"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone" 

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 definitely 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.

Tuesday 25th June 2019 

Today's destination was Lake Tahoe. We had a lunch stop at another area with an amazing view! During our drive it was so cool to see all the mountains in the distance covered in snow. Its crazy how the weather is so different in each place as you drive around. We arrived at camp later that afternoon and headed out to get some drinks for the evening. Me and a few others bought the Pineapple cider which we were obsessed with. Cat then dropped us off at the beach where we all just chilled out for a few hours. It was a really nice area which I wish we had more time to explore. Tonight we were having chicken fajitas and for afterwards we made smore's with reese's peanut buttercups! Yummy. Later on in the evening a few went with Cat on a hike to watch the sunset.





Wednesday 26th June 2019 

It's breakfast time and Cat let us go to Denny's! We were so excited, I chose to have the salted caramel pancakes with banana! It was delicious. We got in the van ready to leave Lake Tahoe and we stopped to have one last look at the lake and take in the views. We also had a quick stop at Lovers Lock, this was a cute little area where you and a loved one write on a lock and attach it to a chain.We were heading to Great Basin Nevada today! One of our stops today was at Scheels which is kind of similar to the Bass Pro shops that are in Tennessee. We had a little look around and then Me, Hayley and Rach decided to have a look around at other shops, we found a Bath and Body Works!! Heaven, but I decided not to buy a lot as we still have quite a bit of time left on the trip. As 4th July was coming up soon Cat wanted to take us to this quirky fireworks shop that she knew about that was run by this proper American man and women. But when we went up to the store it had been closed down by the Nevada fire department due to it being unsafe and dangerous. Only in America ey!! So sadly we were unable to buy any fireworks. We arrived at campground and had our evening meal of sausage, mash and beans. Tonight was our groups turn to do the washing up but it was awful, we had to use a tap from the ground which was only cold water and all the bugs were attacking us, even though we covered ourselves in bug spray it didn't work so afterwards I went straight to my tent for the night.











Upcoming//
Trek America - Cody, South Dakota, Badlands

"The best views come after the hardest climb" 

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 definitely 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.

Thursday 20th June 2019 

This day was the start of the second half for me and the fellow trekkers that were doing the "Grand Trek" as explained at the beginning of my trek posts the trek we booked onto was made up of 2 individual treks, so this second half was the Northern Trail and it was the day to meet our new group. We woke up got ready and made sure we had collected all our luggage (although I left my laundry bag with a few bits of underwear in but didn't realise until a few days later) We had to meet in the lobby for 7:30am to meet our new group, new trek leader and our brief for the day.  Our new trek guide was Cat, we filled out all the forms again and got our itinerary for the next couple of weeks. It was time to make our way to the van. Our first stop was Venice Beach again to allow the new ones to see this area. Our next stop was Santa Monica pier, I wish we had more time to explore this area but I got to see the sign for the end of Route 66 which ends in Santa Monica. For lunch we stopped off at Chipotle for burritos (this trip has given me a new found love of burritos) now we all felt a little nervous ordering from Chipotle as it was our first time here and there were just so many options you could choose from to add to your burrito, so much pressure when we are all stood queuing! Our main stop was Santa Barbara today. We decided to stick as a group and we had a wander around the area then decided to stop to have some drinks whilst we were getting to know each other. We arrived at our campground for the evening and set up our tents, although a few people had some issues with broken tent equipment which wasn't a good start and another downside to this campground was that it was full of mosquitos and that didn't go down well as I was already full of bites. For tea Cat took us to this cool looking American diner called Rock and Roll Diner which was only a short drive away from the campsite.




Friday 21st June 2019 

We are heading for San Francisco!! Today's set off time was around 6:30am we were driving along the Big Sur today so this included a lot of stops and getting off the van as we there were many beautiful views and spots to see along the way. The majority of stop were along the coastline although it was quite a cloudy day so the views would have been even more beautiful if it was sunny. Our first stop was at McWay Falls which was a waterfall beautifully situated along the Californian Coastline. It was here where we had our first group photo taken! We also stopped off to see some elephant seals, I couldn't believe how many there were! We stopped off for lunch at this lovely beach named Garrapata State Park Beach we each picked up a camping chair and our lunch and made our way down the steps to the beach were we sat and ate. Our next stop was Lovers Point in Monterey, this was such a lovely little area and the sun came out for us! Back in the van as there were still a few more hours to go and there was quite a bit of traffic but we eventually made it into San Francisco. We could see in the distance the Golden Gate bridge and Cat said she would drop us off so we could experience the walk across it. This is something I have always wanted to do! Rach then requested to Cat that she wanted to stop off at Mrs Doubtfire's house so Cat kindly drove us to the house so we could take photos! For the next 2 nights we were staying in a hostel. So we all got assigned our rooms and me and Rach were sharing with Richard and Leanne who were married. Tonight Cat had made reservations for us to eat at House of Nanking which was situated in the Chinatown part of San Fran. We were all looking forward to eating Chinese food. This place was small and so busy! But we managed to get seats eventually to fit us all in. The food was so good, we had the buffet and already had a variety of dishes chosen to hand out to us which was a great way to try everything out, I would definitely recommend this place to try out if you are ever in San Francisco. 








