Christmas

Once we got back to Montgomery via Publix for some milk and bread it was home for a welcome cup of coffee and some toast before opening our Christmas presents under the tree.

Everyone was very pleased with everything and had soon disappeared off to build Lego/play with with dolls/doze. I chose the doze option and vegged out in front of the fire whilst Nick edited all the holiday photos.

Having made the decision not to cook a Christmas meal (very wise) it was baked potato's and cold sliced ham for dinner before packing Tom and Lily off to bed at 7pm, closely followed by me at 8pm. Nick managed another hour (I think) before getting to bed around nine o clock. I have to say I was amazed at Tom as he had hardly any sleep on the plane, dozed for a bit in the car and carried on happily until 7, I had to nap during the day as I could barely keep my eyes open, having said that I got no sleep on the plane and then drove most of the way home before calling time and getting Nick to finish the journey. I got woken up at 6.30 when Nick's alarm clock went off as he had to go into work for the morning. Tom finally woke up around 9am after a marathon sleep and now we are all just lounging around and tidying everything up (well, some of us are tidying, others - Lily - are not.)

Christmas in Hawaii

On 19th Dec we boarded a plane and almost 10 hours later emerged in Hawaii for Christmas. Our first couple of days were just spent relaxing on the beach and taking a short trip to Manoa Falls (where we stumbled upon a tv crew filming a documentary about Africa (!!) with Kris Marshall (old My Family, Love Actually). We attended a traditional Hawaii Luau in the evening

where we saw all styles of Polynesian dancing, coconut tree climbing and got to get temporary tattoos (well Tom, Lily and I did) whilst eating loads of food.
If anyone is wondering whatever happened to Glenn Medeiros (of one hit wonder 'Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You' back in 1987) he is performing at the Hale Koa hotel in Waikiki. The next day saw us off on a trip to see the Iolani Palace and Pearl Harbour then onto a Magic Show in the evening, this was a brilliant show with magician Mark Allen Mauricio and his family.

We were up early the next day for our tour of the Big Island where we visited volcano fields, waterfalls and orchid plantations. We toured the whole island and it was a VERY long day.

Rather disappointingly, or perhaps I was just very naive about the whole thing, this was all we got to see of the active volcanoes. Tom, Lily and I were expecting flowing lava! Perhaps we are just a bit stupid as Nick (the big smartypants) had never expected to see any.

This is the view from our balcony. We spent another couple of days relaxing around the hotel and beach and on Christmas day we went on a submarine for a trip below sea. This turned out to be hilarious as we sat on the left side of the sub (having been told it doesn't matter which side you sit on) and it turned out the right side of the sub got all the action with loads of oohing and aahing whilst our side looked out at not much. Luckily, we saw the bright side of it all and still managed to peer through everyone to see what was going on.

Our final trip out took us around the island of Oahu itself. We stopped off at some of the North Shore beaches and managed to see some surfers risking life and limb on the big waves.

And then the holiday was over and it was back to the airport for a slightl shorter overnight flight back to Atlanta and then home, bleary eyed but happy.

As usual, I will post a load more photos on Facebook.

Merry Christmas Y'all

We had a fairly quiet week last week, I was busy sorting out Christmas presents and cards and making sure I hadnt forgotten anyone. On Friday Emily stayed overnight with Lily and I was up early on Saturday for a 12km race out in Wetumpka with Krissy. It poured with rain the whole time I was out but I still enjoyed the run and hope to find another race soon. I managed to come 4th in my age group (there were 12 runners in my group and probably around a hundred or so runners in total) so I was pleased with that. After getting home and changing into dry clothes it was hot chocolates all round and then pancakes for lunch before dropping Emily off with her parents. Then a bit of a nap in front of the fire before going out to dinner at Kev & Betty's.

On Sunday we all went round to Tim & Deanna's for lunch and to catch up with them before Christmas.
Today we have the school parties to attend and then we are going round to Neil & Dorothy's for 5 o'clock drinks before coming home and packing for our holiday to Hawaii. All very excited.

December already?

