Today in Chamonix

The kids are playing outside in their snow suits. I took the 15min to insulate them from the weather in the hope that they might entertain themselves for an hour or so. As I walked back upstairs I said to Ali: "It's just a little more of a faff then getting them ready for the beach". I sat down on the couch and put my feet up. Looking out of the window the snow continues to fall, there's 5-10cm freshly deposited with lots more forecast for the rest of the week. Thought comes unprompted; I need to take advantage of the powder when the weather breaks.

In front of me where the old open fire used to be is a brand new stove, it's really neat, it spins 360 degrees helping direct the heat to different parts of the room. They're being encouraged in the valley to reduce pollution (there's constant growth in the number of residences and so more and more smoke). Since it's installation we are definitely using less logs and there's no doubt it emits heat for longer, I would say it's not as warm as the old fire when sitting directly in front however. To increase the heating benefits of the stove we're debating nocking out the old chimney stack entirely and replacing it with a flue. This would add the flue to the stove as a heating source, allow more air to flow around the stove to be warmed up, as well as open up the room - we shall see...

My hope of one hour's kiddy play was quickly dashed by the way, they came in and out every 5-10min (snow in my face, hat itches, I heard an explosion, can I have a snack, etc...), then after the fifth time with G in tears over something or another we had to go through the 15 min disrobing process. I now continue to write with F draped across me playing a computer game.

One issue with the stove is that it takes much smaller pieces of wood. After surviving a couple of days by sawing and chopping a few logs apart, I got lucky. As I was doing a bin run, I was passed by a man delivering a pile of logs to one of our neighbours, I went and had a chat, he said he had no more wood available (buried under snow) but that he'd be happy to cut our stack and would be round over the next few days. Good as his word he was back a couple of days later and we are now set for wood. He's a really nice guy, his family's been in the valley for generations. During the winter, he skis, if the weather is awful he busies himself with odd jobs. The rest of the year he splits his time between finding crystals to sell (above 3,000m) and teaching golf. 

His activities seem fairly unusual when seen from a London perspective, but here in Chamonix not so much. Skiing particularly but mountain activities generally have a real magnetic attraction for certain people. There are a number of highly educated, successful doctors/lawyers/bankers who have dropped everything to move here full time, there are lots of less well off people as well working the restaurants and bars and there are of course the chalet workers cleaning or cooking for others before going on to university etc... 

These people and/or their partner's are often looking for jobs, any job as long as it's flexible! Someone one day is going to tap into this resource of educated people. Opening a US call centre? start work at 5pm after the lifts close perhaps? Certainly Ali's work seems a good fit, but it's a good fit anywhere.

Before the snow kicked off last night the weather had been extremely mild, the snow was melting steadily at our altitude and we were thinking thoughts of spring and new activities; the kids and I exploring a new path near the chalet. 

We came back with lots of new sticks and some nice metamorphic stones.

It just shows how quickly weather can change up here. This is the view outside now.

However harsh and cold the weather can be here, I definitely prefer snow to rain in winter.

Since it's a bit dangerous driving in this, and we need food for dinner we're off to catch a train into town...

Ski days

I've been coming to Chamonix in winter since I was a boy, but never for longer than two weeks and never for more than a week in well over 15yrs. It's a very different experience when you have time. Instead of rushing up at the crack of dawn with sandwiches packed to spend a full day on the slopes no matter what the weather, I've become a fair weather skier. Why rush out in a blizzard when I have several months ahead of me.

Unfortunately this approach and a focus on getting F up and going on skis has lead to very little "proper" skiing - the weather has been pretty awful. The plus side of grey clouds is that the snow conditions when I do go up top are fantastic.

During the english school half term we had a full house of visitors and I spent a lot of time on the lower slopes coaching F and introducing the pleasures of falling over in the snow to the uninitiated. By the end of the week all the beginners had a fair grasp of the basics and were really enjoying themselves. We even managed to take F and O up to altitude at the Brevent for their first blue run which they handled great; at first with utter terror and tears, then growing confidence, shortly followed by overconfidence: "I don't need to follow you anymore I can go down by myself..."

