Florida again for our last two weeks in the USA

Kayaking at Wekiva Springs

Leaving Cedar Key we headed for Orlando where we dropped off our rental car and picked up another, which will be the last one of our trip. Many people who visit Orlando head for Disney's Epcot, Magic Kingdom, or Universal Studio's, but that's not our style, instead we spent a great day at Wekiva Springs State Park where we went canoeing on the river and swimming in the springs. It was quite busy with Spring Breakers doing the same thing but not as crowded as the theme parks would have been. We also went to a Ripley's "Believe It or Not" which was a bit quirky, and visited some shopping malls too.

Lovely big house on the river

Orlando was only a short stop before returning to see our friends Trevor and Carol in Homosassa again, who had a full house with Don, an 84 year old US Navy veteran who had come down from Delaware, and Eddie and Lily who were visiting from the UK, as well as us. That weekend was "Shrimpa Palooza", a Mardi Gras style festival in the town, celebrating everything "Shrimp" - what we know as king prawns. After the morning parade there were stalls of local artisan and craft goods, great food and local bands playing music in the sunshine.

Carol, Trevor, Craig, Jim, Lily and Eddie at The Freezer

During our few days at Homosassa we certainly had a great time, including a lovely meal with everyone at "The Rusty Duck" - a truly rustic eating house where you bring your own bottle, and with a menu that by normal American standards could be considered fine dining. As we know from our previous visit, many of the homes round here have water access and boat docks - the picture above is one of the bigger places - and Jim the next door neighbor kindly offered to take all of us out in his boat for a trip along the estuary. We went upstream this time, docking at The Freezer Tiki Bar for a simple but delicious lunch of seasoned fresh boiled shrimp, before heading up to the hot springs for a swim in the waters that are the winter home of manatee - though they have all moved away now that the weather has warmed up.

Sponge covered bike at Tarpon Springs

Ellis and Fay, another British couple who live there 6 months of the year, hosted a really nice drinks and nibbles evening at their house where we met lots of people, and for our last morning in Homosassa we all went out for breakfast to Kims, a small local cafe which serves tasty short order food. Just one week of our trip remained when we said our farewells and headed off towards Tampa, stopping for lunch at Tarpon Springs, which is the sponge capital of the USA and with the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the US it has a distinctly Greek feel.

Making Cigars by hand in Ybor City

In Tampa, we spent a day in the sun on the beach at Indian Rocks and saw dolphins swimming past, and have been to Ybor City, a historic nieghborhood famed for its cigar factories and where cigars are still hand rolled today. Unsurprisingly there is a distinct Cuban feel here, and we happened to be there for the fourth annual Cuban Sandwich festival, where they broke the record for the world's largest Cuban sandwich. In the afternoon we headed off to St Petersburg for a walk on the pier and along the beautiful waterfront.

Siesta Beach

Today we went to Siesta Key to walk on the white quartz sand for which this beach has been voted #1 in the USA, and tomorrow with a forecast of rain we are going to the Dali museum in St Petersburg. As you probably know our trip is coming to an end so by the time you read this we will be counting down the hours before we have to say goodbye to the United States and board our flight home.

There is no photo album this time but we'll post again soon with some facts and figures about our trip, along with an album and also our future plans.