The Long and Winding Road -Day 1

Today was a day to acclimatize after our over-night flight.

We packed up after our morning rest and met our rental car at noon.  

While waiting for our rental company, we got our first real glimpse of the scenery! There are snow capped mountains! 

Our rental company was late meeting us, but they made up for it.  We had booked a Yaris, but they didn't have one available, so they've given us an SUV!  This means that we can take any road we want to without restrictions, and we can all fit very comfortably! 

Once we loaded the car, we headed off to Reykjavik to check into our hostel. 

Once we checked in, we had a snack and couldn't resist another nap! We slept much longer than we had hoped...but the sun was still shining, so we decided to go explore a bit.  We will be returning to Reykjavik so we weren't too worried about seeing everything! 

Our first stop was Hallgrimskirkja Church...notice the time on the clock tower and how light it is! The sun hasn't set yet...and it was still quite light out even after the sun went down. 

Then we walked down to the harbour front where Logan was fascinated by the water and mountains! 

We also saw the sun voyager sculpture. 

After getting a bite to eat, we went back to our hostel where we all fell asleep for the night by 12:30am (and it wasn't dark out!) 

Tomorrow we will explore the golden circle! 

The Long and Winding Road

We've made our way back out on the road! This time we brought just the littlest adventurer in our family and headed to Iceland!

We managed to sneak this trip in only weeks before Logan turns two.  This was great for our trip budget, as we only paid a nominal fee for him to fly! 

The airport was super exciting for Logan! He's learned a lot about travel at daycare...and he LOVES his airplanes! 

Watching the planes come and go, as well as the "trains" aka luggage carts made the time fly by! And before we knew it, we were boarding the plane! 

Logan was quite cozy on my lap! He cheered gleefully "weeee" when we were taking off! After several snacks and a few laps around the plane, he settled in for the night! 

If only it was so easy for all of us to sleep on a plane! We took off at 7pm and it got dark about an hour into the flight.  Not long after that, the sky was a pretty pink sunrise!

When we landed it was 4:50am and sunshine! We knew that we would need a rest so we headed straight to our hotel down the street.  Unfortunately, someone decided that he was done sleeping.  So now here we sit while Angus sleeps...my turn will surely come later! 

Top 3 tips for flying with a toddler:

1. Book an aisle seat! Walking around the airplane was essential to the success of our flight!

2. Pack all the snacks! Plan for a new snack every 20 minutes! Eating kept him settled and happy during the awake times....there was one occasion that candy was the only thing stopping him from a melt down! ....bring a sucker or two!

3. Before take off...find a few minutes to set up your space! Keep the essentials in the seat pocket: water, books, snacks, and one thing we wished we brought was an iPad loaded with a movie or two..or and ap!

On The Road Again - Day 14

On The Road Again - Day 13

Today we made our way through the hills of Kentucky into Cincinnatti, OH.

Of course, while travelling through Kentucky, we had to stop at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.  So we made our way to the very first restaurant that Sanders opened in Corbin, KY.   

As we approached Cincinnatti, we detoured to a cool little spot in Covington, KY (in a residential neighbourhood) that we heard about.  There's a hill that actually moves your car up hill when in neutral! 

Our first stop in Cincinnati was the National Underground Railway Freedom Centre. 

This was a fantastic museum, and really rounded out our trip perfectly...summarizing much of what we had learned and had seen over the past week. 

Logan was feeling a bit tied down, so we crossed the street to Smale Riverfront Park.  

This was a super fun park with entertainment for kids of all ages! It is located right beside the Roebling Suspension Bridge.

It was really hot, but we had fun playing in the park! 

We headed back to the car to go to our hotel.  We detoured through the city, and found many boarded up houses, shops and buildings.  

We checked into the hotel to rest up for tomorrow's trip to Cleveland! 

On The Road Again - Day 12

Our first stop today was in Chatanooga Tenessee: Ruby Falls!

Ruby Falls is a series of caves which leads to an under ground waterfall.  We walked about a mile under ground past illuminated rock formations with silly names before reaching the falls.

We continued making our way to Knoxville, but before checking into our hotel, we made a stop at Ijams Nature Centre.  

We did a little hike through the nature centre which took us to a river Boardwalk. It was really pretty looking out  over the Tennessee River.

We checked into our hotel, then headed out to Knoxville's Market Square.  There was a really cool Guelph-like vibe in the square, complete with a water fountain/splash pad.  We found a great little restaurant to enjoy a southern dinner! (Simon and I both tried fried chicken and waffles!)

Tomorrow we go to Cincinnatti.

On The Road Again - Day 11

We left Savannah today, and this is the part of our trip where we start rounding our way back up to go home.  We are spending tonight in Atlanta, GA but have a couple of stops planned on our way there.

We couldn't head to Atlanta without looking for a few Walking Dead filming sites.  So we made our first stop at the film studio.  

This was on our way to a town called Senoia. Senoia is a super cute place that is used as "Woodbury" in the show Walking dead. 

It's also the town used in Driving Miss Daisy, Drop Dead Diva and Fried Green Tomatoes (among others). 

We popped into a Walking Dead store which also had a little museum of show props in the basement. 

After stretching our legs, we got back in the car to head to Atlanta. But on our way out of town we saw movie cranes and crew, filming an episode of walking dead.  We couldn't get close, but it was exciting just knowing they were down the street.

We got to Atlanta and checked into our hotel.  Angus, Logan and I took a walk in the Centenial Olympic Park.  There was a music and water show at the fountain, which quickly turned into a splash pad as soon as it was over! Logan got some good play time in before we went back to the hotel to rest up! 

Tomorrow we continue North to Knoxville, TN.