Pictures

Morning All.

Decided to just post some pictures from our trip so far. Yesterday was mostly a day off, we drove over to Tallahassee, found a nice cheap place and relaxed. Our hotel was dependent on the fact that at 7pm they brought out free freshly baked cookies!!! Chocolate chip and white chocolate macadamia nut. Yum. We had dinner at Sonny's Real Pit BBQ. Here is what we had: Pulled pork, sliced pork, ribs, ribs, more ribs, smoked turkey, pulled brisket, smoked chicken, mac and cheese, cornbread, garlic bread, corn on the cob, baked beans oh and potato salad. No this was not a buffet. They just kept bringing Chris more food since he got the all you can eat meal. He says that it was the best BBQ he has had. We then went to the Tallahassee Mall and went to see Wild Hogs. We thought it was appropriate after all the bikers yesterday. Fabulous movie. Go see it.

Anyway, here are some pics

Buffalo Airport. Last of the snow.
North Carolina, Charlotte Airport
Chris and our rental car. Orlando.
The view of the lake behind our hotel in Kissimmee.
Me eating breakfast outside in Kissimmee.

Byees!!!

Then Tragedy Struck

Good morning all, Chris Here

Another day down. It was a pretty good day overall. We started out from Orlando around 9:00 heading for St. Augustine. It was another lovely day, 68 degrees as we left Orlando. We saw a few signs for Daytona beach and wondered if it was along the way or not. Sure enough, about half way to St. Augustine is Daytona Beach. Mrs. Plested needed a rest stop so we decided to stop in at Daytona just to check it out. Well it so happens that this week is Biker week. So there are thousands and thousands of Bikers here. and they are everywhere in this part of Florida right now. As I type this there are about 20 bikes in the parking lot of the hotel we are staying at.

Anyway, so we stopped at a Bob Evans for an early lunch. The Bob Evans in Daytona just happens to be right across from the Speed Way. So we have a few great pictures of that. We had a simple meal there, but it was pretty good. Then we took off down to the beach. We drove up the coast towards St. Augustine stopping along the way to get some nice pictures of the ocean and the beaches. All the while bikers were everywhere.

We pulled into St. Augustine around 2:00. found a hotel quickly since there were so many people around. We ended up at a Howard Johnson Express. It turned out to be a great choice as one of the trolley tours goes right through the parking lot.

So we unpacked our stuff and decided to go on said tour so we could get a feel for the city before we started wandering around. Little did we know that this would be the best part of our time in St. Augustine. The Tour lasted about an hour taking us all around the historic district of the town. We saw the Fountain of youth, the Fort, several old Churches and Hotels ect. All in all a great tour and we did actually learn about the town while on it.

Once we were done with that we walked over to the Fountain of Youth(about a 2 minute walk from our hotel) For the bargain price of $7 each we got to see the fountain and have a glass of the water from it. And let me tell you, it wasn't worth the $7 or even the 2 cents the paper cup was worth. It was a smelly glass of stagnant water and the "attractions" they have build up around the place are lame. The only cool thing about the place was the 20 or so Peacocks wandering around. There were three or four pure White ones. We have several pictures of them as well(pictures should be posted by tomorrow, )

So we spent about 30 minutes there and that was plenty. We came back to the hotel and washed out the bad taste in our mouths with good spring water. We then decided to go downtown to the shopping district and find somewhere nice for dinner. We walked through all the little shops and it is very cute. Think Niagara on the Lake or Port Perry or a much bigger Port Carling. We then tried to find somewhere to eat. We walked through the whole historic district and really didn't find anything worth going into(that would cost less then $200) so we ended up at a pub called Scarlet O'Hara's. The driver on our tour said it was a pretty good place. I had the seafood platter(bunch of fried seafood) and Vic had the Southern Fried Chicken. The only thing I would suggest having again from my meal was the Crab Cake and the only thing Victoria suggests from her meal was the drink she had, it has Cranberry Juice, Lime Juice, and Southern Comfort. So overall, this meal is in a distant last place so far on this trip.

