the 4 month till i go mark is fast approaching and with everything already fully paid I am starting to get majorly excited. The first half of the tour is now sold out which is awesome and means that it will be a full tour to start with anyway.

I have booked a few different day tours in seattle and get to visit not only the Boeing Factory in Everett but also Pikes Place market for a guided food tour. should be awesome awesome time (hopefully i get to catch a fish!). Im planning some plane spotting around the time and it should be good (looking at hiring a car in Seattle and doing the rounds of Boeing field etc). Not sure what to do in Hawaii yet, cause all I have booked is a tour that takes me to the Arizona Memorial, Punchbowl Memorial (big WW2 grave site) and also the USS Missouri Museum. I dunno what else to do over there so if you have any ideas please feel free to email me.

Also its starting to come into the time when the Sports schedules are going to be released. Looks like I will be at the football in Seattle with the Seahawks playing the Cardinals the first day i am in seattle so that will be awesome. Also gonna try and hit up a ice hockey game but still waiting for the schedule to be released.

So i went in to see the agent today and sign a few forms to show that the trip is fully paid. Had to resign a new e ticket itinerary cause they added my FF number to the QF/JAL portions and a slight time change on the BNE>NRT sector due to aircraft change.

Looked at the itin… hey cool bit longer in japan on departure, o crap not cool, flights dont connect anymore. So agent has a bit of a look. No flying via detroit any more 🙁 🙁 🙁

Have to fly now via Mineapalos St Paul (MSP). So now have a 2 hour flight on the Embrarer compared to the 65 min flight i had previously 🙁 Also means i dont have 3 or 4 hours to explore the airport and get some spotting in, I have 2 hours in the terminal and that has to include my time in immigration etc which hopefully wont take up to much time, being at the pointy end of a plane hopefully has its benefits!

Although MSP is meant to be a big Northwest hub i was looking forward to detriot cause the airport looked pretty sweet. O wells!!

Virgin America finally released their flights for October which meant i could book my flight. This is awesome because it brings my total Airlines on this trip to 4 new airlines never flown before (JAL, Northwest, Compass, Virgin America).

The fare was pretty good at $220USD all in for First Class from Los Angeles to Seattle. Econ was only $100USD all in so thats a pretty good buy if you ask me! I was quite pleased with myself. Anyway this means my flights are all booked, I just need to pay the remaining of the accom by the end of the month (might do a transfer this week) and then its all done and dusted. I might start saving more $$$ away so that I can make sure I have enough $$ for spending money.

In other news i crashed my car… again.

Well it seems like everything is just about done!

The flights are all paid for, deposits paid on both the land arrangements and the contiki. Rail part has been paid for and all thats left to do is start saving for spending money and book one flight (that i cant do for another month).

At last update there was still a few open spots. I decided to stay in Anaheim for 5 nights after the tour finishes. It just allows me to relax and chill out. Might hit up disneyland and perhaps spend some time with my LA friends. I ended up choosing the Anaheim Hilton. Looks good, close to the contiki hotel so i can see my new friends if i want, and a trusting brand I know has decent rooms.

Then in Seattle im staying at the Executive Pacific Hotel. Looks ok, looks a good spot and pretty good price to. Its all been doing ok. Booked and paid for the Acela from Washington DC to New York City. That should be a nice easy journey.

The trip is coming together rather nicely! Time to start saving for the spending $$$

So things have been doing pretty well lately. Been focusing on work and trying to get in some organising of my big trip to the states. Its not only 9 months away. My flights are booked (gotta pay for them this week) and plans are slowly coming together. I had to scrap my West Coast Canada visit (couldnt visit warren) but am still heading up to Seattle.

So far the plan looks as follows.

September 11. Brisbane to Tokyo – Flight with JAL – Overnight Hotel Nikko Narita
September 12. Tokyo to Detriot to Washington DC – Flight with Northwest Airlines
September 12-15 – Washington DC – Staying at the Liason Hotel Captial Hill
September 15. Washington DC to New York City – Amtrak
September 15-18 – New York City – Staying at the Marakech Hotel (contiki hotel)
September 18 – October 12 – Contiki Grand Northern New York to Anaheim
October 12 – Overnight Anaheim – Best Western Stovalls Inn
October 13-17 – Unsure
October 17 – Los Angeles to Seattle – Thinking of Flying with Virgin America
October 17-21 – Seattle – unsure of where im staying
October 21 – Seattle to Honolulu
October 21-25 – Honolulu – thinking of staying Aqua Waikiki Wave (recommendation from Jacq)
October 25 – Honolulu to Tokyo
October 26 – Tokyo to Brisbane
October 27 – Home!

It is going to be an amazing time away i can’t wait to go.

Well it is finally official I didnt wanna say anything till I had gotten approval from work as I was expecting to go back and forth with them a lot to work out all this leave, but it was suprisingly easy!

I am going back to the USA. Well more correctly North America this time as I will be visiting Canada. I intend on going back to visit a few places I went to last time and see them a little more and also to a few new places that I have wanted to go for a while. A little bit more time seeing friends etc which will be good.

here is the rough plan so far

September 9th 2009 – Final Day at work
September 10th 2009 – Pack, last minute stuff etc
September 11th 2009 – Fly to USA, arrive same day, thank you date line 😀 Arrive LA – Overnight LA Airport Hotel (yet to decide which one).
September 12th 2009 – LAX Airport Spotting – Late Afternoon/ Red eye to DC
September 13th & 14th 2009 – Washington DC
September 15th – Morning Amtrak Acela (9am ithink the train is) to New York City – Rest of day exploring NYC
September 16th & 17th New York City
September 18th to October 12th – Contiki Grand Northern Tour – New York City to Anaheim – http://contiki.com.au/tours/11-grand-northern
October 13th & 14th – Spend time with Friends in Anaheim. Unsure of what doing at this point… will update when spoken to friends
October 15th – Fly to Seattle
October 16th-18th – Seattle (lots of aircraft related stuff)
October 19th – Seattle to Edmenton
October 20th to 25th – Edmenton
October 26th – Edmenton to Vancouver
October 27th & 28th – Vancouver
October 29th – Vancouver to Hawaii
October 30th & 31st – Hawaii
November 1st – Hawaii – Home
November 3rd – Arrive home ( ithink this will be a rough date home)
November 4th – Hello Jetlag
November 5th – Back to work :(heh

All of it is based around the Contiki tour which will be a good experience to finish off the USA. I wont have much left to do but when and if I want to I can finish off the missing pieces. I have had such a good time in the USA in the past I can’t wait to go back.. it will be awesome.

anyway i have a house to finish cleaning… will post later in the week with more stuff.