After a very long and boring 6 hour drive we arrived at Alicia and Matthew's house in Geneva, Chicago on Sunday 27th February. Their house was a big beautiful home in suburbia; it felt like we were actually in Wisteria Lane.We were given a warm welcome with wine, light snacks, a hot fire, and they fussed over us which was nice and no one has done that to us in a long while. We were also given a tour of their beautiful home, and shown to our SEPARATE bedrooms, for the 1st time in 4 months we were sleeping in different rooms. They cooked us lasagne and we sat at the fancy dining table, it was so good to have a home cooked meal and to have new people to talk to. After dinner we were plied with lots of wine and nibbles and enjoyed the Oscars on the big pop out TV in front of the fire.

Monday, we had a well needed lie in, in our own bedrooms, we felt like we were being spoilt with such a luxury. We chilled out in the house, did our washing and I had some much needed sofa time in front of trashy daytime TV. To get out of the house, we went to the local shops, which were a mini mall, where I bought some much discounted Hollister clothes; we knew we were in a swanky area because their estate had their own mall. For dinner Matthew made us Chilli and Mac, which was an odd combination for us, but it was very tasty. We spent the evening with Matthew chatting and watching TV until Alicia came home from her meeting.

Tuesday 1st March, Alicia had taken the day off work to spend a day with us in the city. We thought it was Pancake Day, so we woke up nice and early and Alicia made us some American pancakes with strawberries and cream for breakfast. We caught the double decker train into the city, it took about an hour and half so it was a good time for a good chat. The first stop of the day was the Art institute Via the Baseball bat statute. The Art Institute was huge, it had so many different genres of art housed there, we took the audio tour around the museum, the institute had a large collection of famous art, some of the highlights were Alicia's favourite Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Matisse's Bathers by a River, Water Lily Pond by Monet and there was a lot of Picasso's works there as well. After a couple of hours of being cultured people we went for a fancy lunch at the Park Grill opposite the ice skating rink in Millennium park where I had soup and a crab cake, yes just one, it was that fancy. After lunch Alicia took us on a tour of Millennium Park, where we saw the outdoor theatre that looked like a transformer and my favourite; the Bean aka Cloud Gate, which was a huge mirrored bean shaped sculpture which reflected and distorted the reflection of the skyline, it was very surreal but cool. We then caught a taxi across town to the Sears Tower now known as Willis Tower to go up 106 floors to the Skydeck. It was such a clear day and the sun was about to go down so it gave us a fantastic panoramic view of the city. I also went on the glass ledge at the top that stuck out of the building, it made my anxieties go crazy and I didn't really enjoy it but I'm glad I went on it; I even sat down on it. After watching the sunset and using the toilet (as it would be one of the highest places I used one) we took the fast lift down and we were ushered out of the building and away because ice was falling from the tall buildings which was a bit scary. We had dinner in Water tower place and I enjoyed a Chicago deep pan pizza, which felt like a must do. We then went to the theatre across the road, where we saw 'Working' it was a musical based on accounts of ordinary working Chicagoans, they had only about 6 actors who played a number or different characters, and it was very well done, they followed Brecht techniques of breaking the 4th wall and addressing the audience directly, singing, engaging with the audience and many others. I enjoyed the play greatly and it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

Wednesday, Jess and I caught the train into the city by ourselves, we both were feeling pretty tired and I was worried I was getting ill. We had a massive faff with Jess's coffee, and we tried to get a bus, but eventually we arrived at the Subb Aquarium by cab, where we saw a seal, whale and dolphin show at the Oceanarium, which was amazing as I had never seen a show like this at an aquarium and we have been to many on this trip. We had the worst lunch ever in the aquarium and then watched the Happy Feet 4D movie where they yet again poked me in the back; we saw the real penguins and then walked around the shark reef.Next stop of the day was the Field Museum, which was the natural history museum, which was a massive let down, all the cool exhibits were extra so we just walked around the stuffed animal exhibit, it was a bit freaky walking around that many dead animals and all I could think about was the movie Night of the Museum. The highlights of this museum was Sue the most complete T-Rex fossil and the Egyptian mummy's. That evening Alisha's friends came over to talk about England as they were travelling there in the summer, so we gave them some help, we drank wine, ate lots of nibbles thanks to the awesome hostess and had a good laugh.

