Miami Vice
Its all about the look down in Miami, but in the middle of summer at close to 100% humidity its hard to be cool when you are sweating like a pig (do pigs sweat?). We are staying in South Beach, just down from Deco Drive. Its a long stretch of Art Deco hotels and buildings built along the beach. All pastel and white wash. Some places even go the trouble of placing classic cars out the front to add to the vibe. It looks awesome. It gets so hot walking along the street, that we have taken to ducking into random shops to escape the heat and have been living with the airconditioning on continuously (bad electricity consumers that we are).
Whilst with car, we travelled to a 1920's mansion called "Vizcaya" furnished to look like 4 centuries of the same family had lived there. Some pieces dated back to 2nd century while other items, such as ceilings, came from French or Italian castles of the 16 and 17 hundreds. Sly Stallone used to live next door but got sick of all the tourists, so sold his house to a rich dog (or so the guide said). I thought we had left LA behind.
We have handed in the rental car, another convertible that we got for $15 per day because the company had run out of the sub-compact that we wanted. We will publish our strategy to achieve this feat upon our return, but we have a game plan and will continue to use it! We discovered that travelling down Orlando's freeways during peak hour with the top down when its nearly 40 degrees is not really a good idea. We both avoided heat stroke by a narrow margin! Adventures in Orlando included Maddi meeting up with a couple of local girls who insisted on taking us to some club where they got us into the VIP room (we think Britney had been there) by buying two bottles of vodka (we can only guess the price but probably $600). We politely accepted the free drinks but were never in any danger of finishing those bottles. We still don't understand the arrangement the girls made with the manager who came up and introduced himself to Adam, to ensure we had a good time. That Aussie accent can do wonders down here!
The purpose of the visit to Orlando was the Kennedy Space Center. An enormous complex about an hour and a half from Orlando, we opted to take the "NASA up close" tour. Highlights of the visit included seeing the tail of "Atlantis" as it is readied for launch sometime in late August, the awesome Saturn V rockets used to send man to the moon (the plans now only available on microfiche, no hard-copy) and the massive assembly building for the International Space Station. It was an all day affair and we were truly spaced out by the end.
Whilst there are numerous amusement parks in Orlando, none offered much extra than places already visited. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to drive through Disney World, so big that it has its own freeway system to ferry people around. Couldn't park anywhere to have a look around without handing over money, so kept driving. One of the oddities of the park is Celebration, a suburb designed by Walt himself to be the perfect suburb. It was like a set from "The wonder years" except that a lot of the locals use "segways" and communal electric cars to get around. Rumours abound that you have to pass CIA investigations to even rent or buy here.
Off to Savannah soon, more adventures to follow..
Whilst with car, we travelled to a 1920's mansion called "Vizcaya" furnished to look like 4 centuries of the same family had lived there. Some pieces dated back to 2nd century while other items, such as ceilings, came from French or Italian castles of the 16 and 17 hundreds. Sly Stallone used to live next door but got sick of all the tourists, so sold his house to a rich dog (or so the guide said). I thought we had left LA behind.
We have handed in the rental car, another convertible that we got for $15 per day because the company had run out of the sub-compact that we wanted. We will publish our strategy to achieve this feat upon our return, but we have a game plan and will continue to use it! We discovered that travelling down Orlando's freeways during peak hour with the top down when its nearly 40 degrees is not really a good idea. We both avoided heat stroke by a narrow margin! Adventures in Orlando included Maddi meeting up with a couple of local girls who insisted on taking us to some club where they got us into the VIP room (we think Britney had been there) by buying two bottles of vodka (we can only guess the price but probably $600). We politely accepted the free drinks but were never in any danger of finishing those bottles. We still don't understand the arrangement the girls made with the manager who came up and introduced himself to Adam, to ensure we had a good time. That Aussie accent can do wonders down here!
The purpose of the visit to Orlando was the Kennedy Space Center. An enormous complex about an hour and a half from Orlando, we opted to take the "NASA up close" tour. Highlights of the visit included seeing the tail of "Atlantis" as it is readied for launch sometime in late August, the awesome Saturn V rockets used to send man to the moon (the plans now only available on microfiche, no hard-copy) and the massive assembly building for the International Space Station. It was an all day affair and we were truly spaced out by the end.
Whilst there are numerous amusement parks in Orlando, none offered much extra than places already visited. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to drive through Disney World, so big that it has its own freeway system to ferry people around. Couldn't park anywhere to have a look around without handing over money, so kept driving. One of the oddities of the park is Celebration, a suburb designed by Walt himself to be the perfect suburb. It was like a set from "The wonder years" except that a lot of the locals use "segways" and communal electric cars to get around. Rumours abound that you have to pass CIA investigations to even rent or buy here.
Off to Savannah soon, more adventures to follow..
posted by Adam & Maddi at 6:00 am
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