Since everyone's return to school we've had two days of nice weather, on the first,  F and I decided to go skiing and were joined (it seemed) by half of France, it was heaving! We tried to go to the Tour which has the best intermediate skiing in the valley but there was a traffic jam leading to the Argentiere car park (the Tour had been completely closed due to traffic we found out later) so we turned around and went to the Brevent which has the most efficient primary lift in the valley. Up top it was a beautiful powder day, I had some regrets of having invited F to join me since we were going to be sticking to the piste - hey ho.

We set off, and after a very smooth blue, the lift back up had a huge queue, F noticed the Cornu lift was empty, why don't we go up there? I thought what's the harm? It's not the toughest red, the snow is amazing and F has absolutely sailed through our first run. OK let's give it a go. As we went up it all looked manageable, until we actually set off. The piste had not been fully ploughed the night before and by the time we got there it was a powdery mogul field - oh shit!!

F was an absolute champ, he was scared stiff, but he made his turns, picked himself up when he fell and found a way down the main part of the run. The Cornu then narrows about two thirds of the way down into a track before opening up again for the last decent to the chairlifts, this is where we encountered our problem. Skiers and boarders were flying past, the snow had been scrapped to the side and F had lost confidence in his turns, he would head straight down in snow plough, pick up too much speed before turning into the powdery side of the path to slow down/crash. After two of these, with his confidence shot, I decided I had to get him out of there. So I got him to follow me in an elevated traverse, above the path in powder.

The frenetic path was behind us which helped, but the steepness of the slope freaked F out, I guided him by hand for a while but then he completely panicked, his skis turned downhill and he headed straight down over the back of my skis taking me with him. We found ourselves back on the path, F in tears he'd apparently done a kind of somersault/forward roll and landed on his head/helmet, I'd done a beautiful belly flop hurting my ribs - we made quite a pair.

Thankfully the traverse had done it's job, after a big cuddle and the promise of a Fanta over lunch we made two turns and were through to easier skiing - time for a well earned lunch break.

After that run from hell, I was really concerned F's confidence had taken a real knock - would he want to carry on today? ever? Thankfully my concerns were unfounded, we did the blue run again and in the queue for the lift F said to me, hey, now that we've done that run, how about we go and explore some of the other slopes on this mountain (proud dad).

Readers of of my earlier posts will know that I was planning to teach F parallel skiing without first teaching the snow plough. I did and it worked, but as his confidence on skis increased he figured it out by himself and now does it most of the time. Next job, how to get him back to parallel?

Snowy Chamonix

After a lazy morning and a huge tantrum from G (who didn't want to go skiing) we ventured out to the slopes (she changed her mind).

They have a free to use conveyer belt lift for beginners... 

...the kids skiied with me one at a time. I'd looked on YouTube for suggestions on how to teach it, and settled on lassoing them with a rope, letting them go and only pulling them back when things were getting out of control. 

We expected F to have a great time, but he was often frustrated with his progress, G after this morning's pyrotechnics was the surprise package - she absolutely loved it!!!

With a whole week of snow predicted, we decided to stock up on a whole load of provisions, for us and our guests who arrive next week. Boxed wine, custard puds and barquettes de fraises - we should be good for any emergency.

Today, was a very grey start, with snow due soon, Fred and I decided to go skiing. 

We had a great time!

He seems to struggle engaging the snow plough but he was doing immaculate parallel turns. Instead of pushing the SP on him I decide to let him carry on and he did great. The SP is good for early safety/control/confidence but causes really bad habits at the intermediate level, I figure going straight to parallel should be possible even if it's likely to take a bit more time early on - watch this space...

After the skiing, Fred wanted to test out the new sled/spade things we'd bought yesterday, after a bit of hesitation from me due to the faff involved, I said yes and we had a wonderful half hour careering uncontrollably down the hill.

As we left the piste the weather closed in, First Snow!!! 

After lunch the kids wanted to go out and play, they proceeded to play by themselves for around 2hrs! I love snow!

After some negotiation I joined them outside. Imbetween dragging them up the small hill and providing snacks, I entertained myself by increasing the slope's gradient and building a mini ski jump. 

In all the kids must have played out there for around 4hrs and it snowed throughout. I'm really glad we bought some good quality ski suits for them.

After all the exercise the inevitable crash

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, snowing or not. 

Back to Chamonix

We're back in Chamonix!!!!!

