Dear All,

So the inevitable has happened and the trip of our life time has come to an end. Sorry it has taken us so long to write up this final instalment, I guess we've been putting it off so as to prolong the feeling of travelling! This last instalment saw us finishing off eastern Canada before heading south to Florida for a spot of relaxation before heading home. Sun, sand and Alligators as well as a new found liking for Margaritas!!

Tuesday 26th May - Quebec City to Montreal

The VIA rail train took us right in to the heart of Montreal and after a short walk carrying our bags we checked in to our hostel. We went for a nice long walk down to the waterfront area of the old city and were sorely tempted to buy tickets for Cirque du Soleil that was on the pier, but ended up simply walking the streets of Vieux Montreal taking in the quaint cobbled streets and nice restaurants.

Wednesday 27th May - Montreal

The weather was rubbish today so it didn't inspire us to explore the city on foot. Instead we headed to the shopping area until lunchtime. After sneakily eating our sandwiches in a nice warm/dry food court we split up so that I could go and watch the Champions League final and Liz could continue shopping. I found a quaint Irish pub which was packed full of fans wanting to see the game. Liz came and found me shortly before the end of the match and did her best to console me before we headed out and to the local pizza place for some comfort food.

Thursday 28th May - Montreal to Mont Tremblant

We made use of public transport to get ourselves to Montreal airport where we picked up the latest rental car to explore the Laurentians region. This car was a brand new Ford Focus with just 1km on the clock!! It also had bad boy rims, and Sirius satellite radio which allowed us to listen to Radio 1 which was a welcome change. We drove up to Mont Tremblant via a couple of little stops at Saint Saveur and Val David. After checking in to our YHA hostel we went for a drive to Mont Tremblant village which is a very cute, purpose built ski resort/village during the season.However, the wet weather somewhat curtailed our adventures for the day so we headed back to the hostel for the most sleepless night of our trip, sharing the room with one very strange, loud, snoring man…

Friday 29th May - Mont Tremblant

As the weather was a bit nicer we again drove to Mont Tremblant village to explore and take some pictures from the lake. We were hoping to cycle the popular Train du'nord cycle path but the rain kept coming and going so instead in a break in the clouds we decided to take advantage of the free canoe at the hostel and head to the little lake which the hostel sat on. We paddled around for a good hour with the Lake to ourselves, even had our sandwiches in the middle of the lake and generally had a good laugh as we fulfilled something we had both wanted to do on this trip. When the rain came again we raced to the shore and grabbed our swimmers and headed to the swimming pool at Mont Tremblant village where we enjoyed the outdoor hot tub and steam room for a couple of hours (again to ourselves).

Saturday 30th May - Mont Tremblant to Everglades (Florida)

Drove back to Montreal airport, dropped of the car and flew to Miami where we picked up another car, again a new Focus and hit the road immediately for our accommodation in Florida city, the Everglades international hostel. The hostel was a little rustic but had free internet and pancakes so really was a travellers dream! Having arrived in Florida in rainy/stormy season we waited for the daily storm to pass before heading to Walmart to pick up some groceries. Rock and roll.

Sunday 31st May - Everglades to Key West

The drive down to Key West is long and to be honest, quite boring. After the novelty of driving with beautiful ocean either side of you the rest of the journey is long and tedious as the speed limit is max 55mph. We did break the journey up though by stopping at a lovely beach called Anne's beach where we had our sandwiches in 90F heat. We eventually arrived in Key West and found our guest house, the Angelina guest house. This was the cheapest place we could find so we were pleasantly surprised to find it to be absolutely beautiful, gorgeous building with lovely and well-equipped room. We were very happy with our choice! The owner gave us some great tips on where to go and we headed out to explore. We first hit Duval Street, the main commercial road which has lots of shops, bars, pubs and restaurants along it, then we went to a bar that had been recommended for its happy hour margaritas. $6 got us both a tumbler sized key lime margarita which was very nice. We got chatting to a nice American couple (Laura and Andrew) who very kindly insisted on buying us another margarita before we headed down to the sunset celebration which takes place at Mallory Square every night. We were also distracted by the street performers and enormous cruise ships (Disney) that were docked at the quay. Feeling in the mood to treat ourselves we had some food at Carolina's, another place recommended by our hosts before heading back to the guest house.

