Wednesday 19 June
We left Salem this morning about 8am after breakfast, looking at a couple of memorial statues on the way out of the town. One was a Bewitched statue, as we learnt yesterday that the tv series was filmed in part in Salem, MA. After our visit to the witch museum, we have talked a lot overnight about the effect of false accusations, and the fate innocent people have suffered through history as well as in Salem in 1692.
Today was another big driving day as Niagara Falls is 480 miles from Salem, and involves crossing Massachusetts and New York State. We decided to travel as far as Ross could manage, and being well stocked with food I could serve meals on the road rather than us taking time out to find somewhere to eat.
Just before lunch Ross asked me could he take a detour to the town of Lee, Massachusetts, which had a large complex of premium factory outlet stores. We knew these complexes were all over the country in each state, and had been hoping to find a day towards the end of our trip to do some serious shopping before we went home. I want it on record that it was Ross’ idea to stop there today, and just quietly I think he wanted some retail therapy after yesterday!! For his sake, I just didn’t feel I could object to the plan…;)
After 3 hours shopping and lunch, we returned to the RV with several bags of shopping and pressed on towards Niagara. I found an RV park in a town called Farmington, NY, an hour and a half away from Niagara, which gives us the goal for the morning. The park was great, with a games room, three playgrounds, rock climbing wall and adventure area including a zip line, treehouse, and obstacle course. We pulled in at 7pm, and decided to try all of the above before we settled down to the usual nightly routine of dinner, showers, and laundry loads. It gets dark so late we had time to try it all!

Tuesday 18 June
We were up and out of Connecticut early this morning, as our travels yesterday did not take us near a supermarket to stock the RV. So with nothing for breakfast or even water to drink, we headed for Providence, Rhode Island promising the kids we would stop to have breakfast and shop there. As Providence has the honour of most donut and coffee shops per capita anywhere in the US, Ross was also looking forward to breakfast!
However…he got a shock at the size of the city, didn’t want to drive through it in the RV, so set about looking for an outer suburb of Providence instead while continuing along the interstate. As a result, we bypassed Providence ENTIRELY! AND the following three exits…*sigh*. Next thing we knew we had crossed the border into Massachusetts.
We then decided to keep travelling to Boston, and just stop wherever we found a Walmart along the way. That turned out to be Walpole, where we spent an hour and $170 on groceries. Seeing as it was now 11.30am, we decided to treat the children who had not had breakfast yet (!) to brunch at a restaurant called Applebee’s across the road. It’s another chain where we took advantage of vegetables and potatoes and steak, and the little kids chose…hot dogs. Oh well, they are not at an age yet where they crave meat and veg!
On our way to Boston, we discussed the fact that in the RV it would be better to avoid city centres and aim to park the motorhome in an outer suburb and make our way into the city centre. So obediently, I removed the navman directions for Main St, Boston and I picked Cambridge (well, I did have an ulterior motive of hoping to inspire the kids to tertiary education by showing them Harvard!!). In following the navman to the suburb of Cambridge, the directions it gave us included low bridges our RV would never get under. As we approached one, and realised it was not high enough, we pulled over sharply on the left on a one-way highway. I then had to jump out and wave down the traffic behind us to stop and allow us to reverse up to turn onto a side street.
Meanwhile, someone had rung Boston Police, and with minutes we heard sirens heading our way!!!!! The policeman was very nice about it all, and when Ross explained I was in charge of the navigating system, the policeman was keen to tease and blame me for it all!! He asked us where we were trying to go, and I told him our plans had been to go to the shopping mall, Bunker Hill lookout, paddleboats on the lake, and see the Red Sox play baseball that night at Fenway Park. He suggested we stay out of the city as there were several low bridges there, stay on Massachusetts Ave towards Cambridge, and head back in on foot. That had been my plan to begin with!!
Anyway, he then offered us a police escort to Massachusetts Ave which was very exciting – and cheered Zac up who had been in the RV crying while we talked to the policeman who he thought was going to take us both to jail!