On Tuesday we had Mike Weaver and Mary Hampton round to dinner, Mike arrived rather unexpectedly an hour and a half early!! For some reason he had 6pm in his head and not 7.30pm...Lily entertained Mike while I continued to prepare food in the kitchen and the evening was a great success and left us with a great story to tell people.
On Thursday Nick finally got the phone call he had been waiting on and found out that he is to return to RAF Leuchars as OC Ops. This is fantastic news as we can go back and live in our own house in St Andrews and Nick gets to fly in the Typhoon.
On Saturday we had a family trip to the theatre to see 'A Christmas Story' which is a well known american christmas story, not to be confused with A Christmas Carol/Scrooge. It was alright, I think Tom & Nick enjoyed it more than Lily & I did because it was about a boy who desperately wanted a "red ryder bb gun...." .
After the theatre it was home for dinner and then Nik came round to look after the children while Nick and I went to Shaun & Marie's for a birthday party and a little bit of Abba karaoke!!

We were up early on Sunday as Tom & Nick were off up to Atlanta for an NFL game and were to be picked up at 7.45am. So that left Lily and I to have a girly day together until Nik phoned up to say he had 2 tickets to the ballet and could he take Lily with him to see 'The Nutcracker'
Ready to be taken to the ballet with Nik.

Check out that hairdo - you can imagine how pleased Lily was with her new look, and she got to wear my pashmina too!

Atlanta Falcons v Philadelphia Eagles.

So, I got to have an afternoon without Lily which was perfect as Dorothy & Christine were coming round for a slice of cake and a cuppa, oh, yes, and a bit of dress up - we have ordered Abba-esque outifits and needed to try them on. More on that later.

Thanksgiving in New Orleans

We arrived in New Orleans around 2pm so had plenty time to take in the sights of the French Quarter and bump into friends...we had another of those 'it's a small world' moments when we stumbled across Olivier & Aurelie and their children wandering around too.
On Friday morning we went to Cafe du Monde for breakfast where we had coffee and beignet. I understand why it's famous, they were quite delicious and one of the highlights of my stay, (sad, I know, but I do like food. The other highlight was probably Saturday breakfast in the hotel!) After our sugar rush we took a leisurely walk to Blaine Kerns Mardi Gras World to look at some of the floats and props of Mardi Gras.
One of the larger Mardi Gras floats.

The French Quarter.

Having eaten beignet for breakfast, it was time to try muffaletta for lunch, another New Orleans delicacy - a big sandwich stuffed with salami, olives, cheese amongst other things, the children chose not to eat this so they had a po'boy instead (big sandwich). Then it was off to City Park by way of the streetcar to use up some more energy climbing trees and getting covered in mud (the children managed to find the one muddy puddle in the whole of the park!)

After a delicious breakfast in the hotel on Saturday morning we got in the car to drive home via Bellingrath Gardens (near Mobile). We had a lovely walk around there and then a spot of lunch before driving the rest of the way home in time for Nick to watch Match of the Day while I unpacked, made bread, did the laundry and tidied up the house.

Now I need to go shopping for food.

Oh, and there are more photos on my facebook page.

Visiting the Burchells in Dallas, TX.

Nick and I went round to Craig & Bernice's for dinner last Tuesday night for a lovely meal and a catch up with them. On Thursday we went to see an off Broadway performance of Mamma Mia with Neil, Dorothy, Christine & Arvid which was fabulous. I would recommend it to everyone. I think Nick & I are still humming Abba tunes even now. The downside of this night out is that Christine wants Dorothy, herself and me to dress up in Abba like costumes a la Mamma Mia for her 40th birthday in March...watch this space to see if we manage to get the costumes...It makes me smile every time I think about it, you've got to admit it would be hilarious, especially if we sing too.
On Sunday Tom, Lily & I flew to Dallas to visit Iain & Stephanie for a couple of days and tick Texas off our list of states visited. We arrived at their house round about 4.30pm and were just chatting about what I wanted to do while there when we realised that it was exactly 46 years to the day that JFK had been assassinated. Needless to say, we all piled into the car and drove the 5 minutes to that famous site. X literally marks the spot. Unfortunately you run the risk of getting killed yourself because X is obviously in the middle of the road.

Grace, Lily, Andrew & Tom standing on that famous spot.

On Monday Iain & Steph were at work and Andrew & Grace were at school so Tom, Lily & I went for a mooch around the Dallas Botanic Garden and Arboretum (www.dallasarboretum.org) which was really lovely and then on Tuesday when Steph and the children were off we all went to Fort Worth to see a cattle drive. This, sadly did not live up to my expectations (and it was freezing) but the cows were pretty impressive all the same.

Longhorn cattle.

After that we got some lunch and then drove back to Dallas for a visit to the Nasher Sculpture Centre where I got to see sculpture by such greats as Picasso, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. www.nashersculpturecenter.org

Then it was off out to the Dream Cafe (www.thedreamcafe.com) for dinner. If you ever find yourself in Dallas I recommend it. It has a small play area outside for the children and the food is delicious, I had the Garden StirFry which was excellent.

