Christmas 2001 - Villa in Florida

Well, the day had finally arrived and we were ready on time! However, having squeezed everything for a family of four at Christmas time into two suitcases there wasn’t a millimetre to spare. Robert (brother) very kindly taxied us to Gatwick and we soon checked in the luggage - very tempted to take up the offer of $300 each rebate if we postponed our flight for 24 hours, had we been seven adults there would have been no question but the two children would not have taken too kindly too yet another delay!

After a hasty breakfast we made our way to the departure gates - in the words of Helen (Big Brother) or Janice (Friends) "OH MY GOD...." The queue went on an on... So in the tradition of the Europeans that we now are we "queue jumped". By the time we got through the very many different security checks we just had time to buy some batteries and a magazine before we were called to board our flight. At the boarding gate we were delayed yet again because of more security checks - if nothing else you certainly felt very safe getting on that plane.

The flight was as interesting as long-haul flights always are, the food was okay, plenty of leg room and gallons upon gallons of water to drink - the airline is obviously very concerned about being sued by passengers who suffer with DVT.

Arrival at Minneapolis and yet more security checks - this time the scanner picked up a pair of my first aid scissors that I’d given Mum to carry in her hand luggage and a very small pen knife that belonged to my Dad and Mum was very attached too. The immediately confiscated both and after about an hour of chasing around the airport and being very persistent we finally got them to agree to us keeping the penknife. It was parcelled up and kept by the airline until we arrived at Orlando. Won’t make that mistake again!

The hire car was booked and after the usual paperwork we found our "bus" and made our way out of the airport. The final leg of the journey wasn’t too long and we finally arrived at the Villa at around 2 am.

The Villa - well where do I start? The house had been illuminated with white fairy lights adorning the bay(?) Trees in the lounge and dining areas - it really gave a very welcoming feeling to the room. The villa is beautiful decorated and furnished, with lush beige carpets throughout the downstairs. There are two lounge areas and two eating areas with an open plan kitchen. One bedroom with en-suite is on the ground floor and there is another room (utility) leading off the kitchen. The pool area is large and has 4 lounger's and a table with another 4 chairs. There is a TV, video, DVD player, stereo system - even some blank video tapes!

Upstairs there are a further 4 bedrooms - one for the children, one for Mum, one for Alan and Kevin and I got the master bedroom with the en-suite. After a quick cup of tea we all hit the sack for a few hours.

The weather being hot and sunny we decided to have a morning dip. The pool was warm and the sun very hot - unfortunately it being Day 1 we had to do the customary shopping trip - Super Walmart here we come! We spent the rest of the day in and around Walmart with a break in-between for lunch at Dennys. Back to the villa for another swim, finish unpacking and early to bed.

Time to explore! Just where do you start? The very famous International Drive. We were all very surprised at the lack of people around - and most of those were British. After a cruise up and down the "Drive" we settled on Wonderworks. Robert was fascinated by the upside down house at the side of the road, even more so by the staircase hanging from the ceiling in the entrance hall and completely bewildered by the bridge taking you through the tunnel that was supposed to make you feel you’re being turned upside down.

Inside there was plenty of hands-on things to do, including several simulators - design your own roller coaster and hang-gliding. We all had a good laugh on the machine that showed you how you would look in x number of years. After a very noisy lunch (why do they have to play the music so loud? - God, I sound like my Mum!) We played some more and then it was time to go. Back to the Villa and a take-out of the most enormous Chinese take-out, quick swim and another early(ish) night.

Well, we knew it wouldn’t be long before the boys started talking new toys did we? George and Kevin had hidden their eagerness to explore the many hidden treasures of Radio Shack, Best Buy and other electrical outlets, but could contain their desperation no more! Leaving us poor women to cope with yet another day of lazing around the pool, sipping our Pimms while playing a game of scrabble, they left us at around 11 am only to return at 5 p.m. with - NOTHING! However, after about 30 minutes they were back on the road again and returned with a new laptop and digital camera for George. The boys were happy. Dinner was at Shoneys all you can eat bar. Robert slept through the entire meal.

SeaWorld. The boys, still far too much to do and buy decided not to join us. Our first show was to see the killer whales (Shamu and family) - Robert, not quite sure exactly what was going on, showed very little enthusiasm. However, the next show - the dolphins - he realised that he really was supposed to show some interest and actually started to enjoy it - so much so that immediately afterwards he ran to the gift shop and picked up a large dolphin that has not left his side since. C M who has always loved dolphins was especially delighted afterwards when she actually got to stroke the dolphins in the petting pool. Many hours and much walking later we were met by the boys and went back to the villa for a swim and a steak dinner - Robert and CM slept throughout the meal.

