Day Fourteen - Time to Go

We all spent over an hour in the pool last night. Even though the storm and the pool cleaner (who suddenly appeared without warning!) had lowered the temperature, the water was okay once I got used to it. Harrison had no trouble in his wet suit, he just walked straight in! His confidence in the water is coming on in leaps and bounds. He even tried some 'swimming' last night and let me support him to float on his front and back. The audible resistance I used to get from him when we tried this a few years ago had completely vanished. I think he's finally ready to learn to swim again. Being in a private pool undoubtedly helps too.  If only we had a couple more weeks and some swimming aids........ Oh well, another good reason to come back soon ;-)

As it was our last night we decided to get a take away rather than cooking ourselves or going out. It was nearly 9pm when the boys went to the local fish and chip shop. They were gone for ages because the food was cooked freshly for us.  I stayed at home to finish the packing (things kept popping out of thin air!) and to give the place a superficial clean.

Here's a photo of fish and chips American style:

I set the alarm for 7am this morning. Even though I'd been getting up before this during the holiday, it was a real struggle this morning. We had to be out of the villa by 10am when the cleaners were due, otherwise we'd be charged for another night's accommodation.  Our original plan was to shower and go, return the key to the HotelBeds office and find a restaurant for a buffet breakfast. However, as Harrison still had three packets of Pop Tarts left and we had a reasonable amount of milk, we decided to use these bits up and then find somewhere for a buffet lunch instead. 

Cookie flavoured Pop Tarts

Three hours until we had to be on the road was plenty of time to do a last load of washing and tumble and air dry it. It's bad enough unpacking the suitcases when we get home but doing mountains of washing too is not a pleasant welcome home present! 

Goodbye 329 Lancaster Drive and thank you for having us. See you again soon :-) 

Sounds as though we were in a very long road but this wasn't the case. House numbers are a bit random here - all three digits but not a lot of sequencing. It's as though you can pick a number; any number! For example, the numbering system in our road for adjacent properties .... 217, 227, 237, 247, 257, 319, 329, 339 etc. 

By leaving today we'll miss out on the 4th July celebrations. The adverts on the television are all about the special discounts on large purchases, such as household appliances and cars, that are available this weekend.  There are also many outlets for buying fireworks, my favourite being 'Phantom Fireworks'!  Wonder if they actually work?  I'll never know!

Having handed the key back - that was all we needed to do, there was nothing for us to sign nor for the agent to complete - we started our amble back towards the airport.  We didn't need to be at the airport until about 4:30pm, it was only an hour's drive so we needed to fill our time with something.  As we were in no hurry, we decided to take the back roads for a 'scenic' tour through the suburbs. We travelled through some dodgy, ramshackle areas but also some very nice ones. 

One area that particularly stood out for us was Nona. It consisted of lovely gated developments with good sized, well kept homes and grounds.  There was plenty of building going on too. If you wanted to purchase a large, brand new detached house the prices started from $300,000 which is equivalent to £176,000! We were struck by how well thought out the area was. As we continued north towards the airport we passed a huge new elementary school. Next door to it was the new middle school, equally as big. Next to that was the new high school which was even bigger and finally a college campus building.  Basically you enter the school system at one end of the road and finish at the other!  I also saw a small, single storey office style complex which consisted of a daycare, kindergarten, paediatric dentist and a paediatric doctors office. How handy!

What do you think about this drive through pharmacy that I saw?!

Only three hours to go before we need to be at the airport and I'm pleased report that we only ate in McDonald's once during this holiday and that was because it was the only place we could initially find somewhere to park at Clearwater Beach. We may have popped into Wendy's three times (including lunchtime today) though....!  So much for our lunchtime buffet. With the plane not leaving until 8:05pm I didn't want to have to find another meal at the airport.  Unfortunately, Harrison discovered Wendy's 'Son of Baconator' burger and would have eaten one every day, if we'd have let him.

We continued on the back road mystery tour and found ourselves at Florida Mall. No idea how that happened considering that we couldn't find it with directions the first time!  Spot of last minute shopping and we decided to head straight for the airport on the toll road. It was $1 and I managed to scrape together exactly that amount in cents, five cents and dimes. Saved bringing them home with us :-) Thankfully there was a very friendly woman at the toll booth who just waved us through with a smile! Little did we know, there was another toll due in about half a mile. We had to pay another $1.25 which left us with $5.50 cash. Not enough for an airport trolley.