Saturday 22nd June 2019

Today was a free day to spend in San Fran and we all went off in little groups to do what we had planned. To start off the day me, Courtney, Rach and Dean decided to walk down to the front of San Fran where Fishermans Wharf is. We walked past Lombard Street and took photos although it was full of tourists and hard to get that perfect shot. We were all getting hungry so we decided to stop off for something to eat in Boudin. I chose the waffles with Nutella, banana and strawberries it was divine! We had a wander around to find pier 39 to see all the sea lions and then did the usual stops at Hard Rock café and souvenir shops! It was then time to go to pier 33 as we had pre booked to do the Alcatraz tour! (If you're thinking of doing this then you do have to pre book your tickets well in advance as they sell out quickly) We boarded the boat and it set sail to take us to the Alcatraz island, it was only a short ride about 15 minutes or so. Alcatraz is an audio guided tour which was good as you could just walk around at your own pace and take your time looking around. When we had finished we got back on the boat and decided to have lunch at In-N-Out. Once we had finished it was time to head to pier 39 for our optional activity of the Sunset Cruise. The views are amazing for this and a great way to watch the sunset set but bear in mind it is very cold and windy when you are out there! Once our cruise had come to an end we set off to go back to the hotel which meant a long walk back... or should I say a long walk back UPHILL!! Now I knew San Fran was hilly but once you are there walking it, its on another level. I did really struggle with my asthma and fitness levels but the girls got me through it and we eventually made it back to the hostel for the night.



Sunday 23rd June 2019

Woke up, got ready and had breakfast in the hostel, then made our way to the lobby to get ready to load the trailer up with our luggage. We had our first Walmart stop of this trip and it was time to get into groups and stock up for all our meals. We had a little stop off at a fruit market and had our lunch. Cat also did a bear talk with us as now we are starting to get into the areas where bears could be! We got back in the van and set off for Yosemite National Park. During the drive we had a few stops to take photos one of which was Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias, this was a short hiking trail but me and Anna decided to sit this one out. So we sat on a bench and even saw a little bear in the distance! Driving into Yosemite we also got to see the views of the valley, although the photos doesn't do it justice! It's beautiful.




Monday 24th June 2019

Today we had a wake up call for 4am as we were going on a hike but starting the morning off with watching the sunrise! From our campground it was quite a long drive (around an hour I think) to get into Yosemite itself. We stopped off to watch sunrise which was lovely to see but rather cold at that time in the morning! Once we were all ready we got back in the van and Cat drove us to the trail heads. I would love to have been able to do a full proper hike but me and Anna decided to choose to do the Mirror Lake trail and the others chose to do Vernal Falls. You can choose to just walk to the lake or do the full loop. We chose to do the 2 mile round trip there and back to the Lake where as the full loop is 5 mile. It was a nice little walk. Afterwards we headed back to Half Dome Village and grabbed a coffee where we met with Dean and Courtney. Me and Anna were a bit peckish so we stopped off to get some lunch that had pizza and garlic bread. I was craving some garlic bread so I chose that option. We met up with the rest of the group who had come back from their hike and we headed back to camp. We had a bit of free time before we ate this evening so a few of us decided to head to the pool (yes this campsite had a pool!) and sunbathe for a few hours before heading back as it was my groups turn to cook tonight and we were making stir fry!



Upcoming//
Trek America - Lake Tahoe, Jackson Hole, Yellowstone

"Fill your life with experiences so you always have a great story to tell" 

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 definitely 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.

