Well here we are, our final blog. Thank you for reading along with us over the last couple of months, we have had a fantastic adventure and it has been made even better by having family and friends share it with us. So here we go, our last 2 days of the Brewer World Tour 2019-20:

Universal Studios

We had a full day at Universal Studios, it was lots of fun! We thought about paying the extra money to get a fast pass as we heard the lines were bad but thankfully the joys of travelling in winter striked again with barely any queues, many of them we walked past many many rows of where people usually line up to get straight on the ride. The highlight was definitely Harry Potter world, it was done really well and makes you feel like you are in Hogsmeade with all the shops from the books. We love HP so it was very exciting, we really enjoyed the Harry Potter ride where you are in a virtual Harry Potter world and the ‘Flight of the Hippogriff’ rollercoaster. We also did the ‘Ollivanders Wand Shop’ which felt like a bit of scam to get you to line up to go in a gift shop to buy an expensive wand (we did not). We thought about trying a butterbeer but at $13AUD a cup we couldn’t bring ourselves to pay that price.

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The studio tour around the sets was also a highlight- we saw where scenes from Brooklyn 99 were filmed and the full set of The Good Place was still up, it is set up just like on the show, a full town. We learnt that many shows and movies that are set in NY are filmed in the Universal ‘mini NY’ where they can control all the conditions and change the weather.

The shows at Universal were really impressive with a special effects show (a woman lit herself on fire!), a water show with stunts and an animal actors show where we saw some famous pets.

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We limited our eating during the day to our own snacks due to the crazy prices and so we headed out for a nice big Indian meal after we left. It was really nice to celebrate the last night of the trip.

Last day in LA

After a really nice sleep in (so late that we missed the hotel’s continental breakfast so ate our own PB and J sandwiches), we packed up our bags and left them at the hotel to head out for our last day of exploring.

First stop- Staples Centre, even though we didn’t get to see the Basketball it was nice to see the centre. There is a huge memorial for Kobe Bryant, it was quite overwhelming. There were hundreds of people there to pay their respects with displays of flowers and writing all over the ground.

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We then did lots of walking and eventually made it to see the Hollywood sign in the distance. Tourist spot ticked off! Our extensive walking through Hollywood has further confirmed our views that Los Angeles is not one of our favourite places, Nathan even going so far as to say that it makes it easier going home when this is our last stop.

We headed to Target and Kirsten bought some American candy and raspberries from Target (they do groceries here!) while Nathan enjoyed Starbucks (he is loving their Cappuccinos). We headed back to our hotel and got in a Lyft (like Uber) to the airport.

We are at LAX now and about to fly away, see you soon!

Thanks for being part of the Brewer Tour Crew (er)!

We moved from Monterey to Santa Barbara and stayed the night and then went from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles.

The Beautiful 101

• We loved both our drives from Monterey to Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara to Los Angeles. The whole drive was along the coastline and there were so many places to get out and take photos and go for little walks.
• We saw a great mix of mountains, woodlands and coast. America has so much beauty to it.
• We even got to see some elephant seals which was cool. They are so big! The adult males can weight over 2 tonnes. They were sort of gross but really great.

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From Beautiful to Not so Beautiful

• Monterey and Santa Barbara were both small cute towns on the coast and were both so beautiful and lovely to stay at.
• Both towns had a nice mix of the mountains meeting the sea, we were very glad that we chose to visit these small towns instead of the longer trip to Yosemite
• We were very excited for Los Angeles as well, and then we walked around our local neighbourhood from our hotel … there was no need to verbally acknowledge, we both knew we had travelled from the beautiful to the not so beautiful.

