Sunsets and Storms in Florida

26/2/2019

My parents go on quite a lot of holidays to Florida, and growing up we all used to go as a family. Now their kids are older they go on their own, but I decided to fly out and join them for a bit. I love everything about the Sunshine State, it's so diverse, probably as diverse as US states come; you've got the orange groves which are pretty much all over the place, the alligator infested swamps of the Everglades in the middle, beautiful white-sanded shorelines all of the way around, tourist haven in Orlando, and the arty, trendy city of Miami in the South East corner. I know the first thing everyone thinks about when they imagine a holiday to Florida is a package deal trip to Disneyworld, but there's so much more to it than that; and when you've done all the tourist sights, there's a lot of beauty off the beaten track.

I'm going to write a full on guide to my favourite parts of the State later on, but for now I'll focus on my most recent trip. It was more of a relaxing stay, as we've been to all the theme parks numerous times now, although at the grand old age of 27 I still LOVE a day out to Disneyworld! The Magic Kingdom never gets old and no matter what age, or how many times I've been, it never fails to fill me with wonder - I truly am a big kid when it comes to all things Disney. Of course, I dragged my mother along with me for the day out (my Dad chooses to stay at the house) and we spent the day in the Magic Kingdom. We always head there mid afternoon, and then stay until closing as we get to see the fireworks this way. It also happens that most of the time I'm in Florida, it's around Halloween - my favourite time in Disneyworld! Everything gets decorated for the occasion, and it looks amazing, the Americans don't half put their all into it.

Apart from Disney Halloween festivities, I always do a lot of shopping when I go to FL (hello Sephora), but other than that we spend most of the time relaxing and going out to dinner etc. Unfortunately this trip was in the midst of Hurricane Irma - the biggest hurricane to ever grace the Atlantic Ocean. So we were on lockdown in the house for almost three days - all of the shops were shut, and there was a curfew put on residents by the government - you weren't allowed to leave your house. It was a pretty big downer on the trip as it meant we lost out on days, but some people in the state had it so much worse, so we were lucky. The news was filled with hurricane warnings, and how to stock up for emergencies - the way it was broadcast you'd have thought an apocalypse was coming. It truly was scary and really did cause mass panic; all of the supermarkets were out of water and bread, and we were advised to fill as many containers (and baths!) as we could with water in case it got cut off. When the hurricane hit, I've never felt or heard anything like it, and we were also unfortunately in Hurricane Katrina a few years back (we counted ourselves lucky, as thousands of people lost their homes in this tragedy). I tried to go to sleep but it was as if the roof was going to fly off. You could hear bins and parts of trees blowing around the street outside, and smashing into buildings, cars and windows. Tiles were flying off rooves and sheets of rain were lashing every surface imagineable. When we thought we were in the worst of the storm, it only escalated further, until we were under the eye. This was the creepiest part as everything fell silent - no wind, no rain, it was eerie - then half an hour later the eye of the storm passed and we were back to the pelting downpour and 180mph winds. For some unbeknown reason our electric managed to stay on - reportedly 70% of the states electricity was lost (apparently anyway).

When Irma left us, everything went back to relatively normal in our area, we were extremely fortunate that we managed to keep power and water, a lot of the state had outages that lasted weeks! I would recommend not visiting Florida in hurricane season!! Although the likelihood of getting caught up in such a mammoth storm isn't that high. Wet season in Florida is just that, extremely WET season - but because of the heat, the rain dries up as fast as it comes, so it doesn't affect your trip too much.

Aside from hurricane planning and Disneyworld, I like to peruse the malls and outlets a lot - I find things are so much cheaper in the USA than at home. My number one spot is of course Sephora, I'm addicted to buying make up. If you're into it, Ulta Beauty is also a great shop, and a little cheaper than Sephora. Luckily for me, there are Sephora branches all over the place - there's one in the JC Penney near where we stay, and there's a brand new store in Disney Springs (the refurbished Downtown Disney - it has a lot more shops now and is weirdly very quiet, which is good!). I also like to go to Florida Mall, the Mall at Millennia, and Prime Outlets on the end of International Drive.

For eating, there are countless places to eat and drink, there are the obvious chains like Denny's, Olive Garden, Perkins and Applebee's, which are all pretty good, but my favourite places to eat are Bob Evans and Cracker Barrel. They sell real hearty, home-cooked food, they don't do anything fancy but it's that farm fresh feeling that is really appealing. I'm sure I'll think of a hundred more restaurants after I've finished writing this, but I'll list them later on in the guide.

Lastly, if you want a chilled day out which includes a glass bottomed boat trip, head up north to Ocala, and visit Silver Springs. It's a nature park which the Silver River flows through, and you guessed it, is home to many springs. The park is beautiful and you can see wild alligator and manatees (not that I ever have seen manatees!), alongside an array of birds and turtles.