We arrived to the cutest Airbnb where magically the Christmas Elf was waiting on the shelf much to Archie’s amazement as he had never appeared in Australia. Who knew that the Elf on a shelf could provide some much entertainment for all. After the largest pizza’s in the world (we were in America after all) and writing a note to the American toothfairy for the tooth that came out on the plane we all collapsed into bed. Aunty Jo had bought the boys scooters and we were only 5 min from an awesome skate park so the boys were super happy, Christmas shopping and planning and hanging out with Jo, Rich, Lilly and Jack filled the first few days.
On the weekend us, Jo, Lilly and her boyfriend Spencer went to Washington, DC – quite an epic 5 hour drive with a stop in Richmond at a New Zealand Burger restaurant – we arrive in the evening to an awesome Airbnb house which was minutes walk away from the Zoo where they have Zoolights especially for Christmas, great fun and a resolve to come back in the daytime to actually see the animals – first experience of losing my phone (left on kids ride) but it was handed in so panic passed. The Saturday was a gorgeous sunny, fresh day and we went exploring. Subway to the White house and walk through the mall to all the museums – first spot was the Natural History Museum where Dexter asked everyone where Dexter the monkey & Rex the dinosaur was from the movie ‘Night in the museum’ – alas they were either in NYC or away – we did find a relation of Dum Dum from Easter Island… The air and Aerospace museum followed next, followed by a trip to Saks to meet up with Lilly who was on a great shopping spree – back to the Mall and Capitol Hill in the evening with a huge Christmas tree – finishing the day with a steakhouse dinner. Sunday we went to the Zoo in the morning, loads of animals including the orangutans that walk across the Zoo on their rope in the air, then the Lincoln Memorial (with loads of people!) before setting off on the drive home. This time a 4.5 hours straight driving back to Cary, North Carolina.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were special with Sharples family and us, walks, laughs, games, cooking, eating and drinking. Such a lovely Christmas time. The boys had a ride on one of Lilly’s horses Abaline which they loved. Playing computer games with Jack, defying gravity with Lilly at Jump and watching Mary Poppins at the movies.
Then came the pack up and re-sort for LA, up at the crack of dawn for a 7am flight to LAX, didn’t really think about the dates, literally the busiest day of the year for Raleigh airport – crazy queues to drop bags, security check and even get on the plane. Travel lesson 1 (the obvious one) allow enough time at the airport…. We just made it through for the 5.5 hour flight from East to West, landing in crazy LAX to negotiate with a taxi driver to take all of our bags…. Finally we get to Dinesh and Nicky’s home….
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