So there I was, flyng into New York City. My final destination. I was a little sad, but I was also excited for two reasons - 1) I would be spending the next few days in New York City and 2) I would be seeing Rob for the first time in nearly 5 months for his mini-stag do and general sillyness! We met at JFK and after many girly screams (from me and Rob) and hugs and gushing in general, we got on a mini bus to our hotel - my final one of the trip. It was quite a s...

Back in Tacoma, and it actually wasn't raining for once! So we decided to head out for a drive to Orting - a little town outside of Tacoma where they were having their annual Daffodil carnival/parade. We had lunch in a little diner and a walk along the river before driving further up the mountain to a little town with odd old brick/kilns on the outskirts of the forest and old, abandoned railways tracks heading deep into the forest. We then drove back to Orting t...

The next morning we collected our car from the aiport and headed north, in order to head south again. We were aiming for Cape May, the southern most tip of the New Jersey shore, and after much debate with the satnav lady, several u-turns off freeways and a few trips on and off the NJ Turnpike, we finally made it along the coast and to Cape May. There we found a nice little motel, which was actually the southern-most motel on the coast, and went to explore the to...

After two overnight flights - one of those being on a 50 seater prop plane - I arrived in the capital. Louise would be joining me for the next week and we had planned to explore the capital and then pick up a car and drive up the coast for a bit. Louise arrived that afternoon and we had a bit of a rest at the hotel. That evening we ventured to a pizza restaurant near the hotel and planned our next few days activities. The next morning we set out early to see ...

This was it, our last full day on the road, and the rain still falling. We stopped to look at the giant Redwoods along the coast and at several secluded bays on the roadside. All with piles of driftwood and jurassic rock formations. Many had large boulders you could climb on to that stretched past the waterline. We finally found a place that did fish and chips for lunch, and very nice it was too! That afternoon we followed signs to the Oregon sand dunes, which ...