Florida – September 2008Day 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 try to […]

Florida – September 2008Day 1 – Jax – shopping at WalmartTuesday 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 with the […]

Florida – September 2008Day 3 – Jax – a day at the parkWednesday 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 ventured out to […]

Florida – September 2008Day 4 – Jax – a day at the zooThursday 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, this condo […]

Florida – September 2008Day 5 – Jax – taking care of the kids on my ownFriday 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 the edge […]

Florida – September 2008Day 6 – Orlando – arrivalSaturday 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 airport half […]

Florida – September 2008Day 7 – Orlando – Disney Hollywood StudiosSunday 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 last night. […]

Florida – September 2008Day 8 – Orlando – Islands of AdventureMonday 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 I might […]

Florida – September 2008Day 9 – Orlando – Universal StudiosTuesday 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 still took […]

Florida – September 2008Day 10 – Orlando – EPCOTWednesday 1st October The weather forecast for today was for 30%-70% 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 inside things to do just […]

Florida – September 2008Day 11 – Orlando – Magic KingdomThursday 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 relax a […]

Florida – September 2008Day 12 – Orlando – AquaticaFriday 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 playing nicely, […]

Florida – September 2008Day 13 – Orlando – Animal KingdomSaturday 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 our pre-booked […]

Florida – September 2008Day 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 even contemplated […]

Florida – September 2008Day 15 – Orlando – visiting Marc & AnnaMonday 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 haven’t changed […]

Florida – September 2008Day 16 – Orlando – SeaworldTuesday 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 we’ve yet […]

Florida – September 2008Day 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 on 192 […]

Florida – September 2008Day 18 – Palm Coast – Wonder Works & visiting PattiThursday 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. We’ve seen […]

Florida – September 2008Day 19 – Jax – back to the First CoastFriday 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’. This happens […]

Florida – September 2008Day 22 – Jax – old friends visitingMonday 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 across the […]

Florida – September 2008Day 24 – Jax – visiting more old friendsWednesday 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 on my […]

Florida – September 2008Day 25 – Jax – more old friends visitingThursday 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 other obligations, we […]

Florida – September 2008Day 26 – Jax – shark’s teeth at Mickler’s Landing beachFriday 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 this to […]

Florida – September 2008Day 27 – Jax – Clark’s Fish CampSaturday 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 seats into […]

Florida – September 2008Day 28 – Palm Coast – last round-up of visitsSunday 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 place. We […]

Florida – September 2008Day 30 – Palm Coast – MarinelandTuesday 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 chance, we […]