New Orleans was amazing, everything was just as I thought it would be. We only had about 30 hours int he city,  but it was enough to get a feel for the place and I’m sure we’ll go back soon.

Raven was happy to have everyone on her stomping ground and seeing her again made it feel like we’d seen her only yesterday. (I love how you can see Emma in the sunglasses in this photo).

It was Mardi Gras, so we all got dressed up in our costumes. Tom was a sailor, I was a mermaid, Emma and Raven were cowgirls with oversized hats, Morgan was Captain Morgan and Amber (Raven’s sister) opted for a classy boa and mask combo.

We stared the day by watching some of the parades. Everyone was still celebrating from winning the superbowl, so we ended up with the Who Dat! song in our head, which goes along the lines of “Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Who dat! Who dat!“.

Everyone was throwing beads in to the crowd, so we ended up with dozens of them around our necks.

We picked the worst parade watching spot, which was out of the sunlight, so we got cold pretty quickly.

We warmed up with hot bowls of gumbo.

Gumbo is a thick soup / stew with rice. I went for the seafood one which was quite yummy.

After lunch, we went for a wander around the French Quarter, which had such pretty buildings.

Emma and Raven got acquainted with the god fearing locals.

Our next stop was Pat O’Brien’s for some Hurricane cocktails.

These were super strong but so easy to drink. Morgan and Amber tried to teach me how to tie knots with cherry stalks.

It got lovely and warm in the sun, so we stayed out in the beer garden for a while.

After a few too many Hurricanes, we headed down to Bourbon street, which was a massive street party with people throwing beads down from the balconies.

Everyone’s costumes were amazing. Next time I want to dress up as a sugar skull.

Even the animals were dressed up.

If I ever have to move to Nola, I found the perfect house on Bourbon Street. I really want a porch with a swinging chair.

Tom and I took some time out to see the rest of the city. Everyone we met was so nice.

The shoreline was really pretty.

This was exactly how I imagined New Orleans to look.

In the evening, we all went for dinner at Mother’s Diner, where Tom managed to confuse the waiter by asking for “a glass of waiter”. I had pancakes for pancake day!

Afterwards we went for a drink in a pirate bar.

After leaving New York an hour late, we took the Crescent train on our journey to New Orleans.

The journey was 30 hours long but it meant that we’d get to see a lot more of America.

We had our own little room, complete with bunk beds, seats and a toilet (you’d really have to be friends with the person you’re traveling with). You can see a tour of the room here.

It was pretty watching the sunset over Washington.

We tried to get as much WIFI as we could in stations, but it didn’t work too well.

All of our meals were provided in the dining carriage, which was all pretty for Valentine’s day. We sat with a couple from Virginia, who were keen to discuss what food we had / didn’t have in the UK. The asked “d’yall got salt and pepper over in England?” and if we drank tea.

The peanut butter pie was amazing!

Even the buildings were celebrating Valentine’s day.

When we went for breakfast the next morning, the train had been decorated for Mardi Gras. The staff were all so friendly.

The French toast was yummy and so filling.

The landscape changed so much as we hit the south.

Such pretty forests. We kept an eye out for bears and crocodiles.

Places of note included Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia and Tennessee. Over dinner in the evening, an old lady complemented us on how good our English was, after we told her we came from Britain and she hadn’t realized it was our native language…

We pulled in to New Orleans in the late evening.

We shared a cab with 6 other people in to the centre, which was in full swing from Mardi Gras.

This is the view from our hotel room.

And now we’re reunited with Emma and Raven! The party starts in the morning…

Yesterday was our last full day in New York and we had already ticked off everything on our to-see list apart from the Statue Of Liberty. So early in the morning, we took the Staten Island ferry and headed away from Manhattan, straight past the statue.

Manhattan looked so pretty from the ferry. When we got to Staten Island, we headed straight back to Manhattan.

We had lunch on Mulberry Street, which is where all the Italian restaurants are. We spent the rest of the afternoon in coffee shops, catching up with the family.

On the way back to Joan’s, we ran in to the Patricia Field shop which was amazing.

I got a super cute heart shaped mirror for my makeup desk.

We spent the evening chatting with Joan and hearing her amazing stories. We’re really going to miss New York!

Manhattan does breakfast very well and this morning we went to the City Girl Cafe in Soho.

New Yorkers seem to love nuts just as much as I do.

Afterwards we went to Tarina Tarantino’s shop which was very pretty and to Magnolia Bakery (which is in Sex & The City) to pick up some cupcakes. We walked around the West Village for a while and Tom decided that was the area we want to live in NY.

Tom then took my on a horse and carriage ride around Central Park, which was so pretty in the snow. We huddled under a furry blanket.

This was our horse, which was really cute.

We ate our Magnolia cupcakes and went for a walk around the park.

I love being a tourist sometimes.

There was still lots of snow in the park and melting snowmen.

Tom got a hotdog and I got a pretzel from a vendor.

We walked to the reservoir (as the ladies in Plan 9 suggested) to take in the view of the city.

We then went for Long Island Ice Tea and a bite to eat in the Firehouse on the Upper West side.

We should have known better than to order the gigantic nachos though.

We went down to the shore in the evening to watch the sun set over the Statue Of Liberty.

I took Tom to dinner at Sweetiepie, a super cute restaurant in the West Village, as his Valentine’s day present. I had mac n cheese with a pinkalicious drink and then we had absinthe & champagne cocktails for dessert.

The decor was so pretty and they had a bird cage in the corner. There was a man on a Valentine’s date with two ladies sitting in it tonight.