And then it was time to come home and get all our dirty laundry washed and dried in time to pack it all up again so we can drive to New Orleans tomorrow with Nick. Happy Thanksgiving y'all.

Remembrance Sunday Do

It's that time of year again when we remember the fallen and hold our Remembrance Sunday service. Once again, the weather was kind to us and we had a glorious day with blue sky and high temperatures. It was the Brits turn to host the event again this year so the ladies went to Kate's house to prepare all the food and wrestle with a trestle table while the men went to do their duty and pay their respects at the cemetery.

The previous day we held the Dads v Lads soccer match for Tom and some of the other boys from his team, it started off as quite a close match with the dads doing rather too well at goalkeeping and at half time the score was 2 - 1 to the boys. During the second half the boys surged into the lead and won the match 6 -2. We celebrated in style by eating pizza which we got delivered to the park

Later on we went round to Tim & Deanna's for dinner where we ate too much chilli, banana bread and brownies. Deanna is such a fantastic cook it's always a pleasure eating there and Nick always ends up eating too much. heehee.

A lovely weekend

Well, I was right, Tom's soccer game was postponed from Tuesday to Thursday night and unfortunately they lost the semi final match. Fortunately for us it meant Tom didn't miss the final on Saturday. bright side to everything, right?
After school on Friday we all got in the car and headed off for the weekend to Northwest Alabama and the Dismal Canyon and Natural Bridge.

Natural Bridge, Northwest Alabama.

Our cabin in the Dismal Canyon park.

A VERY large leaf.

Lily, Tom, Willa & Ethan, what you can't see is that they are all wearing matching welly boots, we entered the canyon for our walk after a quick pit stop in Walmart for a very well spent $15 each on footwear.

Waterfall in Dismal Canyon.

After a very eventful drive on Friday (detouring through Birmingham to avoid a 10 car pile up on I65 and then stopping for dinner so we avoided the tornado but still managed to drive through some awful rain - had to drive at 20mph on the interstate because I couldn't see very well) we finally arrived at our cabin in the canyon park. A well deserved glass of wine and then to bed.

Saturday morning we went into Hamilton to meet up with Tim & Deanna who were staying at her parents house for the weekend. We then went into Hamilton via Walmart to pick up welly boots for all the children (best $15 ever spent on a child) and onto the Fall Festival followed by pizza for lunch at Dinelli's.

Next stop, the Dismal Canyon for our walk through the mud, rivers and canyon itself - now you understand the welly boot purchase! The children had a blast, Tom especially loved tramping through the water and mud and climbing on any available surface. After all that it was back to our cabin for a well deserved glass of wine, bottle of beer, cup of tea, glass of water depending on who you were - can you work out who had what? The children had pepsi or water and then went off to play with the pea shooters they got at the fall festival.

After we had a bit of dinner and the Frantz's had gone back to Hamilton for trick or treating Nick, Tom & Lily went back to the canyon to see the resident Dismalites - little bugs that light up in the dark that are very rare and only found in a few places in the world (and I can't remember where they are! oops).

Forgot to mention Albert the cat, a resident of the canyon who spent quite a lot of time on our porch being petted by Tom, Lily & me all weekend, I especially enjoyed my Sunday morning coffee sitting out on the porch with Albert on my lap. After Nick and the kids went back in the canyon for a last poke about on Sunday morning we headed off to pick up Tim & Deanna and went off to see Natural Bridge for another walk, clamber, wade through mud and water.

Like I said, we had a lovely weekend and thankfully the drive home was uneventful.

There are about 60 more photos on my facebook page if you are interested.

Another humdrum week

Neil & Dorothy came round for dinner on the 16th and then Nick got free tickets for an Alabama game on the 17th, so Tim & him went up to Tuscaloosa for that. I spent the whole day freezing, it was really cold - colder than normal January temps, and after spending an hour outside watching Tom play soccer I never managed to warm up the rest of the day.
This last week I have been running and going to the gym but not doing much else. Nick is still busy busy busy and spent this last weekend at work again. Tom's soccer team is in the play offs and the semi final is tonight, unfortunately if they win, Tom will miss the final on Saturday as we are away this weekend.
We went to Pete's 50th birthday party on the 24th, which was great fun, forgot to take my camera but am hoping Kate will post some pics on Facebook so I can get copies.
It's currently pouring with rain and is meant to continue for the rest of the day so Tom is potentially going to get very muddy at his game this evening - I reckon it will be postponed though.

