Fabulous Florida

I'm finally back from two wonderful weeks in what can only be described as tropical and beautiful Florida. After a rocky start with an eleven hour delay at Gatwick, it turned out to be a jam packed, fun filled holiday. We flew into Orlando where and spent a couple of days. We decided to have a kinda lazy day on our first day following all the drama of the previous day and did just a spot of shopping in the Premium Outlet shopping area in Orlando.....even Mark did some shopping....you may well spot his new "man bag" in some of the following photos. If you know Mark well, you will know that shopping is not his favourite pastime and to get him to actually buy anything can be like pulling teeth. Now that you know this, here's the story......I am in the Fossil shop (one of my favourite places) purchasing a new bag and a new watch, I am at the till handing over my cash when Mark appears behind me with a bag and announces that he's going to get it as it's only$29.99....a real bargain he says! I can hardly argue when I'm buying two items but did wonder what was going on when the cashier announced that the total was $339.00. Upon checking prices, it turns out that the fabulous bargain man bag was in fact $129.99....Mark's face was a picture and he was about to put it back on the shelf....I quickly added that we were on holiday and if he wanted it, it didn't matter. He's now glad that he did as he used it every day and I have to say, it is a very nice bag!!!

After lunch we went to Ripley's Believe It Or Not.....crikey, there is some amazing stuff in there.

 Hard to see in the photograph but this picture of John Lennon was carved out of a book!!

Day 2 - Universal Studios

This is the new Harry Potter World

There certainly know how to build an attraction at these places.

The big Jurassic Park ride is my favourite ride at Universal. It's an indoor big dipper, in the dark and you get soaking wet. It's hilarious....only problem is that Mark doesn't like getting wet and we got soaked which made it even funnier!!!

Day 3 - We started driving south, we were heading for Plantation, near W. Palm Beach which is where Wendy Vecchi was teaching for the weekend. We managed to figure out a way to hook up for dinner on Saturday night. How lucky can you be....I only found out a day or so before leaving home so this was a real treat. Wendy is such a lovely and very talented lady, it was so nice to spend a couple of hours with her.

Next stop Miami.....OMG, I just loved all the architecture....all very Art Deco but blimey Miami was a busy place!

 Loved this car....fab colour!!

 


Our hotel was very interesting....a real eclectic mix of interior design.

 
But this was the best bit, this made me laugh out loud!!!

We had a bus trip out to the everglades with a ride on an airboat and saw a guy give an amazing talk about alligators whilst he was in the den with the alligators!!!

Then Mark decides to hold one!!! Only a baby one though.

We did another boat trip all around Miami and saw where the rich and famous live.....only problem was that I had never heard of most of the famous people but they were obviously rich to live here!

So apart from walks along the beach, that was our visit to Miami. Next stop....The Keys. I have always wanted to visit Key West. I am so glad we did, this was my favourite place that we visited. It's a mix of very new and the Old Town is really quite quirky and quaint. It is the most southern part of the United States and it's one heck of a bridge to get there!!!

So I think you'll agree, Key West is just a little snippet of paradise.

Time to head north again, this time we were heading back to Fort Lauderdale. Our hotel was just south of Fort Lauderdale in a place called Hollywood. We spent a couple of relaxing days here, walking along the beach another boat trip, this time on a paddle steamer and then hit the road again. Now I know I was beyond lucky to hook up with Wendy Vecchi and my luck didn't change as I was able to take one of Donna Downey's class too!!!!! The lovely store owner Paula bent over backwards to make this happen for me as did Bill, Donna's husband, so huge thank yous to both of you, I can't tell you how much I appreciate everything you did.

So here's Donna in full swing.....not only is she an amazing artist, she is hilarious too. In the background on the left is the lovely Paula, owner of A Scrapbook Store and More in Port St. Lucie.

The class was a technique based class. A journal to work in and forty techniques  to fill it with.

 Oops for some reason, I can't get this picture to rotate.....never mind, it looks OK either way up!! It's done with Gelatos and salt.

Now this ones upside down!!!! It's a Pan Pastels double page spread.

Guess who?

Holiday is now nearing an end and time to head back to Orlando where we spent a day in the other Universal Studios park.

Mark doing his photographer thing.....can you spot the man bag from this?

The Beetlejuice show is just one of the amazing attractions at Universal, The Men In Black ride is Mark's favourite....you go around shooting aliens but there's all sorts of rides and Mark made me go on an indoor rollercoaster in the dark to get his revenge for getting wet in the Jurassic Park ride. All I can say is that I will never do it again!!! And on that note I will leave you with a piccies of my craft purchases which I forgot to mention in the above epic!!