Another somewhat belated blog, but as we crossed our halfway point, we all sat down and reflected on all the amazing experiences we’d had and tried to identify a few favourites. Hard to do when everyday has been an amazing experience, but we forced ourselves to name favourites, so in the order in which we had them, here’s what we came out with…
1. Approaching The Mall in Washington
The very first day of the road trip proper gave us one of our most iconic approaches and
arriving at the mall and looking up and down at the Capitol Building, past the Washington Monument to the Reflecting Pool and Lincoln Memorial was like nothing we could have imagined, with Ant being left particularly speechless by the experience. It didn’t grow old either, despite heading back to the city 4-5 times the power of the place was undeniable.
2. Eating lobster and shrimp in Maine
Sarah’s and George’s top pick, Maine for them was all about lobster (see George’s Lobster Dance for more proof). Even Millie got in on the action and tried her first shrimp and hasn’t stopped eating them since! It apparently lived up to expectations (check Sarah’s smile) and has continued to be the benchmark not just for seafood, but all our roadtrip meals…
3. Finding the moose…then the bear
After a lot of disappointed stops at roadsides and wary advice from people that moose arehard to find these days, our hopes were not really that high, even on the road ‘guaranteed’ to yield a moose spotting. When we finally did find one though, the crowd went wild! To then come across a grizzly bear the very next day was almost unbelievable and so all of a sudden our two top spots of the trip had been achieved. Seeing those animals in their natural habitat (albeit surrounded, at a distance, by tourists) was majestic, humbling and breathtaking.
4. Hot Springs and Tubing
One of the things at the top of our to-do list was tubing in a river, but given how the
seasons fell we were running out of opportunities by the time we got to the ideal locations. However, a chance find on route from Idaho to Salt Lake City, Idaho Hot Springs gave us not only a wonderful morning bathing in the springs themselves but with his blood running hot they gave Ant the bravado to go rent a tube and coast down the rapids in town (which also gave the tube shop guy his only business in several weeks!). Exhilarating, life affirming and downright fun, that was a good day!
5. Sand sledging in Coral Pink
The unplanned ones are the best and Google gets the high-five for helping us find this one. A quick Google search the night before we planned to ‘swing by’ Coral Pink Sands suggested we should ask the Ranger for a sand sledge (for a fee, well worth paying) and it was a good job we found it – they weren’t advertised at the park and several people jealously coveted our boards out on the dunes (a couple even had a go on them!). This was probably one of the most fun days out of the entire trip, even if we are still finding sand where sand shouldn’t be found…
Of course, when we sat down and discussed this as a family loads of other stuff came out from this kids, so honourable mentions, go to:
- Disney (all of it!)
- Kelley Rock Springs (Florida)
- Smithsonian Air and Space museum (DC)
- Spending time with Marian, Joey, Bella and Mario in Maryland
- Watching the dolphins dive in our wake in Bar Harbour (Maine)
- Stephen King Tour (Ant) (Maine)
- Canoeing in Lake Winnipesaukee (New Hampshire)
- The California Zephyr (points for best and worse experiences that one!!!)
- The Trail of Jack McCall in Deadwood (South Dakota)
- Seeing the Devils Tower (and, for Ant and Sarah, hearing George and Millie recite the legend they’d learnt the day before) (Wyoming)
- Finding the Greybull plane museum out in Wyoming (even though it was closed)
- Yosemite in the snow
- Bagels in Idaho Falls
- The whole of Utah
Our world is bigger than this... 
Looks as though you are all having a great time. Enjoy the remainder.
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