Category: Road trip USA

Never believe the weather forecast. As soon as I’d finished posting my last blog the weather cleared up. We decided to explore South Beach Miami and its famous Art Deco architecture. 

And then as if by magic the sun was shin in again. 

And Lou (who’d secretly kept her swimming costume on) went for a swim. 

We decided to head off to the Keys now to try and beat the forecast tropical storm. 

But it never appeared or rather it had come and gone by the time we reached Key West. We even took the roof down on the convertible on some of the journey! 

The journey was incredible, as the ‘Overseas Highway’ toon us on an island hopping adventure for over 100 miles. The views were awe inspiring. 

We finally arrived and you can just about see the beach from our hotel room. 

We all went out for an evening swim to celebrate. We made it!

Today’s our last day in Orlando before we head off to Miami. 

We’ve had a great time in all the parks (although Davenport where we’re staying is like Milton Keynes with palm trees). 

The Harry Potter worlds in Universal are great. We even ended up getting a magic wand that means you can cast spells in certain locations throughout the resort. 

I would have loved this as a kid (who am I logging I love this now!). Hogsmeade looks amazing it’s like you’re in the film. 

The queuing hasn’t been as bad as I worried it was going to be and Ellie has been great booking the fast passes at Disney. 

Lou had fun feeding the wildlife. 

She enjoyed this so much we decided to take her to ‘Wild Florida’ where we could feed real alligators. 

You get to feed them hotdogs on a wire with a fishing rod. After she stopped screaming even Lou enjoyed it. 

Although I was the only one willing to hold ‘Fluffy’ (real name). 

Ok we made finally made it to Florida. 

We stayed at Fernandina beach and then drove down the coast to St Augustine beach. The beaches were amazing and there was nobody on them. 

We got to our villa in Orlando and went straight out to Disney world. 

In the last couple of days we’ve explored the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, The Animal Kingdom and Disneys and Universals Hollywood Studios. 

We’ve done more rollercoaster in the last week than in the rest of my life combined. Highlights include; the Harry Potter ride at universal, the Finding Nemo musical, the Fantasmic show and the Everest rollercoaster. We are all now officially knackered!

Everyone said the driving would be tiring but that was nothing compared to the theme parks. All good fun though and we’ve got plenty of time to explore everywhere. 

We’ve had a more restful day today, before going out again later. 

Having left Georgetown it was only a hours drive to Charleston. 

What a charming old city with a massive covered craft market (which Lou thoroughly enjoyed).

We had lunch in the Low Country Bistro. I great little place that does traditional food of the south. I had shrimp and grits!

It was then only another hour and a half to Savannah. We stayed in the Mansion at Forsyth Park hotel. Very next nice with a roll top bath in the room. 

Savannah is an beautiful place with fountains and garden throughout the city. 

There are trees everywhere which provide plenty of shade on hot days (something we were appreciative of) and they’re all covered in Spanish moss which hangs down from the trees giving the whole place a magical feel. 

We got a taxi back from town driven by Morgan Freeman (at least it looked and sounded like him). 

The next day we drove to Amelia island about another two hours. We stopped off at Jekyll island on the way. 

Jekyll island used to be a millionaires retreat until it was bought back by the state of Georgia. It is paradise on earth with an amazing turn of the century hotel where we had a drink on the veranda sat on rocking chairs. 

Life doesn’t get much better than this. 

After Washington we drove to Richmond the traffic was pretty bad and it took a bit longer than we thought. 

However we had a couple of pleasant surprises when we got there. I really nice Mexican restaurant right next to our hotel and best of all the room key didn’t work so they upgraded us to two separate rooms! The kids have been great but it was nice to have a break from them for one evening. 

The next day we had our longest days driving seven and a half hours. We decided to avoid the interstate and go cross country. Fascinating to see the country and towns change as we headed south. 

We stopped at Bojangles for fried chicken and biscuits for lunch (they’re not real biscuits). Tastes a whole lot better than KFC. 

We spent the next night in Georgetown in South Carolina. I guess they don’t get many English tourists down here as everyone comments on our accents. 

Our hotel in right by the marina. 

We went out for sure me swordfish (caught that day) along the waterfront. 

Just about to leave New York now after a busy couple of days shopping and site seeing. 

Highlights include cycling around Central Park. 

Visiting ground zero. 

And best of all a twilight sailing trip to the Statue of Liberty with amazing views over Manhattan. 

Awesome!

Ok here we are in Toronto!

We’re here for two nights staying in the Westin Castle hotel. Great view from the room. 

We went straight out for something to eat. Had a drink in the Trump tower. Nice place don’t think much of the owner though. We then had an excellent meal in The Gabardine I would recommend the burger and Monica had the best fried chicken sandwich ever! 

By 9 pm we were all exhausted as it was 2am uk time. However when we all woke up at 4am Canadian time the next morning we regretted not staying up later. 

The next morning we went to Kensington market. Very cool graffiti. It’s like Brick Lane Canadian style. We had lunch in the CN Tower which rotates slowly giving you amazing views of  and Lake Ontario. 

Not the cheapest, but free entry to the tower with great food and service. Well worth the money I would say. 

Across the lake we could see the towers of Niagara in the distance…