10in10

We arrived in Phoenix late in the afternoon. Our flight from Washington D.C. had a short stopover in Dallas which allowed us to grab some lunch. American Airlines only gives you a complimentary drink and no food. We wanted to buy food but all they had on offer was a cheese platter which really was one piece of cheese, a packet of crackers, some mixed nuts and dried fruit. Hence the need for some thing more substantial.

Our friend Jayme came and picked us up from the airport which was great. We had landed during peak hour so the trip to her and Ian's place took a little bit of time. When we got there we got to meet their pets. They have four dogs - Skip, Frankie, Bitty and Chloe - as well as two cats, Puddles and Misty.

We settled into our room and then headed out for some dinner. Ian was at work, so it was just the three of us. We both had been wanting some Mexican food so Jayme took us to a place not far away where we had a great meal. Ryan couldn't finish his, so he took the left overs home with him.

On Wednesday Ryan and Ian finally got to meet. Sharlene had already met Ian when he and Jayme came to Australia in 2007 to get married. Fortunately the two of them got along well! They took us to a Mexican market for lunch (Arizona and Mexico share a border, hence the Mexican influence in the state) where we had soft tacos. The market sold pretty much every thing you could want to buy, from groceries, to electronics goods, shoes and jewellery. It pretty much was a one stop shop! The thing Ryan most liked about the market was that they sold Mexican coca cola (coke). In America, coke is made with high fructose corn syrup which gives it a distinctly different taste to coke in Australia. And Ryan did not like the taste of American coke. Mexican coke on the other hand is made with sugar and therefore tasted great.

The next place we visited was See's "Famous Old Time" Candies which make assorted truffles, candies and just great tasting chocolates over all. We tasted a few and then filled up a pound box with various candies.

After this we headed "down town", effectively to the CBD of Phoenix. Due to building regulations there aren't many tall buildings in Phoenix, it has an even smaller skyline than Perth.

We stopped at an athletic store to see if Sharlene could find some runners, without any luck. Ryan almost burnt his hand opening the door because it had been in full sun and was extremely hot. We drove a bit more and stopped at Heritage Square. We went to an English pub for a couple of drinks. Ryan tried a local ale and Sharlene had some of the 250th anniversary Guiness which she preferred over the regular Guiness she had in Dublin. Before dinner we walked around the square looking at the various old buildings.

Dinner was at a well known Phoenix pizza restaurant. The restaurant had won many awards for their pizza. We had to wait a while for our table. You can not book in advance, you have to rock up, put your name on a list and then wait your turn. It was worth the wait. The pizzas we tried were great, made with local fresh ingredients and just yum. While we were there, one of the Phoenix Sun's basketball team members came in. None of us can tell you who he was, just that he was a player. We took our left over pizza and headed home.

We had a pretty easy start to Thursday. Just sleeping in and then watching some DVDs. Jayme took us to a local mall to see if we could get Sharlene some runners. Once again we didn't have much luck. Though we were able to buy the new Scooby Doo DVD which Sharlene was excited about. We also stopped in a game shop and picked up a couple of board games to bring back home with us. We went back to the house to pick Ian up for lunch and went to a place called Einstein's Bagels. Ryan tried a bagel dog and a brewed vanilla/hazelnut coffee. He liked them both. Sharlene had a bagel sandwich that she liked. She'd gotten accustomed to eating bagels and quite liked them, sweet or savoury.

A relaxing afternoon was called for because we were heading out to "The Melting Pot" for dinner. The restaurant is a fondue place and was fantastic. We started with a four cheese fondue with vegetables, bread and apple to dip in (and yes, Ryan even tried the apple in the cheese). Our waiter came and made the fondue in front of us. This was followed by our main, which was a selection of meats and vegetables and a coq au vin broth in which to cook them. Each piece of food took about 2 minutes to cook in the broth and you had two forks each, so it did take us a while to finish. The final course was dessert which was a caramel turtle fondue. This was a mixture of milk chocolate, pecans and caramel all melted together with bits of brownies, marshmallows, pound cake, cheese cake and strawberries to dip into it. We enjoyed all of it so much that we actually bought their cook book so that we could try it out again at home.

Friday the four of us went to play mini golf at Castles and Coasters. We played a total of 18 holes ... Sharlene won the first nine holes and Ryan the second nine holes and Ryan won overall. Ian was at a huge disadvantage because he always started the hole and some weren't as obvious as they seemed. He hit a ball up the ramp which in theory should have placed it in a good position on the other side, only to find out that the door at the top of the ramp was a piece of wood and the ball came straight back at him!

To cool down afterwards we went on the bumper boats and had a great time. Ryan got stuck under one of the fountains and got very wet! We got a bonus ride on the Indy 500 cars which Ian and Jayme decisively won. And to finish, we played a couple of old style arcade games one of which was Galaga (Sharlene's favourite!).

It was then time for some lunch and we went to a frozen custard place and had burgers and frozen custard.

Ian and Jayme dropped us off back at the house while they went and did some grocery shopping and picked up some items for the BBQ we were going to have that night. We went to their friend Dave's place for the BBQ because he also had a pool and didn't mind us coming around. His housemate Joe was there too. Other friends also stopped in during the night including Rob (who brought his dog Teddy) and Mike and Julie. We made use of the pool but took extra care when getting in since Dave had a dog called Wiley who thought you needed rescuing and would dive in after you trying to grab you with her teeth and drag you out. His other dog Max just wanted you to continually splash him (he couldn't go in the pool unlike Wiley who could swim, Max tended to just sink). After a great meal we went inside and played "The Beatles" Rock Band on the PlayStation. We had a lot of fun and didn't get home until quite early the next morning.