Monday 1st June - Key West to Everglades

We had read that the breakfast at Angelina GH was excellent and we weren't disappointed when we went down and took advantage of homemade cinnamon rolls, bagels, cereals, toast and fresh fruit. We chatted to an English couple over breakfast, before relaxing by the lovely pool in what was stunning sunshine and heat. When we were sufficiently toasted we went for another walk around Key West. There were two new cruise ships at the harbour, one of which was the biggest ship we've both ever seen, I still don't understand how something that massive floats... We had a coke in a bar at the harbour then headed back to the guest house to pick up the car and head back to the Everglades hostel for the night. On the way we stopped off at the southernmost point of the USA which is closer to Cuba (90 miles) than it is to Miami. That night we stayed at the same hostel (Everglades's international hostel) and again made use of the free internet to book some onward accommodation.

Tuesday 2nd June - Everglades to Sarasota

Pancakes for breakie again, before driving to the Florida Alligator Farm. Here we got to hold huge snakes, baby alligators and view hundreds of alligators in the breeding ponds. We also did an air boat ride, Gentle Ben style, which was great fun, especially when the driver did his 360 spins meaning most people got soaked. Somehow I managed to stay dry whilst Liz got completely soaked sitting next to me, hehehehe. From here we drove to Sarasota through an incredible lightning storm. The rain at one point was so heavy we couldn't see out of the windscreen of the car and we then came across a smoking tree a few yards to the side of the road. At first we thought it was a car accident but not seeing any vehicles we then realised it had been hit by lightning - scary. We got to Sarasota and found our B&B which was a lovely little place nestled among some very impressive houses in exclusive Sarasota. We walked to the beach then to the cute bar and restaurant area where we had some food at a place called Cha Cha Coconuts. Liz even allowed me to go mad a get an enormous Ben and Jerry's waffle cone ice cream as we walked back, clearly the purse strings were loosening the nearer we got to the end!

Wednesday 3rd June - Sarasota to St. Petersburg

We drove to a lovely beach on Siesta Key and stayed there for a couple of hours. The sand was bright white and felt like fine flour. We had some lunch at a local restaurant before jumping in the car for the drive up to St. Petersburg. Here, we simply checked in to our Ramada Inn room and went for a swim in the pool before relaxing in front of the TV (a novelty for us).

Thursday 4th June - St. Petersburg to Kissimmee (Orlando)

In the morning we drove to Fort De Soto Park which was voted as having the USA's best beach……in 2005. The beach was lovely but the weather wasn't so great and it started to rain shortly after we got there. We were there long enough however to see a dolphin jumping out of the sea right in front of us on the beach which was pretty cool as we were the only people on the beach to see it, our own personal show. We drove up the coast to Clearwater where stopped off for an ice-cream on the beach before hitting the road again. Next stop was the Cuban area of Tampa called Ybor city. This was a lovely, old fashioned area influenced by the local Cuban community where you could see cigars being rolled by hand in several of the shop windows. Final stop of the day was our hostel in Kissimmee/Orlando. The drive took us past hundreds of cheap eateries offering all you can eat for as little as $8 but we somehow resisted and made it to our hostel room before buying some groceries to cook for ourselves and conserve some money for the big splurge in Miami.

Friday 5th June - Kissimmee to Fort Lauderdale

We got up earlyish as we wanted to get to the Kennedy Space Centre as soon as we could to avoid crowds. We arrived and donned our 3D glasses to watch one of the IMAX films they show. Very impressive indeed. We then looked around the rocket garden before jumping on one of the tour buses that take you around the rest of the massive complex. First we saw the hangars where they keep the space shuttles, then the crawler that transports the shuttle to the launch pad at 1mph. First stop was the viewing tower where we were lucky enough to see the Endeavor shuttle being readied for launch on June 13th. The bus then took us to see the Apollo/Saturn display building which goes through the whole process of landing man on the moon etc. The highlight being the gigantic Apollo 5 rocket that is mounted above you in the hangar. The final stop was where they make parts for the international space centre. We were able to see in to the factory where real parts are made ready to be shuttled up in to space. After dodging a very heavy rain storm we got our own experience of a shuttle launch in the new 'Shuttle launch experience' simulator and finally we watched the second Imax movie before heading out and got on to the road for Fort Lauderdale (7 hours there just wasn't enough!). The drive took about 3 hours so we only had time to check in by the time we got there.