So we did get to look through Cambridge but couldn’t find anywhere to park the RV so kept travelling to our next planned destination, Salem. This was the site of the witch trials in 1692, and as the play ‘The Crucible’ is both mine and Ross’ favourite play ever, a must-do destination for us. It started raining on the way there and the roof started leaking through the airconditioner which worried us, as we had hit a sign on the one-way highway (warning us too late that we were too tall for the bridge ahead!). Ross checked the top of the motorhome while I organised afternoon tea for the kids, and while the Aircon vent had slid slightly, it easily slid back into place again. Thankfully, there seems to be no other damage!
Trying to find the visitors centre to get information, we went down a street that ended in a dead-end and I again had to stop approaching traffic so Ross could do a million point turn to get out of there. We finally found some parking near the visitors centre at 3.57pm, and as everyone had been cooped up all day in the RV, decided to take them all to the visitors centre….we arrived there to find it closed at 4pm!!!!!!!!! Could today get any worse? A park ranger locking the door caught my eye, so I asked him was there any RV park nearby. He was so lovely and keen to help – he ducked inside to get us a town map, RV park brochure and directions. He shared with us that he has 5 children and often camps at the RV park he was recommending. After helping us and then leaving us with best wishes for a great holiday, we then passed him later twice more in the streets of Salem, and both times he gave us a big friendly wave and grin! The people we met were a highlight of a day strewn with some lowlights!
Before heading to the campsite, we decided to do the final tour of the day at the Salem Witch Museum. This was an inexpensive activity and excellent display of Salem in 1692, and gave the kids some history more succinctly than I could. They are all willing to read ‘The Crucible’ when we get home! As it was already close to 6pm, we decided to buy a quick dinner of fish and chips and head to the campsite. I was sent in with the order, and got to watch the Red Sox game on the tv while it was prepared 😦
Hence the title of today’s post. I wish we could do the day over again! There is a ferry from Salem to Boston which takes an hour and would allow us to explore the city without the worry of the RV, but as we are already behind our planned itinerary, Ross is keen to get on the road towards Niagara Falls, our next stop. I expressed hope that we would have time at the end of this RV journey to fit in Boston, but Ross told me not to get my hopes up as we need to cut back, not add extra things in!! I don’t want to hear the voice of reason right now, I want to go to Boston!!
So the journey continues west tomorrow, and as we head towards Niagara, I will be re examining the itinerary to see if and how we can fit Boston back in again towards the end…;)
PS. Dad, I am DEVAstated I didn’t get to do Boston properly!! 😦 but anyway, could you please wish Aunty Marry a happy birthday from all of us xx

Monday 17 June
Today started as usual with breakfast in the hotel cafe ($3.89 kids meals,and half of them free, people!) and then I – with the help of iPods and diaries – entertained the kids while Ross went for a massage. When he returned we packed up our rooms and headed down to Central Park and back to the Whole Foods Market in Columbus Circle for a light lunch.
The RV rental place had offered us a shuttle from our hotel to their office in Linden, New Jersey to pick up the RV that will be our home for the next three weeks. Our plan was to head for Providence, Rhode Island tonight to move on to Boston from there. Boy did I underestimate NY traffic in the boroughs! It took us two and a half hours to travel sixty miles. We ended up near Hartford in Connecticut about 7.30pm, so stopped in a little town called Meriden for dinner before we repeat the old pattern of travelling for too long and eating too late.
I had difficulty finding an RV park in this state, so dinner was at Maccas so I could use their free wifi, which the kids though was a great idea! From there we travelled another hour down the road to East Lyme to an RV park for the night. Although it is now midnight, I believe I have learnt from the experience of the first RV trip and unpacked properly this time. I THiNK I am ready to hit the ground running in the morning. Time will tell what lessons I learnt!
Postscript: Zac was still up at midnight last night watching me write my diary/blog, so has requested today I include a photo of him in his NYPD gear and Sam in his FDNY gear. I took the photo while Ross was ordering dinner. Belle thought the photo opportunity was not complete unless it included a dancing ballerina princess…;)

Sunday June 16
Today is Fathers Day in the US. The kids are quite excited that their dad gets to have two Fathers Days this year, and think he is quite deserving of it!
