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We weren't entirely sure what to expect in Washington DC, we had somehow managed to time our trip to co-incide with the government shut down! Being a very governemental city there wasn't a lot open.. unfortunately - but we knew we were going to make the most of it! 

One of the open attractions was the Spy museum, it was awesome! As it was one of the only open attractions it was very  busy and full of kids but it was still fun to realize that spy's are actually real!! 

The city was pretty empty and we didn't really know what to do so we went on one of the multi stop double deck bus tours thorugh the city. We figured it would take us to the main attractions and give us some further information on each of them  - even if we couldn't go inside.

The tour itself was great - we saw the whole city. The Tour guides kept telling us about the sweet museums and attractions within the smithsonite buildings and others and ten added, but that's closed due to the shut down..

So weird... We had fun while we were there and although there were some things we werent able to see we made the most of the time we had and saw what we could! 

Ottawa

The nations capital.. Once again we had no idea what to expect in ottawa but as the nations capital we were kind of expecting Canberra! However, we were impressed with the beautiful city and wish we were able to spend a little longer!

After checking into our eery hostel which was built in the old city jail (more on that later) we explored the near by markets, had yet another good coffee and then headed to the Canadian mint, home to the design and production house of collectors coins and bullion. We took a tour of the mint and learns about how the coins were designed and made which was pretty cool! The mint had also produced all the medals for the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics and there was a $1 million dollar coin (whose current value was about $6M!) the mint had only made 5 of these coins, 2 belonged to anonymous collectors, one was in a museum somewhere, one in the mint and one to a very rich sheik in the UAE who apparently used the coin as his coffee table!! 

After our tour of the mint and holding a gold bar (which is actually a lot heavier than expected!) we wandered back to the hostel along the water side and found a beautiful view of parliament hill, the parliament buildings and the lock. We could see across the river to Quebec but in comparison to the beautiful views of ottawa, the industrial buildings and view across Quebec were more than unappealing! 

The hostel ran daily tours of the jail where we were treated to an insite of the very inhumane way the previous tenants of the old building had been treated. There were multiple '(private') hangings, little food and a lot of little nooks and crannies where prisoners were sent (for hours to months on end) to be further punished.

After the jail tour we did something a little more enlightening and went to visit parliament hill and the beautiful parliament buildings of the capital. We took a tour through the building and visited to (sitting rooms?), foyers, the tower look out and beautiful double story library. We learned that a fire during the war with America had burned all the buildings to the ground but the library, which had been saved by a quick thinking senator who shut the big iron doors and stopped the fire entering the building. 

For something different we went to a comedy show on our last night which was quite funny and a great  way to end a good few days in ottawa!

Chicago

Wow, the bus ride to Chicago from Toronto was epic to say the least! We left toronto at 630pmand arrived in chicAgo aT 5am the next day!! Tmake the ride even more fun, there was a stop at 10pm where luckily half the bus evacuated, a stop at 1130pm for the all time favourite border crossing, one at 130am in the quite scary town of Detroit, a feeding ago at 3am (where at least 80% of the bus bought burgers and giant sodas) ! Needless to say we were glad to arrive in Chicago where we zombied our way along the street to the hostel!

A it was 6am we weren't able to check in yet but somehow managed to convince the guy at the front desk to let us have a shower!! Feeling slightly more human after a 30mibute shower we filled up on coffee and then hit the streets to explore and shop!! We navigated our ways through the streets and managed to find what we were looking for, victoria secrets and the Nike store! We had much success shopping and were so glad to be able to check into our hostel room where we crashed and woke up ready for another day! 

We joined the city walking tour from the hostel and walked throu soe of the city sites. W saw a lot of museums, some pretry cool pedestristan bridges and fountains and got some inside on the giant sky scrapers that lines chigaos city scape. Some of the buildings were so beautiful and very old and mix with the more modern buildings from today the sky line was very impressive!

After the tour we headed up to the navy pier which we had been told was a major tourist attraction in the city. The walk from the hostel was very long but our new shoes made it slightly more bareable! The pier  pretty cool. There were lots f restaurants and bars, a children's museum, lots of touristy boat tours, a stain glass window exhibit and a theatre! There was even a few theme park rides! We wandered around for a while, had a Very strong margarita in celebration of teddy a birthday and then quickly ran home in an attempt to avoid the threatening storm that seemed to be following us! 

That night we went to the buddy guy jazz bar and listened to some acoustic jazz before exploring the city by night and checking out the lights on the fountains we had visited during the day.

