19. Spend at least 24 hours in 10 states (6/10) - Florida

Paul and I had some 'forced vacation' in December.. his two weeks due to the company we work for not allowing people to carry over annual leave from year to year, meaning he was clearing the last of his 2010 leave entitlement... time he still had due to the drilling Moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico; my entire anticipated month or so off (from December 4 at least) due to my employer not applying for an extension of my work visa in time.. and so I was waiting on the US Government to re-approve and re-issue my work visa so I could legally return to the office (and as of Jan 1, still I wait...) So in early December I convinced the husband, that it would be a sad and frustrating thing indeed to make me sit around at home for the next month or so pretending to be a good little housewife, and that to ensure I didn't become some desperate little housewife, it would be best for us to use this time off constructively.... by travelling somewhere we've always wanted to go... after much wheeling and dealing the destination was decided.. we where heading to the happiest place on earth... Disney World, Orlando Florida.

Due to the late nature of our decision we had two options... pay $700 each for the privilege of flying cattle class or jump in the car and road trip the 16 hour, roughly 1000 miles.. guess which one we chose?

After driving through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama we finally arrive in Florida!! 

First stop on the Florida experience was Homosassa, one of only two places in the world where you can swim and snorkel with wild manatees who migrate up into the natural hot springs to stay warm during the winter months. It was a freezing cold day when we jumped in the toasty warm water to cuddle and scratch these amazingly large but gentle and curious creatures... manatee belly scratches... a once in a life time experience (will elaborate more on this in a separate post) 

Hello there little fella

We decided to spend our first day in Kissimmee, Florida (center of the universe for theme parks) at Disney's EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow) the more grown up Disney park mainly because of the evil anticipated weather forecast for the day... rain, wind, cold... ick!! The theme park consists of two areas; Future World, where you can explore, innovative applications of technology, or at least applications that were innovative back in the 80's and 90's and the second area; World Showcase, where Disney has 11 pavilions representing the culture and tradition (or at least the Disney interpretation) of Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, USA, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada... yes soooo inclusive!! 

 Standing in front of the big golf ball / round pineapple EPCOT thingy 

EPCOT was probably a little more dated than it should be, the rides and pavilions looked just a little old and tired.. one of the most telling activities was 'Spaceship Earth' - the ride inside the big golf ball / round pineapple thingy.. which describes the communications journey that the human race has taken over their existence.. the ride slowly picks up pace, beginning with prehistoric cavemen fighting for survival and eventually learning to communicate basically, on to the Egyptians who invented the written language, Phoenicians who invented the alphabet... Ancient Greece... Rome... Jewish and then Islamic Scholars... Christian Monks... The Renaissance... The development of the printing press.. newspapers... LARGE computers and then suddenly BOOM... you're in a quick scene from the matrix.. with 0s and 1s flying everywhere and the ride is over... they set the scene so well in the beginning and then rush through the ending.. has nothing happened in human communication since 1980 and the discovery of the internet??? Oh well, I guess the big golf ball is only so big after all right??? 

Scary leafy Stitch outside of Spaceship Earth

After a couple of hours of exploring Future World and with the weather beginning to turn, we decided it was time to head across to World Showcase... My favourite country?? Mexico!! We found this gorgeous little tequila bar inside the pavilion and treated ourselves to a couple of margaritas and chicken tostadas.. Paul had a jalapeno margarita and I had a hibiscus margarita... YUM!!

Enjoying and adult beverage at La Cava del Tequila in the Mexico Pavilion 

Next stop on the Theme Park Extravaganza?? Universal Studios! Another theme park that is split into two different parks; Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We decided that we could do both parks in one day... after all its the middle of the week and the nasty weather (sub zero temperatures in FL!!) will keep some people away... Right???... Indeed! 

Meeting the Cat in the Hat

Now this is what I expected when I thought I was going to a theme park!! My favourite parts?? Having the Cat in the Hat hit on me; when I approached the character for a photo he put his arm around me and proceeded to purr right into my ear the entire time!! Bad Pussy!! The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter; OMG how fricken cool is this place?!?! Its a miniature Hogsmeade complete with a Honeydukes for all your candy needs (Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans anyone??), Ollivanders, where if your lucky your wand may choose you, an Owl Post, where you can post an actual letter and it will arrive at its destination post marked Hogsmeade! And a Hogs Head and Three Broomsticks where you can wet your whistle with a butterbeer (mmmm butterbeer... creaming soda with a frothy foamy butterscotch cream on top... a delicious sugary nightmare!!) And I haven't even mentioned the rides yet!!! 

Is it too early in the morning for a Butterbeer?? Never!!

