Conclusion

26th of July

Conclusion

This is our last post. We got home in the afternoon two days ago, and we were all really tired from the trip. It was good to be home, to sleep in our own beds, eat Swedish food and meet our parents. But we do miss America; the incredible people, the atmosphere, the cozy time in the car when we sang” Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake and the feeling of being free and independent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAYPN-1Yjt0

When you listen to Americas national anthem, you can really feel how proud they are being a part of their country.

As a farewell to this blog we’re going to make a conclusion on the whole road trip through eight states in America.

Firstly, we’re going to write down aaaaall the good things we’ve been through. There are so many things; we don’t even know how to start. All the new experiences, the new things we’ve learned, the interesting people, the different culture in the different states, the shopping day in New York, the jazz music in New Orleans, winning the $500 in Las Vegas and the crazy nights out. We will always remember the beautiful nature in Yosemite, the deep gaps in Grand Canyon, our nightly walk in New Orleans when the moon reflected in the water in the harbor. All the places in Washington that plays an important part in the American history, such as the White House, the Washington Memorial and so on, the muddy waters in Everglades that was home to the thousands of gators.  We’ll always remember the time machine, with other words the steamboat. Louise will forever have a memory from our trip; her tattoo.

Secondly, we have the bad things. They are not as many as the good things, but sadly there were a few less good moments. For instance, Nathalie getting robbed. That was probably the worst thing during the entire trip. There’s also the Empire State Building. Everyone said that it was a thing that had to be done, but frankly, it was a disappointment. It was just a view. Nothing more.

Then, we have the food in Las Vegas. It wasn’t as delicious that we have heard it to be. Okay, we admit it, it was pretty awesome to eat for 24 hours, but it wasn’t the food that made it awesome. It was the experience. I don’t think that anyone have ever eaten that much, and will probably never do it either.

To sum it up, our trip was pure awesomeness. There were some bad things, but on the contrary, the good things weigh it up. We can definitely recommend this trip to other people, as long as you travel with friends that you really like to hang around with and if you have planned the trip well. Fascinating that we actually made it through the whole journey without freaking out over each other. If we will get another crazy idea like this- maybe to plan a trip to the moon, please remind us about planning the way between our destinations better and that we have a very clear plan about all necessary things including luggage and so on we need to bring and think about before the trip. Last but not least, give Nathalie a sort of ``traveling phone´´ so that it won´t mind if she loses it.

To conclude- during this month we´ve written history, at least in our minds, a journey like this will be remembered as long as we live (and don´t get senile). Finally we would like to say thank you to all parents for letting us do such a marvelous trip and also thank you teacher Linda who inspired and helped us all the way through. You are amazing.

Lots of love over and over again,

Louise, Rebecka, Lena and Nathalie.

Bye bye New York!

23^rd of July

Hi hi hello!
 

It’s now our last day of this whole roadtrip, and it’s really sad. Sure, we miss all you at home, but this trip has been so amazing!
 

Anyway, our time here in New York has been hectic and we’ve been doing a lot of things. Today, we took an all-day shopping day, so we’re all really tired and our feet’s hurts! But gosh, was it fun! We bought so many things! New York is truly the paradise for a shopaholic! Louise bought three pair of jeans , two sweaters, five tops, two t-shirts and a bag, Lena bought a jacket, two bags, one pair of jeans and five pair of shoes and  Nathalie bought two scarfs, two pair of jeans, two pair of Converse, five t-shirts and three tops. Finally, Rebecka bought three pair of shoes, one dress, two pair of shirts, three t-shirts, six tops and three bags! So, as you can see, we spent quite a lot of money on clothes.

Yesterday was spent on China Town. We were just walking around and ate some Chinese food. Louise had dumplings with noodles, Lena had noodles with wok vegetables, Rebecka had pork with noodles as well and Nathalie had fried shrimps with rice. It was all really delicious, but Rebecka thought her pork was a bit dry. Nathalie had huuuge problems with eating with sticks, and it was a lot of fun watching her try to get the food from the plate to her mouth.
 

