The Sunshine State

Greetings from the US of A! It's nice to be home, but it was sad to leave Central America. No worries - in a week and a half we'll be off to Peru to start our South American tour. So far, though, Florida has been tons of fun.

We started off in Orlando by helping out with and attending Jake and Karin's wedding - Jake's an old friend of Jeff's from Chicago. It was a beautiful wedding and I just had to buy shoes for it so all in all it was a great experience. Jeff got to help Jake out with the fireworks display - and we're talking big fireworks. The kind I didn't know you could do yourself from home. They wired up an 89 firework show and it was a huge hit with the wedding crowd (not so much with the neighbors).

After the wedding (the next day) we went to a water park - which I haven't done since I lived in AZ. It was fun but a little chilly out for all that water. There was one awesome ride called the Brain Wash but it was more like a toilet bowl you got flushed down - very disorienting and way fun. By far the best ride!

Now we're in Fort Lauderdale and have done some strange and awesome things like go to the Everglades and a Pig Roast. The Everglades were fantastic but scary due to all the ALLIGATORS. Check out the pics - we saw one in the wild and it came straight for our boat - straight for ME. Where I was sitting anyway. But the nice tour guide said he was there to stop it from jumping in our boat. Nice of him. Then as we walked around the other exhibits I read this dandy little sign that said "be careful of other gators in the area as they are not part of this park and are wild animals" - and we SAW ONE! I nearly peed my pants but everyone else seemed to find it fascinating. It's all fun and games tell he's after you and you have to run in a zig zag motion to get away.

The pig roast was ok - I actually opted for a burger - but the people watching at the pig roast was phenomenal. These Floridians - or people that visit - sure are fascinating to watch. Oh and! To support my girls in Chicago - we took a day trip to South Beach - I may not diet with my girls, but I'll visit the homeland of the diet - and have pizza and a coke.

I'm off today for Arizona&Vegas and Jeff leaves on Friday for Puerto Rico. I'm sure we'll have interesting pictures after this coming weekend!