Road Trip

Tiring of life at home, and with the lockdown easing, we took a road trip to Missouri to see Emily's parents at the end of May. We broke the 18 hour journey in half by camping in a Virginia State park.  Leaving the park we took the back roads through the Cumberland  Gap, which was pretty special. We also decided we should visit Bowling Green in Kentucky sometime, as they have some interesting looking museums - we had been on the road a long while by then. The further south we got, the fewer masks and less social distancing we saw. 

Wilder in the back of the car, thinking it is like an aeroplane for some reason

We took the dog

At the campsite the girls put up the tents by themselves.

Thanksgiving trip

For thanksgiving we took a road trip to Missouri - one night on the road each way, stopping in Columbus, Ohio. The day back we managed to travel between snowstorms, arriving home just before 2 inches of snowfall. 

Surprisingly, this was taken at a roadside rest stop (below)

Taco Tuesday in Columbus

Beach Week

As I mentioned, we arrived in Tampa on Sunday night. We drove for around an hour to Siesta Keys, where everyone was waiting for us. Of course, having been up for a very long time, the kids went straight from being asleep in the car to being asleep in bed. In the morning they were delighted to discover they were at the beach, in a house with a big swimming pool and small swimming pool, where they could swim all day with their cousins.

So swimming (interspersed with half price oysters) made up the first four days of our trip here. Then we took a 2 day road trip from Florida to Missouri, stopping overnight in Athens, GA. The kids were very well behaved throughout - I guess they like road trips as much as I do

On the way we saw a train laden with coal, presumably for Santa/Father Christmas to use to fill the stockings of all the kids who were bad this year. I told Bluet this, but she does not believe even bad kids get coal.

 Now we're at the Brunot farm, where soon we'll go choose a Christmas tree, and see the new baby cows

CHRISTMAS PART I

The first part of our Christmas Holiday (which too be honest was more tiring than going to work) was to pile into the car on the Friday before Christmas, and drive across Europe to visit Andrew and Maria in Slovakia. This drive would've been fine has we not encountered 3 hour long tail backs and some torrential rain - as a result we finally arrived in Bratislava at about 23:30. The next day we were all surprisingly awake, and managed to go eat some Slovak delicacies at the Christmas market. Ilona became rather taken with Andrew, asking to be carried by 'im or to sit with 'im at every opportunity.








The kids then got to make some Xmas cookies (See previous video) and angels





The most exciting thing at the Xmas market were some sheep



Ilona was also very excited when 'im gave her some 'bippers' (slippers) for Christmas, as until then she'd had to make do with adult ones...

After the wedding

On Sunday we were pleased to leave the hotel, and accepted the offer of one of Emily's friends to stay in their house in DC on Sunday night, even though they were going to be away. They have 3 kids, so Bluet was happy to play with all the toys, and we all enjoyed pretending we had a real house, even if just for one day. We even had some regular blog readers over for dinner - I think they really came to see Bluet though.

Then on Sunday we got back in the car and headed home via Baltimore. Another well designed city with proper rows of terraced houses made of brick. We stopped by the harbour and had breakfast at Jimmy's, then hung around with another of Emily's friends, a local resident now working for Obama. He took some pictures of us which I will add to the blog once Emily has vetted them. Hopefully there are some of Bluet feeding left-over toast from Jimmy's to the local duck population, which I think was one of the high points of her life.

Breakfast at Jimmy's

Bluet just wanted to watch the witches above this bar

The building in the background was the police station in "Homicide: Life on the Street", TV Fans

Homeward bound

Hello, New York skyline

Multimedia

We have returned safely from Washington DC. Bluet very much enjoyed her road trip, and once i have sorted through all the photos, I will post them here. In the meantime, here is a video of Bluet talking in the back of the car, and some audio of Bluet speaking. You can watch these again and again if you like.

Bluet's first road trip

Friday

Even though it doesn't take that much longer than travelling from the St Louis airport to her Grandparents house, I am going to classify this weekend trip to DC as Bluet's first road trip. We picked up the rental car at a shopping mall in Jersey City (a money saving tip there) stopping only to purchase Bluet the fancy shoes you will see her wearing in some of these photos.

Once we strapped Bluet into her lovely new car seat, she was happy and was extremely well behaved all the way. As a bonus treat we stopped at the house of some friends with kids in DC and Bluet got to try out many new toys. Which is what she is also doing right now. Then we headed on to Alexandria for the wedding. More to follow.....