Peter's Japan blog

We got up early, checked out the hotel and took our car to the Alamo rental station, where we got on a shuttle bus to the airport terminal. First we had a short flight to Atlanta, where we had a connecting flight of 9 hours to Brussels. We arrived early in the morning at 8h30 on Sunday. Belgium is still quite different from the US, but we are glad to be back after 3 weeks in the US ;p Back to normal life :)

Quite a long ride today to the farthest point South in the USA that is reachable by car: Key West. It is reached over many bridges between the small islands of the Keys. It was a long drive but it had very beautiful scenery. But at Key West itself it was pretty hot weather.

It was our last in the US, so we had to pack our bags and get every we bought in our suitcase and hopefully get it safely back to Belgium ;p

Our last National Park on this trip, the Everglades. The Everglades are very large, and is actually a huge almost dry river bed. It features many animals like alligators, herons, turtles, etc.
Our first stop was at an alligator farm which also had those boat rides in those hovercraft boats with the big propeller on it which "fly" over the grass. We got to experience some 360's on it as well, which was fun ;p. The alligator farm also had an alligator feeding show and a snake show. Those hovercraft boats are not allowed inside the park btw.
After this we went to the park and got on the last ride through the park. We got to see many alligators again, right next to our open bus. Many beautiful birds and even some turtles.

In the evening we went to eat something at a nearby mall and to have a beer at a Hooters bar ;p.

Today we drove to Miami, in particular, Miami Beach, where we stayed at the Hotel Marseilles. It has small pool but was right at the beach and had a small sand garden with palm trees and hammocks. We stayed some time on the beach and went to drink a cocktail in the evening.

Today we went to SeaWorld. SeaWorld is like a zoo combined with a family park. It's many water animals and live shows with animals but also has some theme park features like roller coasters and the likes. They had two wonderful shows with dolphins and killer whales. And a funny pirate show with sea otters and a Cirque du Soleil show.
The roller coaster here, "The Kraken", was quite fast. I went on it thinking it wouldn't be so rough by looking at it, but it must have been the fastest one I've been on. I looked it up afterwards and the Kraken has an acceleration of 3.9G !!
Anyway, we had a great time although it was very hot weather.

It was an hour drive eastward, to Kennedy Space Center, also known as Cape Canaveral or just The Cape. It's located on an long-stretched island that sticks out of Florida. Although the space center is located here, it is also a natural park with even endangered species. But because the whole is off limits, nature can just go its way.
Anyway, we drove up to the visitor center and got on the tour bus, which took us for a drive by the VAB, Vehicle Assembly Building, one of the largest buildings in the world when talking about space. This is were the space shuttle is attached to the huge fuel tank and the boosters. After which they are taken to launch pad 39A or 39B using the Crawler, a huge vehicle that moves very slow. Our first stop was at the Launch Pad 39 observation gantry, which was the closest we were allowed. The space shuttle was actually on the launch pad, but the launch pad had its back to us, but we could see the big fuel tank on the top. There was also a real single engine from the space shuttle on display.
After this we got on the bus to the next stop, which was the Apollo-Saturn V center. It has a huge hall which has a life-size restored Saturn V launch rocket, and man, it's BIG! It has two theaters: one has a retelling of the Apollo 11 story and the other the reliving of a Apollo-era firing room. And of course, several real used items. After having something to eat here, we got on the bus again to the next stop at the ISS center, where there are several old parts on display and a real disassembly hall of the iSS. After this it's back to the visitor center, where there were some more attractions, like a 3D IMAX movie about the ISS, a space shuttle launch simulator, the first space shuttle Destiny which you can walk into and the Rocket Garden.
Kennedy Space Center was a lot better than we anticipated, it's a must visit if you go to visit Florida. It was very interesting to see all this.

Today was our last very long drive, 6 hours to Orlando. It was very warm when we arrived in Orlando and to our surprise, our hotel had been bought by another hotel chain ;p. It originally was a Best Western, but now it was an EconoLodge hotel ;p. But the reservations were still in order so that was okay. Sam and Tim went to the pool of the hotel and me and Nick were going to check some shops. I wanted to check a certain comic shop to look for anime/manga, but I found more at the big mall which was opposite of that shop. You can read more about it in my other post about "Finding anime in Orlando".
Went back to eat something at UNO Chicago Grill which was very good. After that we went back to the hotel and played some poker with a pile of 1 cents ;p.

Today we are leaving our lovely chalet behind and had a 6 hour drive to Atlanta. We're actually just passing through as we're only staying here for one night. We arrived in the early afternoon and decided to go visit the Coca-Cola Museum. Coca-cola originated from Atlanta, hence the museum.
It was quite interesting: they had a theater, a 3d theater, a small real coca-cola factory, an exhibition about the coca-cola company, coca-cola in art and a tasting room where you could taste all of the different drinks that the Coca-Cola company distributed around the world. It was divided between all 5 continents. You could taste as much as you like but not every drink was as good as the other. Some even tasted disgusting like I was drinking water with an asperine. But some were very good. We also got to take home a freshly made coca-cola bottle from the small factory as a souvenir. And the exit is of course through the museum shop with loads and loads of merchandise.