Kate finally gets to America!

Well, I have been most remiss is not posting since…July! Blimey!

Anyway, since July I have two fabulous holidays – one on the West Coast of Scotland (large quantities of shortbread consumed) and one in Florida (large quantities consumed).

It was my first time in the USA and I was intrigued to find out exactly what the access is like for disabled people, having been told how superior it is to the UK. I was not misinformed. I’m sorry to say we are lagging behind badly in this country.

Starting in Disneyland, the efforts which have been gone to, to make so many rides accessible, is amazing. I don’t know a theme park in this country that has anything like the number of attractions and rides fully accessible to disabled people. I went on both Toy Story rides, the Finding Nemo ride, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, a magic carpet ride we won’t talk about (suffice to say that I am chicken, and when the man said “hey, we’re gonna send you guys round again” I begged to be let off a ride that my small nephews thought was fabulous – it was not my finest hour), the Jungle Cruise, the Safari and the Bugs show. And I’m sure I’ve missed some off that list!

After the first week, we moved on to Miami Beach, where we ate breakfast in Gloria Estefan’s hotel on Ocean Drive (lovely scrambled eggs which she clearly made for me herself, as I am her biggest fan) and also had dinner on Ocean Drive, where we got the shock of our lives on discovering that the margueritas as big as our heads were $25. The morale of the story is, if you have to ask the price, you probably can’t afford it.

It was very interesting to see Miami, but I’m glad we only stayed there one full day. Crockett and Tubbs didn’t appear, which was most disappointing frankly.

After that, it was on down to the Florida Keys, which I heartily recommend. We went on a glass-bottom boat at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo – it went really fast out to the 3^rd largest barrier reef in the world and then floated over it so we could gaze down at the little fishes. Brilliant! Even more amazing was the Dolphin Research Centre in Key West – up close and personal with the lovely dolphins, who are not captive and are completely free to come and go. I couldn’t get down onto a pontoon to meet a dolphin, but my brother took some photos of me with dolphin swimming around behind, and after a few minutes, I’m sure he (dolphin, not brother) worked out what we were doing, and kept swimming slowly past me, eyeing me the whole time. They really are amazing creatures.

We spent 2 nights in Key West, which is an amazing place and I would definitely go back. Duval Street is where it all happens – great shops, restaurants and bars – and every night everyone watches the sunset from the harbour, surrounded by street entertainers. Me, my brother and sister-in-law had a great night in 'Sloppy Joe's' - make sure you go if you're ever in Key West!

We found the American people to be lovely – complete strangers say hello to you on the street, which rarely happens here! And every single meal we had was lovely – I got the impression they don’t know how to serve bad food!

Looking forward to going back!