Friday 14th June 2019

Our wake up call was 5:30am as we were heading to Zion National Park. Our first stop of the day was at Horseshoe bend. We parked up and it was just a short walk away to the rim, the view was amazing, the Colorado river bend is shaped as a horseshoe (hence the name) you could even see little boats that were on the river. We spent a bit of time there taking all our photos and then we headed back to the van shortly after. It was time for another Walmart stop and lunch! Our next stop was to see Lake Powell (I personally thought it was an actual stop at a lake but we were at a bridge and Lake Powell was beneath) Joel our trek leader said he could drop us off at one end of the bridge and we could walk over to take photos of the lake below but it was such a hot day the majority of us decided to wait in the van and let those who wanted to walk over it do it and we would wait at the other side. As the scenery started to change we could tell we were getting closer to Zion. The views were great to see as we were driving through. We arrived at camp and set up ready for 2 nights here. Rach and Kev went off to do their horse riding activity (and now looking back I wish I went with them) and a  few of us decided to have a wander out and see what was around the area and we stopped to have ice cream! Our tea for this night was a lovely stir fry made by Hayley, Isaac and Rach. We also noticed another trek group had pitched their tents next to ours so a few joined us for the rest of that evening.





Saturday 15th June 2019

Another early morning wake up call. 4am! as we were doing the Angels Landing trail (now before travelling to America a few of us had spoken about this hike and that we were not doing it, if you have never heard or seen it before, google it! scaaaarrrry!) Anyways we all got ready into our hiking gear and prepared our water and snacks and headed off in the dark to go get the shuttle bus to the trail starts. Now again before I arrived in the USA I had googled the trail and noticed that before you got to the actual "Angels Landing" part there was a part called Walters Wiggles which was a section of 21 switchbacks. So it thought it get to that part and reach Scouts lookout and I cant just stop there and let whoever else wants to carry on do so, but...… I didn't even make it to that! The start of the hike started off well and we stuck as a group but then with the hills and slight incline my asthma started kicking in so I stopped for some water and I couldn't catch up with the group but that was ok I did my own pace and took it slowly but sadly I had to stop as it was just too much for me. I thought I would be fine with the hikes but just didn't realise how steep they would be and with the heat. I was gutted because a part of me wanted to push myself to do it and see how amazing the views were but I had to be realistic as there were still plenty more national parks that were coming up on this trip and I didn't want to injure myself or push myself physically too much and miss out on the next few days. I enjoyed the view where I got to and then slowly made my way back... although going back down was absolutely fine haha. I got the shuttle bus back to the main area where shops/cafes were oh and signal! And decided to facetime my mum a bit whilst I was alone. It was so nice to catch up with her back home. After a while Hayley, Crystal & Isaac saw me so we decided to go get ourselves some breakfast and walked back to camp. We just stayed there for the rest of the day relaxing playing card games and waited for the others to come from the hike. Tonight was the last night of camping and cooking as the remaining part of this first half of the trek (Southern Sun) was going to be spent in hotels. It was my groups turn to cook and another group joined in and we made marinated chicken & beef skewers with vegetables and pineapple. Yummy!



Sunday 16th June 2019

WE ARE GOING TO VEGAAAAAASSSSSSS!!!!!!! We had to wake up early again this morning as like I mentioned previously it was our last night/morning of camping so we had to clean all our tents and cooking stuff and make sure we packed them away neatly in the trailer ready for the next group who may have them. Joel had made us all a special breakfast with the help from Isaac.....PANCAKES! Once we had finished our breakfast and packed away it was time to say goodbye to Zion and make our way to Las Vegas baby! Of course whilst we were in the van we had to play Elvis's Viva Las Vegas song as we drove down the strip. It was just crazy to see all the hotels as we were driving by trying to take photos/film them all. Our hotel for this stay was at the Golden Nugget which was on Fremont Street (or known as old downtown Vegas) just a short drive away from the strip. We got all our luggage and got handed our room keys so we headed off to find our rooms and get ourselves sorted. Me and Rach started getting hungry so we went out to find something to eat. Now when you hear people mention Vegas they always talk about Heart Attack Grill and both of us really wanted to try it out and wear the hospital gowns. So we googled mapped it and it happened to be on Fremont Street so that's were we headed! We walked in and the waitresses were all dressed up in nurses outfits, the tv's on the walls were showing videos of doctors etc and then another waitress called us over to put these hospital gowns on. It was so funny, me and Rach took a photo of ourselves and was going to post it on social media but then we decided against it in case either of our families found out before we told them its just part of the eating experience haha! Didn't want them to think we were actually in hospital. We got taken to our table and handed the menu. So its pretty much burgers that they offer here, but everything on the menu is named for example Double Bypass burger, Triple bypass burger, they even offer a whopping Octuple Bypass burgers, which is crazy!!! They offer shots that come in prescription tablet bottles or wine that comes in a IV drip bag and stand. We opted to go for the single bypass burger and just a regular coke as Rach asked if they did diet coke but they didn't haha Now if you have heard of this food place you will also know that if you don't finish a meal you get spanked haha! although me, I just thought it was if you didn't finish a challenge meal, not any burger!! and silly me over here couldn't eat it all, so yes as you guessed the waitress got me up in front of everyone, in my hospital gown and spanked me, she go easy on me though as I saw plenty of guys getting it done and wow that must have hurt! On the way back we stopped in some shops and grabbed some souvenirs before we went back to the hotel to get ready for the night ahead! We had all planned our Vegas night out outfits before hand and was all looking forward to getting dressed up properly for the next following nights. It was pre drinks in Shaun & Deans room before we had to go on our included party bus. We got picked up at 9:30pm and headed onto the strip. There was a pole on the bus and everyone was just dancing around it, majority of us were drunk and plenty of drinks got spilt, yes thanks for that one Kev, all down my dress haha once the tour had finished we decided to stay out for a bit and have a wander around, Me, Courtney, Jemma and Dean decided to have a look around the Venetian hotel and then on into Ceasers Palace. Afterwards we decided to call it a night and headed back in a taxi to the hotel.



