Final Stop - Fort Lauderdale!

We made our last trip on the Greyhound Bus down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for our last few days in the States (and the last few days of our trip!) Our visit coincided with the International Boat Show here so there were lots of expensive "toys" on display! We went for a long walk down Las Olas Boulevard right down to Fort Lauderdale Beach, passing numerous millionaires mansions along the way. Instead of parking your car in front of your house here, you dock your boat - usually a BIG one like on the photo! Only having four days down here in Fort Lauderdale meant that there was a lot we wanted to see and not much time to do it so we hired a car for a couple of days. On Friday we set off at the crack of dawn (slightly earlier than that actually!) to drive right down to Key West - the southernmost tip of the United States. It involved driving in the outskirts of Miami which was ok on the way down, but pretty hair raising on the way back as we took a wrong turning and ended up on the freeway by mistake! Seeing our lives flashing before us and not quite knowing which of the 10 or so lanes we should be in, we managed to escape at the first exit and get back on to the normal roads! Once we got past the madness of Miami it was a much more enjoyable drive down to the Keys, which spans about 110 miles and involves crossing 42 bridges across mostly sparkling aquamarine water! Wow! It was an amazing drive although we couldn't begin to imagine how some of the bridges were constructed - especially the longest one which was seven whole miles long! The trip from Fort Lauderdale was around 180 miles in total and by the time we got to Key West at the tip (where CK is standing on the photo) we were actually nearer in distance to Cuba which was only 90 miles away! As it was there was definitely a Caribbean feel to the place with palm trees everywhere and reggae music in the background! Yesterday we drove to the Everglades National Park and went on one of those airboats with the big fans on the back! The fan was so loud they gave everybody ear plugs to wear - and you really needed them! It was amazing just skimming over the water and reeds and looking out for alligators! We did spot quite a few quite close to the boat. They didn't seem that interested in us though - which was fortunate as the boat was very low down in the water! But look what we found on our lawn when we got back to our apartment!!! Scary!!! Well, it's our last day today and we are getting ready to come back home. Well, Connie is ...! As probably most of you know I am off to Fuerteventura for a month to recover from my trip (well, travelling can be very stressful you know!) Seriously I am just hanging out in the sun for awhile until my tenants move out of my house on 1st December. Kind of a final fling I guess! But we are both looking forward to seeing friends and family again and catching up with everybody. You have all been missed! So for now it's goodbye from the K Team! See you soon!

Finally in Florida!

