I think this post is going to be a pretty short one – there’s not a lot for me to tell you. The point of my time in Florida was to relax and that’s what I did mostly. I finally got Chick-fil-A (twice) as much as I enjoy it I didn’t want to over do it. I made sure to pick it up myself once so it was fresh. Here’s what the chips look like – an image is probably better as I don’t seem to explain it well. They are yummy though.
In addition to spending time round the house, lying by the pool and swimming, I tried for a beachy sunset on Monday (even though I’m really on the wrong side of the coast). I also went to the beach on Tuesday, the water is so warm in Florida. It’s also hilarious because people talk about how vicious the Florida sun in as how you burn in seconds. The highest UV while I was there was an 8. I think they get 9 or 10 on a very rare day. Which is really nothing compared to Australian sun in the summer. It means I can spend more time outside and be less likely to get burnt, especially if I use sunscreen well. Spray sunscreen is all the rage over there and I’m a fan of the Bannan Boat dry tanning oil SPF 8 & SPF 15 (I also accidentally picked up and SPF 4) so I’ve got a few of those to last for when it’s summer again in Perth! I mentioned I was worried about the weather and there was some cloudy parts of the day. But in typical Florida fashion you could almost guarantee at least some parts of the day would be bright and sunny. It’s safe to say you can definitely see my watch tan and I managed to pretty much avoid getting burnt which is the aim. Unlike some people I don’t subscribe to the idea of getting burnt to help tan. Tanning is not great for you, but there are benefits to vitamin D. But sunburn is definitely bad for you and I’d prefer not to get skin cancer!
That’s pretty much it for Florida. It was relaxing and I didn’t do a lot, which was pretty much the aim. I had one more night in Fort Lauderdale, but I’ll do all of tomorrow in a new post.
(Edit) The pitfalls of doing this after the fact is you forget some things. I may have mentioned this before but it turns out, I unfortunately left my Air Pods in the hotel in Louisville. Despite my attempts to contact them it looks like I’m not getting them back. To make matters worse, when I was cleaning the pool on my second day (I think), one of my pair of backup bluetooth earphones jumped out of me ear and into the pool. I thought it was dead, though it did come back eventually. However, I then lost it on the plane from LA – Melbourne! However, long and short was I needed new earphones. It turns out the US is slightly cheaper than Australia so I used trust amazon to get a new pair of Air Pod Pros delivered to a nearby amazon locker. They weren’t cheap, but at least I now have the new model with the speaker that plays a sound fi I can’t find them!
…and probably my favourite state. Well, I’m back in Australia. Currently, I’m sitting in the Melbourne Business Lounge and I’m on the my third coffee of the morning! I guess it’s good to be home, but I’m kind of sad that the trip is over. I had a great time and I learned a bit about how some things work and how I would do it if I did this trip again. I’ll point these out as I go and maybe do an overall impressions when I’m done, but let’s continue with this chapter of the story.
(So picking up on Saturday) It’s 4.30 in the morning, I’ve had about 4 hours sleep which is not enough! Why do I keep booking these early flights, oh right, they’re the cheap ones. Anyway I’m off the Florida, though the weather forecast has me a little worried. There’s a lot of cloudy days and rainy ones when I’m at Universal… but we’ll see what happens. I’ve got two pretty short flights which is nice. When you end up in Tenessee, Florida isn’t too far away. Nashville airport was nothing exciting, it didn’t take too long to get through and it had an Admirals club, so I got coffee and yogurt. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned, but unlike Australia, most intra-US flights don’t serve food, just a beverage, so pre-flight lounge access is really good as you actually get food!
There were short, uneventful flights including the stop in Charlotte. As the first flight was fast it was a few hours transit, but as I was in the Admirals club it was fine. It meant I got to have some lunch too! I landed in Fort Lauderdale and it’s certainly a smaller airport. You’ve got to take a bus to get to the rental car centre, but it’s no big deal. I got my car, but I was much less enamoured with this one. It was a Chevrolet, but it seemed to be a more base model. No sensors, adaptive cruise control or any of the new fruit. It was fine for what I needed, but I wouldn’t have been happy if it was my first car with all the driving I did in that.
I must admit, I did fine some irony in the fact that the car I picked up in Chicago was licensed in Florida and the car I picked up in Florida was licensed in Texas. (I know it would have been funnier if that was Chicago, but still.) I did really like the fact that I flew into Fort Lauderdale though, especially since I was tired, not having to drive 3 hours from Orlando was very nice.
