Beginning the New Year...Florida Style..

Shortly after the New Year's, I headed off to the sunny and warm Florida. We first flew in to Orlando, spent a day there and drove off to Miami. While in Miami, we visited the Florida Keys as a day trip, and a couple of days in Miami proper. We went to the beach, checked out the city, and overall had fun.

It was a welcome break from the cold winter weather in DC. Even though Washington's winters are not that harsh, it was still a wonderful welcome break from the cold. It was quite comforting to change over from coats and scarfs to shorts and beachwear, overnight! I must say, never before in my life did I enjoy/appreciate the tropical weather this much...part of it is because I was born and grew-up in tropical temperate climate in India. I especially loved being in the Florida Keys - we stopped at the last Key, Key West. Key West is the Southern-most land mass of the continental USA (the "lower 48"). And in the process, we saw and stood at the southern-most part of the USA.

After four days and three nights in Florida, I returned to Orlando for two more days. We visited Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral. It was a great experience for me as space science and rockets fascinated me ever since I was a child. While at the Kennedy Space Center, we checked out the simulated space shuttle launch experience. It was an OK experience, but worth trying it anyway. Wish I were a kid while trying it, so that I enjoyed it..instead of figuring out the the "physics" of simulation and how they created it. Oh well, the joys of being grown ups, and the joys of being a research scientist.

We haven't been to the Disney and Universal theme parks in Orlando, but walked around the parks in their specialized shopping areas. Disney has a "boardwalk" with shops and nice walking area. Universal has a bunch of shops and walking area, similar to Disney. Overall, the feeling I got was that these same theme parks in California were much more busier than those in Florida.

We stayed in a very upscale, 4-star hotel in a very cool neighborhood known as Coconut Grove. Most people tend to choose hotels near the beach, especially near South Beach but I stayed away since I found a better deal for this hotel, and also I felt the beach-front hotels are overly pricey, not worth their price. By the way, the picture on the right is a view of sunrise from my hotel room balcony. What say you, eh?!

I enjoyed Florida so much that I am even tempted to move there in the future. Perhaps California is a better choice, but hey, the Floridian tropical heaven is no less!

I will post photos from my Facebook albums soon. Keep checking this page.