10th Dec. It was so nice to have a comfy hotel that we slept in until 11.30! So we had a mad dash to get everything packed and get out of the hotel in half an hour. We drove about 20 miles down the coast to Smyrna Beach to set up the new fishing gear and play baseball on the sand. Kirsty is a real natural at baseball and I'd forgotten how bad I am at fishing - 4 hours and nothing caught. 1-0 to the fish. The biggest disappointment is that the fish managed to get the bait without getting hooked, so they are outwitting me! Grrrrrr. Smyrna Beach is one of the few beaches that you can drive on (like Daytona) but a small place so we headed off to Titusville for dinner and a hotel as that is a bit bigger. We are officially in the land of discounted hotels as there are coupons everywhere for hotels at £20-30 per night. This alerted us to the fact that we are getting nearer to Disney and, even though we were only there 7 months ago, Kirsty is getting really excited at the prospect of seeing Mickey again (we'll say hello to him for Olivia, and tell him that she'll be coming to see him soon). Titusville is dead! There is nothing there, which is a real surprise as it's the best place for civilians to watch shuttle launches and gets tens of thousands flocking there on launch days. We managed to find one seafood restaurant (which was a real find because we had reconciled ourselves to the fact that we were going to have to go to McDonalds or Burger King as that's all we could find), and there was a deputy sheriff sitting by the counter. We thought it must be a rough place or he was on his lunch break, but he stayed there for over an hour just chatting to the staff, so we assumed he must have been either a lazy cop or there is no crime in Titusville.

11th We went over to the Kennedy Space Center. When we were there in May, Kirsty thought it would be a good idea to get an annual ticket for an extra $12 so we wouldn't have to pay this time and it was a great idea as we will probably come and watch the January launch from here as it is 7 miles closer than the Titusville or Cocoa Beach viewing areas. There is a new simulation ride there called Shuttle Launch Experience which was really good without making you vomit like Epcot's Mission: Space ride does. Last time we were here, we wondered why it didn't have something that simulated a rocket ride, so they've sorted that out. We also had a nice talk from John Fabian, an astronaut who rode the shuttle twice in the 80s. As we were leaving, Kirsty asked a woman at the reception desk where the best place to view a shuttle lauch is. The woman asked what tickets we had and when we said Annual Passes, she said 'shhhh' and slipped us a Kennedy VIP parking pass for January's launch meaning we will be able to watch it from the Space Center itself, which is reserved for only a few. Nice lady. We drove though Cocoa Beach which was as dead as Daytona Beach (both large but just about closed for the winter) and decided to head for Orlando for a couple of days - I think Kirsty was shaking with excitement the whole way. We checked into a hotel (using our discount coupons again!) and then headed to Downtown Disney.This is a sort of Disney themed shopping and entertainment complex set around a beautiful lake.The Christmas lights were everywhere (you would love it Janice) and Girardelli were giving out free chocolate samples as always, so we got a free dessert. After a bit of shopping and soaking up the Disney magic we headed to the hotel and slept for 11 hours (we are sleeping so much - it's a good job we didn't get a 3 month VISA).