Here is a list of some of the places we’ve been/things we’ve eaten/drunk:

• Wendy’s
• Steak ‘n Shake (or as we call it, shake a snake) – very yummy!!
• Jason’s Deli – wraps were DIVINE and you get a free mini ice cream after your meal
• Southernmost Beach Cafe – quite larney! Food was good – especially the lobster cake appetizer!
• We’ve also had subs from Publix a few times – sooooooooooooooo good!!
• Pumpkin Juice and Butterbeer at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Starbucks coffees, lattes, cakes, brownies etc
• The Two Georges (Ingrid and I had a cocktail which supported breast cancer awareness or something – we called it cancer juice – to the waitress!)
• Mikes Hard Lemonade (and Mike’s Harder Lemonade, and Mike’s Pink Lemonade and and and!) – i loved this stuff!
• Key Lime Pie
• We’ve eaten loads of Ben & Jerry’s (as per the plan!) – flavours we’ve had:

1. Cherry Garcia,
2. Cookie Dough,
3. Peanut Butter
4. Chocolate Fudge Brownie
5. Imagine Whirled Peace
6. Chunky Monkey
7. Americone Dream
8. Vanilla Caramel Fudge …

believe it or not, that was only a drop in the ocean in terms of flavours, check them all out here… I am not an Ice Cream Lover, but give me Ben & Jerry’s ANY DAY!!

I’m sure i’ve missed out a bunch of stuff. The point of this post: Food in America is Yummy! nom nom! If I lived there, I woulld totally be obese!

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Tigger:

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Minnie

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Chip and Dale (Chip is the Smoocher!)

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and a whole host of other characters which I will blog about when I have more energy

Check it out here…

Monday 18 october, we went to Universal’s Islands of Adventure park. – This blog post is dedicated to my Harry Potter fanatic friends who have been hounding me for photos and info: Michelle and Lindsey – this is for you fangirls!! I hope one day you guys will be able to experience it for yourselves!!

We pretty much went straight to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section of the park. OMG it was PACKED!!! I would HATE to see it on a weekend or during school holidays – it was absolute madness!!

We started off by queuing (better get used to long queues!) for Butterbeer… we got the collectors item (plastic) mugs and had our first sip of the highly anticipated, specially created butterbeer!!

Butterbeer – hmm, so do i describe it…? Well, we got the iced version – it was slushy, and a little bit sweet, a slight butterscotch flavour. The foam ontop is DELICIOUS!!! Sweet and frothy, and vanilla-ish – the foam leaves a white, creamy moustache on your top lip…

We also bought a bottle of Pumpkin Juice… it was WAAAAAAY SWEET!!! quite fruity (its made with apple juice, pumpkin puree, grape juice etc) with a spicy undertone (hell, i sound like one of those fancy schmancy wine tasting people

Then we wandered the streets of Hogsmeade and made our way to the Castle to stand in an hour queue for the Forbidden Journey ride in the Hogwarts Castle.

The ride was SO COOL!!! a cross between a roller coaster and a simulation, with HUGE 3D screens that looked totally real! Spitting snakes, fire breathing dragons, and all kinds of scary ass stuff!
It was AWESOME!!!

We also did the Flight of the Hippogriff ride which was a little less intense, but still very cool!!

This ride is set near Hagrid’s hut

The last ride is the Dragon Challenge… its basically 2 completely separate, but intertwining roller coasters which go simultaneously, and almost collide!! I counted that we went upside down 5 times!! We went on each “dragon” once was super fun!! This is the FIRST time i’ve been on a PROPER upside down twirlywirly loopy rollercoaster!!

We also stopped by Ollivander’s to check out the wands.

Also visited Zonkos,
Honeydukes, (bought chocolate frogs)

Dervish & Banges, the owlery and saw the Hogwarts Express (and met the conductor!)

We took a walk through The Hogshead and then we had dinner at The Three Broomsticks.

(if you do not read the Harry Potter books – you will have NO IDEA how COOL it is to be able to say the above 2 sentences haha!!

We spent some time in the rest of the park (Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Dr Seuss and Poseidon) but will blog that stuff later – Harry Potter was the focus!!

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we spent ALL DAY at Epcot on Sunday – from 9am until after 9pm.

Proper blog to follow when we have more time…

We arrived at 9am when the park opened…

We met, and had photos taken, and recieved autographs from LOADS of Disney Characters… it was actually really fun!

We stayed to watch the nightly firework display, which is on at 9pm every night…

and we left, with very very tired sore feet – but it was an AWESOME DAY!!

Man oh man ever since i was a tiny little peter all I wanted to be was an astronaut and as we all know i just missed it. So this was the next best thing!

This place has 2 IMAX theatres, huge grounds with a hall of fame, shuttle launch experience, meet an astronaut and loads of other stuff oh and a super interactive theatre experience. To give you an idea, you re-live the actual launch of the 1st rocket to circle the moon and you right in the mission control center with all of the lights sounds smells and action unbelievable !

So we went on a 2hr tour of the whole of Cape Canaveral or the places we are allowed to go ;p. We saw launch pads, the countdown clock that we all get to see via the press, and also we got the sense of the size and importance NASA. It was so much fun and something I will never forget! AND
this place has merchandise coming out of every door, from pens, pins, hats, shirts, badges and astronaut snoopy’s. Super dooper cool!

Enjoy the pictures!!!

