November 2 – 9, 2017

Before we can start our adventure we wanted to visit family and drop some boxes off in New York.  We made a last minute decision to have John drive our car back with the boxes we want to store and his dad flew out from NY to make the trip with him.  He literally flew into John Wayne Airport, John picked him up then they started their drive across the country.  They drove nearly 2800 miles in 3 1/2 days!  Meanwhile, I flew to Albany, NY with John and picked up our rental car and drove up to our Airbnb in Saratgoa.

My dad stayed at the house with us and my sister and her husband visited us every day. Being that it was fall in upstate NY, the weather was cold and sometimes rainy but we made the best of it.  We had a comfortable house to stay inside and play and a big back yard to play outside when the weather was decent.  There were ladybugs all over and John loved to have them climb on himself.

Yorktown Heights

November 9-11, 2017

After John dropped his dad and our stuff off in Babylon he drove up to Saratoga to spend a few days with us then we headed back down south.  On our way down we stayed in Yorktown Heights for 2 nights with a friend of his from college.  He was also married now with 2 kids.  We all had so much fun together.

Babylon

November 11 – November 20, 2017 and December 1 – 11, 2017

We had a beautiful, scenic drive from Yorktown Heights to Babylon.  There was still colorful fall foliage that paralleled the highway on our trip down.  When we got there, John immediately started chasing the cats around and it was a game that never bored him.  Towards the end of our stay, the cats came around and actually wanted him to chase them and sometimes they even let him pet them.

Unfortunately John (the baby) got pink eye the first week so we were quarantined for a week but the good thing is that nobody else got it!   John and his parents made us delicious family dinners, we bundled up for morning walks outside around Babylon Village, John rode his 3 wheeler around the house trying to run us over, evening happy hours, playing on the iPad, and of course chasing the cats around.

For Thanksgiving we went down to Highland Beach, FL for a few days to celebrate with Aunt Anne and her family.  John loved her!  The day after Thanksgiving we left Florida to go to Aruba for a week then flew back to NY to finish up our family visit.

When we got back John experienced a real feel for NY winter when a small snow storm hit!  I’m not sure if he liked it or not but for me, it was a cold harsh reminder that winter was coming fast and it was time to head to Asia!