Florida

After our lazy first day in Jacksonville we spent the second day at the Jacksonville Zoo. It was much the same as the zoo we went to in Albuquerque, full of excellent habitats and had its own train. However this zoo was slightly more interactive which gave us the chance to feed giraffes and lorikeets (tropical birds). At one point Jenny had a bird feeding from her hand and two pecking and licking at her hair and head...I have no photos to testify for this as the camera died half way around the zoo but I can confirm that she did squeal like a little girl and throw most of the bird feed all over the floor!

We got done with the zoo by mid afternoon and set off for Daytona Beach. We arrived late afternoon but quickly checked in and ran out to the sea to try and catch some last hours of sun and have a dip in the ocean. Not everything went to plan though however: without thinking we placed our towels down on an area of the sand that was obviously under water at high tide and since it had been slightly overcast that day it was still wet under the surface. As we laid down sea water and gunk seeped up onto the underside of our clean beach towels! Not letting this deter us we thought we would get up and venture into the sea...unlike Isle of Palms a few days earlier however the sea was extremely cold...so we quickly scrapped the beach and headed back to the hotels beach front pool (which in hindsight we probably should have done in the first place).

After hand washing our green towels in the bath (but splashing out to dry them in the hotels facilities) we set off for dinner at Bubba Gumps which was a small walk from our hotel. Dinner was lovely and after our days disappointments on the beach we treated ourselves to a dessert. Originally we planned to share their Mud Pie but thankfully the waiter warned us it was pretty big and we went for the Cookie Sundae instead (which was still huge!). This morning, despite having a long drive to Miami, we thought we should work off the previous nights dinner and complete our space station set by visiting Kennedy Space Center, about 50 miles south of Daytona.

Kennedy Space Center differs to Houston in that this is where the shuttles launch and land from, therefore the visiting experience is also altered as the exhibits and tours focus more on the act of pre-pairing and launching the astronauts into space rather than controlling their missions. The bus tour of the facility was interesting, if a little limited due to security measures about how close you can get to areas, but there were some good opportunities to get a look at the launch pads and the buildings they prep the shuttle and rockets in (the third largest building by mass in the world). They also have a new ride on site that replicates what the astronauts feel when they launch into space; it wasn’t as extreme as they claimed it to be but was still a good representation of a launch even though the small girl sitting next to Jenny cried her eyes out the whole way through as her Dad ignored her cries for help.

This afternoon we left the Space Center and set off for Miami. The drive down was a bit frustrating as we had to go through various toll systems but it’s only the second road we have had to pay tolls on all trip so we can’t complain. We then had to dodge the crew of road workers blocking the only access to the parking facility here and then had to lug our cases up to our room as the lift was out of order...but we got there in the end and our room is gorgeous; tiled floor, high ceilings, antique furniture and a super king size bed. So now we have until Monday to explore Miami, chill on the beaches, take an excursion to the Everglades and find somewhere for me to get a haircut!!