Once again we took the opportunity to sleep in on Saturday. We went to the mall for lunch with Jayme (Ian was still sleeping because he started work that night, he works from 6pm until 6am) who then left us to wander around the mall. We didn't buy much. Ryan finally found some slippers that he liked which were also machine washable, and an Arizona souvenir which was a shot glass with a skeleton in it with the slogan "...but it's a DRY heat!". Jayme picked us up later that afternoon and took us to an ice hockey game. The game is very similar to soccer in many ways with the exception that you are allowed, well really, expected, to get physical with the opposition. There were a couple of fights at various times during the games. We went a long time without either side scoring and then finally the Phoenix Coyotes scored. They ended up winning 2 - 0, which was good. On the way home we stopped in at another American icon, Taco Bell, for a quick and small dinner.

On Sunday we borrowed Jayme's car and went to Mass nearby. It was the first time Ryan got to drive in the U.S.A., though he had had practice driving on the wrong side of the road (well, compared to the side we would normally drive at home) in Canada. We came back from Mass and had some breakfast before going to the mall - this time Jayme took us to the one in Scottsdale. We had more success (if you call spending more money a success!) there. Sharlene bought herself a handbag and some shorts and Ryan picked himself up another pair of shoes. We had lunch at an asian place in the food hall called Panda Express where we each got a fortune cookie. Each of the fortune cookies implied that we should be wise with our money and spending!

On that note, we left the mall and headed to the Desert Botanical Gardens. There was a Monarch butterfly exhibition on there, which we went to. We sat in the tent and watched the butterflies, and it was also quite cool in there compared to outside. These are the butterflies that we had first learnt about when we stayed with Geoff and Nikki in Canada and then read some more about them in an article in one of the airline magazines. By the time we left the butterfly exhibition it had cooled down a bit and we walked around the rest of the gardens. We saw various geckos, rabbits, jack rabbits and quails, plus lots of cacti.

On the way home we stopped at a famous Pheonix hot dog stand. It sold Mexican hot dogs - the sausage was wrapped in bacon, and was served with a variety of condiments including beans, guacamole, sour cream and much more. They were delicious. We also had the bonus of being able to have some more Mexican coke too.

When we got home it was time to pack our cases again because tomorrow we were going to start our road trip to Las Vegas via the Grand Canyon!

We flew from Toronto to Washington via New York, as the Toronto leg was a return flight from New York that wasn't part of our round-the-world ticket. This made it quite a long day, so by the time we got settled in to our hotel, we really only had time for a quick dinner and then it was time for sleep.

Our first full day in Washington D.C. we walked around and had a look at many of the monuments - most of them to former presidents of the United States. On our way we passed the headquarters of the American Red Cross, which was right near our hotel on "E Street" (flashbacks to a really bad old Aussie soap... but most of the streets running horizontally were named after letters and then the vertical streets are numbered. For example, our hotel was near the corner of E Street NW and 21st St NW, the "NW" indicating the quadrant of the city the street was in).

We got our first good look at the Washington Monument, which was pretty much visible from just about anywhere in the city unless you were surrounded by tall buildings.

You can travel up the monument via elevator, but it was best to book for a timed ticket in advance for that (even though it was free) so we decided instead to make our way from there in a straight line towards the World War II Memorial and then along the reflecting pool towards the Lincoln Memorial. All of these monuments, and indeed the U.S. Capitol building as well, all line up in a straight line.

The World War II Memorial is a beautifully designed area that honours the 16 million U.S. citizens who served in the war and the more than 400,000 who died. With fountains and curved walkways and different arches and areas to honour those serving in different parts of the world, it had a very respectful, yet not overly sombre feel. While we were there, we noticed quite a few elderly men wearing hats that signified that they were a war veteren, and every now and then a current, young member of the military would encounter them and would verbally honour them, thanking them for their service. The reverse would also happen, with older members thanking the younger members for their current service.

We then moved from the memorial along the reflecting pool towards the famous Lincoln Memorial, taking pictures forwards and backwards as we went.

The Lincoln Memorial is rather impressive and iconic. The statue is also really quite large. There is quite a lot of history to the place as well, including the famous "I have a dream" speech that was delivered there by Martin Luther King Jr. The museum below the monument shows many of the facts and events surrounding the monument, and that was also a very interesting visit.

We then made our way from there around to the monument made to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was the president throughout most of World War II. This was less like a traditional monument as it was outdoors and consisted of a set of gardens, waterfalls and sculptures. One interesting fact that we found out after overhearing a tour guide speaking about it was that Roosevelt, although crippled from the waste down by polio since his late thirties, never appeared in public in his wheelchair. As a monument to this, one of the statues showed him seated on a chair not far from his dog ("Fala"), with only a very tiny bit of the wheels on the chair visible at the very back, the rest being covered in clothing or other material.

After spending a bit of time there, we set off walking along the bank of the Tidal Basin towards the Jefferson Memorial. On the way, we got a great view of the memorial reflecting in the water as well as the Washington Monument reflecting as well. And some local wildlife!

