Category: America Trip 2016

Ok… Tenuous again… but we saw lots of animals that could have been in Africa….!

Today we went to Busch Gardens! It’s like a theme park and a Zoo/Safari all mixed into one! Crazy…

After some fun getting parked we headed on in.. and got lost! but eventually ended up at Sheikra (via Animals and children’s play areas!) Floorless and twisty… it was fun! 🙂

We then went for ride on the cable car which gave us a fab view of the park and the surrounding area! After the cable car we made some friends with some animals…

We grabbed some lunch and carried on looking at the animals and carried on getting lost! We managed to find the train station and went for a ride round the “Serengeti Plains”…

We also went for a ride on another of Busch’s Roller coasters… I don’t really think there’s much here to describe!

Before long it was getting dark and Busch was closing so we headed home… or tried to… we got a little lost getting out, but eventually made it!

For dinner that night we went to a place in Soho Tampa which was a really funky Mexican… They were closing but managed to squeeze us in… really lovely food! We drove along the really lovely seafront boulevard and then went to Ybor city (really nearby) for pretty chilled evening!

I’m out of ideas on this one… All suggestions gratefully received.

Today I slept in! (It’s a holiday afterall!) I met Hannah for lunch on the beautiful USF campus.. and we had lunch on the campus “Beach” (Sand round a lake!)… I even got a keyring from the “Bookstore” to add to my collection (They really didn’t just sell books!)

From there I went to International Plaza… Imagine Brent Cross, bigger, nicer, better and cheaper…. I did some more damage!! Teehee!!

From International Plaza I headed down to the lovely Sarrasota for dinner with Sarah who is living out there… I’m a little jel.. it’s a lovely place to be!

From Sarrasota I headed back to get some sleep before flying home tomorrow! 🙁

and off I went… I left Hannah’s and headed straight for the Airport… My suitcase had a little tape on it to patch up the break it received on the way down… and that was that… bags checked in… home time final!!

I popped back to the Car desk to thank the Lady from the car hire for the amazing car!

…Then I headed through security and to the gate. We were delayed half an hour. I’d not been assigned a seat so went to the desk and asked… he assigned me a seat and said “Good news, I’ve got you a window this time” (as I’d explained I’d had no window on the way down)…

Fat much good that was….

After taxi-ing… we were told there was a further 20 min delay before we could take off… 20 mins passed and the pilot came back to say that there were engine issues and we’d have to go back to the gate. Joys. Eventually we were off and on the way to JFK.

From JFK I transferred terminals and waited for my flight home home!

On the plane home, it was pretty empty… I tried to get upgraded to business with no avail.. but instead managed to bag three seats to myself to try and sleep on. Nice try. the arm rests didn’t lift fully and it’s just not comfy.

On arrival back home at Heathrow, I phoned dad to let him know I was about to get on the tube… when him and mum popped up and surprised me… they had come to pick me up as a surprise… YAY I really wasn’t looking forward to the Piccadilly line! 😀

I’m home! I’m sure I’ll do some sort of concluding post soon… Meanwhile I ought to get looking for a job to earn some money so I can go back!