Hence we let Ross choose our agenda today. He wished for a sleep in so we all complied, and didn’t go to breakfast downstairs until 10am. I then took the kids to the hotel pool while Ross took our washing to a laundromat – now you know I love washing, but I was not ALLOWED to do it because Ross doesn’t want me wandering the streets of NYC and was not convinced I would find my way home again safely! While I am slightly disappointed I didn’t get to experience a laundromat, I was happy to stay here and supervise kids swimming, and it gave Ross a chance to explore a bit on his own.
We both agree that we love this city but it is not made for a family of eight! I would not recommend it for young families, and while we definitely want to come back, we both want to do it with adult children or just each other (or friends!). Four days here has been quite costly as well (ok, that was partly my fault for taking everyone to Broadway but the kids are calling it their best day ever!). I gave away my hope to attend an off-Broadway play, so that remains on the ‘to-do’ list for the next visit here 🙂
Ross returned from the laundromat with sausage rolls for lunch – real sausage pieces in pastry – and after eating in our hotel room, we walked the 15 blocks back down to the Hudson River intending to go to Intrepid, the Air, Sea and Space Museum on the waterfront. This looked impressive and was recommended to me by a workmate. However, it was expensive for a party of 8, and the space shuttle section was closed, so we took the free option of wandering along the pier between the warship and submarine and looking from there. A Concorde plane sits on the pier as well, but is not open for viewing. I took a photo of it up close for Uncle Bill though!
From there we walked back up to Broadway in search of milkshakes for afternoon tea – another thing Americans do not do readily like decent cappuccinos. We found a store called the “Shake Shack” – which did thick shakes and (drumroll please) burgers and fries!! We shared four thickshakes between us and then stopped in a few souvenir shops for the kids to spend some of their spending money – Zac wants to be decked out in NYPD gear, and Sam of course in FDNY gear so with their funds they bought a baseball cap each and tshirt. We stopped in at a fire station on the way back to the hotel, and while the firefighter at the door wasn’t overly interested in giving us a tour, he did give us the opportunity to explore the station and fire trucks for ourselves.
We considered going to Grand Central Station (which incidentally turns 100 this year) or doing the High Line (an elevated freight rail line transformed into a public park on Manhattan’s West Side, owned by the City of New York) but the kids have done a LOT of walking here, so we opted instead for a quiet night and another decent meal in the hotel restaurant. There will be a lot more to explore on my next visit to NYC, but I feel we have achieved a lot here in the last four days. I checked with Sam at dinner if this was still his favourite city now he has actually been here, and he assures me it is!

Saturday 15 June
Another breakfast in the hotel cafe was hard to resist given some of the kids meals are free! After a hearty meal, we walked the two blocks to Columbus Circle to enter Central Park. Three playgrounds are in short walking distance at that entrance, so the kids of course had to try them all. Little did they know they were peaking too early!
Central Park is another item on my bucket list. I was very impressed with it. Despite being in the middle of such a busy city that never sleeps, it was so relaxing. I could imagine spending time there just reading or people watching in the sun if I was a New Yorker. We walked parallel to 5th Avenue down past the Central Park Zoo (but kept going due to the cost of entry and crowds lined up waiting to get in), past the Metropolitan Museum and to the Jackie O reservoir. Having left our hotel on W57th we found ourselves at the park exit on W81st St!! Look it up on Google to see how far that was!! Legs aching, we bought bottles of water for everyone and turned around to make the trek back!
On the return trip, we stopped at Belvedere Castle (which is a lookout and weather station), walked through Strawberry Fields, and stopped at the Bethesda Fountain so Belle could sing the song performed there in her favourite movie, ‘Enchanted’. Strawberry Fields is a ‘quiet zone’ and right next to the Dakota Apartments where John Lennon lived and was assassinated in front of. I was surprised to learn Yoko Ono still lives there. There is a mosaic at the entrance to that section of Central Park with the word ‘Imagine’ in its centre.
We walked back across and up to the Park exit near 5th Avenue. I had a sneaky plan to visit Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany & Co on 5th but had tired unwilling travel companions with me…*sigh*. So instead I took them all to FAO Schwarz, the legendary toy store. Tim and Sam missed dancing on the big piano made famous by Tom Hanks in ‘Big’ because they needed a restroom, but the other four lined up for their turn. As we left there it was after 2.30pm so we bought them all an icee/slushie and donut from Dunkin Donuts in lieu of lunch. The regular and healthy mealtimes continue!!
