Oh say can you see...

 We have arrived in Washington DC and we were completely captured by the sights and history of this wonderful city! 
We met up with Rob and Jenna again on the L' Enfant stop on the metro early Tuesday morning and didn't waste any time starting our sightseeing adventure!
 The first stop was the Smithsonian Air and Space museum which included actual artefacts from the famous Apollo 11 - first man on the moon mission. We actually got to see Neil Armstrong’s space suit which was awesome!
 Next stop - the Capitol building which is the central building of Washington DC. It was built early 1800's by African American slaves, it was burnt down by the British during the Revolutionary War and re-built, and the "dome" called the rotunda was expanded and re-built in the middle of the civil war.
The building as it currently stands is the meeting place for both the American Congress - House of Representatives and the Senate, in fact the senate was actually meeting on the day we went for the Capitol building tour. The rotunda is about 28 stories high and the dome itself weighs approximately 900 million pounds. It is filled with statues of deceased congress men and woman and other recognised political figures including some past presidents. The architecture alone is just incredible not to mention the paintings, marble columns and floors. You could spend an entire day in that building. After our tour we went through an underground tunnel to the Congress library and held 2 bibles that were 500 years old! This building was amazing also!
We boarded a double Decker tour to the Lincoln Memorial, we had lunch at the national park and then went up to see the memorial. Just the splendour of the memorial itself gave me Goosebumps, and to read excerpts of some of President Lincoln's famous speeches engraved on the walls was just inspiring! The memorial faces onto the Washington Monument (you will know this monument from the movie Forrest Gump where he runs across that massive stretch of water screaming out "Jenny" - it's that long brick thing sticking straight up into the sky) however all of the water had been drained as they are re-doing the base, so it looked a little drab. We walked from the Lincoln memorial to see the WWII memorial which is huge, and the whole memorial is a fountain depicting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and 50 separate monuments with the names of each of the 50 states engraved in stone. Jenna and I took off our shoes and had a little paddle in the water taking in the sights, it was just incredible.
We when walked up past the Washington Monument and crossed the road to see the White House! Obviously something was occuring that day as the whole parameter was barricaded (we are told more than usual) and there were Secret Service Police EVERYWHERE not to mention the SAS snipers on the roof of the white house! We managed to get a few photos. We caught the metro to Union station and made our way down town for some dinner! One more day of DC sightseeing before we hit the big apple!

Around the world in an afternoon - thanks Epcot!

 Our last official day in Florida was spent at Epcot which is one of the 4 Disney Parks in the Disney World park collection.
Epcot was fantastic and is more of a Disneyland experience for adults. The park included a large amount of "futuristic" type showcases including a space and energy tour, a simulated launch into space (Mars to be exact), fast cars and a technology motion tour and expedition which was fantastic!

The other section of the Epcot Park is the "World Showcase" which includes miniature travel destinations within the same park. This included Mexico, Norway, Germany, Morocco, Italy, China, Japan, the U.K, France, America (in America - strange) and Canada! So we shopped in Mexico, had lunch in Italy (which was the best food I have ever had in my LIFE!), saw the Eiffel tower in France, and two toilet stops one in Japan and one in the UK - all in one day!
This was a fantastic experience, and I can say that Walt Disney did a wonderful job in capturing the look, feel and atmosphere of each destination in bringing a sense of each place to one location! I can say, that after our lunch in "Italy" we have the urge to travel to Europe in the not so distant future - the travel blogs may continue!!

When it rains, it floods in the tropics..

 On our 3rd day in Florida, we decided to take a break from the wonderful world of Disney and cool off at the Wet and Wild water theme park in Orlando. We met up with Rob and Jenna and got straight into the slide riding! I managed to face my fears and ride a few slides... but chickened out on a couple! Lucky I had Jenna there to convince me to just face my fears and just do it! 
After lunch the skies parted and it just began to POUR with rain, the park flooded ankle deep within about 10 mins so we had to find cover for awhile. After the flood waters ceased, we managed to get another 30 minutes or so of ride time before the lightening, thunder and flooding rains forced us out of the park.
The next day, Tim and I decided to go to Universal Studio's as the weather man predicted that the rain would not start until later in the day. We arrived at Universal at 8:30am and we rushed through to ride as many rides as possible before the rain and crowds spoiled our fun!
We spent a large part of the day in the brand new Harry Potter world which was so realistic and an absolute blast! We got to walk through Hogwarts which was incredible and so life like, enjoyed a refreshing butter beer and walked through the various shops which were replicas of the Harry Potter film series!
The weather held up very well, in fact it started to get really hot so we decided to go on a white water raft ride... and got completely SOAKED! Both Tim and I got off the ride drenched to the undies, even to the point where we had to wring out our clothes! About 30 minutes later it started to pour with rain again so we walked around the park soggy all day! But... it didn't stop us! We managed to catch a few shops and a few simulator rides before heading back to the hotel for the day!
 

Rain, Rain go away - we are trying to enjoy DISNEY!

Day 2 of Disney we met up with Rob and Jenna Miller - funny how we get to spend time together on the complete other side of the world!

We caught up with the Mildo's at Disney's Animal Kingdom; it was lovely to see them as they have been travelling for just over 10 weeks!

Little did we realise (until the end of the day) that this day was the HOTTEST day for the year so far at a whopping 105 degrees F (41 degree's C) and probably about 99% humidity! This place is not for the feint hearted (or the curly haired!) as we were sweating at 9am!

