We were getting closer to Florida, therefore, on the final leg of our American road trip. We had hit 6,000 miles when we reached Pensacola, not the most inspiring of places until you cross the toll bridge to Pensacola Beach where we got our first taste of white sands and clear turquoise water. We managed a freebie across the bridge by pulling the dum foreign birds card and we had lunch and relaxed on the beach until the sun disappeared.

There were two more overnight stops in Tallahasse and Tampa before we hit Anna Maria, neither particularly worth ellaborating on. Except that we stayed in the worst Motel 6 ever in Tampa. The room smelt like wet dog and the carpet had remenants of wet dog. Then at 3am we were woken by a altrication between a drunk/high bloke, the receptionist and a security guard. At this point Kate remembered the lock didn't work on our door so propped her 25kg bag against it. We were both glad to be leaving the next morning.

Only a short drive to Anna Maria where we were to meet up with Kate's mates. A nice 83 degrees, so the roof on the car was down. No sign of anyone when we first got to Anna Maria. We couldn't check into the hotel until 4pm so I sunbathed whilst Kate went for a walk to find her friends. No luck, then on way to grab some lunch we bumped into the male half of the group who took us to meet the others. twenty or so of Kates friends were on the beach ( good job I don't get overwhelmed easily). Spent the afternoon on the beach until quick visit to hotel to check in and get ready for dinner in 40mins. We would have had longer but the hotel owner insisted that we stayed on the beach until we saw the sunset and it was 'awesome'. Dinner was at sandbar (where the wedding reception was being held). For those of you who don't know or weren't listening when I told you, the reason we were in Florida was for Kate to attend her friends wedding. We continued on at a bar, I was driving so a spent a few hours having a giggle with the best man, Gareth and his wife, Michelle and the brides step brother ( can't remember name at this point, but will alter if they come back to me) left Kate with her friends and went back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

Next morning I spent two hours sunbathing whilst Kate attempted to sleep off her hangover, then we joined her friends on their bit of beach for the rest of the afternoon. That evening we went to Bonefish grill restaurant, nice meal.  Following day it was the wedding, I hung around the hotel until it was time to get ready then we went to Charlottes house for Kate to straighten her hair. 5 minutes before we were leaving, Kates zip on her dress which she had carried since leaving Uk, broke, luckily Charlotte had a spare dress. The wedding was beautiful, Christie the bride looked amazing and the setting was breathtaking. The reception was under a canopy on the beach and the food was delicious, particularly the strawberry and key lime wedding cake. The night ended with everyone making an arch of giant sparklers and I went back to our hotel to bed.

It was raining when I woke up in the morning ( thank goodness it wasn't yesteday), not alot to do in the rain so I went to the internet cafe for a couple of hours. Kate was back when I returned, so we went to lunch, then joined everyone at the bride and grooms house. We went to supermarket for dinner that evening, I stayed in and packed ( it took me 3 hours- oops) and Kate went to Nat's.

Kate had taken Tommy and Charlotte to pick up their hire car early the next day and got stuck in traffic. As we had to check out at 10am I packed the rest of her bag and waited for her outside. Quick stop at internet cafe to book our Fiji accomodation then to the house for Kate to say her final goodbyes and it was off to Tampa to catch our flight back to LA via Pheonix....