Actually it was part of a bribe to encourage them all to have an afternoon sleep as I managed to get tickets to Broadway for everyone for tonight. After dinner at 6pm in the hotel cafe (yep kids eat free again and the dinner meals are $4.89!), we strolled the 15 blocks to the Minksoff Theatre to see the 8pm performance of ‘The Lion King’. I did see it about a decade ago in Sydney, but it was well worth seeing, and EVERYone enjoyed it. I thought I was introducing the little kids to the story for the first time, until Belle told me in the restroom at intermission that she had watched it “on Moviebox in Australia one day when all the kids were at school”. That was not a proud parenting moment for me, as it means I wasn’t there to guide her through Mustafa’s death in the movie as I was for the older kids! As we only have the movie on VHS, I have promised the kids I will buy it for them on DVD after we are home. Seeing a Broadway show, also on my bucket list, was awesome and ticked off!
As we left the theatre, the crowds in the street were so deep we could not move, and FDNY and police had part of the road blocked off. We then discovered this was because Tom Hanks, appearing in another show by Nora Ephron, was leaving by the stage door and getting into a waiting car. That made the crowds understandable, even for Tim and Ross! And as Tom Hanks’ car drove away and the crowds thinned, I found myself standing next to an actress who played nurse Abby in ER (she married Dr Luca I think…name starts with M…Tinks, help me out here!!)
We then walked the 15 blocks home again. While we have felt quite safe here, we did overhear a couple at a set of lights calling Times Square on a Saturday night “pickpocket central”. Which does not help me in my efforts to get Ross to let me go to an off-Broadway play by myself tomorrow night!!

We began today with breakfast in the cafe in the hotel where we are staying. Not only convenient, but a free kids meal for each adult meal, and kids’ meals come with juice or milk and only cost $3.89.
We then enquired at the concierge booking desk for a recommendation of a sightseeing bus. There are several to choose from and all have salesmen standing around Times Square and surrounding streets trying to coax you onto their bus. The concierge recommended Skyline, an orange bus that has only been operating for the last month and has some introductory pricing for their hop on hop off tour. We bought a downtown loop, walked the 15 blocks to Times Square where the tour began and spent the next two hours enjoying the scenery and commentary. We “hopped off” at Ground Zero where I had reserved visitor passes to the 9/11 memorial for 1pm.
The 9/11 memorial is a powerful place. The reflection pools where the North and South towers stood are the largest man-made falls in North America. Despite the massive crowds the place is quite serene. I spent a lot of time explaining in hushed tones what had happened here to the kids, seeing as Tim was only 6 months old at the time and the younger ones haven’t heard about it. We walked past a woman crying who had just left a flower and happy birthday message on top of the name of someone listed at the North pool. That was quite confronting for the kids and really brought home to them that people had died here.
Wall St is on the next block, so everyone humoured me by walking down that street. Jarrod refused to get in any photo with me though in case he was called “nerdy”…oh please, as if a photo on Wall St will be the cause of that!… The New York Stock Exchange is sadly not open to the public, and is heavily protected by security and police. Actually, the police and security presence is large and obvious throughout the Financial District area. We then walked past Tiffany and Co – alas, a photo of the front door was all I was allowed to get. Ross couldn’t walk past there fast enough!
We then hopped back on the bus to get back to the Empire State Building. Another worthwhile touristy thing to do – we started with a “Skyride” which was a little documentary about NY and the building’s history and then went up to the 86th floor observation deck. Zac and I both felt quite queasy from the Skyride, which was a virtual tour on a screen in front of you while you were moved around in your seat. They are updating the ride, which sounds great – next time I am in NY someone can tell me how the ride has changed – I won’t be experiencing it again!
From there we wandered back up to Times Square for dinner. The boys have been wanting “Five Guys Burgers and Fries” for dinner since we arrived in the US, based on some hilarious YouTube video everyone bar me has seen. While I couldn’t enjoy the joke, I had to admit the burgers were delicious. Our long walk home took us through Hell’s Kitchen which was an interesting experience.