I went with my usual plan of heading off to Starbucks to kill time as check in wasn’t til 4pm. However at the Starbucks I found I couldn’t see where I was supposed to park – it all seemed to be reserved for other shops. After a bit I decided if I went to Aldi and did shopping it would probably almost be 4. So that’s what I did, went and bought some food (this Aldi was pretty small and a bit disappointing, but If found everything I needed) and then went to my accommodation. It’s the same place I stayed in last year and I found it really relaxing so wanted to do it again. It’s a nice place, too small for me to live in full time, but it’s prefect for a holiday, it’s kind of like a one bedroom studio. It has everything I need including a pool to have a nice relaxing place to myself. I was going to direct you to last years blog post to see photos of where I stayed, but turns out I didn’t get that far last year, so hear you go
I also love the fact that it has a pool – I forgot to take a photo of it this year so I delved back into last years photos. The first two are from last year, the third is this year, showing that my friend, one of the local fauna is still going strong!
I don’t think I did much else that day. I probably laid by the pool briefly and went for a quick swim then cooked some dinner and probably went to bed pretty early – I think I was tired!
Well. my trip is basically over. I’m on the first of 3 flights home (Orlando – LA). Let’s see how much of this I can bring up to date before I actually get home!
Friday was the big day, Country Music Hall of Fame and then as Rayna calls it ‘The Mecca’, the Bluebird Cafe. It looked like parking was going to be complex is some of these places so I made use of some Uber’s today.
The Country Music Hall of Fames was excellent. It was interesting and there was a lot of stuff to see. I did spend about the two hours recommended there. I think the main stand outs were how long country music has been around and how when it’s struggled they’ve changed it up a bit and it keeps on going. Lots of very big names have had at least some hits on country charts as well as others. If you’re in Nashville, I would definitely recommend spending some time there.
Hall of Fame pictures. Yes, Taylor is over represented – what can I say, I’m a fan!
I bundled the RCA Studio B tour with my Country Music Hall of Fame tour. This is the studio on music row where Dolly Parton recorded Jolene, Elvis recorded 20+ of his songs and many more. It was interesting and informative and cool to see the piano Elvis played, the spot he stood on to hear recorded songs and the like.
(Location Update: Well, I’m currently on the plane from LA to Melbourne, less that an hour out now, but that does mean I’m writing this offline. Ugh. Bring internet onto international flights already!)
So without the benefit of past entries I’ll have to remember where I’m up to. I think I just finished writing about the Country Music Hall of Fame and was about to post some pictures. I decided to save some money and take public transport back to my hotel. I had to walk about a km to the bus stop which wasn’t that far, but it was about 33 degrees so I was starting to regret it. But I got back without any incident, though as I have done in the past I put too much money on the travel app system they use.
I had the best intentions to pack when I got back so I would be organised for my earlyish flight in the morning and wouldn’t have to do it when I got back from the Bluebird. However, what I ended up doing was going for a swim and lying out by the pool before I got ready to leave!
Then it was the Bluebird. I once again took an Uber there, as apparently parking is very difficult and I was hoping to have a drink or two. When I got there the lady at the door said she was hoping to give me a better seat than the pews, so she moved me to the bar which was great. The bluebird was setup slightly differently to the way you usually see it in the show – the stage was there, but it just had tables on it – the four muso’s were sitting in a circle in the middle of the room.
As a side note, I did a bit of research in the early days of the show Nashville, they shot at the real Bluebird but as they did more there they built a replica on a sound stage so they had more freedom. The musicians did mention that it’s a great place to play and mentioned its fame from the show. They also joked that people will often come in and ask when Deacon is playing next! I think they did say Charles has played there once or twice.
The musos prefaced their set by saying that it was their own music they were playing. The show went for about 90 minutes, and they did about 4 songs each though a few of them were groups or duets. It was definitely my favourite show. It was original, acoustic country music and I really enjoyed it. I would definitely love to go back! I couldn’t resist the time that Maddie ordered chicken fingers on the show, I didn’t get root beer, but I had a couple of Corona’s and the bluebird basket which was chicken fingers and fries!
After that it was an Uber back to the hotel and then packing. This is always the hardest part of these trips when I move from having a car to flying so I have to get rid of all of my extra stuff. This time I think I had more than ever after the almost 3 weeks I’d had my car for. The Ale 8 was way heavier than expected but I tried to distribute things across my bags, my best estimate was that I should just sneak it under the weight allowance. (AA is limited to 23kg, not the 32kg I get on Qantas). Then bed – I knew I wasn’t going to get enough sleep… My ears tell me we’re starting to descend and this was a long post, so I’ll finish there and pickup in a new post.
Edit:- there’s something I just remembered that I forgot to put in this post. Once I got back from The Bluebird I headed off to a carwash place. Primarily because after all the driving my car was pretty dirty on the outside. I’m not sure you’re required to clean them, but I felt like I should. It also let me use the change machine to get 40 quarters! (that what $10 gives you) Not only did I need them for the car wash, but I knew I’d need there for the washing machine in Fort Lauderdale and my quarter for the trolley if I shopped at Aldi (thanks It’s R Life!)