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We spent most of the day at NASA (which Peter will blog about as soon as he can drag his ass away from the TV

Anyway – we are staying in a townhouse Peter found online HERE and let me say, it is AWESOME!! A 2 bedroomed 2 bathroom townhouse, lounge, kitchen, dining area, enclosed patio. There’s also a gorgeous pool in the complex.
And the rate was really really good too!! So, we are here from Saturday until Saturday

Here are a few pics of the place – it really is great, and I would highly recommend it if you are ever in Orlando!!

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Our housie for the next week – with the red Chevvy out front

Pathway to front door

Fully equipped kitchen (by fully I mean, FULLY! – coffee machine, dishwasher, washer, dryer, blender, electric mixer, cooler box etc etc!)

Lounge going out to the enclosed patio

Lounge from the patio, looking towards the kitchen

Second bedroom

second bathroom

Main bedroom (check the folded towels!! – made me think of my folks’ cruise… Marvin has been here, obvviously!)

En Suite bathroom

Little enclosed patio

back of the house…

view from the back of the house of the rest of the complex.

It is SO lovely here, glad we didn’t end up in a dump!!

We gonna hit the parks from tomorrow – probably gonna start with Epcot and see how it goes from there

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Travelling to the Southern Most point in the United States!! The weather was a bit miserable, so the Seven Mile Bridge was not as spectacular as it would be on a clear day. Yip – that’s a 7 mile long bridge over the sea – 7 miles is just over 10km!!

after a 90 minute drive we got to key West and looked for the guest house we saw in a tourist book that we liked the look of… The Southermost Guest House is exactly that…!
It was built in 1885 by Cuban cigar maker Eduardo H. Gato, Jr…
here is a very interesting excerpt from their website about the house:

In 1885 Cuban cigar maker Eduardo H. Gato, Jr. built this handsome, rambling Victorian home on theSouthermost Point Guest House northwest corner of the world-renowned Duval Street. However, he soon wearied of the way the sun struck one of his favorite porches, and he called back the carpenters. He had the huge structure rolled across the street over logs, pulled by mules, and spun around to suit himself and the many guests who now enjoy its cool, shady porches.

- how cool is THAT!!??
Anyway… if you have ever been to Key West (which is 1.5 miles x 6 miles big… about 2km x 9km) you will know that the accomodation is not the most glamorous! hehe… we had red velvet for a blanket on the bed. Dusty glasses in the kitchen and a basket of mismatched towels in the bathroom… but it’s all part of the experience!
We had a little porch upstairs, which would give us a view of the southernmost beach in USA if the weather was clearer.

While in Key West the weather was pretty crap overcast and a bit drizzly. We walked the world famous Duval Street up and down numerous times,… each time finding something new!
We also saw Ernest Hemingway’s house.
and visited the West Martello Fort which is now home to the Key West Garden Club

We did a bunch of tours:
The Ghosts and Gravestones Tour (which I found a bit of a waste of time, quite honestly)

Reef Snorkeling aboard the Fury (which was an hours trip out to the reef on a catamaran, an hours snorkel above the reef – equipment included – and an hour back with beer/margaritas/juice. It was quite nice, except I had forgotten how very very very seasick I get on a boat, and snorkelling in the sea… bleugh)

Conch Tour Train Key West – (by far the best tour we did in Key West. Very informative and interesting. Our guide, Bob, was awesome too!!)

Here’s a snippet of video of part of our tour – you’ll see the big concrete marker which is the Southernmost Point in Continental United States – it is 90 miles to Cuba!! At this point, you are closer to Cuba than you are to Miami!!

In-between all this we bought loads of knick knacks and souvenirs and all sorts of general crap
We really had a fun time in Key West!!

We also spent the evening walking around the dock watching the street performers, artists and and browsing the market. There was a guy there with 2 dogs doing tricks – not such great tricks, but we loved it, coz we were missing our doglets a little
Here’s a video of Rocket, the Flying Basset doing one of her tricks

On Thursday morning we packed up, left the crazy Key West, headed back over the 7 mile bridge and picked up Ingrid and Fred on Long Key, and headed back to Boynton for a few days.

Here is a video of part of our drive over the 7 mile bridge… my memory card on my camera was pretty full, so we only got 1:22 minutes … but seen one mile, seen 7

Back in Boynton, we rented a car (a red Chevvy – can’t think of the exact model now) and now we are all ready to our roadtrip up to Orlando to do the whole Disneyworld, Universal Studios, Seaworld thing!! Also, you’ll remember our earlier post about Medieval Times!
After a week in Orlando, we head back to Boynton, pick up our bags, and head down to Miami to watch a football match… and then it’s time to fly home … let’s not think about that yet!

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On our way down, we stopped at Miami Homestead Speedway for a little look around.

We stayed at Lime Tree Bay resort, which was really really lovely – hammocks suspended from all the palm trees, a gorgeous blue pool overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. It was so calm and peaceful and beautiful I’d really recommend it for a quiet, relaxing couple of days.

The sunsets were also gorgeous!!

We took a drive up and down the island, checked out Anne’s Beach a few miles north of where we were… a stretch of “private beaches” dotted along the coast, separated by patches of trees and stuff.

It was nice and quiet, but our beach time was cut a bit short, as the tide started creeping in, and the beach is only a few metres wide… after moving higher up twice we kinda ran outta space, and headed back.

After two very relaxing days on Long Keys and surrounds, Peter and I headed down to Key West, leaving Ingrid and Fred at Lime Tree for another 2 days of holiday

… you can click on any of the above photos in the post to enlarge them… or any of the pics in the gallery below to see more

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