Been Away....My American Road Trip 2014

Where do I begin?

Sorry I haven't posted in a while guys, I have been travelling around America since May and haven't really had the time to blog...I know I've been really bad. 

But I had a fantastic time and got to see a lot of really incredible places and do a bunch of amazing things. 

It all started when my family and I decided we wanted to go to Nashville for the Country Music Festival (being hardcore fans) so I decided I was going to stay and travel around America by myself, and my sister Josie decided she was going to come with me, so off we went, to America.

We flew into Atlanta, but the next day drove to New Orleans, which is such a vibrant place and after that we went to Memphis, which was amazing, visiting Sun Studio's is definitely up there with one of the best things I did on this trip. 

(Inn on St. Peters, our hotel in the French Quarter)

(Elvis, Cash, Lewis & Perkins microphone, Sun Studios)

Then after Memphis we headed to Nashville!!! And my god it was incredible, I want to make it an annual occurrence, all the performers where amazing and the atmosphere was definitely something you need to experience once in your lifetime. 

 (CMA Festival in Nashville) 

(Photo-booth at one of the exhibition stands at the CMA festival)

When we were in Nashville Josie's and my friend Lucy decided she wanted to come out and join us, so when we were headed back to Atlanta for everyone else to catch a flight home, she flew out and joined us. 

When we were in Atlanta we went to a baseball game and got foam fingers. It's so much fun, but just like rounders (my UK readers will understand what rounders is). After Atlanta we went to Washington D.C, which is such an amazing city! I definitely recommend visiting, we did all the touristy things while we were there and even used their version of Boris Bikes and cycled to Georgetown (which if you are there, go and get a cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes, they are to die for!!) From there we made our way down the coast stopping at Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach, Charleston (where we got our car stuck in a huge pothole), Savannah and then made our way into Florida. 

 (Atlanta Braves baseball game)

(THE White House)

 ($2 Mimosa in Virginia Beach)

 (Rainbow Street in Charleston)

 (Car getting stuck in Folly Beach)

(Savannah)

After Savannah we entered Florida having planned our first stop there to be Daytona, but after arriving and not liking our hotel and it being dead we left and headed to Orlando where we were for 4th July, after that we went to Miami and got to swim with DOLPHINS!! After Miami we drove to Tampa where we spent a couple of days before we flew to San Diego.

 (Universal Walk in Minion Glasses)

(Water ride at Typhoon Lagoon)

(Swimming with Dolphins in Key Largo, during our stay in Miami) 

(Busch Gardens in Tampa) 

Going from the East Coast to the West Coast there were a few differences, 1) a lot more touristy 2) people are generally nicer on the east coast, but the people from The South are the friendliest by far and 3) the weather is a lot better. We flew into San Diego and from there made our way up the coast to L.A and Santa Monica where Lucy went home. 

 (Sea Lions at La Jolla)

(Laguna Beach, unfortunately we didn't see LC)

 (Us sitting on THE ACTUAL FRIENDS SOFA during our Warner Brothers Studio Tour)

 (Dierks Bentley Riser Tour at the Greek Theatre L.A, with Jon Pardi, Chase Rice and Chris Young)

(Muscle Beach)

After we dropped Lucy off at LAX, Josie and I headed to Runyan Canyon for a hike, and then continued on with our road trip, next stop was Palm Springs (where the temperature was 120 Fahrenheit, so bloody hot) then from Palm Springs we headed to Malibu going via Huntington Beach to watch the US Surf Open, then from Malibu we headed to Santa Barbara where we did our own surfing.

 (Runyan Canyon with a view of Los Angeles)

(Mount San Jacinto hike in Palm Springs)

(US Surf Open)

(Malibu)

(Surf Lesson in Santa Barbara)

From Santa Barbara we took the coastal route up to San Francisco having a night stay in Cambria and stopping at Big Sur. Once we got to San Francisco the traffic was a nightmare but after about an hour we made it to our hotel and got settled ready to take on our time there. 

 (Josie with her stone tower in Big Sur)

 (Photo stop during our cycle to and along the Golden Gate Bridge)

(Stuck in Alcatraz)

From San Francisco, we then went to Yosemite National Park where we enjoyed 3 long days of hikes, and saw some incredible views! Then we headed to our last destination VEGAS, during our time here we went on an over night trip to the Grand Canyon, to get there we went via the Hoover Dam and the historic route 66.

(We're on top of the world in Yosemite)

 (Our home while we were in Yosemite)

(Yosemite National Park)

 (Mason Jar beer at I Like This Bar and Grill in Vegas)

 (Hoover Dam) 

 (Route 66)

 (Grand Canyon National Park)

 (Grand Canyon National Park)

(530am sunrise over the Grand Canyon)

 (Las Vegas Strip)

 (Iconic Bellagio water dance)

And that was my 2014 American road trip, I will now be back on book reviewing and I'm also going to start adding a few other pieces on my blog, this will be either my own writing or reviews on different genre books and things other than books that interest me. 

