Florida Keys

Another long driving day, the new recurring theme to the trip; couple of nights exploring somewhere, then a loooong drive somewhere else. I think it would be fair to say that we slightly underestimated distances to our chosen destinations, but nothing was unmanageable. I mean on the map it didn't look that far to Key West, but when you get there and the only road in or out has a speed limit of 35m.p.h., and a driver willing to stick to it means a longer day.

I won't lie - I was aware, and took note of all signs for Hurricane shelters or evacuation routes. It was October, but still by no means out of the danger time for a sudden flurry of wind and rain to pelt down on the unprotected and unnervingly narrow Keys.



7 Mile Bridge connecting the last island of the Keys, Key West to the ... second last island.

Key West is flamboyant, yet laid back. I can see why people flock there to relax, even from slightly less laid back locations elsewhere around Florida. We were luck to find a bed, arriving the night before their big festival week, something along the lines of Mardi Gras. We managed to secure beds at Angelina's House, just a few blocks off the main drag, with some of the friendliest people we stumbled across.

It was still hot, and time for a pre-dinner cocktail - a proper one, celebrating our arrival in the Keys. The local spot is out on a pier that juts out, maximising the view of the sunset from any seat. It was a little stormy, but it was also very cool, and the cocktails were hitting the mark.



Sunset, Key West.

Next morning it was time to sample the famous Key Lime Pie. Now its not revolutionary by any stretch, but gosh, darn, golly, its good. One dish combining my love of lime and cheesecake - how can you go wrong??? Subsequntly I picked up the recipe conveniently located on a magnet that would remain even more conveniently located on my fridge for any Key Lime Pie emergencies that may arise in the future.

Had we had more time, I could have easily hung out in the Keys for much longer. Anyone planning to hit Florida, I recommend not being put of by the long drive, its just a nice friendly spot and well worth the miles.

The Disney Machine

Ah, Disney - the happiest place on earth. I don't know about you guys, but I used to watch The Wonderful World of Disney faithfully every Sunday at 5pm (actual time and screening may have partial inaccuracies due to being a little kid at the time). I never thought I'd get there. I thought you'd have to either live in America or have the richest dad on the planet to take you there, so I was almost beside myself with excitement at the thought of going. That is until I woke up that morning in the Snottiest place on earth. Luckily America has the most relaxed policies on the strength of non-prescription drugs I've ever seen, so there was no way in heck that I was letting a short supply of tissues get in my way of living my childhood fantasy.

Day 1: Arrived about 3pm Wednesday and checked in, we were staying at Disney's All Star Movies resort, our room allocated in the 101 Dalmatians area of the complex, in between The Mighty Ducks and Fantasia areas. First stop - the gift shop. A quick, pleasantly healthy late lunch option and then onto the bus to Downtown Disney.

Disney Florida is a small land unto its own. We entered via gates similar to those of Jurassic Park, and still continued diving for 20 minutes or so to our resort. When you stay at any of the resorts you can use any of the free shuttles between every single Disney attraction. There's very little traffic other than these buses, which is good for the responsible (I was surprised to find beer in the restaurant fridges, and bars by the pools; not sure why I was so surprised, just went into kid mode I guess...) and/or distracted-by-over-stimulated-kid parents. The drivers of the buses, on the other hand must be incredibly talented at zoning out all this over-hyper activation because every time we rode anywhere there were unhappy, over-tired kids giving their parents every reason to cut the vacation short.

So Downtown was like a Disney-themed strip mall that curved its way pleasantly around a big lake shooting out water, fireworks and a Lego Loch Ness monster. There are a few restaurants (which you needed to have booked several months ago) and a pub, so we had fish 'n' chips and a beer (well, not for the snotsville resident), perusing the shops for prospective souvenirs that were just too darn cute to leave on the shelf and headed home ready for a big day.

Balloon Ma'am? MGM Studios.

Day 2: MGM Studios had a few cool rides, but overall I was not all that impressed. I think the best bit was walking into the Star Wars ride and seeing Darth Vader fight small children who had clearly mastered the force, and were kicking his butt. Oh, but then there was the Muppets 3D movie which was kinda cool when Fozzie squirted his flower on the audience and you got wet (he hee). Ooh ooh, and then there was Aerosmith's roller coaster which was a wild rock 'n' roller coaster which was completely in the dark to heighten your senses to the speed, music and neon. The Tower of Terror had me dropping several storeys, lifting me out of my seat, my stomach into my throat, and giggling like a schoolgirl!

