Due North

Next stop after returning the car to Atlanta, was a short flight to St Louis.

The accomodation turned out to be fairly expensive in St Louis with no Hostel so we ended up getting a cheap deal at the Ramada which we were not to upset about. However, after a couple of nights it turned into a bit of a disaster, the fridge turned into a freezer (it had no dial) and the families all night argument next door to us, as amusing as it was, began to wear us down after about 4 hours of constant screaming. So after a polite conversation with the front desk, we got one of the nights we were staying free, and free breakfast every morning.

I never thought I'd say this, but thank you screaming children.

We obviously couldn't go to St Louis without venturing up the Arch. When they ask you as you by the tickets if you have a problem with small places, they being generous. To get up the arch, you go in a Tram, and by tram I actually mean a tiny bubble, that they cram 5 people into. Your face is basically pressed against the persons in front of you and there is one tiny window. When you get to the top it doesn't get much better. The top has 4 small windows on each side and they don't control how many people go up. So we were in this tiny space, 630ft from the ground with about 60 people all squeezed in. Lets just say I was relieved to get my feet back on the ground.

In St Louis we got our first taste of Ice Hockey. The game started quite slowly, then all hell broke loose. Two player began fighting and the only way the refs could stop them was to push them to the ground and lie on top of them, all the time punches still being thrown and Bloody everywhere. Absolutely Brilliant. Definately my new favourite sport!

We then moved on to Chicago. This has definately by far been my favourite city. We spent an brilliant few days at the bean, on Navy pier, doing a walk of faith at the top of the highest tower in the western hemisphere, experiencing the cheesecake factory, taking an very cultural architecture tour of the city and appreciating the live music the city is famous for. Loved it. The only downside to Chicago was the hostel, but the less said about that the better!

We then headed up to Milwaukee. Here we had a very casual few days as there wasn't much to do in the city. We discovered £1.50 pint cocktails, went to a baseball game where we got upgraded to the diamond box and ate Frozen Custard (horrible as it sounds, it was surprisingly good!)

From there we ended up in Minneapolis where we spent a good few days in the Mall of America. I've never seen anything like it. There was a giant theme park in the centre and there was even a chapel! We did spend an afternoon in Minneapolis. It was eventful. In one of the shops we were casually looking round and came across an elderly lady, tongue out, hood up, stuffing bottles of perfume into her bag quite happily. She then just scuttled out the shop and noone did anything. VERY bizzare!

The last couple of days were spent anticipating the next flight to Denver and worrying about the weather!