Finding the Alamo car return was very straightforward as was checking it in - they used a handheld bar code reader that brought up our reservation details and that was it!  We started looking around for a trolley park but it wasn't necessary as a man offered us his flatbed trolley. I asked him how we paid and he said by tipping. When I told him that we only had $5 his colleague said that was fine and that they'd transport our luggage for free.  He didn't have far to take us because the British Airways check in desk was just through the airport entrance.  We were a few minutes late for boarding the 5:35pm flight and about four hours early for our own. Had there been one more meal available on the earlier flight, they could have rushed us through and squeezed us on. The extra time hanging around Orlando airport isn't so bad though because apparently our flight is quite empty so we've been given seats with space between them.

Waiting to go

Departure area.

The time passed quite quickly and we were boarded first. 

I was looking forward to this 'empty' flight and we settled into our seats. Everyone else soon joined us and the plane started filling up. Not sure that I'd class this as empty. There were some empty seats but not very many. Harrison and I were seated in the central section of three seats but there didn't seem to be anywhere to connect his oxygen. It looked as though he would have to swap with Bernard who was seated across the aisle. Directly in front of him were a couple who both had streaming colds and were coughing and spluttering very loudly. The last thing we needed was to knowingly expose Harrison to them. Unfortunately, it's not something that's considered at check in!  Bernard had a quiet word with one of the flight attendants to see if we could all be moved.  She took Harrison's oxygen tubing and plugged it in (first time!) to an outlet nearer the front.  She'd managed to locate one more empty row of seats although it was immediately behind where the families with babies in sky cots sit.  We moved forward apprehensively because the family in front of us were directly behind us on the way over and their toddler was a pain!  She had nothing to entertain her so kept complaining loudly! Hopefully, as this was a night flight, we wouldn't hear much from her!  As far as I was concerned, my new seat was the best in cattle class. Even though we were in the second row, there wasn't a seat in front of me, so I could stretch my legs right out. Harrison was happy because he had a window seat again, so could give me a constant weather update regarding the lightening.  Bernard had the whole centre section of three seats to himself.  Toddler girl was much better on this flight. Even when she was awake she was very good and had fun playing with empty miniature gin bottles!  We'd left all of our hand luggage in the overhead lockers above our original seats. I went back to get Harrison's medication to find that our seats were now occupied by two horizontal bodies. Good job we didn't want those seats back! 

Our choice of evening meal was chicken tikka or spinach lasagne. No choice for me and Harrison as we don't like Indian food. We love spinach lasagne though!

The holiday must have really helped Bernard and I to relax because we both decided to have wine with our meals.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. I watched 'The Two Faces of January'; Harrison watched the Lego Movie and I'm not sure what Bernard watched.

Harrison settled down to sleep when his film finished but he didn't want to close his blind because he needed to know when it was time to wake up for breakfast! His flights always revolve around the meals. Breakfast was a huge disappointment for him. Actually, I don't think many people were very impressed. It was beautifully presented in a box....

....and this was the best bit about it! Inside was a small croissant and portion of jam, a chewy granola bar and a packet of dried cranberries.  Most people ate the croissant and a few ate the granola bar. Toddler girl attempted the cranberries - put them in her mouth individually, chewed each one then took it out again and handed it to her mum! Kept them both busy for a few minutes!

We landed about 9:15am local time and had to wait for the plane to empty before we could retrieve our hand luggage.  This worked significantly to our advantage because the crew decided to call for special assistance for us. By the time it arrived, the gate was deserted although we joined them in the immigration hall, but not for long.  Our driver transported us past everybody in the queue and handed our passports to an immigration officer. Within a couple of minutes we were through and first into the baggage reclaim area. Arriving first at check-in in Orlando meant that our bags were last onto the conveyor belt here.  Even so, from landing at Gatwick we were in a taxi and on our way home within an hour. 

Harrison said that he had a fantastic time and was very happy that he was able to make it.  His favourite bit was Kennedy Space Center and he's going back next year!

Day Thirteen - SeaWorld Again!

Here we are again!

We're due more rain today so decided to try and get everything done before the downpours which are due around 2pm. We had a plan to visit four of the attractions - two happened to be adjacent to each other on one side of the park and the other two virtually directly opposite them across the park.

