Sunday 21st- Sunset Boulevard

Today we had lie- ins and then we took Michelle back to LA as she had to work the next day. On the way back from dropping Michelle off Lena and I went to Hollywood, we saw the sign in the distance and walked along Sunset Boulevard where we saw all of the star paving slabs. Lena also took me to the Chinese Theatre where they have the cement slabs which celebrities do their handprints and footprints and then sign their names, it was really cool!! There was so much going on there, loads of people dressed up and posing for photos for example. Afterwards we up to see the Kodak Theatre and I saw the Hollywood sign in the distance. It was a really great day!

Saturday 20th-Huntingdon Beach

Michelle and I went to Huntingdon beach which is a really nice beach with loads of shops and nice food place. The beach is where the Hollister store surfing footage comes from! It is an incredibly beautiful place. We got some delicious smoothies from Jamba Juice and walked along the pier. We also tried on loads of things in shops and I bought a few too many things!! Huntingdon beach and pier differs massively to Southend beach and pier, the sand is soft and warm under your feet rather than stoney and shelly!

Friday 19th, Chicago--> Santa Ana, Orange County

Today I flew from Chicago to Orange County. Megan, Maeve and I got up really early and headed to the airport. My case was suddenly very heavy and when I checked in at the airport and the guy weighted my case it was 53 pounds and ended up with a 'heavy' sticker on it! I need to find someone to carry it from place to place for me!! I was so incredibly tired on the plane that I fell asleep before it even took off and slept the majority of the way to California.

Once I arrived in California I met Lena who is my best friend Michelle's mother, Michelle and I were best friends when we lived in Michigan, a long time ago! I haven't seen anyone from the family in 7 years (except from Amanda in Chicago a few days ago). After driving home to Mission Viejo where they live, Lena and I went to the outdoor mall called the Spectrum, it is lovely there because there is a big wheel. In the evening we drove up to Los Angeles where Michelle lives which she is studying at UCLA and we picked her up and drove her back to Mission Viejo. That evening I was really tired so went to sleep instead of going out anywhere.

Thursday 18th- Chicago Zoo

Today I went to the zoo which Megan (the lady I stayed with) two of her daughters and one of their neighbours daughters. It is a lovely zoo. There was a fantastic polar bear and I fed a cow. After we came back to the house I went for a walk into the local town Wilmette with Bridget and Maeve (the daughters of Bruce and Megan), we had iced drinks in Panera Bread and browsed some of the local shops including an amazing scrap- booking shop which I wish we had at home! We played in the local park and then headed home. Maeve went off to play soccer and Bridget and I watched some of ’17 Again’. Afterwards Megan, Bridget and I went and walked down by the beach (Lake Michigan). The sand was so lovely as is all of the sand in America, quite a change from the Southend beach I am used to. After this the whole family and I went out for dinner at a lovely pizza place which I think was called Lou Malnati’s, the pizza they make are AMAZING and really deep dish, first they produced a delicious salad which was then followed by two giant pizzas, one pepperoni and one sausage and mushroom. After dinner we went home and picked up one of Colleen’s friends and then had a “family game night” this was particularly amusing because we told Colleen’s friend it was a special games night when in fact we had just decided to pretend there was one to see how he reacted! We played Apples to Apples which is a game I played in Michigan. It was a lovely day and evening with lovely people!

Wednesday 17th- The Shedd Aquarium, Chicago

We decided Tuesday night that we would like to head to the aquarium today so after a mini delay whilst Emma got her phone fixed we headed on our way to the aquarium. It was Emma, her friend Parker and myself. Emma drove us there. There was a quite a queue at the entrance but I got a Chicago style hot dog so that made the queue much better definitely! Parker, Emma and I had the BEST time! The aquarium is really great and I had always wanted to return there as when I was younger I got a couple of keyrings there. There was a really creepy crabby lobster thing but some great colourful fish and the coral reef area was excellent! They also had beluga whales which were AMAZING and so very beautiful! I wish I could swim in the tank with them. Afterwards we walked towards millennium where I was meeting Amanda (my best friend from Michigan’s sister) who now lives in Chicago. We walked all the lake and went and saw Buckingham Fountain which is beautiful. Afterwards I met Amanda and her friend Chaselin in Millennium Park. We went to a great café called Intelligence and had amazing coffee and cakes. The coffee shop closed at 8pm and we then moved on over to Millennium Park. There was a concert in the park but by the time we made it over there it was finished. However, we walked around the park and enjoyed the evening and then headed to the train station. I got the train back to the suburbs alone and of course sat on the upper deck! It is so much fun!

