Our first evening in Orlando

We stayed at the Ramada Gateway on West Irlo Bronson Highway. Although not the most expensive or the best that money could buy, TJ and myself loved every minute of being there.

Check in went smoothly and so did finding our corner room. Expecting the room to be smaller then a postage stamp like all the English hotels, we were shocked to find our room had 4 rooms. Bathroom, wash area, bedroom and a kitchen area which consisted of a mini fridge (with a freezer), coffee machine and storage along with a dining room table.

The room was awesome and soon after we found we'd opened the cases blew up the pool toys and went into the pool to relax for a short while. 

Before I realized it was almost 9.30pm and our first day in Orlando was almost over.

Quick stop at the local Dollar tree to get the basics ( plastic bowls, bottles of water, spoons and a carton of milk). Dollar tree is about a 8 minute drive away making it easy to get to and even better when Super Target and Publix is opposite and next door.

Publix next to buy some snacks for the parks and basic food to eat in the room - of course Chips Ahoy original and m&m's were on my must have list.

Back to the pool again to eat in the warm air and bed. 

Admiral young drivers lesson

My nephew took a drivers lesson a few weeks back with Admiral young drivers. My oldest nephew is 13 yrs old and way to tall as he towers over me.

There are to types of driving sessions which are designed for either 5 - 10  or 10 - 17 year old children/ teens.

The choices of different style cars to drive varied also from driving a small manual  or automatic car to driving a Bentley.

J had the 30 minute driving session which was very easy to follow instructions that were given by the instructors.

After going through the safety talk the fun began. 

When arriving there isn't many seats in the waiting area So best to turn up with 30  minutes before you are do to do the lesson.

Going up in the lift you can see the car park courses set up with lots of cones for each obstacle and area. 

The person who signs you into the driving area were very friendly and helpful and prepared for a response for any questions. 

After 20 minutes J was in the car and extremely nervous about driving. At this point It was obvious how fantastic the driver instructors are with each different lesson they all very calm and patient with all students not just J. With no driving experience at all he was very nervous and within 5 minutes relaxing into the driving seat.

Travelling through the coned road area's they practiced varied maneuvers including clutch control and start/stop. After this was driving round a cone roundabout and then down a ramp. after doing this area about 20 times J was then asked to drive down a ramp. Reverse parking was next and into a space. The instructor had to help J with this as he found it difficult.

After finishing J had his drivers diary signed and finished his lesson.

"I really like the driving lesson because they told you every thing but you had to wait a long time and there wasn't many seats to sit on if you got there early. The instructor was very helpful and told me how to change gear and how to revers park.  experience was amazing and very fun."

From J

 

Motissfont - national trust

Our trip this weekend took us an hour and a half to find. With the sat nav guiding us to the front door of Mottisfont.
Mottisfont is part of the National trust and can be found just outside Romsey in Hampshire.

The grounds are lovely with a secret garden hidden behind walls, a fast flowing river hidden far beyond the fields that belong to Mottisfont.
The breathtaking scenery as far as the eye can see is beautiful.

Bearing in mind that Saturday had been non stop rain all day and night, we still decided to venture to the grounds.

When walking in the grounds the first thing we saw was a young boy around the age of 12 covered head to toe in mud. He said he'd slipped over playing tag with his friends in one of the play area's.

Taking the dogs along the path next to the stream we came across a wooden play area that was surrounded by mud. This had to of been where the young boy had fallen. The trail was arranged in a circular pattern with various obstacles to scale and balance along, which would've been great fun for TJ if it hadn't of been so wet and slippery. Within five minutes he'd had enough of doing the splits on numerous obstacles.

The next stop was where the river splits and causes an over flow point. Now this area is fantastic for the kids. There's an area that feeds of so the kids can pump the water into a trough with different levels. Each level has a barrier which can be raised to allow water to pass through.

The river falls across a smooth stone based area in which if anyone is feeling brave can walk across before it approaches the small waterfall area.

Continuing around the grounds there is an old fishing Hut which has been perfectly preserved with decorations for the keenest of fishermen/women. The stables which is also where the bathrooms are located and a restaurant. Although the price are a little expensive it's no different to any other national trust site.

The main house has 3 different levels which can be accessed via different areas. Ground floor can be accessed through the side of the building. Around the at the maids entrance towards the back you can find a small door which leads upstairs to the first floor.
Ive not visited the second floor but have been told it is trickier to find as you need to ask a staff member to visit it because of the very small staircase. Here you can find an alligator in the bath tub. (A former member of the household once kept one in the tub, and so the tradition is kept going with this stuffed reptile).

Our stay on the Queen Mary ship.

From the docks this magnificent boat looks amazing for an 86 year old thats seen over 800,000 passengers and troops on board and traveled a distance of over 600,000 miles in the 31 years in the maritime life.

She was purchased by the City of Long Beach CA. In 1967 and has remained here for over 40 years.

Along the promenade deck there was various rooms to go to which included the children's playroom exhibit. this room is fully blocked off by windows but as you can see its a replica of back in the 1940's. Although the toys and chairs have not been used or played with for many years they are still in pristine order.