Kevin and George still had much shopping to do. So we had a quiet day in the villa, swimming, relaxing and later watched George play a round of golf (without having to move from our sunloungers). Dinner tonight was at Cracker Barrel, both children remained awake whilst in the restaurant.

Big decisions on just what to do today. It was (so we thought) decided that the boys plus children would go off to Kennedy Space Centre and the girls would go to Cypress Gardens. However, on route the plans were changed and we all went to Cypress Gardens.

Cypress Gardens was certainly very different. I definitely felt too young to be there! However, it was very pretty and they had a Poinsettia Festival. Under this huge dome they had the most amazing display of poinsettias - different colour plants forming a carpet with a huge poinsettia Christmas tree in the middle - really stunning.

But it was at night the whole place came alive - over 5 million light bulbs throughout the gardens - including the largest man-made Christmas tree in the world 180 ft - a frame that was decorated with Christmas trees to make one large one - when this was lit with a huge illuminated star on top it certainly was pretty spectacular. KFC for dinner tonight - CM and R slept throughout.

Lady's day - the ladies (getting their DOR from the children) had a shopping trip to Florida Mall. Many nice things were seen but very little purchased. Mum and I picked up a couple of pairs of sandals/boots respectively which were BUY 1 GET 2ND PAIR HALF PRICE. A real bargain. Mum also bought a new evening dress for her ladies night later in the Spring. A few bits and bobs for Christmas and nice lunch and a meet with the boys at 5pm(ish). Back at the Villa we relaxed our aching bones in the pool, the remains of the KFC dinner before George and Kevin departed to collect Alan from the Airport. CM and R remained awake throughout dinner. Guess what? The boys had bought some more toys...

America is certainly in a very peculiar phase at the moment - they are very much "America at War" as nearly every TV channel likes to tell you. There is no other news in the World other than the fight against the Taliban and there latest whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. The patriotism is certainly getting a bit finger-down-the-throatish - I even got a free USA T-shirt because I spent over $25 in SeaWorld shopping! Everywhere along the roadside they are selling the Stars and Stripes car flags - it really is a bit blah.... As Mum said they haven't had to fight two World Wars and had the threat of the IRA on their doorstep for years.

I saw a woman today with a T-shirt on which said above the stars and stripes "mourn with America for the disaster which struck on the 11th September" - bad enough, but on the back she had a picture of the WTC towers collapsing!

The traditional "have a nice day now" has been replaced by "God Bless America" - maybe I’m wrong and they’re right - perhaps good Ol’Blighty would be a different and better place to live in if we were all a little less stuffy and a little more patriotic?

Later - well we waited up for Alan and in true Alan tradition - we waited..... At midnight we gave up!

A DOR for one and all. Alan was awake reasonably early - the day was bright and sunny and we spent most of the time sitting around the pool. Later in the evening we decided to go to the local town of "Celebration" - the only town this side of the USA to have "snow"!

Celebration is a town just local to Disney and because of its name has major Celebration celebrations throughout the year - Christmas time being one of them. The locals really go to town in decorating their houses (beautiful lights - without being tacky), house after house after house lit with literally thousands of fairy lights.

The main square of Celebration has a large lake in the middle and the sidewalk was full of stalls selling candy floss, hot dogs and the usual American fare. There was a large "gingerbread" house where the children could queue to see Santa Claus. There was a light fountain where embedded in the sidewalk was fountains and coloured lights.

When the green lights were lit it was safe to cross, however, when the lights changed to red the water sprung up from the ground and if you weren’t careful you could get very wet! Claire-Marie and Robert ably abetted by Grandpa (who else?) had great fun.

But of course, I mentioned the S word (snow). Beginning at 6pm on the hour every hour in the main street the snow falls, the children and adults chuck snowballs and skate around all to the sound of Christmas carols, it’s all very Christmasy and for the locals the nearest thing to a winter scene they’re likely to see and experience.
(For those intrigued by the "snow" - it’s actually lots of washing-up liquid in a bubble machine attached to each of the street lights, but even adults can pretend...)

Dinner was in one of the very many restaurants in Celebration and we were very lucky to get a table as it was very busy.

