There’s a lot in bucket list pertaining to USA and hope we get a chance again.
BHPian bullitt1 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Visiting USofA had been a life long dream and finally 2025 was the year to bring this dream to reality. Got an early visa appointment through an agent and luckily got the visa as i saw many rejections to people in front of me in interview. Felt great having taken the first step.
Initial plan was to attend F1 at Austin but had to postpone the trip due to personal reasons. Christmas was the next window and zeroed in on Miami and Orlando. Immediately looked up NASCAR driving experience at Daytona and bingo there were two days on Dec 26 and 27th. That was it. Daytona and NASA for me, Disney for kid and Miami beach for all.
First sight of Miami, oh! what a feeling. I could see the coastline from airplane but could not capture it.
We had booked an Airbnb close to beach, the beach is just after the tall building.
Miami skyline.
Terrific colours of water.
Little Havana was a cool place. Tried some good home made icecream which had a long que.
Bay of Pigs memorial.
In Miami, we visited Bayside with cruise tour, Hollywood beach, Everglades, Little Havana and beaches. With Christmas around the corner, great songs were played from taxi to supermarkets.
To get to Orlando, could not get Greyhound instead travelled by Flixbus and it was terrible. Seat covers were horrible, dusty and cramped. The return was even more horrible with pieces of trash everywhere. This was the only downside of otherwise great vacation.
Kid was desperate to visit Disney. I felt the kid was bit old (9 years) for Magic Kingdom, nevertheless made the most out of it. Visited Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Sea World. Few rollercoaster rides were great but also long wait times.
27th Dec was the day I had been waiting for Daytona.
Had booked 5 minute driving experience with photo and video. There was good 30min safety briefing video session post which there was a small session of briefing near the track as well. There was a red Mustang which I was very much hoping to drive but could not get. I was excited to drive the banking and here it is in yellow car.
Wifey also drove the car and clocked around 130mph.
Certificate of completion.
Sorry for the video quality, it was great to see the banking from outside.
The two extremes.
Watching orcas in Seaworld was another great sight. Such majestic creatures.
Driving on Seven Mile bridge to Key West was another wish completed. There were only Kia’s available when we went to pick the car. Luckily saw a Bronco Sport and went for the upgrade. I started driving with Ford and still am a Ford fan. Never saw any Raptors on road, strangely.
There’s a small landmark for southernmost tip from where Cuba is 90 miles. As there was a big line for photos, did not wait for it.
Big day for space enthusiast.
The largest single storey building in the world, have to see it in person to get a sense of the scale.
One of the launch complex. Spacex also seen.
Close up of Spacex rocket facility which we got to see in bus tour. There were two rockets being prepared. Though Elon is a lunatic but his space achievements are out of this world.
Close up of launch complex.
NASA is so vast that one needs 3 to 4 days to explore reasonably. It was fantastic to see the launch complex used for Apollo missions and also walked through the gantry used by Apollo 11 astronauts.
Fact that the USofA is so vast that literally one could write a book even on a short visit. I have tried to keep the thread short and not make it boring. Still there were many places we could not explore in 2 weeks but nevertheless it was a memorable trip.
There’s a lot in bucket list pertaining to USofA and hope we get a chance again. That’s all for now, folks! Signing off with Hollywood beach broadwalk.
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