One thing we are not doing well with is keeping regular hours and regular mealtimes! After only having two meals yesterday and the day before, we assured the kids at breakfast at 8.30am our regularity and organisation would improve…..until the 9/11 memorial took so long we didn’t get to lunch until 2.45pm, and the Empire State Building timing meant dinner wasn’t until 8.30pm!! It just takes so long to get around this city, and while everyone is in a hurry, tourists just can’t be. There are 8.3 million people in the 5 boroughs, and Times Square is apparently the most visited tourist destination on the planet. That’s ok though, it’s all worth it! 🙂

We have not yet found a definitive answer as to why NYC is called this, it seems to have something to do with horse racing slang in the 1920s and then a concerted marketing effort in the 1970s. Anyway, we are loving it here! Despite the weather, which has been so bad our first purchase of the day was umbrellas!
The bad weather (the first of the holiday) changed our plans and instead we headed straight to Columbus Circle for a late breakfast after a big sleep in (seeing as we arrived here after midnight last night). Abi and I went to Williams-Sonoma there on Elle’s recommendation and found Star Wars cookie cutters – success! And on special too! (Although with Zac and Sam so Star Wars obsessed I would have bought them anyway..)
We then walked the several blocks down to the waterfront to do a Circle Line cruise around the whole of Manhattan Island. It was a long walk for the kids, but at least the cruise gave them a chance to rest. The cruise went for 3 hours and was very informative. From there we walked up 42nd St to Broadway and Times Square. After dinner in Times Square we explored the area and visited M&M world – three levels of it!
By then it was pouring, so by the time we walked the fifteen blocks back to our hotel we were all soaked – even though under umbrellas. Abi called it BFE (the Best Fun Ever), Tim thanked me for bringing him here but said he will probably never venture here again because of the crowds, and Sam and Belle think the whole place is fantastic. Jarrod took everything in his stride, and Zac enjoyed it but was very quiet for at least six blocks after we passed a homeless man asking for money – he was very concerned about the man and wanted to go back to the hotel and get some money for him.
We are now back at the hotel eating M&Ms and blowdrying our wet clothes! Tomorrow our plans are weather dependent, but we are hoping to get to the 9/11 memorial and Empire State Building.

Wednesday 12 June
We were up, packed up and on the road by 6.45am, but it still wasn’t enough to get us to the motorhome return by 8am. Thankfully although we arrived closer to 9am because of the LA traffic, they held the 9am airport shuttle for us until we had checked in the RV and completed all paperwork. On the way to LA this morning Ross brushed some trees hanging over the road, and upon our arrival we were told we would be charged for a missing light cover ($6) near the door – we didn’t even know a light was there, but figured it was bumped by the trees on the journey in.
Once the shuttle dropped us at the airport, we checked in our bags and waited the 3.5 hours until our flight. We bought the children breakfast at Burger King at 10.30am, and then everyone happily passed the waiting time on iPods and books until our flight.
The flight to New York was smooth and involved a detour around some heavy storms that are occurring due to hurricanes in the mid-west. A couple of famous people sat near us on the plane – an actor in front and a comedian behind – but I need my sister-in-law here to tell me who they were! I recognised their faces, but the name eludes me until I see them on tv or in a movie next!
By the time we retrieved our luggage, caught a taxi into Manhattan and checked in to our rooms, it was 11.30pm (due to time difference, NY is ahead of LA by 3 hours). On the recommendation of the concierge, we walked a block to a 24hour cafe deli, where the kids had a pizza slice each (one huge slice for $2.50) and Ross and I had paninis. The kids thought it was great making a memory by eating dinner at midnight!
Sam assures me that while New York used to be his favourite place ever from reading about it, now he is here it is definitely his favourite. We will see what he thinks of the Big Apple in the light of day 🙂

Tuesday 11 June
Yep, we really broke him. Ross had shortness of breath and chest pain last night, which he attributed to muscle cramping. He aches from shoulder to shoulder and up through his neck. Oops! I think the itinerary has been a little too exhausting for him!
Ross had added the Joshua Tree National Park to the list of parks he wanted to visit, but today on approaching it decided to drive straight past it. Today for him was all about just getting close to LA. Now that we have returned to the Californian desert area, the heat is stifling, so even if he was feeling great it would have been perhaps a difficult stop in the heat. Today’s weather reminded me of that day in Sydney last January that broke records. So the Joshua Tree now gets added to our “next time” list.