Tuesday 16th- China Town and giant shiny bean!

Today I went with Megan and the girls to meet Emma (Bruce and Megan’s niece) and Lauren (Emma’s friend). The girls were really nice and we had a lovely day together. After a little mix up with trains we got to China Town. We went on ‘the L train’ and had a nice lunch in a Chinese restaurant. We walked round several shops, most of which seemed to be full of things nobody would ever want! We also went in a crazy shop which sold knives, throwing knives, those weird things which have a chain in the middle and two big padded things at the end to hit people with and big wooden sticks. After a couple of hours and a rude store owner later we got back on the train and headed into central Chicago. We went to Millennium Park which was amazing! There is a giant mirrored bean which you can walk around and walk under and take pictures against. There are some great fountains too which project people’s faces on and squirt out water from their mouths. There are also gardens and a beautiful outdoor stage called the Pritzker Pavilion. That evening an orchestra was practicing for a concert the next day, I’m so glad I got to hear it. After walking around the park we headed back to the station and got ‘the Metra’ train home. I cannot describe my excitement about this train. It is shiny and silver and two stories, a double decker train! It is AMAZING!! There are cute little staircases up to the second floor and little fold out chairs. There are windows on both floors and then you can look down on to the floor below. It is also air conditioned and really cheap, I love the trains in America! Once we got off the train we walked home to Emma’s house and I saw some incredible houses that looked like castles and giant mansions. Chicago suburbs have some very nice streets. Once I got home to Bruce and Megan’s I had dinner, I had ramen which is this noodle dish that you boil up and is very popular with college students. My friend Cristina in Michigan had told me I had to try it and we had bought some but I had never ended up eating it so I had some in Chicago after Bruce and Megan’s daughter Bridget told me I had to try it too, it was delicious!

Monday 15th August, East Lansing--> Chicago

I travelled to Chicago from East Lansing on Monday and it took about 5 hours. The train journey was absolutely amazing, I got to see lots of Michigan and Illinois. The AMTRAK train was really nice in comparison to English trains! I am going to stay with some friends in Chicago who we knew when we lived in Michigan. It is the start of a new chapter of my summer. I have had the most amazing few weeks in Michigan, seeing old friends, making new friends, visiting fantastic places, playing new sports and adopting animals! I’m going to miss everyone I have met so much but I hope we will all see each other again at some point in the near future, either side of the Atlantic!

Bruce, Megan and two of their children met me from Union Station Chicago and we then went for a tasty lunch in Greek Town! Afterwards we drove through Chicago and headed to their home. It's a lovely area! I spent time with the girls and in the evening I headed out to dinner with their oldest daughter Colleen and we went to a movie and got ice cream. I ended up having a mini nap at the movie because I was so tired! We went to the movies in a place called Evanston which is really nice, lots of shops and food places. It was great!

Sunday 14th August- my last day in Michigan!

Kristine and I left the dorms early and went back to our apartment where we showered and went to Target to get a few odd bits. Afterwards we came back and had some lunch and went back onto campus to hang out with some of their friends. Some people I already knew but there were loads of new people too! We played Frisbee and then everyone split off to do different things and I went with a girl called Michelle who I had just met and we had a wonderful couple of hours! We went to a fair that was going on in East Lansing over the weekend, there were loads of cool crafts. I also had my third corn dog which was super exciting. Michelle has been to 49 of the 50 states, I couldn’t believe it! We walked around some shops and got to know each other then went back to the dorms and soon after went to Crunchy’s which is the local bar I’ve been to several times.

