Welcome to Denver - Population: No one but us

Hi everyone!

Well, in keeping with our New Year's tradition of keeping up a regular blog (and email replies) we are about to do our first blog of the new leg of our trip - only 3 days in!

But first, an update on the last month or two in Vancouver. We moved - that was fun! (detect the trace amount of sarcasm here). We spent our last two weeks living with Chris and Alice (payback!) and it was great to have roomies again.

We celebrated Australia Day with work (well I did anyway), snow and a few drinks and dinner with Chris and Alice at a local restuarant, named after a place in NZ - Raglans. Two things worth mentioning - great chicken wings and MASSIVE cocktails, ie in a fish bowl type glass. For Mike's birthday we went to the hockey the night before, but we spent the actual day moving house. That night we went out for a steak at The Keg. Aggie's b'day is a day later (same year) so we headed out to a club on Granville St that weekend, called Crush. Not a bad place - if you can get in. We were ID'd, wand'd for metal obejcts, then our photo was taken and scanned then compared to our IDs, we paid our cover, handed a ticket to the guy right next to us and then went to the coat check and paid more money to check our jackets. But it was a great night and there was a DJ from Sydney who was pretty good.

We finally ended up night skiing on Grouse - both of us were nurisng some sore heads and necks due to massive stacks. Actually, after skiing at Whistler, Grouse is pretty boring - 3 minute runs just aren't challenging enough! Anyway, we also checked out a few more hockey games. We spent a lot of our last week eating out at places we had always wanted to go, and we had our last ski on Grouse (the weather started out beautiful and turned ugly fast - pics to come). We went out Friday night with my mates from Harbour Cruises (my first job) and then Saturday night we went out with "'Couver Crew" (ie Aggie, Lukas, Bodhi, Chris and Alice) for dinner at a Greek restuarant down the road. All in all, we are happy to be moving on to more travel (and hopefully warmth and most importantly, sunshine!) but just can't believe it's all over! We will miss all our Vancouver buddies (and Aussie and NZ buddies)!

Ok, so back to our trip. Lukas and Aggie were kind enough to drive us out to the airport - at 4am! We got there in record time and had plenty of time to check in. Our flight was a non-event and we landed in Denver around 12ish. It was very flat (with the exception of the Rockies of course) and brown....and deserted! It was Sunday, but still. We found the hostel, and the first thing we thought was DODGY! They didn't have our reservation (I'd even rung the previous day to check) and reception was through another business' door and the whole thing looked shady. So we thought we'd "look at the room" before making any commitments. The place turned out to be one of the cleanest hostels I've seen. We got used to the place and figured that it only really looked dodgy because the area was full of parking lots and industrial type shops, it was cold and everything was dead. However, we found out today that this was not the case - it really was dodgy (you'll find out why later). Anyhoo, we spent our first arvo wandering around downtown, at first enjoying the blue sky and sun, and then fighting the gusty winds and swirling snow. It was freakin cold! But the following two days turned into beautiful ones - with warm weather! Downtown was pretty deserted, and this continued on Monday. We didn't know what was going on but found out Monday was a public holiday - President's Day - and Tuesday it turned into a thriving metropolis......kinda.

Our priority for Denver was to see the Colorardo Avalanche (ice hockey) and Denver Nuggets (basketball). Mike - I'll take over this part. I have actually been a fan of the Avalanche for some time and Allen Iverson is my favourite NBA (basketball for those not in the know) player who happens to now play for the Nuggets. So this was shaping as somewhat of a dream north american sport trip for me. Turns out that the one player I really wanted to see on the Avs went down with injury 10 weeks before the game and was scheduled to come back about the same time as this game but never made it back in time. Nevermind, I still saw the team, however, they got flogged, which was pretty bad. The Nuggets, on the otherhand, got up in a pretty close game. All in all I walked away happy, and a lot shorter in the hip pocket but with enough merchandise to fill a separate bag.