The car park was looking extremely busy when we arrived so we decided to see if we could get a Rapid Access Pass (which isn't the same thing as the Quick Queue, which carries a charge of $19 per person). The RAP is for guests with disabilities who can't wait in line for a long time. You take your printed ride sheet to the staff member managing the queues and if the wait is longer than 15 minutes, they write a return time on your sheet against the ride. This would have been very handy the ther day when we had to queue for the penguin exhibit. No problem getting the pass but as it turned out we didn't need it!  We marched off to the first attraction - Wild Arctic. (Bernard and Harrison wanted to make this a brief visit to ensure they had time for a swim later at the villa, so no time to hang about!). We'd heard all about Johnny the polar bear the other day so I was keen to see him. Like the Mission: Space ride in Epcot, Wild Arctic offered two versions - mild walking or wild helicopter. Feeling adventurous we queued up in the helicopter line. It turned out to be a simulator a bit like Mission: Space but on a much bigger scale. There were several rows of seats so it wasn't at all claustrophobic. It did get a bit rough at times but with only a lap belt to secure you in place, it was clear that it wouldn't be as dramatic as the Mission: Space ride. Harrison did make a point of highlighting the information regarding those who shouldn't ride, however, as we're in the USA where everybody sues each other and they have to cover their backs, we chose to ignore the warnings! He decided to do most of the ride with his fingers in his ears.  Not sure how noisy he thought the arctic was going to be but it helped him cope!

After we'd landed, we explored the arctic where we were supposed to see a walrus, Johnny the polar bear and a beluga whale.  We didn't see the whale and Johnny was sleeping with his back to us (who could blame him!). There were two walruses in their pool so we watched them playing for a while.

We had half an hour to wait for the next Shamu show and as the stadium was directly next to the Wild Arctic exit, we decided to find some seats before it got too full. It was a good show but rather frustrating that people were entering the auditorium all through the show and blocking our view.

That cheeky bird thought he was the star of the show and stole fish out of the open blue containers on the stage!

The show finished just before 1pm and the sky was starting to look a bit grey. We made our way quickly to 'Journey to Atlantis' a log flume ride (once again ignoring the ride restrictions for Harrison and Bernard!) 

As we passed by 'Manta' one of the rollercoasters, an announcement was being given over the tannoy. The ride had been temporarily closed due to inclement weather. We were unsure whether that would apply to Atlantis because it was predominantly an indoor ride. The queue to access the ride exceeded all queue lines so the pass was definitely needed here. We headed to the Quick Pass entrance and soon found out that all of the rides had been suspended with no information regarding when they may begin operating again. At this stage the storm was still brewing.  We decided to visit our final attraction and then return to Atlantis weather permitting.

Lovely gardens between Atlantis and Turtle Trek.

I'd been looking forward to 'Turtle Trek' and on entering the building we were greeted with a huge floor to ceiling aquarium filled with numerous species of fish and several sea turtles. It was a great distraction until the 360 3-D cinema was ready to admit us. The film documented a turtles life from hatching out of it's egg to fully grown adult and the dangers that it faced along the way.  At the end there was a conservation message. Until now, Harrison has always refused to entertain anything 3-D. I didn't realise that this was a 3-D film until we were told to collect the glasses. It may have helped that they were yellow but he did wear them and watched the film (with his fingers in his ears again!) Bernard and I were really proud of this achievement because we know how anxious pitch black, an unknown film and 3-D effects make Harrison. I had to take a photograph of him recreating the pose:

We exited the attraction and passed by the open top of the aquarium where we could see, amongst several others, a huge sea turtle named Whitney:

Optimistically, we headed back to Atlantis but the ride was still not running. We took the opportunity to visit the penguin shop again and as we came out the reason for the ride suspensions became very obvious - a huge flash of lightning followed immediately by a massive clap of thunder and torrential rain! Everybody ran for cover (in the toilets) and even though it was only a few steps we were already quite wet. The torrential rain continued for about 10 minutes and as it eased off we put on jackets and made a run for the exit. It was quite an experience dodging the deep puddles and trying to pass as quickly as possible under the metal rollercoasters. By the time we left the park it was just English style, persistent rain.