OK, so maybe I was one of those over-stimulated kids on the bus on the way home, but I kept it well hidden behind a veil of sinusitis. After all that I was ready for bed!

Day 3: Magic Kingdom was super cool. I just didn't know what to do first. Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Frontierland! First stop - fast pass* to save us queueing for Space Mountain, then off to Splash Mountain to reacquaint ourselves with an old, and in my humble opinion, under-rated character in Brair Rabbit. Splash mountain was really cool - the whole story of one rabbits struggle against adversity, and eventual triumf over the man that just couldn't keep him down (wipe away tear). But please, don't have your camera out on this one...

(*Fast pass allows you to swipe your park pass and get an allocated ride time so you don't have to waste time standing in queue's all day)

It's a Small World, Snow White's adventure, dropping in on Mickey to help with the kitchen reno's, the wild and crazy tea cups at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, watching out for Captain Jack Sparrow's whacky hijinx. The list goes on. Space Mountain was so much fun that it warranted three rides, again with tears of joy being sucked out of my face by the g-forces...and the giggling of course.

While on a fun-break we ran into Pooh and Tigger. It was starting to rain, so they were heading in to protect their silky coats. I snapped this pic as they hurried off, and I kinda like the crazy similarity with all the celeb pics in the trashy mags...

Tigger is well known for his dislike of the Paparazzi, but Pooh, always keen to keep the cameras on side, is happy to throw us a wave. Magic Kingdom.

We were at Magic Kingdom from 9.30am til about Midnight. We caught the fireworks over Cinderella's Castle and rode the Merri-go-round and generally had the best day ever.

Who Doesn't love Dumbo - I mean look at that face!?!?! Magic Kingdom - there were almost tears when some kids tried to cut in front f me for this one...luckily a vigilant parent noticed my bottom lip quivering and rectified the situation.

Day 4: We had not planned to go to Animal Kingdom, to be honest. We were supposed to go to Epcot, but after comparing the in house brochures, we decided that Epcot looked almost educational, as opposed to Animal Kingdom who had just opened an awesome new roller coaster based loosely on the Yeti myth. Subsequently our first stop was again getting our fast pass for the Everest Experience, then on to the tigers! We got pretty wet on the ride of Kali where we took on rapids, waterfalls, and sluggish elephants spurting water out of their trunks - come to think of it pretty wet is quite an understatement...lucky it was warm.

Next was the Dinoland roller coasters (more giggling ensued) and then a photo session with Pooh, Tigger and Piglet, and some gift shopping. Oh, now I've not mentioned that the exit for all rides - sorry ALL RIDES, is through a gift store, so you see it really wasn't all our fault - I only have so much will power!

Dinoland also has a pretty great ride where you go 'back in time' to help out in getting a dino sample, until things go pear shaped and you're almost torn apart by some large flesh eating dinosaur. The best part about this is the photo taken right at the 'scariest' or for the sake of saving face - the most 'unexpected surprise' of the ride and then seeing it afterwards and realising who the obvious chicken of the group is. After that ride, this happened:

Is that Chip or Dale eating my head, or just a trippy hallucination brought on by aforementioned near overdose of non-prescription drugs? Animal Kingdom.

Time for our Everest Expedition - its all going swimmingly well, until out little Nepalese train comes to a complete stop where the infamous Yeti has ripped up the tracks. Most of the ride following that is backwards through mountain tunnels with the Yeti hot on our tail. Classic, simple FUN! Oh, how I love a good roller coaster where you can scream for pure enjoyment. Animal Kingdom rocked my world quite a lot, sooo much better than Epcot if any one ever has to make the choice, and I know because we we went to Epcot when AK closed. Epcot is like a giant World Trade Fair. To be honest it did have two stand-up rides: Mission Space which is all about the serious G-force (no joke, sick bags provided if you decide to dismiss all seven announcements that people who suffer from motion sickness may exit at this point) and Fast Track which is a simulated car test track where you hit some serious speed. The experience is heightened as they make you wait while the car flies around the track above your head, screams floating down to you every single time.

Now I know that Disney is the most well oiled corporation around, who over-stimulate children to parental breaking point around the clock, will take you by the ankles and shake roughly until all cash has left your person, and will do it all with a gigantic cartoon grin, but damn if I didn't have some Fun! I'd definitely go again!

