Day 15 photos

Day 15 - Orlando and homeward bound

So it's pretty much over, we're at the airport waiting to board.

We slept a wee bit later today cos our first stop didn't open til 10. It was sad to say goodbye to Cabana Bay but sadly we had to so we hit the road.  The stop was maybe K's most anticipated of the holiday - the Old Navy Outlet. As expected she danced about like a kid on xmas day and bought herself quite a few tops including a very nice jumper.

We went into a couple more shops at the outlet centre but didn't buy anything else.  When we got back to the car there was a guy trying to get something out the tree next to us, it was a blinking raccoon! It was really cute but the guy just seemed to think it was a pest.

We cruised up International Drive and decided to go for brunch at Hash House A Go Go sooner rather than later cos we weren't sure what the wait would be. We only had to wait 10 mins even though it was super busy. K ordered her final sweet ice tea of the holiday and I got a fresh tangerine juice, delicious.  It took ages to decide what to have cos there was so much to choose from but K eventually settled on a southern fried chicken salad with biscuit (scone) and I got the same chicken with potatoes,  scrambled eggs and a biscuit. Even though I've seen it on man vs food and seen pictures on the Internet I was still shocked by the size of the portions. K's salad came in a bowl that you would usually put a communal salad in. Mine came with a wedge of melon and a giant strawberry so it.was pretty healthy. We ate for ages but probably only ate about half of it. I didn't touch my eggs to save room, especially since the potatoes were AMAZING!

Following our last supper we went for our last mini golf.  It was a pirate themed one and it was wonderful,  it was over lots of levels with loads of clever holes. Fittingly it was a draw which was nice, K still wins overall though.

We just went to a few shops afterwards and then headed to the airport. Getting to the airport and checking in the car was super smooth. We grabbed a last dunkin donuts in the airport and we're now through security waiting for our plane to board.

See you on the other side.

Day 14 photos

Day 14 - St Petersburg to Orlando

Another morning blog due to unbelievable sleepiness Iast night.  Yesterday was our last full day but it was a pretty wonderful mix of high culture and low culture.

There was a crazy storm overnight so it was a lot cooler when we woke up but dry thankfully. Our first stop was Datz in Tampa as we had read that they do the best brunches in the bay area. It didn't disappoint, the menu was insane. They had things like monkey bread as a brunch appetiser which sounded delicious but we passed. I had a breakfast sandwich with homemade maple sausage and scrambled eggs on sriracha cheese bread with a side of cheese grits, it as delicious but I only managed to eat about half of it. K had the lumberjack special which was eggs, bacon, ham, amish milk bread toasted and cheese grits, it was meant to have sausage too but she didn't fancy it. Again she could only eat about half of it. It was a great place and we'd highly recommend it if you are in the area. When we were leaving we popped in to their bakery next door and picked up some donuts for later.

Back on the road we stopped in at the Hard Rock Casino on the outskirts of town, we imagined that it would be quite due to it being 1030am but no it was super busy! We got John & Lorna's souvenirs then had a wee shot on a family guy slot machine. It was really good, we put in $5 and it was a buck a spin but it lasted ages, we got a mini game and everything. We were up at $13.80 at one point but we were playing for fun so we let it run back down.

Our next, highly anticipated, stop was the Florida Southern University campus in Lakeland. This is where the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright (an awesome architect) buildings are. We popped into the visitors centre and got the leaflet for the self guided tour then wandered about for about 90 minutes going snap happy. It was really wonderful and if you are into his architecture i'd really recommend the trip.

Back on the road and we were heading towards Disney World! It was very exciting seeing all the road signs and the signs on entering the area,  more so than I thought it would be. We didn't go to the park cos we don't have time and to be honest I didn't think I fancied it til we were there. We went to the Fantasia mini golf, we had to wait about an hour to play but it was worth it, it was brilliant! It was the way mini golf should be with things popping up and spinning round, it had a fantasia theme (obviously) so it had lots of musical themes and water at the end. Amazingly I WON! Only by one shot though!

We left disney behind and headed for Universal Studios as we are staying at one of their resort hotels, Cabana Bay. It is brilliant,  it is 50s/60s themed all googie (think the jetsons) and wonderful. We have a pool view which is nice and my bed is life a cloud. There is a diner, a bowling alley and an amusements arcade on site amongst other things. They were also showing dive-in movies next to the pool last night. Yup, it is another part of yesterday that is highly recommended.