We then visited the inside of the Jefferson Memorial, before grabbing some lunch and then going on towards the Whitehouse, taking photos of the monuments and places again along the way, including the Washington Monument again (as it was really in the middle of things and so we would pass it regularly!)

We then went as close as we could get to the front side of the Whitehouse, where there were many other people there taking photos and doing sightseeing as well.

They also have there the "zero milestone", from which all distances in Washington D.C. are measured from. The milestone itself has been there since 1923.

We continued on to the Whitehouse visitors' centre, where we read through some interesting points about its history.

We then continued on to have a look at the Whitehouse from the back. Here though, it was a much different atmosphere, as the streets were dominated by people protesting about a wide variety of different issues. One which stood out was a hunger strike protesting against the government's tolerance of the treatment of Iranian refugees by Iraqi security forces in Camp Ashraf in the north of Iraq.

From there, we went and visited the Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. We had a brief look through the many paintings and sculptures before visiting the shop to purchase a few items.

We then walked across the street to a place called Caribou Coffee for a drink, some cake and a "Graham cracker". We then finally made our way back to the hotel, through a nearby park, before going out to dinner at a place called the "M Street Bar & Grill" (in "M Street", funnily enough) where we enjoyed an exceptional meal.

The next day we headed out to have a look at some of the other memorials around the centre of D.C. These included the Vietnam War Memorial, the Women's War Memorial and the memorial to the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. The Vietnam War Memorial was particularly well done, and we were both taken aback at just how big the death toll was from the war, 58,261 American soldiers. Of course, that's ignoring the 4-5 million Vietnamese and other Asian casualties from both sides...

Then, we walked again past the Washington Monument (!) towards the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. We spent more than three hours there, and that was trying to do it quickly. It was an impressively structured museum that was interesting, shocking and humbling. It also focused for part of it on the rise of the Nazi regime and all the factors that led up to the war and to Hitler's control. A must to put into your visit if you ever make it to Washington. The only place we were allowed to take photos was in the Hall of Remembrance, which contains an eternal flame resting upon a marble block which contains dirt from 38 of the concentration camps that were in Europe. The hall is where the residing U.S. president makes his speech from during their annual visit to the museum on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

As we'd not had time to grab lunch yet since the museum took longer than we'd anticipated, we grabbed some hot dogs from a nearby hot dog cart vendor (and they were really nice!) and made our way towards where we would be going to mass, which was at the Cathedral of St. Matthew. Unbeknownst to us at the time, this was actually the cathedral where the requiem mass for John F. Kennedy was held after his assassination.

After mass we had a nice dinner nearby and then walked back to our hotel, noticing that the Washington Monument had little red "eyes" that flashed on and off at night.

The next day, we finally actually got to go up the much-viewed-and-photographed-so-far Washington Monument. It was a little disappointing however to find that our "timed 10:00am" ticket was actually a "10:00-10:30am time period ticket" and we had to join the "10:00am queue" to wait our turn. They were a little behind in getting people through, so it was about 10:40am before we finally got up there, which meant we had to postpone our tour of the U.S. Capitol for that day and hope that we could do it the next morning before our flight. Up there though there were great views of Washington, so we got to see many of the monuments and places that we had visited from a slightly different angle.

Then it was time to visit Washington Zoo, which Sharlene in particular was keen on visiting due to the fact that they had pandas! The zoo had received these two giant pandas on loan from China in order to try and help breed them in captivity and help save this endangered species. After much research and failed attempts, the female finally fell pregnant and then gave birth in July of 2005. So they currently have three pandas at the zoo. Sharlene was very excited to see them ... almost as excited as when we spotted the first giraffe on the safari!

Of course, there were many other things to see at their zoo ... orangoutangs, lions, tigers, lizards, turtles, seals, eagles ... and much more. It was a happy surprise for Ryan to see meerkats there, as he hadn't seen any on safari (it wasn't particularly the area for meerkats).

We also saw a different kind of panda, the Red Panda, which is smaller and almost looks like an orange raccoon. It is much more active than the giant panda and fun to watch.

Another thing we didn't get to see on safari was a cheetah. So it was great to be able to see them, although of course not in full flight. But it was interesting to get an idea of just how far a cheetah can travel in one second at full speed (see below, from the camera to where Sharlene is standing!)

We took the subway back to our hotel, encountering the longest escalator we'd ever seen on the way ...

and then had dinner at our hotel before packing our suitcases and then going to bed.

The next morning, we managed to squeeze in a tour of the U.S. Capitol building, although we left our walk there a little late and so it became a "run" instead.

After watching a short film on the history of the building, we started off in the interior of the Capitol dome, which is not only the central feature of the building but also the point which splits the building into its two areas (one for the Senate and one for the House of Representatives) and the city into its four quadrants (NW, NE, SW and SE) so that all roads around D.C. also have indicated which quadrant of the city they are in. It is also where many past presidents (eleven, to be exact) have lain in state before their funerals, along with a small number of others who have also been given the privilege, one of the most recent being civil rights icon Rosa Parks upon her passing in 2005. There are many paintings and statues here including that on the inside of the dome of George Washington, a painting on the Declaration of Independence and a statue of Martin Luther King Jr.

Then we visited many other rooms, including the old Hall of the House, which housed the U.S. House of Representatives for 50 years, and due to the half-dome shape it produces a "whispering" effect where if you are in one area of the room and you are barely whispering, people in another particular area of the room can still hear you quite clearly. The room is now called the National Statuary Hall, as it houses many of the statues donated by each of the U.S. states for display in the Capitol.