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Our Second Jimmy

• Unfortunately the Lakers game we were planning to go to was postponed due to news of Kobe Bryant’s tragic death so we couldn’t go which was a big disappointment.
• To replace the game we decided to try and get free tickets for Jimmy Kimmel’s show. We lined up at 3:15pm and waited an hour to see if we would get in. Luckily we did get in and got to go to our second Jimmy of the trip.
• Our assessment: the show was good, Jimmy Kimmel seemed nice, the interviews (Magic Johnson, Ben Schwartz- in Parks and Rec) were both really good and there were also some very clever and funny segments. But there just wasn’t the same love and heart as Jimmy Fallon. Also, Jimmy Fallon seemed to care more about both his guests and and his audience. Jimmy Kimmel put on a great show, both Jimmys are great, both are worth visiting (especially considering the free entertainment!), but Jimmy Fallon wins the Jimmy wars for us.

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We Visited The Office!

Kirsten set up as a surprise for Nathan and took us to see the actual location of ‘The Office’, it was awesome to see the real thing and felt so familiar to us because we have watched The Office so much over the years. It was a great surprise and amazing to stand in the same place as the legendary Michael Scott.

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A beautiful day and a half in sunny San Fran!

Top hits of San Fran

• After a late start to the morning we went for a long walk to the water and walked along and saw the Golden Gate bridge through the fog and saw Alcatraz and its island across the water.
• Headed out to Pier 39, it is very beautiful with lots of shops and buskers and we enjoyed watching the sea lions bask on the rocks, they are very lazy.
• We waited quite a while for the cable car to take us to Union Square- we actually really enjoyed going up and down all the steep streets, we got the standing spots on the side so got to see a lot of the sights as we went around.
• We enjoyed walking through the CBD and having a snack in the afternoon but prefer the huge section of San Fran by the water, it really is hard to beat.
• Walked up the steep streets back towards the pier and enjoyed a soup inside a carved out load of sourdough bread- very popular here. Most people eat it with clam chowder which we didn’t choose for obvious reasons (it’s gross). We chilled back in the hotel and Nathan watched the NBA on TV.
• Day 2 in San Fran- headed out for a run along the water next to the Golden Gate Bridge and then ran over the bridge. We enjoyed the incredible views along the way, the bridge is such a beautiful colour and style. We walked back over the bridge and then with lots of kms under our belt caught the bus to Pier 39 and had a nice American brunch of bacon, eggs, toast and a big hash brown for Nathan and chicken vermicelli noodle salad for Kirsten (it was American/ Vietnamese- not as traditionally American but delicious)

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Driving the 101

• We had planned to head to Yosemite next but it was getting incredibly complicated to work out whether we would need snow chains and whether we would be able to get into the park and we wouldn’t have much time there so after consulting the travel expert (Michael Anderson) we decided to change tact and head to Monterey on the coast of California for some more sun. We booked the accommodation the night before and headed out from San Fran at 1pm for the 1.5 hour drive.
• On the way to Monterey we stopped at a typical American Walmart. It was fun to see one, it felt like a mix of Kmart/ Target and Coles.
• Monterey is beautiful, (also the filming location of ‘Big Little Lies’), it was nice to be somewhere a little slower paced and relaxed. After checking into our hotel (one of our nicest ones even has a pool and spa) we went for a nice walk through the town and along the pier and wharf before heading over to a Mexican restaurant on the water for dinner. Quiet and relaxed night by the gas fire in the evening.

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Sights of Oregon

• Bill and Kristi have a beautiful forest hike at the end of their street so we went on a really nice walk through that with little bridges and waterfalls.
• One of the highlights of Oregon were the magnificent Multnomah Falls, these falls are far bigger than the Niagara Falls and were made even more mighty and majestic by the downpour of rain
• Kristi and Bill took us to see some sturgeon (prehistoric fish) in an Oregon fish hatchery. The sturgeon were huge! Almost like sharks, we were able to get up nice and close. Kirsten and I were shocked and impressed
• We went to the Columbia gorge river hotel, it was an older classy hotel with a great view of the river. Very classy and beautiful.
• We were planning to stay 3 nights but were having so much fun that we ended up staying a 4th night and so we had another day where we explored the Oregon coast, the coast was very beautiful, we didn’t quite to enjoy it in all its fullness because it was pouring rain. We saw a lighthouse, the world’s smallest harbour, Kristi and Bill showed us where they rent a beach house for a week each year. The Oregon coastline was very rugged and beautiful.