Instead of taking our time getting there like the last couple of times, we did the journey with just one overnight stop. This involved a rare and unpleasant early departure (6am) to catch our eurotunnel train to make sure we missed the worst of the M25 rush hour. Glad to say all went smoothly and we were in Calais by 9:30.

Uncharacteristically we decided not to book a hotel and decided to see how far we could get. The weather was appalling, and with kids desperate for a run around we thought of going into Reims for a meal when we saw our rainy day nirvana: IKEA - for health reasons not to be attempted with an empty car on a weekend/half term - but in our case with no space for purchases in the car on a wet Thursday it was ideal.

After meatballs and chips the kids had a good run around and play in the kiddy area before we set off again. We were getting tyred by Troyes so we booked a Holiday Inn in Dijon, the kids as usual were delighted and ran in cheering (I don't get it, but it's handy when travelling).

Next morning after splashing out on F's favourite thing (hotel breakfast buffet) we drove the remaining miles to a gloriously sunny Chamonix.

All the precipitation that fell on us on the way down here had dropped 30cm of fresh snow this high up which the kids promptly jumped into.

After soaking their travel clothes in seconds, we escavated their snow suits and they ran around like crazy while we unpacked.

Bliss... 

San Francisco and wine country Aug 2015

Our time in San Francisco did not really go as planned. We were pretty excited to be there, Ali had never been, but I'd had a good visit previously and it's an Iconic city, what could go wrong?

Well, our unbelievably expensive hotel was a spruced up dump, our area rough around the edges (just south of Market Street), the whole city stank of urine and faeces caused by the huge number of homeless, but the nail in the coffin was our afternoon stroll through the Tenderloin area (just North of Market Street) which felt like walking through an episode of The Wire.

In the morning we set out down market street, we'd read a blog suggesting a lunch itinerary so we thought we'd follow it and see. South of Market is a bit rough, but appears to be a really up and coming area, we walked past some big name internet company offices and associated evidence of gentrification. Even so we started noticing that by european standards there were a LOT of homeless people around, and that any side street smelt of an open sewer.

As we wandered down towards the old ferry terminal we passed some pretty cool architecture...

...we then picked up lunch at the old ferry terminal indoor market (photo below) which was great.

The blog suggested sitting outside looking at the boats arrive. We looked around but unfortunately every bench was taken up by homeless people. We looked on the map for a nearby park, then the next park, then the next park, until after about an hour we got to a park where the homeless had not entirely taken over.

I read a line somewhere; the homeless are not the problem, they are the result of the problems.

I agree, and by that calculation the financial crash in 2008 caused a BIG problem in the US. With little safety net to support them, the unlucky have ended up on the streets. San Francisco is a very laissez faire city, with a generally mild climate so is an obvious destination. We also heard of other cities in the US giving their homeless population one way tickets to SF.

Either way, they are everywhere and the city is filthy.

After lunch we walked up one of the many hills up to Chinatown...

...and up to the top of the hill where there was a nice playground for the kids.

Soon after this photo was taken, things went decidedly weird. Looking at the map, if we headed due South we would hit our hotel, we headed off, not knowing our route would take us through Tenderloin probably the roughest neighbourhood in SF.

We walked along, and things started looking less and less pleasant. Thinking back I have a series of snapshots ....people lying prone on the floor ... two ladies having a huge slanging match in the middle of the street, stopping only to smile at us as we passed  ... Ali handing me her jewellery to hide ... gang of youths on street corners ... man swaying back and forth pissing on a dumpster in the middle of the street before turning around and waving his dick at us ... another man staggering forwards, before crashing to the floor and staying there ... people shouting inane random shit... others babbling to themselves .... It was surreal.

We made it out the other side and decided we'd seen enough, Ali booked us a hotel out of town and the next day we were gone.

The best view of San Francisco we thought (through the rear view mirror)

We made our way up to Muir woods which was much nicer.

Lots of enormous trees.

Also lots of people, some of the trees were noticeably bigger than the ones we saw on Vancouver Island but everything felt a bit too manicured, perhaps due to the much larger numbers of people visiting.

After a night near Muir woods, we spent a night in Sanoma in the heart of the wine country and it was lovely.

The town was an old Spanish mission (it still has the original barracks) with the heart of it built around a park square with shops and restaurants all around. After much indecision we decided to splash out on dinner at the Sonoma Hotel - it was fantastic. Great food (the kids cheese toasty was unbelievable), better wine and we made friends with people on the neighbouring table as well, all in all a perfect evening. Considering we weren't going to stop there until we curtailed our SF stay we were very pleased.

