Trek America - Cedar Point, Niagara Falls and Newark Goodbyes
"When you travel alone you learn to push yourself in every situation, to meet people, to try new things and to see what you really love without the influence of others"
Before I start I would like to say that I am not affiliated with Trek America, all views/opinions are my own and I just want to share my experience with you all and hopefully give you an insight into what my trip involved if you are looking to do one yourself, which I would definitley recommend!
** I would also like to add that if I state any activities that I took part in, I will be going into more detail with these in a future post.
Sunday 7th July 2019
We were making our way to Lake Erie today for our campground. This was the day when the majority of us wanted to visit the Cedar Point theme park. It felt like a long drive and we just wanted to get there early so we would have more hours to spend at the theme park, but we didn't arrive at camp until 4pm and by the time we had set up and then arrived at Cedar Point it was after 5pm, and from what I can remember the park closed at 10pm so we were all a bit disappointed that we didn't have long there but we made the most of it and headed straight for the first queue. We had left Cedar Point and went to Thirsty Pony to meet with the others who didn't want to go to Cedar Point, for drinks and food. I chose to have a starter of onion rings as I wasn't too hungry but so glad I went for a starter as the portion was huge. We left around midnight and went back to camp.
Monday 8th July 2019
This was another strange day, the feeling of knowing the trip is nearly at the end and we would have to say our goodbyes again but first our destination was Niagara falls! Cat let us all go to Chipotle again for our lunch so it was burrito time! We parked up and it was a short walk down to Niagara Falls itself. As it was Shaun's birthday today we also went out for tea to the Hard Rock Café. I had the steak fajitas! Once we had finished our meal we had to rush back as we had the Maid of Mist tour booked and literally had to run in the end to make sure we made the boat as it was the last one of the night, it was a really good experience! We headed back to camp for our last night as a whole group and sat around the camp fire.
We were heading back to Newark Hilton Hotel this day. The hotel were my trek across the USA had begun. To start the day off we stopped off at Tim Hortons for a quick breakfast and a hot drink then for lunch we stopped at this really nice bakery called Itheca. They had a lot of selection to choose from. We had arrived at the hotel around 7pm and we all said our goodbyes as some of the group weren't staying in Newark. Cat gave us all a little present of group photos she had taken of us throughout the trek which was a nice little touch. How had 6 weeks been and gone already?! We checked in and headed to our rooms, it felt so strange being here again the place where it had all started from. It only felt like yesterday that we were meeting the group for the first half of the trip. Once we had sorted things out, Me, Rach and Courtney needed to go to Walmart to buy an extra suitcase for all our stuff and Dean & Shaun decided to come with us. We stocked up on American food and sweets that we wanted to bring home with us and picked out our suitcases. Then had a dilemma of how we would all fit in a taxi back to the hotel with 3 suitcases haha! When we arrived back it was straight to packing and making sure we had everything and our documents for flying home. It was then time for bed!
Wednesday 10th July 2019
Today was the day! Heading back to the UK. We woke up early this day around 5:45am as us girls who are all flying back to London Heathrow together wanted to go into NYC for a few hours first as our flight wasn't until 6pm so didn't have to leave for the airport until the afternoon. We got an uber and arrived in Times Square, We went to this little café for breakfast and had pancakes. Hayley had been to New York before so she led the way to most things and we did a little shopping along the way. We didn't have long here but we managed to fit as much in as we could during this time. We had a look around Times Square, walked to 5th avenue, did a bit of central park, saw the Rockefeller building. We stopped to have our last American McDonalds then headed over to the Pennsylvania Station where we got the train back to Newark.
Once we arrived back me, Hayley, Courtney and Rach went to Shaun and Deans room to spend the last few moments together as the originals, we had found each other on the trek forum months before the trek had even started, spent all that time talking, we were on the "Grand Trek" and spent the last 6 weeks together. It was time for us girls to get our shuttle bus to the airport and we said our goodbyes to the guys as they were flying later that night. We all got our luggage checked in and waited to board our plane. Me and Rach were sat together on the plane and Courtney and Hayley were a few rows back. We landed at London Heathrow and waited for each other to get off the plane, now this was the hardest part saying goodbye to the girls! Although me and Courtney had connecting flights so we walked to our connections, said our goodbyes and parted ways. My flight was to Leeds Bradford Airport so it wasn't a long flight but I slept for most of it. The plane landed and I went through to collect my luggage! Does anyone else panic thinking their luggage isn't going to show up? Especially because this time I had 2 suitcases with me but they arrived safely! I walked through arrivals and saw my parents stood waiting for me with a welcome banner. Cute! It was time to go home and see my dog Bailey!
And that was it, my American adventure was over! I had covered 24 states in 47 days, I achieved so many things whilst being over there and ticked so many off my bucket list. I flew on a plane by myself, went white water rafting, skydived, went in a helicopter, had amazing night outs, explored Alcatraz, walked along the Golden Gate bridge and so much more!
Thank you to everyone who has made this trip special both on the southern side and the northern side and all the memories we created and shared together. Who knows if one day we will all meet up again.
Now the next upcoming posts are going to feature a more in depth explanation of what activities I took part in during my Grand Trek, as there are quite a few I will be splitting them into a few parts. First up will be....
Trek America - Activities Part 1
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