28th - We headed further up the West coast of Florida to St Pete's Beach.Kirsty has been here before with her parents and so remembered that it was a pretty place with lovely white beaches and perhaps even somewhere to fish!! We arrived mid afternoon and, for only the second time since our arrival in America, we had trouble finding a hotel.We have lots of coupon brochures which offer large discounts on many chain hotels which have proved invaluable in the past when we have been looking for somewhere to stay but, unfortunately, we discovered these coupons cannot be used during the Christmas holiday period, which extends to 1st January.We therefore went back to our most reliable hotel finder, the internet, and managed to book a Days Inn so we had a room for the night!

29th - Went to the supermarket to get some squid, bait for Ralph's next fishing attempt! Drove to St Pete's Pier and set up for the day, but after an hour without a single bite, we decided to pack up the fishing gear and go for lunch instead. We are not ones to stick around when theres no action!After a lovely Chinese meal on the pier we headed back to the hotel.We had a true American sports bar attached to our hotel.It was the sort of place you only think exists on t.v.We went there to watch the American Football game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.This was a significant game because if New England won they would become the first team since Miami in 1972 to complete a perfect season (all 16 games of the season won).We therefore decided to watch this piece of history whilst playing pool and eating cheap bar food.We should have known the food was going to be bad when the people behind the bar ordered Chinese takeaway rather than eat from the kitchens.Kirsty's burger arrived and it was frozen in the middle.When she took it back to them they asked her what she would like them to do with it, they literally had no idea what they could do to solve the problem that it wasn't cooked!We had a really good night there though, apart from the fact that the bar allowed smoking and we are not used to being in smoky places anymore.We played pool and the jukebox and watched New England go down in history by winning the game - it also gave us the opportunity to get acquainted with the rules of American Football before heading to Tampa tomorrow.The bar was an interesting mix of people, full of rednecks in white vests and jeans, and bikers in full leather!

30th - We drove north east to the city of Tampa as we had tickets to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play American Football against the South Carolina Panthers.The atmosphere at one of these games is difficult to describe.Everyone gets there about 3 hours before the game and parks up and then have barbeques and picnics under marquees which they set up next to their cars.The area next to the stadium was filled with thousands of people eating, drinking and playing amateur versions of American football next to their cars.There is a real carnival atmosphere, again possibly due to the fact that there is no real away support.When we got into the stadium we gorged ourselves on hotdogs, pizza, beers (Ralph!), candy floss and soda.The stadium is a real gem, complete with a full size "Buccaneer" ship (which fires cannon every time the home team scored), cheerleaders, mascots etc.Ralph really enjoyed the game as he followed American Football as a boy and so got really into the sport again.I on the other hand felt that the game stopped and started too often to be able to really get into it - not like my beloved basketball!The main reason for this is to fit in all the adverts that the advertisers want as all the games are shown on t.v.We knew that the Buccaneers would not be playing their best game as they are already through to the play-offs and so were fearful of injuries and they only just lost the game.We still had a great time and are now pleased that we have seen 3 of the 4 main sports played in the U.S. (only baseball to go now!), although we will try and watch Mr Beckham in LA.We got back to the hotel and watched Simpsons The Movie.

31st - New Years Eve arrived and we drove further north and back to the coast to Clearwater, where we have holidayed in the past.Clearwater has perfect white sand and a huge beach which stretches for miles.We checked into our hotel and then found the beautiful and expensive hotel we stayed at last time we were on holiday here and cheekily spent part of the day around their hotel and hot tub looking out towards the ocean!You have to do this things sometimes as travellers!We then went to the famous Pier 60 in Clearwater to look at the arts and craft stalls and watch the final sunset of 2007, a beautiful sight.We then went and watched the fishermen bringing in their catch of the evening and gut and fillet the fish, including one fisherman who filleted two small sharks with total skill and speed.We celebrated the last day of 2007 by going to our favourite restaurant in Clearwater, Crabby Bill's, which serves things like calamari and Alligator bites.We received a call from Kirsty's mum at 7 p.m. our time, as it was Midnight in the UK and they were just therefore celebrating the New Year.We then went down on to the sand (it was dark apart from the small amount of light coming from the Pier) and acted like total kids, kicking in sandcastles we found on the beach and jumping over the waves in the ocean.Once we got back to the hotel we had received an e-mail from Ralph's work colleague Phil to say that his sister, Jac, lived near Clearwater and was having a New Years Eve party and would love for us to go.A phone call and a couple of showers later and we were on our way!We knew we had arrived at the right place when we saw that the house had a British as well as an American flag outside.Once we entered, it was like being in Santa's grotto! Jac has 236 decorated and lit Christmas trees all over the inside of the house and it looks totally spectacular, the most Christmassy we have felt whilst being in the U.S.We had the best time celebrating New Year with these amazingly kind people who had never met or spoken to us until that night and were offering us a place to stay as soon as we arrived - we cannot thank them enough.Every available surface was filled with food, including lots of British influence so Ralph and I tucked into egg mayonnaise sandwiches, tuna and cucumber sandwiches etc.Total heaven!It was also lovely that at the party there was a mixture of lovely, kind Americans as well as their friends from the North East, we certainly enjoyed hearing the Geordie accents for a change.At midnight we watched the ball drop in Times Square, New York to bring in the New Year (an American Kirsty spoke to was astonished when she told him that back in the U.K. we did not watch the Times Square ball drop to bring in the New Year as, due to the time difference, we would have to wait until 5 a.m., but rather we listened to Big Ben's chimes.He said he had never really thought that anyone watched anything other than the Times Square celebrations!!)At 2.30 a.m. we decided we let them go to bed and got back to our hotel at 3 a.m.Another example of how kind people have been to us while we have been over here, happy to accept us into their homes.