 

Later that night we went to a real American hockey game! We saw the New York Rangers play against the Detroit Red Wings, and it was actually really exciting! None of us are especially into hockey, but the atmosphere in the arena was great! The Rangers won with 4-3.

View from the Empire State Building

The day before that we were at Times square to buy tickets for the Broadway musical Avenue Q. The ticket’s cost 730 SEK each, which we all thought was reeeeaally expensive for a ticket to a musical, but we felt that it was a thing that had to be done.
After that we went to see the Empire State Building. Each ticket cost us $14, and then we stood in a line for one hour. When we finally got up in the tower, it turned out to be quite boring. Yes, sure, the view was great, but that was all. It’s not worth to pay $14 just for a good view.

The Empire State Building

The Brooklyn Bridge

The first day we were here, we went to Manhattan to check out the Staue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. The statue was really cool and majestic. We didn’t know so much about the statue though, so we asked an old lady. She said that it was a gift to USA to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the independence of USA. It was ready 28^th of October in 1886 and it’s 46 meter high.

That was an update from our four days here in NYC. Our plane leaves at 5.35 tomorrow morning, so we gotta get to bed early today. We’ll see you all tomorrow! Take care!

Over and out,

Louise, Nathalie, Rebecka and Lena

(Oh, we almost forgot! Here's Frank Sinatra's old classic "New York, New York"! Frank Sinatra – New York, New York )

The Big Apple!

July 19th 

Hello our lovely blog readers! Hope that you’re alright! We’re just fine, because we’re in New York now. Yes, New York. The city that never sleeps, the big apple!

We’re just so happy to be here and our hotel, Hotel Holiday Inn Express Maspeth, is really nice! We’ve just checked in and this hotel cost us about 3500 SEK.

However, when we’re in New York we all want a shopping-day of course! Therefore, our plan is to go shopping the last day we’re here. Today we’re going to the Statue of Liberty! And maybe we’re going to the Brooklyn Bridge too! It’s so much to see here in NY, we don’t know where to get started…

We’re here for four days so we have two days to do other things like visit China Town, Empire State Building, Broadway, you name it! We all really want to see a real Broadway Musical so that’s absolutely something we have to do before we go home! I think we’re going to do that some night, but we have to buy the tickets on Time Square and Time Square lays near The Empire State Building so maybe we'll do all that tomorrow, visit Empire State Building in the sunlight and then go to a Broadway Musical in the evening and maybe eat some food in a restaurant at Time Square. I’ve heard that they have really good restaurants there!

And the third day I think we all want to visit China Town and of course, we want to see a real hockey game! That’s absolutely something we want to do… New York Rangers, a NY hockey team are going to play a match the third day we’re here, I hope we’ll get some tickets!

Well.. I think that was all we wanted to say. We’ll update more another day!

See you later, alligator!

Hugs from Nathalie, Louise, Rebecka and Lena. 

Our day in Washington DC

Hello there!

I'll just throw a video here before we go out for a walk in Washington DC!

Tomorrow we'll probably do anything else maybe go shopping and eat a lot so we'll

update more!

          The video isn't that good, but it's good enough i hope...

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The White House

Washington Monument

170m/555 feet 5 1/2 inches

Love,
Rebecka, Louise, Nathalie and Lena

Here we go again on our own

14^th of July

Hi there all faithful readers!

It´s time for some updates again. Our marvelous trip has soon come to an end, but we still have a few things left to see. Right now we´re in Washington DC, it´s ten o´clock in the evening and Nathalie and Louise are down in the reception to get some brochures about the city. Lena tries to organize our upcoming sightseeing tomorrow. We are all looking forward to see The National Mall, the famous monument and of course the White House! Apparently there´s a bus tour that´s going through the park which costs 30 dollars/ person. We consider that as a necessary thing to do during the visit here.
Nathalie is totally in to meet and drink tea with the president as well- that would be so awesome! Unfortunately he´s in London right now and that´s a bit too far to go just for a cup of tea.

