Day 8 - Thomas land at Edaville

Today we left Provincetown, Cape Cod and drove 1hr 40 to Edaville amusement centre where they have a heavy focus on young kids and also a thomas land. Orginally we were due to head there tomorrow but fortunately I noticed on Friday evening that they were currently closed midweek so we amended our plans.

The park (http://www.edaville.com) was great as Ethan could ride the majority of the rides and Joshua most of Them too. They had a traditional amusement park area and also a Thomas steam train, a special Thomas land and also a Dinoland.

The boys had a great time. Ethan wanted to go on everything. Joshua went on nearly everything Ethan did (bar a couple of rides which he cried as soon as we got on so promptly got off).

Around mid afternoon we called it a day and headed to our hotel in Plymouth, The Mirbeau Inn and spa. With the help of alcohol and some electronic entertainment we made it through meal no 24 of the road trip. It's fair to say dinners are proving the most stressful times of the trip! After dinner I put the boys to bed and then Matt and I took turns to get 30mins each in the steam room. Bliss!

Day 7 - Still in Provincetown

Today was a pretty chilled day.

After breakfast Matt took Ethan to the park while Joshua took a much needed long nap.Then we all headed to the beach where we ate sandwiches (Ethan loved this 'I've never eaten sandwiches on the beach before') and the boys played before the rain kicked in.

Both boys have been overtired all week so we had a quick early dinner at the restaurant called The Squeeling Pig (wel Matt and I swapped around as Joshua refused after a while to be inside the restaurant) and then the boys were aslee for 7. Tomorrow is a big day, if all things go to plan off to Thomasland!

Ethan played...

While Joshua slept...

Ethan and Matt stumbled across two dogs out for a drive!

Fun at the beach

Matt and Ethans camp...

Day 6 - More Provincetown

Today after breakfast we headed out on our bikes to Pilgrims landing in Provincetown to walk along the rock causeway out to a lighthouse. This is the point of the USA where the Mayflower first landed with the first settlers (you get the jist, history isn't my strongest). Anyway we walked across, it took about 45minutes negotiating the rocks with a kid each on our backs. At the other side the boys had a play around and enjoyed throwing shells in the water.

The views were spectacular and was an amazing way to spend the morning.

After walking back we went to lunch at a sandwich shop called Relish which was excellent. We've been amazed at how many great individual restaurants there are in town.

We then rode to the beach and had an hour playing before we returned our bikes to the store. 

Dinner was in a local favourite called 'The Lobster Pot'. Ethan is desperate to try lobster so was pretty disappointed that Matt didn't order it. Luckily the couple m the table next to us gave him two lobster claws to play with that eased the pain.

Day 5 - Provincetown

We started the day with a lovely breakfast in our hotel and then set off to play mini golf, or the boys interpretation of mini golf which for Ethan looks a little like hockey and Joshua dragging a club around and putting the ball in the hole with his hand. But they had great fun which is what counts.

On the drive back to Provincetown we stopped in a French bakery called PB Boulangerie Bakery in Wellfleet for lunch.

When we got back we went and hired bikes and rode around a trail in the sand dunes and had a brief visit to the beach where we saw seals swimming close to the shore. The boys were amazingly patient in the trailer (was Joshuas first time in one).

Then we went for a nice burger dinner in a place called Local 186, delicious burgers and fries, in fact the best veggie burger I've ever eaten.

What do you mean I can't have my ball back? (hole 18)

Day 4 - Cliff walk and Provincetown

After a run, we started the day with breakfast at Gary's Handy Lunch, a cute little retro cafe. We then packed up the car and headed to do some of the Newport Cliff walk, a 3.5mile walk along the cliffs which overlooks some of the famous mansions. We only walked a short part but some of the views were incredible.

We then drove to Provincetown, about 130miles away which is our stay for the next four nights.

We had a fun dinner at a restaurant called Canteen. During dinner the heavens opened and it was raining really hard so we went next door to a dessert shop for ice cream. 

View on my run...

Walk to breakfast

Cliff walk

Day 3 - Dinosaurs, cars and boats

Today we left our first hotel and headed off to Newport in Rhode Island.

Our first stop en route was The Dinosaur Place. Suggested by a couple of people we decided to visit. It was random and expensive for what it was but the boys had fun. http://naturesartvillage.com/the-dinosaur-place/ (it looks better online than it was!)

We left there and drove to Newport. Matt had read about a car museum he wanted to check out. http://audrainautomuseum.org I think it's fair to say it was the best car destination he'd ever been too. 4 wealthy individuals have a combined private collection worth $0.5bn and rotate the vehicles for private use but also exhibit them in a museum.

Then we checked into our hotel. We're staying at a hotel called Forty One North on the water. It has its only marina which provided more entertainment at dinner looking at the boats.

A random but fun day. Tomorrow we're driving to Cape Cod.

Day 2 - Mystic

One of the challenges of such a long road trip is how to fit in exercise and also eat fairly sensibly when you have around 50 consecutive meals being eaten in restaurants.

So we started the day as we mean to go on (check back in next week!). I went for a run then Matt the gym before breakfast. Which is pretty easy when Joshua is awake from 5.15am. After breakfast after a quick swim for he boys we headed to Mystic Aquarium.

The aquarium is something I've heard recommended many times. It's only a two hour drive from our house but was always too far for a day trip and we never made a weekend of it. Thus why we decided to stop off on our trip.

It was a great aquarium, trumped the one in New York and also the one in Boston. A big space, lots of outside exhibits andfelt like the animals had a good amount of space (relatively for captivity).

After the Aquarium we drove to downtown Mystic. We headed to a recommended ice cream shop on the drawbridge. Walked along the river. Went in a few shops and went to S&P oysters for dinner which was situated on the river. We managed to see the drawbridge go up four times which added excitement for the boys.

It was a great day. The sun shone, the boys had fun and we actually enjoyed being relaxed with no move stress.

Photos below...

The whales

Selfie with a sleepy toddler. Who of course didn't sleep.

Matt entertaining the boys by trying to kiss a fish.

Turtle fascination

Joshua heard an employee say 'you can touch the crabs' and was straight in before we could say anything 

Sharks

Ice cream (sssshhhh don't tell Joshua who finally fell asleep in the car). I had a shop special 'Mystic chocolate' which had choc chunks, brownie pieces, fudge and m&ms in. It was delicious!

The view while eating our ice cream.

Ethan loved the local fire boat (this is his 'thumbs up' pose)

The drawbridge