Cypress knees and baby ribs We had an early start today - the fact that we'd been awake since 3.45am had absolutely nothing to do with it of course. After breakfast - today's yogurt flavour was Boston Cream Pie, I kid you not - we set out to explore the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary just northeast of Bonita Springs. Containing the world's largest subtropical Bald Cypress forest, and accessed via a 2 mile boardwalk, we had high hopes for a fun morning. Before we eve...

Bobbing along... Despite having the option of left-overs from last night's behemoth of a pizza, I oddly fancied something lighter for breakfast this morning. I'd decided in Walmart to purchase some yogurts to make a vain attempt at least, of one healthy meal a day. The choice of flavours available had been, unsurprisingly, pretty extensive. This morning's yogurt flavour was Cinnamon Roll and it did indeed taste of said pastry, minus all the calories. It looke...

Waffles, Walmart & waggy tails Woke up to find I had the villa all to myself. I had a vague, sleepy recollection of Mr Fiennes heading off birding at some horrendously early hour - which is fine by me as long as I'm allowed to go promptly back to sleep! The previous occupiers of the villa had left quite a lot of food behind, so I perused the kitchen for anything vaguely breakfast-oriented and came up with a vanilla yogurt - note to self, must go food shoppi...

Pelican's peanut butter The holiday started well with the joy of not queueing with premium economy and yes, madam would like a bucks fizz thank you very much. Unfortunately, on landing at Miami, the US national paranoia kicked in. After the usual rigmarole of photos and fingerprints, we were then selected for Dept of Agriculture security checks. Yes, really! No, we hadn't come from a farm, no, we weren't going to a farm and no, we weren't carrying any fruit or ...

3 days and counting...Our final preparations went surprisingly well over the bank holiday. We now have a roof over our heads for the entire trip, somewhere to park the car whilst we're off swanning and even travel insurance in case Mr Fiennes get eaten by an alligator.Hang on, scrap that last bit - let's face it, if anyone's going to get eaten by a gator, it's gonna be me. My body's affinity to water almost makes it a foregone conclusion!I'm happy to also report ...