Orlando

We went to Orlando, Florida for 5 days for a mini family reunion. Neil, Sandra and Charles had not all been together for 10 years.We stayed with Sandra and Dylan in a great apartment about 20 minutes from the Disney Parks.Greater Orlando is soulless and sprawling and evidence of the property crash is still everywhere;half-completed condos, foreclosure signs and vacant land for sale.Of course, once you get to the theme parks,you leave all the doom and gloom behind. And it's really a lot of fun to visit Disney with kids. We went to Sea World on the first day, then to the various Disney parks for the next three days. We enjoyed the stunt shows at Hollywood Studios and the kids liked the parades.It is a handful keeping track of twelve people amidst the crowds of Memorial Day weekend at the Magic Kingdom, but Sandra is a good tour guide when armed with a map and plan. The "fastpass" system works well if you time it right and means you don't have to queue more than a few minutes for the most popular rides. On the fifth day Neil and I escaped to St. Pete's and visited the Dali Museum there;definitely the best Dali collection outside Spain. We had a few great braais - Gary is a good cook and Charles makes good cocktails - and on Charles' request we hunted down a few "Fine Dining Establishments" amidst the strip mall,chain restaurant mecca that is Orlando.