Florida & Little Nellie

Anna & Zac playing "Australian" Monopoly

Tammy, Nikki, Hannah & Steve at Cocoa Beach, Florida (paddling in the Atlantic!)

Hannah, Flat Mike Foreman, Jacqui & Sara

Scott Altman with Arthur the Tasmanian Devil

Steve, Sara, Nikki, Matt, Anna, Jacqui, Hannah, Zac & Tammy - getting ready to go to the Space Shuttle Launch

The smoke from the rockets engulf the space shuttle (briefly)

Take off!!!!!

With the families and friends of the astronauts, watching a sucessful launch!!!

yes, there is a Disney University - this is where Sara is studying whilst she is in Florida

Sara where she works as a cast member at Walt Disney World - the Tiki Room

Sara & Jacqui (2nd row from the back) on Splash Mountain (they got pretty wet from the splash when they landed)

Sara, Bel, Jacqui (with her mouse ears)

Steve, Nikki, Mickey, Jacqui & Hannah

Steve with Winnie the Pooh at the Crystal Palace

Arthur the Tassie Devil visits Hannah at the Walt Disney World First Aid centre

Our Thanksgiving day lunch at the "chow hall"

Jacqui, Jerry & Steve with half the trailer finished for Little Nellie

We went down to Florida for 10 days, and had a fantastic time. First up we caught up with Steve’s exchange student Sister, Tammy, and her family – Matt, Zac, & Anna. We had great fun catching up, and paddling in the Atlantic, which was a lot colder than we expected for Florida. We also got together with our friend from Canberra, Sara, who is working at Walt Disney World – she was joining us for the shuttle launch.

Tammy had very kindly invited us to view the Space Shuttle launch with Matt’s family, as Matt’s cousin Mike Foreman was one of the astronauts going up in the Space Shuttle Atlantis. We went along to the family party the day before, where we got to take photo’s with “flat mike” (a cardboard cut out of Mike in his full astronaut gear), and we also got to meet Scott Altman a good friend of Mike’s who has had four missions on the Space Shuttle. It was fascinating talking with Scott about his experiences in space. It was also nice to meet some of Matt’s family and other people who had travelled from far and wide (including England) to wish Mike well on his space shuttle launch.

On the Monday we got up REALLY early and headed off to the Kennedy Space Center where we spent several hours wandering around all the displays and watching an IMAX movie on the International Space Station – the Space Center stagers the times that you are allowed to arrive at that the center so as to minimise traffic & we had an early arrival time, which gave us the opportunity to enjoy the centre itself. In the afternoon we were loaded into buses to travel out to the causeway to view the launch. There is a big body of water between you and the launch pad, which gives a nice uninterrupted view. The launch was amazing. When the countdown was around 5 seconds the engines in the rockets started up, and huge clouds of smoke engulfed the space shuttle, but then after a few seconds it slowly lifted off the pad and shot up in to the sky. We could feel the rumble of the engines through the ground. The plume of flame behind the space shuttle was very long, and so bright it was sometimes painful to look at. As it soared in to the air everyone was cheering and jumping up and down – it was such a great experience to be a part of.

After the launch they quickly rushed us back on to the bus, as there was a cloud of hydrochloric acid coming our way (which is a by-product of the burning of all the rocket fuel).

The rest of the week was spent exploring Walt Disney World with Sara – the Magic Kingdom (which was our favourite, and where Sara works), Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Disney Hollywood Studios and Steve, Jacqui & Sara also went to Blizzard Beach water park. Sara is working and studying at Walt Disney World for a year (which is almost up). When she was in Canberra she was Hannah & Jacqui’s Ranger Guide leader, which is how we know her.

The Magic Kingdom is pretty similar to Disneyland in LA, and we had a great time there, especially seeing where Sara works (at the Aladdin ride & the Tiki Room). We also really enjoyed the 3D Mickey’s Philomagic, Space Mountain (Jacqui loved this one), & lots of the rides & attractions. We also had lunch at the Crystal Palace, where all the Winnie the Pooh characters come around and take photo’s with you (Steve was very happy, as he’s always loved Winnie the Pooh). Jacqui bought an autograph book and got many autographs from the characters around Walt Disney World, such as Winnie the Pooh, Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy etc. Hannah & Jacqui’s Ranger Guide unit mascot Arthur also had his photo taken with many of the characters – much to their amusement).

