What better way to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, and Jonathan’s graduation than going on what could possibly be our last large family holiday, or the last large family holiday that we pay for!! We had suggested that we go to San Francisco and drive down the west coast of the USA to Los Angeles via Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Vegas etc but each child independently wanted to go to New York, even in the summer. So North American Travel Services came to our rescue and we have a great adventure planned incorporating Canada and Niagara Falls. And cheaper than our original suggestion, so what’s not to like?
It has come round very quickly and we now we have permission to get excited. We are almost packed and there is plenty of space for all of Rachel’s future purchases. Well there is now that we have removed someone’s 10kg of dumb bells! Yes I’m being serious!
You can follow us by the map below as there will be a new marker for each new post. You can zoom in and move around to see more details on the map. The round markers are where we stay and the flags (⚑) are day trips. Any marker that is red has a post associated with it, so click on it. Details of day trips may be in the post associated with the place we stay.
These are the individual blog posts if you want to read them from here. They are dated and appear in reverse order i.e the newest first so if you come to this page when there is more than one post, scroll to the bottom to start at the beginning.
Wet, wild . . . . . . . . And a wuss!
So for our finale we booked a 3 hour tour on jet skis. The plan was to go in the Gulf if it wasn’t too…
Naples, Naples, Naples
Another beautiful day, not a cloud in sight and a mere 93°F (34°C). Kids finally got up for lunch and we went to Tin City…
The biggest flea market in the world!
After all the expense we went to the bargain basement flea Market in Fort Myers. Car boot sales are not a patch on this –…
The beaches . . . . at last
Relax, relax, relax was the theme of the day. Being in an area of 10,000 islands (or so they say) we drove to Fort Myers…
Aren’t we brave . . . .
Another earlyish start as we set off for the Everglades National Park and our airboat tour through the alligator swamps. For 90 minutes we went…
Our “chill” out time . . . .
So yesterday we said goodbye to New York City. And what a goodbye it was. Our early morning 5am rise was rewarded with a limousine…
Shopaholic in NYC
Our last day in New York was all about doing what we wanted to make sure we got we wanted out of the big apple.…
Laziness and Top of The Rock
Today was a rest day. After a big big lie in we had a lazy lunch and a wander around central park. It is hard…
The Lady with the Torch
Today we took the ferry to Liberty Island. Tickets to go up the statue are booked till November so we just walked around the island…
A week already . . . .
I can’t believe we’ve been away for a week already. Thankfully the weather was much better today as we spent the day on an open…
. . . We have arrived in NYC!
We managed to negotiate the final 75 miles with ease to Newark airport. The last 0.2 miles in the airport to/from petrol station to Hertz…
. . . . . . closer and closer . . . . .
Today’s target was a relaxing 180 mile drive to Newburgh, our last stop before The Big Apple To those of you that think New York…
On the road – Ithaca . . . . .
We left Niagara and spent 75 minutes in immigration getting our passports stamped! What a contrast between the American and Canadian side of Niagara –…
It is a wonder of the world!
Like true tourists Family I were up bright and early for their next sight-seeing adventure, cameras ready. After about an hour transfer time we arrived…
Caribbean Festival
What an explosion of noise and colour! And heat – 32°C! Today was the parade along the water front – we didn’t stay for the…
What a great day!
Despite the body still thinking we were on UK time and waking up at 03:30 (or 08:30 to you in Blighty) we all got up…
Arrived safely
Well we got up really really early, didn’t argue and got to Heathrow in plenty of time. The flight was superb, highlight for the boys…