Saturday 10 September 2016

Back Home Again

Heavens, what a holiday! Just returned from 3 weeks in Florida and have had an absolutely amazing time.

Took the new lens and my new little Sony Cybershot for all those times I didn't want a bulky camera. It came in very useful and generally the quality was ok.

I won't bore you all with hundreds of holiday snaps as that would be the quickest way of ensuring that the blog was never read again! So selected highlights!

Disney's Magic Kingdom





Happiest Place on Earth. Well it is once you get over the $20 car park fee and the exhorbitant price of everything inside, not to mention the exhorbitant price of the tickets in the first place! 

But it is magical and a fabulous experience. So much to see and do and this is the first time I have been since being more serious about my photography so there were less photos of Mickey and more of what was actually going on around.

Animal Kingdom





Favourite photo of the whole holiday. Short walking safari past the hippo enclosure to get to see said hippo having a wallow with the fish nibbling him all over and the heron sitting on his head. Bizarre!

Scariest moments of the holiday (1)
Rock n Roller Coaster, Disney Hollywood Studios. Always been a rollercoaster reluctant. Seen the family come off them buzzing with the thrill and always wanted to feel able to go on them, but never brave enough. But this year, new brave me and all that, decided to go for it. As Beth said, if you can zip down a mountain at 100mph attached only to a piece of wire, you can do a Disney rollercoaster. Can't really argue with that!
So I did it, complete with g-force speeds, loop the loops, pitch darkness and Aerosmith blasting through the speakers! Won't be doing it again.

Scariest moments (2)
I dropped the camera!!! Sitting having pancakes one evening in I-Hop and I knocked if off the seat onto the floor. Cue sickening cracking sound and the sinking of my heart! Someone somewhere above is looking kindly down on me as the lens was intact, but the filter was completely smashed. So at least that was the cheaper thing to replace. Next purchase was a fully padded camera bag.

Clearwater
As an antidote to the madness of the parks, we had a couple of days elsewhere and my favourite was Clearwater. A gorgeous beach resort with the most amazing sunsets over the pier.





Sanding on the pier, watching the sky enflame with real live dolphins frolicking in the water below us. Forget Disney, this was truly magical.

Plus, after all the problems with litter at the beach over the summer, a philosophy for us all to remember:  





Harry Potter
Wow. OMG and Wow again! Spread over Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, Harry Potter world is completely unbelievable.





They have built Howarts, Hogsmeade and now Diagon Alley and Nocturn Alley and they are incredible. The attention to detail is just fabulous and gave the opportunity to try to take some different photos.





The 2 parks are joined by a ride on the Hogwarts Express and if there are any Harry Potter fans reading this, you really need to go here.









So, back now with 880 photos to process, suitcases full of shopping and the most horrendous jetlag to get over. Fun times!

Lessons Learned: Cameras don't bounce.
One suitcase per person on an America trip is simply not enough.

Diet Diary: In my last blog post I said that the diet was going really well but 3 weeks in America would probably change that. Well, it did. Put on 6lbs! Although we had meals out every day, so 2lb a week wasn't too bad. I had set myself a mental limit of a weight i didn't want to go over and I was 1/4lb below it! Phew! Getting acclimatised back this week, then on Monday, diet is full on! Got a full camera bag to lose now.

Rambling Record:
Did a lot of walking while away, so total currently stands at 831 miles. Over 110 miles ahead of target, so if I can get my act together again, hopefully will have this 1000 finished by the end of October!

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