Roadtrip USA, Part 2

Now, I'm not usually in the habit of taking pics at the rental car yard, but this sunset, the night we flew into Memphis was too beautiful to ignore.

We didn't stay in Memphis, instead headed out of town for the first stay in Randomtown - in this case Hernando, Mississippi. I just like saying Mississippi actually. Mississippi.

New Orleans was the next stop - whohoo!!! I was excited about New Orleans - and was hoping that the rumours that this city hadn't bounced back were just a bit harsh. Unfortunately they were a little bit true. There are a lot of buildings still standing abandoned with boarded up doors and broken windows. I can't say whether the people sleeping under the interstate bridges were there before or not, but the French Quarter is still rocking!

The 1st night we arrived I was completely sucked into a bar with a local cover of Stevie Wonder pumping out into the streets, and that was it. We were lost in the local beats, wandering from bar to bar, following the music and vibe. It was a great night. Unfortunately sleep and a lot of it was required the next day, so possibly not getting the most of our time in New Orleans. I was in mixed emotions when we left, I loved the feel of the town, but it was all a little scary - lots of places to dangerous to go without getting held up or worse, and compulsory travel by taxi at night.

We left town early, as we had two solid days of driving before we would hit Orlando, Florida.

Vegas, baby, from what I can remember, Vegas...

Leaving Yosemite was an obstacle course of mist, children and deer crossings. It also had us encounter the first of the many and varied design of petrol pumps. I think every petrol station in the states has a different method for making petrol come out of the pump. It was a continual challenge throughout the trip... But we had a nice lady who showed us how to keep our car going under its own steam.

It was about an 8 hour driving day. Needless to say we were bright as buttons when we left at 7am. The drive was uneventful, in a Californian desert interstate kind of way. The road trip pic earlier was pretty well standard viewing most of the way, once aforementioned children and deer had fled before us. But eventually we rounded a hill and had full view of Vegas spreading out like a concrete oasis in the middle of the dry plains.

Vegas seems like a bit of a blur of night lights and incessant bells and whistles from hundreds of thousands of pokie machines. The Strip is quite a place to see - particularly at night, and its electricity bill something to forever ponder. Our first night saw our travelling party split over conflicting entertainment options. Opting to avoid Celine Dion, Angie and I headed to catch Mystere, one of the many Cirque de Solei performances which was quite amazing. I've never seen human ability like it - highly entertaining; catch a show as soon as you can.

Unfortunately Vegas has some amazing shopping, so we filled in the daylight hours (yes, it felt like all 12 of them) at the Shopping Outlets, ensuring we would stretch our packs to breaking point. The days are quite in Vegas; its not until the neon fires up late afternoon that things get interesting. People watching is an awesome past time, there are brides wandering about, bucks and hens, and tourists covering any stereotype you care to impose.

Next day was our tour of the Grand Canyon about 5 hours drive away. We had a informative, yet irritating driver who shoved junk food in his mouth whenever he wasn't talking at us. We drove over the Hoover Dam wall which was more interesting than I had expected. Either side of the wall we stopped for military inspection, just to make sure we had left all portable explosives at home.

We viewed the Canyon from the south rim where its approximately 10-13 miles wide. It was an overcast day, so there were pools of light and shadow drifting across the rocks which made it look quite amazing, and managed to break up the haze. I was much more impressed than I thought I would be. I took a bit of a panorama to put together - its not perfect obviously, but I think it looks OK in showing the enormity of this massive tear through the Nevada desert.

(Click on the pic for a bigger view)

And that's about all I can tell you about Vegas - what can I say? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas... So here are a couple of other pics.

Ah, Paris...

Paris Hotel - possibly the flashest hotel I've ever stayed at, or care to think of the cost of...... The Strip, Las Vegas.

Yosemite Sam

Showing Yosemite the Love - Who doesn't want to hug a tree every now and then?








Liking the sun flare of late - just thinking why fight it???