St Augustine was our first stop in Florida, which is the last state we will be visiting here in the USA before our return home! It's yet another quaint picturesque historical town(!) but different from Savannah or Charleston in that there is much more of a Spanish influence here, particularly in the architecture and buildings - some of which are spectacular! One of our favourite buildings was the local college - Flagler College. I reckon it would be a pleasure to study there every day (although I am sure the students who do go there don't appreciate it at all!) St Augustine is also the oldest city in the whole of the USA, which the locals are very proud of! It's also very easy to walk around without needing a car which was good news for us! We enjoyed strolling down George Street which is full of all the old style buildings and shops. It's very touristy but still a 'must see'! A guy working at an Italian restaurant on the street came out a couple of times when we were there with a freshly cooked hot pizza and started handing out free samples - Mmmmm - we were first in the queue! We stopped for a look at the oldest schoolhouse in the USA - Hmmm, they can't have had that many pupils attending there as it's a tiny place! The waterfront was also a good place to wander round, either looking round the old fort or looking out for dolphins near the bridge! We were lucky enough to see them close up on a few occasions which was fabulous! We are staying in a place called Anastasia Island, which is just over the bridge from the main historical district so every time we went over the bridge we looked out for them! There seemed to be a family of them with mum and baby swimming together side by side and coming up for air quite often and then daddy dolphin on his own swimming around! Couldn't get a photo of them as they were too fast but it was great to see them at such close quarters! Now if you're travelling in the USA in October you just can't fail to notice that it's Halloween season! Halloween fever was well into overdrive by the time we arrived here in St. Augustine. And Carol (if you're reading this!) if you thought that was a lot of pumpkins in our last blog on Savannah, then have a look at this photo of CK inspecting a whole street full of them! I have never seen so many of them all together in one place! Another reason we picked St Augustine for our first stop in Florida was that it's only an hour and a half's drive away from the Kennedy Space Centre! We hired a car for a day and drove down there to Cape Canavarel. It took us a bit longer to get there as you have to drive over a bridge onto an island and just as we got there they were raising the bridge to let some boats through and we seemed to be waiting for ages! Anyway, finally we arrived and if we had realised there was so much to see we would have set off earlier. It's a fascinating place to visit and they even had a retired NASA engineer there, sitting on a stool, ready to answer any questions you might have! Now what kind of question do you ask a NASA engineer?! My mind immediately went blank! Fearing that a Bridget Jones style moment might be coming on where I might blurt out something like "Excuse me but where are the toilets?!" I gave him a wide berth! Now, being as my knowledge of rockets, launch pads and the like is quite limited to say the least, I am going to pass you over to my technical assistant and respected colleague (and future astronaut!) CK who will fill you all in on exactly what we were looking at! Over to you CK! Well what can I say except that we had a "Spacetastic" day at the Kennedy Space Centre! What a thrill to see a real rocket on the launch pad awaiting the countdown - you may have seen the Ares1-X test rocket on the news lately and the actual countdown begins Tues 27th October! (Click the photo to see it bigger!). The NASA building you can see is where they construct all of their rockets, and then the finished rocket goes on a "crawler" to reach 1 of 3 launch pads, and that 4 mile journey can take about 8 hours! The space shuttle was on another launch pad, so it was pretty exciting stuff! There are some amazing displays at the KSC-my favourites were the real 363 foot moon rocket, and the real space shuttle, and imagining them both hurtling through space at 17,500 miles per hour makes you realise what a dangerous job the astronauts really have! They also construct the International Space Station there, train their astronauts there, have a rare collection of space artifacts (including a piece of moon rock which you are allowed to touch), lots of hands on displays, and you can even experience the effects of a real Shuttle launch! As I get really bad motion sickness, we went to see the IMAX 3D movie about walking on the moon instead! We loved our day at the KSC and we even saw several alligators in the waters there-apparently there are around 3000 of them within the grounds! Space travel is so fascinating, and the KSC leaves you full of wonder and amazement at the achievements of man in space although as we all know, there is so much more to learn about our universe and its all out there waiting for us! Next stop is Fort Lauderdale where we are going to visit the Everglades and drive down to Key West (yes, all the way down to the very tip!) Should be a fabulous drive - we can't wait!

Savannah, Georgia

Hello Y'all! (That's how they speak here in the deep south!) We think it's really funny because all the locals say it all the time - "how y'all doing?" and "have a nice day y'all!" We're getting used to it now! Anyway, we arrived in Savannah - home of "Gone with the Wind" and the horse & carriage(!) and were immediately aware of the intense heat - Whew! It was HOT! Fortunately though, an Englishman, Mr James Oglethorpe, had founded the city of Savannah years and years ago and had organised the streets into a grid system. He then insisted on having 23 cool, shady squares evenly spaced out amongst the streets so you could walk almost anywhere in the heat of the day under the shade of the trees! Each one is individual, some more beautiful than others, some with fountains, others with pagodas and some just with trees and benches. They are all surrounded by houses or office buildings and we enjoyed strolling through them all, admiring some of the beautiful houses along the way. One of our favourite squares was Chippewa Square or as the locals call it "Gump Square!" Yes, we were back on our trail of Forrest Gump film locations! Remember the bench that Forrest sat on while telling his story to whoever was sitting there waiting for the bus?! Well CK is standing where the bench used to be situated! The actual bench is in a museum so we couldn't pose on it and do our "life is like a box of chocolates" impression! Our apartment was by the side of Crawford Square (the one with the pagoda in the middle of it) and our landlady told us that the film "Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil", directed by Clint Eastwood, had been filmed there. She did leave us the book to read but to be honest we found it a bit hard going! It was based on a true story (a murder) that happened in the 1980's and the large red brick house was where it had all happened. The house we were staying in had been the home of one of the main characters in real life, although not where the murder took place (fortunately!) Just around the corner was a cute little fruit & veg market where CK was overwhelmed by the choice of pumpkins on offer (Halloween fever was already running high in Savannah!) and where some of the locals stopped by for a kip as you can see! River Street was the touristy bit of the town where there were lots of restaurants, gift shops etc and you could watch the little ferries go up and down the Savannah River along with the big Mississippi style paddle boats. Whenever we were down by the river we popped into a couple of chocolate shops as they handed out caramel praline samples on a daily basis - Mmmm! The day before we left Savannah we came across a crowd of people around one of the squares and realised that there was some filming going on. We stopped to watch and were rewarded by seeing James McAvoy and Robert Redford who was directing the film! Couldn't get a really close up photo but if you click the photo to enlarge it you can just about see both of them! Now that's something you don't come across every day isn't it?! It was interesting to watch, although a little boring as well as we waited ages and ages for something to happen! They had horses and wagons there as well and there was a scene where a window had to be smashed and all this fake glass fell out! It's probably not something either of us will be rushing out to see though as it's a Civil War film (called The Conspirator) but it made for a bit of excitement at the end of our stay in Savannah! And CK found a "hat buddy" while we were standing around watching all the goings on! Next stop is St Augustine, Florida as we make our way down the East Coast.

