After a whirlwind stop through Singapore and a new family member joining us (Batty the Bat) we were off to the Philippines and Cebu. We spent our first night in luxury at the Crimson Resort & Spa. It was fantastic with an awesome pool and kids area with its own pools, trampoline and pirate boat with a ball pit. The snorkelling just off the beach was also impressive with lots of different fish and a great jumping platform. If I thought Singapore was hot it had nothing on Cebu. It's like being in a saint walking outside. We left Mactan, Cebu City for Malapascua. It was a 4 hour van and quick boat to a small island famous for its Thresher Sharks. Continued below:
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After a long, painfully sleep lacking flavour that we arrived for our first pit stop in Singapore. Exhausted but with no hotel room available we went out exploring our neighbourhood. How lucky we were 5 minutes walk from a super cool little area with an amazing bakery, great shops and what looked like a tasty market.
Somehow the last couple of weeks have flown by and we are sitting in the lounge late at night waiting for our flight to be called.
Well Cancun to be more accurate. As we stayed in the hotel zone in Cancun I am very sure we only caught a glimpse of the real Mexico. What we saw we loved though. You read all the bad, scary stuff on travel forums and the media, in particular in America, which seems to pick up more of the frightening stories. We weighed it up carefully before booking and unlike a lot of the trip stayed in a major chain and in the offical tourist zone. Everything went really well and everyone we talked to was as lovely and kind as you could hope to expect. Yes there are a lot of people stopping you and trying to sell you trips but they are friendly and fine when you say no thanks.
Top of our list for the trip was to make it to some Mayan ruins. We left Wells as early as we could as we had a big day of driving up to Stowe. We stopped at White Mountain National National Park first where the girls swam in the river and we relaxed in the sun. We then moved onto explore Flume Gorge before finishing our drive to Stowe. It was a picturesque drive up through leaf peeping country as fall started to show its colours. After a late dinner at Trio Amigoes it was a quiet night before moving on. Ice cream awaits. We left Stowe early to fit in a walk up a valley to a local waterfall before heading to the Ben & Jerry's Factory for a tour. I always love finding out how things are made and hearing a brand's story and the girls like ice cream so it was a great half hour break on our drive from Stowe across Vermont and up in to Canada and Montreal where we were heading. We heard all about the "cow to cart" journey of their chunky ice cream and its beginnings in Vermont in the late 70s after Ben and Jerry they took a $5 correspondence course from Penn State on ice cream making.
It was an interesting comparison to 'Mast' chocolate and its "bean to bar" story. Then it was back on the road for a border crossing and on to Montreal. After a bit of a week on the road, it was lovely to unpack for 7 days in our Air BNB cottage in Maine. Simple things like a few home cooked meals and playing in the yard were a welcome break to moving round for the week before. It was great to have a base to explore from and yet come back to the same place each night. Though I think I am pretty quick at unpacking and packing it's nice not to do it every day or two. I am writing this another week later when we have been doing just that. The benefit of moving is we can explore bigger distances. The benefit of staying still is we can explore a smaller area more in depth. With so much to do in Maine our options weren't limited. We maxed ourselves in Wells and highlights included (and a great itinerary for 7 days in Maine):
After our whirlwind tour of New York that was packed with activity and adventure it was back on the road. We picked up our car in Brooklyn (great one month hire deal with Hertz) and started our drive North. First stop was Yale in what was to be the start of our prestigious universities tour. Being on a campus this old is amazing, every building seems like another historic monument but I am sure if you are a student you eventually don't really even notice them. Walking around old buildings isn't very popular with the girls but grass and being able to run around is, so it ends up being a good combination. We took some time out to visit the Yale Art Museum which has thousands (over 13,000 to be precise) pieces of ancient art from across Europe Asia, Africa and the Pacific as well as an extensive modern art collection. Again this is as interesting for us as the the girls as they can't believe either how old the items are or how expensive they would be. It would make it pretty amazing if you are studying Classic Art or Culture at Yale and can actually see the items you are researching or learning about. Our final destination for the day was Seekonk where we were staying at a very basic hotel near the motorway exchange. Super handy for Walmart and any American fast food chains and also the perfect base to be affordably close to Newport, Rhode Island, where we were keen to walk the cliffs and see the huge mansions from early last century. From here we headed further up the Cape to Orleans stopping at New Bedford to explore.
After a month in the Caribbean we arrived fresh and ready to hit the ground in NYC. The girls did really well with a full day of travel to get there. We were up at 4.30am in Bonaire and eating dinner in Brooklyn by 8.30pm...continued below
Our second week in Bonaire flew by. Now we are in NYC the time seems so long ago. Looking at the amazing pictures and remembering how clear the sea was, I feel very lucky and thankful for our time there. Even if on most days the heat and humidity meant I got grumpy. I guess that is why selective memory is good, especially reinforced by photos, it means I remember swimming in crystal clear water, dinners on the ocean and no rushing for anything. How I am going to get children to school in October, I don't know! We spent our last week:
It is Saturday August 26th and we have now been in Bonaire almost a week and we have just passed the halfway point in the trip. It is not like we have left the sun and America isn't going to be cold but I am already wondering how we can squeeze in some more sea and sun at the end before we fly home. It is so hot, the water is so clear and it's very much island life for us here in the Caribbean...continued below
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