Wednesday 17th February 2016

I've decided upon a new career for myself. I want to be a food blogger/reviewer, specifically of American fast food outlets. I could give a unique British perspective as I travel up and down America advising on the best place to find a $4 breakfast, and who serves the widest variety of soft drinks. If my work is popular, I could branch out into more upmarket establishments, maybe even add hotels to my repertoire, maybe a TV series along the lines of "Woman vs. Food" but without having to eat the ridiculously impossible portion sizes.

Today the rest of our little group went to the Kennedy Space Center (sic) at Cape Canaveral, about an hour away. Hari, Clara and I were left behind to do what we do best - shop and eat. We walked the mile and a half to the junction of Sand Lake Road and Turkey Lake Road, checking out the shops on the way, and pausing for a break at Dunkin's Donuts (7.5/10:  good value and friendly service but it's no Krispy Kreme).

Once there we had a wander around Whole Foods. What a marvellous place! Not that I'm in any way a health freak (see paragraph 1) but I love the idea of buying my couscous by the scoop, and it had the most wonderful selection of fruit and veg, and an amazing range of salads. Best of all, it actually had cheese. Real cheese. Stilton, St. Agur, Gouda, Wensleydale with cranberries, goat's cheese. Admittedly they were in the "speciality cheese" section (the regular cheese section was just the usual Monterrey Jack and fake Swiss the Americans seem so fond of) but it was good to know that in between fast food visits I could enjoy my favourite savoury snack.

Behind Whole Foods we discovered Michael's which turned out to be a craft store.Wonderful, wonderful place. We then crossed the I-4 slip roads (fun times) and walked to International Drive to check out the gift and souvenir shops. Usual Disney tat, but cheaper than buying Disney tat from Disney. (Sadly no Universal tat. The girls wanted "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" t-shirts, but they were $21.95 each at Universal so we thought we'd get them elsewhere. However, it seems they haven't been licensed anywhere else. The replica options said either "Drunk 1" and "Drunk 2" or "Sexy 1" and "Sexy 2" and I am not buying those for my children.)

No duck face for once, because she didn't know
I was taking her photo. Ha!

Hari got to choose where we went for lunch. There were four possible options within reach. Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits, Wendy's, Chick-fil-a, and Checkers. The only one I've ever been to before was Wendy's and I was quite excited to try somewhere new. So of course Hari chose Wendy's.

No complaints, though. It was delicious! American friends, have you tried their bacon fondue fries? Amazing, and only $2.29. I give Wendy's 9/10, especially since they had the widest variety of drinks I've seen anywhere. (Lime flavoured diet coke was yummy, raspberry flavoured diet coke was disgusting.) It loses a point just because it didn't seem to have any sort of desserts on offer. Now I want to try the other places, hence my food blogging career plan.

We caught a bus back because by this point we'd walked five miles and had sore feet. Then we hit the pool for the afternoon.

The rest of the gang arrived back from the Kennedy Space Centre at 7. They'd had a wonderful time and reported that it was well worth a visit. I'd cooked up a big pot of tuna pasta which just about fed us all, and then it was time to say farewell to Angie who flies home to New Zealand tomorrow.