Day 1.236: Montezuma's, return

Following a swim, a nice meal and a surprisingly good night's sleep, we checked out of the hotel and drove the length of Lake Cayuga from Ithaca to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. We had a rare US sighting of its national bird - the Bald Eagle, we also had excellent views of Ospreys and many other wetland birds. It was nearly 3 pm when we decided that perhaps we should turn our thoughts to lunch. We made it as far as the first services on the Thruway where the girls chose unsurprisingly to eat at McDonalds. They did point out that they don't get to do so often. And so have I.

The toys in their Happy Meals were tie-ins to the new Star Wars movie - of course the Star Wars franchise once famously substituted the concept of returning for revenge. Not that any of us have had digestive or other food related problems on this trip - something that is not to be guaranteed when you have a coeliac-disease sufferer and at least one with a milk-allergy in the party.

We made it home at about 7.30 pm, twelve hours before Exile #3 needs to be ready for the bus for the first day of school. Plenty of time.