Heading out of Sonoma towards Napa, there were lots of vines

And then more vines

and guns apparently.

We spent the next night in Lodi and did some wine tasting which was really cool.

After Lodi it's up into the mountains we go, heading for Yosemite.

Route 1 August 2015

We left Yosemite and headed straight for the coast and Carmel by the Sea

During our dinner out in Sanoma, a couple on the table next to ours had recommended a restaurant in Carmel called La Bicyclette, it had also had a double mention in Trover (unheard of) so we booked ourselves in. It was fantastic.

The architecture in Carmel is really unique, no two houses look the same and they range from the Mediterranean influenced to wooden clad shacks. The whole ensemble is lovely.

Down the hill from the town centre is the huge beach.

While we played a pod of around 6 dolphins casually swam past

After two nights we reluctantly left Carmel, if we could have been more flexible we would have stayed here at least a week, the food was great, and the town had a lovely vibe, but we had a plane to catch in LA so we started down route 1. 

Just on the outskirts of Carmel is Point Lobos State Reserve. We went for a nice walk. 

At the far end of the point, a crowd had gathered around some park rangers and their telescopes. We joined them and saw sea lions, harbour seals, sea otters and some grey wales - it was amazing.

Route 1 

We spent the next night in Big Sur which is the name of the river Ali is sitting in. For whatever reason I thought it would be a pretty remarkable place, (maybe it is if you enjoy a good hike) but it really wasn't, the road moves away from the coast and follows the river so views are unremarkable and there is really very little there. 

We had a lovely breakfast at Nepenthe restaurant before continuing on our way.

Nepenthe has just amazing views over the Pacific, you can also sea wales breaching the surface if you're patient (and have good eyesight).

At the restaurant gift shop Ali found the kids some wings. I love this photo. 

We continued on our way...

...until we came to this beach covered in elephant seals. You really can't miss it there's a huge car park and hundreds of people.

They're definitely more impressive (huge) than attractive creatures.

We spent a night in Ohai which is described as a slightly hippy, new age and wine growing town/valley. Here's the view from a free to use meditation park on the hills above the town.

Before leaving Ohai we grabbed a pack lunch to have on the way to LA. By complete luck we ended up at this museum/park just off the 101, it was great.

We spent only one night in LA at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, had a swim and a walk round hollywood boulevard.

I thought we'd taken a bunch of photos of our stay in LA, but apparently not, this is pretty much all the evidence I have:

In the afternoon we drove out to LAX next step Salt Lake City and Yellowstone - very excited!

Transatlantic cruise Nov 2015

We read a post from Alyson from World Travel Family (link below) about cruising and thought it was worth a go. http://worldtravelfamily.com/finding-cheap-cruises/ 

We looked around and found a 16 night crossing from Barcelona to Florida including food for less than an economy flight ticket, even I (a terrible mariner) thought it was too good to pass up.

Waiting to board

Goodbye Barcelona

Sunset

The kids bunk in the cabin. We had an inside cabin pretty low in the ship with the idea that that would reduce the rocking (kind of worked). While we missed having natural light/air the cabin was really comfortable, Ali and I had two single beds pushed together (so a very spacious double bed) and the kids had bunk beds. There wasn't much room; no more than one person could really stand at one time, but the storage was good and the bathroom spacious. All in all better than a lot of hotels we've stayed in.

One of the best things about the cruise was the crew, they were just amazing. F&G were on first name basis with half of them by the end and were spoilt rotten. Admittedly they were a bit of a novelty representing 1/10th of the children out of a total of 1,600 passengers.

Most of the crew seemed to come from the Phillippines and many had young children at home, it made us very grateful for what we have. We found out that they don't get internet access for free (ours cost nearly $300 for the two weeks) so even keeping in touch with their kids is hard, most seemed to wait for a port day to log-in on land.

Kid's got coaxed into an impromptu photo shoot.

My favourite view from the promenade, which I used as my main exercise circuit.

The kids took part in the kids club on board, and absolutely loved it. It definitely helped going during the off-season as there were only 25 kids in the club. To put that in perspective the week after ours (thanksgiving week) they were going to have 500 kids on board.

