Did exactly that some years ago - fantastic!
It's not worth the hassle to validate your PPL. Just get an instructor and take it as a dual mission but log the hours as P1. Land for lunch is great and you can drink loads of beer and try flying plastered on the way back. Consider it a medical experiment for an article you are writing for Pilot magazine in the UK. The US instructor will be highly amused at having contributed to the drunken lunch of an international aviation journalist. Perhaps you had better not tell him that your name is Simon Calder though!
(Would suggest a high wing, perhaps a C182, better photography.)