Las Vegas & The (More Than) Grand Canyon

After one hell of a fortnight spent on the East Coast of America it was (unfortinately) time for me to move on.
I didn’t remember booking a roller coaster, ride on a fighter jet or a 4WD trip from hell. I was pretty sure that I’d booked a simple 2-stop flight. I never expected to have the aforementioned rough rides included! They weren’t even optional extras!
It quickly became very apparent that American Pilots are somewhat ‘flyboys’ that tend to love unnecessary evasive manoeuvres and turbulance. Riding with my Home-Away-From-Home Mum, Tarsh and my buddy Ben. We somehow made it to Vegas. It’s worth mentioning that Ben Leworthy is possibly the best transport buddy known to man, he’s vibrant, alert, helpful and chatty. Even as I write, on a bus headed for San Fran, he’s sleeping soundly in a corner. Exciting. Nothing puts Ben to sleep like excessive travel by transport. Taking off the runway in NY, nervous with excitement, I turned to Ben and exclaimed how awesome it was to be travelling with him. His kind response was ‘Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’, which I’m sure means “Couldn’t agree more!” in Welsh.

Here is a transportation selfie!

One of the best parts about going to Vegas? I got to meet up with a lot of my mates from camp again. Seeing Steven and Craig again was awesome, and in Vegas of all places!

Everyone remembers that place from the Hangover movie, Caesar’s Palace? Yeah. I stayed there. Gosh golly was it a treat after the paper-thin mattresses of camp! Not only that, but Vegas is incredible. I dare say that I’d sooner return there than NYC. Vegas truly never sleeps, ever. Something is always happening. Be it a show, a party, a display of moving statues or the incredible Bellagio Fountains, the place never stops; and nor did we.
I quickly learnt that Vegas’ motto must be ‘Eat when you can, sleep when you can.’ I lived by this to the letter. Out until Stupid O’Clock every night just walking the strip of hotels and Casinos was awesome. Some incredible things I did include, riding on a rooftop roller coaster above New York, New York Hotel. Visiting Shark Reef Aquarium, a day at the Spa in Caesars with Steven, Exploring the hotels and a day trip to the Grand Canyon!

These formed something of a nightly ritual for us all!

Now, the Grand Canyon is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, boy does it not disappoint. It looked like a painting. It was spectacular.
Now I don’t want to spoil it anymore with insufficient words, enjoy the picutres.

450Ft drop either side of us. Scared out of our wits, but completely awestruck.

Picturesque.

Just a little something to scare the living daylights out of our Mums!

With Ben as my last remaining travel buddy…
California here we come!

Maine to New Jersey

Post camp began the third and final chapter of my travels. I still can’t believe how fast it has all gone. Nevertheless it was time to make the most of my last 30 days in America.
The plans must’ve changed a half-billion times between Maine and Connecticut but the decided approach was to drive down as far as New Jersey, ditch the beloved George (our minivan) and fly out to Vegas for the best part of a week.
Our travels began with a beautiful sleep in after 2 months of 7:30am starts. I say ‘sleep in’ but it was really only about 7:45am. Due to our body clocks being shaken to bits I doubt ‘sleep in’ is even in our vocabularies, let alone our near future. Regardless, bright and early we set off singing “On The Road Again” by Sum Won Famus, (or was it Sum Won Ulse?). Bound for the house of our Head Counsellor and his brother (Matt and Will) we could not be more excited. Or sweaty. Yeah, George’s Air Conditioner was broken.
Spending a good few nights at one of the nicest houses I’ve ever seen was amazing due to their hospitality and location! It was a mere hour-long train ride into NYC. Booya! Goodness I love NYC. I love about everything but the crowds, they’re just not my thing. It was good returning because I was able to show Ben around. We met up with friends and a family friend, Liz. Not a bad week at all.

Beautiful Grand Central Station!

