Thanks to a sudden reconnection with my long lost US brother we have for the last two weeks been enjoying a very different ride to the one we are accustomed to and now that my feet have touched the ground back in France i will attempt to give you a visual tour of our US holiday featuring a selection of shots and a few words to go with them.
In the build-up to the holiday i had us singing 'America' from West Side Story.
"I like to be in America
Okay by me in America
Everything free in America!"
It's a catchy song and we all enjoyed singing it regularly!
Here we are two weeks ago, full of expectation and excitement, on the train from Perpignan to Barcelona, a new line which takes little over an hour.
One night with an old university friend in Barcelona...
...before getting up early to board the 10h flight from Barcelona to Miami.
From Miami we flew to Orlando where were were met by my brother and driven to his very fine looking house.
This is actually his holiday home and he normally lives in Virginia for 8 months of the year.
Being further south Florida is much warmer in the winter and permits my brother to avoid the snowstorms in Virginia which are common at this time of year.
Here he is doing his morning exercises in the hot tub. This time with my children!
The first thing we all did was lounge around the pool with my Swiss sister and her husband.
They kindly bought a bunch of drawing games for the children.
Felt good watching them play.
Breakfast was spent every morning at a Jewish deli, eating like this.
After which the massage chair was used to relax us.
Though it was actually quite intense as you can see.
My brother actually paid for a professional masseuse to come on a few occasions and give us all real massages. Which was very kind of him!
On the second day we drove to the beach where our children got to know his grandchildren.
Esteban seemed in shock initially, just super happy to be on a beach at this time of year.
While Luna was fast to make friends with the birds.
She also found this shell which she loved very much.
The following day two of my brother's son's (both of whom refer to me as Uncle Sam) took all the children to the Epcot Centre, permitting a 'day off' for Sabrina & I.
We gave Esteban a phone for taking pictures and here are some of the images which came back from that day.
The iconic Epcot ball seen here as they entered the venue.
I like that he photographed this spiral.
Part of the Moana world.
A semi-decent shot of a few of his relatives here.
And a panoramic of China world.
This is a typical restaurant at Epcot. Themed like everything else.
And this was Esteban's favorite building.
Inside which he kindly photographed the ceiling for me.
The full group seen here.
And finally the photographer of the day.
Good job Esteban!
On another day we went to a Dezerland park where we had a fun moment on the karting track.
Esteban primed and ready to go.
Luna & myself here.
After racing for real we went to the simulators where Esteban & Sabrina tried out the cars.
Much more fun than using a tiny little Nintendo!
Some of the simulators they had were pretty cool. Like this jumbo jet.
While Luna was more interested in winning this teddy with the claw machine. And we only spent $5 to achieve this!
Here are all the children together. Poor Luna was the only girl but she managed alright.
After this she found a massive trampoline area which was completely deserted.
Only to be joined by the crazy boys shortly after.
But this didn't put her off practicing her handstands.
And upside down splits!
I was quite surprised to find a THC shop in this children's arcade. My brief search online in regard to this subject told me THC was illegal in Florida but i figured i must have misunderstood and quickly bought a couple of sativa blunts.
I also bought these THC gummies, thinking of my step-father with parkinsons.
Upon smoking some of the sativa i was confused however as the feeling was not as expected and i found myself at this computer, trying to understand exactly what it was i just bought.
It turns out that THC is indeed illegal in the state of Florida so they have bypassed this law by creating synthetic equivalents of THC, known as Delta 9, Delta 10 or THC-A. Reading further i could see that loads of young people are addicted to these chemically produced products because they are so easy to buy. Which is nuts!
We thankfully met someone from California later that day who gave us what he described as pure indica cannabis. Though in truth even this didn't feel right and i suspect that all THC products are treated in some way before reaching the end consumer. In the case of the indica it was labelled as being "with diamonds" whatever the heck that means?
To all my US readers please be careful to read the label and make sure you are getting just THC. Or a CBD/THC mix. Anything extra is not from the cannabis plant.
On the Sunday we went to a gospel church service, the one my brother usually attends.
We are not Christian but we are spiritual beings who respect all religions, open to experiencing their traditions. Just to feel the energy! And wow, this one was spectacular. Sabrina & I were both deeply affected with tears in our eyes throughout.
I felt pretty 'charged' after this service and ready to gave my brother's wife Reiki. She was extremely sick after a decade with bone cancer and chemo treatments and i did everything i could to help her, including gifted orgonite pyramids, mandalas, and frequencies running throughout.
She responded really well to the Reiki and asked if i would give her a second session the following morning, after which she asked me if i would consider moving to America to become a Reiki practitioner? Well, i had to be honest and let her know this plan was not currently on my radar but it felt exciting to the give the thought some space in my mind for a while.
After this we felt as if we should take the children to Disney World and did enjoy the experience but really struggled to deal with the insanity of 2h queues for 2minute rides.
To make things even harder I was not permitted to take my shoes off at any time! Nor were we permitted to smoke anywhere. While synthetic THC gummies on the other hand were obviously completely legal.
We did our best and sat it out with the children, attending most of the rides and sights on offer.
We basically did the usual stuff.
But the big Mickey Mouse was no where to be seen!
Did they fire him?
Just an endless stream of semi-dark rides which don't appear to have changed at all since i was last here.
We stayed to watch the fireworks at 8pm (a full 12h) but felt pretty drained by the end, excited to get home.
I did notice however that three different young people came up to Luna over the course of the day and told her how beautiful she was.
Indeed, there was a distinct lack of genuine beauty in there and am pleased Luna stood out as being different from the others.
Back at my brother's home i noticed he had various Stonehill memorabilia items around the place.
Plus these famous words from our father.
My brother resembles my father physically though his mind is more open and i am super grateful for this opportunity to get to know him better.
This is the end of part one.
In the next part i will show you Sabrina freaking out on the world's 2nd largest Ferris wheel...
...and also our tour around St Augustine, home to the most beautiful oak trees i have ever seen.
Plus a spectacular star fort made of tiny shells.
Love & Light everyone 馃尡
