Summer Road Trip

Air guitar with Badminton racket, own music mixes and the unabridged Secret Garden audio book (7 discs long!) done with the most appalling Yorkshire dialect ever. The reader was British so there was no excuse.

Toronto Islands, Canada

Sunday in Toronto - with a return to an island I had been to some 15 years earlier, after a good brunch in Little Italy. It was busy and a little less golden than I recalled but we settled onto the sand, paddled in the utterly freezing water (stomach issues to follow), met a  girl with a guitar who tutored for Girls Rock! and got to absorb the fabulous view of the city as we sailed back to the quay and the long drive south.

Family in Canada

Great aunts and grannies - all in one town!

Water in Ontario

Water, water everywhere and plenty of PIMMS to drink. The lovely Laurel Creek Conservation Area, Christine & Sam's hot tub heaven for dolphin-training and the Corus Quay 'beach' in Toronto, thanks to Doug.

Niagara Falls, Canada

Flip, you can build a casino, car parks and a funicular railway right beside this waterfall but nothing would stop it from being awesomely impressive. 'Don't go plop right in as that's the end of you!', advises J.

New car on Floyd

Yup, we did it with a dose of nationalism - Dutch (the dealer) and American (the crew), a dose of God too and the great auto industry of Japan, plus one careful owner. We can accommodate many with 6 changer CDs, air conditioning on every row and the genteel air of a well maintained vehicle interior, despite it's vast mileage.

Yay, for the Honda Odyssey 2008. Next stop Canada.

The James B. Hunt Library, NCSU, Raleigh

A fab roadtrip stop at the best library in the world. It has a yellow book bot (robot) and just incredibly cool styling and spaces. The Danes know how to build... now to get M into their technology program.

Plus they have an ice cream bar in the foyer. That student consultation document must have been fun.

San Augustine, Florida

Florida really was Spanish once and San Augustine is reputedly the oldest city in the USA. It's stunningly lovely, has a proper fort and cobbled streets and feels like southern Europe. Sangria all round on our balcony bar... before the long drive North.

Located thanks to the amazing hispanic staff at Disney who told us where to find the real Florida.

Alligator Habitats, Sanibel

Really?! A cycle path with alligators... we moved along it with focus and some speed. As we crossed a low bridge over a brook there was a truly ginormous alligator swimming towards us, though not deliberately at us. We didn't stop to stare... The next day we encountered a younger, sleeping gator by the side of the road in the Ding Darling Reserve. This time we took a moment with it before heading off into the mangroves and the boardwalk around the ancient shell mounds of the Calusa Indians. A long, black racer snake added some extra excitement to the stroll. 'This is the tropics, dear', ringing in my ear as the response of choice from hotel staff.

West Winds Motel, Sanibel

Living the '70s dream... with lawns to the shore and a sparkling pool, palm trees and shuffle board en route.

Hipster Savannah

A town that is home to SCAD is going to have a hipster vibe and Back in the Day bakery was where it was at with 60s school furniture & the star-spangled... The college was architecturally super cool!

Warmth in Savannah

Sun, Spanish moss and camelia across the many dappled squares of historic Savannah... such a beautiful town with great garages (!), should you need a solution to a leaking radiator situation.

Also an amazing mid-century neighbourhood and ice cream bar, with honey & almond to die for.

Car Picnic, Wales

To complete the road trip experience you've got to have a car picnic, in the grounds of a 12th Century monastery.

In transit, USA to UK

Driverless airport trains, British rail and of course the tube took us all, in stages, across the globe from RVA to Malvern Link.

3,639 miles and counting

Beach-Side, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, VA

The godchild and the godfather this side of the Atlantic...

PH and Me, Washington DC

The Monuments' Mission with a fab bike-taxi and serious storm-sheltering beneath a giant tree before the sun broke through and we stood before the White House, slipped our way along to the War Memorial and finally were re-grouped as the girls and P ran down from the Washington Monument towards us...

Next stop Whole Foods, Reston and a bit of window sawing (!) and smallest child insertion to restore keys to the rightful side of the doors and then onto to Dulles International. Never dull.

Rotunda Alley, University of Virginia

A little more strolling at UVA revealed serpentine walls, magic enclosed gardens and the colonnaded E-Range walkway. We hung out in the magnolia trees on 'The Tog' and crossed 'The Lawn' as usual.

L-Train, Randolph/Wabash

So there is always a movie location... While You were Sleeping and the lovely Sandra Bullock as Lucy, the ticket collector at the Randolph and Wabash L-train stop.

We walked the platform and were grateful for the summer sun and not the festive snow of the movie scene.

Cloud Gate, Millennium Square

The end of the day's sights and we're weary and wondering how to get back home...

Try the underground at rush hour with 3 bikes, then shift to the busses and find the front-carrier is faulty, shift to the next bus and P attaches two bikes under clock pressure and we're off crawling north, through downtown Chicago while he cycles back into the wind along the shoreline.

What a day! What a trip!

Express Ferry, Muskegan to Milwaukee

It was windy on the sun deck of the high speed express ferry crossing 89 miles westward on Lake Michigan. In the enclosed cabin we had bagels and coffee, and outside was the best view of the great expanse of water. Exhilarating!