Through some of the some of the most difficult train negotiating of my entire life I was finally headed towards one of my new favourite places on earth, Ridgewood, New Jersey. No wait, now I was finally headed there. No… Wait. Now! Nope, wrong train. Now? Now. NOW. There we go.
This little town houses the wondrous Lucy Paterson and her amazing family. I couldn’t have been more delighted to pay a visit.

There is so much to tell, and I’m finding it really hard to convey my experiences of the last two weeks because what made it special was not the locations but the people.

Saying goodbye to Lucy and her family was far more difficult than I could’ve ever imagined. It just kinda sucked.

Meeting up with some of Tarsh and Ben’s kids in Beach Haven was a real treat, these kids are just so awesome to be around and they really have the power to brighten your life. Atlantic city was where we stayed, it was more or less a Ghost Town, quite creepy. It was worth it for the kids though!

Good beaches, good weather, good friends.

Next brought the longest flight of my life, headed to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Camp Wekeela

Hey everyone! So it’s been a fair while since I’ve written a blog. Around 3 months actually. My apologies! Since we’ve last spoken I’ve had the most inexplicable summer of my life at Camp Wekeela in Hartford, Maine. I’ve grown, I’ve learnt, I’ve taught, I’ve travelled, I’ve fallen in love and met some of the most amazing people. Where the hell should I start?

Little Bear Pond.

Camp Wekeela, or ‘Home’ as I call it now, fast became a haven for me. Over the period of the summer I had roughly 35 kids to call my own. Boys by the age of 12. What little legends they were. Becoming friends with them, learning to be a role model and guiding them through the course of the summer was the most challenging, yet rewarding experience of my entire life. Amongst other things I met some of the most amazing people. Some people worth mentioning are my best mates Steven, Craig, Ben and Robbie. These four lads all worked on waterfront with me, hailing from different corners of the earth (Scotland, England, Wales and America respectively) we all worked on waterfront and fast became mates. These guys were the foundations of my camp experience and my travel buddies in my post camp adventures!

The waterfront team for the summer!

Also worth mentioning is my fellow crew of Aussies! It was so refreshing to use all my slang and talk like a bloke and be understood perfectly!

Camp Wekeela, here is the hard part, the experiences I had are purely inexplicable. There is no hope in hell that I could ever convey what it is like to be at a summer camp, particularly Wekeela. So I don’t even know if I’ll try to explain! The main thing is that this summer for me has been incredible. I’ve missed writing the blogs and getting my thoughts into this electronic wonderland, but I’ve had the time of my life. If you budget for anything this coming summer (Northern Hemisphere summer that is), make it a summer camp.

The tears on the last day were neverending, but I knew the friendships and love found at this camp would be everlasting.

“Don’t take my away, from sunny Hartford, Maine. I’m in love with this place.”
Taylor Piggot

Stay tuned to hear more about my exciting adventures across America! Thus far it’s quite the story to tell!

Two Weeks in America

So, two weeks down, 3 months to go.
What have I done? Shopped.

Seriously, what haven’t I done?

I spent several days in Boston, Massachusetts after my visited New York. Now, I have to tell you, I saw more of the insides of Macy’s stores than I did of the surrounding sights.
I visited Salem, famous for its history of Witch Trials and its adorable little town.

Oh, there was also a pirate ship!”

We also visited Harvard Square, then we may have spent another whole day shopping. Whoops!

Well! Next up brought Maine, the home of the summer camp that I’ll be working at. Man, oh man was it not gorgeous. Driving up the highways, flying through the country at 70mph was just beautiful. I’ve really enjoyed driving here!

The entire time in Maine, was food galore. Lobster most nights and something else exotic every other. It was incredible to say the least!

One of our first nights in Portland, Maine was spent at this adorable little place called the Lobster Shack. It was so cool. Lobster Rolls all around and we met a really special family. The Ledues were just as interested in our adventures as we were in their town. Their two awesome daughters, Mandy and Cailley were both around my age and so cool. We got together with them another night for some awesome American gelato.
Some awesome fun was had on the drive up to Mount Desert Island, we stayed in this cute little motel near Bar Harbor, a popular holiday destination.