The Flight of the Hippogriff is a cute little kiddy rollercoaster, The Dragon Challenge is aa double rollercoaster with some super awesome twists and turns BUT the real drawcard is the state of the art, groundbreaking, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.. talk about game changing!! It was so awesome I made Paul come back at the end of the day for one last ride!! 

Hogwarts Castle at night - Home of the Forbidden Journey Ride 

My other favourites? The Incredible Hulk Coaster; you go from like 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds before zipping thought multiple barrel loops... The Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, you get to pick the music you listen to during the ride and it begins by literally hoisting you upwards at a 90 degree angle before dropping you straight down.. gulp.. and the Simpsons Ride... a newer style interactive rollercoaster which entirely tricks you the whole way through... Yes I'm a coster convert!! 

KrustyLand - Universal Studios of Florida

Final stop on the trip.... Magical Kingdom, Disney World!! And although I had originally come all the way to Florida specifically to visit this one theme park.. after spending the day before at Universal I kinda had reservations about Magical Kingdom... its blasphemous I know but lets face it Universal is more thrill ridey and Disney is more cutesy right?? Yup, pretty much!! But it was still a wonderful day out

Disney World!!

The only problem with Magical Kingdom?? I felt like I needed to steal someone's child to get the full effect... very cutsey, very geared towards little ones!! It was great to finally get to ride 'Its a Small World' see the tea cups and the Dumbo ride.. Space Mountain was actually really cool and would of been groundbreaking when originally opened however the lack of neck support on a pitch black rollercoaster was a little jarring and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was good although a little disappointing (apparently its been adjusted from its original to be more politically correct.. after all pirates wouldn't rape and pillage... they steal pies and kisses right?!?!) and I'm absolutely amazed they haven't taken advantage of all of that space in the Disney Castle and placed a ride or attraction inside it (guess it was built in the days before they did those sorts of things) All in all it was a cute day and I'm glad we braved the crowds to experience the happiest place on earth... just wish I had of had a little one to share the joy with... if only for the day!! 

Country Bear Jamboree 

Would I go to Theme Park, Florida again? Sure... but only in the summer so I could take advantage of all the water rides and water parks... then again perhaps next time we should head to California to also take advantage of Knotts Berry Farm and see some different parks?? OR perhaps we should head to Ohio to Cedar Point, the largest rollercoaster park in the US... maybe :D

80. Treat Paul to something he's always wanted with my first US paycheck

Paul has been wonderful to me since moving to Houston 18 months ago. To make the move, I had to quit my job and move to Houston accepting the reality that I would be unemployed temporarily... well we thought it would be temporary... with fantastic typical us timing we actually ended up moving to Houston just weeks before the global financial crisis hit and all those job opportunities and interviews I had spent months dutifully setting up suddenly didn't seem to have employment opportunities attached to them. So I sat in Houston being a glorified housewife and wedding planning for the first 12 months of our expatriation assignment rather than being the independent financial contributor that I am used to being... let's just say I wasn't a happy camper being relegated to housework, household budgeting and errand running!!! 

I returned from our wedding and honeymoon in November, ready, willing and completely able to hit the job market hard - luckily for me the US economy was beginning to turn the corner and the market had begun to pick up (or rather the price of oil had strengthened). Within weeks I had an interview for a contract position with Chevron, and only days later I was being offered a 6 month contract with their US Land Drilling and Completions Department... finally a foot in the door!!

Paul and I had an agreement that I could spend my first pay cheque on whatever I liked, kind of like a reward for finally getting a job... Well I always knew that I wanted to spend that first pay cheque on something for him... something that he had been lusting after for months and months, kind of as a thank you for being so good to me throughout my days of unemployment (I beat myself up over it WAY more than he ever did... in fact he wasn't concerned at all with me being a housewife... damn my ambition and deep seated need for independence... I could still be living the easy life right now!!!) I really wanted to buy him the Tag Heuer he had been eyeing off since his Thai knockoff died 18 months ago but unfortunately as I began to do my research I quickly realised they had discontinued that particular design... so I either could risk it and purchase the new model, hoping that he loved it as much as the original OR i could ruin the surprise and ask him what he would like to do.. typical practical me went with option number two... after all who wants to spend that much money on a present that isn't exactly what the recipient wants?!?!?!

I hatched a plan and decided it made more sense to give Paul and option - Sitting, enjoying a frozen margarita at Pappasitos a day or two after my first pay cheque cleared I hit Paul with my plan... ' I want to buy you either your watch (as close as we can get) or your car pod... he surprised me and chose the pod... maybe he's not as impractical as I always suspected.... ;D 

Thus weeks later, the Thule Boxter 611 car pod arrived on our doorstep... and now the massive box lives on our office floor, just waiting to be taken out and used on a cross country road trip... dont worry, that's something we're definitely working on!!!