1st - Anyone who knows Ralph will not be surprised to know that after the previous nights heavy drinking he did not surface until 2 p.m.Luckily he was feeling quite well at that point so we went to a shopping mall which we used to go to a lot when we were on holiday here.First of all they have the world's best and cheapest pizza by the slice, which was still as amazing as ever.Second of all they have a huge pet shop where they are always selling around 30 puppies.They are all kept in small cages for you to have a look at and, although Kirsty finds it totally cruel to lock them up like this, she always has to go and have a look at puppies to see what they have in.We walked through the door and saw the Bassett Hound of her dreams!We spent much too long in there, but hopefully from the picture of him you will see why!Kirsty was desperate to take him with us and she had to convince herself of the total impracticality of it before she was ready to leave!We headed to the cinema for a back to back viewing of Charlie Wilson's War (really good) and Walk Hard (silly but amusing if you are not a fan of Johnny Cash and Walk the Line).

2nd - We took a drive out to Calladisi state park which we had been told was the second best beach in the world, but it must be the world's best kept secret because we couldn't find it on the tiny island it was situated on!We then headed to the shooting range.Kirsty had decided some time ago that we should try shooting in a range in the U.S. as there are so many supporters of guns here and it's a really big part of the culture.However, when we arrived at the range she had a total shock.It was much louder than she expected it to be and you stood virtually shoulder to shoulder with the person shooting at the side of you.We asked the staff what the best gun would be for people who have not shot before and they chose us a Smith and Wesson 9mm pistol.They set us up with ear and eye protectors and a silhouette target (one of those so that it that looks like you are shooting at a man's outline) and after around 3 minutes instruction explaining to us how to load and fire the gun, we were pointed towards the range.I am afraid at this point Kirsty totally chickened out of shooting the gun!There were around 15 other people shooting right and the side of us, and even with the ear protectors it was amazingly loud and made her jump almost every time a shot went off (which was every few seconds!).Every time Ralph encouraged me to take the gun and shoot I just froze and just could not do it.I instead decided to stay in the range but just to watch Ralph instead.Ralph was a great shooter and it didn't take him long at all to get through 100 bullets.We have kept the silhouette target we were given and all the bullet holes are scarily on target so it seems he has a new found talent!There were a range of targets you could purchase to use, including one of Osama Bin Larden and one of two random Islamic looking people - only in America!!

3rd - We drove to the land of a million dreams, Orlando, in readiness for our week at Disney world.Ralph managed to get a great deal on our accommodation and so we have the luxury of a four bedroomed villa with pool which has cost us less than it would have to stay in a hotel.We headed to Gaylord Palms Hotel where it was the last day of the annual "Ice" spectacular.Basically every year the hotel flies in lots of Chinese ice sculptors to create a huge ice world, sculpting everything from polar bears and rabbits to a full nativity scene with 30 foot angel.We didn't spend too much time there as it was really cold (its ice I know and so they need to keep it cold but we had underestimated how cold!!).We then briefly went ice skating but soon gave up after we found out that American ice skates are totally different to UK ice skates and so we changed from average ice skaters to totally abysmal ice skaters!We went to the supermarket and then, taking advantage of the fact that we can actually cook in the fully equipped kitchen in the villa, we made spaghetti bolognaise.This was the first time we have been able to cook since we arrived in America and it was heaven on a plate! The villa also has free international calls so we have been able to call our parents and speak to them for as long as we want which has been lovely.Kirsty spent an hour on the phone to her dad alone!

4th - We drove to north Orlando and Kirsty put her two new pairs of jeans in to be taken up so soon she will be able to throw away the ones with the great big hole in the knee!We then headed to Downtown Disney to buy our Disney park tickets for next week.Kirsty also managed to replace her Greenday hat which has been lost during the course of the trip from the Virgin Megastore.We then went to one of the Florida malls to see if Kirsty could get any more jeans (designer jeans are SO cheap over here) and then went back to the villa to make chilli and rice.Having a kitchen is sooooooo good!!