It was such a crazy and fun night! There were so many people there including people I had known for several weeks, several hours and then new people! I met a great guy called Kevin and his boyfriend Charlie had studied abroad in the UK for a year and just arrived back a few weeks ago so we had a LOT to talk about! I drank a lot of Mountain Dew and everyone else drank a lot of beer! A guy called Jerry played some live music and played lots of songs we requested including my request of Sweet Home Alabama (much to Cory’s disgust). It was a FANTASTIC night! I wish all of these people could come home with me and be part of my university fun. I left early-ish so I could go home and pack. My friend Josh took me and I saw his apartment on the way home. He works on campus and lives in a really nice apartment on campus, I don’t think UEA accommodation has any of these nice apartments unfortunately.

Saturday 13th August- Bye Bye Plymouth

On Saturday we headed back to East Lansing for the last time. Kyla didn’t come as she was doing some head shots for someone so that was really sad saying goodbye to my American love of my life! Fingers crossed January 2013 we will be reunited though! It was a stormy day Saturday so in between rain showers we pakced up Cory’s apartment and moved things across to his dorm room. The dorms are really amazing and old and full of character which was great to see. We went to a great pizza place for dinner and then I said my emotional goodbyes to Cory’s parents who have been my family away from home since I’ve been in the States. Funnily enough after Cory walked me to my apartment some plans changed and I ended up staying with him in his dorm. The car only had one seat left so I had to sit on Cory’s lap which was a hilarious experience! I finally spent the night in an American college dorm room, it was so cool!

Friday 12th August- Greenfield Village!

Friday today we went to the Henry Ford Museum which is on the same sight as Greenfield Village and going to both of these places are fond memories from when I lived in Michigan. Cory, Kyla and I toured the museum and I had loads of fun pretending to be a hot dog filler, climbing into a big tractor and singing on MTV amongst many other things. We went to the childrens area and played with all the building stuff and made “cars” to race down the little hills. This is where the rest of the family joined us and we then continued our tour around the museum. There were some things I remembered from when I was younger like the Weinermobile and trains but there was also lots of different things. I saw the chair that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in at the opera/ show and there was an amazing civil rights department which I found really interesting after studying it last year. The most amazing thing was that they had the Rosa Parks bus in the museum! It had been found in a scrap yard and people figured out that it was that bus by the serial number and the Henry Ford museum had got it and refurbished it and I sat on the very seat that Rosa Parks had refused to give up to a white man- amazing! Cory and Mr. Hurst decided to go and wait outside for us so Kyla, Mrs. Hurst and I finished the rest of the museum. Kyla sat on a bench whilst we looked at the trains and cars (the cars area is currently being re-done so it was pretty quick to look around this time). Kyla had managed to avoid talking to a man who had seemed to talk to everyone who passed by then when we came back to take a picture in front of the train he asked her to take a picture, we then ended up talking to this man for a VERY long time!! He was very knowledgeable and interesting but every time we tried to leave he started talking again and we ended up having a photo with him and looking at his photos on his phone and hearing about loads and loads of other things. Eventually we left and some Henry Ford staff asked us if he was trying to sell us anything as he had been talking to us for so long!

We left the museum and went to a place called Antonio’s for dinner it was a lovely Italian place and there was a lady sitting in a little room at the entrance making all the pastas in a giant pasta making machine. I had my first spaghetti carbonara of my trip and I could certainly taste the fresh homemade pasta. We order ice cream/ gelato at the end of the meal, there was some confusion when Mrs. Hurst’s three scoops of ice cream came out as a giant ice cream sundae! It was all delicious! After we returned home we watched some movies from when Cory and I were at school together including our leaving cd with loads of pictures on! I also got to see loads of Cory’s school videos including a book review about Franklin playing soccer and a hilarious home movie/ book report type thing in his back yard based on ‘The Pearl’, they were hilarious!! After this we did something really exciting which I have always wanted to do… we went to a drive in movie! They really do exist although are fairly rare. We went to see The Help which was a great movie and I can’t wait to read the book. We went with Val (Kyla’s friend who I have met loads of time and is amazing) plus Kyla, Cory and myself. We parked the car with the trunk facing the screen then opened it up and layed in the trunk on towels and blankets. I also sat outside the car on a fold up chair, it was a really neat experience. I slept in the car on the way home, it has been a very action packed week.

