Naples 27th April - 3rd May

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It's been a pretty long time since we last added an entry, but we haven't forgotten you! (and hopefully you haven't forgotten us either!) We've got a lot to catch up on so I'll skip the formalities and get straight into it.

We left you in San Jose so this is where we'll pick up....

For our final day in San Jose we thought that we'd better do some sightseeing, so headed into town with our trusty LP in search of the Museum of Criminology. The LP gave it a good write up and we were both looking forward to it. We trapsed around the town for a good hour at least trying to find the place, ending up in some slightly dodgy areas but finally (after seeking directions from helpful locals) we found the right building. But alas, the LP let us down: the museum had been closed three years ago!

We decided not to let this get us down and consoled ourselves with a McDonalds before heading off to find some local craft markets also recommended in the LP. Luckily these were still up and running and we spent a fair share of our remaining money on little souviniers.

As our day hadn't quite gone to plan we ended up with plenty of free time in the afternoon and once again headed off to the cinema again. The movie was so good that we've forgotten what it was!

We had an early night as we had to leave for the airport at 4.45am as our plane was at 0730. The ride there was supposed to take half an hour but we flew there in about 15minutes and arrived in plenty of time. Checking-in wasn't too bad and we were soon sitting waiting for our plane.

The plane journey only took about 3 hours and once again, we got to watch Casino Royale (must be the 5th or 6th time now!) so the time flew past. Trying to get through customs in Miami was an absolute nightmare! We had to fill in two forms on the plane for customs and immigration but only after we'd stood in a queue for about 30mins did they tell us that we'd been given the wrong forms. So we had to fill out more forms. Then they had a go at us for not handing our visa waivers in when we left for Mexico but we'd been told to keep hold of them in case we returned! And then some power hungry yank who wasn’t content with our address in Florida just being ‘Naples’ ordered us to put in our hotel name before he’d let us through. But we couldn’t remember it and mum and dad were on a plane so we couldn’t do much about it. We were pretty wound up by now but luckily got through by going to another desk where the lady happily filled it in as Holiday Inn. He was obviously just being anal!

After collecting our luggage we found ourselves a couple of seats in Arrivals and waited. About an hour later mum and dad arrived. I was super duper excited and could barely sit still while waiting! It was awesome to see them again. The reunion was a little teary but it soon felt like we’d never been away. Mum had been extremely brave on the flight over and didn’t seem to be too worried by it at all, which was brilliant news.

We got ourselves sorted then headed over to the car rental place. It took a while but we were soon on the road, only to hit some traffic. So we decided that it was time for some food and stopped off at a Denny’s (similar to a Little Chef) and pigged out (the portions were huge!) before hitting the road again. It was about a two hour journey to Naples but we ended up a little lost on arriving in the town and spent the next hour trying to find the hotel, which wasn’t quite in the centre of town as it described! So we arrived at the hotel, Naples Grande Resort, early evening and got ourselves settled in.

The hotel was very smart and our room was pure luxury after some of the places we’d stayed recently. We had a flat screen t.v., balcony, massive corner bath and hot water! The hotel was very modern with a couple of large pool, one with a wicked slide (Dan, dad and I all had plenty of goes on it and were all looking forward to hitting some of the waterparks in Disney), which remained pretty empty. The beach was a short walk away through the mangroves and although the beach itself was pretty busy, the walk was good for wildlife watching. At one point the walkway went over a large river where lots of Egrets, Herons, Pelicans and Ospreys could be seen. The hotel even had it’s own resident alligator, which pleased Dan immensely!

Our time in Naples was pretty much just spent relaxing. We chilled out around the pool for the first couple of days, enjoying the sun and pina coladas, before heading into Naples town for dinner in the evening. There were plenty of good restaurants in the town and we tried our fair share of them, although we were slightly restricted because of my vegetarianism, which, surprisingly, wasn’t that widely catered for. Dan and dad thoroughly enjoyed a steak and mashed potato which they had at Bar 182 (or something) where I also had a brilliant Vodka pasta! We also tried out some of the bars and enjoyed listening to a very good Motown band on our first night. They were very very hot on I.D in America, Dan and I were asked for it every time we got a drink. At one restaurant we were even asked three times! Both the main town and the historic part were good places to eat and wander around, as it was always bustling.

We did venture away for a pool on a couple of occasions. One day we drove down to Everglades City, about an hour away, where we took a ride around some of the Everglades on an airboat. We didn’t see too much wildlife, which wasn’t surprising really with the amount of noise that the boats make but the ride was really good fun as we zoomed around the mangroves making what would, I’m sure, be pretty similar to handbrake turns at most corners. We did see an alligator though pretty close up and Dan saw a Manatee, unfortunately the rest of us missed it, which I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO jealous of! The drive itself was also very nice as it was all through the Everglades and gave us the chance to keep an eye out for alligators which were everywhere!

One other day we spent shopping in one of the many malls they have dotted all over the place. We found a massive one with a Macy’s and all sorts of other cool clothes shops. Mum and I spent a lot of money there, well, I spent a lot of mum and dad’s money there! It was so nice wearing normal clothes again!

We spent about 6 nights in Naples before we headed off to Orlando and Disney World. The drive there took about 4 hours, and I was so excited I could have burst!


Photos to follow, memory card playing up!

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