Jul 08

Woke up at 4.30 and both got showered. Went downstairs to reception with all of our bags where a taxi was waiting for us to take us to the airport. Got to the airport still not sure if we would be booked onto the flight or not! Luckily we were dealt with by a really helpful lady who sorted out our tickets for us (the problem was that we had selected the payment as pounds!) and also booked our bags in to go directly to Birmingham - lets hope we see them again!

We then had some breakfast while Catherine did her usual 'worry about being late' trick! Paul, therefore, was unable to look at any of the shops! When we got through the security checks we made our way to the departure gate to find that our plane had been delayed and we had to get a replacement - we overheard somebody saying that the front window had cracked. When we got onto the plane we found out that people had already boarded the first one - Good job it was delayed and Catherine didn't let Paul look in the shops or else we would have missed the flight!

The flight wasn't too bad - we watched the film Evan Almighty which was okay without being great. Paul managed to sleep for a couple of hours (how does he do it?!?!?). We arrived in Newark and went straight to our departure gate via McDonalds for some food. On the way Catherine had some tears in her eyes because she was sad that our trip was coming to an end - Paul gave her a big hug and assured her that it wouldn't be the last one!

We then boarded the flight back home to Birmingham and left American soil for the first time in 79 days! We sat in the exit seats again with the extra leg room (Thanks Krysta's Mom!) and no one else sat on our row so we could spread out. We got stuck on the runway for a little while but soon took off - we got to see the New York skyline all lit up and it looked amazing - Catherine had another little cry - she really enjoyed the trip!!!!!

On the fight the sound didn't work so we had to miss Harry Potter but we got some free cocktails instead! (And Catherine's sound worked anyway!! Shhhh!). The flight was okay - Paul managed to sleep again. We landed in Birmingham on time but the bags took ages to come through - one of the cheap bags that we bought had split but it had served its purpose.

We walked through the departure gate to be greeted by our families - our American Adventure had come to an end!

Paul decided that as today was going to be our last day he would spend it by sitting around the hotel all day and not bother going to Vancouver!

Catherine went out for a couple of hours to look for a new coat - unfortunately she didn't find one but still came back with a new handbag. While she was gone Paul just watched TV. Catherine brought back some lunch and after eating that we went down to the Big Red Box and cleared out all of our stuff. We then went back up to the room and squeezed all of our things into Ryan and Britney and two other bags we bought.

We then printed off all of our flight details and Paul realised that we hadn't had the usual flight confirmation through - he called Continental who said that we were not booked onto the flight because that card payment was still pending - Paul gave her the card number again and the lady said that we should get the confirmation via email shortly.

After that we took our faithful car back to the Alamo rental place and handed over the keys - we ended up paying an extra $500 than we were quoted because Catherine signed up to all of the extra insurance and everything else you could think of. Paul had a bit of a go at her and she replied 'Yeah but if we broke down we had roadside assistance paid for' Paul made the valid point that we didn't even have a number to cal if we did break down!

On that way back we stopped by Nike town and Paul bought a new iPod and got us both one of the Nike+ systems for when we get back. We then went to the cinema to see 'We Own The Night' it was quite good - as it was our last night and our keep fit regime is almost on us we had popcorn, sweets and pop! After the film we went into a bar that had loads of video games in - we had a drink and played a couple of games of darts on a machine that they had there. We then went back to the hotel and finished packing and Paul set up his iPod.

We realised that we still didn't have the tickets for the flight tomorrow. After speaking to a couple of people they assured us that even though we had not paid for the flight we would have seats saved for us - fingers crossed! We then went to bed ready for an early start tomorrow.

Got up and had room service breakfast. We then took the explosive box to be posted back home instead of risking getting it on the plane - we got a few funny looks from the man behind the counter when we walked in! The man weighed the box and told us it would cost us $70 to post the box - it only cost $20 to buy it! We paid then went back to the hotel to ask for directions for a good look out over the city. The receptionist showed us on a map where to go. We headed off in the Big Red Box. When we found it we took some photos and walked along the view point.

A small dog tried to trip Paul up while he was walking along and Catherine laughed. We could just about make out Mt. Rainer that is 14,000ft high (Despite its height Catherine struggled to see it!). We had an amazing view of the city and we took a few pictures. We then dropped the car back to the hotel and went shopping to buy Catherine the new Britney Album.

Catherine was very excited about buying it. She ran into the shop looking for it and Paul took photos of her buying it. We also went to Nike town and Paul bought a lovely woolly hat.