Not much else to note about Denver. We went to Capitol Hill - their parliament building (seems to be a common theme, but they are free! and usually have interesting buildings and you learn a little about the city). Avoided (well, missed really) the tour but got to go up in the dome, which is gold plated. The views were amazing, especially because of the sunny day. However, the place definately looks better in the warmer months. They had some pics up of the view during summer and it is green and there are lots of flower beds. The only other thing we did was check out Boulder. Its about a 45 minute bus trip from Denver and it's a University town - i think the Lonely Planet said there is a 30 000 student population. Not surpising considering the size of the friggin' campus - you think UQ or Griffith is bad, I would be lost in this place as soon as I turned around. All in all Boulder was a nice enough place - we liked it cause it was warm. The last thing we were going to do in Denver was a tour of the baseball field, Coors Field, but we picked the only day of our visit that there weren't any tours. So instead Mike just bought stuff from the shop :-)

So today....well we were up at 6am today to catch our mid morning flight (you can never tell with US security) to New Orleans. We met this guy from Melbourne in a cafe and had a chat to him (he was also on our bus and we knew we were all from Aus because we had Kathmandu bags - his and Mike's were identical!) He was actually heading to Vancouver to do the working visa thing and believe it or not he was staying across the hall from us at the hostel - never even saw him. It was at this point he informed us that there had apparently been 6 shootings in the last month within a block of the hostel (deep breaths mums!).

Again, the flight was uneventful. We knew we were in "Naw-lins" when we got to the baggage claim area and there was a brass band playing. And it was humid! Yes, I have never been happier to feel the humidity before. It almost felt like home :-)

The bus trip downtown was interesting. Mike reckons harrowing but I think that's an exaggeration. Honestly, it's only really in our minds - in reality we were going down the main drag from the airport to the financial district/french quarter in the middle of the day. But when you know New Orleans can be dodgy if you're in the wrong place, in particular at night (don't worry, we won't be adding those places to our itinerary) you kinda think twice. NOTE - the bus trip was $1.60 each (listen up AirTrain), so we each saved $13.40 (shuttle) - which is why we took the "cultural experience / live like a local" option. Mike - That and the cabbies apparently like to take tourists on the "scenic route", ie the wrong way, for a big payday. We arrived at the last stop and although I knew what buses to catch, I had no idea where or when exactly - just the general vacinity - bit of a "she'll be right mate" attitude. So after lugging our suitcases for a few blocks in the rain (yes more friggin' rain!!!!) we saw a bus coming and hopped on - with all our shit - I'm getting pretty sick of our 7 bags by this time. So we finally arrived on the edge of the French Quarter and it's starting to look like the New Orleans I've come to see. We walked yet a few more blocks (I think it was only 4, but i was actually sweating by the time I got to the hotel) and finally arrived. This place is gorgeous! A bit worn, but very New Orleans French. It's recently been renovated and only around $60 a night, incl tax and brekky! We are in the courtyard, with a fountain ourside (I can hear it now, mmmm along with a train - there's always a friggin train!), and our room is very romantic. We wandered around tonight looking for somewhere for dinner and it's a lovely area but very touristy.

Anyway, we are going to get an early night. There's so much I want to do here and we also need to do some washing. Apparently the pub down the road has a laundramat....interesting.

Good night. Hopefully you're all doing well. We miss you!

We'll get some piccies up soon.

xoxo

PS - We just wanted to say a special thanks to a few people -

• Chris and Alice - for letting us mess up your place
• Aggie and Lukas - for getting up in the wee hours of the morning and driving us to the airport
• Bodhi - for all the advice and help while we were in Vancouver (and especially the sleeping bags and mattresses!)

A little Aussie town called Whistler

Following on from the White Christmas post....

The next day and the six of us (Me, Bec, Lee, Sam, Chris and Alice) got up and going by eight in order to make the second bus to Whistler. Things didn't start too well for the old busie when he stalled it driving out of the terminal. Let me just say that this does not fill you with that much confidence given the slippery conditions we were about to face. Thankfully the journey went off without a hitch, and only one more stall. The only thing to note was how different everything looked from the last time we came through here in mid July. The lake we had lunch at in summer (Browning Lake) was almost frozen over. I tried to take a photo of the Squamish Inn (where we stayed in July) from the bus but it didn't turn out real flash. About 2 hours later and we arrived in Whistler. Everyone was excited to get there and see everything covered in white. This excitement waned a little during the 20 minute walk to our apartment, mainly due to the fact that we had to drag a suitcase through snowy foot paths while wearing a pack and carrying ski gear. Further waning was experienced when we got there to find that the apartment had only two bedrooms and one couple would have to sleep on a sofa bed in the lounge. Other than that the place was excellent. There was a main bed and ensuite, second bathroom, kitchen, flat screen tv and a hot tub outside on the deck. We spent the first day getting stocked up for the week ahead and went out for an early dinner in the Village.

