Radio Silence.

It’s been a while since I last blogged. So I thought that before I launched into an account of our most recent trips it would be a good idea to do a quick update on what’s been going on since I last did!

So last time I blogged we were living in Newport, RI. I can’t believe my last blog was nearly 2 and a half years ago now, but it was! We lived in the USA for another 18 months after that post. We had so many incredible adventures around the USA, and met so many amazing people, and I hope that soon I’ll have the chance to fill in the blanks properly. But for now, the edited highlights:

We visited to Nova Scotia, Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto in Canada, and saw the Niagara Falls twice! We took trips to New York City, Washington DC, all over New England, Florida, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and North Dakota, California, the 4 Corners Region including all the amazing National Parks, and Road Trips to New Orleans and Chicago. In all we visited 37 of the United States and 3 Provinces of Canada.

We saw things and visited places that I never dreamed I’d ever be able to see. We learned how vast and varied North America is, in so many ways. We learned how little we know about counties that we always presumed were not dissimilar to our own. We came to understand a little about why so few Americans bother to travel outside of their own country!

We also learned to understand distance differently. Where previously we would have gulped at driving an hour for a day out, all of a sudden we began to think nothing of driving 8 hours for a long weekend! We looked at Canada as being ‘pretty close’ when the reality was that the drive from our house to Canada was the same as driving basically the length of Great Britain! And a ‘quick trip across the pond’ really did feel like that… we actually flew back to the UK for a weekend so that we could meet my first niece!

I have so much that I could share about our incredible experiences in the USA, and I hope that with time I will find the chance to do that.

But for now, suffice it to say that I miss living there in a way that I never imagined I would. I was watching a YouTube video earlier that was clearly filmed on a balcony in California and it made me genuinely emotional. I know this lockdown is doing funny things to us all, but it makes me so sad to be so cut off from a country that I consider my second home. Leaving the USA was so much harder than I thought it would be, and I hope it won’t be too long before we make it back for a visit.

Anyway, all good things have to come to an end I guess. Leave we did, and we found ourselves living back in North West London, in the same sort of area where both the boys were born. It seemed strange at first to be in the same places as we were in when the boys were young. One day we passed the shop where we bought the first baby things we ever bought for Matthew, and I commented on how funny that was. And then I realised how abnormal it was that we had lived so many different places that it felt weird to be in the same places again!!

Living in London again does have its advantages. It’s been so good to be able to drop by and see friends and family that we’ve live so far away from for the past few years. And its amazing to be able to jump on the Tube and visit all of the tourist spots and the world class museums and galleries. We have been having a lot of fun and adventures in what is basically our own backyard.

But that’s another story for another day! Hopefully a day that’s not so far into the future as this one ended up being!