Blogs from Florida, United States, North America - page 6

Dear All Greetings once more from my Floridian travels. This one relates my adventures on the intriguing chain of islands dripping off the end of the Florida peninsula, known collectively and very famously as the Florida Keys. I had an amazing time island-hopping down there, using the interconnecting and quite spectacular Overseas Highway, and driving the coolest rental car possible for such an adventure. This was a beautiful white Ford Mustang Cabrio convertible! I’ve only ever hired a car on two previous occasions, and I couldn’t quite believe my luck not only when I booked this car months ago as it was the cheapest deal available, but also on this day when I picked it up, as it was indeed true to its picture on my rental agreement – a Ford Mustang Cabrio convertible, and a ... read more

After a four-year hiatus during the COVID pandemic and its aftermath, it's finally time for us to wipe the dust and cobwebs from our passports, and embark upon another odyssey to Europe. The tentative plan for this trip, which was a surprise birthday gift to my lovely wife and travel partner, is to make Sorrento in southern Italy our home base for two months, taking side-trips wherever the winds and our whims take us. At this point, Rome, Madrid or Barcelona, and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (on the French Riviera, not far from Nice) are among the destinations under consideration. We'll spend the final two weeks of our journey in Paris. During previous trips, in 2016 and 2018, we enjoyed visiting the Amalfi Coast/Naples region of Italy, including Sorrento, Positano, Ravello, the Isle of Capri and the impressive Greco-Roman ... read more

Great! I thought this photo might just do it. Actually, we are born with both sets of teeth (baby and adult)....they just haven't erupted yet. It has taken us a tad longer than planned to prepare this blog. No reason....just how it is. “Let There Be Light!” We bought a set of solar lights for our “coffee canopy”. It makes it so bright, pretty and festive at night. Only problem: we sit everyday under the canopy for the “morning coffee group” but haven't sat out at night to enjoy these bright, pretty lights. We get involved watching the evening news, streaming a movie or playing on our phone/iPad. We are getting old!! I'm sure the noseeums are sad because they are attracted to light and our tasty bodies. They're drooling for us to come out! Sorry, ... read more

Dear All Greetings on this my first proper entry on my travels through Florida, my US trip for 2023! As mentioned in my introductory blog, the plan was to fly into Tampa and out of Miami, visiting a few places in between. I was correct in my thinking that the flight for Tampa wouldn’t be such a “family” one as the one to Orlando would probably have been, and it was filled with really quite sedate people – mostly English pensioners who probably have a property in Florida escaping the dreary UK winter. Unfortunately the start at Gatwick Airport was pretty rubbish though, but it turned out to be the only rubbish thing about the whole trip, so that’s good! On that day, the self-service check-in and bag drop off were both offline, and so everyone ... read more

Today we are at sea. Not set plans today except sunscreen! I will say this again if I haven’t already, traveling with this group is so chill. Everyone kind of does their own thing. If we meet up, we meet up and if we don’t we will see you at dinner. Jeff and I started our day around 8:30am. We decided to go to the restaurant for breakfast. When you eat in the restaurant for breakfast they sit you in a manner that I think is called family style. Meaning you get a chair at a table and you might be sitting with another guest. We got to the restaurant and we did not know we needed to check in on our Carnival Hub app so we did that. We only waiting a couple of minutes ... read more