Here they put on a show, G learning the motions of juggling with tissues.

Self explanatory 

Fred doing the Diabolo, does it much better than I.

The ship stopped off at several islands along the way to allow us to stretch our legs.

At Madeira (still on the European side of the Atlantic) was our first stop and last before the Caribbean. Having only been a couple of days aboard, we mainly stretched our legs, thankfully 15 min walk from the ship was a nice park with a playground and trees to climb. 

Next stop was Antigua. After 5/6 days at sea we were desperate to get off.

Thanks to our internet connection, Ali booked us a rental car and it was waiting for us as we arrived. We were recommended a quiet beach and armed with a basic map of the island, off we went. The beach was empty apart from a family of fishermen and two pelicans it was great.

After our swim it was time for lunch, Ali had been recommended Falmouth, so we crossed the island and had a fantastic (though expensive) lunch right on the harbour.

Falmouth and English harbour definitely represent the well healed part of the island. Unfortunately (or perhaps because) they are on the opposite side from where the cruise ships dock.

It's rather pretty.

To return to the ship we took the Old Road which hugs the south and western coast. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Next stop St Kitts & Nevis

Here we took one of the arranged tours for a close encounter with Dante the Dolphin.

They're just amazing creatures, it was a privilege to meet him.

All the dolphins were born in captivity, with little chance of surviving in the wild without a pod.

At the end of the encounter we encouraged to buy photos at exorbitant prices 1 for $100 and the lot on a CD for $200 odd. Ali and I looked at each other and went pit but no way so we walked out of the shop. We were promptly chased and asked what we could afford. After some reflexion (it would be a pity to miss out on the photos) we went back in and offered $85 for the CD, deal done. I'd imagine we could have gone lower but in the end the photos are pretty cool.

Next Up St. Marteen 

From the cruise ships the best way to the town is by water taxi.

St Marteen is really charming at least compared to the other two stop overs we had.

We saw this good lucking fella on the walk back to the ship.

Our last stop was St Thomas, but after three days in a row off the boat and rain forecast we decided to stay on board.

While the Island stops were a nice diversion, a cruise is a pretty poor way to see them, you get little more than a flavour and it's a bit full-on with kids.

Would I do it again? Yes, particularly an East bound crossing to avoid the jet lag.

Yosemite Aug 2015

After the wine country we started climbing upwards towards Yosemite. The countryside here is made up of huge ranches which looked parched.

The last settlement before Yosemite itself

Our lodging was in the next door valley to Yosemite, there's not many people around...

Until you get to our wood cabin based resort

The place had pretty cool wood carved playgrounds dotted around.

And a very good sized pool

On our first day there we drove down to Yosemite, here you can make out Half Dome in the distance

El Capitan - totally crazy that people regularly climb up this shear cliff.

The local wildlife did not seem concerned about us

The granite cliffs are really dramatic!

A glacial erratic? Rather liked the way the tree has grown in and around it.

On recommendation, we hiked up to the Carlon river, to it's waterfalls. It was a little strenuous (Ali swore at me a lot) but in the end we had this pool all to ourselves for a picnic and a swim, it was fantastic.

Yosemite has a sister valley (Hetch Hetchy) which was controversially converted into a reservoir to provide clean water to San Francisco. Unlike Yosemite which was crammed full of people we pretty much had these views to ourselves - in 2hrs we saw under 10 people.

Hydroelectricity in action

Despite the amazing scenery we came out really disappointed with Yosemite it did not feel good at all. Not sure what this was down to, perhaps the drought they're having or perhaps the huge forrest fires that had recently run through near where we stayed, but it seemed like nature was dying/under threat. Either way were really happy to leave the area.

Writing this blog several months later and looking at the photos, it looked like we had a really a good time seeing amazing stuff, when in fact we really din't enjoy it. I guess it shows what a photogenic place it is.

For anyone thinking of going a couple of bits of advice: Stay in the valley itself, it's a long drive in otherwise. Check that the giant sequoia area is open (it wasn't when we were there). In July/August/Sep the rivers run completely dry so forget seeing the normally impressive waterfalls (particularly during the drought they're having at the moment). To get away from the crowds Hetch Hetchey is fantastic.

