Hello again from Kings Canyon!! This was our 5 million star accommodation, first we had to debug it, but it provided an brilliant nights sleep under the stars! oh did i forget to mention our sleeping spot was on lots and lots of ants nests?! yep that was lovely!! These sleeping bags things are called swags and they were a lot of fun!

On our way home from the trip we stopped at 'Jims place' in stewarts well, home of the singing dingo, so heres a pic of jen playing the piano, dingo singing along and jim in the background. It was really quite entertaining, and he really did howl in tune of the piano! apparantly hes world famous but nobody on the trip had heard of him! still pretty cool! Jims dad was the person who built the safety climbing equipment on ayres rock and designed the pathways to walk across Kings Canyon! very clever man, he also hand built the road to Kings Canyon too so we could all enjoy it! Thank you very much Jack!
heres a pic of our group we travelled around the red centre with and who were the first people we encounted in australia! all were fantastic and helped us have a fantastically memorable time for our first few days in Oz!!


We couldn't escape the python for long, Gary next to me is friends with the guy who owns 'ollie', and he brought it to the pub! Gav soon found himself with it around his neck and the rest of us couldnt resist a piece of the action! it actually felt pretty cool, not slimey at all, it had just shed its skin too so apparantly in best condition! Just after this photo it weed and pooed on poor gary, its proper poo too, not sure what i expected but it wasnt that! what an experience, see and python poo! The last pic of a drunken one of some of the group, we had such a good few days, so the drinks went down very easy on our last night together!!

ok, im heading for the beach, hope your all well and still missing us! sara and gav xxx

AUSTRALIA!!!

Ive just found a colour change so that should brighten up these posts!!

Here we are by Ayres Rock or Uluru as the aboriginals call it! We got to australia after a very long flight and arrived in Alice Springs and it really is in the middle of nowhere - desert / RED sand as far as the eye can see with trees and plants and all sorts, just lots of nothingness! the first night we had our first roast dinner since we left home and it went down soooooo well! dont worry granny, it didnt touch on yours but it was good! There was also a snake and reptile show at the hostel so within hours of arriving we had the chance to hold a python! We were both a little tired (ok and scared) for that but the show was very good and told us all about what to do if we got bitten. The next day we started our tour, first stop was at The Olgas which means land of many heads, I havent put up a photo but is was very cool. we went for a walk around and my god the heat!! was very pretty, very red, I have never seen red like it, the red rocks of america were nowhere near as red as this. In the evening we went to Uluru to watch the sunset and it rained!! day 2 in australia, now rain for 300 days in the red centre and day 2 it was raining! But it wasn't all that bad, a quick downpour, we saw Uluru as many others wouldn't and then a rainbow shone over the rock which was incredible to see. The photos didnt come out so well of the rainbow so instead I put up this silly one of us "holding" the rock in the palms of our hands! We also went back to Uluru to watch the sunset which was beautiful but would have been even better if we'd seen the break of the horizon as well as the sun rising but it was good all the same! That day we had planned to climed uluru but it was closed so instead we walked round it which took the same amount of time! Its actually good to not climb it as the aboriginals see it as a burial ground so we are disrespecting them by climbing it! It was awesom all the same!

Heres me riding a camel, $5 for 5mins, i thought it was a bit of a bargain! we stopped at a few camel farms along our trip so I thought I should have a go! Gav didnt fancy it so Im on a camel with a girl from our group! it was a very smooth ride except the lift off and landing, they really are amazing animals we learnt a lot about them on our trip! did you know their humps are their food storage not water? and they do go flat, if they dont eat and use all their storage up! and they are the only animal on earth who can go from complete dehydration to rehydration by drinking a ton of water - if we did that our blood would dilute and we'd die - a bit like a flower! very cool!

These 2 photos are from our walk of Kings Canyon, ive forgotten the aboriginal name. The walk was amazing, we saw proof that the centre of australia was formally part of the tropical park with plants and living evidence, our guide Gary pictured pulling Gav up when he fell off kept us entertained with fake baby koalas in trees and other funny tales to catch us out on, funny man!!The photo of me and gav, behind you can see the canyon curls around yet your cant walk that way because of cracks and stuff, it took us 3 hours to get from one side to the other but it was an amazing walk, you could literally see millions of years of creation, incredible. oh the part to the left of the photo of me and gav is where Gary is pulling Gav up in the other photo, scary huh!!

hehe, after all that walking, Gav and I dedided to treat ourselves to an afternoon of quadbiking! I hadn't done it before and was a bit nervous , Gav led the way with the instructor, but I soon became excited and couldn't go fast enough! It was a lot of fun, I wished we'd had gone faster but it was great all the same!

right time to get up some more pics!!

hello all

this is not a happy post, This hopefully will be the worst post i ever write. There will definitely be no photos, in fact the idea is almost ironic.

