Hello all,

The next instalment of the blogs picks up from where we left off in Romania heading for Chicago.. We headed for the airport in the morning and boarded our first flight to Warsaw before boarding our main flight to Chicago. The total travel time for this day was over 12 hours. We arrived into Chicago about 730pm and was at our hostel by 10pm.

Our first day (Wednesday 21 may) we were up early to due partial jet lag and set off at 830am (very early for us haha). We walked into downtown and saw many sights including Buckingham fountain, millennium park, the bean, wrigleys building, navy pier, sears (now willis) tower. We also did a boat ride of the lake/river which was very insightful.

The next day we decided to use our remaining rail pass segments and head to to Milwaukee for the day.we had seen a lot of Chicago and wanted to get our full value of our tix.only 1.5 hours away, Milwaukee was a nice town also on Lake Michigan. We had an awesome lunch accompanied by a gluten free beer!! We returned that arvo had dins then headed out at night and saw the city under lights. We also stopped onto Macy's where rhi went to town in the mac section.

Friday was our last day in Chicago so we checked out after breakfast (which was all you can eat and surprisingly good) and hopped on a bus for Lincoln park. Up here they had a free zoo! After seeing the few animals for an hour or so we took a walk thru a few suburbs, the old town and the Gold Coast. Both very scenic areas of Chicago. That afternoon we went up 360chicago which is an observatory up the top of John Hancock tower. There were brilliant views up there and many great snaps were taken. We refreshed that afternoon by having a beverage back at the navy piers beer garden which had opened that day for the summer. It was freezing cold however and we didn't last long. We headed to the train station to catch our overnight train to Niagara Falls!

The train ride wasn't too bad at all. Plenty of leg room and comfy as seats. We arrived an hour n a half late into buffalo but that wasn't too bad.after getting a taxi then bus we finally arrived into Niagara Falls. The first thing we did was join the queue for maid of the mist as the line was fairly lengthy. Once down on the boat we headed out for the falls. Until you arrive at the foot of the waterfall you don't realise the powerfulness of the water. We got soaked and the mist was everywhere. However it was defiantly worth it. We got some mad snaps and vids. After the boat we walked up to the USA side of the falls and had a look. We then made tracks for our hostel on the Canadian side,took us an hour or so to walk there and when we arrived all we wanted was a shower as we hadn't showered since the morning before in Chicago. We found out that the hostel was undergoing 'renovations' and there was no water, electricity, lights or wifi. Music to our ears. After an hour they turned on the water for us and we freshened up and headed out for a top dinner overlooking the falls. We also caught the falls at night!

Sunday, a long travel day. we arose at 5am to walk back over the border to America as it's expensive to get a car over the border. We then got a cab to the train station for our 630am train to buffalo. Upon arriving at buffalo we learnt our train was 2.5 hours behind schedule so we continued on our earlier train to a little town called albany! Here we had 4 hours to kill so we walked into town and there was some nice building etc. our train did not come until 730pm that night and we ended up in Boston at 2am! Yep a long travel day.

Our first day in Boston we ventured out and did the popular freedom trail walk which takes you on a route through the city pointing out important landmarks and buildings along the way. Boston has such rich history and we learnt alot about the break away from the British and how they became the United States. That night we went for dinner to the Cheers bar!

On Tuesday we were up early again for a trip out to Harvard. We saw the main square and heard about the popular buildings and stories about ex students. they were also setting up seats for the next days graduation presentation. They sit 32,000 people!! Also saw the house where Facebook was invented! Next of all we headed to Fenway park for a tour of the Boston Red Sox home ground. Again we learnt a lot about the teams and stadium history. That afternoon we walked along Newbury street and saw some shops, rhi bought herself a snazzy new pair of nikes. Later on we had a few drinks and gluten free pizza for dins :-)

Wednesday the 28th of May saw us depart Boston and head for New York City. Rhi has wanted to come to New York for years and today was the day her dream was to come true. After a few hour train ride we arrived into penn station. Our first afternoon we saw Times Square, the New York library, grand central terminal, Bloomingdales, 5th avenue and Central Park. For dinner I made sure we made it to an Aussie pub to watch a replay of the first origin game where the blues got up 12-8!!!