Not much really

Gosh, I haven't blogged for 2 weeks. What's been happening with us then? Let's see...
We went round to Tim & Deanna's for dinner on Saturday and on Sunday we were meant to be going to Mary's for dinner but she wasn't feeling well so cancelled on us. Since we had a sitter booked to look after Tom & Lily, Nick & I went to the cinema to see 'The Invention of Lying' which was rubbish. Very disappointing indeed. Mary recovered enough to invite us round on the Tuesday evening so Nik came back round to sit for the children while Nick & I went out for dinner.
Then last weekend Nick and I went out to the cinema again, this time to see 'Couples Retreat' which was very funny. Prior to the movies we had dinner at a fab restaurant called Number 16. If you ever come to Montgomery, I can recommend this place, I reckon it's the best meal out I've had since I've been here.
The children had Monday this week off school courtesy of Columbus Day, but we didn't do anything with it. Tom has a bad cough and ended up staying off school for Tuesday and Wednesday as well, I sent him back today though. And that's you caught up to date with all things.

Fall is coming

Not a lot has been going on really, Tom scored another goal at football last weekend so his team won by 4-1. An improvement on the previous game which they lost. Nick worked all last weekend so we didn't really do anything. The children had a day off school on Monday so Deanna came round with Ethan & Willa for the afternoon.
I harvested some tomatoes that mysteriously started growing in the garden a month or so ago, for doing very little with them, I have a pretty good crop.
The weather has finally started to cool down so I have felt a bit better about my running again.
Oh, and I started going to a book club again, first meeting was last night so now I need to go and buy some books to read.
We have a busier weekend coming up so more to write about next time.

Goal

The weather is still hideously humid here with lots of rain and thunderstorms, wish it would end so my running might improve. I am finding it very hard at the moment to run in this heat and am eagerly awaiting the cooler temperatures that will hopefully come when autumn finally arrives. I'm also struggling with personal training at the moment, last week was very hard.

I didn't get out golfing because of the weather but managed to go out for coffee and a mooch round the shops with Bernice instead. Think I prefer this to golfing.
Both of Tom's soccer practices were cancelled due to the weather but that didn't stop him scoring 2 goals at their first match on Saturday. His team, Arrows, ended up winning their game 3-1.
We had an unexpected visitor for dinner last Monday when Don Supon turned up at Nick's work. It was nice to catch up with him, he was on the same course with Nick when we arrived here but moved to Idaho 14months ago.
Then on Saturday we had Ray & Kate round for dinner.
Yesterday we went to the cinema to see'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' which we all enjoyed, well 3 of us enjoyed it, Nick tolerated it.

Coosa River Adventure

Another reasonably quiet week. Kevin, Bernice & Craig came round for dinner on Tuesday which was fun and Tom started his outdoor soccer season with a practice on Friday.Then yesterday we had our kayaking adventure.

We had great fun canoeing down the Coosa River and even managed a few sets of rapids (Grade 2 for those in the know about these things) . After 3 and a half hours I was glad to stop though.

We rewarded ourselves with a big lunch at Jim n Nicks BBQ and then got home for a big game of Monopoly and a relax.

Labor Day Weekend

Another fairly quiet week followed by a busy weekend. We got up early on Saturday and drove up to Atlanta and went to the Dialogue in the Dark exhibition . http://www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com/exhibition/scenario/ This was really interesting but unfortunately Lily found it a bit too scary and cried for most of it. After this we went onto the Bodies Exhibition http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/bodies.html which was fascinating. Tom & Lily inevitably had a snigger at their first naked male body for obvious reasons. This made me laugh at them and I think a few people got a bit annoyed with us. Oops. You've got to admit, naked can be funny, especially when you are 9 & 7.
After all this education we went on to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens where they had a Henry Moore Expo so I got to see lots of his sculptures. I have posted all the photos onto my facebook page.

Not a Henry Moore, but pretty cool all the same.

On Sunday we set off to Stone Mountain, which happens to be the worlds largest piece of exposed granite. To make this more fun the park people made a huge skywalk park and various other attractions, so after walking along ropes about 10 - 50 feet above the ground attached to harnesses for an hour or so we had a game of crazy golf, rode the 'scenic' railroad, looked round an antebellum house and plantation, spent a fortune on food ($3 for a bottle of water!!!) we finally rode the cable car to the top of the lump of granite.

Today, being Labor Day the children are off school and have gone round to a friend's house to watch movies and eat pizza. Nice one.