2 days ago, nov 13th, i had my backpack stollen, yes the entire backpack, 5 months of travelling gone. and the stupid thing is it was completely not my fault and was so unlucky. we boarded our first oz experience bus (like the greyhound) to go from cairns to mission beach, very excited to start our journey along the golden coast. we stopped for lunch and when we left the driver left the trailer door open containing our backpacks - mine fell out. we were notified by another driver within minutes of leaving, drove back along the route (less than 2 miles) and the bag was gone, nowhere to be seen. we walked along the path wed driven asked in shops etc and nothing had been seen. we went to the police but nothing there either. i was perfectly calm thinking some nice person had picked it up and was going to take it to the station, however i remember our emergency credit card was in the bag and by the time we cancelled it they had already spent 300 pounds. bastards. i didnt care about the money, all it signalled to me was that i would never see my backpack again. hopefully we have not lost too many photos because we were sending them home but we have lost 3 weeks of california - all those beautiful photos of bryce canyon you will never see. but all the memories are in our heads it just feels very gutting. im not too bothered about most of the stuff but i am about some of the american clothing, my GHDs (girls you will def understand that!), some of the souvenirs collected along the way and of course the photos. ive had a cry and im fine now, were currently trying to get compensation from oz experience and theyre saying its not their fault and if we want something we have to ask the driver himself - no company liability or loyalty, nice eh?! may go to the papers....! obviously done the police thing and doing insurance thing but it just takes so much time when you have nothing! am enjoying buying lots of new clothes though - even met steph from neighbours who was shopping in the same shop!

snyway, we have to go, getting another bus tom, at least i have nothing to loose this time!! hope you are all well, miss you lots

sara and gav xxxxxx

this damn thing just isnt working! i'll have to try again when we get to mission beach tomorrow! sounds like an awesom place aye? maybe its so beautiful its a mission to leave the beach! ill let you know soon! bye for now!

hello everyone!

We just want to start by thanking everyone who has put a comment on our website because we really do love reading them, we still miss you all very much and you make us giggle lots in internet cafes!! to respond to them: family first: we're really glad you liked all the pressies from new york and even more glad that they made it home we kept meeting so many people who had stuff lost in the post! lucy, sounds like you mark and julia are having fun with the baby - i guess we have that to look forward to with lyndon! glad the reunion was fun - maybe organise 0ne when im back!!
Dave: we love and miss you too, we are prioritising on putting up photos of us on the website as it takes so long to get them up i doubt any other girls will make it unless they are in the background but we'll see what we can do!
emsden! really really miss you guys, loving australia, sorry you're in the dark - if it makes you feel better the sun sets here at about 6.30pm so its dark after that!
elmo: we really miss you guys from camp - make sure you email us and tell us all the juicy gossip from the reunion!
to everyone: we are really sorry for not writing and then putting loads up at once - whilst in las vegas and LA we spent ages in libraries and internet cafes and the DVDs we'd used just weren't working - it was so frustrating it almost broke me to tears! so when we had the opportunity to put stuff up i just kinda went overboard! im trying so desperately to catch up so we can let you know what we're doing just after we've done it!! oh, and gav is insisting on not getting his hair cut until we get home so please please please continue your comments for him to get it cut - its so long now he can't put gel in it - his new name is mophead!

just a quick oz update - we just got back from a 2 day dive/snorkle on the barrier reef and it was incredible! so many colours, so many fish i went swimming with nemo and dori, nogging with the turtle and followed Bruce (shark!) for a while and then he swam off! oh and saw a stingray! and of course lots of beautiful coral and fish! did 2 dives which were amazing - it could be addictive! gav unfortunately was unbelievably sea sick - we set sail in the aftermath of heavy rain so very windy - we all felt pretty bad but gav was very much the worst and felt bad almost the whole time! he did manage a few snorkles and enjoyed those but no diving but hey, theres plenty more time for that!!! love you guys and now i need to go back to America!!

