Our Summer Holiday part 1 of many

Well I haven't posted for a month or so and its mostly because the weather here has been so not summer like that we haven't been out and about much so not much to report.


We did on the other hand go on Holiday to Florida, it was hot and sunny and everything that one would expect from a summer holiday and a little bit more.


Everyone seated comfortably? then ill begin.


We went for our summer holiday this year to St. Petes Beach, near Tampa.

its a place we have been to before a couple of years ago on our honeymoon, that time we stopped in Clearwater and drove down to St.Petes Beach, so we knew what the area was like and knew where we were going when we got to the airport and stuff, so it was quite nice to have an idea on what to expect. I am getting a little bit ahead of my self here, so ill go back to the start.


Amie and I never like all the rushing around that goes on right at the start of a holiday, the having to get up early, the driving over to the airport at some crazy early hour in the morning to check-in etc., it makes for a really long and stressful day, so to avoid this we decided to do what we have done in the past and to book into a hotel near the airport the night before so that we can get a good nights sleep and not have to set off so early in the morning for the airport, our flight was leaving at 11:50, so we would have to be at the airport for around 8am. normally this means a start time from home of around 6:30am, so stopping in a hotel gives time for breakfast and a nice easy start to the day.


we booked into the thistle manchester airport, the hotel we stopped at a couple of years ago, we got 15 days parking included in the price, the parking was at the hotel and not at a car lot some place and we also got taxi travel too and from the airport, if you ever decide to stop the night before like us i highly recommend this hotel and its facilities.


we arrived at the hotel on the Thursday night, parked the car and checked in, it was a wet and nasty night and so the trip across to manchester was not one of the quickest we have ever done, but my little car got us there, i say little because it has a 1.4 ltr engine and so struggles with fuel starvation on the higher parts of the M62, but when it gets 50 miles to the gallon around town, I'm not bothered!


After the drive over and checking out the room we ate and got an early night.


The hotel gave us an early morning call and so we were up and ready for our taxi in good time, as it turns out there was no need to rush to get up as there was a slight booking error with the taxi and our turned up half an hour late, so we got to the airport terminal about half an hour after check in opened.


also we got dropped off at the wrong terminal, but i think that was my fault as i thought we would be leaving out of three and it turns out that it was actually terminal two that we needed to be at, this was not much of a problem as there are covered (it was still raining) walkways between the terminals.


Arriving at the departures check in hall we found out that our flight was going to be delayed by an hour and a half, this meant that we would not make our connection in Philadelphia, so Amie got is booked onto a later connecting flight which meant that we would now have a five hour layover in Philadelphia instead of the two hour one we would normally have,as it turns out if our flight had been on time its very unlikely that we would have made the connection anyway.


As you may know, there is no smoking in airports anymore or any enclosed spaces for that matter, but when we were flying out the legislation and enforcement had not started, so there was a smoking room in manchester airport, so we went to find it, the room was basically a glass room with smoked glass (or so we thought!), once we opened the door we found out that the glass wasn't smoked at all but that the room about 15feet by 15 feet was so full of smoke that you couldn't see the other side or the people in it!!!! i couldn't help but laugh, also it was full of nervous looking passingers and flight attendants getting one last drag before their long haul flights, after getting the last nicotine fix before the flight we left and boarded the plane.


every time i have been on a plane it has always been a boeing, this time it was an airbus, i didn't think that there would be much difference in the flight experience, but i was soooo wrong, the airbus seems to be far quieter than the boeing and i must say that the landings were so soft and quiet that you only know that you had landed when they started to put the brakes on!


Getting off the plane and clearing US immigration took me about 30 mins, Amie on the other hand was held up for over an hour, and a further half hour having the contents of her bags checked, this always seems to happen to her for some reason!!


So anyway we had quite some time to kill in the airport, so after we found which gate we would be leaving from we went to get something to eat, the choise was superb and seeing as we were in Philadelphia I had a philly cheese steak sandwich which was superb, amie had some pizza, then we went outside for a cigarette, this is where my fun with the metal detectors started, i guess that the metal detectors in the US are set at a more sensative level than the ones in manchester as every single time i went through them i set them off!!


i got pulled to one side and asked to remove all metal, which I did and still set the thing off, then i removed my belt, watch and checked all my pockets and removes a couple of english coins and still set it off, the man in the security booth joked that if it went off again i would have to go through naked!! and would you believe it, it went off again!!! turns out the button flies on my jeans were setting it off!


We eventually arrived at Tampa Airport at 11:35 PM and by the time we got our baggage and hirecar it was gone midnight.

Amie and I honeymooned for a week in the Clearwater area a couple of years ago so we know were we were going so once we got the cases in the car we were off to find the hotel, we took the scenic route along the cost as as it was a nice night (and it was the only route i knew to get to the hotel).

Once we got to the hotel we checked in and then as is a tradition when we are having a beach holiday we headed straight for the beach, Amie always has to have a paddle in the sea and a walk on the beach as soon as we get to our hotel, so we walked on the beach at 1:30 in the morning! ...................more to follow