Sunset, High Bridge Trail

The view and then the bike ride home in the chilly setting sun with a  packet of crisps for motivation and some Christian rock (!!!) with dinner.

Peacocks in Washington

One set disemboweling each other in a gilded twist by Darren Waterston on Whistler's Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room c.1776-7, shipped in from Liverpool in 1904 to Detroit and now the Freer.

The other is the real deal in the National Zoo. Two boys and one peahen do a performance make. Boa Boa, the panda, had grown up and sat chomping on bamboo shoots (not in the same enclosure!).

Wading Pool, Naval Yards, Washington DC

I can't imagine why we were the only people here... amidst the rain and grey, overseen by one security guard we splashed through the waterfall, sustained a slipping-injury that swelled and picnicked beneath the Millennium Bridge.

Bold Rock Cidery, Nellysford, VA

These guys landscaped a brook as part of their stunning cidery setting and so we sampled 4 ciders from wooden tray, including pear and then cooled our feet or swam... should I mention the leach?!?

Blood splattered back of the new car now wiped clean as is the open slit from the site of between-toe attachment. Poor M and thanks heavens for Phil - the Ray Mears of VA.

Virginia and First Landing Beaches

Dig a hole/amphitheater for your whole graduating class's final photo or marry a sailor on the sand - it was all happening on the beaches today as we ate our great TASTE picnic and dolphin-spotted.

Bold Rock Cidery, Blue Ridge Mountains

We got to the cider across some unsurfaced mountain roads with amazing views and some challenging hills.

There was a stream to swim in, bottling-contraptions to inspect and of course cider to be tasted, though we really need to come back for a more restful version of the place.

Mr Fox on Floyd

Mr Fox is the class 'toy' who travels home with a new pupil each week in his very own red briefcase.

This was a busy weekend that started with some time on his home-made computer, a Birthday party, a theatre trip, some house-viewing (of course!) and tire swing practice. His 3rd Grade biographer did a great job in his journal, though his Kindergarten-carer was a bit put out.

Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort

Walt was a man of great vision but just as it was getting really interesting he went and died and all that is left of his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow is a fabulous futuristic monorail and geodesic dome.

Step further onto the site and the dream fades and full-on plastic country recreations with tourist shops and thematic booze & food outlets abound with little shade and 80s shopping mall architecture in between. Dame Judy Dench was on the audio that guided us through time and space aka the history of communication but it was not enough to lift us out of the mire of corporate blandness and a sense of lost hope.

Disney Specials, Florida

The princess of choice was Rapunzel who encouraged braveness with new things, followed by the delightful Ariel in her grotto who suggested spinach cakes for celebrating the day. With Winnie the Pooh we found the queue as good as the ride and then there was the Boab tree of the Swiss Family Robson to climb that was super high with its leafy canopy and so so 'real'.

Splash Mountain, Disney

The first ride of the day was for the brave and happily wet.

Natural History & Native American Museums, Washington DC

The Mall, Washington, for a Monday cultural overload with friends, education alternative to school as it was a Bank Holiday. First stop was the Natural History Museum to see the Hope Diamond, rather more bijou than the advertising suggested it would be but still a big gem. Presented in a way only the Americans could manage as it rotated, on a small plinth, a quarter turn every few seconds so everyone could see without having to move round it. Other gems and crystals were fairly impressive and some much bigger, but we learned they weren't all diamonds.

Then to the Native American Museum, mainly for its famous cafe and a menu of traditional food from five aboriginal regions of the Americas. We need the cook-book and to re-create Mesoamerica's Arepas, Frijoles a la Charra, Pickled Cactus and Corn, Salsa de Arbol (aka. beans on fried corn bread with corn salad).

Once home the Guatemalan worry dolls were used with a traditional North American Red Flyer truck and bear stuffing snow fluff, to recreate a scene from the folk tale of The Chenoo.

Mayfair, London

Churchill is so distinctive.

Fujis & Granny Smiths, Carter Mountain

We climbed the mountain, navigated a tractor stampede, made a movie (Linklater does childhood better), reworked some orchard directional signage and made it to the rows of Fujis, the ripe ones very high in the trees, then did some free-roaming in the Granny Smiths before an English picnic, apple cider donuts and some artiness and finally the trek home to a better adult:child ratio (1:4).

P and the girls, Washington DC

With the other half of the party doing serious memorials, I took the girls onto The Carousel on the National Mall, then as the rain came in we took a break in the shelter of The Hirschhorn, with sheets of water falling like curtains from its curved edges. Then a meander down the Mall to The Washington Monument with a view of The White House.

If I had my glasses, I may have been able to correctly align J's pointing finger as planned.

East Building, National Gallery of Art, DC

There's nothing like a circle, faintly marked out in pencil, of familiar slabs of British rock. Contemporary art began for me with this Richard Long at the Arnolfini, Bristol, 1990.

Outdoors the dramatic geometry of architect I. M. Pei's great "H"-shaped façade and water feature. A late 1970s gem that is faced inside and out with lavender-pink marble from the same quarry in Tennessee, as the original West Building. 

Spot the family...

William and Mary University, Williamsburg

Sorority girls... wandering the 'shady ways' of William and Mary campus, across the sunken lawns, peering in on a student dozing in a hammock and absorbing the loveliness of it all. Established 1693 - now that is old!

Boa Boa, Smithsonian National Zoo, Washington DC

Boa Boa had gone up her tree by the time we arrived, legs hanging down, snoozing but later we heard and ooh and returned to the enclosure.

She was indoors with her mother, just relaxing. We outstayed the crowds and the amount of times it is acceptable to say, 'Sooo cute',  in a scientific institution.

Bought the soft toys and logged onto the panda-cam once home - we have a new furry obsession that isn't Moo Moo.

Williamsburg, VA

My favourite bit of England this side of the Atlantic and best for hat (!) shopping, picnics and it's Premium Outlet Mall, with a cottage garden and orchard for extra joy.

The Really Big Show, Abner Clay Park

There was a young guy called Jonny Z who lived in Richmond and was much loved by many people we now know from the DJ folk, to our local Italian joint, to the fab hairdresser... He died tragically, 7 years ago in a lone bike accident and every year friends gather for a Festival.

This time we were there and it was the antithesis to anything we'd been to in awhile and was all the more magic for it. Loads of arty things to try and hula hooping and music and a sandy park and lovely people... simple stuff that felt like it could change the world. Go Jonny Z!