WEEK 16 - MIAMI TO ORLANDO, FLORIDA - friday 13 and saturday 14 august 2010

today we are heading back up the coast to orlando. we are staying with couch surfing host Swami, he sounds really nice and we are looking forward to meeting him.
we had a clean run right until we hit Orlando, where we were reduced to crawling 7km in 40 minutes! but we finally made it! Swami had a welcome sign pinned up for us and he always takes arrival photos with his surfers.

he has an amazingly large and unique house, filled with items for couch surfers to look through about other countries, especially japan and space! he has another surfer staying with him names Tsuru, he is from japan and he is travelling until 2013! Tsuru is very lovely, he does fire poi stuff, so i hope we get to see him in action this week!
on friday evening Swami took us out to one of his favourite local haunts Austin, where we enjoyed amazing soup and sandwiches, played jenga, and chatted with his friends, who seemed to be every other customer in the shop. Swami knows everyone!

Joseph trying an edible flower

on saturday we slept in, and then headed out to get joseph a haircut, hes looking pretty sharp now! :) we then headed to IKEA, just for a look! im trying to work out what i can pack in my suitcase from IKEA, right now im at apron, tea towels, fruit bowl, and high thread count sheets! :) i wish i could fit the home entertainment system, coffee tables, storage cupboard, lamps and mirrors, but alas, they wont fit! hurry up and come to New Zealand IKEA, its not fair! all we have is rip off priced Freedom Furniture, whose goods fall apart just after the warranty, Target who do decent stuff, just not enough range, and Bo Concept, who do amazing furniture for even more amazing prices! ok rant over.
in the afternoon Joseph hung out with Tsuru on the computer while i napped [my inability to sleep in, is making our 2am bedtimes take its toll on me!]
in the evening we headed to another of Swamis favourite places, a cafe called The Drunken Monkey [which does not serve alcohol]. They offer alot of vegan and vegetarian items, and have these amazing sandwiches, i got a beef one YUM!

we sat back and enjoyed listening to Swamis friends play wonderful acoustic music, and also played Topple and Scrabble [which i lost at Topple and then won Scrabble, hooray!]