Ok America! where was I? oh yes the 3 day canyon trip! this was one of the most amazing things we did whilst in the USA! we met these 2 girls in san fransisco who told us about the tour and when we weighed things up it worked out only a bit more expensive to do the trip and see 3 canyons than do it ourselves and just see the grand canyon!

so first stop was a Zion Canyon which was very similiar to Sedona in the fact it was red rocks but it was a much bigger version! we walked along the trails under waterfalls, around rock pools, we saw a weeping rock, the scenery was just absolutely stunning! that night we made homemade burgers which ive never done before so that was a lot of fun! we all slept in a teepee which was great because we didn't get to do it at camp and we were with a native indian (our tour guide anderson) who told us lots of stories and beliefs of the native indians which just made so much sense and were really calming to listen to. and really interesting to learn about - kinda made me feel guilty being an english person after the english bombarded their happy lifestyle and took over their country but hay you cant change history! we also had s'mores, some of the girls hadn't had hersheys so while they tried to swallow that disgusting chocolate the rest of us enjoyed begium choc s'mores which were a hell of a lot better!

the second day we went to the grand canyon, it was a little bit worrying at first because as we drove up there was lots of snow and low cloud which might sound great but the low cloud was blocking out the canyon! we couldn't see it! but it was ok in the end, by the time we got out and walked along the trails we could see everything! it really is an incredible sight, a place we will definitely have to go back to and look at from a different rim! we were at the north rim and it was absolutely freezing! i had all my layers on and was still cold! but the spendor of the canyon was so great it didn't matter too much!on the way back to camp we stopped at the dodgiest liqour stop ever - cat poo and food everywhere, all cramped, boxes of booze all over the place, it absolutely stank - it was a case of grabbing the booze and running! but not too far as we got pulled over by the police for speeding! luckily we got let off on a warning - i think it must be me-twice now in a car in USA and not go a ticket!! that night we were told more stories about the native indians and had more s'mores it was all good! ok, the next canyon was by far the best so im going to attempt to get photos up to accompany the writing!!!

ok, just had a quick look at the photos and theyre all jumbled up as usual! the first and 4th are of Zion canyon, we saw 3 waterfalls and a weeping rock - water weeping out of it from thousands of years ago from being trapped inside - pretty cool! the park was really beautiful, it was like a bigger version of sedona with the red rocks, really really nice!

the second day we went to grand canyon and got a bit worried on the way as it was snowy (yes very cold) and the mist covered the canyon so we couldnt actually see it! but it was ok, by the time we got to the look out point we could see for miles - as far a san fran!! over to the navajo indian american sights and it was really really cool too! it kinda reminded me of a chinatown with the colours and structures of the rocks! we walked down a bit too, only about a mile as we didnt have much time - definitely somewhere we need to explore further! very cool place!!

After our road trip we went on an amazing 3 day adventure tour around Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyons and it was truely amazing! these photos are of Zion and Grand Canyons but ive got to post the photos before i loose them because im out of time!! ill tell you about the trip really soon! it was fantastic!!!

Right, the photo to the left is a view from Glacier point at Yosemite and overlooks the hike we did! we started beyond the left hand side and if you close enough you can make out the 2 waterfalls we climbed up (i wish i could mark them) and then we climbed up the big half dome (hence the name) on the left of the photo! yep that far! 17 mile round trip, 9000ft up and it took us all of 10 hours to complete! we had planned on hiking on our second day but we could barely move when we woke up! luckily grant had a car so he drove us around all day which was great because it meant we could go to Mariposa Grove and see the giant sequoias too!




so here are 2 photos which i hope show how big these trees are! these are both over 2000 years old and they are just gianormous!! the one of grant and gav in the tree is the california tree, they cut the whole out in the 1890s and the tree appartantly is still healthy and growing! the other is a tree we walked past and gav i thought we'd hug it, certainly makes you feel your size next to them! we did about a 3-4 mile hike around these trees and it was pretty flat so we all coped ok! these trees are pretty amazing, i think it was something like 1 in 10 million seeds grow to become fully mature and they are dying out but will still survive a while just because they live so long! pretty cool! the grissly giant tree is the oldest in this park and some of its branches are bigger than trunks of regular trees!