Tim, Rob and Jenna decided to ride the Mt Everest roller coaster (and again I was the designated picture taker!) Rob (who rode alone) was on and off the ride straight away, Tim and Jenna on the other hand... their ride BROKE DOWN and they were stuck on the ride in the hot sun being told off by cranky Americans, feeling claustrophobic and hot - apparently the ride was worth it!

 

We made our way straight to the very first water ride we could find which was a white water rafting ride. We waited for over an hour to get onto this ride, but it was well worth it when we left the ride soaking wet and managed to stay wet for at least an hour. Mind you with the heat, we were dry and hot very soon afterwards! After going on an African Safari tour (with real African animals and habitat) and seeing a celebration of the Lion King (an indoor show with acrobatics and phenomenal singing) we caught the park bus to Hollywood Studio's!

We managed to see a few things and ride the Star Wars simulated coaster (which was great), on our way up to the bigger rides being the Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror and the Rocking-Coaster (feat Aerosmith) the clouds parted and starting pouring with rain, the largest rain drops I have ever seen in my life. The weather didn't let up for at least 2 hours, we were standing underneath a random umbrella in the middle of a random family’s lunch, absolutely drenched. We finally made a decision to make a run for it, and catch the next park bus back to Magic Kingdom to see if we could catch a few rides before the light parade and fireworks. The rain managed to stop before we got to the park. Most of the rides we wanted to ride had a minimum wait time of 60 - 75 minutes which sucked. So we waited in line for the Buzz Lighyear spinning ride. We found ourselves a spot on the Main St in preparation for the light parade, and 5 minutes before it was to begin it was cancelled on account of rain (sad) so we decided to walk in the rain back to the monorail to head back to the hotel. Better luck on Saturday I guess!

It's hot but we're happy - um hello it's Disney!!

After a sad goodbye with my lovely family, we boarded another jet plane and flew into Orlando Florida in the late hours of Monday night!

Both Tim and I were hit with some serious humidity stepping off the plane and believe me; the humidity has NOT stopped ever since!

After a few little hiccups we finally checked into our room and absolutely crashed into bed! Our first day in Florida was spent soaking up the tropical rays by the pool relaxing before 3 fun filled days at Disney land, 1 fun filled day at Universal Studios and another fun filled day at Wet and Wild!

Our first day at Disney was the best! We caught our shuttle to the park and were amazed that Disney World is so big that it has its own major highway - ummm Mr Disney does not do anything in halves, obviously! We then boarded the monorail to the park itself.

Our first day was spent at the Magic Kingdom (one of 4 fantastic Disney parks) park! We managed to ride a few rides (Tim mainly rode alone because I HATE free fall rides, and most Disney rides have that stupid free fall drop. I fret far too much and don't enjoy myself so I've officially become the designated umm... picture... taker!! It's a very important job !I managed to drag Tim onto my very favourite Disney Ride - "It's a small world after all" I found out very quickly that Tim does not share my enthusiasm on this ride, even to the point where he said it's the "worst ride ever made" - I didn't understand his disappointment because to me it's the happiest ship that has ever sailed!
 

We saw so many different attractions, and when the weather got to hot (and believe me, it is HOT here - between 38-41 C and about 97-99% humidity) we managed to catch a show or too to cool off (even the boring Hall of Presidents show - which made was a great educational nap!) 

After about 9.5 hours in the park we were exhausted and caught the monorail back to the shuttle. Let’s just say Tim and I slept a treat that night!

*Disclaimer: to those completely unaware my hair is curly in real life, and my hair and humidity are not friends! Beware of the curly hair, shiny face photo's! Can't help it, we are in the tropics!

All into one!

Sorry for the delay in a post, but as you know we have been spending time with my family and enjoying every moment! My mother is one of NINE children, who are all married and have children and their children are married and have children of their own! As you can imagine, my family is huge, and it's a full time job catching up with everyone!

We have spent a lot of time visiting with family and friends, seeing a few of the sights including the mountains, Manitou Springs which is a city built on a mountain, Garden of the Gods which is a park full of the most beautiful rock formations and epic views of the Rockies, City Park rides (for children) with my cousin and her two kids and Fargo's Pizzeria.

 

Bishops Castle which is a castle that has been built by a man by the name of John Bishop - can I just stop here and say that by Australian building standards the castle is completely unsafe my legs were shaking the whole time walking on a balcony made of  uneven pieces of scrap metal that had been welded together - no signage to indicate theweight capacity.

Tim managed to climb the tower and onto a bridge in the sky that led well... nowhere but it was a unique experience! We have spent time taking in the views of Pueblo Colorado, playing multiple games of scrabble with my competitive 83 year old grandmother, visiting the site of my grandfathers grave (he passed away on October 15th 2010) and also seeing his memorial plaque on the veterans bridge at the River walk, and dancing the night away to the hottest local band in Pueblo at the moment "Martini Shot" at the down town "B Street Bash" 

- we have laughed a lot, eaten far too much, and spent time reminiscing and making new memories! It will be sad to leave my family, but I am sure that we will see them all again soon as we have been recruiting them all to Australia! 

 

Next stop - Florida! There will be more frequent blog posts and photos as we embark on the second half of our holiday. Only 2 and a half weeks left! We better get sightseeing!