Well i've been pretty slack putting up photos for some time now. The last month and a half have flown by. I spent some more time with Dave and Jay in Whistler after the boys (Ashcroft, Blocky, Millsy) headed back to Australia. While in Whistler Dave gave me some great advise about photography and we went out and got some great shots which you'll see below. We were fortunate enough there was a photo shoot for a magazine in the Blackcomb Mountain half pipe. One of the boarders being photographed was an olympic winter gold medallist. They were really nice and were happy for us to photograph them during their shoot.

Casual as you like in the half pipe on Blackcomb mountain

Fluoro skis in the half pipe

Big air overlooking the valley

Dave trying to get that perfect shot with Olympic gold medallist

After whistler I spent some more time in Vancouver waiting for my visa to arrive. Vancouver is a great city with awesome water views all around it. One night I got some great shots of the city skyline.

Harry, Ashcroft and Millsy just near Harry's place in Vancouver

Stanley Park on the left and Vancouver skyline on the right

Great reflections looking from Stanley Park on dusk.

Once the visa came in it was in the car and straight to texas to meet up with Sarah. A few administration issues held up the process so I was running a bit late but was very fortunate that some good mates from Pano, Matt and Conor, helped me out with the drive south. They had some time to kill before they started their new jobs at Mt. Panorama for the summer season. The 4,073k journey from Vancouver to Dallas took 74hrs, it was a big push but great to see Sarah in Dallas.

Matt, Conor and I saw a great shop in Wyoming with two essential items for a good party. Needless to say we bought some and lit up the sky one night.

Driving through Oregon and Idaho there wasn't may people around.

After the big trip down we caught up with Sarah only 1 day late. The boys stayed for another day before flying back to Seattle before returning to Canada. Sarah and I headed south to New Orleans for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival. New Orleans is a great city with live music in every bar and on every street. The main street, Bourbon St, was the centre of the action with bucks parties, street performers, strippers, retirees from Florida and everything in between. We also found some streets just outside the French Heritage Quarter where more of the locals went to listen to Jazz, Rock n Roll and Blues. Definitely worth a visit for anyone wanting some good music, drinks and streets bustling to the early morning.

Typical street in the French Quarter just a block away from Bourbon St.

Some of the great street performers on Bourbon St

Foo Fighters playing at the Jazz and Heritage Festival

We headed out on a swamp tour to check out the alligators, which are much more friendly than the Saltwater crocs from back home.

Sarah holding a 2 year old alligator our boat driver had as a pet.

After the Jazz Festival in was back in the car and down to Florida. It took us a few days to get down to Miami. It was off-peak season so it was relatively quiet, which was nice and as I'm sure during spring break it gets crazy busy. We ventured down to Key West to the southernmost tip of the US continent, which I don't think the van has ever been to or will be again.

The front street overlooking the beach with some vintage cars.

The only kind of good beach we could find in Florida Keys. We are very lucky with Aussie beaches.

The car at the southernmost point of the US continent.

It was now time to head north towards the big apple. First stop on the way north was Daytona beach to check out the international speedway were the Daytona 500 is held. The first racers where held along the beach, which can still be driven on today.

Taking the Venga Bus (what it has been called since the snowtrips) onto Daytona beach early morning.

The finish line at the Daytona International Speedway.

After Daytona beach it was off to the Kennedy Space station to learn about the Apollo missions and the race to the moon.

NASA Kennedy Space Station at Cape Canaveral, Florida

The space shuttle that took Neil Armstrong to the moon.

It was back on the road again on our way to Washington and then New York City. We stopped in at Savannah (Georgia), Charleston (South Carolina) and spent some time in Virginia at the wineries, Charlottesville and the skyline drive through the Shenandoah National Park. We saw a couple of wild black bears and deers.

Monticello just outside of Charlottesville which was the home to Thomas Jefferson (Third US president).

Great view from nearly 4,000 feet over looking the valleys below.

One of the wild black bears.

The capital of United States was the next stop. It was great day when we went there. We visited all the main attractions as well as the holocaust museum (really recommend it) and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Sarah and I out the front of the Whitehouse.

Washington Monument.

Elephant! inside the Smithsonian Natural Museum.

After Washington it was a brief stop in Philadelphia before finally arriving into New York City. We had 5 and a half days there and that was just enough time to see the main attractions. 

Saturday when we arrived we went past the Statue of Liberty to Staten Island. We explored the financial district walking down Wall St, Ground Zero and then Brooklyn Bridge on dusk and then through the bright lights of time square at night.

Statue of Liberty

Ground Zero where the south tower was. The large building directly behind is the new world trade centre currently being constructed.

Sunday we headed out and saw Grand Central Station, UN headquarters before heading to a Yankees game, which they ended up losing to Cincinnati 2-5. After the game we went up the Rockfeller centre to the observation deck to see the skyline of NYC.

Happy as Larry at the Yankees game with a hotdog.

Looking over central park from the Rockfeller centre

Monday we visited the Museum of Modern Art, which apparently is a must do while in NYC. It was really good with some good exhibits and some famous art work from Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. We also bought the double decker tourist buses to see the sights. There are a number of different loops, which we could go on over a few days. First loop we did went uptown around central park through some of the more dodgier neighbour hoods like Harlem. NYC is trying to clean up its crime reputation and we noticed many cops standing on corners to show a strong police presence. We felt very safe the whole time we were in NYC. We also took the night time bus tour through Brooklyn. The weather was terrible but our tour guide was great so it ended up being a really funny (and cold) good tour.

Rugging up for the night time double decker bus tour through Brooklyn

Tuesday we went on the UN headquarters tour aswell as the the downtown tour through lower Manhattan. That night we headed to Broadway and saw the show Memphis, which was a great show about Jazz and Rock n Roll back in the day.

Out the front of the UN headquarters.

Wednesday was a bit slower renting some bikes and going through central park and then to little Italy at night for Sarah's last night before heading back home to work.

Recognise this!!?

The Lakes in Central Park

Sarah has just left for Oz and I have headed out of NYC towards Boston. It's been a great roadtrip and the car has held up well so far (touch wood). The plan from here is to visit Boston and then back to Canada and visit Montreal and Toronto before re-entering the states under my work visa near Chicago. It is then only a days drive to my summer camp job starting on the 10th June.

Hope everyone is doing well and thanks to Sarah for keeping me company and sane through the many k's through the states. I'll try and lift my game with photos and posts so that there aren't these huge ones every 2 months.