FLYING THE NEST: MONTH 1
On February 9th 2015 (exactly 1 month ago) we took a one way ticket to North America. To keep you all up to date we decided to start a monthly round up series for each month since flying the nest. We will be sharing where we travelled, what we did (the highs and the lows) and even how much we spent (which is not a pretty number at the moment).
Wow, we can not believe it has already been one month since leaving! It is our first time living away from the support of our family and friends, 15021.6km away to be precise!
Where We Went
Fourteen days in Oahu / Hawaii
Fourteen days in Los Angeles / California
Highlights
- We left home! After a year of planning, saving and preparing for our year long trip, finally leaving home at the age of 24 has to be the top highlight. Like a kid waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve, we were excited to finally undertake our trip!
- Hello YouTube. Starting our YouTube channel. Having now daily vlogged for an entire month, we are officially hooked at documenting our lives and uploading for all to see.
- Getting back into the water. Finally hitting the water again. It has been a year since our last scuba dive and it was amazing finally being able to scratch that itch. We also finally got around to learning to surf, and what a better place to learn then at Waikiki Beach. Another first was exploring the depths of Honolulu in a freakin' submarine! It has been a good month for water sports.
- Experiencing Hawaii. Exploring the stunning island of Oahu, from Kualoa Ranch (where they filmed some of Jurassic Park) to remembering Pearl Harbour and all in between.
- Food! We had the opportunity to experience a traditional Hawaiian feast at our first Big Kahuna Luau.
- LA, we love you. Finally ticking off Los Angeles from the very top of our bucket list after years of waiting!
- Lots of hiking. Hiking up to the iconic Hollywood Sign.
- First ever meet up! Having our very first meet up with readers, Jenn and Jack from Who Needs Maps.
- A visitor. One of Jess's good friends from university, Sarah, came and visited for a few nights. We had a ball spending a day at Disneyland, visiting Santa Monica Pier and visiting the Griffith Observatory.
- We went to watch sport? What? Going to our very first American sporting event - seeing a basketball game, The Lakers VS The Mavericks, at The Staples Center. Americans sure now how to keep a game interesting, even when the spectators have no interest in sport.
Lowlights
- Getting stranded in LA. We got stranded for a few hours whilst in LA. When we arrived in Los Angeles to a random neighbourhood late at night with no way to get into our eerie apartment, we did get a bit stressed and worried. Luckily the issue was fixed and within the hour and we were eating pizza in a free Hilton hotel room!
- Cost of living, ouch!Watching all your hard earned savings slowly drip away and you start to question whether you can make the year out of home starts to sink in. We are struggling to find a balance between enjoying our time in a new place without going crazy with the spending. The longest we have ever gone away for is 5 weeks, so this whole long-term travel thing is very new to us, hopefully we get the hang of things soon!
The Funds
Ready for the big, scary number of how much we spent in the last month .. remember this number includes flights from Australia to America .. in one month we spent .. argh, we are embarssed to share this .. $7,564.90 - ouch!
To break this down we spent $2140 on flights, $2929 on accommodation, $700 on food, $381 on uber/buses (LA's transport system sucks), $266 on clothing, $480 on the essentials such as sim cards, toilet paper, soap etc, $570 on activities (not including tips) and $98 on coffee.
At this rate, it looks like we will be back home before Easter. Let's just say we have learnt a lot from our first month, and let's hope this number will be cut right down when we do our month 2 roundup.
Work
Flying The Nest is almost about to hit it's 6 month anniversary! Yep, thats right.. we have been blogging for almost 6 months, how time flies. This month was the first time we worked with travel sponsors. We were given the opportunity to experience so many crazy and fun activities during our travels through both Hawaii and LA all because of you - our readers. If it wasn't for you we would have never been able to do all the wonderful things we have done in the past month, so thank you!
Quick Numbers So Far...
Flights taken: 3
Kilometres travelled: 15, 718
Photographs taken: 2335
Minutes of our lives uploaded to YouTube: 164
Coffee's bought: 24
Where To Next?
One week in San Fransisco, one week in Seattle and then heading to our new home for the next few months in Vancouver, Canada.
Thank you so much for coming along on our journey of leaving home and travelling the world!
[related_posts taxonomy="category" numberposts="6" minimum="3" itemsmin="1" itemsmax="3" image_size="thumbnail" carousel="true"]