Driving Donnerstag

The miles are starting to stack up

 Welcome thursday. The day we leave the warm and sunny hand of Florida to try out greener pastures further north. Our first stage in our long way to Washington was a drive to Atlanta, Georgia. A a 700+ km drive.

The drive was quite uneventful, mostly just cruise control on the I-75.

In Atlanta we got dinner at Tin Lizzy's. Good mexican food. And then we tried out the nightlife, which turned out to be quite lame for a thursday. Especially considering the fact that that there is several millions living in the area. We managed, despite the lack of a big crowd to stay out late.

Plenty of this view on the I-75

Our drive

Atlanta skyline

Whacky Wednesday

KSC Rocket display

Eirik was supposed to wake us up at 9, as he had to get up to have a phone interview with Norway. He decided on the opposite though, to have the interview in his room, and not wake us up.

This meant that we slept until 1030am. When we did wake up, packing started for our ride to Kennedy Space Center, 90 minutes delayed.

The ride up took a long hour, and we arrived around 1pm and set of. After Eiriks recommendation, we headed straight to the guided bus tour around the facility, and ended up at the Apollo exhibition with a full size Saturn V rocket. Big stuff. The center had a lot to do, but because of our late departure, and need to get to Orlando in time for the NBA game.

Fake astronaut

We departed a bit over 4 after a quick visit to the space shuttle exhibition and headed to Orlando. After an uneventful game, check in was performed at DoubleTree by Hilton, beers were consumed and the shuttle taken to the Amway Center for the final game of the regular NBA season between Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers. This game was sadly not important to any of the teams, because Pacers had already won their conference, and Magic had no chance to get to the playoffs.

Our seats were high up by the roof, and we soon decided that we deserved some of the empty seats down closer to the court. After the first period we snuck ourself into the lower stands, and captured a couple of $200+ seats. These gave us a good view of the rest of the game.

Basketball itself (as most other american sports) are not my cup of tea in the end. The crowd is mostly quiet when they play, and just get loud when they have a chance to get free stuff or get on the big screen during the breaks. People don't even clap when points are scored, unless its a three-pointer or a big dunk.

Hangar where Saturn V was assembled

After the game we had dinner, decided not to get drunk again, and headed back to the hotel, preparing for a long drive the next day to Atlanta

Pad where Saturn V was launched

Command center for Apollo 8

Saturn V

External fuel tanks for the Space Shuttle

Atlantis space shuttle

Our route

Alligator Tuesday!

The team ready for departure

Blue Tuesday. Woke up tired and hung over, again. But Eirik was pushing through as host and served us scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. Very pleasant.

After some laughing about last night, we headed for the car and set of towards Palms Bay for kayaking into the Turkey Creek Sanctuary. Sunscreen was applied and smiles put on before well headed up there river.

Eirik showing the way

We had a great 90 minutes paddle up to the dam, filled with jumping fish, turtles, alligators and squirrels. The only thing missing was a manatee.

When we set of we were told that alligators were present, but I imagined that they would be small any cute. But the feeling of sitting in a kayak that was actually smaller than the gator, and passing within 5 meters of it was quite exciting. It could easily broken the kayak in two if it wanted.

The turtles on the other hand. Super cute where they stand on branches out of the water and soaking up the sun.

Big friendly alligator

After paddling all the way back to base, we went to a Japanese buffet restaurant and had all we could eat sushi and every other conceivable Japanese dish for the whopping price of $8.95. Crazy cheap.

Laundry was done, and drinks were had.

The evening was spent watching a thunderstorm and later playing beer-bingo at a local pub.

Whack a turtle

Get inside!

Didn't get bingo

Monday Morning Blues

Taco Bell!

Monday morning. Spend it on the beach in Clearwater, and drive to Melbourne in the afternoon, or drive in the morning and spend the afternoon on the beach in Melbourne? We decided on option 3, sleep in the morning, drive during the day, and arrive in Melbourne in the evening. To minimize our exposure to the sun. (or maybe just remember to put on an alarm the next time).

