So, today, John and I have been away for 4 weeks - it feels like such a long time (in a good way!). When we look back over the holiday, some things seem so long ago they could be last year!
It feels appropriate to give you a sense of our holiday round-up - what sticks in the memory...
The best bit, of course, is about being with family - ours is one of those 'blended' families that throws people together without the benefit of the years of getting to know each other! We were just a selection of ours who could come away in August 2015 - this blog has been a way of keeping in touch with those who couldn't be here so they could share the experience (or be glad they stayed away)! In the end the great thing about families is that we're all hopefully on the same team and supporting each other.... like cheering for the Blue Knight at Medieval Times!
Our thanks must go to Mick and Geraldine who live in York who own this lovely, well placed villa and who make it available to all comers to enjoy. If you ever consider renting a villa in Kissimmee - take a look at this one and/or contact Mick directly http://www.lake-berkley.com/ For us, it's been brilliant, particularly after our previous experience of renting from rather dubious Texans, who seemed to be going bust at the height of the financial crisis here in 2009 - local contacts and 'agents' were non existent and I think they would rather we'd just bought the property from them! 7 bedroom homes going for under $100,000 (did we miss a trick?)
It really is like living on a nature reserve here - you know what time of day it is by what's going on around the lake, and you know it's time to think about supper when the birds are checking in to the 'premier inn' on the island. The lake has been like Loch Ness for some - you can easily be convinced you've seen the monster (alligator)! But now we know that even an alligator that is several years old is not actually that big, don't we Becky? I love being surrounded by extraordinary wildlife - whether it's the curlews and the herons on the water, the lizards on the lanai or the eagles soaring in the skies. I'm still not that interested in the spiders and snakes though!
The swimming pool has played an important part in our holiday. We've been swimming every day - we've swum to cool off, we've lounged around on 'noodles', we've swum in the warm pouring rain with thunder rattling around the houses, we've (well some have) cannonballed, snorkelled and dived for treasures, we've played keepy uppy until we were wrinkled prunes and our arms felt ready to fall off.
John and I have maintained our record of not setting foot in an actual theme park whereas others have well and truly 'done' them. Holly has theme parks nailed and we are in awe of her skills. Top of the heap, has to be Harry Potter and Hogwarts.
Visiting theme parks requires stamina, nerves of steel and a stomach for being thrown around and hung upside down. it is not for the likes of us!
Kennedy Space Centre was much more our sort of thing, requiring only moderate effort and an ability to take in information.
We have 'shopped til we dropped' in various outlet stores and jeopardised our bank accounts in the process. We've seen some terrible driving and been amazed at the capacity for stupidity in the face of traffic.
Fortunately we now have the airport run cracked and can actually get to the right terminal. John, Sarah and I will be making our way there tomorrow afternoon... to see ourselves off! ...and yes, Nathaniel, we will be on a Virgin Jumbo 747- 400
Thanks for sticking with us and we'll see UK folk soon and Sheilagh we'll aim for 2017 in Cayman!
It's been the best and worst of times living gluten free in America! There have been some fantastic meals and some best forgotten!
Don't get me wrong, there is a gluten free section in Walmart and lots of things are well labelled, if they are gluten free, but the focus is on cakes and cookies that look like delicious brownies or Oreos, but the reality is that they are so sweet they make your teeth sizzle! There are health food shops where it is possible to get gluten free stuff, but, at a price. so here's my experience...
Surprisingly although the menu choice at Pizza Hut was a single gluten free option, their Udi's gluten free pepperoni pizza was fantastic. A good job I like pepperoni! https://order.pizzahut.com/glutenfree
TGI Friday has been my worst experience. Their gluten free options are very limited - I ended up with a chicken salad which they ruined for me by putting blue cheese on it (not paying attention again, I'm sure!) and there were NO puddings at all! Everyone else around us was piling up their plates (including John who had a lovely meal) and I was sitting there with a grumpy face on!
Olive Garden was not a lot better - I majored on salad with a nice piece of salmon, but again NO puddings, except from the kids menu - the ice cream sundae was eventually declared gluten free - I had 2!
