Well, we're here and it's bloomin' HOT!
Today has been a marathon of a day but everything went smoothly without any mishaps or problems, thank goodness! We were up nice and early after a somewhat disturbed night (the less said about that the better...all four of us in a room is a recipe for disaster!) and headed off to the pre-booked Summer Special parking at 8am. I left my beloved Audi sitting in the queue looking all forlorn and we took the Shuttle bus back to the North terminal.
The airport was heaving and I was so glad we checked in last night as it made things so much easier this morning. Getting through Security wasn't too bad, although Keith had to go and have the full body scanner, probably because of his hip joint and Sophie's handbag was searched because of all her make-up.
The departure lounge was manic and so, so busy. Last year I booked us into a lounge but we just didn't have time this year to justify the cost so we eventually headed for a Frankie and Benny's restaurant where we had a great view of the airport runway. The children had a full English breakfast while Keith and I settled for scrambled eggs on toast and before we knew it, it was time to head for our gate. Before we got there, though, I bought a bottle of whisky and a bottle of vodka from Duty Free for just £20 for the two. At least Sophie can have a vodka and coke when we're at the villa!
Our Virgin Atlantic plane was sitting waiting for us and was called Ruby Tuesday. She looked very big! We haven't been on a 747 for a while so it was quite an experience to be on such a big plane. Our seats were right at the back and it wasn't too long before we were boarding and making ourselves comfortable for the almost nine hour flight to Orlando airport.
For me, the flight passed very quickly. I watched a film called In Secret based on Emile Zola's Therese Raquin, which was a bit dark but enjoyable and watched a lot of TV. I have to say the entertainment was excellent as you could choose from about ten films, numerous TV programmes, music and games.
They literally stuffed us with food as well! We were given a small bag of pretzels with a free drink and a menu. The choice was chilli con carne, chicken breast or veggie pasta, followed by a Gu pudding. There was also a small starter of salad with a spicy potato topping. Just before we landed they handed out wraps with crisps and a cake. All the drinks were free so I feel that Virgin definitely beat Thomson who we flew with last year.
We could feel the heat as we walked off the plane to the terminal and started our wait to go through Immigration. As we'd travelled to the US at least once since 2008 and had completed our ESTAs we were able to use the machines to complete our Immigration checks. We had to put our passports in the machine, have a photo taken and four fingerprints. After this we were issued with slips of paper and these were taken to another desk for verification. They took photos of the children again and took all their fingerprints. She then stamped our passports and we went through to get our luggage which was by itself on the carousel as we were, as usual, the last to go through!
We had yet another check and this time she wanted to see my passport specifically...I braced myself for more questioning, but she just looked at me and smiled and sent us on our way! Thank goodness! I think that problem I had a few years back at Sanford will stay with me whenever I visit the US!
We hauled our luggage onto the monorail and went down a floor to the Alamo desk where we picked up the paperwork for our car. As we'd pre-booked everything, including a full tank of fuel and Keith as an extra driver (yippeee!), we were processed very quickly and out of the airport to the multi-storey car-park to get our vehicle.
We chose a large white Hyundai Sonata and our luggage fitted easily into the boot. I gingerly drove out of the car-park, we had our documents checked by a Keanu Reeves look-alike in the booth, and that was it...out into the Florida sunshine!
The Keanu Reeves look-alike told us to head for the 528 west and then we would pick up the I-4 which we needed to stay on almost until we reached Tampa. The sky looked a bit threatening with towering banks of cloud but it all added to the excitement. The road was busy but it was all flowing really well and before long we recognised where we were from previous trips.
Very soon, we were passing the exit for Highlands Reserve and which we knew so well, but this time we drove on. I didn't feel sad that we weren't doing the parks this year as we were looking forward to exploring the Gulf Coast and having some relaxation.
We had a brief heavy shower and saw a lot of lightening in the distance. Occasionally we saw signs for "Extreme Weather Alert" which was exciting! This was just the sort of sky I was looking forward to, being a bit of a cloud freak!
Before we reached Tampa we turned off onto the I-75 and headed south towards Bradenton. When we were only about 5 miles from the office where we had to pick up the address of our villa, we came across a really bad accident on the other carriageway. The police had closed the road completely and when we turned off the traffic queuing because of the accident was horrendous. We found the deserted office very easily (I'd actually Google Street-viewed the location from home!), opened the lock-box and finally discovered the location of our villa. It certainly wasn't where I thought it would be!
We had to go back onto the I-75 to the next junction and it was just a few miles along a busy road where we turned right. From here we drove along a much quieter residential road with estates branching off to the left and right. Our estate was called Sabal Harbour and we were on one of the roads leading off the main thoroughfare.
By now it was about 7.30pm and the sky looked very stormy indeed! We dumped our luggage, explored the villa quickly and then headed out to get something to eat. I turned right out of the estate but we just headed deeper into very rural countryside, with occasional houses dotted about, lakes, woods and quiet roads. The area was very beautiful, though.
We re-traced our steps and went back to the main road where I turned right again, but we drove on for quite a few miles without seeing anything promising. Opposite the turn for our road was a large retail complex with a Publix supermarket and a place called Beef O'Brady's, but Sophie dismissed this as just a fast-food takeway place...
We drove on and on until we decided to turn around again and we headed back to the crossroads. I turned right again but this road just took us past more estates of villas so we turned around yet again and decided to look at Beef O'Brady's and see if we could get a takeway and go back to the villa. By now, we were all very tired especially as it was about 2am UK time!
Beef O'Brady's turned out to be a great restaurant serving a huge range of dishes, with sports screens on the walls showing Baseball and NASCAR racing. Keith ordered himself a large beer from the very friendly waitress while the rest of us were content to have soft drinks. We shared some chicken tenders and chips covered in bacon and cheese (which on hindsight, we didn't really need) and then had our main courses. Keith chose ribs, I had shrimp, Mikey had an OMG! burger while Sophie went for her favourite, Philly Cheese steak.
I left a lot of my curly fries and I think I'm going to choose salads for my main course as I just won't want to eat fried food every night! After our meal we paid the bill and popped next door to Publix which was on the verge of closing. We bought breakfast foods, water and a bottle of Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon!
Back at the villa, we had a small glass of wine (I think I deserved it!) and then went thankfully to bed! What a day!
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