We refuelled the car ready for tomorrow's journey back to the airport and picked up some lunch at the neighbouring Subway. I've never been in one before - so many choices to make!

We're currently back at the villa, just watched Djokovic defeat Tsonga for a place in the Wimbledon quarter finals and now Harrison is hassling me to go for another swim in the pool. I'd better go because Bernard is resting his eyes ;-)

Day Twelve - Harrison in our Pool!

So the plan for today was to return to SeaWorld to do the attractions that we missed yesterday. In an attempt to avoid the hottest part of the day, we decided to have a relaxing morning and lunch here at the villa before heading off around 15:30ish.

We didn't see Harrison until 11am and then as has become his normal morning routine, he had a bath. By the time he appeared again Bernard was in the pool and asked me to persuade Harrison to join him. Somehow I did, and a reluctant teenager got kitted out in his wetsuit and slowly made his way to the patio door. The door's alarmed and it gives you 10 seconds to exit / enter and close it again.

He approached the pool and tentatively went down the steps into the shallow end. 

He sat on the top step for a while before deciding to try and walk the length of the pool. 

The deep end is five foot deep and I can't touch the bottom without my head going under. 

Harrison discovered that if you keep right against the wall, it's shallower. He walked up and down the pool a few times and also sat on the ledge at the deep end. 

The boys looked like they were having way too much fun so I had to join them!  We had a lovely time together and Harrison's confidence in the water was growing rapidly. 

We were sitting chatting together on the ledge when our neighbours, General and Barb, came out to plant their cucumber plants and photograph an enormous black and yellow spider.  We chatted to them for a while but time was pressing on so I asked Harrison to get out of the water to prepare for lunch. After so much trouble to get him in there, he didn't want to come out!  As he was so keen, we had to let him have a bit more time in the water. It was a shame that it had taken him so long to have the courage to try the pool. Hopefully he'll remember how much he enjoyed it today so that when we come again he'll use the pool from day one. 

After lunch we headed off to SeaWorld. As we drove down towards the I-4 we looked across in the direction of SeaWorld and the sky didn't look too good. The closer we got to the park, the darker it got. By the time we reached the car park, the rain was pouring down and already pooling.  We sat in the car listening to a radio doctor solving callers ailments over the air but the rain just wouldn't stop. The forecaster was predicting another 45 minutes of heavy rain before any breaks in the cloud. People were leaving the park absolutely drenched and shivering. We decided that we'd return to the villa and pack so that we could try SeaWorld again tomorrow. 

Day Eleven - SeaWorld

Phew! What a scorcher! The weather forecast was for 94F today but with the humidity it was around 101F. A good and bad day to go to SeaWorld, but as we're running out of days we had to go. It was good to be there because some of the attractions are designed to be cool but it wasn't much fun walking to them. Every time we got up from a seat, we left behind wet patches!  Thankfully, it was the same for everybody.

We bought two day passes and asked about booking a behind the scenes tour that ended with meeting a penguin. We thought we'd have to do it on our second visit but they'd put on extra tours for today.  We had two hours before the tour so we decided to find the main penguin attraction - Antarctica, Empire of the Penguins. Being towards the back of the park meant that by the time we got there we felt as though we were in a blast furnace. This is now the only way of seeing the penguins so we had no choice but to join a really long queue which was supposedly a 20 minute wait. There were a couple of large umbrellas and some 'rocky' outcrops offering miminal protection but part of the queue was directly in the sun.  Our total wait ended up around half an hour and by then we were very glad to get into the air conditioned building.  Many of the staff were wearing thick coats whereas we welcomed the cold environment. The attraction started with a short film followed by a journey with Puck the penguin chick. Our journey ended by stepping into the penguin enclosure.  Harrison was grinning from ear to ear - so many penguins to watch!  Unfortunately, it was only a very short time before the 32F air temperature became too much for him. Even with my jacket on he was shivering quite violently. He'd waited so long for this experience, it was a shame that he was too cold to really enjoy it.  It was a good job that there weren't any tickets left for the extra 45 minute penguin encounter tour that we'd seen advertised on the website! 

 

 

As is usual with every attraction in the theme parks, you're directed out through the gift shop. Harrison enjoyed choosing a new addition to his penguin collection.