We then got a taxi to the Space Needle. We went up in the elevator at the Space Needle and looked out at the view over the city. It was a really clear day and the views were ace. Paul had to walk away while Catherine took some photos because he was enjoying being up so high!

We decided that as it was going to be one of our last nights we should treat ourselves and eat in the revolving restaurant that is on top of the Space Needle. The food was really excellent and we push the boat out and stuffed our faces! Again the views were excellent as the sun set over the city.
Paul found it funny putting stuff on the window ledge and watching it move as we revolved around. Most of the time Catherine managed to take the item off before it went past us. Paul did manage to get a salt cellar past her though and was laughing when he turned round and saw it moving past the couple on the table behind us!

Because we paid to go to the viewing platform you could get a $10 discount from the meal so we handed our tickets in to get the discount. We didn’t realise that they kept our ticket (which we were going to keep as a souvenir) so we explained why we wanted to keep it and asked for the ticket back and not to worry about the discount. The waitress went away and came back with the ticket and still let us have the discount because we were on our honeymoon!

After the meal we got on the metro back into the city centre - on the way we took some funny pictures of each other. When we got there we went to a shopping mall and then into a borders book shop. While in there Catherine overheard a man asking for the Britney album - they told him that they only had 1 left so she was happy that it was selling well!

We then went back to the hotel where Catherine opened up the Britney album. She put it on her ipod and listened to it while Paul watched the TV.

Woke up and got our stuff together. Catherine tried to connect to the internet again but with no success. So when we had filled up the car we and drove round to reception to check out, Catherine thought she would get a refund on the internet token. However the woman at check out claimed the internet worked and refused to give Catherine her $3 back. Catherine was not impressed told the woman it was unacceptable. The woman behind the desk still refused. Catherine went back out to the car and told Paul. He said lets try the internet again up here, maybe we were too far away from the router. The internet worked!

They surfed the internet for a while in the Big Red Box and then headed back on the road. As we were approaching Seattle Paul saw the Boeing factory. We decided to turn off and see if we could do a tour of it. Unfortunately there was only a gift shop and you could only do tours at the other Boeing factory. We bought some patches for our rucksacks. Then we carried on driving into Seattle. We found a hotel quite easily that looked ok so Paul went to see if we could get a room. He came back with keys to our room but he refused to tell Catherine how much it cost. The room was very nice making Catherine think it might have been expensive. Paul eventually told Catherine how much it was. He thought it was a good deal but Catherine didn't!

We then went for a walk to Pike Place market and walked around it. It smelt quite fishy (as you would expect). We saw them throwing fish and took some photos. We then tried to find the original Starbucks but couldn't see it. So we asked someone and they pointed us in the right direction. It was quite close to the Pike Place market. We went in and ordered two lattes and bought two coffee mugs. When we went to the counter to get our drinks the chap named two very obscure coffees. We said no, we just ordered two lattes. Not sure how the guy got it wrong. We eventually got our correct drinks and walked outside to take some photos. We had to wait a while, while annoying tourists (not us!) took their photos.

We then walked to the newsagents and read some English newspapers. The we walked to the army surplus shop. This was really good and we almost bought many things. Paul eventually settled on quite a big old ammo box that said explosive on it. Catherine kept pointing out to Paul that we could not take that back on the plane. Paul disagreed so we asked the guy at the counter. He said the ammo dust on the box might be picked up by the airports x-ray machines. Paul still bought the box and it was decided we would post it back home. We then walked back to the hotel Paul proudly carrying his Explosive box! Catherine laughed a lot and said to Paul maybe it would be best if he turned the explosive sign to face his body! We dropped the explosive box back at the hotel and then went across the road to the cinema that showed old films. It was going to be knocked down a few years ago but the co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, stepped in and bought it. We watched Blade Runner which was OK.

Woke up late - Paul phoned Continental to change our flights to one week earlier. We both had a shower then went out for a walk around Portland. It was a nice fresh day - luckily for Paul it wasn't too cold otherwise he would have frozen in his shorts and flip flops!

We had some food at McDonalds then walked down 5th Avenue where Catherine had researched that the shoe shop Aldo's was located on. First we went into Nike Town which Paul remembers visiting when he came to Portland in the early nineties. We then walked further down the road and went into a shopping mall which we went in. And there it was - Aldo's! We went in and Catherine finally bought the boots that she had been talking about for a week!

We then went into the Guess shop and tried on loads of stuff but only Paul got something. That was until the check out when Catherine saw a purse that she liked (after Paul has already paid) so we bought that too. We then went into a few more shops and Catherine got a dress for the bargain price of £5.

