Day One

We started the day with a visit to the local tax office to organise Harrison's disabled parking permit.  As you would expect, the car parks in Florida are huge, so without the permit he'd be worn out before we even reached the entrance of the attraction or shopping mall!

The tax office was an impressive place:

Inside it was very modern and extremely well organised.  We were greeted by a receptionist who issued us with a ticket showing a letter followed by a 3-digit number (G253).  We  were told to take a seat and wait to be called.  There were several large screens around the waiting area showing the ticket numbers, category of enquiry and the number of the booth serving.  The waiting area was extremely busy and it was a bit disheartening to see that G187 was currently being served.  As there were booths also dealing with the letter codes W, R and O, we were expecting a very long wait so decided to amuse ourselves by trying to work out the letter code and numbering system.  It kept us occupied for the next 15 minutes but we couldn't work it out!  We were pleasantly surprised to be called so soon and proceeded through the automatic doors into one of the back offices to our allocated booth.  A lovely young woman called Kim served us and issued us with a temporary three month permit.  No need to rush back to the UK then ;-)  From arriving at the reception desk, our whole experience lasted only 30 minutes.  

Back in the car and we headed off to the Tourist Information centre that I'd spotted on the way to the tax office.  Have you ever seen a tourist information centre like this?

 

We ended up spending over an hour here, with a large proportion of the time watching this fish catching her lunch:

These are the fortunate few who managed to survive a few more hours:

We were really pleased that we stopped here.  Not only was the centre itself a great attraction, we also came away with some ideas of places to visit not centred around the theme parks.  Unfortunately, we will need yet another holiday here to see everything - we're so disappointed (not)!!

Despite having such a choice of things to do now, we decided just to head south and to see where we would end up. The further we drove, the more rural it became.  By now it was 2pm and Harrison announced that he wanted to go for a swim in our pool.  Unfortunately by the time we arrived home, the clouds had gathered and were turning black.  All of a sudden the wind got up so Harrison retreated to his bedroom and put the television on to drown out the sound of the thunder!  Bernard and I sat outside under our covered area and watched the storm. 

We took our first trip to Florida Mall in the evening and then stopped at the Macaroni Grill for dinner on the way back.  

All of the tables are covered in disposable, paper tablecloths and equipped with three coloured crayons.  Bernard embraced his creative side whilst waiting for our meal: