This morning we were up and out early to have breakfast at an IHOP opposite the office where we had to go and register our arrival. We are somewhat surprised at how quiet the restaurants are here, compared with last year when we had to queue at every place we went to.
Breakfast was great with lots of hot coffee, pancakes and maple syrup and the meal certainly set us up for the day! After we'd eaten we went to the office and had a quick word with the man there about buying a Sunpass. I'd heard that the tolls around Miami are cashless and that you need a pass to go through them without incurring any charges. He said that we couldn't buy one anywhere but I had a feeling he was wrong.
A short way up the road was a large Walmart so we headed there and had a good mooch about. I'm not a fan of Walmart for some reason, but I did buy a pack of knickers while Keith and Mikey treated themselves to tee-shirts. Sophie also bought a beach poncho which should be great for the Keys.
After visiting Walmart we drove back to the villa, put our shopping away and I had a look at the Sunpass website which stated that you could buy a Mini transponder in Publix. So, it was back into the car and off to the supermarket where we bought a pass. Now all we needed to do was activate it online!
The rest of the day was spent by the pool and it was another hot one! Today the water seemed a little cooler but after we'd had enough of the sun I could see a difference and I think I've got the beginnings of a sun tan on my face!
I took a video of Keith trying to get into a large inflatable ring we have and this prompted us to look at some old videos of past holidays that I have on my laptop. It's amazing how much the children have changed over the years!
Dinner tonight was at Applebees, about five minutes away and on the way there we called into a petrol station (aptly named Marathon) to fill the tank up with petrol. This is always an interesting thing to do as we had to pay first in cash and guess how much the tank would take. We paid $30 and the man in the petrol station said he would refund any money we hadn't used. Luckily we managed to get $30 worth of petrol into the car and we could have squeezed a bit more in but it was still a bargain compared to back home!
Applebees was very quiet indeed...what a difference from the restaurant we used last year when we had to wait an hour for a table and the place was heaving and noisy. We sat at the bar with a drink for half an hour and chatted to the very pleasant and friendly barmaid who asked us lots of questions about the UK. She said that there were some storms beyond the Florida coast that would bring a lovely breeze to the area over the next few days so that was a relief!
We had a lovely meal and I chose a dish from the "light" menu that was delicious. It was a grilled chicken breast smothered in lots of vegetables in a gorgeous sauce and I couldn't believe it was so much lower in calories! Keith had a full rack of ribs, Mikey a burger and Sophie fried chicken so they certainly didn't follow my lead!
No comments:
Post a Comment