San Francisco

For a long time I was misspelling San Francisco and trying to refer to it as San Fran only. Luckily I'm over it now that I have a more personal relationship with the place. I left off with being too lazy to ride back across the Golden Gate - well, not so much lazy, as trying to utilize our time better than retracing previous steps, or tyre revolutions....We caught the famous San Francisco cable cars back up the hills (which we were definitely too lazy for - they were big!!). Unfortunately the historical trolley cars are as old as they look, and half the passengers needed to disembark at the 1st steep hill, walk up and get on at the next flat intersection. The great thing about the drivers is that they ring the bells in very rhythmical way. I wondered if rhythm was a compulsory skill for the job.

So with the jet lag fading for the most recent Aussies, and me over my early morning, it was time to face our fears and pick up a large American vehicle and get ourselves safely out of town. Things were not looking good when I could not work out how to adjust my seat, and then required clarification on the 3 pedals on the floor. Fancy pants pedal park brake...

When I say large, think Ford Falcon, despite requesting a mid-sized vehicle. Having spent the longest recentest time in North America, I was driving out of town, something I was not phased about until getting there. Luckily it was almost insultingly easy to get out of town and over the Bay Bridge. One thing I will say, is that I'm pleased that the US Highway patrol is not as vigilant as they should be, as it took some time to register the miles as opposed to kms, and not speed that big American car along side all the other speeding American vehicles. Other than that I was an excellent driver.

The 1st day's drive took us west (east was out due to obvious geographical limitations) to Midpines, about 5 hrs drive immediately west of San Fran. Most of the trip was built up and passing truck after truck, then a cluster of fast food 'establishments' then more trucks, another truck, and fast food cluster, then truck, truck and eventually there was a bit of wide open space! At the time I mentioned how much the landscape reminded me of somewhere, but I've forgotten now - might think of it later. It was really dry, just like the hills around Wodonga as I remember leaving them - and hilly like that - perhaps it was Wodonga I thought it reminded me of...in summer.

Yosemite, on the other hand, was pine tree after different variety of pine tree. We headed into Yosemite National Park on the 9th Oct - Angie's birthday actually. I mention this specifically because of my frustration at the very few bear experiences I'd had in Canada which resulted in me making the point to one of the girls pre-trip that if Angie saw a bear (knowing that we'd be in Yosemite that date) I would be - slightly upset. Why? Because who wouldn't like a bear experience on their birthday just 4 days prior, and jealousy is an ugly thing...

I'd wanted to see Yosemite since studying Ansel Adams in 1st year uni. He has mastered the ability to produce the perfect black and white print - most of which were taken in Yosemite. So the first thing I did after parking the car and running into some red deer wandering around the visitors centre, was head to the Ansel Adams Gallery for a few pointers. Unfortunately my skill is no where near the realm of Mr Adams.

There are a few walking trails quite close to the visitors centre so that the day visitors don't have to carry food and plan their walks weeks in advance. We started with the walk to El Capitan, following the road slightly, before diverting over to the river where we stopped for lunch. We resumed the trail with renewed vigour (just cause I love the expression) and were wandering along the trail merrily in conversation about goodness knows what before I stopped dead in my tracks to watch what I thought was a dog/coyote/wolf ( as my head tracked it) before realising there was a little black bear crossing our path about 60m ahead of us. I turned to Pooh and Charm to shut up, which took a while as they thought I was mucking around at the thought of a bear in these there parts. By the time they stopped and realised that I would never joke about something like that, Angie had took off about 10m back behind me, which I thought was an interesting juxtaposition with my temptation to just run ahead and get a closer look. I say temptation because I was nearly off before I remembered that mum would not be too far away. Dammit.

For the purposes of story telling, Yogi crossed the path and wandered into some long grass, then onto a log just for one last look, and then was off. I didn't manage to get the camera out - it was one of those moments you know won't last long, so do you fumble for the gear, or do you enjoy it for the moments you have. I chose to take it as it came, and love every second. Need I say that there was much rejoicing after the fact - and I don't mean the sarcastic much rejoicing of Monty Python's Merry Minstrels - honest to goodness beaming grins and hi 5'ing...followed my my realisation that my prediction of Angie having a bear experience on her birthday had come true.

Most of our day paled in comparison to that, but at the same time was a ripper day still. We drove up to Glacier Point, driving through the most amazing variations of Fall colours. By the time we got there it was freezing, so decided to head back down to catch sunset on Half Moon Dome (the single best Ansel Adams pic that inspired me to go) but we were not in luck that day. After an awesome day it was time to head for the ... rest of the hills; delayed somewhat by a truck stick on a narrow bridge crossing, and finally home, ready for an early start.