Being so close to Arcadia National Park meant that we spent pretty much all of our time there. Boy were there some impressive sights, moments, views and scenery.

Oh, did I mention the rain? Well, it didn’t stop. Pretty well the entire four days that we had in the town. Which dampened some spirits and cancelled out some potential opportunities.

The one moment that the rain did stop, the wind picked up. It made for some Super Hero moments though!

So, I’d love to add more photos and stories of my time in America so far, however I’m pushed for time as I have to go and meet the camp dudes at the airport!
In terms of the camp, I’ll post as often as I can! Even if it’s just a photo and phrase.
All the best guys, travel safe!
Matt.

Concrete Jungle of Dreams

Let’s hear it for New Yorrrrrrrrrrrrk!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ve had this one sitting in the banks for a while now. There’ll be a blog shortly following this that details my two-week progression from New York City to Bar Harbor in Maine. So stay tuned!

One sunny afternoon I arrived into New York City, New York; and thanks to the insane timezone changes I arrived a mere 3 hours after I’d left Europe. It’s pretty much time travel.

So I’m pretty sure it happens once to everyone, or so it should anyway. I was in seat 29J, which on my fancy-schmancy aircraft put me at the seat right in front of the Emergency Exit door. Now, the best part about this is the MILES of legroom that I had. Seriously, I could’ve fit a sofa and accompanying foot-rest in front of me. Just, nothing beats it.
Some people decided that it was okay to sleep, I knew that I needed to take advantage of the inflight entertainment. I feel that if I sleep I’m missing out on free movies and as much juice/water as you can drink.

New York!

So I met up with Caitlin Riley, a friend from home, and set up camp with her and her Aunt on the beautiful Park Ave. right in the centre of the city. I was so close to everything. If I couldn’t walk there, a short ride on the metro would just about do it! My first evening was spent walking around the gigantic reservoir of Central Park. Goodness, for a park in the middle of the city it feels so peaceful; yet the entirety of the city’s skyline is still in perfect view. It made for some gorgeous photos!

I love me some panorama!

The next day I woke with a start as two familiar voices entered my world! Bursting through my bedroom door my Mum and Sister stood with smiling faces! Having not seen them in 2 months, let me just say it was pretty darn good to see them again! The whole day began in such a typical ‘My Mum’ kind of way. Hitting the ground running.
Exploring what felt like the entirety of Central Park we powered on through a huge archeological museum which held aspects of worldwide history, mainly Egyption.

After that it was a mad dash to the 9/11 memorial museum. Upon discovering that we probably did not have enough time to go through the museum that day we made a B-Line for the Stratton Island Ferry, a free way to get a little bit closer to the STATUE OF LIBERTY! Wow, I’ll tell you what. It’s impressive. Huge. Beautiful. Worth seeing. Especially if it’s free.

The next day brought the 9/11 memorial museum. I strongly believe you would struggle hard to find a more powerful, more dedicated and more poignant memorial museum in the world. The amount of information presented, and the way it was presented truly left its mark on you. I can’t really say too much more about it with fear of not doing the experience justice. It’s just really something that you need to experience for yourself.

After spending almost 4 hours in the museum, we progressed to SoHo, a shopping area as my younger sister decided she could do with some retail thereapy.
The shopping there was pretty good, however the guys clothes weren’t much to write home about. I’ll have to buy some more as I move further up the East Coast! Summer clothes are in order because I’m kind of dying in jeans with this heat!

So I must say, Times Square is fascinatingly awesome!

Now it’s worth mentioning the spectacular hostpitality, a huge thanks to the wonders of Caitlin’s Aunty Liz, who lives in the bestest location right on Park Avenue. Without her hospitality and laughing (yes, she laughed at my jokes) and happy spirits NYC would’ve been way more difficult!

Tomorrow brings a glorious train ride up to Boston. I’m looking forward to it. Maybe I’ll see Ted the talking bear!

Chat soon everyone! Cheerio!