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Kristi’s Fabulous Cooking

Kristi and Bill were superhosts in every way and Kristi’s cooking stood out. We enjoyed so many amazing meals made by Kristi. Her eggs, bacon, potatoes, coffee combo in the morning was phenomenal. And her dinners were just next level. Bill was an expert fire maker which was lovely to have dinner next to (and very kindly washed up all our meals). Kristi made us a Guatemalan soup that was healthy, filling and so delicious. She then made us a delicious stir fry, with a special homemade tofu and pork combo. Neither of us are into tofu normally, but when Kristi cooks it …. brilliant! Add in her delicious desserts and the food was just too good! We also tried PB and J (once Nathan realised it wasn’t the type of Jelly we have in Australia) for the first time and loved it.

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Five Crowns

Over the years the Brewers and the Easterlins have developed a rivalry in the card game ‘Five Crowns’. Kristi and Bill play Five Crowns every night before bed so they were pros. On a two week cruise Bill and Kristi defeated Nathan’s parents every night. It was time for the young Brewers to face the music. Through four nights of all out gaming the young Brewers were able split the series 2-2. We were quite chuffed with ourselves. May the rivalry live on!

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Road Trip to San Francisco

• We were very sad to eventually leave Kristi and Bill, they were amazing hosts and we would have loved to stay for more nights but California was waiting for us
• We enjoyed our 10 hour drive down to California, we went on the less pretty but quicker I5 highway. Much to our surprise and delight the less pretty way was still very pretty! We enjoyed the views and listened to some podcasts and music to keep us from getting whingy on the trip.

Sights & updates

We spent the morning looking around Seattle, we enjoyed having a look at the Space Needle, walking along the river, Pike place markets and then the Starbucks Roastery (Starbucks was started in Seattle). Seattle had a nice vibe and it was a bit drizzly but enjoyable.

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• We drove 3 hours to Portland, Oregon to stay with friends of the Brewer Family, the Easterlins. We arrived to a very warm welcome from Kristi and Bill to their beautiful home surrounded by nature. They are really amazing hosts and have made us feel so welcome.
• A really relaxing and nice evening in the warm catching up with Kristi and Bill and playing Five Crowns (a card game), they are very good at it.
• We woke up and had breakfast before heading out by car to Mount Hood and went on a 7km round trip snow shoeing adventure. We had never been snow shoeing and really liked it, it wasn’t as hard as expected and just requires you to take bigger steps. We arrived at Lower Twin lakes and saw a beautiful snow covered river.
• Kristi helped us to hold out nuts on our hands to encourage Blue Jays to come and eat them out of our hands. To our surprise they came straight away, one particularly enjoyed sitting on Nathan’s head.
• Stopped by Timberline Lodge which is a hand crafted lodge that was built after the Depression. It was a beautiful lodge and really nicely made.

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Foods

• Delicious home cooked meal by Kristi of grilled chicken with peanut sauce, veggies and rice. Followed by a warm apple cake with a yummy glaze and ice cream. Kristi is an amazing cook.
• Local donuts on the way to snow shoeing- Nathan enjoyed an apple glazed donut.
• On the way back from snow shoeing we stopped at the Zig Zag Inn for burgers, it was a nice cozy restaurant and a great way to finish the day. We headed back for some more delicious apple cake and 5 crowns with Nathan winning his first game.

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Day 50 – adventures in the rain

• Nathan and Jono went and did the local Vancouver ParkRun, the beautiful Mundy ParkRun trail was closed so instead we ran on footpaths, the paths were very slippery with black ice, snow and regular ice sending everyone skidding. Going downhill was particularly stressful with one guy overtaking everyone in the field unintentionally, he lost control downhill on the ice and was passing everyone yelling ‘sorry I can’t stop’. It was pretty dangerous and probably should have been called off but Nathan got a win so was pleased.
• Then we relaxed and ate some homemade pancakes. They were delicious.
• After this we headed to Burnaby Mountain, there were lots of nice views and was fun to explore some more snow. Lots of people were sledding down the hill.
• We then headed to Deep Cove where we had lunch in a cute little cafe and walked around. We also headed to an indoor market and had a coffee and did some shopping.
• We stopped by the ‘Real Canadian Superstore’ on the way home and bought some pre prepared pizzas for dinner, at home we had our pizza and chatted and then watched ‘The Office,’ a perfect Saturday night.

