Niagara Falls - ONTARIO, CANADA

Left St.Augustine and dropped into the township of Savannah GEORGIA. Took in a river walk of cobblestoned streets, gorgeous homes & shop frontages and paddle boats moored on the banks of the river. A very strong French/Spanish influence prevalent still to the current day.

Moving on from Savannah, we stopped a little further along for the evening before David's mammoth driving day of 10 hours in the car. This saw us rocket thru states #34 - #38. South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania! Kids did loads of homework, car bingo, card games, DS's and reading books. We saw the landscapes change dramatically from the Florida sunshine to the gorgeous colours of the leaves changing on the trees; from greens, reds, yellows and browns. America prepares itself for the change of seasons from Summer into Fall (Autumn). We are now searching our suitcases for jackets and long pants! Temperatures have plummeted from the 90's down to the 60's. Good bye beautiful Florida tan!

Next state #39 New York - Niagara Falls. We were told that you can't see as much of the falls on the American side so we headed across the bridge again into Ontario, Canada.
These water falls are incredible! We literally walked across the street from the middle of Niagara Falls township and BAM - there they are!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze2vfl3Ig_8

The smaller of the two falls is called American Falls and the largest is the more photographed one called Horseshoe Falls. A spectacular rainbow emerged from the mist as we arrived. Made for impressive photographs. We also took a tour in behind the waterfalls - bit scary, and got very wet. The flimsy poncho that the guides gave us were not that effective. The second day we visited the falls, we went on the "Maid of the Mist". This is the boat that goes right up to the face of the falls. You are in awe of the power of the water that comes across the falls. 19 people in history have tried to survive the 53m drop mostly in barrels. Some survive, some don't. One guy went over on a jet ski in 1995, but his parachute did not open and his body never recovered. Another went over in just a bathing suit in 2003. He miraculously survived, and swam to shore denying a ride from the Maid of the Mist along the way. He received a fine of $2300 and banned from entering Canada for life! He and his friend were said to have been partaking in alcohol before the jump, his friend could not work out how to start the video camera and the entire jump went by unrecorded! 154 million litres per minute of water makes the journey across Niagara Falls.

Went back at dusk to view the falls at night. They provide an impressive illumination show for the people lining the view points to see the falls at night.

Heading of in the morning towards Boston.

Love Team Connor USA  xoxoxoxoxo

Do we have to leave the sunshine.....FLORIDA!

Finished our theme park adventures by going to Universal Studio's and Islands of Adventure - loads of rides! Loads of fun and great weather but about 'theme parked' out.

Universal Studios is home to "Harry Potter" world, the 'Hulk' roller coasters, Spiderman, Jurassic Park and Cat in the Hat and many more attrations.

Finally left Orlando after having lunch with Charlie and went up to Daytona Beach. Home of NASCAR racing. We also DROVE along the beach. Yes ....took Neville the Nissan right down onto the sand. Bizzare - pay $3 to take your car right down onto the sand, park and pop up your umbrella/seats and sit right near your car!!

See our video clip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yt1dUIXd5Q

Left Daytona and headed north along the coast up to the most beautiful little town of St. Augustine. Claimed by Spain back in 1513, it is the first and oldest continually occupied settlement in America. The American's took ownership from the Spanied's in 1812.

It is home to 'The Oldest House' in the United States, 'The Oldest School House', a very cool Lighthouse and Fort, 'the Fountain of Youth' and most importantly (and our biggest drawcard to the area) our newly found friends (from the Driftwood Beach Club) - Millie and Bill!

Millie and Bill have an incredible home set on the edge of the forrest. We sat on their back deck in the evening, played in the tire swings on the tree and watched all the wild dear come out to graze. It was so beautiful. They were also later joined by 5 wild turkeys.

During the day we explored the township of St.Augustine. St.George street was a 'closed to traffic' area. It was a main street set back in time. We headed straight to the Spanish Bakery on advise that they had 'Empanado's' - which is said to be a meat pie. And we all know how much the Australian's are missing their meat pies after 4 months on the road!

Pictured above - is the Spanish Meat Pie. Does a good impression of a pastie though......

Not too bad on taste - not quite the real thing though. If anyone wants to meet us at the airport in Melbourne with a real meat pie on the 20th of October then we'd love to see you!!!

Back to Millie and Bill's for an exceptional tasty dinner of 'terriaki marinated beef', potatoes and sour cream, garlic infused asparagus (yes mum - I ate asparagus and it was really nice), creamed corn and spicey corn muffins! Yummo. Have to reiterate how grateful we are for home cooking when you have been on the road for 4 months! Topped with enjoyable conversation, wine and coffee it finished off our days in Florida with memories and freinds for life. Thank you to all who invited us into your homes and lives.

After 25 days down here in the Florida sunshine, the time has come when we must push on for more adventures up north.

Au-revoir.

More love from Team Connor very soon......



Disney World - Orlando FLORIDA

The beautiful Disney Castle lit up at night time.

