It was already a long cherished dream of ours to visit the United States, but where to begin. It's such a big country. So the first trip we had made (in august 2016) was to Florida with a bonus stay in New York for several days.
We flew from New York to Orlando with Delta Airlines. It was funny to see that at the airport at New York you had several buildings for departure and that a lot of different airlines had it's own building.
When we arrived at Orlando we had to get the rental car. I told my wife, when she booked the car, that it would be fun if we got ourselves a 'real american' car. So when we arrived at the desk of the rental company I told my son "maybe the man will give us a escalade (my dream to drive once). The guy turned over and said "Ok, you want a Escalade ? " and so he arranged for us to have a escalade.
When we came at the parkingspace we already saw the car shiny and clean... It was a huge SUV and I was excited to take a drive in it :)
The car was so big that my son had to stand on his toes to get into the car :)
When we got al the stuff in the car we drove towards our first stop, a resort in Orlando, to ease some days of the trip and a lot of walking in New York.
The kids could have a swim in a waterpark (on the resort) and we could chill a little.
At the resort , during check in, they told us that we had to pay for using the waterpark but if we would attend a presentation we got it for free. I already noticed this beeing a commerical trick I agreed attending, my wife was not amused :). So we did attend and like I already thought, they tried to convince us to 'invest' into the park trough a Time Sharing construction. When I said something about this and that we are not really interested because it's we are not comming to the states every year they turned their story into a bonuspoint construction. Which ment that you get a certain amount of points every year from which you can book a holiday in a lot of different places. When we told them that we still arent interested they got anoyed and simply rude towards us, strange way of doing business isn't it?
The resort itself was awesome, great rooms with a own kitchenette , so we could make our own breakfast and stuff if we wanted to.
Because of the long walks we had in New York our kids loved to relax a little, at the resort they had some great pools, so they could enjoy a nice swim or enjoy themselves in the arcade.
When we walked a bit over the resort we noticed everything being well maintained, the gras was nice green and all the fauna was just stunning.
When we were walking along the resort we noticed that the golf courses were going right trough the park of the resort, so if you would hit the ball it was possible you landed in someones garden :)
There were also some strange visitors on the resort :) I was wondering which cabin they staid.
Florida Mall
My wife is expert in finding stores to shop, so she told us we had to go to the Florida mall. It is the largest mall in the Florida surrounding.
In Holland you have some big mall's too, but they are tiny compared to the Florida Mall. It was also the first time for me to see a valet parking at a mall. That is something that would never been seen in our country.
I was impressed by the size of the mall but thought "It's a mall and that's it", it is no special places other then a lottttttt.....really a lottttttt... of stores :)
One of the reasons we actually went to the mall was because there was this store of Carlo's bakeshop. You know, The Cakeboss (as seen on discovery). So of course we had to go there for a bite. Turned out the shop was opened recently
This was my first time ever to have to queue at a bakkery store :), but we did know that Carlo's was very populair because of his show on Dicovery. The cakeboss (that's how the show is called) creates awesome theme cakes. The official store is in Hoboken, New York.
Like in any great formula they are making the most profit out of it by selling all kinds of goodies like T-shirts, books, drinking can's etc.
I have bought his italian cook book (not in Florida by the way) and have used it a lot already, there are some great and easy to make receipies in it. Worth looking into.
As you can see on my sons face, the cakes were delicious hahaha...
Kennedy Space center
The next stop was Kennedy Space Center. We knew Cape Canaveral where the spaceshuttles got launced for year, in fact there are still launches and people can (of course witht tickets) watch the actual launch.
The coolest thing of the Space Center was, besides all the information, the 'real' rockets on the complex.
It was a crowded day, a lot of busses with people visiting the center.
The center was named, of course, after John F Kennedy, at the entrance there was this great memorialstatue with the famous words.
My son pointed me on this car with wing doors, it turned out to be the new Tesla Model X, this car wasn't available yet in the Netherlands, so we had a scoop haha..
After Kennedy Space Center we went on.
While driving we passed a port where all the Disney cruiseships stopped and started their cruises, unbelievable the size of these ships.
Play some golf
When we returned to the resort my kids asked if we could walk a course of Golf, I thought that would be fun but didn't knew if it was possible. In Holland you have to have a license for the golf courses, while we had them I didn't knew if they were legit in the US as well. It turned out that they are valid, so we had a 9 holes course. The temperature was very high and the humidity too, so I was sweating like a ....well, you name it lol..
This picture is one of my favorite, the way he got that swing, he just looks like a young Tiger woods, doesn't he :)
Playing golf is serious business hahaha.... Just measuring the wind, distances and curve of the green.....
Wow, looking at this post I see it is already major sized.... So this story will absolutely be continued.... :) Hope you enjoyed reading...
Have a great day
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