Best breakfast (it's become a weekly tradition!) to be had at Perkins on the corner of 192 and Poinciana - fantastic breakfast and they give you loads of fruit instead of toast. http://www.perkinsrestaurants.com/index.php
Surprisingly, the meal at Medieval Times was pretty gluten free friendly. I think Holly got the bum deal as a veggie. Whilst we were ripping our way through chunks of roast chicken, she was on the rice and beans! They did offer me a vile cherry ice cream for dessert but I managed to palm that off on John!
The island Grill on Flagler beach were great at adapting their menu AND they had a gluten free hot chocolate cake + cream on the menu - yep! we'll have one of those each, thank you. It was delicious!
My favourite experience? Papas New York Diner on Gulf to Bay Blvd, Clearwater. We thought we were running out of options for a meal and getting there required a spectacular U-eee or two (I mean U turns but John and I can't agree how to spell what we say!).
They produced the best gluten free 'almond horn' (whatever one of those is) I have ever tasted! it was a horseshoe shaped almond confection dipped in chocolate! I was so overwhelmed I didn't take a picture of it. The one in the picture is Sarah's raspberry version.
I just had to include the picture of Sarah with a neon sign coming out of her head!
Of course our experiences aren't over yet, but at the moment we are trying to eat up what's in the fridge and freezer... items that we clearly thought were essential requirements and now are not so sure about. Nathaniel will be pleased to know that we are nearly at the end of the Heinz Baked Beans!
We waved Becky off on Sunday night in the midst of chaos in Terminal B at Orlando airport - the conveyor belts had broken! It gave a lovely opportunity to make friends with a family from Devon who were stuck in the queue with us - Chris, the youngest member aged 10 would have been very at home in the Simpson family. I'm sure he's got them in to trouble several times while on holiday.
After asking if Becky was my mother.... and fortunately correcting himself just in time, his next question to me was 'what year were you born?' (his father is by this time dying on the spot) So I said 1957. He said - 'oh, I don't think that will work - y'see I've been reading about the war so I though maybe I could ask you some questions about it'. of course, I should have referred him to Mr W who had taken up position in a nearby chair!
On Monday we set off for Daytona, or rather Ormond Beach, to see our friend Roy. We haven't seen him in a while so it was good to catch up, particularly as he had been involved in a nasty accident when he was knocked off his bicycle - by someone who lives in the same road! He is still getting straightened out, but the dogs keep him active and make sure he gets up in the morning to got o the dog park. The dogs are Lola and Cas(anova) who welcomed us and then sat on us! Cas is the bigger (heavier!) of the 2!
I failed dismally to get a picture of the formations of ubiquitous pelicans as they drift up and down the beach - they are a wonderful sight, but you know what my eyesight is like and even though we sat outside to eat lunch and I was facing the beach I was focused on food and failed to be prepared for when they went flew by!
My pelican picture would have looked something like this.... but they would have been flying in a proper 'v' formation like the red arrows!
I'd never been to the West coast of Florida... but I have now! We did a road trip via Tampa to Clearwater Beach. It is an amazing beach - fantastic sandy beach, but to be quite honest, on Saturday it looked quite like Brighton beach in terms of the number of people trying to squeeze themselves into the same bit of space. Big difference, I guess in terms of weather and lack of pebbles, but otherwise, yes, just like Brighton beach! We didn't venture forth as it was most unpleasant looking... and there was nowhere to park!
We did, however go to Clearwater marine aquarium - what a treat! Becky and I really wanted to see if we could see manatees, but it's not the right time of year, apparently. Wouldn't you just love to bump into these guys whilst out for a swim.
I now know that the aquarium is home to a very famous pair of dolphins - who we saw with our very own eyes! Winter and Hope - you can read about them http://www.seewinter.com/winter
A prosthetic tail on a dolphin is quite a thing to achieve!
What we loved about the centre is that it is a working animal hospital, so many of the animals are in rehab or are being cared for with a view to being returned to the wild or, like Winter and Hope become permanent residents. The animals are not made to perform for the visitors, but they do love to play and it's great fun to watch them enjoying themselves. The staff clearly adore the animals and are happy to just go along with whatever they want to do.
We waved off Holly, Nathaniel and Summer at the airport on Wednesday afternoon...
Since then, it has felt very quiet in Lake Berkley. The only advantage has been that our personal bests at keepy uppy have soared to the dizzy heights of something like 43 from theprevious all time best of about 21 with Nathaniel and Summer involved! However, even with Sarah's giggling and face pulling, it's no match for Summer's shrieking and squealing!