Disney day! At last the day had arrived when we were going to DisneyWorld - it was decided to go late and stay late because of the Christmas parade. We arrived at about lunch time and fought our way through the crowds and managed to just about see the afternoon parade. Mr. Disney had invited the World and his wife to his theme park that day. It was virtually impossible to move anywhere, the queues for rides were horrendous and we saw virtually nothing of the park - a real disappointment for us all.

We were all very hungry so decided to find something to eat. Many people were seen to be walking along eating what looked like dinosaur legs, but we were reliably informed that they were in fact, ham legs (damn great hams they have out here in the US of A). The boys of course, just had to have a try - the girls of course, settled for hot dogs quote June "you will eat every last morsel and enjoy it" (well she had queued up for 35 minutes).

Later in the evening around 8pm was the parade of lights. A truly spectacular sight. Every Disney character upon a float that was lit with hundreds of lights. Each character had their own dance routine to their particular piece of music and to each note of the music the lights had their own routine. A beautiful experience and certainly a wonderful way of celebrating Christmas Eve. It was so good in fact, that we stayed and watched the 10pm performance!

Father Christmas had made a late call to 332 Gleneagles Drive as the inhabitants hadn’t returned from Disney until the early hours of Christmas Day. Along with a lot of presents he had also found the time to decorate the room. Two very excited children ran into tell Mummy and Daddy that FC had been and left lots of presents, infront and behind and on top of the Christmas tree (this explanation was offered by Robert).

Turkey, potatoes and nearly all the trimming (onion sauce lacking) was prepared, table laid and eventually the children were allowed to open their presents. They were suitably happy with what they had, the adults however, showed mixed reactions to their delights ranging from DVDs to self-adhesive hooks (what every globe trotter can live without? - sorry "in joke" there) and vegetable scrubbers (you never know when you’ll need one).

Dinner was served around mid-afternoon, tiger prawns on a bed of lettuce, turkey etc., Christmas pudding, pecan pie - very very nice. Needless to say a few zzzz were had later that day.

Dinner that night was Valerie’s Boxing Day Fiesta. Leftover turkey and veg covered in sun dried tomato and parmesan cheese pasta sauce topped with crushed dorriotos - superb.

Universal. An early start (well not as early as some of us would have liked - Alan?) And we made it to the gates of Universal at around 10am - unfortunately so did thousands (literally) of others! Having learned our lesson at Disney we decided to not even try.

Universal Studios has completely changed since we all last there. There are now two theme parks the second being Universal Islands of Adventure. In the main concourse of the two parks is a large lake which is surrounded by several shops, stalls and the usual eateries, there is also a massive 20 screen cinema there. After a stop for coffee and cinnamon buns we decided to go to the cinema instead. George & Valerie who had already seen Harry Potter decided on Lord of the Rings, while the rest of us having been nagged constantly by CM all went to see HP.

George & Valerie had arranged to meet up with some of their RV friends for the day. Kevin and Alan decided to go to Islands of Adventure later in the day, hoping to be able to get on the rides without having to queue for too long.

The Everglades and the Florida Keys. We were all up bright (Alan?) and early this morning in time for our long journey to the southern most point of Florida. Because of the distance we had decided to make our journey over two days, staying at a motel for the night in a place called Homestead. The journey took us across and down the east side of Florida, along Gator Alley and down to Homestead. It was a long drive but certainly worth the trip - the countryside is certainly more dense than around Orlando, but very flat and quite uninteresting. Gator Alley and the approach to the Keys is very water logged. The main "drag" has a path of water alongside it which is filled with ‘gators of all shapes and sizes. The small local businesses are mainly ‘gator goodies gift shops, owned and run by the Micochobee Indians and there are several genuine Micochobee tribe craft stalls.

Once we hit the glades themselves we stopped and had our ride on the Air boats familiar with this particular part of the country. The ride itself, despite being incredibly noisy, was great fun and the driver/pilot/captain obviously loved showing off his driving/steering skills as we screamed across the glades one moment heading for a large mangrove and then veering off at the last minute. I’m sure we weren’t actually going that fast but the sheer noise of the boat certainly gave you the impression that you were!

Back in the bus and off to Homestead. We quickly found a motel which was cheap and accommodating. G&V shared a room, Mum, myself and CM a second and the third by Kevin, Alan and Robert. Dinner was at the local Gustos a sports bar/restaurant. The food was delicious and we all rolled home and fell into bed - some of us to sleep (Alan?).