After dinner we decided to go on a ghost walk of the area. We had looked this up before hand and it looked cool. It started at 8:30 and lasted for an hour and a half. The best thing I can say about it was that we got some exercise out of it. LOL Our tour guide has just started doing this job 2 months ago and hasn't memorized all of her lines yet. All she was doing was trying to regergitate lines, and the one that we found quite funny is in every story she told, at some point in the story, Tragedy would strike. Hence the title of todays entry. ;)
Vic thinks she was drunk, and proceeded to tell half the people on the tour with us this. It's possible she was, probably more the fact that she was nervous and just not used to the job yet. But since this is the type of thing that is only good if your guide is good, it was a terrible ghost walk(other then the one picture we got of the "orbs" which we will post tomorrow)

By the time we got home we were exhausted and fell asleep pretty quickly. Before we did though we decided we had seen enough of St. Augustine and would be moving on in the morning.

So we are off to new adventure god knows where. talk to you again on the other side

Chris and Victoria

Wednesday Wackyness

Hi Y'all!!! It's Victoria.

So Wednesday was wacky, wild and long. We had breakfast at the hotel and then left for Gatorland. Sea World was way to expensive so Gatorland for $20 a person was perfect for us!! We drove by tons of really amazing hotels on the way. Most notably the Ritz Carlton and J.W. Marriott whict you can see from like 30 miles away!!!

Gatorland was fabulous! Lots of gators obviously... birds.... snakes.... a petting zoo with baby goats!!!!! They were soooo cute! The baby alligators were adorably too. We watched two shows. One was the Upclose Encounters where they proceeded to bring scary things out of boxes and made the audience hold them. Mostly snakes. The secong show was the Gator Jumparoo show where they make gators jump out of the water for pieces of raw chicken. Chris took some really good photos of both of them. We took the train ride and apparently Indiana Jones was partially shot there. Don't remember which movie but it must have been one with alligators in it. They have an alligator breeding marsh and wherever you looked off into the distance were lots of alligators. Then we decided to try some gator meat. Gator nuggests and Gator ribs. Chris liked it...I couldn't get past the little bones in the ribs. I don't think I would eat Gator again. Maybe I should suggest Gator to our chef for the next menu?

Chris and I had lunch with one of Chris's Internet Gaming friends and his fiancee. His real name is Kenny but his "handle" is Thraggen. We went to an Italian restuarant called Palace Italian Grill. Fantastic food!!! They brought out complimentary bruschetta and roasted peppers then Chris ordered lasagna and I have a proscuitto and mozzarella panini. We had a Lemoncello Tart for dessert and also complimentary glasses of Lemoncello. We had a great time at lunch and we can't wait for them to visit us up in the cold cold north.

So from Lunch we travelled to the Florida Strawberry Festival. All I can say is WOW. Americans know how to throw a Fair!!! We walked around alittle bit and then went to see the Pig Races!!! Robinson's Racing Pigs!!! I got to bet one one pig at her name was Britney Spareribs. They are the cutest things ever!!! We watched them race around a track and then they also raced and swam!!! The last race they brought out baby pigs to race and it seriously was the cutest thing ever!! Yes we have both video and pictures. We walked around the Livestock area and looked at all the crafts. We had some dinner. Polish and Italian sausages on buns and a Blooming onion. Yummy onions. We also had a Strawberry shortcake (minus the whip cream)They had some of the most interesting fried foods!!! They had Fried Twinkies and Oreo's!!!! Next was the concert. We had fairly good seats. He sang a bunch of songs. Some I knew and most I didn't. Yes he sang all the old favourites like Through the years, Islands in the Stream, the Gambler, Lucille etc. The Gambler was funny. There was a big screen and they played clips from the Gambler movie 1-5 and then hesaid coming soon Gambler 6 and they had Coolio and old movie clips of Kenny Rogers superimposed together!!! Then he started trying to RAP!!!! We also saw his twin boys and wife. They came out on stage and Kenny made one of the twins sing the Gambler... Hilarious!!! Overall it was a good concert! I hope some of the pictures turned out.