In another room we were shown a famous bust of Abraham Lincoln done over 100 years ago, where the left ear and side of the head was deliberately not fully complete. This was supposedly a statement by the sculptor to emphasise how Lincoln's work had not been completed due to his life being cut short.

One of the last things we saw there on our way out was a plaque which had only been unveiled less than two weeks earlier that honoured the passengers of United Flight 93 who revolted against the hijackers on September 11, 2001 to help bring down the plane in a field in Pennsylvania instead of it reaching its intended target, which was quite possibly the U.S. Capitol building.

After our tour, we visited the gift shop (as we learnt many times on our holiday, "every tour and exhibition ends at a gift shop!") and bought a piece of the old U.S. Capitol building as a souvenir before heading back to our hotel for our flight to Phoenix, Arizona.

We arrived in Toronto from New York and caught a taxi to our hotel where we were staying just for the one night before we were to move further out of Toronto to stay with friends, as Ryan was going to attend a concert in the city that night. We visited the nearby mall for something to do before going back to the hotel for dinner.

After a quick dinner, Ryan left Sharlene at the hotel to catch a taxi into the city to the "Opera House" to see Alice In Chains perform live. A smaller venue than it sounds, the place was packed with only around 600 people able to get in, with many people loitering outside asking people lining up whether they had spare tickets to sell (or whether they wanted to sell their own, which Ryan was asked).

After disbanding in 2002 after the death of lead singer Layne Staley, Alice in Chains had reformed in 2006 with singer William DuVall to do a reunion tour with the purpose of playing just their old material. But they had now produced an album that was to come out in a few weeks and were touring to promote it. The concert was certainly not short of old hits though, as they only played three songs from their new album. Ryan was very pleased to be able to have this opportunity to see them in concert, as he had not seen them live before (not even with the original singer). They were even better than he expected as a live band. He wasn't allowed to take a camera in for obvious reasons, but below are some shots of the concert from a news article and their Facebook group. Ryan is probably in the second shot somewhere, but possibly obscured by the lead singer's elbow or something, as that's about where he was standing.

The next day, we checked out of our hotel at noon and headed off to a nearby plaza where we were to meet up with Geoff. Geoff is married to Nikki who Sharlene knew in Perth before she moved to Canada, and it was at their home that we would be staying for the next two nights. We got to the plaza and had lunch at a place called the "Rainforest Cafe", an aptly named themed restaurant chain where you are surrounded by aquariums, animatronic beasts and greenery. We were also warned by our waitress about the periodic thunderstorms! Every now and then, the lights would flash and the thunder would sound for a simulated thunderstorm right inside the restaurant. Not only was it quite a novel experience, but the food was really nice - as well as the special raspberry-flavoured lemonade that we had.

As we were running a bit late, Sharlene had to keep checking the foyer of the plaza to see if Geoff was waiting for us. She found him right on time, and he joined us while we finished our lunch. He then drove us back to their place in Georgetown, which is about 45 minutes out of Toronto.

Geoff and Nikki have two children, Abbey and Eddie, and a dog called Winnie. It was great for Sharlene to catch up with them and to be able to formerly introduce Ryan, although with only two days there it wasn't nearly enough time for a proper catch up - but it was certainly better than nothing!

Upon arrival we sat out in their lovely backyard for a while with a drink, watching the kids playing on the trampoline and the swings. We then had a bit of a tour of their house, including seeing the little caterpillar enclosure Geoff had in his office, where they would eventually turn into Monarch butterflies. These kind of butterflies have been and continue to be widely studied for their interesting migration patterns. It takes four generations for the Monarchs to migrate from Canada, down to central America (mainly Mexico) and back again. Geoff and the family are helping in a program to track the migration of the species. Before releasing the butterflies, they will affix tiny stickers onto their wings to aid the tracking of the migration patterns.

After a lovely home-cooked early dinner of BBQ chicken, salad, grilled vegetables, macaroni cheese and more, we walked downtown and had a look around the shops there. We stopped at a candy store and tried some different flavours of turkish delight and bought a few other things as well. After sampling these sitting at the tables and chairs outside the shop, we returned home and chatted with Nikki and Geoff for a while over a supper of Thai food before going to bed. They also got out the maps and showed us how to get where we were going the next day, and Geoff gave Ryan a test drive of the car they'd be using to get there.

The next morning we were up earlyish and away mid-morning towards our destination for the day - Niagra Falls. Other than the short test drive the night before, this was Ryan's first experience driving on the right (i.e. "wrong"!) side of the road (and of driving overseas, for that matter). But it was a less scary experience than anticipated. The drive to the Falls took around about an hour and a half. Entrance to the area is free, but parking was rather expensive!

The first thing which struck us when we got there is the mist. The area of the Falls which we approached (the Canadian Falls) was extremely impressive and quite high, but the mist caused by the splash rose twice as high as the Falls themselves, and if the wind was blowing the right way it was like it was raining and you had to duck under cover to avoid getting too wet. The fact that so much water comes from such a wide area and then all condenses into a smaller U-shaped area to fall down means that such a great amount of water falls in such a small area, creating this impressive result. The American Falls, a short distance down the river, is probably about half to three-quarters the size in terms of the ridge-length, but the Canadian Falls have nine times the volume of water falling down it compared to the American Falls. The river itself is the border between America and Canada, and I think Americans are quite jealous they don't have the better part of Niagra Falls (or view, for that matter!) It was also pretty cool to be able to look across to the other side and clearly see people within shouting distance that were in another country. Neither of us had really had that experience before!