Monday 17th June 2019

I thought whilst I was in a hotel it was time to do laundry, I could have just waited until I was back camping and done it myself but I couldn't be bothered haha so I just paid to have it all done for me. We had a free day today and everyone went off to do their own things. Me and Rach decided we would head out early and do a bit of shopping. Of course I had to stop in Marshalls and Sephora!! where I went a little crazy haha but this was the first time I had a proper chance at shopping so its all good. I had previously told Rach about Black Tap and their amazing looking milkshakes so we went searching for it to have lunch. Wow the milkshakes are incredible, we were sat near to the area where they made them and just watching them I was amazed. I opted for the Cotton Candy one. It was thick strawberry milkshake with cream, cotton candy, chocolate balls and a lolly.... oooh the sugar rush. It was lush! I would definitely recommend. We decided to head back to the hotel to sort out a few things and look at my new makeup then later in the afternoon we headed back out again as we were wanting to do the Slotzilla Zoomline. That was so cool! After the zipline we just browsed around Fremont street listening to all the music. We walked past the Chippendales which only went and stopped us and told us to get a photo with them, so we thought why not, only in Vegas haha it was so funny! We then went into a casino and played on the slot machines and roulette table before grabbing a McDonalds for tea. For tonight we the majority of us decided we would stay on Fremont Street so once we were ready it was pre drinks before we headed out. It was nice to see the strip all lit up and to watch the zip liners going by and there was also live music playing.






Tuesday 18th June 2019

It was the last day for the "Southern Sun" trek and the day where we had to say goodbye to our fellow trekkers that wouldn't be carrying the trip on. We left the hotel at 8am, it was time to say bye to Vegas as we had a 6 hour journey to LA. As we were getting closer to California we noticed an In-N-Out so Joel let us stop here for our lunch as it was on many of our lists of places to eat and wow we fell in love with their burgers. We finally made it to LA and we had around an hour or so to wander around the Venice Beach area. Sadly it was quite a cloudy day at the beach but we walked around, mooched in souvenir shops and then watched the skateboarders before we were back in the van making our way to our hotel. It was such a weird feeling that day which I think was due to having to say goodbye to our fellow trekkers so when we pulled up to the hotel we all just looked at each other and was like this is it guys, this is end, us that were carrying on the trip collected our luggage and said our teary goodbyes and headed inside to check in. For our tea Joel took a few of us to a place called Rubios and we had burritos. We then headed back to the hotel were we sat outside by the fire pit and talked about the trip so far and what we had to come on the next half.



Wednesday 19th June 2019

So as we were starting the second half of our trip "Northern Trail", this meant we had a full free day in LA. Me, Courtney, Dean and Jemma decided that we wanted to spend the day at Universal Studios. I was ready before the others so decided I would go to Starbucks which was only over the road and have some breakfast and also get chance to speak to my parents over facetime as I knew there was an 8 hour time difference and would be able to speak to them. Once we were all together we ordered an Uber, the traffic is just crazy! but we made just after 10am. As we were walking through we bumped into Crystal and Isaac with their family so it was nice to see them for the final time although we kept bumping into them throughout the park haha. We went on the Despicable Me ride, The Simpsons, Harry Potter and The Mummy rides. It was so much fun. We then went to go queue for Universal Studios tour where you get to see backstage of a few movie sets, it also includes 2, 3D simulator rides of King Kong and Fast & Furious. We had lunch at Krusty Burger in the Simpsons area and we shared a Simpsons doughnut between us as they are huge! We finished the day off with a bit of souvenir shopping and also another few purchases at Sephora, who knew they had one at Universal studios! haha. We got an uber back to our hotel and sat round the fire pit again for the evening where we got to meet one of our new trekkers Saskia!





Upcoming//
Trek America - California Coast, San Francisco, Yosemite