Thursday we caught the train again back into the city with Alisha, Jess was feeling a little worse for wear but we still were up nice and early. The train took an age to get in the city so we were behind on our schedule when we arrived, we caught a cab to the science and industry museum, where we went to the storm exhibition, which was very interactive and Alicia and I went into the wind tunnel; hair everywhere. We also watched the Hubble movie at the IMAX, which was really interesting, but it made my mind boggle.After the movie we went to the 'You' exhibit, which was brilliant, it was another interactive exhibit and had lots of games and touchscreens to play with.Alicia then took us to one of her favourite places for lunch, which was Attwood's Café at the bottom of the Burnham Hotel, which is an historic place. The restaurant was very fancy; Alicia and I even shared an amaretto Crème Brule. After lunch Alicia took us around the city to look at the different historic buildings and to look at the beautiful architecture of the city. After the tour Alicia took us to the historic Palmer house hotel, which was a beautifully old hotel, where we sat in the ornate lobby and drank a glass of wine and soaked in the atmosphere. We ran to catch the train back to Geneva where we had the most beautifully cooked thick steaks by Matthew. We spent the rest of the evening watching American Idol, where we rated the contestants out of 5. It was a great night, with great company and with great food and wine.

Friday 4th, we had a lie in, had a drive around the local area, and popped into some of the shops. When Alicia came home from work Matthew cooked us some Chicago deep pan pizza for dinner, then we jumped in the car to go to the Hockey stadium as we were seeing the Chicago Wolves vs. Milwaukee Admirals. We grabbed some beers and headed to our awesome seats in the middle behind the players. We watched the team warm up, the fireworks and watched everyone sing the national anthem, which was a very bizarre thing to see. The game was a lot of fun, it all happened very fast and I didn't have a great idea of everything that was going on, but I knew what was going on when they would randomly start beating the crap out of each other. There were some awesome fights between the teams as they were big rivals and there were quite a few players in the sin bin. The best thing of the night was that Matthew was able to catch a t-shirt for me that they were throwing out. The whole experience was brilliant and it felt like a typical American thing to do, so I guess I can say I'm ticking off another cultural experience.

Saturday 5th Jess, Alicia and Matthew skyped Jess' parents and had a big catch up whilst I ran out to print off a photo for their thank you present. That afternoon Alicia and Matthew wanted to take us on a tour of their historic town. They took us to the shop 'Little Travellers' which was a shop that sold everything like wine, furniture, clothes and jewellery. We spent a long while in there and we had a good look around and they came away with some purchases. We then walked along the high street, which was really quaint and it made it even more picturesque because it began to snow. We stopped off in a small wine shop and of course we had some free wine tasting, Jess and I were really enjoying spending time with Matthew and Alicia. They took us for lunch at a place called Stockholm, an old timey pub where I had the most amazing root beer. Then Alicia took us to a chocolate shop and popcorn shop where we bought the tastiest treats ever. For dinner that night Matthew cooked us some beautiful maple glazed pork, which I couldn't get enough of. After dinner, we sat in front of the fire and watched Avatar; it was the perfect night as we were missing being at home and it felt like a family night in.

Sunday was our time to leave their house and we were very sad as we had enjoyed our time so much there. Matthew cooked us waffles and then we said our goodbyes and Jess and I were back on the road. We were very sat to leave as we had enjoyed spending time with Alicia and Matthew, they had welcomed us in like family and we appreciated that so much, they were the perfect hosts, and I hope I can see them again when they come over to visit Jess.

We drove a very long and boring 6 hour drive to Cleveland, Ohio, where they charge you a stupid amount of money to drive on the toll roads. When we arrived at our moetl near Cleveland, we wacthed Bugs Life and then bought dinner and chilled in our room watching Monsters Inc in bed.

Monday 7th March, we set off on the road to Hancock, Maryland. On our drive we had a bit of a drama, we got on the road with half a tank of petrol, which would have been plenty for half of the drive. Like other roads there are petrol stations at every turn off, of course, this wasn't the case this time. The petrol was getting low whilst i was driving on the toll road and we hadn't had a turn off in over 30 miles, I thought it would be fine as there was sign that said gas station in 5 miles. But as we grew closer it, there were big signs that it was closed....s***! We crossed state lines on empty and the toll lady told us that the next station was not for another 14miles. The 'E' was screaming at me as we had been riding on it for a while, luckily we found it and we rolled into the station with just enough petrol, the station was full of people that looked like lumberjacks, it was very amusing.

We arrived in Hancock, Maryland around 3pm, and it was the backend of nowhere. There was a high street, and that was the town, however, i must say it was very quaint. We went for a walk along the historic canal trail as we needed some fresh air and we just wanted to do something, and this was clearly the only highlight of the town. As it was a Monday, 2 out of the 3 restaurants were closed in the town, and when we arrived at the only one that was open at 8pm it told us it was closing and we could order takeaway, this is when we established there REALLY wasn't anything in this town. We ate our awful salad and our soup that wasn't soup but just a cup of Chilli Con Carne whilst watching the Blind Side. Later, Jess informed me that there was a mouse in our bedroom; i just could not wait to get to the fancy hotel in Washington DC.