Monopoly Moneybags

A fairly quiet week, we went to Neil & Dorothy's for dinner last Saturday and just relaxed at home the rest of the weekend. This week I have been out running 3 times and played golf with Bernice on Thursday. Just remembered, we all 4 of us played golf last Sunday, Tom was pretty good and now has a set of his own clubs. He is meant to be playing today with Nick, Tim & Ethan but the weather doesn't look too great so they may not get out. I am finally back into my running and am enjoying it immensely. Thank goodness, as it has taken a long time to get back into it.
Last night we had our first family game of Monopoly and Lily wiped the floor with us all. We had to continue the game this morning as it was getting late and Lily needed to go to bed. So today she ended up owning all the property and having £1840 while she managed to bankrupt everyone else. Nice one Lily.

Both Tom & Lily are sniffing away and seem to have a mild cold so I reckon I will have to keep them off school tomorrow due to the swine flu that is currently rampaging its way through the school. Bummer.

The hardest part of my blog seems to be thinking up a title each week

We had a boozy Saturday night last weekend when Ray, Kate, Barb, Greg & Briony came round for dinner along with Pete & Barbara. We were able to sit outside, eat, drink and generally be very noisy. I don't think we disturbed the neighbours as I don't think anyone else was outside. Anyway, that was a late night and so the next day I had a bit of a lie in and didn't get up until about midday. Then it was a fry up and a shower and I felt like new again. Ray & Kate were going up to the lake so Tom, Lily and I joined them for the afternoon.

In between rain showers Tom & Lily had a great time out on the lake. The water was so warm, definitely a very different experience from water skiing/ragging about a lake or loch back home. No wetsuits required here.

On Tuesday this week we had a couple of Nick's colleagues round for dinner, thankfully a more subdued affair than our Saturday bash, however I was still a bit rough around the edges on Wednesday and so missed out on my run and just lounged about all day and watched telly. Brilliant.

Back to school and routine at last.

It's been two weeks since my last blog and I'm trying to think what we have been doing. Gosh, that sounds like a confession or something.
Deanna took us on a visit to the bamboo forest out in Prattville, Tom didn't want to go because it would be 'boring' but as you can see he thoroughly enjoyed himself and managed to get filthy in the process. Then on Saturday we had Deanna and family round for the afternoon and evening along with Olivier, Aurelie and their 3 children and another Olivier, his wife Amelie and their 2 children. Not surprisingly, Sunday was a restful day.

Monday dawned and it was my birthday, I got 'Gone with the Wind' which I have seen in part many times on the tv but never in its entirety. I have to say I am enjoying reading the book very much so far. I also got a book token from Nick as well and I am really looking forward to going to browse the book store for some new books.

Tom and Lily bought me a jigsaw and I got 2 lovely tops and a scarf from Nick's mum & dad. I am wearing one in the picture, it goes perfectly with a couple of my skirts, "nice one Lesley, they were great choices and definitely me."

Wednesday finally arrived and the children went back to school, yay!! Boy, it's been another long summer. They both seem happy with their classes and teachers and now just need to get used to the early mornings again, I had to wake both of them this morning, I hate doing that. Hopefully they will have a lie in tomorrow morning.

I went running on Wednesday and again this morning and today was very hard, I ended up having to power walk as I was so tired after yesterdays session with the personal trainer (lots of squats and lunges = very tired legs today). Also it was hot, sunny and very humid. Not a nice combination, give me a cool British day instead please.

What a lovely week

Well, it's all quiet at home now the girls have gone back to Scotland. We had a fab time with them and I will miss them all very much.
Friday night we went round to Ray & Kate's to celebrate his birthday with a few friends and some of his family who were also visiting from Britain. On Saturday we just lounged around the pool. Sunday we got up early(ish) and drove down to Destin for a day at the beach. I was so tired that night that when Tom & Lily went to bed at around 8pm so did I. We got up early on Monday and went out for breakfast before checking out of our rooms and returning to the beach for a last bit of sandcastling and sunburning - Angela!!
Once home, we were straight back out again to take the girls to their first baseball game. Unfortunately it started to rain half way through the game so it was delayed for about an hour, being keen to watch the game we decided to wait it out and were one of only a few people left in the stadium to watch the rest of the game when they resumed play. Luckily this meant that both Daisy & Amber got a ball thrown to them that had been used in play and then we were able to get them autographed. We also finally got one for Lily.
We had a quiet Tuesday and went to Miyako's for dinner and then drove up to Atlanta on Wednesday for a bit of retail therapy before going to the airport to say goodbye. See you in less than a year.
Daisy, Amber & Angela awaiting the start of the ball game.

