Put Miami Beach on your 'list'

After Universal Studios we hired a car and drove to Miami Beach (about 3 hours away) where we stayed until Sunday lunchtime. First I will explain the title of the blog. Whenever any American finds out we're from Australia, they say 'Oh gosh that's no.1 on my list' or 'i've got it on my list', pretty much they refer to an imaginary list they keep of all desired travel destinations. Miami Beach was so fantastic that we're telling you to put it on your list (along with Erie, PA, of course!). Because it is so close to South America it is like stepping into another country - so many people speak spanish and there are Cubans in fluro g-string bikinis (or even topless) everywhere!!

This is Ocean Drive with all the restaurants and cafes on it. Each has its own style of entertainment for e.g. latino drag queens miming to songs and dancing, latino professional dancers on bars, topless cowgirls dancing on stages whilst singing.


This is our hotel. Great stay except South Nick Han Mel after we hung up the phone to you we got a knock on the door by some dude with big muscles telling us to shutup.... woops!! Hope you guys had a great night.


See what I was saying about the bugs!! This is our car after we drove from Miami Beach back to Orlando Airport. Check out the bugs on the bumper and windscreen. When we were driving it was like playing that Mavis beacon typing tutor game from Newy High where when you mistyped something bugs would splat on your windsreen - remember girls?!


We couldn't work out whether this guy is loaded or has hired an 'escort'. You should have seen her outfit from the front - it was a one piece number.

Here it shows the beautiful colour of the water and also notice the buildings aren't that tall. Due to the Art Deco history of the area there must be height limits.

Put Miami Beach on your 'list'

These are some of the houses on Millionaire's Row.... residents of this street include Gloria Estefan, Shakira, Enrique Iglasias and even Oprah has a holiday house here.


We went to the famous Jerry's diner for dinner. Check out the size of this menu! And yes, we do realise it's upside down. Bromley had pizza of all things (what a shock).

Ocean Drive is the main street of Miami Beach (also known as South Beach). It is full on one side of art deco buildings with restaurants and cafes at ground level of all different themes. There are buskers everywhere. The other side of the street is the ocean. This dude put the snakes around Broms and said he'd let us take a photo for $10 so Broms said no (I got a sneaky one in). For those of you who know Brommles as the brave mucho type think again he was scared as!! Look at his face. Hahahahahaha.

This is a little side street with lots of restaurants and stuff. Palm trees everywhere!!

We had perfect weather the whole weekend, roughly 31 degrees C. Perfect beach weather and I've never felt the ocean be as warm as it was. The beach is full of sun beds and umbrellas that all the expensive hotels provide their guests with. If you stay in one of these hotels you can order drinks and food from the beach!!

Universal Studios, Orlando

Yo brothas and sistas!!!!!!!! This weekend we took what will probably be our biggest weekend trip in the USA.... Florida!!!!!!!!!!!! It was great. Friday we went to Universal Studios Orlando (apparently the biggest one in the world) which was full of fun! But hot. And also full of these weird Orlando bugs that would not leave Kimbo alone. Grrrr.... Here are some pics.

The place was massive and full of fake cities.... e.g. Manhattan.


This is me looking into a sharks mouth from Jaws. I still didn't wanna put my whole head in there!! Check out those beautiful blue skies.... It was sad to come back to erie where it's hitting some pretty low temps already.

The Blues Brothers put on a show for us and sang all their hits and grooved around.

This is Beverly Hills (but in Orlando Universal Studios) looks pretty real huh!! We picked a great day to go, no crowds, the longest we had to wait was like 10 minutes for a ride.

1,2,3 Oh..........

Our House

Home sweet home (well for awhile anyways)........
Modelled by Daniel Bromley and Kimberley Phillis

Our House

Spare Room 1. This is the second time I've ever walked into this room! We hardly ever venture upstairs. Plenty of room for guests!















Bromley sunbaking on our roof which is accessible from our upstairs verandah.




















Our stairs and front door.... Bromley sliding down the bannister....




















This is the opening from the lounge room into our bedroom and you can see a tiny bit of our fireplace on the right.















Spare room 2.

Our House

The lounge room.... very comfy couch.















The park behind our house (which has basketball courts, baseball diamond, pool and volleyball courts.... ohhh and cricket pitch!).















Our back deck (apparently it fills up with snow so much you cant open the door!)















The kitchen (where Kimbo creates her fabulous recipes!) yes that's right we have a dishwasher, and a garbage disposal. However, Kimbo has gotten a bit excited about the garbage disposal and puts absolutely anything down there, now it is broken (I think it was the grape vine that did it).




















Downstairs bathroom.... Bromley clogs the toilet up regularly making Kimbo use the plunger whilst he goes upstairs to do his business!















Our bedroom which comes off the loungeroom. Notice the walk-in robe!! And this is where we are when we're chatting to you online! Notice the football on the bed.... that gets thrown at kimbo's head at least 10 times every day.

Niagara Falls at Night

Just thought I'd add this photo coz they are pretty spectacular at night. They put lights shows on for about 4 hours every night. The camera couldn't pick it up very well though. Chris make sure you bring your tripod I read that's how you get the good photos.

