Sorry about the wait

Hey everyone,

           Really sorry that it's taken so long to add an entry for this blog; been so busy rushing round trying to pack as much in as possible, there's just been not enough time to update this.

          We are now currently in Orlando, Florida and it's probably 5am your time, so you can guess how early in the morning it is here (only time I've had to finally sit and write this thing out so far!) Ok so as the New York leg is over, I will try and condense our travels into this entry and summarize each of the 4 days in N.Y. so you can get an idea of what we've been up to.

Day 1 - Arrived in New York at about 11pm local time (4pm your time) so as you can imagine, we now had almost the whole day ahead of us, having only had about 2 hours sleep max. the day/night before. We were quickly through security and baggage reclaim, so now it was the wonderful task of finding a cab, which we'd been told should preferably be yellow. Only problem is we had 8 cases between 5 of us so we needed something pretty big and fortunately we were approached by a driver (called Delroy) who told us he could get us and our luggage into his vehicle - which happened to be a mini-van. Paul was in the other terminal, so he whisked us round to the other side (there are 8 termimals at JFK, yikes) and we collected the last member of our party. At first we were a bit unsure of the driver - who looked remarkably like Forest Whittaker - but then he turned out to be the nicest guy and pointed out loads of things we would never have known about/heard of. Deposited at hotel with Forest's business card, checked into Affinia Manhattan Suites where the rooms were fantastic and then proceeded to head off into New York City. Saw Macy's first which was the most wonderful department store ever and then decided to walk to the New York public library which was a few blocks up the road. Wow, what amazing architeture; the ceilings were covered with Michael Angelo style paintings and completely constructed from marble. That evening Paul and Fran went and saw a basketball game at Madison Square Gardens which apparently was more like one big commercial with a bit of sport in the middle and Dad, Mum and myself stayed in for a quiet evening.

Day 2 - Hit breakfast at about 10am as we were all exhausted and then went straight to the Empire State Building. What a view! Weather was fantastic - blue sky and sunshine - so the visibility was really good and you just have no idea how far you can see or how high you are till you get to the top. The N.Y. cabs looked like model cars from the top. We had purchased a special N.Y. pass, so we got in free and we also got to do an experience called the N.Y skyride where you got on a simulator at the end which flew you round the city as if you were in a helicopter, except it had a twist where the ride went into "overdrive" and you ended up down at ground level going through the streets past the crowds and then into the water as well. Very worthwhile and much cheaper than a proper helicopter tour. After that, we headed to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Musuem, a genuine American aircraft carrier which had been salvaged and turned into a museum with old aircraft on the top deck and the set-up left as it was when it was in use. Inside the main bulk of the ship, they had various theatre showing movies from its hey day and also a cockpit setup where you could try and land a fighter jet on the aircraft carrier using a joystick - not as easy as it sounds, trust me. On the way back, we went to see if the circle line cruises were working but they didn't seem to be and at that point a black limo pulled up so we decided to jump in it instead of a taxi. For $50 for the 5 of us for a half an hour journey, so not a short distance, it was well worth it, especially when we arrived back at the hotel and dad put on his sunglasses and NASA jacket so he looked like a celeb! In the evening, we walked to Broadway where we ate at Planet Hollywood. Had a lovely meal, the food was delicious and we were served by a extremely nice waitress who wanted to be a stage actress in the shows and couldn't do more to ensure we had a pleasant meal.

Day 3 - Today we headed to Ground Zero and the World Trade Centre area, which was a genuinely overwhelming site as there is such a space where the twin towers used to be, it's quite surreal. It would have been more eerie if there hadn't been building work on the site, as they are now going to rebuild a tower in tribute to those who died and also build a memorial musuem to honour them, with a garden where people can pay their respects. At the moment, there is a smaller musuem which you can look around where they've collected various artifacts, stories etc... to remember september 11th and honour those who gave and lost their lives. It was moving and tear-jerking to save the least, especially as it reminded us of how little we do in our country to honour our dead. After that, we hopped on the ferry to Liberty Island and visited the Green Lady, a.k.a Statue of Liberty which is actually a lot smaller than it looks but it was worth it, especially for the view of the Manhattan skyline - breathtaking. We didn't get off at Ellis Island and the Immigration Museum, as we wanted to get on to the Rockefeller Centre. There, we saw the famous ice-skating rink outside, tried to get into the cafe featured in the film Sunday in New York with Jane Fonda when she was younger and then Fran and Paul went to do the NBC studios tour while Dad, Mum and I took in the shops and had some lunch. When they got back, Fran and I quickly popped our noses in the Swarovski crystal shop (I think that's how it's spelt) and then we walked down 5th avenue via Grand Central Station. That is an amazing site alone, despite the fact it's a train station, it's just the most wonderfully built station ever, with a beautiful jade green ceiling, painted with the signs of the Zodiac. That probably is a tourist attraction in itself! For dinner, we this time went to Ruby Tuesdays (again in Broadway) and funnily enough had another budding Broadway star serve us. The ambience in there wasn't as buzzing as in Planet Hollywood - mostly for the fact that there wasn't movie memorabilia covering nearly every surface bar the tables - but the food was still good.

Day 5 - Can't believe our time in New York is over now, but it's the most wonderful feeling to know the next plane you get on is not going home! Fran and Paul wanted to see Central Park, so they whizzed off there in the morning and managed to get a quick horse and carriage ride round the park and the weather was again glorious for it. Mum, Dad and I did the last few shops in fifth avenue, though I could only really glance in most of them so I stuck with H&M! But still, I got my plastic bag that proved I'd shopped in New York. At 12.30pm prompt, Forest Whittaker the taxi driver picked us up and took us to the airport, but via a more scenic route that allowed us to see Little Italy and the area round it, ABC city and the suburbs of New York which was fab as we hadn't had a chance to do that side. At the airport, Delroy was so delighted to have our business and we realised we'd made a good friend in him. The flight over was smooth, although we departed about half an hour late and Fran wasn't to keen on flying on a DC9 - of course she's used to 757s and A300s. Strangely enough, we landed about 20 minutes early in Orlando International, so we thought we were doing so well...until we go to the car hire desks. It was the longest queue of all the companies, for a start and there were so many people wanting to collect their cars that it went outside the designated queuing area. In the end, it took us 2 hours just to sort out our car hire! So now, instead of leaving about 6.30-7pm, it was around 9.30pm but we still had time to get to the hotel and eat. Then came the polava with the car. We had already had to upgrade the car as we had 8 cases and 5 passengers, but then when we started to load the luggage into the Jeep - yes, the big 4x4 beasts - we realised we couldn't get all the cases in without having about 3 on our laps. There goes our dinner, although Fran was so determined to not be beaten she did get 6 in the back while being able to shut the boot lid. Then we found out dad had managed to get us an even BIGGER car, so we had to unpack everything again. By the time we go to the Staybridge Suites, it was near midnight but to our saving grace, there was a 24 hour diner just over the road. Good, so food was sorted and then we realised one of the bags had been left at the aiport and the likely thing was that it had been left in the original car. Things were really just not going our way that night! So once we'd all had dinner, Paul and Dad headed back to the aiport to find that although a bag had been handed in, it was all shut up for the night and they'd have to return in the morning. Eventually, we all probably got to bed at 4am but hey, we were in Florida so who can complain?

Tune in for the next installment of the American Exploration!

Jess, Jan, Jo, Fran and Paul