Part 1: Los Angeles & Coastal Drive
Part 2: Exploring San Francisco
Part 3: NBA Warriors Game
Part 4: Pier 39, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz
Part 5: Las Vegas
Part 6: The Grand Canyon
Part 7: Disney World, Orlando

Dear Chibi,

Leaving Disney World, we had two more days in Orlando before our drive to Miami. We spent Thanksgiving day at Orlando Eye and Madame Tussauds Orlando. It was pretty relaxing and we were no longer limited to just Disney World food!

Breakfast @Denny’s. They had such a big menu it was almost overwhelming. Breakfast was super sweet. Literally 8D

Orlando Eye is the giant 122m Ferris wheel you see in the background. It’s the fifth tallest Ferris wheel in the world. We decided to ride on it later in the night.

Magic vs Heat

I’m always eager to go to haunted houses at amusement parks but when I see a thing like this it actually freaks me out XD

Madame Tussauds Orlando

Time for some snaps with some famous figures! The props and backdrops makes the whole thing pretty fun :D I’m usually most fascinated by the height of these people.

Oh so tall.

hahaha 8D

Woaaahh, his feet is still on the ground XD

Did you spot Hubby in the background? That face cracks me up every time :’D

Dunno who this boy is. 8D Maybe I’m just old :P

Lady Gaga is so short…

Orlando Eye

It takes 22 minutes to do one loop and fits 16 people in one cabin. There’s only 2 of us so we had a lot of space inside!

And we’re on! Okay, it is a little scary up here ^_^” The edge of the cabin made my legs weak lol

View-wise there wasn’t too much to see since it was pretty dark (Not many night lights around here!) The best view was the lit-up Ferris Wheel itself XD

We had Thai food for dinner which wasn’t too bad. I’m not sure I’ll ever be used to tipping though. The concept is still pretty strange to me… If it’s compulsory and added to the bill anyway, why not just have it as part of the price? It feels a bit silly.

View from our hotel room the next morning

Florida Mall

Black Friday was spent shopping at Florida Mall… and at times, it felt like Disney World all over again, crowds and queues XD We managed to buy a few things, but with the Aussie dollar not-so-great, most things still seemed cheaper back at home. (That’s terrible since everything in Sydney is expensive :P)

We had oh-so-good Shake Shack to start the day. I think I preferred this more than Five Guys and In-N-Out :O Portions were smaller but it was so delicious. Ahh….

Hubby looks pleased 8D

Philly Steaks from the food court.

The next day on route to Miami, we stopped by Walmart since we wanted to know what the fuss was about ^_^” It gave me the most unpleasant vibe XD

Miami

Finally, we reached Coconut Grove, Miami. Finding overnight parking for our car end up being quite a nightmare! Most of the parking areas only allowed 4 hours max, and paying for the metered parking required to you download an app. It took Hubby an hour to find some free street parking almost 1km away o.O

CocoWalk, just a walking distance from our hotel. This place had a pretty lively atmosphere with music and people dancing.

After dinner we had a stroll around the area. We came across many boats damaged by the hurricane.

Everglades National Park

The following day was dedicated to a day trip to Everglades National Park. We grabbed sushi for breakfast from The Fresh Market and also bought 2 boxes of salads for lunch later.

Royal Palm, Everglades National Park

What’s…that?!

Living and breathing alligators just chilling out on the side of the footpath o_o

I guess, proceed at your own risk? XD

One of the very few ‘wildlife’ we saw.

Royal Palm was pretty neat, but that was really all we saw. We didn’t realise the rest of the park (which is the majority) was closed due to the aftermath of Hurricane Irma :( Upon entering the park there was no signage or any warnings about closures but they were happy to take our money. Sigh. At the very least we managed to see a few alligators..

..and the salad lunch was pretty good :O

Back to town we go

We spent the remaining night exploring Bayside Marketplace in Downtown Miami. Kind of reminded me of Circular Quay.

Wandering around, we randomly came across the American Airlines Arena – home of the Miami Heat. No game on tonight though. We would’ve loved to watch another NBA game this trip but nothing landed on the dates we were there.

Our final meal in Miami at LoKal.

Last and final stop… New York