There's been a bit of drama back in Burgess Hill because Millie has left home! Seems to be camping on the railway embankment and only coming home to eat and to use the litter tray, as long as no one is around. We think it's in protest at John's absence and assume she is planning to stay there until next Sunday morning!
We did have spectacular thunder storms last night though which resulted in a hiatus, just as we were about to put dinner on the table when we spotted the sky at the front of the house.... fantastic!
a shopping day today, but we have a West Coast adventure planned for tomorrow....
We are very fortunate to live 'where it's at' in Kissimmee, by that I mean we live just off the '192' or the Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway - one of the most useful and jam-packed roads around Orlando.
Not only is there Walmarts and Publix, there's plenty of crazy golf... Becky and Nathaniel went to the Pirate crazy golf on about the hottest day possible!
and, you can still get a Wendy burger - remember them? They were the best!
Of course, it is also home to Kissimmee Castle where you can have a great
(k)night out (ha ha!) at Medieval Times. It's great fun - you get to eat your food with your fingers, bash your table with your flagons and bowls, shout and holler, boo and hiss and generally cheer on your Knight in 'the games' to win the Princess. As the ticket sellers always remind you... you won't see any of these folk again, so just 'let yourself go' and enjoy yourself!
Ours was the Blue Knight who unfortunately put in a very poor show overall after a promising start.
You might have wondered, (if you were paying close attention!) what on earth Becky was up to that required our stressful visit to a US post office and her to be 'absent' for a day.
For the last few years Becky has had a pen pal called Andy who is on death row in prison in Raiford Florida - a 2 - 3 hour drive from us here in Kissimmee.
The shenanigans were all about being able to get Becky permission to visit Andy whilst she is here. This included needing a 'police check' in the UK and completing all the 'administration' here to make it happen.
Last Thursday after a phone call she finally got the go ahead - she was on the list! She set out on an adventure in her tiny car on Friday afternoon. After staying the night in a nearby Days Inn (with a friendly cockroach in her room!) she spent most of Saturday with Andy. He's been in prison a long time and has yet to exhaust the appeal process. He hasn't had a visitor for 6 years - and a visit can be for up to 8 hours. Fortunately, talking is not a hardship for Becky! Andy is passionate about Black Sabbath, so that was a good starting point. They filled the day quite happily.
As Becky said, she probably looks the more criminal of the two of them!!
The journey back to join us was pretty hairy with the thunderstorms and an intermittent warning light on the dashboard... but she lived to tell the extraordinary tale.
Keeping up a relationship with someone on death row is not something that everyone could do, or want to do,for all sorts of reasons. Andy has some other pen pals who are definitely a bit weird and he has previously married one of them. Be assured, that's not on Becky's 'to do' list!
The best bit, of course, is about being with family - ours is one of those 'blended' families that throws people together without the benefit of the years of getting to know each other! We were just a selection of ours who could come away in August 2015 - this blog has been a way of keeping in touch with those who couldn't be here so they could share the experience (or be glad they stayed away)! In the end the great thing about families is that we're all hopefully on the same team and supporting each other.... like cheering for the Blue Knight at Medieval Times!
It really is like living on a nature reserve here - you know what time of day it is by what's going on around the lake, and you know it's time to think about supper when the birds are checking in to the 'premier inn' on the island. The lake has been like Loch Ness for some - you can easily be convinced you've seen the monster (alligator)! But now we know that even an alligator that is several years old is not actually that big, don't we Becky? I love being surrounded by extraordinary wildlife - whether it's the curlews and the herons on the water, the lizards on the lanai or the eagles soaring in the skies. I'm still not that interested in the spiders and snakes though!
The swimming pool has played an important part in our holiday. We've been swimming every day - we've swum to cool off, we've lounged around on 'noodles', we've swum in the warm pouring rain with thunder rattling around the houses, we've (well some have) cannonballed, snorkelled and dived for treasures, we've played keepy uppy until we were wrinkled prunes and our arms felt ready to fall off.
John and I have maintained our record of not setting foot in an actual theme park whereas others have well and truly 'done' them. Holly has theme parks nailed and we are in awe of her skills. Top of the heap, has to be Harry Potter and Hogwarts.
Visiting theme parks requires stamina, nerves of steel and a stomach for being thrown around and hung upside down. it is not for the likes of us!