I had always thought that Disney World was just one big theme park like Disneyland in California. I was wrong.

Disney World in Florida,is made up of FOUR theme parks.

Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studio's, Epcot and Magic Kingdom (which is where the castle is).

To give you an idea of size comparison it took us 5 days to cover all of Disneyland over on the west coast. Here in Florida you can cover 1 theme park in a day.

Day 1 - Animal Kingdom. Safari's (like an open range zoo), petting zoo, Lion King shows, Dinosaur discoveries, train rides, conservation and discovery shows, Finding Nemo performance - similar scale to Disney on Ice.

Day 2 - Hollywood Studio's. Home to Disney Pixar! Toy story characters, Pizza Planet, Phineas & Ferb, Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coasters, Indiana Jones Stunt shows, Lights Motors Action Stunt show (where they bought out the real "Lightning McQueen" - Ka - chow!!) , Backlot tours, Beauty and the Beast Shows. As well they have the "American Idol Experience" here, where you get to watch people sing that have been picked out of the crowd and had auditions to be a part of it and numerous other rides and simulators. Also the "Fantasmic" light show in the evening.

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom - (and David's Birthday).  What a way to spend your birthday - at Magic Kingdom. We bought David his very own set of "Mickey Ears" that said "It's my birthday". We also went and got him a standard issue "Birthday badge" from Guest Services as you walk in the gate with your very own name on it! All day David was greeted with "Happy Birthday David" from every Disney staff member and ride operator in the ENTIRE park. Pretty cool - he thought for the first hour. By the 14th hour of the day........hhhmmmmm not so much! We were at the park from 9am and got home at midnight. A 15 hour day!!

Magic Kingdom was like a land all of it's own. To get there - first you drive your car to the car park then you get on a open air bus to the front gates. From there it is your choice if you want to take the 'monorail' or the 'ferry' to the main entrance to the Magic Kingdom. We took the ferry across the lake. It really creates the story that you are being transported to another world!

Loads of rides, loads of shows, loads of performances  and a big beautiful main street that comes alive in the evening with an electric light show of floats filled with Disney characters (pictured below). Followed by the most incredible and magical fireworks display, set off over the castle.

Day 4 - Epcot - (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). This theme park had two sections. The front of the park has rides and shows etc. A Test Track ride where you become the crash test dummy and the race car driver all in one. A Rocket Launch Simulator - Experience the pressure of a real rocket launch. At the rear of the park was an entire world of different countries. From China, Mexico, Italy, Japan, Norway through to England (unfortunately no Australia though - was very much looking forward to a meat pie)!! However in England we did find some real "Fish & Chips"!

Had some very full and fun days of theme parks here, but have had some really nice 'down days' here in Orlando too. We have caught up with another friend we met in Fort Lauderdale - Charlie.

He and his daughter Victoria have come to our apartment for dinner and we have shared the most incredibly cooked sirloin steaks on the grill followed up with Keylime pie. Now Charlie manages a nearby Golf & Country Club called "Lake Nona".

Me being the 'non - golfer' that I am was not familiar with the names of Annika Sorenstam & Yani Tseng. Only the women's world #1 and former women's world #1golfers! Charlie is such a generous, caring and hospitable person and he invited us to join him for dinner at the Country Club for family night. There we joined him for an incredible buffet of food and dined with the number #3 men's golfer in the world Ian Poulter, whilst Jackson and Makalea played with all the kids on jumping castles and craft rooms etc. I really wish I new something about golf to appreciate the company I was surrounded by! Charlie said that along with the golfers who play the course and have homes on the estate, it has or is also home to famous tennis players such as Jim Courier and Pete Sampras at some time or another.

Let me tell you about my dining experience. It is a 'gated community' and our names were left at the Country Club gates. Well, we all dressed appropriately in "Country Club" attire. I had on a full length grey dress with silver belt and shoes to match. Makalea dressed in lovely top & skirt and David & Jackson in collared shirt and shorts. We opted to leave Kenny at home for the evening!

Surrounded in the room of 20 to 30 people, of worlds best golfers and families. Charlie was quite the host and ordered champagne, Shirley temples for the kids and sushi to start with. Then followed by an amazing buffet of meats, salads, vegetables and desserts.

Yes that's right - remember the scene in Pretty Women when Julia Roberts is was way out of her comfort zone ........that was me!

Charlie also invited us back on the Sunday to the Pool Party, where we were surrounded by golfers, their families and we also met Miley Cyrus' stunt double! The Golf & Country Club had a fairly big pool, a DJ, a huge blow up water slide, pizza's, salads, drinks, a cup cake truck and a big blow up ball that you hop inside and roll down the hill in. Gee...do these people do it right!

We will be forever grateful to Charlie and his family for letting us experience and be a part of his life here in Orlando.

An epic blog to do this time, so here is part 1 and part 2 will be up towards the end of the week, with some of Kenny's antics, when we finally start heading away from Florida towards those other 15 states we still need to see.

Till next time, Team Connor USA