Thursday 11th August

On Thursday Kyla and I had big lay- ins and were still in our pyjamas by the time Cory arrived home about 3pm! After washing my clothes I showered and went to Detroit with Cory to donate some old bikes he had. This was really great because I got to see downtown Detroit. Even though I had been into Detroit to go to the baseball game and Temple bar I had never actually been to walk around Detroit. We walked around a really nice area down by the river and went in a really fancy Bank of America building! I got to see the bridge to Canada and a big Detroit boat called the Princess.
After walking around Detroit we went off the play disc golf before dinner. Unfortunately I didn’t play very much disc golf as I slipped down a slope and did a very unladylike fall and twisted my ankle and stubbed my toe! For most people who know me this will not surprise you in the slightest given how clumsy I always have been. The funny thing was that I had already walked down that slope and thought it was amazing that I hadn’t slipped, I returned to the car to get bug spray and the decided to walk back down the slope… I didn’t get lucky twice! So I did quite a lot of hobbling around the disc golf course and sitting down. In the evening we iced the toe, it is fairly bruised but I think it’s starting to get better now. For dinner we had some of Kyla’s homemade chilli and afterwards watched a comedian and Cory and I decided to watch ‘How Do You Know’ the movie with Reese Witherspoon in, he ended up going to bed before he saw it all but I stayed awake. I had another good nights sleep.

Wednesday 10th August- the last day up North

On Wednesday we got up early and headed to the Omelette Shoppe for breakfast with Nick and Mike. The place is known for it’s amazing omelettes and there was quite a queue! I had two meals for breakfast that day, an omelette with cheese, bacon and hash browns inside plus a couple of pancakes, I am getting fat over here, the food is so tasty. After leaving Traverse City we went via Stanton to visit Kristen’s grandma who lives in a lovely area with a great big pond. We discovered Kyla is great at little puzzles and did a really good job at piecing together a puzzle made of bullets.
When we finally arrived home in Plymouth that evening we had a Chinese takeaway and then hung out at Kristen’s house before heading over to the Hurst household. We told everyone about our trip and then Val came over and we played Harry Potter Scene- it, I slept really well that night! Unfortunately one of the cats had a tinkle in kyla’s bed so she did not have such a great night.

Tuesday up north (9th August)

Tuesday was a jam packed day of up North fun! We looked round some of the local towns including one called Leland where I found a poster that we have framed in my house in England! We saw some otters swimming in the water here and Kyla got some great pictures. I bought some lovely fudge. We went wine tasting that morning and I had some delicious fruity juice and cheese. The lady who helped us had visited England so we had a fantastic talk about the Royal Wedding. After this we headed to Pyramid Point which is a fantastic area through some woods which comes out on the sand dunes. We could have hiked all the way down to the water and then climbed back up the steep dune but decided we didn’t have time for that nor was I sure I would ever make it back up! Instead we had loads of fun jumping of a sandy ledge and taking photos.
We went to visit another lighthouse this day too and then headed to Frankfort and the beach there. The water was icy cold so we didn’t swim in the water and the waves were really strong. We walked part of the way out on the walkway to the lighthouse but after getting soaked by a wave decided to admire it from a distance. After Frankfort we headed to the Sleeping Bear Dunes. The sand is so nice and soft! There are several different areas you can stop and walk around by the dunes so we walked around a few different areas. The wind was really strong and the sand whipped our legs. We saw a bald eagle flying above is, it was very beautiful. Kristen and I did part of the dune climb which was really fun but hard work! We saw other people climb up really quickly.
That evening Kristen’s grandpa’s wife Claire made goulash- a nice pasta/ mince/ tomato type dish and then both of Kristen’s cousins came over- Mike and Nick. We decided to go to get ice cream. Lots of places were closed as it was really late so we instead went to Meijer and got a tub of ice cream and some cakes and hot fudge sauce and sat in the house eating that along with wine Kristen had bought that day and a big growler of beer Kyla had bought the previous day. It was a great evening.