We bought a ticket which got us into four of the main attractions at the Falls. The first one we did was a "4D" experience, where we put on 3D glasses and watched a short film about Niagra Falls and how they formed (using animal characters to explain along the way) before going into an area with a 360 degree screen and a moving platform which simulated some of the conditions around the falls and during its formation. We then went down some tunnels which took us behind the falls, where we could stand near big portholes they had cut so you could see the water falling down from behind the falls and feel some of the spray from it. There were also plenty of informative signs and placards detailing information about the Falls and about people who had done daredevil stunts and so forth.

Then, we took a short bus trip up a bit away from the main Falls to the area where the boat took off for the "Maid Of The Mist". These boats have been running since 1955 to take people for a closer experience of the Falls (and some other incarnations go right back as early as 1846), taking them right up close to where the water is pounding into the river where you really get sprayed with more than just mist! (And where you are thankful for the blue disposable raincoats they give you!) It was quite an experience to see the Canadian Falls in all its might from the bottom looking upwards. Truly a worthwhile experience.

We went back and had some lunch back at a restaurant overlooking the Canadian Falls, and then returned closer to where we'd taken the boat ride to take a walk along a path which took us a little further down the river where we could see the Class 6 rapids that were generated by the rush of water coming down from the Falls. We spent a little bit of time there before making our way back and doing a little bit of souvenir shopping before heading back to Geoff and Nikki's place. All up, we were there around 6 hours.

After filling up the car with petrol and returning it back to Geoff and Nikki, they provided us with dinner and we had a good chat with them before going to bed for a well earned rest. The next morning, it was up early to get ready to leave Canada. We thanked Geoff and Nikki very much for their hospitality, and then Geoff drove us to the airport for our flight to Washington.

We arrived in New York on Thursday and were surprised that out of all the cities we'd flown in and out of, some of the best views from the plane we got coming in to New York.

It was a very overcast though once we had landed and got our luggage. We grabbed a cab to take us to our hotel in Manhattan. Sharlene asked the driver if there was any rain forecast and he said, nope, just cloudy skies. It took about an hour in traffic to get to the hotel, but fortunately it wasn't a metered fare, it was just a fixed rate from JFK airport to Manhattan.

After settling into the hotel we went in search of dinner. We found a nice Irish pub not far from the hotel and had a very nice dinner. Unfortunately the dinner did not agree very well with Sharlene (or that well with Ryan either) and she was rather ill afterwards.

With Sharlene still not feeling the best on Friday we didn't venture too far from the hotel. We had a late breakfast at the hotel and then stepped outside to go explore, only to step right back in side. It was raining, not just a light drizzle, but full-on torrential rain. Not to mention the wind which was also quite strong. We decided to stay inside for a while longer. Much later in the morning we decided to try and venture out. It was still windy and rainy, but nothing like before. We looked at a few of the shops within walking distance of the hotel. Sharlene was well enough to buy herself a new bag and a pair of shoes! After a short stop at the hotel again, we headed out towards the site of the World Trade Centre (WTC), as it was the 8th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks that day. We went to catch the metro. We were rather experienced metro travellers by now, but weren't quite prepared for New York. We were so used to being fed all the information we needed by the lovely monitors on the platforms. This feature was distinctly lacking in the New York subway. It was also steaming hot in their subways and there seemed to be a lack of fresh air which gave it a really stifling atmosphere all-round. Eventually we found the subway and the place to buy tickets (Grand Central has the subway as well as above ground lines and you needed different tickets). We tried to buy our tickets using credit card but they required we enter our zip code before processing the request. They didn't like our Perth postcode! (We discovered a work around later in our stay, we found an ad on one of our maps which had a zip code and we used that!) We made it to the site to see that the memorial was only open to family that day. We walked around a little and saw the progress that they had made with building of the new WTC.

Wherever we walked that day in New York, all the roads were paved with broken umbrellas that failed to withstand the rain or the wind - they were everywhere... along with people selling new umbrellas on every other street corner!

Friday night we had booked to go see a show off Broadway called "Altar Boyz" recommended to us by some friends which was a comic musical about a Christian boy band. It was very well done and had us in stitches at various times. We'd recommend it if you ever come to NY or if you see the show playing anywhere else.

Dinner was at a restaurant on Broadway, just up from Times Square. The serving sizes here are enormous, for both food and drinks!

The weather wasn't much better on the Saturday, The rain had significantly delayed the US Tennis Open which we were here to see. There was very little play on the Friday and Saturday was a total wipe out. We decided it was a good day to do some walking around and window shopping on 5th Avenue. Meanwhile we encountered a little entertainment with a huge well-organised rally/parade cenered around the proposed health-care reforms in the US.

We then went and had a look at Times Square during the day. We also went to Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral that night. It was good to attend a Mass in English for a change! At one stage it looked like the Mass was going to be in Latin, but that was the 10:15am Mass on the Sunday. After Mass had finished, we had a look around the cathedral at the various paintings and statues they had there.

We then had a great dinner at "Ruby Tuesdays" in Times Square where Sharlene tried root beer for the first time and quite liked it. It turned out to be by far our best meal of our stay in New York. It was actually hard to move around the area that day though because there was lots of activity in setting up for the MTV music awards which were to be held there the following night.