So we left the Strawberry Festival fully bloated from deep fried food and with alittle bit of a country twang. I bought some strawberries, we are needing some wholesome food after the last few days.

Alright we have to go now.... Driving to St. Augustine today. So that's all from Orlando.

Oh and Sid and Dorothy....no babies just yet...let me concentrate on my apprenticeship for alittle while. Check back with us in a year.

Day 2 done and done

A couple pictures from the wedding

Chris Here

Well here are are at the end of day two. We stopped in at Chili's last night for dinner, I had the baby back ribs(of course) and Victoria had a chicken and shrip fajitas. It was very very good and we were both very full when we left. We started today with a quick breakfast which we ate out on the patio in the beautiful sunshine. Then we jetted off to the Kennedy Space Centre(God love the GPS) It was a full day of riding around on a bus, stopping at all the interesting points on the Island(or at least the ones they took us too). We stopped at the observation Gantry which you could see the vehicle assembly building and the launch pads from. Then we stopped at the apollo visiter center. It was mostly about the moon landing with a replica of the rocket to scale in the building. Last was the international space station centre. All about the space station of course, but you get to see the room with current projects for the station in action. I got several pictures of people actually working on equipment.

So all this took about 4 hours but it was well worth it and lots of fun.

On our way back we decided to stop for dinner at Bahama Breeze. A theme restaurant that was a lot of fun and excellent food. To start we had Fire Jack Shrimp. Then I had Mahi Mahi and Victoria had Jamacian Chicken. Then to finish it all off we had Dulce De Leche Cheesecake.

This has now become our best dinner of the trip. It was simply amazin.

Our after dinner entertainment was A mini putt across the street from our Hotel. Fun as hell. Once I download some of the pictures from our camera I'll post them. But it was the most interesting mini putt either of us had ever seen.

Signing off for tonight. Talk about tomorrow

We're Here!!!!

Hey...

We have arrived in Kissimmee!!! The flight from Buffalo to Charlotte was alittle rough taking off but all was well. When we arrived in Charlotte North Carolina we had lunch at a Carolina Pit BBQ fast food restaurant and it was fantastic!!!! Chris had pulled pork on a bun and I had Smoked Turkey on a bun. We definitely need a restaurant like that in Ontario. Our flight out of Charlotte was an hour late departing but it went alot smoother then the first. When we got to Orlando it was 65 degrees and sunny. We have rented a silver Chevy Impala which Chris says drives like a dream. It's 8:30pm now and we are hungry I think we are going to get fast food. So I am going now... Have to serach the hotel room for cool free stuff. WOOHOO free Coffee!!!

Byees!

Current Itinerary

March 5th

11:40am – Leave from Buffalo on our way to Orlando
3:00pm – Arrive in Orlando
Will be staying at the Lake Suites Hotel in Kissimmee for the first 3 nights.

March 6^th

Visit Cape Canaveral and NASA

March 7^th

Visit Sea World in the morning. Lunch with one of Chris's Internet friends.

In the afternoon we are going to the Florida Strawberry Festival. At 7:30 pm we will be seeing Kenny Rogers live in concert!!!

March 8^th

Head towards St. Augustine.

Currently plan on visiting the Fountain of Youth, Castillo de San Marcos and going on a ghost walk during our stay in St. Augustine.

March 9^th

St. Augustine during the day, head to Tallahassee in the evening

March 10^th

Tallahassee and surrounding area tours. Plantation houses and such. Also several Caves in the area.

March 11^th

Driving tour along the coast on our way to Mobile Alabama, possibly straight through to Baton Rouge if time permits. Probably several stops along the way as we see interesting things.

March 12th

Drive to Baton Rouge if not already there. Go on bayou/air boat tour(s)

March 13

Drive to New Orleans

March 14^th

Dinner at Emeril’s

March 15^th

1:00pm Board plane to Buffalo

6:30pm Arrived in Buffalo