Florida – September 2008 Day 1 – London to Jax – getting there (part 2) Monday 22nd September Well, the first flight turned out to be quite a bit easier than expected overall. The second, however, was a completely different story altogether. Although a much shorter flight, the kids’ internal clocks were instructing them to […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 1 – Jax – shopping at Walmart Tuesday 23rd September Joey was awake very early this morning – 03:00! Fortunately, Sandy was able to get him off to sleep again so we managed to catch a bit more sleep. All things being equal, the kids have actually done very well […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 3 – Jax – a day at the park Wednesday 24th September Once again, the kids were up very early this morning. Sandy was up with them before six but I was able to relieve her for at least a little bit since I was up not long afterwards. I […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 4 – Jax – a day at the zoo Thursday 25th September The kids were up at a more reasonable six a.m. this morning. Sandy was up with them, as usual, but I followed shortly thereafter. Our bed has to be the most comfortable I’ve ever slept in. In fact, […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 5 – Jax – taking care of the kids on my own Friday 26th September Floridians might call the weather we’ve had since we arrived ‘bad’. By this I suppose they would be referring to the absence of the penetrating sunshine and the light breeze that have conspired to take […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 6 – Orlando – arrival Saturday 27th September Sandy had arranged for us to visit Reyna this morning with the kids. Neither she nor Gerald has changed a bit – except for the cast on her leg from tripping out of her bed yesterday. Gerald had to leave for the […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 7 – Orlando – Disney Hollywood Studios Monday 28th September The first thing I did this morning when I got up was to check the USPS tracking web-site to see if the letter we’d been sent with the theme park tickets had arrived yet. Alas, still the same status as […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 8 – Orlando – Islands of Adventure Monday 29th September The morning routine is becoming familiar and entrenched and we’re becoming quite efficient at getting ready for the day on the theme park trail. Surprisingly, I’m finding that I’m getting up relatively early and feeling quite refreshed compared to how […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 9 – Orlando – Universal Studios Tuesday 30th September We broke with tradition slightly this morning in that we didn’t go out to the Waffle House for breakfast. We wanted to get a slightly earlier start to our theme park trail day and fed the kids at home instead. We […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 10 – Orlando – EPCOT Wednesday 1st October The weather forecast for today was for thirty to seventy percent chance of showers and thunderstorms so we were in two minds as to what we should do for the day. It would have to be something where there was plenty of […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 11 – Orlando – Magic Kingdom Thursday 2nd October I think our feet are slowly starting to feel the effects of having just done four major theme parks in as many days. The fun will continue today as we make it five-in-a-row. We’ll go to a water park tomorrow to […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 12 – Orlando – Aquatica Friday 3rd October On the heels of five major theme parks in as many days, today was billed as a rest day at one of the areas newest water theme parks – Aquatica from Sea World. It only opened this March and with the weather […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 13 – Orlando – Animal Kingdom Saturday 4th October Perhaps the full-on onslaught of theme park after theme park is slowly getting to us finally but everyone was a big irritable this morning. It may also have been the fact that we didn’t have breakfast this morning, on account of […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 14 – Orlando – EPCOT (again) Sunday 5th October We got off to a late and rather rocky start this morning. The truth is that for the first time since arriving in Orlando, we had no clear idea of which theme park we were next going to visit and we […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 15 – Orlando – visiting Marc & Anna Monday 6th October Today was our first opportunity to spare our aching feet with a them-park-free day. Instead, we travelled over to Tampa to visit our very good friends Marc & Anna and their two children Carly & Anthony. Marc and Anna […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 16 – Orlando – Seaworld Tuesday 7th October We left the house early enough to get to the Golden Coral in time this morning to enjoy a hearty breakfast. Our theme park of choice for today was to be Sea World – the one remaining major Orlando theme park that […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 17 – Orlando – Universal Islands of Adventure (again) Wednesday 8th October Perhaps our theme-park-free day yesterday recharged our batteries a bit but we were all up and about surprisingly early this morning. We left the house well before nine and made our way to our familiar breakfast haunt over […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 18 – Palm Coast – Wonder Works & visiting Patti Thursday 9th October We had to vacate the property this morning by ten so we made fast work of packing the car and tidying up the place. Those crane-like birds were out on the front lawn again this morning cackling. […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 19 – Jax – back to the First Coast Friday 10th October We were the first to stir in Patti’s house this morning. Well, actually, the kids were the first to stir, followed by Sandy, followed by me – after having been asked if I didn’t mind a ‘shift change’. […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 22 – Jax – old friends visiting Monday 13th October We all joined Jennifer, Kristen & Dillon for a late breakfast this morning. We thought we’d enjoy Mimi’s Cafe again but when we got there, it was a forty-five minute wait. It was a similar story at another place just […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 24 – Jax – visiting more old friends Wednesday 15th October Judging by the nudge in the ribs this morning, Sandy evidently wanted me to get up with the kids so I rose to the challenge, went to get Jennifer and duly slept for another half an hour with her […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 25 – Jax – more old friends visiting Thursday 16th October We never did have that breakfast as planned for this morning. Dave’s brothers and sisters were travelling in from all different directions and it was understandable that the family were occupied with themselves given the circumstances. Free of any […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 26 – Jax – shark’s teeth at Mickler’s Landing beach Friday 17th October We had our usual breakfast at the conveniently nearby Waffle House again this morning. The curious thing is that although we always order the same thing, the bill is never for the same amount twice. We’ve found […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 27 – Jax – Clark’s Fish Camp Saturday 18th October Jennifer tagged along with us for breakfast this morning. Sandi would have done so too had she been up and ready in time. Since I had a lunch appointment with some old colleagues later, we put the two child car […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 28 – Palm Coast – last round-up of visits Sunday 19th October Although not the last day of the holiday, today was the last day in the condo at the beach and we were both up relatively early this morning so that we could start packing and tidying up the […]

Florida – September 2008 Day 30 – Palm Coast – Marineland Tuesday 21st October With Patti and most of the rest of the household up and out already, I was afforded a blissful but all too brief lay in this morning. Today is the last full day here before we are London-bound tomorrow. For a […]