Niagara River - Underwater Views

Hey Guys, Its your friendly part time yanks, Bromley and Kimbo back in action. Hope everyone had a good weekend. We had another big weekend. Friday night we went to a preseason Erie Otters Ice Hockey game. All the players are young (less than 21) and are playing to either get into college or the major league. Man, these guys play hard. Saw a few massive body checks. Even saw a good bit of biff. Reggie Reagan would have loved it. Bromley got called out of the audience to guess how many people showed up for the game. Apparently there were 2000ish. Haha I wasn't close. At least Shooter, the team mascot was there to comfort me in my time of need.

Saturday morning we went back up to Niagara Falls and ventured on the Maid Of The Mist. The falls are very impressive when you are that close!!

Sunday was the most insane thing Kimbo has ever organised...or done. And it doesn't involve the Love Heart Jacuzzi in our motel room (we didnt use it sickos):

No, the most insane thing was this jet boat tour up the rapids beyond the Niagara Falls. There is so much water flowing through the gorge from the falls that there are class 5 and 6 rapids (class 6 is the worst in the world). You can go through the class 5 rapids in this jet boat. Anyway, you could choose a wet or dry run - Kimbo chose wet - insane - even though the water was about -400 degrees. It was awesome though. The first photo below show us third row from front on starboard side (thats the right side Kitley). The second shows ... well you can see!!

The amount of water was unbelievable. We got of the boat after about an hour looking like drowned rats. Had an awesome time but spent the better part of the next four hours trying to get feeling back in our feet and hands. Well worth it though.

Anyway guys thats it from us. Will talk to you soon. Bromley and Kimbo

The Big Apple

Well I'm starting to think I'm writing too much and not putting on enough photos. And pictures speak a thousand words. So I'll just talk about the photos. New York City beat all expectations. We'll be back a few times.


This is a massive lake in Central Park it was so cool how anywhere in Central Park you see heaps of skyscrapers through all the trees. Central Park is beautiful and you could spend days there they have a zoo, memorial for John Lennon, heaps of lakes and ponds, a theme park! Everything!

We just stumbled upon this rock. Where the people are standing behind us you look down and its just beautiful lawn and gardens of Central Park.

This was our little Squirrel friend. Bromley was picking acorns up off the ground and biting them (yes disgusting I know) so he could get out the middle bit and give it to the squirrel. And everytime he ate one he looked up longingly waiting for another. They are everywhere in Central Park. Like Pigeons.

This is Sheep Meadow in Central Park where all the locals come and sunbake in the summer.... I think on some days its full of scantily clad bodies. But there's no swimming pool?

Brommles in Central Park. We recognised this walkway from many movies and especially from Sex and the City.

The Big Apple (cont....)

This is from a John's pizzeria which is apparently the best pizza in NYC. It was awesome. We ate the whole thing in about 10mins. It's meant to feed about 4 people.


Unfortunately Friday and Saturday we rode out the leftovers of Tropical Storm Ernesto.... it was extremely windy and rainy and we bought an umbrella that lasted all of like an hour in the wind before I had to chuck it in the bin.

This crazy naked dude was playing his guitar in the middle of Times Square. Later on there was a crazy naked woman cowgirl with little stars on her nipples doing the same thing. Anything for money!

Tropical Storm Ernesto didn't stop us from wearing plastic ponchos and riding on the top floor of the double decker tourist bus in the rain! Styling it up.


This dude totally had us.... He was a shoe shiner and made a $4 bet with us that he could tell us 'Where we got our shoes' including the city, state, country.... we were like OK sounds good.... he goes 'you got 'em on your feet! the city's NYC, the state is NY, America!' and we had to give him $4. Funniest bit was after we paid him he goes to Bromley 'so where you got them really' and Bromley goes 'ummm I think Sydney' and the dudes like 'No you fool you got them on your feet!'.

The Big Apple (cont....)

Times square at night.... sooo cool. So much to see and do. We arrived at about 8pm Friday night and walked around for hours eatting Tasty Dlite Sundaes (like Choccollo! - we went to the one Charlotte ate in in Sex and the City and the Apprentices worked in in the Apprentice).


A busker had this dog and cat sitting on one of the busiest street corners in times square. They're not on leashes but they don't move. Very cute I reckon they were drugged though. Check out the photos below them of them in their winter coats. Ohhhhhhhh!!


We went and saw Hairspray on Broadway which was spectacular. We lined up for an hour to get 50% off the tickets. Their voices and sets are amazing. And Dan Haylie Duff was meant to be in it but she was promoting her new movie.



Times Square in the day. There are sooo many tourists weaving your way through them is impossible. Imagine 50% of these people holding umbrellas at all different heights?! It was crazy in the rain.


Anyone recognise this building from the movie 'Hitch'? Will Smith met the dude he made over on the stairs of this building. It's some legal building in the financial district. Pretty spectacular!




This is our friend Tim from Melbourne who we met on the Staten Island ferry Sunday morning. We hung out with him all of Sunday.


This is Manhatten island from the back of the Staten Island ferry. Unfortunately the ferry was so packed that we couldn't get that many great photos of the city from far away. Still looks pretty cool though!



The Lady Liberty herself.... We just took a free ferry to Staten Island and back to see Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from a distance because the line to even set foot on the islands of either, let alone to climb up liberty was ridiculously long.