After Mariposa Grove we decided to change all of our plans entirely, skip santa barbara which although was a shame we would have only been there a day and it would have involved so much travelling, so instead we went on a roadtrip with grant to his uni house in Flagstaff and we are so glad we did! uni houses out here never cease to amaze me they are so nice and big! on the way to his house we drove up to mount whitney, the 2nd tallest mountain in USA, tallest in CA i think around 14000ft high! we assumed it was the mountain covered in cloud because we couldn't see any other mountains taller! we passed so much stunning scenery on the way it was another truely memorable journey. i looked for bears whilest we were still in forest land but to no avail! we were going to drive through death valley but it would have been dark by the time we got there so decided it wasnt worth the detour, we did however pull over and got corn dogs - gav and i didnt like them at all, battered sauage bring it on but not sausage covered in corn break - yuk! grant however had no problem eating our dogs too! the next day grant and his friends jess and sorry forgotten the other girls name, anyway, they took us to Sedona National Park for the day to walk their dogs - every student in america has dogs apparantly, i couldn't imagine anything worse while at uni! the part was lovely, huge red rocks of different shapes and structures, a completely different texture to the red rock ampitheatre in the rocky mountains, this was more clay like but still rock hard!! it was so pretty, the colours from the trees and shrubs around and the clay colour all around it was just lovely and made us really glad we had done the road trip! thank you grant and friends for a great day out! and doesnt the photo just look stunning!

the beautiful pictureque Yosemite National Park! God it was sooooo beautiful! I was so excited because I had read so much about the highest waterfall of over 2500 ft being at yosemite and you can see I got what I wanted by looking at the picture to the left - isn't is great?! yes thats right, it dries up for about 6 weeks a year and we were there during that period! can you believe that! there was a little trickle coming all the way down which you can see best at the lower yosemite falls and that was it! unbelieveable! then later that afternoon we did a small hike around mirror lake and guess what - the entire lake had dried up! we were beginning to wonder if there was any water at all in the park! even so the whole place was still stunningly beautiful even without the water!

our second day there we though briefly about doing the infamous half dome hike and figured we'd walk up to the 3rd loop leading to it and see how we felt! we then met a guy called grant at the bottom and decided to walk with him, and we got to the top of the 3rd loop so quickly (half way up point) we decided to walk with grant all the way to the top! needless to say the second half up the mountain was a little tougher and took longer and was bloody hard work! the last 200m was actually climbing up the mountain pretty much vertically using cables, pulling ourselves up, was good in some ways as our legs were shattered from the hike so it was a big all body workout! on the way up we walked up 2 water falls both stunning, theres a photo of the 3 of us near the Navada falls, i know the sun is blocking it a bit but its still a good photo! then theres another one of gav and i almost at the top and then one of me actually at the top of a bit of hanging rock - yep that was scary but the view over the valley was second to none. i think the top of half dome is definitely in my top 5 lunch spots!! we then climbed back down which yes was a shorter journey but because we had started so late by the time we got back to Navada Falls it was pitch black so we hiked by torch! i was so scared a bear was going to come out and eat us especially as we were carrying food, and we had all run out of water so getting dehydrated - was not our proudest moment after climbing the mountain - but hayho we lived to tell the tale! Grant stayed with us for a few nights in our lovely warm tent cabin! oh my god it was freezing! we slept fully clothed, jumpers and all, wooly hats, under 3 blankets and felt just about ok! dont think id known cold like it up to that point!! but hay, doesnt our tent cabin look cosy!

oh my god look at that ice cream gav and becca are about to eat - doesnt it look like the most delicious thing ever! and yes it was! hmmm, could do one of those right now!!

on another day we were suppose to go to Alcatraz but 2 of the girls we met kate and helen had a mess up with their booking and it was their last day so we did the good thing and gav them our tickets and instead hired out bikes for the day (not a tandem) and cycled over the golden gate bridge and across over the other side! the only problem was that it was really misty, we were standing underneath the bridge and couldn't see it at all! unbelievable! it was cold as well, windy and misty not good! the other side we cycled up 4 mile of hills (all tough) to get the perfect view hoping the mist would pass but it didnt so the pic of with the golden gate bridge in the background pretty much sums up what we saw! and then that night we went out for a drink with the girls, they were a really cool couple of girls we had fun with them!

