Los Angeles 

We had a free day whilst in LA so we all decided to do our different things. Me, Courtney, Dean and Jemma had booked to visit Universal Studios Hollywood. We had already booked our tickets online the night before and received the ticket/barcode via email so when we arrived at Universal we went straight through and they scanned the barcode. This was really quick actually there wasn't much of a queue. I have visited the Universal Studios in Orlando before so I knew what rides there would be. We went on the following rides - Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, Flight of the Hippogriff, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, The Simpson's Ride and the World Famous Studio Tour which included King Kong 3-D and Fast & Furious Supercharged. The queue for The Mummy ride was a few hours long and unfortunately the Jurassic World section was closed due to re doing the rides I think. For lunch we stopped off at Krusty Burger where I had a hot dog with chilli and cheese, so good! Afterwards we went to the Universal City Walk before we headed back to the hotel to do a bit of shopping, and guess what, they even had a Sephora! So us girls got some goodies.



San Francisco 

For our free day in San Fran our activities were to visit Alcatraz and our sunset cruise in the evening. Both of these were activities we had to pay extra for. If you're visiting San Francisco and are wanting to book to do Alcatraz then I definitely recommend you to pre book your tickets! We saw a lot of people trying to book onto the trip the same day but there were no tickets left. We were all in a group chat prior to going away and had spoken about how many of us wanted to visit here and was on the lookout for when tickets were available to book now thinking back our trip started at the end of May and I'm sure it was around 3 months before the date you would be visiting. They only had around 300 tickets available so they do go quickly! I think the price was bout $40 for our day tickets, but there are also options for early bird and night tickets too but Trek America will state what time you should book it for depending on when you will arrive in San Fran. When they call your time, you all queue up ready to board the boat which takes you to the island. It's only about 15 minutes and you arrive at Alcatraz. You can wander around the outside premises and then you go inside the prison for the Cellhouse Audio Tour. Again I love doing these audio tours because you can go at your own pace and take your time to properly look around and pause the audio at any time. It was so interesting to see everything how they lived in there, where they ate, slept, showered etc and also to hear about the inmates that tried to escape. Our paid activity for the evening was a Sunset Sailboat Cruise, again this is another activity I would recommend you to do, everyone in our group chose to do this so it was really nice to experience it all together. It was amazing to sit at the front of the boat and watch the sun go down as we were sailing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. With the activity all drinks onboard were included and they also gave out warm coats, although they only have so many and due to a few people on board that wasn't part of our group, a few of us didn't get one, so what I would say is wrap up! Its so cold out there even though it was in June it was very windy and chilly out there on the sea. 





Jackson Hole

I spent the morning in Jackson Hole...horse riding! I kind of regretted not taking up the chance to horse ride earlier on in the trip when we had visited Zion National Park but I knew this was an opportunity so even though I was so scared due to me never being on a horse before and the fear of getting on and off a horse, I did it and it was amazing! This was another paid activity that me, Anna, Saskia and Jurn decided to do together. It was so handy too because it was literally over the road from our campsite. We got given our helmets and sized up to a horse. My Horse was called CB and you can see me with him in the photo below. He was so good but kept wanting to eat everything whilst out on the ride and as he would bend his head down to do this I kept feeling like I was going to fall off! You went off in a group of around 8 and had your own cowboy guide that you followed as the horses stayed in a line behind each other, it was good because the guide would always stop and make sure everyone was together which I was glad about because me and Saskia were the ones at the back and I had no idea how to control a horse (although they do tell you at the beginning which way to pull the reigns but I was just so nervous about it) The journey lasted 2 hours and followed roads and up a trail path up a hill into some trees which took you to an amazing view,\ where the mountains where in the back covered in snow, it was beautiful. I was just gutted we couldn't take our phones with us to capture these moments. This took around 1 hour and then it was an hour back to base.




Cody 

When booking the "Grand Trek/Northern Trail" it stated that whilst we were here we could have the opportunity of paying to go to the Cody Rodeo. Then a few months before we were due to go away we received an email to say a few things had changed on the itinerary which one of these were the Cody Rodeo had been removed. When we got to Cody we found out this could still be done so as I did want to experience this me and a few others bought tickets to go and see it. The atmosphere was so good, but it did open up my eyes to what actually goes on in a rodeo. I won't go into too much detail of what goes on due to the fact everyone has their own opinions on this sort of thing and personally I'm not too sure if I would go to one again, I had a good night and I got to experience it all and see how and why it is such a big event over there in Cody, which is what I wanted and ticked off my list of things to do.



South Dakota

We visited 1880s town, this was about $10-$12. There are more than 30 building which are all authentically furnished just like in the 1880s. Lots of memorabilia from a champion rodeo cowboy and lots of props that were used in the move Dances with Wolves. If you're into your history then this is worth a visit. They also had a costume hire section which I would love to have done and get all dressed up for photos but due to the time we went, this was closed.



Chicago

On our free day in Chicago everyone pretty much went off and did there own things, so in the morning I did a bit of shopping and then in the afternoon I met up with Anna and we decided to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was around half an hour away from where we were staying so it wasn't too bad and also the zoo is free, yes FREE! I was really looking forward to this as I love Giraffes so was so excited to see them. Me and Anna decided to pay to get our faces painted too haha it was so funny, I chose a butterfly and she had a rainbow tiger. I mean everyone around the zoo kept looking at us but we didn't care. We saw Gorillas, Polar Bears, Giraffes, Zebras and much more! We only spent a couple of hours here as we were heading back to meet up with Jurn, Hayley and Saskia as we were going out for food and then heading to the Willis Tower. During the day the queue was huge for this so we decided to go at night, there was still queue but it wasn't too bad. I can't quite remember how much the tickets cost but according to Trek America its between $25-$45 depending on what ticket you buy. I really wanted to get a photo on the ledge of the Skydeck but the queue was huge for the part so we didn't bother and I saw that you only literally get seconds to take a photo on there. Even though it was good to see Chicago at night and all lit up, I would have preferred to have gone during the day to see better and take better photos and also to have got my photo on the glass edge. 





Ohio

We visited Cedar Point Amusement Park as it was in the evening by the time we arrived our tickets were the "Twilight Pass" these were between $40-$50. The park was rather quiet which meant the queue time for the majority of the rides weren't too bad. Now I love theme parks but sadly I only managed to do 3 of the thrill rides due to getting a massive headache which meant I couldn't ride anymore due to the fact my head felt like it was going to explode, but I managed to ride Steel Vengeance, Gemini and Maverick. Steel Vengeance was the first ride we went on and that had to be the longest queue, think we waited around 2 hours for this, but it was great! I just wish we got to spend more time here.


Niagara Falls

Our paid activity for whilst we were at the Niagara Falls was to do the Maid of the Mist tour. Our time slot for this was after we had our evening meal and it was the last boat trip of the day, we were running behind so we literally had to run to make sure we got on the boat at they were starting to close the gates for it, we made it down the elevator, received our free post cards and ponchos and onto the boat we went! I was really looking forward to do this little trip and getting the chance to see the Niagara Falls up close although my experience of it was that it was windy and all that we did see was a lot of mist (hence the name of the tour haha!) oh and yes we did get wet too, but luckily these very attractive ponchos helped with that. Canada also run this tour if you're on that side and get given red ponchos. I would definitely do this tour again. 





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