At 5:30 a.m., on Thursday, August 11, Judith, our children, my brother, Ian, and I began the 1500 mile trip from Toronto to South Florida. We avoided the Toronto and the Buffalo, New York, morning rush hour traffic by leaving early. It meant getting up early but it was a good move. On the way, we made stops every 3 hours for a short break. My brother, Ian, could not wait for the break times to occur. I guess it was a tight squeeze for him since he was sitting in the back seat next to our children. By 8:05 p.m., and with heavy rainfall we spent the night at Jacqueline’s (Aleksi’s Godmother) home in Columbia, South Carolina. By the time we got to Jacqueline’ house, we had traveled virtually 900 miles on the first day – having driven through Ontario, Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina into South Carolina. We were aiming at making 1,000 miles but because of heavy rainfall, we decided to stop at that point.
After dinner at a Chinese restaurant, it was off to bed since we were going to be leaving Columbia relatively early in the morning.

At 7:30 a.m. (Friday, August 12),  we left for home. The 10-hour drive took us through the states of South Carolina, Georgia and into Florida. One aspect about living in South Florida is that when you enter the northern part of the state you still have another 5 hours to drive  depending on how far south you are. But it was a good drive, stopping every 3 hours as usual. We arrived home at 5:30 p.m. and believe it or not, we (Judith, Ian, and me) were still energize, so much so that we unpacked the car and cleaned it, unpacked all the bags, and then brought in dinner from Chili’s. After 3,000+ miles of travel, Ian and I also went shopping because of a sale we wanted to cash in on before it ended. Imagine that!

All in all, we had a wonderful and enjoyable vacation with family and friends. It was time well spent.