Kathryn - Two weeks before we were scheduled to arrive at Disney World we were snorkelling in the waves of Biscayne Bay. The snorkel tour went by boat out to the reef a couple of miles from the shore. We hadn't eaten enough for breakfast and by the time we arrived at the park I was starving. The park gift store had a limited selection of food, but 'a couple of bags of Doritos should do the trick' I thought. By now you know where this is going - I have a long history of motion sickness which started with my cousin Margaret, strawberry pie and an old fair ride called the Octopus.... I digress.
It was a beautiful day but a bit of wind was producing some minor swells in the water. By the time we reached the coral reef, the neck of my wet suit had shrunk two sizes and was restricting my airflow. I struggled with this bit of claustrophobia as we put on our masks, snorkels and fins. "Once we get into the water I will be fine" I said to myself trying to keep calm.
The snorkeling was good, Biscayne Bay is very shallow at about 10 feet, so most of the fish are near to the surface where snorkelers can easily see them. That afternoon I like to think, I did for the fish of Biscayne Bay what the first explorers returning to England with bananas did for the English people. Their first taste of something strange from the new world, two bags of Nacho Cheese Doritos.
Universal Studios and Disney were looming dark on the horizon. I had to get this thing figured out so that I wasn't a mess in the "Happiest Place on Earth". A fellow snorkeler suggested Dramamine. Boom problem solved (take two)... LET'S RIDE!
Spoiler Alert Escape from Gringott's is AWESOME!
Okay, I won't spoil anything about the ride but I will say this about the line up... it is AWESOME! You really feel like you are in Gringott's Bank, the Safest Place on Earth. All of the Harry Potter attractions are really well done at Universal Studios and I would love to go back one day just to do those attractions again when no one else was there.
FLORIDA IS FOR THE BIRDS
Catherine - Florida is full of flora and fauna with parks galore and a treasure trove of birds. Not just full of the white-haired wintering snow birders from Canada and the Northern United States, the state is filled with real birds also enjoying the amazing weather. Along side the birds are turtles, alligators and hundreds of butterflies. We have really enjoyed this tropical state. There are tons of state parks, bird sanctuaries and the Florida Birding Trail http://floridabirdingtrail.com/. This is a great website about birds and butterflies.
For fun we changed a burned-out headlight on the RV. Have we ever changed a headlight? No. Do we know what we are doing? No. The challenge we face as full time RVers is getting into an RV service bay in a timely manner. We called, and the wait was going to be six weeks. That doesn’t work for people on the road, so Amazon, here we come. The headlight arrives, and it seems to make sense. Old headlight out, new headlight in. After being a contortionist and receiving the appropriate amount of knuckle scraping we had a successful install. Tada, the new headlight works, and we can drive in the dark once again.
If one plans to own an RV be prepared to get dirty, greasy and bruised. Now it is on to fix the pipe under the kitchen sink that became disconnected while we were staying at Fort Wilderness Park in Disney World. I suspect there will be less swearing and bleeding.
