Florida 2011

Two years ago yesterday, my family and I flew out to Florida to begin our month long holiday in America.

For those of you good at maths (or just good at stalking) you'll realise that this meant that the day after Anthony asked me out, I left the country for four weeks. I'm not sure anyone would have said our relationship would have survived this long if they'd known I ran away for that long the day after it started. I'm not sure Anthony has quite forgiven for me that yet...

Since I posted my top ten photos of Paris yesterday, I thought I'd do the same for each state we visited during our holiday to America (we visited four). To celebrate the two year mark (and to keep you entertained while I'm away), I'm going to post my top ten photos from each of the four places we visited.

Our first destination was Florida (Orlando to be exact). We had been warned about the heat (America was also experience record heat during the four weeks we were there) but nothing could have prepared us for the wall of warmth that hit us when we left the airport. It was a very fitting welcome.

We spent most of our two weeks in Florida making the most of our 14 day passes to the theme parks. This basically meant that we went on every ride in the Harry Potter world more than 3 times each and tried every ride that took our fancy. We also visited Ripley's museum, a water park, Busch Gardens, Disney Land and an incredibly big shopping mall.

While it may have been too hot for us (thank you America for air conditioning everything, including your buses), I can't wait for the chance to visit the theme parks again. It was amazing.

Here's my ten favourite photos, that all seem to have the theme of "Theme Parks".... I guess you can tell what my favourite part was, ha! Enjoy!

 1. This was the first picture of me and my sister that was taken in Florida. It was our first visit to Universal and I absolutely love that we have "The Adventure Begins" above us.

2. Dad and I stood in front of the Hogwarts Express, with an American trying to sound British. It was fabulous. 

3. I think the reason I love this photo is that this was taken at around 2/3 in the afternoon when the place should have been full to the brim. There was a thunderstorm close enough that the place was closed and I snapped this before we admitted defeat and left as well. 

4. Me and Mum with characters from a TV show we know well but have never really watched/enjoyed. Tourism at it's best! 

5. A couple of the cars from the (then) new Fast Five film were just chilling so I had photos with them. I'm not actually sure if I'd even seen any of the films at this point... 

6. Those fans were life savers while we were in Florida. Other than the fact that they blew air in to our faces, the bottom was filled with water and you could have it spray on your face whenever you wanted. They were the best things we bought (other than our Harry Potter stuff) and I was absolutely gutted when we couldn't fit them in our suitcases. 

7. Me and my "1st Time in Disney" badge!

8. This is Mum and the plate of salmon she spent the entire meal trying to get us all to try a piece of (even though I haven't eaten fish in 12 years). This photo was taken mid bite/ask and we found it so funny, we cried with laughter and brought it up everyday for the rest of the trip. It still cracks me up now (sorry Mum!).

9. I don't think I'll ever love a holiday photo of my Dad more than this one. 

10. I will never, ever be able to explain how much Harry Potter means to me. I will also never be able to explain how much my Dad loves it as well. You'd get some idea by looking at the amount of Harry Potter themed items we own but that still wouldn't give you the complete idea. Visiting Harry Potter world was a massive deal to both of us and this remains my favourite photo of me and my Dad. I have it on my bookcase right now, in a Mirror of Erised themed frame.