Charming Charleston!

Well, here we are on our last day in Charleston! The photo shows the house we are staying in and if you look closely you can just about see our basement window! We are feeling at least a stone heavier with all the food that has been making its way down to our basement apartment via our extremely kind hostess! I have just about lost track of all the goodies that have come our way! We have had Key Lime Pie (an American delicacy & delicious!), cinnamon & raisin muffins, croissants, a top up on the butter for our toast, 2 more apples, a grapefruit, home-made soup, yoghurts & mandarin oranges. She did try to give us a huge pack of cheese as well but as we knew there was no way we would be able to eat it we had to politely refuse! Shrimp and grits was also on offer, but having tasted grits (and disliked them immensely - probably because in appearance they generally look scarily like baby sick!) We could not face them! But what a lovely kind lady! We are going to miss Kathleen! Charleston has tons of charm and sophistication and we have enjoyed walking around the historic district with its cobblestone streets and gas lamps and also along the waterfront admiring the buildings and waterfront mansions like the one on the photo above (top right). What a great balcony that one has right at the top! Colonial Lake is another great place too - and bit of an oasis right in the middle of the town. We found out about an Art Walk (thanks Ruth!) that was on one evening while we were here where you could tour different galleries in the historic district, meet some of the artists and partake of the free refreshments (wine and nibbles!) along the way! We liked the sound of that so went along to mingle with the art crowd. We struck lucky and managed to score a full glass of wine from the second gallery we visited, whereas other 'walkers' we passed had received very meagre rations elsewhere! It seemed we weren't the only ones with a slightly ulterior motive in attending the event as a lady came up to me at one stage and asked "where did you get the wine from?!" One of our favourite hangouts here has been down by the waterfront. There's a long walkway where one day we were lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins just a short distance from the shore - a fabulous sight! There was also a boardwalk pier with adult size porch swings where you could sit and swing and look out at the ocean - bliss! We walked down there one evening when there was a full moon and had this beautiful view from our swing seat! We kept seeing pineapples everywhere in Charleston, on artwork, cards and even the fountain was a pineapple! It seemed very strange until we found out that the pineapple is the symbol of southern hospitality (and we can vouch for that!) It comes from hundreds of years ago when the sea captains returned home from their voyages bearing gifts - the most popular of which were exotic fruits such as the pineapple which was then served at coming home parties for the sailors - and hence became the symbol of hospitality! We also weren't sure if the dance "the Charleston" actually originated here but managed to find out about that as well and learnt that it did! It apparently originated in a black community living on an island just outside Charleston in the early 1900's but became more popular in the 1920's after the dance appeared in a Broadway show. It was particularly popular with Flappers - rebellious young women of the 1920s known for wearing short dresses, bobbing their hair and listening to jazz music - all of which was considered to be extremely scandalous at the time!!! In the above photo CK is just getting ready to "do the Charleston" in the fountain. Scandalous!!! Although like the UK it's autumn (or fall) here it's still really warm so still feels like summer. However the leaves are all falling off the trees like at home - although have never seen a leaf quite as big as this one before! Now that's a BIG leaf! We will be sad to leave here as have enjoyed ourselves staying here (and being looked after by Kathleen!) Not to mention meeting the animals that also share the home. You can see CK in the photo with Simon the dog! Then there's Honey the cat (once a ferral cat that Kathleen adopted and is now completely domesticated!) There is also another dog called Bella but she hasn't sat still long enough yet for me to take a photograph. And there is another bigger dog (haven't seen him much and don't know his name!) but he is apparently very shy! Kathleen says though that Honey the cat is in charge and bosses all the dogs around! They all soon got used to us too and the dogs don't even bat an eyelid now when we walk in the door (which is a great relief to me!) Anyway, think that's all for now but must just tell you about Moe's before I go! It's this fab little restaurant nearby where they have a special on on Mondays and you can get a burrito stuffed with chicken, rice, beans and salad - all for $5. We love our $5 bargains so headed there last night and it was well worth it - they were delicious! As you can see on the photo they were huge! And when you walk in the restaurant all the staff shout out "Hey! Welcome to Moe's!" It was a brilliant place but unfortunately there isn't one near to where we are staying in Savannah - which is where we are heading to tomorrow! So will say goodbye for now - speak to you all again very soon!

