Disney and Universal have been in a constant battle to out-awesome each other since tourists first started overrunning central Florida. It’s been hard to compete with the dazzle of Disney, but Universal has really cranked up the heat with all that Hogwarts business. Was it enough to let them take the lead? Or is that behemoth Disney still the king of the hill? Here’s our assessment: Sore foot potential: Disney is HUGE. Like, spread out huge (and multiply that by 4 parks) so it just takes a lot of walking to see everything. Even with the use of a touring plan you can only reasonably expect to average a park a day if you don’t want to whittle your feet down to bloody stumps and want time to sneak in a quick nap (or a swim) ... read more

Spoiler alert – if you don’t want to know what The Forbidden Journey ride at Universal is like, skip the beginning part of this post. (But it’s awesome) This ride is good. More like awesome than good. Like Disney-could-take-a-few-lessons-from-this-one good. The ride is housed in the Hogwarts castle which is insanely well done and the attention to detail rivals anything Disney has ever set up. And the ride itself, my jeezus, there are no words for the magnificent tremendousness of this ride (well, technically, that was two…). I was strapped securely in a suspended chair/cubicle type device before launching off to be whipped/flown furiously through a 3-D depiction of the grounds of Hogwarts. The first thirty seconds were breathtaking, the next thirty, stomach churning, and, then, holy crap, my stomach is actually churning. Oh lordy. It ... read more

No matter how grown up you are, everyone should still get to feel like a kid sometimes. So in the spirit of awesome fun (as if there is any other kind) we targeted a couple of central Florida theme parks for our next stops. The monumentally cheesy yet undeniably irresistible magic of Walt Disney World has always managed to win out when even contemplating other theme parks. But with the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, the pull of new thrill rides, chocolate frogs and pumpkin juice was too great to resist. T had been to Universal years before in the pre-Harry days, but me, never, so all of it was new. My folks (therefore T’s aunt and uncle – see how that works?) were not far off snowbirding in Clearwater ... read more

To get T’s excellent perspective for one of these entries I told her I’d write up whatever she wanted to say, so I called her up and this is what she said I should tell you about: T: We have to talk about that dude on the Segway. No need – we took photos. But what is the deal with all the Segways? It was like South Beach had a case of wheeled, electric crabs. T: The divas there, the drag queens, they were awesome. They *were* awesome and performed on the sidewalk for all to enjoy and may even have fabulously wandered into the street (and literally stopped traffic). Ah-mah-zahng. T: The strip itself, our hotel, Al Pacino. The strip was very neon-y and every restaurant had tables on the sidewalk. Also quite inexplicably for ... read more

We were set to take the day to drive along Highway 1 to Key West and stop and see whatever struck our fancies on the way. Almost immediately, a fancy was struck. (Ouch!) (And yes, I am fully aware of how lame that joke was). We stopped at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Parkwhich has mostly water-based activities (the "coral reef" part gave it away didn’t it?). We decided to rent a canoe, and being good Canadian girls confident in our practically genetic mastery of the paddle, headed out with a map to canoe along some trails through the mangrove swamp. We started by heading out through the marina, then along the edge of the marina, then out into the middle of the marina again. Back to the edge, middle, almost into a boat, behind ... read more

We didn’t have a ton of time, but this is what we managed to see between Thursday night (when we arrived) and Sunday morning (when we left to head home). Word of warning – these were long full days and late nights. (I’m getting tired just thinking about it). Here are some of the highlights: ·Hop-on, hop-off bus: good way to get around to the farther destinations and gives you a decent overview (Harlem, Upper West and East sides, Brooklyn, Soho, Greenwich Village, etc.) ·Walk through Central park (including Strawberry Fields and the Central Park Zoo): possibly my favourite part of the city ·Top of the Rock: loved it, but it was here I realized I have to invest in a better camera that can take better night-time shots, so if you have a crappy camera ... read more