Orlando, Florida

My cousin Ben and his wife Karen were in Florida for Karen's brother's wedding at the same time we were in New York so we decided to fly down for a visit. Karen's parents made us feel very welcome by bathing us in American Hospitality - as Karen said, "this is the land of plenty".

The weather was a treat too for our ice bitten faces with warm sunny days and cloudless skys. We arrived on Wednesday evening and were welcomed with margaritas and mexican. We were interested in the Florida concept of enclosing the back yard of the house with mosquito net - which meant that the house becomes very open, and the back patio an irritation free extension of the house.

The next morning, after staying up all night talking and watching movies, we headed to Universal - Islands of Adventure. After not being on a big rollercoaster for some time, I had genuinely forgotten just how much fun they are!

Due to the season and possibly the economy, we found the place empty. Along with the fabulous weather we were in for theme park heaven! Every ride said there was a five minute wait time, but it really only took a few minutes to walk through the miles of roped off areas where on a summer day you might find yourself waiting. It was scary for some rides just how much waiting there might have been.

The first ride was The Hulk. This one starts off with tremendous acceleration up a ramp, before flinging you out on an open track in crazy upside down loops. Talk about starting off at the deep end!

We quickly progressed to the water rides section. Lucky for us it was so warm that it didn't really matter that we were literally soaked at this point. My favourite ride was a water ride - Dudley Do Right - that has you in a log, bobbing about a water track and then falling a ridiculous distance down waterfalls, with resulting enormous splashes. If you don't get wet enough doing this, there are water pipes that onlookers can fire at you from a bridge. (These are placed at face level, and you are strapped into your seat, so you only have two choices - eyes or ears).

We were drenched from these rides and spent the rest of the day with soggy underpants, but it was still way fun.

Because of the lack of lines, we did all the rides in the park by lunchtime and so upgraded our tickets and hit Universal Studios for more of the same. The Simpsons ride was great - it belongs to the "4D" category whereby you don't move all that much but you get a really strong sense of motion, due to tilting and looking at an enormous screen that projects movement.

So in one day we did both parks and had an absolute blast. We finished up with more margaritas and hamburgers before paying a visit to Karen's brother to drink draught beer and play Rock Band 2, where I found I was unable to play the drums AND hit the snare drum pedal with any coordination (maybe margaritas and draught beer aren't so good for coordination, despite all the advertising to the contrary).

The next day was more laid back, we ate a large leisurely breakfast, sat around talking, finished a jigsaw puzzle and had a look at the free parts of Disneyland (which are not as much fun as the expensive parts). During breakfast, Ben and Karen told us to put maple syrup on our "biscuits" with eggs and "sausage" and watched with the kind of anticipation that Australians reserve for people that have never tried vegemite. (Australia wins in the unexpected tastes at breakfast department).

Disney had decided to create a lagoon with white sand and beach chairs so we had a drink on that to catch the last rays of lovely Florida sunshine before getting to the airport for our flight back to New York, which was cold and rainy but felt, in just a small way, a little like home, which was both interesting and surprising.

So big thanks to Ben and Karen for showing us around, and big thanks to Linda and Chase for their hospitality. Sometimes you do need a vacation, even when you are on vacation.