on our last day we went to Alcatraz, felt guilty when we got their because there was a protest outside but it was our only way to get there so we went anyway! and it was really cool, the day was perfectly clear so would have got great views if cycled that day! we had a tour of the island first with stories of what happened before and since the prison opened and stories of the attempt successful and not of escaping! then we did the tour of the prison and that was really good listening to voices from the past (of prisoners) and their experiences, looking into and going into the cells - each cell has a toilet but there was not cover so everyone can see you! well, anyone outside their cell i guess! anyway theres a pic of gav inside a cell not much space but then i guess you dont need much! we also went into the confined cells, they were a bit scary! the whole day was really good, plus ive never seen a prison before so it was pretty cool from that point of view! on the way home we got the most delicious chinese from chinatown too, havent found one that good since either! need to keep searching i think! anyway, thats it for san fran, onto the beautiful yosemite!

one last photo from our train journeys!! this is the view we woke up to of the sierra navadas not bad when just looking out the window!!

next stop: SAN FRANSISCO!! we really enjoyed san fran, we were there a few days so could chill a bit a do things a little at a time after the frantics of chicago and denver! the first day we went to golden gate park and i still swear it only looked about 2cm on the map the fact that it took us 4 hours to walk up and down the hills to get there was not my fault!! oops! oh the san fran hills! the walk was quite cool, apart from the hills we walked past the city hall and buildings like that and then along Haight street and went to the famous haight and Ashbury junction - pretty much just a load of junkies, junky shops (legal to by cannabis in CA if part of some club), books shops, we actually walked past a pool of blood nice! but the park was worth it as soon as we stepped in it we could smell all the lovely scents! we walked around a bit more and then found the place you could hire bikes so to give out feet a rest we got a tandem! it was a lot of fun but very scary for me as i had no control over the bike and i couldnt see where we were going - just gavs back! gav controlled the speed, the pedalling, the direction it certainly meant i had to put a lot of trust in him especially when we went down a really steep hill and he let go of the handlebars!! still it was fun! we cycled along ocean beach and saw our first surfers and they looked quite good!

the next day we did a walking tour of the city where we walked for about 6 hours up and down too many hills! we went past cathedrals, russian hill, nob hill, we got views of the bay and golden bridges, we walked down lombard street the famous wonky street (pic of us at the bottom above), we went to fishermans wolfe and pier 39 where all the arcades and touristy stuff is - i had my palm read, im going to live a long life but have a serious illness at 50! we saw the resisdent sea lions about 300-400 of them, wild, just hanging out by the pier! we then went up the coit tower over looking the city (pic of city from top) which was nice, could see for miles! then on the way home we went through little italy and chinatown - were we saw everything from live frogs, turtles, fish, crabs in buckets you can only imagine the smell! a good day of taking in the sights of san fran!

the next day we met up with one of my girls from camp becca and spent the day with her! we went on every form of public transport there is the bus (muni), a boat and the metro (tube)! we went up the pier 39 again and randomly bumped into one of the lifeguards amy from camp too so theres a picture of us looking shell shocked at seeing her! we got the most delicious ice cream in the world from ghiradelli a belgium chocolate brand, and being english i used the english card and got a few brownies chucked on top for free - god it was good and worth every calorie!! ive put on quite a lot of weight since camp - hopefully a few jogs along the beaches of the east coast will sort that out! and gavs loosing weight all the time which doesnt help! back to san fran! we then took a cruise along to oakland and went to berkley for a mexican lunch and gavs stomach being true to form had thrown it back up with 30 mins!! we walked around Berkley uni (biggest in CA) and went to the football stadium where some of the jocks tried to teach me and becca to throw a ball - didnt work but it was fun! we then went back to hers for dinner! a good day and made me wish i had met up with more of my buddies from camp! was cool just catching up and reliving camp times!!

Some more of denver! heres another one of us at the red rock ampitheatre, one of the mountains we passed along our drive - it kind of sums up how beautiful the drive was - we have so many pics but only a few lucky ones made it!! theres also gav outside the villiage shop at southpark with his taffy!! yuk! oh yes, the yummy meal at the saloon hmmm! not as good as your cooking dont worry grannie!! and then back on the train!! our last long journey - 40 odd hours i cant remember, i kept getting delayed due to freight trains and the track hasnt been updated since it was put in so in some parts its so dangerous you can only go 5mph! yep we felt fine!! makes me laugh to think back to it!! dont i look cosy! the train ride wasnt all that bad, we drove the rocky mountains for 11 hours, until it went dark and then woke up in the sierra navada mountain range the most beautiful train ride we took by far!

