Roaming around

Orlando was our last stop on the East Coast! As you can guess, it was basically theme parks. We did Disneyland and Universal Studios and it was amazing. So. Much. Fun. I’ve never been to Universal Studios before, and I finally lived my dream of having butter beer in Harry Potter world. The rides at Universal are incredible, some of them are designed to put you in the middle of the action so it feels and seems to you like you are actually riding a dragon or following Spiderman. Imagination on hyperdrive. I could rave on and on but that would be boring. If you haven’t been and you get the chance, you will love it.

Beach all day, party at night was essentially how Miami worked for us. Going from New Orleans to Miami was interesting as they are quite different which made the contrast between the feel of the places even stronger. Walking along the streets was very entertaining, as you would constantly see gangsters with the bandanas and fancy cars. The beaches were beautiful and the water warm. The nightlife was also good! The best part was definitely being able to laze around on a beach: spending months in -30 winter in Canada made me almost forget what a beach even was. In fact, I distinctly remember one point early into my experience with -30 degrees... I was walking along looking at the snow, when I suddenly became convinced that this one patch of snow looked like sand. I had to fight the hysterical urge to strip my coat/beanie/gloves/scarf off and roll around in the “sand”. Luckily I eventually adjusted to the cold, although to the end of my stay in Quebec I did often found myself rolling around in the snow. 

New Orleans was an amazing experience because nothing could have prepared you for it. I had no real idea as to what to expect. We were staying just out of the French Quarter. The roads were kind of run down, there was this lingering feeling that the Bayou was just around the corner.  Our first night we went out to dinner at a little place called the Blind Pelican just across the tram line. I didn’t catch an alligator and make it into a sausage because that would be very strange and possibly somewhat dangerous. I did eat it though, it tasted odd. The nights are warm there, and you can always here some kind of jazz or live music drifting down from the other small bars scattered along the main road we took to get to the French Quarter.

The hostel we were staying in was a large Louisiana-style house with a garden and a few interesting resident animals. One was the dog I took a picture of, but there was this other strange creature that kind of looked like a possum in a cage in the office. The house was scattered with interesting collectables and paintings, and it had a real homey feel.

The Franklin Fountain, Philadelphia