In January 2011, a group of eight friends headed to the United States on a three week holiday. The trip had been the brain work of Mitch Pattel, who was also the driving force behind the holiday organisation. Mitch would be accompanied by his girlfriend Tess, along with our other friends Ant and Suz his girlfriend (former), Matt, Steve and my brother Elliot. I was probably the last to commit given I had next to no money at the time. Red, my brother, didn't let that happen, assuring me it was a trip not to be missed. I am certainly glad he did this as it was a fantastic trip in the end. A boost from a tax return and some loans allowed me to get the flight from Townsville to Brisbane and into Las Angeles. The rest is in the books in my first taste of America.

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After arriving in the L.A.X airport we were quickly on another flight to New York, where we spent five days, including one almost full day of sleep due to jet lag. We did a city walking tour, went to the top of the empire state building, visited central park and had a snowball fight. We also travelled to the Liberty Island and went to the top of the Liberty statue. It was cool to see some of these famous landmarks and get a good feel for New York City. We also visited the ground zero site of the World Trade Center attacks from 2001. The site was commemorated with two water features that represented the two towers that once stood there and construction of a new world trade center was underway. One of the main reasons we visited New York outside of all these landmark was to see Lebron James and the Miami Heat play the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. We saw a pretty good game between the two teams including some highlights with the star players. 

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After a few days in New York, we flew back to L.A and got a transfer to our hotel. At that time I went to sit in the front of the van and went to the drivers side, forgetting Americans drive on the opposite side of the road. It was a good laugh and the driver got a little freaked out. Once in L.A we spent time looking at Hollywood Boulevard and all the celebrity stars on the side walk as well as people dressed up as movie characters for photos. Another day we spent time at Universal Studios, visiting movie sets and going on some rides. While another we visited 6 Flags Magic Mountain theme park and had a great day. We even shot a a video commercial for their jump the queue pass in a trade off for a ride on the parks best ride after the park closed. Back on the basketball scene we went to see a Lakers home game, the best part was it was against my favourite team of all time, the Boston Celtics and my team won! So good! This was a bucket list item for me and I was very happy to see not only my first NBA game on this trip, but my first Celtics game. On one of the last days in L.A we visited Venice Beach and had a look around the famous beach. We were offered blank cds by some 'up and coming' artist, who forcefully tried to put headphones on you to listen. There was other stuff for sale of the herbal variety and a few people asking us to play them in basketball, but we denied both of them and got ready to head to San Francisco.

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Staying on the West Coast with a short flight to San Francisco we discovered a pretty city with a much more relaxed feel to it. I really enjoyed the city after coming with no expectations compared to New York and L.A. The city was different with its varied landscape noticeable with the very old cable cars that battle up the steep hills. In San Francisco we visited a few bars and nightclubs along with the tourist sites like Lombard Street and Alcatraz. We saw the bridge from a segway tour, which made its way around some historic buildings in the area. Lombard St is a steep road in the city that has 8 hairpin turns in a one block section and Alcatraz is the famous prison built in the late 1800's on Alcatraz Island. After a great time in San Fran we moved on to Sin City.

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Las Vegas was the next stop on the 21 day holiday. We had four days here in what we were told was 2-3 days too long as the partying and gambling people do there mean they can only go large for one night. Luckily, we didn't just party and gamble, we also did a Grand Canyon tour, which included a helicopter flight into the canyon with a stop for lunch. The casinos were huge and incredibly designed and decorated, some more modern that others. We stayed at the MGM Grand and visited various others including the Belagio and the Venetian, which were probably my favourites. 

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Our last stop was at a ski resort in Colorado in a village called Breckenridge. I had never heard of it but it is apparently the busiest ski resort in the western hemisphere. We all enjoyed two days on the slopes skiing and snowboarding, but mostly falling over. With only two days we opted against the lesson but this would have come in handy once we hit the harder slopes as my improvising didn't make it easy to get down the slopes. For a place I have never heard of before, it was a fantastic place that i would highly recommend. 

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Given our preconceptions of the U.S from TV shows and movies it was good to confirm some truths of the culture. We certainly found out about big greasy and unhealthy meals, strong accents, tipping and even plenty of snow. Most of which are very foreign to us but made the trip that much more interesting. It seemed like only a taste of the massive country and I was already keen to return some time in the future.

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