virginia Beach)

 (Rainbow Street in Charleston)

 (Car getting stuck in Folly Beach)

(Savannah)

After Savannah we entered Florida having planned our first stop there to be Daytona, but after arriving and not liking our hotel and it being dead we left and headed to Orlando where we were for 4th July, after that we went to Miami and got to swim with DOLPHINS!! After Miami we drove to Tampa where we spent a couple of days before we flew to San Diego.

 (Universal Walk in Minion Glasses)

(Water ride at Typhoon Lagoon)

(Swimming with Dolphins in Key Largo, during our stay in Miami) 

(Busch Gardens in Tampa) 

Going from the East Coast to the West Coast there were a few differences, 1) a lot more touristy 2) people are generally nicer on the east coast, but the people from The South are the friendliest by far and 3) the weather is a lot better. We flew into San Diego and from there made our way up the coast to L.A and Santa Monica where Lucy went home. 

 (Sea Lions at La Jolla)

(Laguna Beach, unfortunately we didn't see LC)

 (Us sitting on THE ACTUAL FRIENDS SOFA during our Warner Brothers Studio Tour)

 (Dierks Bentley Riser Tour at the Greek Theatre L.A, with Jon Pardi, Chase Rice and Chris Young)

(Muscle Beach)

After we dropped Lucy off at LAX, Josie and I headed to Runyan Canyon for a hike, and then continued on with our road trip, next stop was Palm Springs (where the temperature was 120 Fahrenheit, so bloody hot) then from Palm Springs we headed to Malibu going via Huntington Beach to watch the US Surf Open, then from Malibu we headed to Santa Barbara where we did our own surfing.

 (Runyan Canyon with a view of Los Angeles)

(Mount San Jacinto hike in Palm Springs)

(US Surf Open)

(Malibu)

(Surf Lesson in Santa Barbara)

From Santa Barbara we took the coastal route up to San Francisco having a night stay in Cambria and stopping at Big Sur. Once we got to San Francisco the traffic was a nightmare but after about an hour we made it to our hotel and got settled ready to take on our time there. 

 (Josie with her stone tower in Big Sur)

 (Photo stop during our cycle to and along the Golden Gate Bridge)

(Stuck in Alcatraz)

From San Francisco, we then went to Yosemite National Park where we enjoyed 3 long days of hikes, and saw some incredible views! Then we headed to our last destination VEGAS, during our time here we went on an over night trip to the Grand Canyon, to get there we went via the Hoover Dam and the historic route 66.

(We're on top of the world in Yosemite)

 (Our home while we were in Yosemite)

(Yosemite National Park)

 (Mason Jar beer at I Like This Bar and Grill in Vegas)

 (Hoover Dam) 

 (Route 66)

 (Grand Canyon National Park)

 (Grand Canyon National Park)

(530am sunrise over the Grand Canyon)

 (Las Vegas Strip)

 (Iconic Bellagio water dance)

And that was my 2014 American road trip, I will now be back on book reviewing and I'm also going to start adding a few other pieces on my blog, this will be either my own writing or reviews on different genre books and things other than books that interest me. 

 (Las Vegas)