Day 16 – Florida 2016
There’s not much to write as I sit here in the sun, other than the villa is now full of people, but were not bouncing around like two peas in some sort of pod. As mentioned in the previous blog, the Kings arrived at midnight, and were up at the crack of sparrows fart, with coffee and orange juice. They spent the next few hours growing redder by the second sitting around the pool, drinking and eating snacks. We had to leave the relaxing atmosphere and go to the airport to pick up the kids. On the subject of airports, and cash draining children, I’ve found two things in the last twenty four hours that aren’t actually rip offs at all. Firstly, airport parking….
We arrived at the terminal at Orlando International Airport, with signs everywhere telling you that at the arrivals kerb, you must be unloading or loading, and you must not leave your vehicle unattended, or it will be blown up, and posted back to you in a small Jiffy bag labelled “idiot”. However!!!! There is a section labelled Cell-Drop. This is an area where people picking passengers up can wait until they receive a call from their passenger telling them that they’re ready for collection. Brilliant. We decided that it would be best to park up in the multi storey, and actually go to the terminal and baggage area to meet the kids, flying in from New York. They had no customs or immigration to clear, so it would be quick. We met them, on time, and returned to the car. Drove down to the barrier, and waited for the bill for our hours worth of real estate on a five storey prime location car park…. Answers later…
The second non rip off event happened today. After the usual early morning start, where we set a record for eight adults being ready to leave the house at once at a ball blistering 10am, we headed off to Gatorland, a wildlife park if you will, where there are lots of, well, gators. And as it turned out, vultures, ibis’, turtles, and snakes. (See what I did with the tern reference, read again if you missed it) the parking was free, the park and all its contents were cheap, and you weren’t ripped off at any point. Drinks and food were reasonable, and there were places to sit and relax everywhere. Aside from that, there were gators everywhere. And I mean everywhere! And blokes who knew everything there was to know about gators were everywhere to help with any questions. In 25 years of coming to Florida I’ve driven past it on every visit, never been. Now I have, and will include a personal review in my online guide.
The car park at the airport in Orlando was two dollars. Are you listening Manchester Airport?
The only two Nikkisms that happened today came via Georgia. Firstly, when talking about skyscrapers, she said, “Isn’t it good that they finish building the top bit last”. Yes I know. The second came whilst buying beer at the supermarket. There’s an offer on Bud at the moment, and the sign said, “Buy one case, get a case free, saving you $9.95”. She said, “it’s all very well telling you how much you save, but it doesn’t tell you how much they cost”.
I’ve just shown her this blog, and she said, “I don’t want to go to a supermarket and have to think”. Think I’ll wait before I post this… there may be some more gems before the morning.
Well, it’s 7am, and the only ones up are me and Jason. The only thing that happened last night was Nikki and Georgia trying to prove that all the alcohol we had bought yesterday could be drunk in one go, which included a Pina colada/Margarita/Gin n tonic/ red wine/ Bud light combo I like to call “The Stroke”, because it renders all future movement and speech totally useless. The sun is once again shining, and I’m tuned into Radio Stoke to catch up on local events….you can take the bloke out of Stoke…..