Day 318, 18 May 2013, Port of Miami, Florida - Embarkation on "Carnival Liberty" for 7 days Exotic Western Caribbean cruise. What can we say, we got a deal. Mind you, if we win the US$612 million Florida Lottery tonight, we'll be doing this a bit more often! Wow! The ship is huge - over 2500 passengers. Embarkation was, all things considered a breeze and we were very happy to find the stateroom was right in the centre of the ship... way down on Deck 1 - perfe...

Day 317, 17 May 2013, South Beach, Miami (Florida). Spent a couple of hours down on the beach watching the beautiful (and not so beautiful) people frolic in the waves. Have come to the conclusion that Miami Vice, CSI Miami, etc etc are a load of bunk. Have seen many policemen in South Beach. They all wear knee length shorts, ride bicycles and have not been witnessed solving crimes in exactly one hour or racing across the bay in cigarette boats. Highly disappo...

Day 316, 16 May 2013, South Beach, Miami (Florida). We cruised up and down Collins Avenue looking in the shops this morning. Our bags are at capacity (or at about 120% if you were to listen to the bags...) so need nothing and bought nothing, but fun never the less. Lunchtime was an extravaganza of tasty treats at David's Cafe on Collins - for $8.95 each (+ tax and tip of course) we had an all you can eat Cuban buffet. Turns out Cuban food does not differ in a...

Day 315, 15 May 2013, South Beach, Miami (Florida). It was 0-600 hours when the alarm went off - in the words of Robin Williams in the movie "Good-morning Vietnam" - "What's the "0" stand for? Oh my god it's early!" It is the essence of sunrises however that they never occur at sensible times of the day. We pulled on some clothes and strolled to the water and we had timed it perfectly. No sign of the sun. We had a walk along the shore. We paddled, we checked ...

Day 314, 14 May 20, Airboat ride through the Florida Everglades - saw the 'Gators. Also saw turtles, herons, egrets and gallinules... known collectively as 'Gator Food! James and I have what some people would call a bucket list. As we travel we try to do things each of us have yearned to do and we definitely do things both of us have yearned to do. Airboating in the Everglades was one of those "definitely" things - probably as a result of far too many Miami V...