Our first full day in New York saw us compete a few free walking tours. In the morning we did a tour of lower Manhattan and learnt about the first settlers and the history of the area. We also saw battery park, wall st, trinity church and the World Trade Center area (briefly). I say briefly because we had to leave the tour a few mins early in order to head uptown to make our Harlem walking tour. This tour was also very interesting and we learnt about the area of Harlem and how it is slowly integrating itself with the rest of the city. That afternoon we headed up the Empire State Building for some top views of Manhattan. Following this we went to an awesome gastropub for a burger for dins. I managed to get a gf bun and on screen we had baseball, NBA and NHL! Perfect haha

Friday was an interesting day. Rhi had booked in to go for a sex and the city tour. I passed on the tour as 1. I didn't really know sex and the city and 2. I had other business to attend to. I dropped rhi off for her tour and then headed for the diamond district where I had a ring made for my proposal which was to occur on Sunday night. I told rhi was going to maybe 'go to a movie' and 'walk around'. I ended up going to see the Seinfeld restaurant and visit whole-foods to make it look like I did something haha. I accomplished my mission in time and met rhi at her tour end point. She detected nothing. We then headed to the moma museum which has free entry for Fridays from 4. We had a look in here for an hour before heading to Yankee stadium to see the Yankees v twins. Another highlight for me as I love seeing historic sporting stadiums and our seats, while second from the back row, gave us a great view and protection from the rain. We enjoyed beer, nachos and hotdogs. What more could you want.

Saturday was Central Park day. Rhi had said all along she wanted to dedicate a whole day to Central Park and I happily obliged as I had not seen a lot of it the last time I was here. We began the morning by Heading to the boathouse for brunch. Pretty fancy in there and we had good meals. We then went next door and hired a row boat for an hour. That was cool and althoght nearly crashing we made it our alive. The metropolitan museum of art and Guggenheim were our next 2 stops. Whilst not going in we saw them from the outside and got some snaps. It began to rain after another hour so we decided that's would be enough Central Park after covering about 80% of the length of it. We hopped on the subway and made tracks for the natural history museum which had free entry from 430pm (see a trend here). After seeing the big whale, stuffed animals and some Indians we headed for 9th avenue/hells kitchen for a quick bite to eat. After a tasty Thai meal we went over and headed up the top of the rock (Rockefeller center) for great night time views of the city.

Sunday the 1st of June brought us the first day of summer. It would also be a memorable day for another reason. We began our day with a tour of Brooklyn. We Walked over the Brooklyn bridge and saw Brooklyn, DUMBO and Williamsburg. We headed back to our place for a quick shower before we headed out for a fancy dinner overlooking Central Park. We had wanted to go out for one nice dinner whilst in New York so why not tie it into my proposal ay :-) rhi had suspected a proposal at some stage she says but I was too calm all day and at dinner so she thought it may be another day. After dinner we headed for the tavern on the green in Central parl where our horse and carriage ride would depart from. I had organised this ride myself (this is where rhi got her first suspicions as I don't organise much) and the driver knew what I was planning. So we began and headed through the park on the carriage. The driver was telling us interesting facts but all I was thinking about was getting down on one knee! So we pulled up near the bow bridge and to my horror there was these Latino drummers beating the hell out of their drums right near the bridge so my plan was somewhat disrupted. We got off the carriage 'to take some photos' and we made for the bridge. Still it was to noisy so I 'said let's go down here to the lakeside where we should be able to get a good photo'. I wasn't sure if it would be a good photo but needed to get away from the noise haha. It turned out to be a good photo and while checking out the view I got down on one knee and asked rhi to marry me. She said 'yes, of course'. The reaction I got was not what I Expected. I expected yelling but she was very calm. Rhi told me after she has her suspicions. But the main thing was she said yes and I became very relaxed after that moment! We got back on the carriage and finished our ride! We then headed for a drink to celebrate before letting our family n friends know of the news. A good day all round.

Monday we spent more time talking to friends and family before heading down to explore east village, union square, Washington square, Greenwich village, the meat packing district and the high line. All areas were awesome as they are very different from the usual manhattan. That afternoon we headed over to Roosevelt Island where Rhis aunt n uncle Therese and Doug lived when in New York. We had a nice pizza for dins before we headed back early for rhi to conduct a Skype interview for a potential job for when she gets home.

Our last day in New York saw us head back down to lower manhattan where we firstly secured broadway tickets for a show that night. We got tickets to Cinderella as it was half price and was a story we both know. We then headed for the free Staten Island ferry which gave us top views of the Statue of Liberty. When back in Manhattan we then went to the 9/11 memorial which we didn't get to see on the previous Thursday. The two huge pools in the footprint of the old towers were incredible and I can't believe the development that has occurred since I was here 5 years ago. We then went down into the 9/11 museum and what we were greeted with was not what i expected. The underground cavern is huge and you can see where exactly the buildings stood. There was also the most comprehensive coverage of the days events I have ever read. I wish we had more time to stay because 3 hours was not enough. We headed back up to midtown as we needed to be at our show for a 7pm start. The musical was good and it contained two famous stars, Fran drescher and Carly Rae jephsen.

We left New York today and what a week we had. We saw so many awesome things and we hardly had any down time the whole time we where there. We got a train from here to Philadelphia where we have the one night to rest before we heard to Washington, D.C. tomorrow. In The afternoon in Philly we saw the town hall, marketplace and the museum of art where the famous rocky steps are.

Our next blog will be headed your way soon!!

Bye for now.

Ev.