At the Animal Kingdom we went on a Safari and got to see Giraffes running around chasing each other, elephants, white rhino’s, black rhino’s, hippo’s, & many more animals & birds. We also got to see a show called “The Festival of the Lion King” which was amazing – there was singing and dancing, as well as acrobatics, gymnastics, & some amazing aerial and trampoline circus tricks

At Epcot the park is split almost in two with a “ride” area, which we enjoyed, and an “international” area where we explored Mexico, China, Italy, Morocco & Japan – each country has set up shops, restaurants and cultural displays in each of the “lands” which are staffed by young people from those countries. The architecture in each of the “lands” is very unique and authentic. We especially enjoyed Japan where we had dinner (yum, Sushi) and loved shopping in the Mistukoshi department store (Nikki bought chopsticks, Hannah bought pj’s & Steve bought origami paper).

We didn’t see a lot of Disney Hollywood Studio’s as it was the day we went to the Animal Kingdom as well – but we got to be in the audience for Fastasmic, which is a show with live action, images projected on screens of water spray and fireworks – it was amazing.

Unfortunately Hannah has been sick for a while and was very sick when we were at Walt Disney World. We decided to push her around in a wheelchair in order for her to be able to enjoy the theme parks, as she is having trouble walking distances. Even though we did this, she still collapsed one day when we were at Epcot – they actually had to close the ride and get in paramedics with a stretcher. After a lot of deliberation we decided not to take her to hospital (as this seems to be a problem she is having from time to time as a result of the Lyme Disease, and being in hospital won’t help the situation) – after about an hour lying down in the First Aid center she was well enough to be wheeled around the park and watch Jacqui & Steve go on rides. We will have to be careful of not pushing Hannah too hard in the future, because it scared us all having her collapse & we want to avoid it happening again. We were very lucky in that whilst we were waiting for the paramedics to arrive, a gentleman walking by was a NY paramedic, & he stayed with her for about 15 mins to make sure she was ok. It turned out he was a 9/11 rescuer who had a building fall on him, and he survived. We were very grateful to him for taking the time to look after Hannah on his holiday.

We were very sad to leave Sara behind. We had initially thought we would only see her for a day or two, but ended up spending most days with her (she was able to rearrange shifts, and we visited her when she was working as well. We really enjoyed sharing our holiday with Sara – she was so enthusiastic about Walt Disney World & really made the place come alive for us, sharing it’s history and insider information (did you know Walt Disney World has a series of tunnels and buildings underneath it for the staff – known as “cast members” to get around in, so they don’t ruin the ambiance for the guests?).

When we left Annapolis the weather was wet, windy, freezing cold and miserable. When we came home from sunny Florida the weather was again wet, windy, freezing cold and miserable. This weekend the sun has come back and cheered us all up.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we spent it with some new friends who invited us to the “chow hall” to take part in a traditional Thanksgiving dinner (which was HUGE). It wasn’t the traditional family thanksgiving we had been hoping for (we were disappointed we couldn’t spend Thanksgiving with Tammy), but it was fun anyway.

We spent this weekend with our friends Jerry & Phil at their holiday house in Mill Creek on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay. Jerry recently bought an ultra light float plane (Little Nellie), and Jacqui & Steve worked hard with Jerry to fit out the trailer to make it easier to take the plane around to the launching ramp. It is incredibly peaceful and beautiful at Mill Creek, and we all enjoyed our time there.

We hope this all finds you well. Christmas is coming fast – although we aren’t sure what we will be doing for Christmas yet. Nikki, Hannah & Jacqui are travelling back to Australia for Nikki’s brother’s wedding in early January. Unfortunately Steve has to stay behind and work, which is a real shame. We will be spending some time in Canberra checking on the house and catching up with friends and in Sydney, attending the wedding and doing some shopping to bring back to the USA (mainly medications to get us through the next 6 months, as well as Tim Tams and Milo).

We hope this finds you all well.