Sunday arrived a lot clearer and brighter and much better for sight seeing. We were supposed to go the finals of the Men's Singles tennis at the US Open on this day, but it had been rescheduled for tomorrow (Monday). Fortunately we had planned ahead and booked our tickets to fly to Toronto (Canada) on the Tuesday and not the Monday on the off chance that there was a rain delay. So we went out and had some breakfast before getting ready to go out and do a little sightseeing and see if we could see a show on Broadway. Upon stepping outside, we discovered a big street market that lasted for about four or five blocks which had been set up for the morning right outside our hotel. So we spent quite a while wandering around the markets looking at what they had to offer. There was everything from clothing and jewelery to pretzel and corn dog stands, however nothing really caught our attention enough to want to buy anything, so we eventually continued on our journey.

We went up the Rockefeller Tower and had a great view over Manhattan. We got to see just how big Central Park was and also saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time, albeit off in the distance. We also had great views of the Empire State building from there, which was one of the reasons we decided to go up the Rockefeller instead of the Empire State itself (the other being the ridiculous queues we'd been warned of for the Empire State building).

Afterwards we went to Times Square and bought tickets for the Broadway show "Next to Normal" before heading to Central Park. There was also a live show happening at Times Square, and various performers from the Broadway shows were performing numbers from their show. We didn't have a lot of time before the start of the show so we opted to take a tour of Central Park with one of the guys cycling a two-person cart (or "pedicab" as they're sometimes called). It was so much fun and we covered the ground so much faster. Our guide Giovanny was great at telling us about the history of the park, the various statues and bridges and where certain films were shot in the park. We were rather impressed with his ability to talk non-stop about all the things in the park and buildings surrounding the park, all while sometimes puffing while having to ride our cart uphill while we sat in the back comfortably in the shade. He made stops every now and then for us to get off and take photos of some of the more notable landmarks of the park, including the Bethesda Fountain (or "Angel of the Waters") and the area named "Strawberry Fields" in tribute to John Lennon who lived just across the road from Central Park with Yoko Ono for many years until his assassination outside their front door in 1980. There was also a popular lake for romantic boat rides (and proposals, apparently!) and a 1925 statue of a famous dog called "Balto" who helped deliver a serum in record time to treat an outbreak of diphtheria in Alaska that same year. We also saw a few kids skating around the park as well, one of whom managed to steal an assisted ride with us for a good minute or so before our guide finally discovered what was making his pedalling a little more difficult than he was expecting!

It was a bit of a mad dash to make it to the theatre in time for the show, but with some power (and jay) walking we made it with a few minutes to spare. The show was fantastic and we even got to meet some of the stars afterwards. Two of them signed the cast recording CD that Sharlene had bought.

Dinner was at Planet Hollywood before catching the metro to Battery Park. We decided not to catch the ferry to Staten Island and saw the Statue of Liberty once again from the shore (in the distance) before heading back to the hotel. We had a big day of tennis ahead of us tomorrow.

We took off fairly early for our trip to Flushing Meadows to see the U.S. Open final, as we were a bit nervous about the tickets we had acquired (they were resold tickets via an online broker, and they were just printouts as opposed to "hard" tickets) so we wanted to make sure we got in early and got settled, just in case there were multiple copies of "our" tickets floating around. Luckily, we had no problems with that in the end. After catching the subway there and then waiting in line for a little bit for the doors to open, where we found ourselves chatting with an older couple from Melbourne that we happened to get talking with, we got let into the grounds and had a look around at some of the stores and had some overpriced (but not too much so, surprisingly) food from the food stores there. It was nice to wander around the grounds before it got a lot busier, as we got there when the gates opened (11am) whereas it was still another two hours before any tennis would be played.

We bought a bit of merchandise, had our photo taken with a tennis-themed Lexus and then headed up to our seats once they opened up the main stadium around 12pm. We were quite happy with our seats... we didn't need oxygen masks like we had thought we might.

People started to trickle in after that, but even by the time the Women's Doubles final had begun, the stands were only about 10% full, if that. We suspected that the delay of this session from the Sunday to the Monday had quite a bit impact on the crowds, as some people would probably not have had the chance to change their work or travel plans.

The Women's Doubles final was between first seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber and fourth seeds Venus and Serena Williams. We were hoping for a good contest, but surprisingly the Williams sisters won easily 6-2 6-2. Their powerful hitting seemed to be too much for the number one doubles pairing and they collapsed under the pressure and made quite a few unforced errors. Serena also seemed to be spurred on quite a bit by the events of the days past (search for "Serena u.s. open controversy" on Google if you don't know what we're talking about) and was murdering everything in sight. In the after-match interviews though, John McEnroe was uncharacteristically annoying in pushing the issue in trying to get Serena to comment on the "controversy" to the extent that the crowd were booing and siding with Serena to get him to leave the issue alone.

After about an hour's break, it was time for the main event - the Men's Singles final. We were still, however, surprised at the number of empty seats around ... the stadium was only around half full at the beginning of the match, and maybe only 75% full by the end. With Roger Federer's dominating record (winning the last five U.S. open titles, a 40-match winning streak at Flushing Meadows) we were not expecting a tough challenge for him with 20-year-old sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro making it into the final (with no grand slam final appearances and a 0-6 record against Federer).