 (Las Vegas)

Price of a Kiss, Linda Kage

Running from her psycho ex-boyfriend the last thing ‘Reese Randall’ needed was from Mason to come along with even more baggage.

Mason Lowe needed to keep his job to help support his family and that was that, he didn’t care what other people thought of him, until Reese came along, knowing he needed to keep his distance from her but he just couldn’t.

I thought the story line Linda Kage thought up was really good, it’s not every day you read a book about a college gigolo and end up routing for him and the girl to get together, but Linda got you to empathise with Mason and understand that he had to do this, he had to sell himself to help his family survive with his sisters medical bills and his mum not being able to afford rent, he needed to do this.

The connection between Mason and Reese had you wanting that relationship for yourself, they were best friends and could be themselves around each other – yes ‘Reese’  was hiding her real name from him, but that didn’t matter because when they were around each other they were both so real and the passion and chemistry between them was incredible. They both knew how they really felt about each other which is frustrating as Mason’s job kept them apart.

The book doesn’t drag at all and isn’t very repetitive, there any many different relationships throughout the book and Linda shows you that it doesn’t matter how different you are from someone you can be friends or more.  However I felt as if Eva, Reese’s cousin’s role in the book didn’t really mean anything she could have not been in the book and it would have been exactly the same. Sarah, Mason’s sister on the other hand helped the progression of their relationship seeing Mason in a different environment, relaxing and the love he has for his family showing through was incredible.

I connected with both of the characters on a physical and emotional level and it’s one of the first times I fell in love with the leading lady as well as the man. I really liked Reese’s awkwardness but also abruptness and I was able to relate to that, I also liked being able to understand what was going on in her head, read her thoughts so to say. The vulnerability Mason shows to Reese had my heart aching throughout, I also liked how he would be able to put that wall back up straight away as if nothing had happened, it showed you even more how vulnerable and broken he is.

I really enjoyed this book, and therefore give it a 4* rating.

Tall, Tatted and Tempting, Tammy Falkner

Kit was keeping secrets from everyone, but Logan was going to be her undoing.

Logan’s life was far from perfect, but as long as he had a girl in his bed at night he didn't care – until Kit came along and turned his life upside down.

This story is your classic happy ending romance story, it was good but not great – it had the potential to be so much better. I found that it was quite rushed it went from Kit wanting to get a tattoo, punching Logan in the face to sleeping in his bed and having feelings for him all in the space of 2 days. If Tammy Falkner made the story longer, included more about their back stories or their lives now before they met and took longer for them to get together I think the story could have been great.

That being said, I enjoyed the story line and I liked the twist of Logan being deaf as at the beginning you read from Logan’s point of view and you think he is just your standard cocky bad boy, but the twist of him not being able to hear grabbed my attention more than it would have if he wasn't, however I wish they focused more on Kit learning sign language for him when she can’t read more than just once and then her suddenly having learnt it.

I also enjoyed the twist of one of Logan’s brother’s having cancer, but again I think Kit calling her father after running away should have been lengthened as well as when Kit goes home and her mum suddenly wants to help her and there’s this country wide press conference.

This book is good, but should have been longer with a lot more explanation and detail. 

I give this book a 2* rating.

Escaping Me, Elizabeth Lee

Whitney has escaped her ex-boyfriend by spending the summer with her mum and sister. The last thing on her mind is a new guy so why does she keep bumping into Cole?

Cole got kicked out of his house by his brother and the last thing he wants is to draw attention to himself, so why did he help her?

When I read the reviews of this book, I thought this book was right down my street and I was right.

I was expecting the book to start with Whitney walking in on her ex-boyfriend in the middle of having sex with some random girl, but it didn't and too my surprise I was happy that it didn't as the way it started held my attention more because it was different. It started off with Whitney and Cole’s first encounter and from that moment I was hooked.

Whitney’s perfect looks and Cole's bad boy image I knew that they would be together and their sexual chemistry was insane. Though the book had a lot of drama and a lot of arguments between different characters it held my attention the entire way through and not once did I think it was repetitive.

This stories ending was different than most, as Cole was moving to Georgia to start up his own business Whitney was going to stick at the school she was already at and try at a 2 years of a long distance relationship, I like how neither of them were going to change their lives for each other until Whitney was able to transfer to a school in Georgia, you never see their relationship get that far you see them struggle as they have to do long distance for 4 months and see the strength of their relationship.

This book makes you think that no matter where you are both from and who or what gets in the way, love can conquer all if you let it.

I enjoyed this book a lot and will happily give it a 4* rating.