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Day 51 – Leaving the Brayshaw’s 😦

• Kirsten and I were sad to be leaving the Brayshaws, but due to a booking error with the train we actually had more time with them on the Sunday
• We went to church with them and had a great time, it was nice to church with them again and the service was great.
• We walked around Fort Langley which apparently features in many Christmas movies, we visited a lake in the local area and Kirsten and Bal did some shopping.
• We went to IHOP for lunch, they serve unlimited pancakes there and so we all made an attempt to eat as many as we could. We ate a combined 18 pancakes (Nathan carried the team) plus lots of bacon and eggs so we were all pretty full.
• We popped over to some outlets and had a look around, Nathan tried to convince Jono to buy some new runners. Nike should recruit him as a salesman.
• Finally, we said farewell to the Brayshaws, a very sad moment and then we headed by train to Seattle on Amtrak.

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Our next couple of days in Vancouver with Jono and Bal have been super fun. Jono and Bal got another snow day which was super exciting! We enjoyed spending another day all together.

We headed together into Vancouver city (we weren’t sure how we would go on public transport with all the snow but it ended up being OK) and it wasn’t actively snowing there so we had a really time walking around Stanley Park. It is a huge park along the water with some pretty amazing views. We walked 10km around the park seeing some beautiful frozen lakes, forest and even a black squirrel.

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Next up was a late lunch at a Canadian classic- Tim Hortons where Nathan ate a beautifully bright pink ‘dream donut.’ We walked over to Gas town and had a coffee in a nice cafe and had a look at a couple of souvenir shops- Kirsten got a Canadian jumper.

Back at Jono and Bals the boys went to the gym in the building for some running and then we headed out to White Spot- a very Canadian burger/ steak place where you get unlimited fries plate by plate. We asked the server what was the most number of refills he had done for anyone and he said 2 extra serves was the most- we were disappointed by this, Nathan did consider making a record but felt it wasn’t worth the tummy ache.

Day 49

Sadly no snow day for Jono and Bal today as it didn’t snow much over night. We had a relaxing morning at the apartment after a sleep in, Kirsten enjoyed making a banana bread and Nathan did a bit of work.

We then headed out by bus to Bunzen. It was a really beautiful lake and there was snow everywhere but quite sunny which was good. There was a suspension bridge that could only take 4 people at a time. It took us longer than we thought to get to the halfway point and so on the way back we walked along the road and we started to get slightly concerned it would start getting dark so we thought we would ask for a car going past to take us the rest of the way out of the park. A young couple with a baby kindly took us out of the park and asked us where we were going when we said we were taking the bus back to Port Moody they dropped us back as it was on their way past. Our first (and only!) hitchhiking experience- don’t worry mums, it was very safe. Turns out we didn’t need to worry as it didn’t get dark for a while longer.

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All 4 of us were feeling pretty tired so we struck up a deal- the boys ventured out into the cold to buy ingredients for mexican for dinner and the girls cooked it. Yum! We watched a bit of The Office to finish off the evening- perfect.

Day 46 – Travel Day

• Our first flight to Seattle was at 9:30am so we had a relatively early morning.
• Our first flight was delayed and so we were worried that the delay would make us miss our second flight from Seattle to Vancouver. So we sprinted across terminals in a race that seemed like it almost belonged in a Hollywood movie. As it turns out, our second flight was also delayed by an hour so our dramatic sprint was unnecessary.
• Once in Vancouver, we caught a couple of trains to Port Moody where our friends from church and school Jono and Bal picked us up. It was really great to see them, we have missed them! After Nathan had a prolonged hug with Jono we headed to their apartment. There was so much snow! They don’t usually get this much snow in Vancouver. Their view was amazing. Vancouver is a beautiful place to live. Jono cooked up a storm of pasta and after a catch up it was time to sleep to get ready for the next day’s adventures.