After this we headed back through the park to the meeting place for our behind the scenes tour.   It was literally that - seeing areas of the park that guests with only general admission never see.  Our tour guide, Alma, started with the hospital area where they care for the rescued animals. For obvious reasons we didn't go into the hospital but we did see and learn about six rescued manatee calves in an outside pool.  We also saw some of the rescue and transport vehicles. 

We got on the open sided bus and were taken to the shark building. There we were offered the opportunity of touching a small shark. All three of us declined!  Next stop was the polar bear enclosure which was empty.  However, we learned about the techniques used to train him so that he could cooperate with the staff to monitor his well-being.  Johnny (the polar bear) is the only animal in the park that staff don't have close contact with. He stands at over eleven feet tall on his hind legs and would consider any human a tasty snack!

Saving the best till last, we were taken to the penguin rehabilitation building. We were met by the keeper who told us about Newman, the female penguin we were going to meet. They can't tell the gender of the penguin initially; it takes a DNA test to determine it and by then the penguins have usually been named. In addition to Newman, they have Fred and Mario who are also females and Julie who's male!

Fortunately for Harrison, this room was nowhere near as cold as the main exhibit so he was able to enjoy a much longer encounter with his favourite animals and spend some (almost) one-to-one time with Newman.

The smile on Harrison's face says it all!  The penguin Harrison bought a couple of hours previously looks just like Newman, so no prizes for guessing its name!

This experience concluded our tour and we entered back into the main park opposite the dolphin theatre. 

Given the weather over the past few days we decided that we should go on the Sky Tower before any possible storms.  To get there, Harrison wanted to go over the wooden bridge spanning the lake:

The Sky Tower gave us a fabulous 360 degree view of the park although the photographs didn't come out very well because there was a black mesh covering all of the windows.

 

The Blue Horizons show in the dolphin theatre was the last attraction that Harrison could manage today. Although the heat was subsiding by now 16:30), he'd had enough (or had another agenda that he wasn't telling us about!) and wanted to head back to the villa after the show.  The show was very good and lasted for over 20 minutes.  It was a mixture of dancers, aerial acrobats, dolphin tricks and birds. Not so keen on the last component so I kept my head down as they flew through the auditorium!  We were seated right up the back under cover which gave us a great view, not only of the performance area but also the holding pools behind the scenery.

After an obligatory stop in the shop, we headed home. I'm very relieved to report that there were no thunder storms here today.  We arrived back at about 19:30 and Harrison immediately ran himself a bath. Once again he couldn't be convinced to try the pool so I went in by myself and swam 10 lengths. That might sound impressive but it only takes about 5 strokes to reach the other end!  The water was the warmest it's been all holiday, so evening is definitely the best time to swim.  Problem is that we're not usually around then.  

Carrying on with the water theme, we decided that we should do some more washing as we were starting to run out of clothes again. It's very quick to do here as the machine only takes about half an hour and then hanging the clothes in our other double oven (aka the garage), they're virtually dry again within an hour. 

We'll be heading back to SeaWorld again tomorrow to attempt to fit in all of the attractions that we didn't have time for today.  We won't go until the afternoon though, to allow the worst of the heat to subside.  We brought the park map home with us so that we can make a proper plan rather than wandering aimlessly and finding ourselves running out of time.

Day Ten

For the past couple of days Harrison's been up at 7am and run himself a bath. Looks like we'll be amending the design of his bathroom so that we can fit a small bath in. Shame he won't even dip his toe in our pool or the sea though.

Another rest day today. Bernard has set up a way of making voice only calls through Google. We had to register a US number to get our own Google phone number, so he used the one in the villa. To test it out, Harrison called his nanny and grandad and nanny and grandpa and we had a lovely chat with them all.

We watched more Wimbledon today so didn't go out until early afternoon. 

Ready to go out. Reading his new 'Famous Scientists' book whilst waiting for us. Very impressed considering his iPad is in the bag right next to him!

Bernard and Harrison went to the Ford showroom to look at a Mustang and an Edge. Over here the Mustang costs the equivalent of £13,000 whereas to buy one in the UK would be at least £30,000! The Ford Edge is the next size up to our Kuga and the dealer told Bernard that if he was to buy both cars, they could do him a deal of around £32,000 for both. That's BOGOF in UK money!  Meanwhile, whilst they were having lots of fun in the car showroom, I was enjoying looking at art and craft supplies in a Hobbycraft type store. 

