14 April - Miami Beach Florida

Checked out of our hotel in Orlando this morning and commenced the next leg of our trip - a drive down to Miami Beach. Our plan was to drive along a secondary coastal road hoping it would be scenic and interesting.For a little while it looked promising but after a couple of hours of endless suburbs and no sign of the coast we connected back to the Florida Turnpike and arrived at our hotel in Miami Beach around 4pm. The weather here has been sunny and warm and later in the afternoon we walked along the beach and took in the local sights. The atmosphere is a bit like the Gold Coast but quite run down. Miami Beach's hey day was in the 50's and 60's and a lot of it is looking pretty tired. However, in more recent times a lot of renovation has taken place and hopefully this will produce a new lease of life. At any rate it is a wonderful location, and given the tropical weather and the beautiful beaches the area will return to its former splendour. Tomorrow we're taking a day trip to the Florida Keys which is a long chain of islands extending from the Southern tip of Floriday. We're hoping to make Key West which is right at the end of the chain.

13 April - Kennedy Space Center

Picked up a Herz rented car this morning, and after collecting the girls back at the hotel we drove to the Kennedy Space Center. The first hour or two of driving on the right hand side of the road are always a bit exciting, and this morning was no exception.

The Kennedy Space Center was awesome. You know you've arrived when suddenly you spot a retired space shuttle parked just near the road. The facilities for visitors are outstanding. Currently a shuttle is located on the launch pad for an April 19 launch and we were able to view it from an observation platform. We also visited the Apollo visitor center which features an actual Saturn rocket, a command module and a lunar landing module. Later in the afternoon we experienced a ride in a space shuttle lift off simulator.

Altogether an outstanding day. Tomorrow we drive from Orlando to Miami along the scenic coastal road.

12 April - Orlando Florida, Universal Studios

It was great to get to bed last night after some 30 hours of travelling. Woke up reasonably refreshed this morning and after breakfast we caught the free shuttle from out hotel (Holiday Inn and Suites, Universal) to the Universal Studios Resort. We arrived there at about 10:30 and after an action packed and fun filled day we caught the last bus home at 7:10 pm. John and I then walked to a nearby shopping center to buy beer, gin and mixers (pretty cheap here) and after pre-dinner drinks in our suite, we walked down to a restaurant right next door to the hotel. Our rooms are very nice, suites with separate living and sleeping quarters and John and Sandra's room next door can be accessed from our room.

Tomorrow we pick up a hire car and we plan to spend the day at the Kennedy Space Center.

11 April - Up, up and away

Up at 6:45 this morning to catch the 7:30 courtesy bus to the airport. The flight's not departing till 11:20 but you're supposed to be ready to check in three hours early. Once we got rid of our bags we had breakfast and then headed for immigration and the duty free shops in the international terminal. Bought a pair of noise cancelling headphones before boarding the first leg of our trip - Melbourne to Sydney.

After 20 minute wait in the transit lounge we were able to board our next 747 for the Sydney to Los Angeles leg which takes 13 hours. Reached LA and passed through US Immigration and Customs - a relatively painless procedure. It all takes time though and in the end we only had 20 minutes to spare to reach the boarding gate for our flight to Chicago and Orlando.

Arrived at the Holiday Inn in Orlando just after midnight. We'd been travelling for more than 30 hours but it's still the same day. Tomorrow - Universal Studios.

10 April - Leaving Home

Picked up John and Sandra at 2 pm. Stayed at Cilom's a motel and car storage place near the airport. Had some dinner and then an early night.

31 March - Our next cruise and USA holiday

It's time to start packing again. We really enjoyed our cruise last year so we've booked again, and will be joined again by our friends John and Sandra. We fly out to the USA on 11 April, destination Orlando, Florida. We spend a few days here and we'll visit the Kennedy Space Center and Universal Studios. Then we drive to Miami and join the Norwegian Pearl on 17 April.

Our cruise will take us south through the Panama Canal and then on to Los Angeles two weeks later. We visit a number of ports in Central America and Mexico. Once we return to the USA we'll be driving to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, and we'll spend a few days in San Francisco before flying back to Australia arriving home on 13 May.

17 May - Gettysburg Pennsylvania

Our last full day in the US and on our drive back from Washington we visited Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. This is the site of one of the most important battles of the Amerian Civil War. Battles took place on July 1, 2 and 3 of 1863 between the Confederate forces under the command of Robert E Lee, and the Union forces led by General Meade. In three days of fighting the total number of casualties was around 50,000 with some 8,000 fatalaties. The entire area around the township of Gettysburg has been preserved and many monuments have been erected to commemorate the events. On the outskirts of town we visited the famous Gettysburg Civil War cemetery which is the burial site of many of those killed. It is on the occasion of the establishment of the cemetery that President Abraham Licoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address, one of the most famous speeches ever recorded. (see the text here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_address)

We only had two hours to visit this very moving site - it would take a week to do it justice. As our flight out of NY back to Australia departs tomorrow we needed to get within striking distance of JFK and so we drove to a little town called Lebanon NJ leaving us drive of around 80km tomorrow.

Getttysburg proved to be an interesting conclusion to a brief but wonderful visit to the US.