First holiday entry - FLORIDA

So it was that two girls woke up before dawn one Thursday morning and began their journey to the land of the free. Following an eight-hour flight to DC, a half-hour queue through immigration (seriously, a queue of about 50 people all catching connections and you have ONE COUNTER OPEN!!? This was not America's finest moment...) and a lung-destroying run through the terminal, we arrived in Tampa armed only with cameras, money and passports. The mention of the extensive queueing at immigration and the running through the terminal perhaps suggests to you that making the connecting flight was just a teensy weensy bit tight. So much so in fact that they held the gate open just for us, as customs phoned up to get the staff to hold the gate open. A sardonic applauds wouldn't have surprised me.

The only logical conclusion you can thus come to is that we made it onto the plane to Tampa, but our luggage did not. So our first night was spent with very little to keep us comfortable, as security restrictions meant we couldn't take any cosmetics on the plane. K-Mart was our saviour and after we'd collected Red Randy (yes, we are sad and named our car) we spent a small fortune on girly things. Stuff was SO CHEAP!!! Just as an example a nail care product I regularly buy causes me to cringe every time it is rung through the till at £8.99. Imagine my excitement when I discovered the same product in K-Mart for $2.99. That's like £1.50!!!! Unbelievable.

Our luggage arrived overnight and being a bit keen we phoned reception at 6am (we woke up early, it was 11am in the UK) to find out if they had appeared and thankfully we were reunited shortly afterwards. So we headed for emBusch Gardens - so much fun! Weather wasn't great as there were thunderstorms circling Tampa Bay, so it was pretty empty and even though we were caught in tropical rain halfway through the day (and had to purchase some highly flattering yellow plastic ponchos) we managed to go on all the good rides twice. We were also very much entertained by the people failing to spot the "Caution! Wet zone!" signs and getting drenched from head to toe by one of the rollercoasters rushing through a pool of water.

The main problem we encountered as tourists, which followed us throughout the holiday until we reached the metropoles, was the lack of reasonable, non-junk food available. As a result we ate a whole lot of fried food and very little vegetables - I did really miss my greens! Big detox for the next couple of weeks to get rid of all the unhealthiness. In Busch Gardens I had salmon with supposedly vegetables but I wouldn't have been surprised if someone had told me they were rubber. Other than that it was burgers, ribs and fries all round (I am a sufferer OAS, so I can't have fresh fruit and veg and thus salad!)

In Tampa we took a brief drive to Ybor City, which is the so called Historic District. EVERYWHERE in the US has a historic district. We translated it to mean the oldest houses in that area regardless of age - ranging from antebellum dwellings to early century townhouses. Even the tiniest little villages have them and some are more impressive than others. It was fairly cute - some little shops and stuff but didn't feel like the cuddliest of areas. We did encounter a Coyote Ugly though which was hysterical but were too tired after our day rollercoasting to enjoy it much.

Florida didn't get the chance to enjoy us for long - the next day, Saturday, we piled our cases into Red Randy and zoomed off towards Savannah. Our drive took us six hours north via Orlando and Daytona Beach, where we took a stroll along the seaside. The ultimate Spring Break spot was sooooo quiet, it was actually quite nice for the ocean-walking. And the weather, in spite of warnings on The Weather Channel, was glorious!!! The spot where we lunched was a mexican bar and all the walls and tables were adorned with comments from previous patrons, most spring-break related. Drunken students really are easily amused!!!