What an amazing trip did we just have!

Feels so weird to be back home again. It’s been such a long time since I last slept on my OWN bed and ate breakfast at OUR dining table… Well, I gotta face the truth and finally get back from my dreams to continue the normal life here. No, I won’t ever forget all the places and things I saw during this month, quite the opposite. I’ll watch the pictures and videos we’ve taken, read this blog and memorize the wonderful dream come true adventure :)

Everyone’s been asking what was the best place/thing during the trip, and we were all thinking about them when on the taxi to home from the airport. I’d say it’s hard to mention just one thing, so instead I’m gonna give you guys my top 3 and the reasons for why they’re the best three things ;)

1. Las Vegas. Because it’s just absolutely cool! All the lights, signs and hotels… You must see it yourself to understand how it is ‘cause no picture or movie can show the real atmosphere of Vegas.
2. Boston. Just simply ‘cause that’s where a piece of my heart and childhood is.
3. Broadway musical, the Lion King. It was something I’ve never experienced before, and the way they had created the costumes was genious. The lights, story and music all together made me have lots of chills during the 2½ hours ;)

I gotta mention a few more ‘cause there are so many awesome places and experiences that we saw. Grand Canyon and its beauty, swimming in the big waves of Erie Lake , New York and pretty much everything in it, our friends back at San José, swimming in Colorado River’s warm water and ALL THE VIEWS DURING THE WHOLE TRIP.

The experience as one was amazing, unforgettable, incredible, wonderful… Just so on the top of all the abroad vacations I’ve had so far. The country really is what fascinates me, there’s something in it that makes me go “whoa”. Maybe it’s because of spending a year of my childhood in there, maybe it left its mark in me in some specific way. But what’s for sure is that I liked it a lot and it didn’t disappoint me, instead many times I looked out from the window having forgotten to close my mouth…

So, here’s a bit of USA at numbers:
We visited 15 states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.
The highest temperature was 122 Fahrenheit, 50 Celsius.
The days we were there was 31, plus the two days for flights.
And, in total we drove 5009 miles, 8061 kilometers.

So! Thanks for all, for reading this and leaving comments :) It’s been great writing when knowing there are readers, and quite excited ones, over there! I hope you have enjoyed my blog and understood pretty much everything even if my English has been lacking at some points :D There’s just one more thing to say:
THIS WAS THE COAST TO COAST TRIP OF A LIFETIME!

Badappappappaa, I’m loving it <3

Days 30-31

Home sweet home <3

After waking up and eating breakfast we packed all our stuff and signed out from the hotel. We left our bags to downstairs and ordered a taxi to the airport at 4.45 pm. Then we walked around the city and at 3 pm went to have lunch. Dad had bought a new objective to my camera so after lunch we tested it at Times Square. It works well! ;)

We went to get our bags and waited for the airport shuttle to come. The drive to the Newark airport didn’t take longer than 30 minutes. Our flight to London left at 8.50 pm and we were at London at 9 am or something (the local time). We had an hour before our flight back to our home country left at 10.20 am. I slept the whole flight and I think so did Aleksi. It was so weird hearing all the Finnish again! :D

The plane landed to Finland and we went to get our bags. Everything went fine, we got a big taxi and drove HOME! Felt soooo weird to be at home again, it’s been so long since we last were here :D My room and our bathroom are smaller than I remembered, even!

We unpacked the bags and now mom and dad went to a grocery store to get us some food! I’ll write the final post tomorrow ;)

Days 29 and 30

Day 29, Have you seen a musical on Broadway? ;)

Around 12 pm we took a subway to Central Park. We were walking through it until we saw that there was a baseball game on one of the three or four baseball fields. We watched it for a while and then decided to continue walking. The park really is HUGE and also very pretty. There are a few ponds at there, and we saw a beautiful bridge.

Mom wanted to see the fountain with a golden angel on it (it’s in a lot of movies, almost every one that’s from New York and more directly Central Park) so we searched for it the entire time until now we finally found it. We took pictures and the boys were throwing a few coins in it. We walked to a place that was perfect for sitting down and playing cards. Me and dad went to buy us fruits and drinks.

While playing cards we saw a bit shocking act that could’ve been straight from a movie. A small boy was driving his bike down a hill, his father told him to use his brake but it just got speedier. In five seconds the boy was suddenly disappeared into the water in a pond. Luckily right after you could notice things going wrong a lady and a man ran after the boy and picked him up from the water. The boy was all wet when his father, in just a few seconds later, had come next to him. The whole park was watching this as it happened and when the man who had jumped to the pond to pick the boy up went back to the pond to take the bike (the water was to his waist) the whole “crowd” was giving applause ;)

After Aleksi and I had a wrestling competition we played frisbee and then went to Bloomingoale’s (a big department store). We took a subway back to Times Square and went to have lunch. Later in the evening the boys left for a baseball game as mom and I got ourselves ready for a musical. At 8 o’clock we were sitting in a Broadway hall just about to see the first musical of our lives, the Lion King. And oh, let me tell you it was absolutely amazing. No words can get the right image in your heads, even if I tried to. The music, the lights, the costumes, the dancers, the story, everything. Wow.

Tomorrow is going to be the last full day here in New York and here in the States! Do I really have to go back to Finland..? :/

Day 30, The last full day…

Around noon me and mom went out to do some shopping. We noticed that the whole 7th Avenue was full of these small shops which were selling smoothies, scarves, jewelry, dresses, food… I bought a souvenir and then we walked to Gap store. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling good at all so I almost ran back to the hotel, took an aspirin and went to sleep.

After a while the boys came back from shopping, and after another while so did mom. I went downstairs with her to ask a few things regarding tomorrow, from the front desk, since I was feeling better. Dad had gone to pick up movie tickets for us. Then we went to have dinner at Olive Garden. The food was again delicious, even though we had to hurry to the cinema.

Mom and I went to see Charlie St. Cloud as the boys saw Despicable Me. We all liked the movies we had seen, I thought Charlie St. Cloud was though very sad also very beautiful and good movie. After the movies we went to a store to get some souvenir candies for our friends back at home. Then we came back to the hotel, packed our bags and wrote some postcards. We’re about to sleep the last night in the US.

This trip has been absolutely amazing. All these views and experiences are gonna stay in our minds forever or at least for a very long time ;) Even though at times we’ve been annoyed by each other we still have had a lot of fun! I’m sure I’m speaking from us all when I say that this trip was a trip of a lifetime, and that we enjoyed it from the day one to the day 30! :)

The next post will be from our home back in Finland, so it might take a few days for me to update this blog. Be patient and until then, see ya! ;)