On the trail of great, great, great, great, great Uncle Uriah the pirate.

Hello!

On arrival to Boston we were met by a random stranger outside McDonald's with - "what are you guys doing standing around here looking like a bunch of trees???!???"

.....so after spending a night somewhere in Boston, Will drove us up to his parents place in the town of Newport, Vermont just a few miles away from the Canadian border. Its gorgeous place, very rural, green and peaceful. They have a lovely place on the shore of Lake Memphrameagog, which stretches for about 20 miles into Canada. When we relayed this information to Pete's Mum and Dad there was much excitement (and screaming).

It turns out whilst they were researching our family history a few years a go they unearthed a distant relative, Uriah Skinner, who was a pirate, smuggler and all round nasty pasty who used to work on the very same lake. Apparently there is a Skinners Island and a Skinner Cove somewhere on the lake. We didn't actually find the island as only a small portion of the lake was on the American side and we didn't want to cross the border into Canada, but still it was a bizarre coincidence. Shame because we could have found our families buried treasure! although if he was a true Skinner, it would probably just have contained a load of bottles of Rum, probably empty.

Other than that we spent the week chilling out and relaxing in the beautiful surroundings. We went out on Will's boat, and he did some Wakeboarding. We hiked to the top of nearby mountain - Jay Peak, enjoyed a meal at Thai-Tanic (we're not making this up) had a BBQ, and had open fire toasted marshmallows - made into Smores (marshmallows sandwiched between honey crackers with a chunk of chocolate in there too!) Gimme SMORE!!!!! A massive thanks to Will, Katie, Nancy, Larry, Mary, and numerous dogs for looking after us for the week and making our stay so enjoyable in a beautiful part of the states.

So after that, we hired a car for the grueling drive to DC (an overnight trip). We fell out stinking, into the arms of DC during the memorial day celebrations. (to be continued.......).

Love Urvy and pete.

XXX

New York, New York (not the crap nightclub in Bolton)

Hello All,

Hope everyone is OK and enjoying the UK Heatwave. We haven't had time to blog much lately as we have been pretty busy, as USA is not the place to hang around (it costs a fortune). So we are writing a few blog posts in one go.

We landed in New York 2 weeks ago and stopped in a Hostel for a few nights, but then managed to couch-surf with a guy who had a really nice apartment right on Times Square (bargain!!!!). We stopped with him for about 5 nights and managed to tick all the tourist boxes during the week, Museum of Natural History, Central Park, Top of the Rockerfella Centre, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) , the Met (Mum, you would love this and could probably spend a week there alone - OOF!), the Statue of Liberty and saw a show (Hair) off Broadway. Urvy can now say she has danced on a Broadway Stage and has proof on the internet! Pete can now say, I slept though a Broadway show! We have easily eaten our own body weight in pizza, it's everywhere. It almost chases you down the street. In the MOMA there was performance art exhibition by a woman called Merina Abramovich, which involved a staring competition with people queing up to stare at her, while she sits on a chair, for as long as they want. Eh? Mum, your'e the artistic one, answers on a postcard please.

So, we would just like to say a big Thank you to Jagan for hosting us at his place, and a big Hello to our friend Briony (AKA the cat in the hat!) for being our travel buddy for the week!

After New York, we headed northeast to Boston to meet our friend Will who we worked with at the Orphanage in Cambodia. His family live in the very North of Vermont near the Canadian Border.......... ( to be continued!!)

Love, Urvy and Pete

XXXX

Back Home.......Temporarily

Hello Everyone.

Hope you are all well. Its been a while since we last posted, the final three weeks after we left Koh Samui were a bit hectic. We went up to the isalnd of Koh Tao, for a few days and did some snorkeling and introductory Scuba diving with an overbearing German lady instructor. After that we went down to the island of Koh Phangan for about a week. This coincided with the April Full Moon Party, which was a very messy affair but a memorable night out. Not that we can remember that much about it.....

After that we only had a week left but managed to cram in 4 nights in Kuala Lumpur and two in Singapore before our flight home. KL is a great place, loads to do and the food is amazing. We visited the KL tower, saw the Petronas Towers, went to the Bird Park and mooched around the markets in Chinatown and Little India. All this whilst dodging the torrential thunderstorms which kick off every afternoon.

Singapore was also nice, uber clean and organised but a bit pricey. Again the food was great and one of the few things you can enjoy cheaply. We also went to a night safari which was great until one of the Hyenas realised the boundary fence was only about 6ft high in one area, and with a bit of a run up he might be able to clear it. He was starting to making some serious headway and having not washed for a couple on months, we must have smelled like a bacon butty to him. After bricking it, we quickly did one and told one of the staff who seemed completely unfazed by it all. Anyway, we sent off for our flight home the next day with just enough time for me to lose my sunglasses.

We have had a week back in the UK which has been absolutely manic, trying to see everyone and sort out all the other stuff for the next phase of our trip. We fly out tomorrow for New York, volcano permitting. From there we have a few ideas on where we will head, most likely Vermont, Maryland and Wisconsin to visit friends and family and then onwards toward the west coast. We have about 8 weeks in the US before heading to Mexico, Cuba and then South America, returning in the middle of September for two weeks. After that it's China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia until January 2011.

Will keep posting about our travels as often as we can and hope everyone has a great summer.

Lots of Love

Urvy and Pete
XXX.