Up early, at the crack of dawn actually although dawn is later in Florida than it is at the moment in the UK. I’ve been half awake since 3.30 am because of the jet lag but feeling ok now. It’s 6.30 am in Orlando, 11.30 back home. My laptop time is still BST.

The view from my room, 869, is wonderful. Truly stunning. It evokes luxury. At this time of day there aren’t many people around. Just the occasional bod strolling around the pool area and down by the lake. The noises are tropical. Lots of water from fountains and waterfall in and around the pool together with periodic tweeting of birds.

I’m sat in shorts and tshirt with the balcony door open and can see the palm fronds below stirring gently in the breeze. It is cloudy, being the rainy season but it is warm. In theory I should go to the gym before breakfast but I’m not sure I will do so today. We are off out for the day at 11am in the rented convertible Mustang and feel a relaxing morning around the hotel will be in order.

Slight hitch with the convertible. Turns out there are two Hyatt Regency hotels in Orlando and our car is at the other one. Matt and Dom went along to pick it up whilst I hopped over to an outlet mall to buy some Levi 501s. Got two pairs for £25 each. A steal.

At the Mall I hit the jackpot.  ATommy Bahama shop. They don’t have them in the UK. Tommy Bahama does the coolest shirts around. I bought two and a hat. The pics are in the gallery below.

Also in the gallery are photos of our day out. We hit a nature reserve called Black Hammock and had a ride in an airboat. The lake as 9,500 alligators in it!! We only saw two. It was too hot for them – approximately 95 degrees Farenheit.

Thence to Cape Canaveral and Grills bar where Rum Runners, scallops wrapped in bacon and lobster with Jamaican wild rice were the order of the day. Tropical perfection with a great band playing in the background. Loads of wildlife all over Florida and at Canaveral we watched Pelicans perch on wooden piles as huge cruise liners went by. I was also quite impressed to see an abundance of eagles around.

Coming home we hit a very heavy thunderstorm. Matt was driving and had to slow down almost to a crawl. One amusing incident on the way home was where Matt threw some quarters into the coin gathering machine at the toll plaza and missed. He had to try again and missed a second time at which point he was forced to get out of the car to pick one of the coins up off the floor. I had earlier told him that the cool thing to do was to not actually stop the car whilst driving through the toll area but to just toss the coins in as we drove by.

Some of the boats at Cape Canaveral go out 90 miles to try and catch the bigger fish. These are very fast craft. Enjoy the pics. look out for a post on our trip to Kennedy Space Centre tomorrow.