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Day 47 – Snow Day!!!!

• Much to our delight, school was called off late the night before because there was too much snow on the road. This meant we could spend the day with Jono and Bal as they are both teachers so we were very grateful for that. We started with some delicious homemade pancakes with maple syrup of course. We then went for a walk through the snow, it felt like we were walking through a winter wonderland. We wanted to go sledding but we didn’t have a sled so we improvised and bought 2 boot trays to sit on and tried that out, unfortunately Jono broke both relatively quickly. Luckily some friendly locals lent us their plastic sled, then we were much more successful.
• We found a playground and Jono and Nathan took turns jumping off swings into the fluffy and deep snow. It was amusement for days. It was a really excellent and fun time.
• After a nice warm coffee we ventured back through the deep snow, by this point we were feeling pretty cold.
• After a quick gym session in their apartment building we settled in for the night with Kirsten making a delicious curry.

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https://vimeo.com/user105822180/review/385629910/2ec47b4a67

Jimmy Fallon experience

Today we tried to get tickets to the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (Daily talk show in the US), we spoke to the tour guides on the NBC studio tour and they told us about how you can line up for stand by tickets out the front of the studios and see if you get in. So we woke up at 6am and ventured out, arriving in the line at Rockefeller centre just after 7am with tickets being given out at 9am. We were happy to find that we were number 9 and 10 in line. They can never guarantee how many seats they will have come available but depending on the celebrities on that night they sometimes have people lining up around 4am. The guests were Selena Gomez, Charlie Hunam and Stormzy- we were worried that Selena would attract a big crowd but it didn’t grow that large. We brought snacks with us for the wait and made friends with our fellow line buddies (numbers 5,6,7,8 and 11) for the 2 hour wait- none were from NY, all travellers. There was 2 Canadian teachers in front of us and a Scottish guy that was trying to convince us to the power of positive thinking and that Jimmy Fallon would be lucky to meet us not the other way around.
An NBC page arrived right on the dot of 9am and took all our details in order and gave us the 9 and 10 tickets. This only holds your place and you need to go back at 3:30pm to see whether you will get in or not depending on how many confirmed audience members don’t show up.

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Brekky and Macys

We stopped by a cafe for breakfast, it was nice to sit down after lining up and we then headed to Macy’s where Nathan got a coffee and Kirsten had a shop. The best part of Macy’s was that we unintentionally arrived right on their opening time of 10am and discovered that the staff all line up and dance and clap and welcome everyone in like a parade. Video below.

https://vimeo.com/user105822180/review/385395012/d14e3c5b26

Madison Square Garden and Empire State

We walked around Madison Square Garden and had a look- cool to see it but you can’t see much from the outside. The Empire State Building is beautiful, we decided not to go up but admired it from the outside.

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The High line

Headed over to The High Line- an old railway turned into a walkway with lots of art and gardens, it was really beautiful and quite a peaceful walk. We walked through Soho and Greenwich village to get to Tribeca. All beautiful areas that are a bit quieter and really nice. If we were going to live in NYC (and had heaps of $$) we would live around there. We headed to Tribeca to catch up with our high school friend Olivia Nunn who is working and living in NYC. She took us to a great cafe where Liv and I got take away soups and Nathan got New York pizza (accidentally ordered 2 slices not realising how big American pizza is) and we sat on her work rooftop to eat. It was great to see her and catch up.

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Celebrity spotting

We have been keeping our eyes out for celebrities and found our first one while walking out of Harry Potter the other night, he was coming out the stage door from a different show. It was Jerry O’Connell, I think I mainly recognised him from Stand by Me (an excellent movie). You be the judge of whether it’s impressive or not, the phrase ‘D grade’ was thrown around by Nathan.
Before catching up with Liv we checked our Taylor Swifts NYC house which was 2 streets away- no luck spotting Taylor, and not the most looking impressive apartments (from the outside at least.)
But a celebrity count was about to get a lot higher, and much more legitimate..