Now the saga of Kevin, Alan and Robert sharing a room is one that just has to be shared by all reading this diary. Robert has become very attached to Alan during this holiday and insisted on sharing the bed with him (there were two doubles in each room). I not only warned Alan that he was a bit of a fidget and that he should move him in with Kevin when he was asleep, but I also warned him that Kevin made the most horrendous noises whilst asleep and to be prepared. (It is also rumoured and some have confirmed that Alan has also been known to do his fair share of the nightly chorus). Of course, not actually being in the same room my story is only that of hearsay, however, having shared a bed with Kevin for the past 15 years I do know a little about his sleeping habits. Within seconds of his head hitting the pillow he switches off and quickly falls into a deep sleep, unfortunately for anyone else present in the room this is not so easy. Poor Alan after 30 minutes of being kicked, punched and deprived of the bedclothes by Garner junior moved him into his Garner seniors bed. Moans and groans from KG. Further into the quest for sleep Alan threw several items at Kevin starting with a hat and ending with himself. Kevin who still swears that he doesn’t snore remains totally oblivious to the distress he causes to everyone else - or does he????

The following morning ("Morning?" Says Alan - even more zombie-like than normal) we met promptly at 8am (KG foregoing breakfast - to get more sleep(!) And went for our free buffet breakfast at the Fairway Inn. Breakfast was a bit of a "free-for-all" but the freshly squeezed orange, coffee, doughnuts and toast was very nice and gave us a bit of a boost for our even longer journey down to Key West and the southern most tip of Florida.

The Keys are made up of lots of islands the main habitable ones are joined by bridges - the longest being seven miles! Quite a major civil engineering feat. Business on the islands is mainly aimed at the tourists hotels/motels, restaurants, bars and lots and lots of water sports facilities.

The houses are very colonial - wooden and painted in pastel shades - and there is obviously great pride in the gardens as many are overflowing with the pinks and purples of the bougainvillaea, topiary of dolphins and other sea life, roses, and huge banks of brightly coloured hibiscus. Along the road are several beaches which have covered patio areas, the beaches are very sandy and have palm trees giving shade on those hot sunny days.

Despite the overcast weather there were several people on the beach at the Southernmost point, a few bathing but most sitting enjoying being together and doing what is obviously a major past-time - fishing.

All ages, entire families, can be seen casting their rods wherever water can be found. Many people travel about on mopeds or bicycles, which when you take into account the warm breeze and hot sun is definitely more preferable than the confines of a car with air con. However, my trip to the Keys was somewhat overcast by the fact that I looked everywhere for Tom (Cruise) and he just wasn’t too be found - had I been successful I may just not have left. He can shake me a cocktail any time....

We finally arrived home at 10.45pm - very tired, very stiff and with numb b**ms!

George, Alan and June went off to do some shopping. Circuit City, Best Buy and a supermarket - 5 hours later we returned. Kevin and the children had woken up the entire neighbourhood of Highlands Reserve playing in the swimming pool for over three hours. Valerie and Mum had prepared and cooked a lovely turkey dinner again to welcome in the New Year. We had thought about going to one of the theme parks to welcome in the New Year but because of our past experiences with the amount of people that were about (and the fact that there was a huge sign saying that Disneyworld was full)! We celebrated 2002 with a lovely meal, drinks, scrabble and a midnight dip in the pool!

Well the weather has certainly changed this week - we've woken up to low mist and even the hint of frost. George and Valerie - well mostly George had been positively drooling every time we passed a certain restaurant - namely "Outback". So it was decided that today would be the day to welcome in the New Year with one of the superb steaks they offer. The restaurant is so popular we decided to get there around 4pm - we squeezed into the last available table after a short wait. The "server" was wonderful and as the menu was so extensive she visited us all separately (George reports that they normally sit at the table with you). We began with a "Blooming Onion" and some garlic mushrooms, ?? steaks for us all except Alan and Mum who chose a T-bone and Seafood Pasta respectively. The dessert trolley beckoned, although we were all filled to the gills we decided on a chocolate/brownie dish that we all dived into!!! Totally bloated, stuffed and just a little bit full we fought our way through the mass of people queuing up and left - oh yes, forgot they even had a BOGOF on the cocktails!!

Bye bye Alan - we decided to have one last holiday meal together - this time we visited Perkins - a very nice restaurant, good service. We dropped Alan off early at the Airport as he wanted to get some last minute presents. Much to the dismay of some of the holidaymakers I dared to suggest a quick visit to Walmart...........

Well this was our last evening, we squeezed every possible item into those suitcases - why on earth did I pack only two? Another holiday over, another new year - what will we be doing this time next year???

FLORIDA - CHRISTMAS 2001