Whilst being on board we felt the sudden urge to eat and as we were on the promenade desk the Chelsea chowder house seemed to be the only one that was open. 
Within minutes of walking in the waitress had served us and got our drinks order, which at this point was lovely and very much needed as we'd not been anywhere after getting our hire car. 
Once we ordered our food it was served within 20 minutes steaming hot and tasting absolutely fantastic. I ordered the Chicken Pasta Alfredo in a white wine sauce, this tasted and smelt magnificent but I could not finish the meal even with my massive appetite I ate as much as I could and I still had over 1/4 of the bowl left to eat.

My Father ordered the Fish and Chips.... such a typical English man. I was a little surprised when the waitress had asked if he wanted vinegar as this is the first time I've been asked in the USA on holiday about vinegar. 

The view from our table was amazing we could see as far as the eye could see. 

From one side of the boat the view of Long Beach and the Skyline were clearly visible throughout our stay. We watched the a few boats pass by and asked our waitress if the building that was in plain sight was the aquarium,  turned out it was the convention centre and the aquarium was past the little village that could be seen next to the marina.  

The room were kept in the condition they would have been when the ship was still being used as a cruise liner. 

Our room had two single beds in that were against the wall, both had bedside cabinets and air vents close to the beds also. 

The room was very out dated but looked as it would have during her sailing days except for the flat screen television in the room.

The bathroom on the other hand I would not recommend flushing the toilet in the middle of the night due to the loud bang when flushing with the foot bar. 

If you are tall please be aware that the shower in our room was very low. I am short but I still found that I had to bend at the knees a little when  washing and rinsing my hair as the shower is positioned around about 5ft high. 

 Staying on the Queen Mary Ship was amazing and I would do it again if given the chance. 

I did not find any problems or hear any noises throughout my stay, nor did I see any ghosts but each to their own as I do not believe this may have clouded my judgement as to whether the ship is haunted or not.

Perhaps in your visit you can tell me what spooky goings on you heard or saw to change my mind on whether ghosts exists. 

One Day Holiday Challenge

Over the Summer holiday I was set the challenge by a Ocean Finance to stick to a strict budget of £100 for a day out or days out. This was named the 'One Day Holiday.' The reason the challenge has been set is to help show that its not needed to spend a fortune to have a great day out.

With the money I originally intended to go to Bristol International Balloon Fiesta. I filled my car up with fuel, brought snacks and hit the road. By the time we got to the balloon fiesta the hot air balloons had already taken off and landed so that scuffled our plans for the day.

The view from the road.

After taking a few moments and a google search for what points of interests were nearby we ended up heading to Bristol Zoo.

Bristol Zoo

Once at Bristol Zoo it felt like we were the only people there. We weren't, but it was very quiet till about lunchtime and then the crowds were flocking in. 

TJ and I started looking at the lion area, to begin with we didn't see the lions until we got to the second half of the enclosure. Once at the glass the lion was at the front of the enclosure observing all the people passing by and watching them closely.

So close to this one amazing animal.

 The next animal we went through the enclosure and looked at the flamingo's. 

Tj commented on the color of their wings and body as they were such a brilliant pink.

On to the Gorilla enclosure. Again it was amazing to be so close to these beautiful and powerful primates. When we arrived at the enclosure they had just been let back into the house for their breakfast. It was amazing to see the 32st Silverback Gorilla picking at bugs and what looked like large nuts off of the floor.

The Gorilla house has recently had £1 million over haul and the fantastic 180 degree views.

The penguin enclosure was beautiful, its been a long time since I've been up close to one but this little one definitely stole the thunder from all the rest. I named him Dudley although that's not his official zoo name. 

He was such a lovely character and even poked his beak through the cage allowing me to stroke his head and bill. I don't recommend doing this to anyone as they can have a nasty nip.

The above animals were just a select few in the zoo. Every enclosure was well kept and well looked after. 

The shots below are a select few of some animals within the zoo that I found interesting and one which I've not seen before.

This seal was yelling and posed for a photo!

A very rare TJ turtle 

Another rare human Joey

An order from Bonusprint

Over the last few weeks I have compiled holiday photo's into a photograph album online from when I went to Las Vegas last year.

My parcel arrived 4 days later.

I ordered 3 different products polaroid style prints, large photo album which has writing on the front cover (extra cost) and a small photo album.

The 24 paged book that I have chosen is a small landscape album which measures 20 x 15cm with a spiral binding.

Each page can hold up to 7 pictures and a small amount of text on the page. I chose not to include text or a background as I wanted the pictures to look as natural as I could. 

The cover page is a transparent and shows the first picture in the photograph album.

First order 

The second album that I made was TJ's 8th birthday up to the last few weeks. 

In this album I added borders and writing on each page in the book. There are 24 pages in this album and I could've purchased more if I wanted to but did not feel the need to as I only used 13 pages. Which is plenty adequate for me as i can add more pictures to the book over the next month to fill it up. 

Full page photo

Light background 

Bright background 

My next package arrived in a few days, which I expected as I ordered on a Sunday evening.

 

These prints were a little naughty as I used prints from the Internet as I wanted to see how the pictures came out before I ordered lots. 

I received my photographs and the prints were perfect. I honestly thought they would come out all odd shaped or the color in them wouldn't be very bright. I was wrong and so glad that I ordered the select few that I had done as I now know that in 30 days when I travel to California and visit part of Route 66 I know the pictures will come out how I would like them.

Photographs to add to my Route 66 wall.