And the first set proved us right. He was noticeably nervous during the first few games, but managed to overcome the sense of occasion remarkably quickly to gain his composure and play some good shots - but the recovery was too late and he lost the first set 6-3 to a composed and controlled Federer. However, we were happy to see that the newcomer was going to make a game of it when he managed to win the second set in a close tiebreaker after some very close line calls, challenges and crowd noise got Federer rattled, which was quite unusual. Seeing him sitting in his chair at the changeover and swearing at the umpire during a heated discussion was not the composed image we were used to seeing. After getting back on track to win the next set 6-4, Del Potro survived being 4-5 and 15-30 down on his serve (two points away from giving Federer the match) to go on to win another nail-biting tie-breaker to take the fourth set and push the final into a fifth and deciding set, which had not happened at the open since 1999 (where Andre Agassi defeated Todd Martin, the same tournament where a 17-year-old Serena Williams won her first grand slam title).

We now knew we really had a match on our hands. Federer was definitely not at his best, serving an unusual amount of double faults and having to put up with the crowd being against him (mainly just because the crowd wanted Del Potro to fight and make a good match of it, we think). Del Potro, on the other hand, was putting his faith in his powerful forehands and drawing energy from the crowd. We still thought that Federer would step up and rescue himself from defeat like he so often did in these situations, but to our surprise, the Argentinian cruised to a 6-2 victory in the deciding set to win his first ever grand slam title, end Federer's winning streak, and become only the second person to ever beat Federer in a grand slam final (after Rafael Nadal, who Del Potro had thrashed the day before). Upon the moment of his victory, Del Potro dropped to the ground on his back and soaked in the moment before going to shake hands with a player he clearly looked up to and admired (which he alluded to in his speech, saying he had fulfilled one of his dreams by beating Federer, but had a long way to go to fulfill his other dream, which was to be like him). We felt so privileged to have been able to attend what in the end was quite an historic match, and a very entertaining day's tennis.

We made our way back to the hotel, had a good night's sleep, and then the next day packed our bags and headed off towards our next destination, Toronto.

We arrived in Paris, well at least the airport late in the evening. We got our luggage and then went to meet the driver who would be taking us to our hotel. We found him and he said he was waiting for another couple. We waited 45 minutes before he phoned head office and told them we'd been waiting, but the other people couldn't be found and so he took us to our hotel. Our hotel was centrally located and only a short walk from most things. By the time we got there it was about 8:45pm, about 12 hours since we'd been dropped off at the airport in Ibiza. We had a short stroll around the neighbourhood before finding some where to eat and going back to the hotel.

The next day was Sunday and we were off to mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. It was about a five minute walk from our hotel. When we got there mass was finishing but fortunately they have masses quite frequently and the next one was at 11:30am. We had a look around the outside of the church and some of the tourist shops nearby. Sharlene grabbed a croissant for breakfast and Ryan a hot dog (which looked a little weird but tasted great).

The 11:30am mass was an international mass. Many of the parts were sung, some were in English and the rest was in French. It was relatively easy to follow along as they gave out a sheet of paper with most of the information on it. They did do the sign of peace during mass and we shook hands with the other people around us. One of the tourist "scams" was quite prominent at the square outside the cathedral. Someone would walk up and ask if you spoke English. If you said yes, they'd then show you this card and it had their name and where they were from and a story, all to elicit money.

Unfortunately Ryan wasn't feeling too well that day so we went back to the hotel for him to rest and recover. Later that afternoon we went for a stroll, stopping off for a quick afternoon snack, heading in the direction of the Louvre. On the way we saw a group of street performers showing off their basketball and soccer skills, which was very entertaining. We had not planned on walking to the Louvre, but we didn't really notice the time or the distance as we wandered around the streets.

After looking at the square and seeing the well recognised pyramids we walked along the Seine River back towards our hotel. We encountered a street market and looked at many of the stalls, buying a couple of paintings of the Eiffel Tower and also Notre Dame Cathedral. Dinner that night was in a traditional restaurant. Food and drinks in Paris are quite expensive. It is cheaper to drink wine than it is to drink Coca Cola or any other type of soft drink. Unfortunately neither of us really drink wine so opted to pay the extra for the soft drink.

Ryan was feeling much better on the Monday so we ventured out on to the streets of Paris. We went to a post office to send our paintings back home. The GPO in Paris is open 24 hours a day so we headed there. However, the GPO was shut for renovations and we weren't able to post the item. Fortunately this lady was able to give us directions in French which Sharlene kind of understood (mainly because of the hand gesturing that went along with them) and we found another one a short distance away. Following this we had to go buy yet another SD card for the camera because we had finished the last one yesterday (Ryan even had to delete some photos and videos to make room for the pictures he wanted to take that day). Eventually we found "Forum des Halles". We say eventually, because the shopping centre is actually underground. We followed the signs but then they stopped. It wasn't quite obvious to us that we had to go down the escalator to find the shops, we had assumed that the escalator was for the metro!

After purchasing another 8 Gb memory card it was time for some lunch. We found this waffle place that did savoury waffles. It sounds weird but they were delicious! Ryan had the "Waf Burger" which is a bit like a cheeseburger but as a waffle. He also had a waffle on a stick - a sweet waffle that was dipped in chocolate.