On the way to Traverse City- Monday 8th August

Kristen, Kyla and I left early for Traverse City. On the way we stopped at another town which had statues of the Michigan fish, bird and other animals. Once we arrived in Traverse City we went and had a short walk around the university there as Kristen had done a week long course there, it even had an outdoor classroom in amongst all the trees, I didn’t even realise those kind of things actually existed! After that we went into the city and met Kristen’s cousin Nick and had a tasty lunch sitting on an outdoor deck near the river. I had a delicious blue cheese salad, America really knows how to do salads. There was an extremely posh British family sitting at the table next to us which cracked me up no end, I was finally “no longer alone” as Kyla said.

After lunch we looked round the shops, Nick went to work and Kristen spent lots of money in a jam shop which also did amazing gelato. We tried loads of the jams and also the gelatos, I had vanilla and a banana crème brulee gelato, yum! After all the shopping we headed to see the Grand Traverse Light House which was beautiful and right by Lake Michigan so we took lots of pictures especially Kyla and then went down to the water. The lake is so incredibly beautiful. We had a delicious pizza for dinner and Kristen and I bought lots of snacks and I got a half dollar coin as change from a gas station. They are really rare! Kristen’s Grandpa lives right on Lake Michigan in an amazing house so that was quite a treat. He also has a hot tub which we went in on the first night. It was a perfect day. Kyla and I slept on a mattress with a water bed topping which was amazing!!

The best weekend in the world! August 5-7.

I took a break from writing my blog as it was all becoming rather boring and tedious as reading material!

In the last couple weeks I've done loads of great things, I went to a dog park with my room mate Cristina and her beautiful dog. I won an Uno tournament at a party and learnt a lot of the Call of Duty zombie game. I saw the movie Crazy, Stupid Love, have been doing some exercise, been on some nice walks around the area, been to a movie by myself and got a cartilage piercing with Kristine. Cory and I have also had slumber parties, watched movies and eaten popcorn.

The weekend of Friday August 5th - Sunday August 7th was great, Cory and I came back to Plymouth and Friday night we went to visit Cory's Mom's best friend who was in town from Arizona. She was staying at her mother's house and her son Geoff and his girl friend Heidi had come to visit too! After meeting everyone and hanging out for a bit and heading to a delicious dairy in Ann Arbor Kyla, Mrs. Hurst and I headed home and we had tasty pizza for dinner and then a group of us headed out to Temple Bar (the one I went to on my first evening in Detroit). It was karaoke night and I’ve never sung at a karaoke night so that was a new experience for me! I shared a microphone with Heidi and sang very quietly! Kyla also sang with us and we sung a Grease song- Summer Loving I think.

On Saturday 6th August we went to Greenfield Village which an amazing place which Henry Ford opened years ago. He collected buildings from around the world and they now all reside in a village there. It is somewhere I remember very fondly from my childhood. We rode in a model T and went on the beautiful old carousel. We also got to see an old style game of baseball which I never saw even when I lived there. Heidi had never been to Michigan and was equally excited to go to Greenfield Village. It was also her birthday so I think she had a really great day! In the evening we had an indoor barbeque with delicious food and all played the game Scattergories. I had never played this before but it was absolutely hilarious! Geoff and Heidi came up with some excellent answers to some of the categories including ‘Nate’ as a term of endearment and ‘Bama, O’ as a politican/ world leader answer. It was a great night. After Heidi, Geoff and family left we also played The Game of Nothing. Kyla’s friends had also been around throughout the night to play games which made it even funnier! Such a great day!

Sunday 7th August: Kyla and I took Heidi and Geoff to airport, Cory went back to East Lansing to work for the last week and take classes and Mr and Mrs Hurst went to Traverse City with Lani. Kyla and I hung out after we returned and she had a nap whilst I watched the Discovery Channel and chilled out. Afterwards we went round to Kristen’s house for a barbeque for her Dad’s birthday. Unfortunately due to some communication problems no one was there. However we went into Plymouth and had a lovely dinner at a place called the Box Bar which I know I went to when I lived here. It was a lovely evening and we discovered we are both very clumsy and messy when it comes to eating dinner! Afterwards we went back to Kristen's for a while (they were there this time) and then we to the local ice cream place Dairy King where all the high school kids mingle. We walked around downtown Plymouth and Kyla’s ice cream threw itself all over her. Once we returned to Kristen’s we played a board game called Apples to Apples and planned our big trip for next few days in Traverse City.