Wilmington, North Carolina (Wilmywood!)

After a brief overnight stop in Raleigh, NC we boarded our old friend the Greyhound bus and arrived in Wilmington, North Carolina quite late last Wednesday afternoon. Our apartment was within walking distance of the Greyhound station so we trundled our bags along the streets, much to the interest of the local residents who, at that time in the afternoon, were all sitting on their porches in their rocking chairs! Maybe nobody had ever wandered through their neighbourhood with luggage in tow before, or maybe nothing else of any interest had happened that afternoon but either way we distinctly felt we were something of a curiosity as we passed by! There are some beautiful historic houses in Wilmington, some of them split up into separate condos and others preserved as museums like the one in the photo. The town itself is on the Cape Fear River and we spent some time wandering along the board walk, admiring the houses and condos along the waterfront. We also came across a battleship - the USS North Carolina which is a permanent fixture on the Cape Fear River. Able seawoman (only on a wave piercer vessel!) C.J Kerr insisted on having her photograph taken in front of the ship! Changing the subject now completely onto one of our favourite topics - food(!) we don't usually eat out all that often (due to budget constraints!) unless we spot a good bargain - and one such bargain was the Pink Pig Cafe here in Wilmington! They served everything from breakfast to salads, soups, sandwiches and light meals. We went in for a late brunch and just about everything on the menu was under $5! We were served by a lovely lady (the one in the photo with CK) who kept us well entertained, once we tuned into her southern accent! CK ordered a stack of pancakes (no mean size either as you can see!) and I ordered bacon, eggs & homefries. It was a great place for observing the locals and getting used to the whole 'southern' experience! Being in North Carolina (and probably other places we will visit on our journey south) felt a bit like being in a scene from "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" if any of you have seen that film(!) or "The Green Mile" or any other film made in the South! It's a one of a kind experience and not to be missed! Wilmington is also known as 'Wilmywood' because it's considered to be the Hollywood of the East Coast with hundreds of film credits from TV series to movies being filmed here. When I looked it up on the internet we hadn't heard of most of them(!) but a few of the more well known ones which were shot in Wilmington (and nearby Wrightsville Beach) include "Sleeping with the Enemy", "Message in a Bottle" and "Cape Fear". We had a bit of stormy weather for a couple of days but as soon as it cleared up we went to see Wrightsville Beach for ourselves. One side of the beach faced the Cape Fear River on the intracoastal side, all the houses having their own little jetty. Then we crossed the bridge over to the beach itself and what a beach! White sand stretching for miles, not to mention the fabulous beach front properties perfectly positioned above the dunes. You can see CK contemplating re-starting her property portfolio with a rather impressive beach hut! It was a lovely place and easy to see why it's heavily used as a film location. We enjoyed our stay in 'Wilmywood' but move on we must so we now go further south down to South Carolina to spend some time in Charleston! We are actually there at the moment (arrived yesterday!) and are comfortably housed in a little basement studio. You can see CK in action on the laptop talking online to Maggie, Iain or possibly both simultaneously! The studio is in a huge, rambling historic house run by a lovely warmhearted, generous lady and her professor husband. As well as having her own family at home she rents out various parts of the house to different people. She did say that her husband was almost scared to go away to a conference for a couple of days for the fear that he would return to find their bedroom had been rented out! She not only gave us this room at a bargain price but has been constantly plying us with food since the moment we arrived! She is just SO kind! When we arrived she left bagels, butter & cream cheese in our fridge along with lots of teabags. Then today she insisted we take some of her freshly baked biscuits (similar to scones as we know them!) and this evening she knocked on our door with 2 slices of homemade cheesecake topped with cherry sauce - Mmmmm! We went up to give her the plates back when we had finished and came back with an apple each!!! I think she is worried that we are not eating enough! We certainly appreciate her generosity anyway! Well, that's about all for now - more from Charleston in our next blog ...!