Having spent the week watching the weather forecast and being excited it was going to be a sunny Memorial Day Weekend – we were in for a shock when on Saturday morning it was grey, wet and just miserable.

Earlier in the week Tom and Izzy had just received their new bikes so were super excited about going for a cycle – so we checked the forecast and it looked as though the rain would clear and headed off to the Gateway National Park. On opening the garage Stu did question whether we were doing the right thing as it was pouring with rain!

We arrived at Sandy Hook and the drizzle had turned to a torrential downpour, together with thunder and lightning. It was 9.30am and Izzy announced she wanted her sandwich so we all sat in the car eating our lunch hoping the rain would subside and watching the weather maps.

After an hour the sky brightened so Stu braved the elements and unloaded the bikes and off we went.

The rain continued – although more of a drizzle and we travelled along the cycle route up towards the lighthouse. It is a brilliant cycle trail, fully tarmacked and mostly flat apart from the odd slope which adds to the fun.

We rounded the first bend and there was a huge puddle (probably due to the inches of rain that had fell in the last hour) which the kids were keen to cycle through. I think they had both decided they were going to get soaked so wanted to get as wet as possible.

We reached the top of Sandy Hook and cycled past the chapel and the batteries and looped back towards the car park. At which point the drizzle turned to torrential rain again.

Tom led the way back and spotted three deer on the path. By the time the rest of us arrived they had retreated to the bushed but we could still see one of them peeking at us. We then spent five minutes going through the same puddle to see how wet we could get before returning to the car.

It was a good 15km cycle and a great place for our first cycling adventure in the US. Also both kids announced that the want to go cycling again on the next rainy day!