All Good Things Must Come To An End

The last full day. The sadness. The happiness. And reflection.

The title of this blog is 'The Rose American Dream... Or Is It?'. To be honest and with all things considered it really was a dream holiday and we had an absolute blast - from the relaxation of the pool to all the shops, the theme parks and almost into space at Kennedy. All in all I can hardly fault this trip at all and this is a sentiment shared by us all. Sniff.

I don't think I'll blog from the airport tomorrow night unless we're very delayed so this will be the last (of the holiday). I'll continue to blog from time to time with random pieces of crap, normal service to be resumed.

So this is what we did on our last full day. After our day at Universal yesterday with its early start we gave ourselves a well needed lie in (only broken briefly by a call from across the pond, but that's ok cos we went straight back to the land of nod!). We (liderally) chilled by the pool as it still wasn't that warm this morning. The children braved the cool waters of the swimming pool and I tried my best to relax whilst the beautiful wife buried her nose in a book.

Once the children craved heat we went back to Prime Outlets and whilst Gabby took Freya for a healthy sandwich / salad myself and the boy went for a real burger. I had much researched the 'best burger in Orlando' and the 'tinternet had mentioned Five Guys Burgers and Fries a number of times - so that's what I munched on with my best boy. Now before my main food worriers worry too much this was the only burger I had all holiday - strange but true. How good was this freshly prepared pattie of beauty? Twas excellent and the web was right - thumbs up for this delicious embodiment of America. The burger wasn't huge or beautifully presented - it was just the most tasty of its kind I have devoured in a long time. As for the fries (with skins on), they too hit the spot. Tidy.

Whilst I sat with the children Gabby managed to race round, find a new jacket and jeans, get a couple of things for the children and exchange some Converse shoes (Jacob's Rubik's cube boots) for the bigger size. Phew.

After this we all went to Florida Mall so Freya could 'Build a Bear' with her holiday money - and this she did with the production of the very pink and flowery 'Violet'. Jacob soon decided to follow suit with the brown 'Furry' bear. As you can see from the below picture these animals are popular (at least for today!). I bought some jeans and then we headed back to the hotel so the kids could swim again. Mrs R and I relaxed in the setting sun and thought about how much fun we have had.

We went out for a last night treat to Vito's Chophouse for some decent red meat (that's the family photo below) and only my second steak of the trip for the worriers out there. The meal was excellent as was the service received from 'Ken'. I never seem to menion what the others had as only my food is important (hehe) however Gabby had some delicous lamb (rack of) and even the children meals looked good, Jacob opting for some very nice roast chicken with hand cut wedges and Freya having lamb kebabs with a lovely garlic mash. There was definitely no room for dessert and I may still yet have some (caramel cone Haagen Dazs) ice cream that will have to be left in the freezer (boo hoo).

It's now ten past midnight and almost all packing is done thanks to my top wifey!

Tomorrow I think we'll be back at Epcot in the morning for the final bit of theme park fun before heading to the airport to drop off the 300C (the car) in the afternoon and take the red eye home to ole blighty. This is one flight we are not looking forward to - bah.

Hope everyone is OK there in blog reading land and wish you all a Chag Semeach / Happy Jesus Resurrection and Egg Day.

If there's one conclusion drawn from this trip (apart from 'no wonder there are such big people in the USA if portion size and food prices are anything to go by') it's that somehow, sometime, some day, WE'LL BE BACK!

See you, Paul and the Roses x x x x