The 16^th of July we´re planning to visit The National Museum of Natural History which has (since Mars 2011) been having an exhibition about human history etc. Since we are former scientists we believe that´s something for us. Below you can read a bit about the museum. Rebecka found the information at a very useful website.

Hall of Human Origins – National Museum of Natural History
In Mars, the National Museum of Natural History celebrated its centennial by unveiling a new Hall of Human Origins exhibition. Based on decades of cutting-edge research by Smithsonian scientists, the exhibition tells the epic story of human evolution and how humans evolved over six million years in response to a changing world.

Now friends and family we need to go to bed, after another long trip on the highways sleep will do us well. It took about 18 h to get here, it was nearly 1055 miles.  



Some pictures from the museum



Live, Laugh and Love

Rebecka, Lena, Nathalie an the one called Louise

Miami Ink

The tattoo parlor

A very happy Louise with her tattoo

A picture Nathalie took on the orange orchard

Nathalie's lost phone - have you seen it?

Love,
Lena, Nathalie, Louise and Rebecka

The Everglades

We just want to start by saying that the Everglades is a must-visit place if you are in Florida! Check hihi.

Everglades National Park is an amazing wilderness located on the southern tip of Florida. When we were there, 11th of July the weather was hot and extremely humid with a temperature around 32 degrees. All of a sudden in the afternoon there was a thunderstorm that frightened us and we started to scream so loud that people thought we were freaks. They reacted very strange, like the thunderstorm didn’t bother them at all and…it didn’t, because then we found out that it was very common with a thunderstorm in the afternoons. 

The mosquitoes were abundant and we all are sitting here right now scratching our mosquito bites, really funny! 

Back to the Everglades-day now. There were so many things to do and see that you didn’t want to miss any of them and that’s why we had to plan our time wisely.  A guide told us that Everglades is split up into three different sections, Flamingo, Shark Valley and Everglades city. In flamingo you will find hiking trails, boat rentals and different tours. In shark Valley you can walk, drive, ride a bicycle or take a tram tour through this part of the park. And finally Everglades city is a place for water enthusiast. Here you can book guided water tours and you can also take an airboat ride which is the best way to explore Everglades!

We booked an airboat ride and it was actually the best we had done! It cost 23 dollar/person and the ride is about 30 minutes long. An airboat isn’t quite a boat. An airboat is propelled by a large air-craft like propeller that sticks out of the back of a boat. Now we realize why so many people from all around the world book airboat rides. There’s nothing like the thrill of a fast moving airboat while providing the best way to view alligators and other creatures. And thank god that we all brought a thick sweater because these boats go very fast and you want to stay warm under the tour! Unfortunately Lena didn’t put her watch in her bag so it got sprayed by swamp water, but that’s okay because we'll go shopping soon anyway!

We spent almost a whole day in Everglades and of course we got very hungry. They say that a visit to the Everglades will not be complete if you don’t taste the famous gator bites so we stopped in the safari restaurant and enjoyed the great meal with a beautiful view of the Everglades. It tasted really good.

Gator bites

Everglades is a home to over 300 species of animals and more than 350 species of birds.

 

Here are  some souvenirs we bought from Everglades! :)

8 dollars

17 dollars

8 dollars

We had a long but great, awsome, amazing, fantastic, wild, wonderful and finally a adventurous day! We all were exhausted after a visit in the Everglades but the good thing was that we got a good night's sleep!

Tomrrow it's time for Louise to get a tatto! She's so excited and nervous but it will go well!

XOXO

Lena, Louise, Nathalie and Rebecka

We're in Miami bitch

10 July  


Good evening to you all charming blog readers! 

We´ve just arrived here in Miami, Florida. The mood among us could have been better…  Although we are once again excited over being at a new fascinating place. Some food and some sleep will cheer us up- soon we´ll be back on track.
It´s been a long journey, we drove in total about 200 miles each, though Lena had to drive a bit more cause Nathalie almost fell asleep over the steering wheel. A bit strange, we drove only at day time and stopped after 7 hours to sleep at a really cute hotel/ motel. I guess all new experiences made us tired? Anyway now we´re here and that´s what matters. Tomorrow we´re going to Everglades National park which is located 25 miles southwest of Miami. Hopefully we´ll see alligators and other cool stuff there.

