Stories and tips from around the world.
I didn’t need to worry about breakfast - I’d bought it on my way back to the hotel the night before. This meant I could get up a little later, have breakfast, and then finish packing before heading to the train station to get to the airport. At least in theory, but I found myself awake before 06:00 once again. Rather than flying straight home as I often would, I was on my way to Canada to rejoin J …
The wettest marathon I've ever done, but also my fastest WMM to date even if not my fastest overall. It'd been quite the experience, and one I wouldn't be forgetting quickly
The focus for the day was collecting my race number, but it still left time to visit the Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, and the aquarium
The first full day in Chicago was spent walking to the Science museum, boarding a German U-boat, and waiting in a queue for over an hour at the top of the Willis Tower.
Despite our efforts for a smooth journey home, mine would not quite go to plan.
Having run out of sights in Zion early, we went off looking for more places to see
We'd pretty much exhausted all there was to see in Zion, but spent the day making sure we'd not missed anything.
For our first full day in Utah it was time to leave the snow of Salt Lake City behind us, and head into the sands of Arches National Park
After the events of the previous night, it was a sombre feeling to the start of the day, but we tried to continue on with the plans for the day before moving on to Utah.
This was our day for exploring San Francisco, but it would be a day that neither of us would forget on our return from Alcatraz.
After a few last sights in Yosemite, it was time for a long drive to San Francisco during a heavy thunderstorm.
The first day in California was in Yosemite National Park, one of the most picturesque parts of the USA I've visited
We were back in Phoenix, and would soon be on our way home from this grand adventure.
One of the most memorable things my Grandma had done before she died was to fly over the Grand Canyon. Now me and my sister were about to do the same.
I had hoped to go for a morning run whilst in Kayenta, but at the time I’d need to go out, even for a short 5K run, it would have been in complete darkness. As I didn’t have my head-torch on me I had no choice but to miss another run. We went for breakfast at 06:30 so that we could get to the Monument Valley visitor centre around the opening time. The problem though is that the restaurant didn’t o …
We'd got most of the day to see one sight in Colorado, and then get back into Arizona for an overnight stay near Utah.
We'd got the meteor crater, petrified forest, and painted desert to see before a long drive into Colorado.
Today was a journey north to see a mission, a missile, and to cover some of Route 66.
Our first proper day of sightseeing was south to Tombstone and the OK Corral
It was a long flight to Phoenix, AZ, but there my sister and I would be meeting up with one of my friends for a roadtrip.
It was a restless night – with so much noise around the hotel it meant it was difficult to sleep. At around 04:30 there were loud banging noises that sounded like large metal containers being moved. Eventually though it was time to get up and head to the airport, having had only 3 to 4 hours of sleep at best. Due to how early we were leaving it meant having breakfast at the airport – fortunately u …
We were at our southernmost point of the trip and now had to drive all the way back to San Jose for the end of the trip.
Today I'd be getting to see a space shuttle, and also travelling out to Joshua Tree
The focus of today was a tour of the Warner Brothers film studios
We needed to be out early as today we'd be having a surfing lesson in Santa Monica
A second day on Big Sur, we explored some more of the state parks along the route.
It was an early start to the day, so early in fact that not only could I not get a lift to the airport, but there wasn’t a train running either. My only choice was to take a 05:30 taxi to the airport, and that was probably slightly later than I should have really. The taxi turned up late, but I was still at the airport in plenty of time to drop off my bags. Even though I’d checked in online and ha …
It was time for me to go home, even if that meant a six hour wait in Ireland without being able to leave the airport.
Today was my last day of business, and would end with me heading to Nebraska for my eventual flight home.
Today was a long drive to see another customer, this time in Wayne, Nebraska
Today I was back working, and would be staying in Kansas, but also crossing over the state line into Missouri
After a terrible night of sleep, I travelled back into town to see The Alamo, and the river walk.
The majority of the day was spent at the space centre, and ended with my journey to San Antonio to discover a hotel disaster.
Today was the first of the days I was working for, but as soon as I was done I was then on my way to Houston for the start of the weekend.
For the first time since 2009 it was a business trip that would be taking me abroad. Whereas previously I had gone with a couple of other colleagues, this time I was flying to the US alone. Due to the number of weekends I had busy over the course of the year it meant the only way I could fit in this trip was to fly out mid-week, but this did also mean I’d have some downtime at the weekend to use f …
Today we got to see some of the cast of The Karate Kid films, and spent more time looking around before collecting our luggage and heading to the airport for our journey home.
Another day spent going around the convention, checking out the amazing costumes of cosplayers, and seeing what famous people we could get signatures of.
The second day of the convention involved a lot of Star Trek. I got the signatures of most of the cast, talked to them, and also went to a panel for Elementary. The evening involved even more Star Trek with a talk from all the cast hosted by Captain Kirk himself.
Our first day at the New York Comic Con, and my sisters first ever time at a convention. She didn't know what to expect, and to a degree I didn't either. It was a very different set-up to San Diego, and felt more enjoyable.
This was the first full day of it being just me and my sister, and we decided to try and cram in as much sightseeing as we could before visiting the New York comic con for the next few days. It was a chance to see some of the other boroughs of NYC as well.
Whatever else I saw today, the highlight was always going to be seeing the Enterprise OV-101 space shuttle - NASAs prototype craft that launched the age of the reusable space vehicle.
We did some more exploring of the city, with the aim to be done in time to watch the Rock of Ages performance on Broadway.
For our first full day in the city, we started off with visiting the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island before working our way up from there. To start with though, I'd got around twenty miles to run for marathon training...
A new adventure had begun, with my sister in tow, to the Big Apple. We'd planned on seeing so many sights and would need to figure out the best way to see them all whilst exploring.
After visiting North America for the first time to attend San Diego Comic Con International in 2013, one of the biggest conventions of it’s type in the world, I was left wanting to visit America again. The previous visit was a great experience and I was keen to visit San Diego Comic Con again. Unfortunately the friends I went with didn’t want to go a second year running so I decided it would be a …