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Jimmy Fallon

We nervously arrived back to Jimmy Fallon at 3:30pm to see whether we had gotten into the audience and they line you back up in the order of the line in the morning. By this time there was probably about 60+ people waiting. We got counted multiple times and were getting more nervous but it was seeming like our chances were good- our Scottish friend continued to preach to us on the power of positive thinking. Then someone from the audience team came down and said everyone above the number 45 wouldn’t get in but under 45 could stay and depending on the number of seats available and if you got tapped on the shoulder you would be in and go straight through airport style security and in. We got tapped! About 35-40 standbys got in- it is super unpredictable but it sounds like being a Monday and after everyone was back at work after the holidays helped. We were super excited and quickly got ushered through security to a waiting room while they filed us all in in order of our numbers- we got very good at lining up in order. We kept getting told we had gotten lucky with our taping, that it was going for an extra half hour for a special surprise.
After taking our seats and playing a video with some highlights from the show they had a warm up guy come out and get everyone excited encouraging us to clap and laugh hard. Then it was time for the show to start and Jimmy came out, everyone was super pumped and excited. Selena and Charlie came out to play games and do interviews which was great. They film it live to tape so they try not to re do much, it was surprising to us how much they interact with the crowd. Also, for Jimmy’s opening monologue and scripted parts they had a guy with cardboard flipping the lines over rather than a teleprompter- what a stressful job!

In the pauses for ad breaks Jimmy came and interacted with the crowd letting people ask questions, he was quite funny off the cuff and we were impressed with how much he spoke to the crowd. The show has a nice vibe with the audience of course super pumped but the crew also seemed to be really enjoying themselves and laughing along.
We were on the right side of the audience because anytime Jimmy came into the crowd during the show or breaks it was near us. Spot us in the top left of this clip:

Then the surprise guests came out- Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey! Promoting their movie The Gentlemen. It was so exciting. Hugh particularly was really funny (getting a little grey on top) and was great to see two big celebrities. They are going to be on Friday’s show but were only available on Monday so they pre recorded it. Was such a fun (and free) afternoon activity.

We stopped by the beloved Trader Joe’s on the way home and got some spinach lasagne for dinner and breakfast and lunch food for a day of travel to Vancouver tomorrow (you don’t get free food on cheap flights 🙂 ).

Sights of the Day

• We had a sleep in and then we headed out to the Brooklyn Tabernacle church, this was one of our favourite experiences of the trip. The choir was amazing and the music was very moving, that combined with the sheer diversity of people and cultures all united together was very powerful and moving. A really special way to start the day
• We then headed to an underground market, Kirsten found her new favourite supermarket in Trader Joe’s and Nathan tried a coffee from Cafe D’avignon. (read the coffee heading to see Nathan’s thoughts)
• Next up we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge for some lunch, we enjoyed some bagels and the view of Manhattan and the bridge. New York is a very beautiful city.
• We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to the World Trade Centre and 9/11 memorial, we were interested in going into the museum but it was expensive.
• After this we split up, Nathan went for a run along the New York harbour and Kirsten went for a mini shopping expedition. Nathan enjoyed his run with the locals but Kirsten’s shopping expedition was mildly disappointing
• We then headed back to our local area for dinner at a famous Taiwanese restaurant called Win Son. This was really good- we had heard about it in our Lyft, a shared taxi service we took to get from JFK. The food was awesome, Kirsten enjoyed the Sloppy Bao whilst Nathan enjoyed the Scallion Pancakes. We also had our first proper experience tipping, we had no idea what we were doing but hopefully we were generous.

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Good coffee hunt

Nathan had his first attempt of finding a good American coffee at Cafe D’avignon. Assessment: success! The Espresso Cappuccino was very good, giving even some of Newtown’s finest coffee joints a run for their money. A very pleasing start, perhaps America’s bad reputation for coffee is unjustified in 2020.