Dear All,

I have posted a couple of questions here before but mostly surf around - great site.
We have just returned from our 8th trip to Florida and as usual we are already depressed. We spent three weeks in Orlando and it was fantastic. Did Universal and IOA but not Disney this time as son is 15 and claims to have grown out of that park. Personally i love it.
Christmas day activities were decided upon when we woke up - mini golf at Disney and lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. No pressure, no over-eating.
We got to see a launch - ok not a manned spacecraft, only a rocket but thrilling nevertheless.
The only down side of the trip was a poor guy getting shot across the road from us. Stayed in a condo at 'Villas at Island Club' near Lindfieds which i thought was fine until we returned home one day to scores of 'narcotic squad' policemen, a mobile incident van and lots of people in white overall. Found out on Channel 13 news (why sooooooo many weather reports) that two guys had fallen out one had shot the other three times , fortunately not fatal and that the condo was being used 'to manufacture illegal substances' - which explains why they were bring glass jars out of the house for hours.
Despite that, we had a fantastic time, put a down payment on a townhouse which will be finished in June when we hope to return.

We all LOVE Florida and cannot wait to return.

Happy New Year to you all

P.S. just wanted to add that i still feel safer in Florida than anywhere and that the above incident is probably extremely rare and not once did i feel in danger.