The next day held for us a lot for sunshine and luckily so as we were headed to watch our very first NHL game! We had gone for a run that morning and noticed people walking to the game at like 8am! Kick off wasn't until 12 midday. There was also a carpark full of RV's who had camped ut for the game and were all starting their day with a pre game BBQ! Definitely some dedicated fans.

We walked to the game with the other 100,000 or so fans heading there. It was crazy! I left home without my hat so of course had to buy one when we got there! What a better way to support my new team.. 

 The game itself was a different experience, we didn't really understand what was going on all the time but it was great to be there and be part of the atmosphere with so many very dedicated fans all donned in their teams colours. Ad the stadium was packed too, not like the suncorp games we were used to where the stadium is never full! 

We spent our last afternoon in Chicago watching the sun set with a cocktail in our hand from the top of the John Hancock centre, one of the tallest buildings in the city. It  was then back home to pack and prepare ourselves for our next stop - New York City baby!! 

 

Toronto

The weather one our arrival into Toronto wasn't favourable but luckily it picked up ver the few days we were there so we were able to explore the largest Canadian city!

Through the hostel, we secured ourselves 'discovery passes' which included a day trip to niagra falls, a 2hr city bus tour, a brewery tour and bike rental! With not long to spend in the city and no idea where to start looking we figured this was ur best option to ensure we saw as much as possible in the small amout of time we had

The day we arrived we checked out the hockey hall of fame and learned about the history of the NHL and ice hockey in general (but I should probably just call it hockey as apparently only the tourists call it ice hockey!!) we saw the Stanley cup and a bunch of other trophies and even though we don't know all that much about hockey it was still a pretty fun afternoon!

The next day we did the bus tour around the city which was great, the bus took us throughthe city, past all the attractions and included a very enthusiastic tour guide! She was great, told us all about the history of the city and all the buildings. The weather wasn't the best but we managed to stay dry on the bus tour and then headed into the underground shopping malls to dry off after the tour!

Luckily the weather cleared up for our trip to niagra falls! The bus, which was packed full of Asian tourists and oldies, picked us up from the hostel and took us straight to the falls. Our tour guide Alex, who really liked the sound of his own voice and was super enthusiastic, talked us through the history of Canada and kept side tracking himself on the 1.5hour bus ride to the falls!

We ventured to the Canadian falls but had full view of the falls on the American side as well. Essentially, they had 'drawn' a line straight through the middle of the river and half was Canadian and half American. 

Our first stop at the falls was for photos and the second was for a trip on the maid of the mist, the boat that takes you out to the falls themselves. It was so touristy but we lined up, got our bright blue plastic ponchos and joined the queues. 

On board the boat we jumped straight to the top and tried to get to the front. Touristy as it was it was still pretty impressive sitting at the base of the falls listening to all the water crashing to the bottom. There was also a lot of spray and we all got very wet, Rhys more so than the others as be had failed to put his poncho on properly! Typical !! After our ride, we found out that the company, maid of the mist will no longer be running the tours to the falls and will stop at the end of October, to be taken over by a different company for the first time since 1845!!

We stopped for lunch on a very Vegas inspired street while we waited for the bus to pick us up and take us to our next destination, niagra on the lake. It was a very cute little lake side town which reminded us very much of montville in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, QLD.  We wandered the shops and had the best iced coffee ever as we sat down by the lake, looking across to New York City! On the way back to the city we stopped at a winery and tried some ice wine which is oh so super sweet. Ice wine, which is a type of desert wine; the grapes are picked when frozen and the wine made while the grapes are still super cooled.  Canada is the largest producer of the wine and according to regulations the grapes must be picked when they are at least -8degrees outside!! I can't imagine anything worse than picking grapes when it's that cold outside!

On arrival back in Toronto we headed straight to the nearest pub in order to catch the first NHL game of the season. We picked a good pub which had multiple gianormous screens and was packed full of 'leafs' fans. (The Toronto maple leafs were playing the montreal Canadiens) 

We filled the rest of our toronto stay with a very quick bike ride (riding in the city street sucks!!) a visit to Kensington markets (very hip), a walk along the waterfront and a trip to the steam whistle brewery. 

The tour through the brewery itself was really interesting as neither of us had ever really seen brewing beer! We were also given lots of samples of beer, so many so that I caved in and tried it.. Can't say I loved it but I can still say I drank beer!!

We also took a visit down to the 'brewery district' which was an old area which had been developed and was full of cute little galleries, cafes and some yummy restuarnts! We started with chilli chocolate mochas, had some delicious traditional Mexican for lunch and cocktails and finished with coconut and dark chocolate sorbet! It was a great end to our time in Toronto and prepared ourselves for the epic journey to Chicago!