After dinner we went up the Empire State building which was lit pink and red for Valentine’s day.

If you paid double, you could go up to the very top and we had the place to ourself. I’ll update more later…

While we slept, “snowmageddon” hit New York and we woke up to find the city covered in thick snow. We weren’t going to let that ruin our fun though! Paul (who’s Tom’s 2nd cousin’s husband) joined us for breakfast and shared some lunch tips.I had my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich and now I can see the appeal. Afterwards we walked up 5th Avenue from the apartment.

We went to Times Square and looked at all the lights. It’s just like a big version of Piccadilly Circus.

Then back to 5th Avenue to see the Apple store, which is a big glass cube.

Tom took me to Tiffany’s, which was so fancy and lovely.

He told me to pick out the prettiest thing in the shop…

which was a padlock necklace, which he gave me as a Valentine’s day present.

Afterwards we went for a walk around Central Park, which was so snowy and magical.

Everyone was sledging and building snowmen.

We walked around the Upper East side for a while before grabbing the subway to a diner downtown.

I had a peanut butter milkshake, which was as thick as a jar of peanut butter.

We filled ourselves up with a feast of diner food before walking down to Wall Street and having a coffee near the World Trade Centre site.

The snow’s suppose to stop by tomorrow, so we shall do lots more sight seeing then!

Today we headed up to the top of the volcano. It looked like a different planet.

You’re so high up that you’re above the clouds, which makes the roads even eerier.

We stopped for soup before the top. It was onion soup which had a fried egg and bits of bread in it.

The volcano looked like a desert but it was really cold.

There was a jogger who kept managing to overtake us every time we stopped, he must have been very fast. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and went swimming.

Today we went to Santa Cruz, which is the main city of the island (Tom sang The Thrills song at me).

It’s crazy seeing the old buildings mixed in with the new.

There was lots of awesome graffiti. We didn’t stay too long, just enough time to grab some lunch and go to a bookshop – I’d finished reading the first Twilight book and needed to get the second.

Afterwards we headed to Icod de los Vinos to see Dracaena draco, the Dragon Tree.

It’s the the largest and oldest tree of it’s kind and it has crazy looking roots and branches.

The locals believe that it bleeds blood because it’s sap is so red and that it’s made up of human bodies (as the poster shows).

There was also a volcanic cave, which was kind of creepy.

There was a mummy inside – very creepy.

Icod de los Vinos is also the main wine town on the island (the name gives it away), so we went to a little shop where we tried lots of different liqueurs.

Dad got us cute cookies.

I befriended a couple of parrots.

This one tried to speak to me but it only knew Spanish.

We then went for churros and hot chocolate, one of my favorite Spanish snacks (I posted a recipe for these ages ago) before heading home.

Tonight someone was singing Duffy’s Warwick Avenue song at the karaoke bar over from our hotel, which made me miss home. Also, worst news ever – Mr Warwick Avenue’s Service Information board has been replaced by an electronic one. How’s he going to write his witty signs now?!

Today we decided to escape the tourism of the resort by driving up the mountain to Masca, a lovely little hilltown that was once overrun by pirates.

I don’t think the pirates would have stopped for tea and cake like we did though.

There was the most amazing sink made from driftwood in the cafe’s bar, I really want someone to make me one.

We walked around the town for a bit, it can get a lot colder up the mountain.

And then we had Canarian potatoes, one of the traditional dishes. There are hundreds of different dips that they serve them with and it depends on which part of the island you’re on as to which one you get.

The roads are so windy and scary up in the mountains, they’re even worse when it’s dark.

We spotted this odd couple sitting on stones by the side of the road. They were doing exactly the same pose as each other and had the same movements. We thought they looked like gnomes and Tom said they thought they were on a train, tee hee!

Ola! Our first day of the holiday was spent around the town we’re staying, Adeje. We went swimming in the hotel pool in the morning and then took a walk along the coast – dipping our feet in the sea, which was surprisingly a lot warmer than the pool.

It’s so nice being able to walk around without a jacket, gloves, scarves and earmuffs, like you would in London at the moment.

The volcano is quite intimidating over the town. We’re staying in the south of the island, which is hot but very touristy, filled with British pubs and chip shops.

We decided to give Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant a try in the evening, it has nothing to do with him (which is legal here) but the food was good and very cheap.

We miss Tom but it’s not been too bad because we can chat to him on iChat in the evenings and show him photos. I’ve been collecting a range of foreign beers for him to try when I get back.

After a super tiring flight (screaming kids and snoring old men – I slept while drowning them out with Bright Eyes), we finally made it to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, just off the west coast of Africa. It’s lovely and hot at this time of year, which makes a pleasant change from rainy London. The island looked quite ominous from the plane, with it’s huge volcano (which my Dad tells me is still active) sticking up through the clouds.

We hired a car and heading for the hotel, which was quite hard to find as they all looked so similar. I crashed out as soon as we got in and slept straight through until the evening.

When I woke up, we headed out to get some dinner. We’re close to San Miguel, so that’s was the obvious beer of choice.

It was only €6.50 for a 3 course meal! I had a tuna salad, fish and creme caramel for dessert. There was a “Gordon Ramsay” restaurant next door, but as they were also serving 3 courses for €6.50, I couldn’t work out if it was for real or if they were just using his name. We’ll have to check it out. I think food is going to play a big part in this holiday.

Right now I’m catching up on my CO+K work with the sound of crickets in the distance and making friends with the locals.