Leaving Florida

After nearly two months in Florida, we've decided to head back to London a little earlier than planned (in 48hrs). With the pregnancy progressing with Alice's typical morning, day and evening sickness, we've decided to head back to cheaper medical care in London - Medical bills in the US are not for the faint hearted!!!!!

Unfortunately this early departure has resulted in some less desirable flights - Orlando to New York onto Iceland and finally London all in 36hrs. Ouch.

Here are a some of the highlights of our last few days in no particular order:

You frequently see Sandhill cranes wondering about, they take zero evasive action.

We set up a crafting station at Granny R's and the kids proceeded to spend hours drawing, cutting and glueing stuff - should have thought of it before. 

When not in the pool there's nothing like a hose to entertain you

We went to Selby botanical gardens for their Christmas light show, it was great. They also have an awesome kids area. On the night they had free face painting and balloon sculptures.

The lights were pretty cool.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Sunsets continued

Last few sunsets at Siesta Key, yesterday afternoon...

...and this afternoon...

...I'm going to miss this! 

Nearly Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching, so we went shopping in an outdoor mall. Very strange having to shelter from the heat in December - it hit 30 degrees.

Shopping can get a bit too much...

...for us men.

Meanwhile around town the electricity companies are making a killing

To fit in we've pimped out F&G's rides

As you can see the scooters are now perfectly camouflaged

Palm trees can look surprisingly festive

Sunsets

I'm getting a little obsessed with the sunsets around here

Making it an occasion

Otherwise the kids and I and occasionally Ali continue to do a lot of beach time.

Occasionally broken up by the odd lunch out. In this case Phillippi creek oyster bar, which does a fantastic blackened grouper sandwich.

You can apparently spot the odd alligator from the pier, but we're yet to see one.

We have some news...

For all those who have not seen Ali in the flesh recently we have some news:

From June we're going to be a travelling quintet!!

F&G seem to be on board, they've announced their intention to be the best elder brother/sister there is.

We also had an interesting conversation in the car discussing the logistics of a baby: apparently, we need to start stockpiling milk from now, F has offered to carry the baby in a baby carrier, and they were very relieved to hear that we already had some baby clothes lined up.

Getting into shape/F&G transport

One of my ambitions as we travelled was to get myself into better shape. Doing this while travelling with F&G has it’s challenges (“I don’t want to walk!” “Can you carry me?”) but should be easier than doing it while sitting/standing at a desk all day.

One exercise that can be done en famille, is walking, as long as the kids have an additional mode of transport. For the America trip we relied on a cheap buggy which just about carried the two of them at one time.

Since Paris though we’ve ditched the buggy and replaced it with two scooters.

Plenty of energy at 1am!!

They’re undoubtedly more of a menace to other road users, but they have a lot of fun. We decided on a 3 wheel model rather than inline so that when they get tired we can just raise the handlebars and drag them around. So far so delighted!!

The scooters have the added benefit of folding very small. On our trip to Brooklyn we took only hand luggage and the scooters. Just before boarding I'd break the scooters down and load them onto my backpack:

We got a few odd looks but no one seemed to take enough issue to stop us.

To track the walking, Ali has a Fitbit; we aim for 12k steps a day. We’ve hit/beat that target in every urban location we’ve stayed in (particular mention goes to San Francisco!!). 

The cruise ship was also surprisingly effective - making your way to and from the restaurants can take a 1,000 steps. One downside was feeling a little self conscious walking round and round the promenade past the smokers and sunbathers.

In warmer climes, we swapped the walking shoes for swimming trunks. I've got the breaststroke down to a really nice rhythm and can do a 1km+ or so at a time. The crawl on the other hand is a real struggle, I can do a length, then invariably I get the breathing wrong and swallow half the pool - open to suggestions?!?

If any of your are curious as to the results, I lost 2kg (Ali more than double that) on the America trip despite the handicap of US portion sizes. We have high hopes for the last few months but a lack of available scales is limiting my reporting.

Brooklyn

Really nice view from the hotel room.

It's a little chilly at night after Florida, coats, hats and gloves required. 

Few photos from walking around. 

Nice brownstones

These guys have been around a while and were in surprisingly good condition. 

Went to Brooklyn bridge park where there's an awesome older and younger kid's area. 

For the much older kids there's a great view of Manhatten including the freedom tower. 

