It had been very hard to get excited about Florida as we had to pass a Covid test the day before travel. So many people were going down with Covid so it was such a relief when our tests on Sunday evening showed that we were negative – we could finally finish packing as we knew we were going!

We arrived at Heathrow three hours before check in and it was manic. Not too bad getting through the luggage drop but the queues for security were huge. We made it and Tom and I headed to the BA lounge (I could only take 1 guest) whilst Stu and Izzy went shopping. The lounge was so disappointing to how it was pre-covid. It was packed and you had to order your food rather than a buffet service. Tom had a brownie and I ordered a plate of sandwiches.

We boarded our plane but shortly before take off the pilot announced that some passengers hadn’t arrived so they had to remove their bags which resulted in us being delayed for about 2 hours.

The flight wasn’t too bad despite the delay at the start although I was disappointed not to fly over Greenland – we had stunning views of the icebergs when we flew to California. Although we did have great views over the west coast of Ireland and the Jersey Shore.

^{Views from the airplane of the west coast of Ireland and Barngate Lighthouse State Park in New Jersey.}

Our main issue was we were so hungry and for tea one hour before landing we were given half a cream cheese and cucumber sandwich!!! I’d made the mistake of not buying a sandwich at the airport – won’t make that mistake again.

We landed in Miami at 7.30pm (half midnight UK time), passport control took about an hour which wasn’t too bad, we picked up our hire car from Avis at the airport, stopped at Mcdonalds for a takeout burger as we needed to eat before bed otherwise I’d be up in the night hungry and headed at our Hampton Inn next to the airport.

^{Miami Airport}

The next morning we were up super early (still on UK time) so had breakfast at the hotel which wasn’t the best. Tom and Izzy loved the waffle maker but the hot options for me were potatoes (OK), scrambled eggs (OK) and grilled hot dog sausages which I did not enjoy at all. We put together a plan of action for the day involving some lighthouses and a beach and headed off on our journey to Orlando.

Fort Lauderdale

Stu, Izzy and I got addicted to Below Deck during Lock Down in America and lots of the cast seemed to come from Fort Lauderdale so we’ve always wanted to visit. It was about an hour away from the hotel so we drove to the seafront, found a car park but carried on up the road to the cruise ship terminal before returning to the car park.

It was only supposed to be a quick stop so we left all the swimming kit in the car and made our way to the beach. It was 10am in the morning but already very hot. The beach was quiet and Tom and Izzy went straight into the sea.

^{Fort Lauderdale Beach}

We realised quickly they would get soaked so Stu went back to the car to unpack the swimming stuff from our suitcases so they didn’t need to worry about getting wet.

After an hour we thought we had better leave as the sun was so strong – we did not want to get burnt on our first day. We decided to skip the lighthouses and headed for a Cheesecake Factory on the way to Orlando. The drive along Fort Lauderdale promenade was beautiful – it was lined with palm trees and a flock of pelicans flew over head as we drove – I loved the pelicans in San Francisco and didn’t realize they were in Florida too.

We arrived at the Cheesecake factory – our first visit in 18 months and it was so good to be back. We all ordered our usuals – Stuart had the BBQ burger, Tom the roadside sliders, Izzy the chicken sliders and I had the Chicken littles. As normal we couldn’t manage it all but boxed up all our leftovers for tea and the kids ordered cheesecakes.

^{Cheesecake Factory}

We were starting to feel a bit jaded so headed off to Orlando – about 2.5 hours away. We stopped at a supermarket in Kissimmee to stock up on groceries for the next few days and found our AirBnb rental – which was a house on a gated complex with a pool and the complex also had a small water park which we thought the kids would like.

Kissimmee

Within 5 minutes of going in the house pool Tom and Izzy wanted to visit the waterpark so I walked over with them whilst Stu went back to another supermarket to pick up what we didn’t get at the first.

The house was on the Storey Lake complex and we had to cross a bridge over a massive lake to get to the waterpark.

The water park was great – there was a swimming pool, a huge lazy river and a water slide. Tom and Izzy played for about an hour before I made us leave as we needed to have tea.

Our reason for visiting Orlando was to go to Kennedy Space Centre which we were doing on our final day in Orlando. We needed something to fill a day and we knew that we didn’t want to visit Disney or Universal so headed to the coast. After a quick bit of research we found a wildlife refuge so that became our first stop.

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

We started at the visitor center which was actually really good. There were loads of exhibits about animals native to the area and a boardwalk we could walk looking for wildlife. It felt really tropical and although we didn’t see any wildlife there were some cool trees which looked like they had cotton hanging off them.

^{Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge}

The person at the visitor center suggested we do the wildlife drive (a loop of about 7 miles) so we paid the $10 and off we went. Within a few hundred meters we spotted our first alligator and then another one. They were just sat on the banks of the water. We also saw a turtle. By the end of the drive we were a bit bored and we were behind a car going super slow so it was good to get back onto the main road.

We felt that we had spent a long time sat in the car but before visiting the beach Stu wanted to drive to the manatee viewing area – it was only 5 minutes away. We parked up and as we approached the platform someone told us 2 manatees were swimming passed. We saw them and thought that was cool! Luckily we walked to the end of the platform as there were about 10 manatees just bobbing about in the water.

Canaveral National Seashore

We wanted to go and spend some time on the beach so headed to Playalinda beach on the Canaveral National Seashore. We drove passed one of the Nasa launch pads and there was a rocket waiting for launch in a few days which was very cool to see.

We arrived at the beach – put our swim stuff on in the car park and walked down the board walk.

Unfortunately it was really windy so we couldn’t lay our towels out as they would blow a way. We played in the sea for a bit – but then a huge wave knocked Stu’s glasses off his head! So we didn’t stay very long.

We drove back to Orlando – with a detour to International Drive where we visited Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream and returned to our house. Tom and Izzy wanted to go back to the water park so I walked them over to make sure they could get in and then just collected them after an hour or so as it was tea time.

On our final day in Orlando we headed to Kennedy Space Centre. On the way to the centre we drove along a river and saw so many alligators sitting in the water. We arrived just after opening and headed straight for the tour bus to visit the Saturn V Centre. The bus was quite good as it drove us passed the Vehicle Assembly Building and there was a video playing which gave us loads of information about space

^{Bus tour}

I think it was very quiet as there were no queues so we were able to watch all the films being shown, Tom and Izzy got to touch moon rock and we were able to get a table outside to eat our lunch on. There were some crazy birds who were waiting to pounce on any unattended food – they stole the lunch from one of the people at the table next to us!

We took the bus back to the main complex – and had the same driver who told all the same jokes he did on the way out – such as to hold on tight as he wanted to be a race car driver.

We then did the Atlantis exhibit which was brilliant. The film was interesting and to see the shuttle was very cool. Tom and Izzy loved all the interactive exhibits such as crawling through the pretend space station and going down the slides

^{Exhibits at Kennedy Space Centre}

We finished in the rocket garden before heading home. We enjoyed Kennedy but we were only there for about 3 hours and that was enough for us.

Kids spent the evening in the water park again (but they just made their own way over) and I had to drag them out at 7pm!!! The next morning we were headed to Cape Coral