Around 17:30 we joined the rest of Florida on the I-4 to head back to the Florida Mall.  We'd only just started our journey when the radio presenter gave out another weather warning for lightning and torrential rain. Same story as yesterday except this was the worst lightning activity they've had so far. Great! We made it to the mall and ran from the car to the entrance. Once inside we could forget about the storm, although Harrison (our resident weatherman) told us when the storm had passed so that it was safe for us to return home.  

Day Nine - Daytona

This trip was originally planned for tomorrow but after looking at the tour availability we realised that if we didn't go today that Harrison will miss out altogether. There's still no guarantee that we'll get a tour of the speedway circuit but with 'restricted mode' in operation for tomorrow and Saturday, this was his best chance.

Over the past few days travelling around a couple of things have stood out:

1) if you want to buy a new car there's not likely to be a wait because all of the dealers we've passed hold huge stocks. The BMW dealer had a multi-storey car park full! 

2) the road toll system is very inefficient. On some roads we were stopping several times with barely a mile or so in between. You have to drive to a cashier (there are no credit card options) unless you have the exact coins (which we never do). It's usually between $1 and $1.50 a time which doesn't sound too bad but starts to add up when you're stopping 7 or 8 times on one road. The other frustration is that it really slows your journey down as there's usually only a couple of booths open that everybody without a fast pass has to go through.

After a long, boring journey we arrived in Daytona. As usual the I-4 had a lot of congestion so we took an alternative route. This seemed to confuse our sat nav app because it started working upside down and stopped talking to us! In the end we stumbled across the speedway by accident and without any wrong turns.

The heat hit us as we got out of the car. Fortunately it wasn't far to get to the entrance. There were three tours left with availability - one was leaving in ten minutes. We hurried to the departure point but unfortunately there were a few people in front of us and only 5 spaces in the tram. We decided to get some lunch (which was very reasonably priced) and wait for the next tour which was due to leave at 2pm.

Getting on and off this tram for 90 minutes in 36C heat was a challenge for everybody. We were all rather damp by the end of the tour! It was extremely thorough though; we got taken onto the track, into the VIP suite and all round behind the scenes. Despite the heat, I was really pleased that we were able to get on a tour because this was on Harrison's 'to do' list and we're doing our best to tick everything off it! 

A few photos for all the racing fans:

The start / finish line

The top floor of this building is reserved for the presidential party

They're upgrading the seats. Currently they measure 18 inches across but they've had many complaints that they're too small. The new seats are 22 inches. Although a whole new section of seating is being added around the top, there will be a reduction in the total number of seats available.  This is because they are removing the front five rows from the bottom tier; all of the seating on the other side of the track ( including the VIP boxes that we went in) and adding in the larger seats. There has been approximately a 65,000 attendance reduction over the past few years due to the economic climate so everybody who wants one, should still be able to purchase a ticket. They can currently seat 250,000 people!  The multicoloured seats are a media trick. If cameras focus on the spectators, it looks as though the event is a sell out, even if it isn't.  On a race day, they can have up to 250,000 RVs camping in the ground. The speedway covers around 450 acres.

The photo doesn't show how steep the track is

We briefly cooled down in Volusia Mall opposite (although the credit card warmed up very quickly!) then we headed to Daytona Beach - it had to be done ;-)

We arrived just after 6pm and the beach had to be cleared of vehicles by 7pm. This actually worked to our advantage because it should have cost us $3 to park but the ticket booth was closed. That's $3 saved towards the road tolls! 

This was a complete contrast to yesterday's beach experience. Firstly, no problem parking; there was a very welcome cool breeze which took a lot of the heat away from the sun and finally we didn't see any badly burnt bodies compared to the countless number we saw yesterday.

We stayed on the beach until the lifeguard truck with loud speaker and flashing lights drove past telling everybody to leave. It was a lovely end to a good day. However......

As usual, Harrison kept a very close eye on the clouds and noticed a storm was brewing in the direction of Orlando.  We turned on the car radio and listened to the severe weather reports. Soon enough, straight ahead of us we could see some dramatic lightning going from the clouds down to the ground. The sky grew steadily darker and the rain started. Before long we could barely see in front of us and the roads had turned into rivers. This was definitely the most dramatic storm we've witnessed so far. Would have preferred to watch it from the villa!