All along this old port area the piers have been converted into sports/game parks (five a side football (soccer), basketball and handball (US version) and roller skating, which was pretty cool.

Green fingered Brooklyners have had the same idea as some of the residents of Chiswick. 

Cooking lessons at uncle E's

Next day we went for a trip into Manhatten. It's just a short subway ride (half hour) from Jay street. 

The size of the buildings never ceases to amaze. But you do wonder what all the people in these buildings actually do.

It was a bit manic in town so went back to calmer Brooklyn

Where we saw these two. 

And they have a great Xmas tree with surprisingly few people around, particularly compared to the crazy crowds at the Rockefellor center.

Our stay is nearly over :(  

It's been great and we'll definitely be back! 

Kennedy space center

Ali had researched and managed to book seats for us to see a rocket launch at the Kennedy Space Center (tickets sold out in two days apparently), I was SUPER excited!!

We arrived at the center in the morning and had a look at the various attractions while waiting for the 6pm launch.

They have an unused rocket, outdoor museum, with various model pods you can climb into.

 Some even fit me

After an iMax movie experience we adults had a break and the kids ran around like lunatics in this cool ISS themed soft play area.

After lunch we headed towards the unmissable rockets and fuel tank of a shuttle.

They are seriously tall

In the building behind the rockets is a really cool introduction to the shuttle program, before they present Atlantis:

It's quite a sight! 

The surface particularly is really unusual when you're used to the smooth aerodynamic surface of planes, having been built to survive the heat of re-entry.

While a lot of the attractions at KSC are targeted at slightly older kids, the whole shuttle area was great for F&G. You could sit on space toilets, see bedrooms, go down slides, flight simulators, sit in a model flight cabin, etc...

If we were to do it again we would defininately head for the shuttle area first.

By the time we came out it had started to rain.  A lot. To get to the shuttle launch site you had to queue for a bus (in the rain). There was a constant queue since around 2pm and not many people coming back, so with me queuing (soaked), the forecast looking worse, everyone tired and a quick calculation that it could take 1-3hrs to get back from the launch site. We decided to head towards Tampa and look at the launch from a distance on the off chance that it went ahead. We found a great place to see it which had a load of locals already there.

Unfortunately (but vindicating our decision our decision to leave early) the rocket launch got postponed 24hrs. By which point we will be in Brooklyn...

I know today is a Monday

After yesterday, I know today is a Monday, and it's been a lovely day. 

While Ali caught up with some work, I took the kids to the beach. As usual I entertained myself by doing some digging.

We hung around until the tide came in a bit and an island was formed.

We also saw these two

After chilling out for a bit, we all went out for a walk and got very fortunate to catch what even the locals said was a great sunset.

We also saw the man and his dog again.

Just amazing

The kids of course got soaked playing in the sea. If modesty wasn't an issue I would have joined them, it was really hot.

What day is it?

One effect of constant travel, is I have absolutely no idea what day of the week it is and I'm barely aware of the correct month.

This has resulted in issues like today; I thought it would be a great idea to drive 20min out of our way to a thrift shop in search of a bargain or two. This was working out fine until my dear wife pointed out it was a Sunday (For some reason this affliction has currently spared the fairer sex). It was of course closed. 

I do occasionally encounter days of the week:

- It's busy on the beach/bar/restaurant today (it's likely Saturday or Sunday)

- Why's there so much xxxxx traffic? (rush hour weekdays)

- My news feeds have a sporty feel to them.

- I'm required to fill in a form of some sort. 

Other than that, if I'm left to my own devices, days will tend to blur into one another and weeks can pass extremely quickly. It's like the quiet weekends when I was doing 9-5, where a series of meals, a walk or two and odd errand, would barely delay Monday morning's arrival.

Mondays have an altogether different feel to them now (when I'm aware of them)

Kid's bickering

The kids over the last couple of days have been bickering more and more. It’s notable because the two of them really get on the majority of the time.

I initially figured that after spending a certain amount of time apart on the cruise attending their respective kids club's, a solid week together was starting to cause some friction and maybe some time apart would help.

I raised the issue with them just in case and F explained that they do that when they’re bored. Why didn’t you just tell me you were bored we could have done something? We did, that’s how we do it, you never listen otherwise (oops).

If I promise to listen better, any chance you’d consider telling me with your words first? Sure dad. 

…I’ll let you know how that works out.