There was a flea market in one of the outer areas of Paris that we decided to go and see. We caught the metro there which was OK. We are getting used to navigating the various lines and changes needed to get places in Europe. We came across these people selling things along side the road, a bit like the Rotary Swap meet which happens in Perth on Sundays. It wasn't exactly what we imagined and it wasn't exactly where the map said it should be, so we wandered a bit further and found the real thing. There a number of stalls selling shoes, dresses, belts, jewellery, souvenirs, bric a brac, car headlights and much much more! We wandered around for a while. We think there are laws in Paris not allowing the sale of imitation items, like designer shirts, belts etc. though we were approached as we were walking by people hawking these items. When we left the markets, there were more people along the side of the road which we first passed, they were openly selling belts (D&G, Yves St Laurant, Diesel etc) and even more people selling pirate DVDs.

We headed back to the hotel for a quick recharge. Sharlene bought herself a piece of flan (pronounced "flahn", we think ... at least that's what we kept calling it for the rest of the trip!) from one of the local patisseries. She had one bite and thought she'd gone to heaven. It was so delicious!

To walk the flan off, we headed towards the Arc de Triumph. We were going to catch the metro there but ended up just strolling our way to it. We saw it just before the sun was setting and decided to have some dinner before climbing the steps to the top. The walk up the arch wasn't very difficult, just a little dizzying because most of it was a spiral straight up. The views from the top were fantastic. We spent some time up there before heading back down. While we were still at the bottom of the arch, the Eiffel Tower began to glisten. On the hour in the evenings, the tower lights up and sparkles. It is really beautiful. We then decided we'd had enough exercise for the day and took the metro back to our hotel.

After a late start to the day we headed to Notre Dame to do the tower climb. The line when we got there was very long and in the full sun. We decided not to worry about it that day, so instead we took the opportunity to get some happy snaps of the exact centre of Paris ("point zero"), a star in the courtyard outside the cathedral. After that, we headed across the bridge and wandered around the Latin quarter of Paris before deciding to go to the Eiffel Tower.

We approached the tower from a park on the south west and it was a magnificent sight when it came into full view. When we got to the base of the tower the queues were quite long, except for the "stairs" option. We were considering doing the stair climb but decided we needed some nourishment first. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then reassessed the situation. The lines for the lifts had dramatically decreased at the west tower so we decided we'd do that instead (Ryan still wasn't a 100% and we didn't want to set back his recovery by over-doing it). When we'd bought the ticket on the ground they said the top was closed, but we thought we'd still go up to the second level anyway. Once we got to the second level, it turned out you could buy tickets to get to the very top, so we did. From the time we joined the queue at the bottom of the tower to the time we got to the top of the tower an hour had passed. This was quite fast, actually! The views from the very top were spectacular. It was a contrasting view from the one we'd had the night before, as we were able to see things in daylight, including the whole of the Arc de Triumph.

While we were up there, we saw this guy propose to his girlfriend. We assume she said yes because he put the ring on her finger. He looked happy, it was hard to tell how she was feeling, other than embarrassed by all the people watching and then applauding.

After the Eiffel Tower we did some souvenir shopping before grabbing dinner at a local bar. Sharlene didn't like her dinner. The sausage was like nothing she'd ever tasted before and hopes never to taste again. Ryan's dinner was good. The sorbet afterwards was yum.

Our last day in Paris saw us up early and heading towards Notre Dame Cathedral to see if we could climb the towers. The line wasn't as long as the previous time and it was an overcast day so it wouldn't be too hot. While we were in line we amazingly spotted one of our friends from Perth, Leesa Frawley! We knew she was coming to Paris but weren't sure when and didn't think we'd be there the same time as her, especially when we'd only just seen photos of her on Facebook at mutual friends' wedding in Perth which was four days prior! We caught up briefly and had photos taken before she rejoined her tour group to have a look around inside the cathedral.

Sharlene went and did a short survey of people in the line to see when they got here and how far they'd moved in the line. The results weren't looking good, it might have been at least an hour if not more. We decided that we'd skip the towers this time (save it for our next visit!) and went inside to have a look at the cathedral because we didn't do that on Sunday due to the back to back masses.

The next stop was the Louvre. We pre-bought our tickets at the Fnac store at Forum des Halles (now that we knew where it was!) to save on the queues at the museum. We had to pay extra for the privilege (this wasn't mentioned on the Louvre's website when we looked up where to get tickets). After a quick lunch at "Quick", a French fast food burger chain (we saw lots of them in various places in Paris), we headed to the Louvre where we spent the next three hours looking at all the amazing works of art, including the Mona Lisa and the statue Venus de Milo.

Once we'd finished there we headed to the Palais de Tokyo, which is a modern art museum. They had a special exhibition on photos taken in space. We got to see pictures that various astronauts and probes had taken while they were on the moon and in orbit around earth. There was one of an earth eclipse, where earth was blocking the sun, and there was one of earth rising. It was very interesting.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped to buy Sharlene more flan (she had acquired a taste for it!) However, the usual shop only had coconut or chocolate flan, not the natural one. She was rather disappointed and chose a tarte citron instead. This went into the hotel fridge for dessert after dinner at a local cafe. On the way back to our hotel we encountered an open air market which had sprung up temporarily just across the street from our hotel, so we wandered around there for a bit and bought a dress and a blouse for Sharlene. We split the tarte when we came back from dinner (and after we had packed our suitcases since tomorrow we were off to New York!) The tarte citron was nice, but it was no match for the "flahn". The next morning we were up early and off to leave the continent and take our flight to New York.