Saturday 6th June - Fort Lauderdale

In the morning we walked to the beach with arms full of free chairs, umbrella and boogie board that we could use courtesy of the hostel. It was very hot on the beach so we only lasted an hour or so, though the afternoon storm's imminent arrival also curtailed our beach time as predicted. To avoid the rain we drove to the massive Sawgrass Mills outlet mall for a spot of window shopping.

Sunday 7th June - Fort Lauderdale to Miami South Beach

In the morning we decided to explore Fort Lauderdale a bit so we jumped on the water taxi near our hostel and cruised down the canals looking at the amazing waterfront houses of the rich and famous. We also saw enormous iguanas basking in the sun on the bridges as we sailed passed. We had a great skipper who had all the knowledge about who owned which house and all the stories which was an added bonus. We got off at Los Olas Boulevard and followed the riverfront walk where we came across a free Sunday Jazz brunch.Here we found loads of people sitting having picnics by the water listening, and some dancing, to jazz musicians. This was really nice and made even nicer by the free (soft) drinks they were giving out so we sat and enjoyed our freebies for a while before jumping back on the water taxi to take us back to our car.We then drove south to Miami (Miami Beach) where we gave in our car.We walked back to our hotel via the beach before heading out to grab some cheap Mexican food as our hostel/hotel kitchen as billed was no more than a microwave!!

Monday 8th June - Miami Beach

Today we spent a few hours relaxing and sunning ourselves on SoBe (South beach) before taking a walk down the famous, art deco inspired Ocean Drive. We checked out all the bars and restaurants before settling on one to have a drink in the happy hour. That night we went out for dinner, to a Mexican place on Espanola way where we were staying.

Tuesday 9th June - Miami Beach

This morning we treated ourselves to a big breakfast in a traditional American style diner before checking out of our hostel and in to our final accommodation of the trip the Blue Moon Hotel. Still in South Beach, this was our little bit of luxury before heading home so we made sure it was perfect by cajoling Reception until we got the nicest room we possibly could. As it was so hot we sat around the pool for a bit in the shade before heading up to the Lincoln Road Mall area of the city. This area has loads of restaurants and shops and is mostly pedestrianised so really nice to just wander around. We came across the Van Dyke pub which we'd read had nice food so we sat and had some dinner there - amazing meat ball sandwich! The afternoon storm arrived shortly after we sat down so we waited until this passed before heading back to our hotel. On the way though we saw an amazing double rainbow so dashed to the beach to see if we could get some pictures, which we did.

Wednesday 10th June - Miami Beach

Weather was fantastic with no storms/rain predicted for the afternoon so we spent the whole day on the beach, splashing out for once on a much needed umbrella. That evening, the last of the trip, we went out for some cocktails on Ocean drive before having a steak dinner at one of the nicer restaurants on the strip. We then went back to our hotel for another drink only to get conned by the 'deal' they had going on. Too long a story to write here but ask us if you're interested - we are still mystified.

Thursday 11th June - Miami to London

We filled up on the great buffet breakfast before checking out of our room and putting bags in storage room. We headed to the beach as the weather was amazing again (92F) where we stayed for a couple of hours. We enjoyed one last meal on Ocean Drive before checking out the shops on Collins Avenue and heading back to the Blue Moon to freshen up and get ready to leave for the airport. The flight back to London was one of the bumpiest either of us has ever been on and with the Air France crash freshly in our minds neither of us really enjoyed the sleepless night bouncing over the Atlantic. We of course arrived safely and on time though to be met by my Dad.

So that is that! Our trip has come to an end and we are back in England ready to get back in to the real world. We will be based in Eastbourne during the job hunt so do feel free to come and see us should you fancy a day at the seaside otherwise we hope to see you soon once we've got ourselves sorted.

The trip has been amazing, we did everything we wanted to and more and loved every minute of it. Our favourite place has to be New Zealand simply because it was so diverse, beautiful and packed full of things to do but we loved everywhere we visited and would recommend it all to anyone else.

Thank you for reading our blog, we hope you've enjoyed reading it and that it has inspired you to see some if not all of the 6 countries we have managed to visit in the last 7 months.

We look forward to seeing all our friends and family asap if we haven't already,

Phil and Liz x

Ps.As a bit of fun, we discussed what we had learned about each other on this trip and in a nutshell it is as follows:

Phil - loves sharks and waterfalls and is completely unflappable, oh except when parking

Liz - loves double rainbows, landscapes, is a little braver than before and incredibly resourceful, except when it comes to dealing with huge bugs...