ok a last few photos of chicago! the first one is of us on a boat - ive put it on there because it has a funny story! i was trying to take pictures of the scenery and had a pencil in my hand (sharp) and decided i wanted one of me and gav but when i grabbed him to get us in the photo i accidentally poked him in the eye with the pencil hence the look on his face, hehe, oops, still makes me chuckle now! anyway, the second day in chicago we went to the aquarium, which was really cool to see so many different sea species, fish, snakes, turtles, dolphins, whales, seals etc, god so many! saw some feeding times and a dolphin show so it was all good! oh and the lizards the giant one, gavs gone and i cant remember what the giant lizard thing was called! anyway, it was huge! we then went to the lincoln zoo (free so even better) which was cool, every type of animal from monkeys to birds to farm life, strange weather - one minute perfect sunshine, the next hail storms then back to sun! mad! so we looked around there for a bit which was nice! oh, gavs back kamoto dragons (not sure how to spell it!) we then went for a boat tour (first photo) at sunset which was nice, then we finished by going up the handcock tower so theres one of gav overlooking the city and me window cleaning - well we were running out of money by that time!! hehe!! chicago memories, windy, cold but not too cold, museums and animals, non stop and lots of chinese!! we both liked it, oh we went to navy pier too but had run out of energy for the fun fair plus it was way too expensive!

on to denver! we both loved denver, its small so easily walkable to everything, they have free buses, the mountains surround it so the scenery is beautiful, ahh denver! so the first pic, we spent our first afternoon just broosing around the city, went to the football stadium and just generally bummed around then just happened to fall into happy hour at one of the pubs! so here we are me with my long island ice tea (very nice) and gav with his super large beer! i had 2 drinks and was nearly on the floor!! the pub was cool too!

our second day in denver we had our first road trip of our travels - well a road trip if you call hiring a car out for the day a road trip but it was the nearest we were going to get! we went up to the red rock ampitheatre - the worlds only natural perfectly sounding acoustics ampitheatre - ive got a video of gav singing so you can listen for yourselves when get home! (pic of us in the ampitheatre) we then did a small hike around the ampitheatre - up to that point had never seen red rocks like it and they were so huge!! all the plants and birds were pretty cool too! the walk was really nice not too strenuous! we then drove along dinosaur ridge and along to aspen park where we stopped for lunch and had a great view of a mountain covered by yellow and green trees it just looked amazing!we drove through morrison and jeffersons creek and the colours were just amazing, the reds, purples, yellows, greens it was just beautiful! we stopped at a place called southpark which is an old mining town that has been refurbished to look as it did in the 1850s so that was pretty cool to look around you could really imagine people living there! the bar looked pretty cool some good nights there im sure! we tried original taffy and although gav liked it i thought it was pretty gross! after that we drove over hoover pass (top of the mountain spectacular views), and though alma, breakenbridge where there was snow all around! at one point we had to pull over because the view was so stunning, flat plains all around and snow capped mountains in the distance, then an hour later we were driving past snow! it was an incredible journey! on the way home we stopped for dinner in a place called georgetown which is a town that hasnt changed since the 1800s all very old looking and people live and work there in the buildings like they would have done years ago! we had dinner in a saloon! buffalo and yam very nice tasted like beef really! all good! we finally got back to denver at about 10.30pm after driving around the mountains for over 14 hours, it was an incredible day full of beautiful sights, we just loved denver! i think it was gavs favourite place overall!

Chicago!!! ok i know the photo of me eating noodles isnt very exciting but i was a little excited about finally eating noodles out of the little boxes you see in friends so here i am eating noodles out of a box!! we actually became locals to the chinese place, it did really good really cheap food so we ended up eating there every night we were in chicago - sad i know but hayho!

chicago we really packed a lot into the 3 days we were there! we went to the museum of science and industry (photo of gav in a bed from the german U-boat 505 the first one captured by the americans in WWII, not sure how comfortable that would have been night after night!), we also went to the Field museum which is like a small natural science and history museum (theres another pic of gav in an underground world, you get shrunk and walk though 5cm squared of soil and take in all the life below, it was really quite cool!!) and also on the same day we went to the Adler planetarium which was really interesting, i like things like that in particular, we saw shows on the stars and constilations etc all very good! but blimey we were museumed out by the end of the day! on the way home we walked past Buckingham Fountain and i think the photo shows just how windy it was in chicago! after being in the heat of miami it was definitely a shock!! oh and the other photo is of us outside the planetarium with a really good view of the city behind us!