East Coast #1

 Not in order of the trip but just some main attractions visited.

At Alexandria, border of Canada and New York State.

1000 Islands- Alexandria Bay, was cruising around all the little islands

The 1000 islands has a love history about a king to his wife

 Corning Glass Museum:

the glass guru burning the glass and make it into shape

Washington DC

The Capitol

Smithsonian Aircraft Museum

Philadelphia city

Back to NYC

Central Park, Manhattan

Central Park Lake

More of Central Park

Metropolitan Museum

Buffalo, NY - Home to Niagara Falls!

 Yee Pin and I got soaking wet from the waterfall splashes when we were cruising by the majestic falls!

 Purely amazing eh? :)

Missing the May Summer

Following the previous post about the south roadtrip in US, I'll continue on the East Coast trip.

Pictures are soooo slow to upload, I'll edit the post next time.

I'll just briefly reminisced the places I've visited. I started off in New York City and slept a night in Queens, not Manhattan. It's the dodgiest place ever! There's totally no whites there, no joke! All hispanic. The following day I followed a 3 day tour to Philadelphia, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, 1000 Islands - Alexandria bay, between Canada and New York.

After the 3-day tour, I solo travelled in NYC and visited those tourist attractions. Wall St, United Nations, Rockefeller, Top of the Rock Observatory, Cruise around Manhattan, 5th Avenue, Times Square etc.

I took a midnight bus to Boston myself and overnight in Boston Bus Station. Yes, I'm on a budget. :P Once the day was bright, I started the Boston trip and navigated around the city either by walking or the hop on hop off bus. 1 day was definitely tooo short! I had no time for MIT and Harvard, biggest disappointment! I was crazy enough as I really hope to at least step into the Harvard compound. At 9ish at night I took a train to Harvard Yard and walked around the town of Cambridge. Sadly the Harvard Business School is far away and dark, I scraped the plan and just lingered in Harvard Yard :(

Got back at probably 11 or 12am, and my cab came at 430am to go Logan Airport for the flight to Atlanta.

Atlanta was once an Olympic Host on 1996. Anyways, I was there for an economics conference. I think I'm like the most un-knowledgeable economics student ever! Everyone there was superbly intellectual, knowing which economist did which research, wrote what book, create what theory. :/

But it was amazing to have stayed in Hyatt Regency hotel, with daily breakfast which cost $18.50 all fully sponsored. Daily lunch and dinner were sponsored too and they were quality meals! 5 luxurious days past by quickly and I didn't even enjoyed most of it due to some sicknesses and problems in eating. Boooo! However, I had the time to visit CNN headquarters, World of Coca Cola, Atlanta downtown and an event - Redbull Soapbox Car Race.

It was 2 weeks of intense travels right after the south roadtrip. I fell really sick afterwards. But to think back now, it is worthwhile :)

To summarise my 5 months in the states, I covered 18 cities. :D

The major places I've  missed are San Francisco, Yosmite National Park, North Dakota and Texas. Not sure when would I have the finances to go US again. :/

I like most of the things there, I miss walmart, I miss my uni, I miss the premium outlets and cheapppp shopping, I miss Disneyworld and I miss the snowflake-shape snow.

Summer Roadtrip

I am back from a roadtrip down south covering 3 states, 4 cities.

I firstly went to my high school friend's city, Carbondale, 3 hours train ride from Champaign. Took Amtrak on the 13th May and finally got to meet Yee Pin! Though we just met when she was back to penang during her winter break in December 2011. We are officially graduates now! 

4 of us in total went for the trip, with Yee Pin's friends.

#1 Memphis, Tennessee - City of Blues Music 

 We had a tour in Elvis Presley Mansion. Then we went to downtown Memphis which is Beale Street. Since the city is famous for music, most of the dining places have bands entertaining the guests. This city is also famous for its BBQ ribs and pork along with fried pickles.

Elvis Presley Disc Collection inside his mansion

Beale St in the evening

Band @ BB King Restaurant

#2 New Orleans, Louisiana - City of Jazz

Another music town with french history. The major attraction is the French Quarter, Jackson Square and the French Market. We also went to Louisiana State Museum, Mardi Gras exhibition and Hurricane Katrina's museum. Pretty educational eh? This city is known for its red beans and rice somehow.

French Quarter

St Louis Cathedral

French Beignets and Cafe au lait

French Market

#3 Miami, Florida

Way down south with beaches. Unfortunately the rain decided to pour down. I had little time spent in Miami Beaches. :( Nevertheless, I had a 'special' experience in a certain beach there. haha. At night, we went to a cafe/bar place at Ocean Drive for dinner. I tried margarita for the first time too. 

Red velvet cheese and traditional cheese cake topped with strawberries!

@ The Cheesecake Factory, Aventura Mall

#4 Orlando, Florida

It is a place to relive your childhood! We went to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Disney World, Magic Kingdom Park. It was a rather express visit as there are 2 parks for Universal and 4 parks for Disney. Toooo expensive! One ticket to each park cost us $96! I enjoyed a few rides, Harry Potter ones, Spider man simulation ride etc. Water rides as well in which we were all soaking wet! I also tried butter beer which was kinda nice and sweet.

Disney is a cuter place, meant for younger children, hence lesser rides but it has its own fun. I enjoyed some 3d shows, space mountain coaster, teacup etc! We went on Monday thinking it would be lesser people. We were absolutely wrong! It's jam packed, seriously crazy human jam.

  

Harry Potter park

The crowd

I love disney world's fireworks, too awesome! No photos though.

I got back to Carbondale this morning after a 15 hour journey as we had rest and pit stops in between for meals.

Overall, I am really glad that I was able to visit those dream places that I had in mind. 

Next stop - New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Boston, Atlanta. Solo travelling for both Boston and Atlanta. Fingers crossed. It will be another adventure before I leave the US for good on June 12!