We then made our way back to the hotel and got our car. Eventually we found our way back on the freeway towards Seattle - on the way we stopped off for our (almost) daily dose of Subway. We decided that we would stop just outside of Seattle so we found a motel and checked in. Paul debated with petrol woman about driving licences - ours says 'driving licence' while theirs say 'drivers licence'. We bought a few beers after the debate and watched Boston Red Sox win the World Series.

Got up early and went and had breakfast in the restaurant next to the motel. We had learnt our lesson from last night and Catherine had brought some of our own tea bags to make a nice cup of tea!

Paul had bacon and eggs and Catherine had porridge which she thought was the most wonderful thing that she had tasted all holiday (she would be good with prison food!). After we ate we headed off towards Portland.

On the way we made a detour to try and find a restaurant that Paul went to when he came to America in the early nineties. It is called Woody's and it is in a place called Lincoln City which is a small seaside place. Paul was even wearing his t-shirt that he bought all of those years again with the restaurants logo on. When we arrived in Lincoln City we had a bit of a drive around and we couldn't see anything. We pulled into a hotel and Catherine went and asked the receptionist if she knew where it was. She had never heard of it and even checked in the phonebook but to no avail. We had a bit more of a drive around after but still couldn't see anything so we gave up the search.

We then headed to Portland. On the way we stopped off at a factory outlet mall which wasn't very good but we did have a really nice big ice cream each. We also went through a town called Corvallis where the University of Oregon is based. There was a college football game going on and there were loads of people heading to it dressed in orange and with flags out of their car windows. We also drove through where all of the fraternity houses were and they were all decorated as well. It reminded Paul of the film Animal House. Toga! Toga! Toga!

We stopped just before Portland and had food in a family Italian restaurant which was really nice. We then drove on and got to Portland. We drove up and down a few streets before we found a hotel which we checked into. It was a really nice room and we watched a few films before going to sleep.

We checked out of our hotel and headed off on the road again, continuing our drive through the Redwood National Park. We decided we wanted to go for a trek (we thought Chris would be proud of us) . We pulled in at the tourist information centre and as we walked up to the steps where the building was, Catherine and Paul started play fighting. But Catherine managed to get away from Paul and up the steps. She ran though the tourist information doors and got a strange look from the people behind the counter.

When the lady was free Catherine went and asked where they should walk. The lady pointed them further up the road a few miles. Catherine and Paul then walked out of the tourist information place and Paul chased Catherine again. Somehow Catherine made it into the car before Paul and locked him out. He managed to convince her to let him in. How could she resist those eyes?! They set off on the road again a little out of breath after playing.

As we drove towards the hike we saw a sign stating that there was a turning to take to watch wild deer roam so we followed the little road that it pointed to. We came to a spot with picnic tables but after waiting for a while no deer! Catherine got out to read her book. Paul thought he would close his eyes for a few minutes. But then a crazy man started shouting about random stuff. Catherine got scared and went back to the car. Paul hadn't noticed the crazy shouting. Catherine wanted to drive away but thought they should just stay and watch. Luckily the crazy man got into his truck and drove off. Phew!

We then drove to where the lady in the tourist office advised us to go. We parked up and put on our walking shoes (trainers!) and started walking along the trail. The route was really quiet and a little eerie at times. We only saw two other couples the whole time we were walking and we walked for a couple of hours. We took some photos as we walked. One with me hugging a big tree and one with Paul hugging a little tree. At one point we were unsure if the trail looped round as we first thought and wondered if we should turn back. Paul however was certain it did so we pressed on. After what felt like ages we the path met up with where we had started, Paul was right.

We changed our shoes and got back on the road in the Big Red Box. We did quite a bit of driving and at one point Catherine was very concerned we were about to run out of petrol. We were driving for ages and ages, even driving into the next state of Oregon, waiting for the next town to appear so we could get some juice for the Big Red Box. Paul unsurprisingly was not stressing. Eventually we came to a little petrol station/hut! Paul got annoyed at Catherine because she said to the woman they would put the cost of the petrol on a card. Paul thought that was unwise in such a hick town!

When the Big Red Box was full up we drove just a little further to the next town and checked into a motel. This time we were upstairs. The room was quite cold and we couldn't get any heat to come out of the air conditioning so we went to the restaurant next to the motel to warm up. We had some food and a cup of horrible tea! We should have brought our own. The we walked across the road to another petrol station and bought an ice cream each. We went back to the room and got under the covers and ate our ice cream. Paul fell asleep and Catherine read for a bit longer then went to sleep herself.