The day after tomorrow has to, according to Louise be the day when she´s getting a tattoo. It´s the 12th of July and that´s here lucky day since 4 years… Furthermore we are hoping to get time to do some shopping and sunbathing as well. Rebecka wishes to see a real murder investigation, as in the CSI series but the odds for that, well it could have been higher. (Don´t say it out loud though because ever since she was a child that has been one of her most wanted dreams.)

The rumor says that Miami is quite famous for its orange orchard´s, so to visit one of those is on our ``We´ll have to do list´´, too.  This makes Nathalie happy- she likes oranges, a lot! 

Cool people? (we are that to) - Rebecka wants to see how cool they really are ...

Lena caught this lovley picture when we were driving by.

Still there´s night, but tomorrow we´ll see light.

 Love to you at home, we miss you but as you notice we have a wonderful time! 

// Lena, Nathalie, Louise and Rebecka

Our days in New Orleans!

St Louis Cathedral.

We’ve heard that if it's anything you got to do when you visit New Orleans is to explore the French quarters, Vieux Carré. We decided to walk through these quarters and it was really nice and cozy. New Orleans felt very… Hmm.. European! These quarters were really old and while we walked through them we just inhaled the history of the city. We bought some ice-cream and just chilled. 

Then we walked down to St Louis Cathedral, it’s the oldest cathedral in North America, that’s cool! The cathedral was beautiful, it looked like a castle from a Disney-movie or something… We were there and looked at the beautiful architecture.

In the evening Rebecka and Louise really wanted to visit a place called The Snug Habor. It’s a restaurant and a jazz club, so we went to The Snug Habor, ate some food and enjoyed the music. It was really nice actually and the music was really good!

The day after, we decided to try something that none of us had done before. We wanted to go with a steamboat. That’s something you got to do when you visit New Orleans! It felt like we were people from the 19th century. The boat was so cool. Louise said that it felt like she was in the music video from the band Culture Club. We didn’t know what she was talking about, until we got back to our hotel room and she showed us this video.

She was right! It actually felt like we were these persons. 

When we got back to our room, we ate some lunch and then Lena reminded us about the museum! We had totally forgotten that and we decided to go there anyway because we had time to do it.

It was fascinating, but sad. We met a guide that told us about everything…We learned a lot and it was so much to see.

However, we do recommend visiting this museum if you are in New Orleans.

We also wanted to take a look at the Super Bowl arena too, but unfortunately we didn’t had time for that.

Well.. That’s what we’ve been doing here in New Orleans. Peace out!

/Nathalie, Louise, Lena and Rebecka.

Sweet New Orleans

6^th of July

A typical New Orleans building

After 564 kilometers in the car we have finally reached New Orleans in Louisiana! The weather’s great, around 27   ̊C. The time is now 5 PM and we’ve just checked in at our hotel Parc St. Charles. I don’t think that anyone of us wants to go out and look for a restaurant right now, so we’ll probably eat at the hotel. Our plan for tomorrow is to take us to Jackson Square to look at the statue of Andrew Jackson who was a president in the US between 1829 and 1837. We also want to visit the French Market and maybe buy some ice-cream, Nathalie has been going on and on about buying ice-cream for like three days now! We have also heard about a museum called “National World War II Museum” that should be really interesting. We also want to ride the steamboat! But I think that the museum and the steamboat is better to do the day after tomorrow, since the weather will be slightly better tomorrow.
 

Snug Harbor

What Louise and Rebecka really want to do tomorrow night is to go to a place called “The Snug Harbor”, which is a restaurant and a jazz club with two shows each night.  Since New Orleans is the home of jazz, we feel that the jazz music is something that we have to experience!
We also think that we’re going to take a look at the Super Bowl arena, the one that they evacuated a lot of people to after Katrina.

How New Orleans looked after Katrina

But now we really got to get something to eat, we’re starving! We’ll be updating more tomorrow! Take care!

Xoxo
Louise, Nathalie, Lena and Rebecka