Dinner in Destin

Master hole diggers, Amber & Tom.

Two happy flowers, Daisy & Lily.

Fun in the Sun

Nick got home on Saturday and we were all very pleased to see him. Sunday, Lily went to her birthday party and then when we got back from that the Arnolds came round for a barbecue. It was nice to catch up with them. I have had no personal training this week as Wendy has a bad back but I have managed to get out a couple of times for a run.

On Wednesday I drove up to Atlanta airport to pick up Angela, Amber and Daisy. It was wonderful that they had finally managed to organise a holiday out to see us and I got a bit teary eyed when I saw them at the airport. That was a bit embarrassing but hey ho, what can I say? I was so pleased to see them. You don't realise how much you miss people and how much they mean to you until you see them again after a long absence.

We have been mostly lounging by the pool but we did manage a water fight today.

Honest, it is a water balloon he's got in his hands!

Just Chillin' Out

Since getting home we haven't been up to much. Nick returned to work last Wednesday and is in Portland, Oregon this week at a conference. Tom disappeared into his bedroom to play with his lego and didn't emerge for a couple of days and Lily is just Lily.
Last Friday we went out to Miyako's for dinner with the Frantz's to thank them for doing such a great job looking after the house and pool while we were away. Then on Saturday night we went bowling with them to celebrate Tim's birthday.
Lily went to a birthday party last Sunday and has another one to go to this Sunday and Tom had a friend round to play on Monday and Johnathon & Matthew are coming round today after lunch.
I got out running 3 times last week but with Nick away haven't managed out at all this week, so I have been drinking wine instead!!

Home again

After we finished looking round Boston we had a day of relaxing before setting off on our travels again. Dan & Philippa Storr arrived at the cottages we were staying at on the Saturday so we had a couple of drinks with them and caught up with all their news before they return to Britain after spending this last year in the US. It was great to see familiar faces again, we miss all our friends and family so much.
After Massachusetts it was off to Rhode Island for lunch in Newport (a lovely little town) and then overnight in Connecticut. Monday saw us arrive in New York and get upgraded to a suite at the Hampton Inn on Staten Island. We had a very busy day in NYC, the photo above is taken on top of the Rockefeller Centre, thanks to Phil & Dan for telling us to go there instead of the Empire State Building. We also had time for a walk through Central Park, a walk across Brooklyn Bridge, a visit to the big space & science museum and for Nick to get on a subway without us...this left the children in tears and very distraught however I managed to keep my head and met up with Nick safely about 15 minutes later (Nick had not only got on the subway without us, he got on the wrong subway without us, doh!)

A beach on Cape Cod.

The beach outside our cottage in Massachusetts on a rare sunny day!

Next stop or state was Pennsylvania, we had lunch in Philly (no cheese steaks, though) and then overnight in a lovely old hotel in Abbotstown before arriving at Gettysburg for a very interesting and moving piece of history. After that we were back in the car and on to Maryland for a cup of coffee before heading into Virginia where we visited many colonial sites. I am afraid to see that Tom, Lily and I had lost interest in all things colonial and historic by this time and left Nick to get on with it himself. Sorry Nick.

We were finally coming to the last week of our holiday, a week at the beach in North Carolina where the sun shone every day and we did nothing more onerous than build sandcastles and sunbathe. Nick & Tom visited a big battleship and Lily & I went for a potter around the shops one morning and then we drove home today.

So we started out in Alabama then drove through Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York State, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and then back to finally back to Sweet Home Alabama.

Approx 2100 miles later

Whale watching off the coast of Gloucester, Mass.

Niagara Falls.

After leaving Alabama last Tuesday, we drove north through Tennessee and Kentucky where we stayed overnight and visited Mammoth Caves. Then the next stop was Cincinnatti, Ohio for lunch and a walkabout before ending up at Niagara Falls, NY. Fantastic.

Next we drove through Vermont and New Hampshire stopping off at the Ben & Jerry Ice Cream factory for a 30 min tour and a free sample of ice cream. Delicious.

Next up was Whale watching in Massachussets before finally arriving at our first week long stop just outside of Boston. So far we have visited Concord, Lexington, Salem, Plimouth & The Mayflower II and spent all day in Boston taking in the sights. Today we had a trip out to Cape Cod and tomorrow we are back to Boston for some museum visits. Phew.