We explored for a bit and then got the free, retro, bus over to Citywalk. I love Citywalk, we've been to the one at Universal LA, it is an assault to your senses, neon everywhere! It has loads of restaurants and bars and fun. We wandered about for a bit then decided to go for dinner at Margaritaville. We had to wait for about 45 mins but we just beat the crazy rush. It was a brilliant time, not the best food we've had but good and a really fun time. There were people walking about on stilts making balloon things for people and they also led sing-alongs every hour to some Jimmy Buffet songs. We shared some fried cheese curds to start then I had fried chicken with mash and green beans and k had steak and chips. We walked round the lake to our second Hard Rock of the day (and the biggest in Hard Rock Cafe in the world fact fans), K is a good sister to John. We wandered about some more just generally taking in the craziness then we went for our final self service fro-yo of the holiday,  just a wee one. We decided at this point to come back to the hotel so we hopped back on the bus. When we got back we sat on some comfy chairs and watched old cartoons (everything is themed here, even the public phones), we watched popeye, chilly willy and felix the cat amongst others. It was nice, mostly adults sitting laughing at old cartoons. We came back to the room and sorted out our suitcases for travelling home today (boo!) and then as soon as I lay down on the cloud I fell asleep.

It's 830 now and I can hear the music from the pool so the day has begun. We're not doing too much today as we need to drop the car off at about 3 and then we'll be home.

Day 13 photos

Day 13 - Tampa and around

We're staying at the same hotel as last night so we didn't need to schlep our stuff about today.  Our first stop was Tarpon Springs, it is a town based on sponge fishing. It was founded by greek immigrants that were sponge farmers that moved to florida after hearing about the sponges in the gulf of mexico. All the shops were full of Greek people and greek merch and there were loads of Greek restaurants and bakeries everywhere. It was a really cool wee town and the shops selling sponges were able to tell you which of the boats outside had brought the sponges they were selling in. We went to a shop called Spongearama that had a free video about sponges which turned out to be half an hour long and from the 50s! It was very informative though.   Afterwards we went to Hellas bakery and we both had a greek pastry, K's was savoury and mine was sweet - both were delicious.

Our next stop was Clearwater Beach which famously has a beautiful beach and is the Spring Break capital.  The beach was beautiful with white sand and beautiful blue water but sadly it was a bit windy so a wander on the beach was a no-go. We had a look about the shops including a Hulk Hogan shop! We were ready for lunch by this stage so we consulted Yelp and decided to go to Clear Sky Cafe. It was a great choice and we shared a Cuban sandwich and a chicken ceasar wrap and some potato wedges, all delicious.

Afterwards we cruised down the islands and went through Belleair Beach, Indian Shores and Indian Rocks Beach.  We saw some amazing houses and the water was on both sides of the road.

We waved goodbye to the seaside for the final time and headed east to Tampa. We got to Tampa just before four and parked downtown.  The city centre was weirdly quiet but we wandered about and snapped some photos of some really lovely buildings including the tampa theatre.  We decided to regroup and try to find out where everyone was so we went to Indigo Coffee and had a look over a some tourism leaflets. We both had a cheeky iced latte while we did our research as even though it was dull today and rain was expected it was still roasting.  We decided to head for the vintage streetcar to Ybor City as there are a lot of bars and restaurants there.

The streetcar was cool and the route went past all the tourist attractions we hadn't been to. Ybor is the oldest area of Tampa and was historically the Cuban area where the cigar factories were.  The buildings were lovely so we tried to cover as much ground as possible for photos before it got dark.

We had planned to go to the Tampa Bay Brewing Company for dinner but we weren't really hungry so we just went for a drink.  They have a bar and seating area outside the restaurant so we sat at the bar and I tried some of their own brewed ales and k tried their own brewed root beer. After a while, we ordered a starter to share for a light dinner. It was 2 freshly baked big pretzels with a cheese and ale dip and a beer and mustard dip, it was a delicious time.

After a couple of hours at the brewery we decided to push on. We were strolling along, minding our own business when we passed Game Time, an awesome games arcade.  We didn't need to discuss it, we love holiday arcade time! We got a $10 card and had about an hour of funtimes. I somewhat redeemed myself after the mini golf debacles,  I won at air hockey, skee ball and car racing. K won at shooting and beer pong but we don't need to linger on that. We also played some deal or no deal but we were a team for that.

Our final stop in Ybor was Bunker coffee shop which was really nice and I had another iced latte.  Afterwards we jumped back on the streetcar back to downtown to pick up the car and headed back over the bridge to the hotel.

Tomorrow is our final full day and I am pretty sad about it but we plan to have maximum fun to get the best out of it.

Day 12 photos