Anyway, by now you are probably sick of the extended version of events, so I'll cut back a bit. We spent day 2 (first ski day) on Blackcomb where the snowboarders (the other four) left us so they could go and do crazy things. It was apparent that Rebecca was quickly leaving me behind and the skill department, and also that she thought it necessary to offer me advice every 5 seconds. We met the others for lunch and the common fight for a table. The lines for the lifts were fine but the number of people having food at the café halfway up the mountain was crazy. After throwing down some food we headed back out. We stayed the day (10am-4pm) and got home to find the boarders. Everyone was sore and so the hot tub got its first work out. At some point someone decided it was wise to jump out of the hot tub and sit in the snow and then get back in. So everyone took turns at this. The best would have to be Rebecca's who was eying off this mound of snow to dive into. As it turned out, the mound was more ground then snow and her dive made a nice splat sound that everyone enjoyed. After dinner, everyone was exhausted and we were all in bed by 9:30. Boy we know how to party!!!! Day 3 and we tackled Whistler. The boarders ran off again, and Rebecca continued with her advice, deciding to add “Why don't you get a lesson” to the mix. I thought that this was not a bad idea, as it might give me a break from her coaching but decided that since we planned to have a rest day the next day I would do it the first day back. After this we started to do separate runs as Rebecca tackled high end blues and I stuck to greens and low end blues. Thing progressed the same at the end of day 2 like day 1, meeting the guys for lunch, finishing at 4 before hot tub, dinner and 9:30 bed.

Day 4 and Rebecca and I decided to have a rest day. We spent the morning just relaxing and then went out on a guided snowshoeing tour in the afternoon. The snowshoeing was awesome, walking through the Whistler forest, stopping for a hot chocolate and sliding down snow slides! Day 5 I booked in for my lesson. What a dog's breakfast that was!!! We got up there early and there was an all-day group starting in about 10 minutes which was not that much more expensive then the 3 hour. I determined from their descriptions of ability that I was a level 3. They told me to go to the level 3 sign outside where I then described my level of experience again to another person. After this I was assigned to a group of eight and thought all was good. 30 minutes into the lesson and the instructor told me that I needed to work on my turns that this was the wrong group to do it in. For the next 30 minutes he was looking for another group to off-load me onto and I felt like a right tool with the other seven. Eventually he found a level 2 group and kicked me out. So I got bumped back to remedial. Now don't get me wrong, by the end of the day I was better but there were some people in this group who had never even been on a chair lift before so progression was slow!!!! Ah, never mind. I rejoined the rest of the gang at the end of the day for some night tubing. First run and we asked the guy if all six of us could go at once. After some discussion and unsure glances, they decided to just send us down. It was awesome!!! We spent an hour here and had a lot of fun.

Anyway, for those who haven't fallen asleep, I'm going to trim down the rest because I am sick of typing, and I did mention that I would cut back (too late). New Years (Day 6) was pretty uneventful. Everyone spent the day skiing (or snowboarding) on Whistler. Interesting moment of the day was when some random dude come flying round a corner and jumped a 4 foot fence off a green road run straight onto the slope of a black. Didn't see the landing but it scared the proverbial out of us when he flew past. We actually rode the last run down with Lee and Chris which was great. That night we stayed in watching Bee Movie (we know how to party hard!) and then decided to walk in to the village about 10 minutes before midnight. One of the main reasons for the stay home was the fact that they were charging to get into the village. We decided to wait next to the security and watch the fireworks from outside. We were kind of disappointed that there was no real countdown, and I think we actually ended up missing the exact time but we still experienced it. After midnight, they opened the gates but the band was kind of winding down. We decided to head back and finish Bee Movie before calling it a night. The next day (day 7 for those keeping count) on the slopes was DEAD. Obviously the revellers where nursing a few sore heads and so the lines for the lifts were pretty short. Rebecca and I spent the day on the various blue runs of Blackcomb while the others had the day off. Day 8 and we woke to a fresh wonderland of snow. They had 20cm over night and Lee, Sam and Chris needed couldn't pass up the last fix on the fresh stuff. Rebecca, Alice and I loaded up with gear and despite a completely unorganised Greyhound set-up, boarded the bus home at 10:30. That night we went out to dinner at Brown's on Lonsdale with the whistler crew for Lee and Sam's last night in Vancouver. We both went back to work the next day and then off to the airport to see Lee and Sam home. I must admit that I was not only sad to see them go, but a little teary knowing that they where going home. Guess being away is starting to take its toll.

So there you have our white Christmas vacation. Stay tuned for the second last report of the first leg of the US trip and the last report on Vancouver. Down to our last week here!!

Anyway, hope everyone is safe and we miss you all.

Love Mike and Bec.