Stian took the wheel today, and Sindre the position as mapreader, with me safely placed in the back seat with a book. They guided us safely to our destination, even with a small detour to the airport in Tampa. I read like 100 pages in my book, and concluded that american roads are perfect for backseat reading.

Sindre working Indiana Harbour Beach

We finally found a TacoBell and had a great meal there. Some of us even had two.

Our arrival in Melbourne was a bit in front of schedule, so we went to a beach to throw balls while waiting for Eirik to finish his defence.

Kava-bar in Melbourne

We met up at his place at 4 with beer and ice, and spent the rest of the sunny hours by the pool in his "luxury apartment resort".

Our movement today

After getting tipsy, we decided to try out the monday night party scene in Melbourne, which turned out to be non-existent.

Sunny Sunday!

Heia Bloggen!

Tampa Bay LFC Supporters

A couple of days ago we decided that we needed to decide what to do on our spare Sunday. We decided on going to Clearwater (without much reasearch) because it seemed to be the beach town closest to Tampa.


But before we headed out west, me and Stian had to go to Four Green Fields in Tampa to watch the all important Liverpool vs Man City-game, at 0837am local time, in a hangover. This was a true nervewrecker, but we pulled through and got the three points.

Important with the correct tools

After the game, we went back to our friend Howard Johnson and picked up Sindre for our "short" drive to the beach. Sindre got behind the wheel for the first time, and did well. But surprisingly enough, there was a massive queue. Apparently people in Tampa also likes to go to the beach on Sundays.

Arriving at Clearwater we understood that our choice was good. The weather was perfect, the beach was sweet and the water a refreshing 23 (73) degrees. I won't say much more, and just show some  nice pics instead.

We did some hard work with  tanning oil, and went early to bed, tired from last night, to be ready for our drive to Melbourne and Eirik.

Beachwalkin'

Getting our ass whopped in volleyball

Solkongen

Lots of ppl

Work that singlet

Best ppl on the bests beach

Roundabout in amerika?!

Sunset playtime

Praise that ball

Where we went

Saturday funday

After a great partynight in Ybor City after the hockey game, we woke up in our very nice hotel annoyed that we didn't spend the extra money to stay in the same hotel two nights.

But whats done is done, so our bags were packed, and we jumped in our beloved Chevy, which uses 8 liters/100 km on highways, and drove the 10 minutes to our new home, the Howard Johnson Downtown Plaza.

We did a stop on Channelside Drive on our way over for breakfast/lunch at Hooters (who actually had their first restaurant just outside Tampa). The girls were nice and pretty, but the food was very average, probably not going back there again. Then we did some shopping, guy style. Go to the first shop you find, but the first stuff you find in the store, and go home. We got 4 shorts, 10 t-shirts, a wallet and some jandals in less than 30 mins. Efficiency!

A lot of time was spent branstorming about who this Howard Johnson really was, and we decided that he probably was infamous in the drug business or something. The hotel showed real signs of being build during the peak years of the chain, the 70s, when it was probably super fancy, but the age was starting to show now.

Anyhow.

The rest of the daylight was enjoyed in the sun next to the extremely cold pool working on the tan, and practicing watervolleyball.

We had some greek food for dinner, a mixed experience. Hair in one dish, missing plates, a missing dish, super loud music, the main course arrived at the same time as the appertizers and so on. In addition my hair almost got burnt by some fireshow they had for our neighbor. The food itself was ok, but I would not recommend this place to anyone else. You cant always trust TripAdvisor.

After this we became happy, again, only this time we ended up in Hyde Park/Soho, instead of Ybor City.

I'm very positively suprised by Tampa. Didn't have any expectations, but we had a really good time here!

I have apparently not taken any (publishable)photos of anything from saturday. So I'll just leave you with a map of our movement.

Drive on

Hei Bloggen!

Today we drove from Miami to Tampa. Stopped by Sjømannskirken, but it was closed. Missed the exit to Everglades City, so didn't see any alligators, stopped in Naples for an ice cream, and then to Tampa.

Got a nice hotel, watched the NHL game, and went out. Super hungover, so can't write more now.

Tampa Skyline

Lightning vs Blue Jackets

Beach in Naples