We did tour the desert oasis of Palm Springs at lunchtime, and stopped 22 miles from there at a little town called Banning for the night. Our earliest stop yet! Ross managed to catch up on some sleep while the kids enjoyed the pool and playground. After dinner we turned on the tv in the RV for the first time, which kept the kids busy while I repacked all the bags for our flight to New York tomorrow. One moment of panic (isn’t there usually?): I lost Ross’ passport!! It was separated from the others as he needed it when we picked up the RV, and I couldn’t remember where I had put it after that. It was found in a suitcase in between a pile of Disneyland brochures kept for the kids to use in their diaries!
Crisis averted, we are all in bed by 10.30. We have to have the RV back by 8am tomorrow, to Santa Fe Springs which is 78 miles from here. And then on to NYC, with the top priority now being to find Ross a physiotherapist. Ironically, I organised a long list of medicines to bring with an accompanying letter from our GP – Panadol, panadeine forte, something for jet lag, sleeplessness, Redipred for croup, Amoxil for minor kids ailments such as ear infections etc etc. The last 24 hours have proven I did not foresee every possibility or provide for everything!

Monday 10 June
From the Durango RV park this morning, our first stop was Walmart! We stocked up just enough for the next two days to tide us over until we hand the RV back. Then we headed straight for Mesa Verde National Park, the nation’s largest archaeological preserve where we were able to walk around one of the cliff dwellings, and learn about the civilisation there 600 years ago.
Our next stop was a MAJOR disappointment. I convinced Ross there was a great photo opportunity at the Four Corners Monument, where New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona meet. We planned to divide up two people into each state – our cameras ready, and jokes about leaving the kids behind in other states ready (I knew you would enjoy that joke, Dad)….and then we arrived to discover it is tribal land and a tourist centre is being built on the site. A Native American at a tollbooth requested $US3 per person for us to enter, so Ross politely declined and we u-turned out of there. I took a picture of the sign saying “Four Corners USA” through the front windscreen as we drove away.
We the pushed on to the Grand Canyon. Spectacular. Awesome viewing. It impresses me even after a few previous visits there. One difference this time was we entered at the East Entrance, where the first viewpoint was a watchtower which allowed us to climb 89 steps and view 360 degrees that end of the Canyon. Of course, the watchtower has been there since 1933 so is only new to me! I have always been there in winter before, so I guess we never drove along the icy roads as far as the East Entrance.
After stopping at a few other lookouts, we discovered we were too late in the day to explore the visitors centre (it closed at 5pm and we arrived there at 6.30). So we decided to travel on and knock off as many miles as Ross could manage to make tomorrow an easier day.
The time factor against us yet again, Ross gave up his desire to take a helicopter ride into the Canyon (thankfully, says I), and I have given up my plans to visit Montezuma’s Castle south of Flagstaff and another night in Vegas. There is just not enough time to fit it all in before our deadline of Wednesday morning. The upshot of such decisions is of course we are already making plans to return (!), and in the meantime someone is going to have to come with me to see Cirque Du Soliel next time they come to Sydney 😉
We detoured via the town of Williams for dinner at Denny’s, which was good for two reasons: the kids had been looking forward to experiencing Denny’s after I told them my memories of eating there as a child; and the town is on Route 66 which the older kids had been hoping to join at some point. I noticed a difference in Denny’s since I was young – no complimentary water on the table, and choices other than fries as sides! The kids all had a meal each (I usually make them share, partly because I am tight and partly because the meals are so big!), and their nuggets or burger came with sides of salad, yoghurt, apple slices, or cucumber/carrots/celery. Ross and I also enjoyed a meal of meat and veges, and the total bill was only $54! Cha-Ching!
We then travelled on and detoured into Seligman, a little town also on Route 66 where we stopped just to get petrol – or “gas”. However, I think we have broken Ross!! He suddenly cramped up across the neck and shoulders, and wasn’t sure how he would go on. So the goal became very quickly to find an RV park. There was one just up the road, so he turned in for the night straight away before the kids. I have convinced him not to set an alarm for the morning and get as much sleep as he needs. I have also discovered we have gained an extra hour which I am sure will help. The kids are quite worried about him because they know the alternative is me driving! And none of us are ready for that!!