The mother of all LEGOLANDS!

Finally! After teasing the boys with two visits to Legoland Discovery Centres, we have finally made all their dreams come true and taken them to the real deal.

But not just any Legoland, because Florida's Legoland is the biggest in the whole world!

Wooooooo hoooooo!

Indy, after some initial trepidation, is now a huge rollercoaster fan. He went on every single one in the park and rode The Dragon four times!

The Imagination Zone Build & Test and Hero Factory areas were big drawcards for the boys (despite us parents saying "Hey, you can build freestyle at home boys! Let's check out the rides").

The pirate cove waterskiing show "Brickbeard's Bounty" was fun and Miniland and the Star Wars zones had lots of interactive buttons for the boys to press.

Apart from the rollercoasters, most of the rides and attractions catered to both Indy and Dash and they got to meet some of their Chima heros who were roaming the pathways.

But the most fun we all had was in the World of Chima Quest for Chi ride (luckily we took wet gear with us!)

What a fantastic day out!

Gulf Coast and the Blue Angels

Florida's gulf coast has some of the whitest sand we've ever encountered.

Rivaling Whitsunday's Whitehaven Beach for whiteness, the pristine sand stretches across hundreds of miles of coastline.

It's easy to see why Floridians love their sunshine.

What's not to love about that super squeaky sand between your toes, dolphins at play just out from the breakers and amazing birdlife.

Topping off our trip to the Gulf Islands National Seashore, where we camped for a couple of nights, was the fact that the Blue Angels, America's naval aviation superstars, took their F/A-18s up for practice runs over our heads.

On the very day we visited the National Naval Aviation Museum (which is itself a plane-ogling extravaganza) the Blue Angels took off for the first time in months (having been previously grounded thanks to the politics of the US Federal Shutdown).

At close range, we watched their amazing aerial acrobatics - marvelling as they flew straight at each other, then in close range side by side, then rapidly shooting straight up and straight down, leaving jet trails and gut-vibrating soundwaves in their wakes.

The next day, on the National Seashore, they entertained us once more, this time as we relaxed and played on the beach.

Moving further eastwards along the coast, we dropped into Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge and learnt about the amazing ongoing effort to repopulate the area with whooping cranes.

You might have heard of them before - they're the birds that follow an ultralite 'mummy' south for their first migration!

We also saw a few more alligators - this time baby size - awwwww so cute!

New Orleans

After exploring the Barataria Preserve section of the Jean Lafitte National Park and spying yet another alligator, we headed straight into downtown New Orleans.

Driving through the garden precinct, we were instantly delighted by the beautiful two and three-storey homes decorated with the most delicate wrought iron balconies and adorned with basket after basket of hanging ferns and other tropical plants.

Staying near one of the canals, we caught a shuttle bus into the centre of New Orleans for two days of exploration.

Could we have chowed any harder? No!

Between Cafe Du Monde, Central Grocery, Mothers on Poydras, the Coffee House and Camellia Grill we have now tried several serves each of local treats including Beignets, Muffuletta, gumbo and etouffee amongst other delights.

We travelled on all of the streetcar lines, soaking up the atmosphere of the different precincts.

The boys delighted in spotting the 'jewels' (mardi gras necklaces) hanging randomly from trees and electricity wires throughout the city.

We marvelled at how this big city has rejuvenated itself post-Katrina.

The Superdome is now a shining bronze beacon, but will it ever live down what happened there?

Elsewhere in the city and the surrounding bayous you can't help but feel a sense of foreboding that all of the hard work completed (and still being undertaken) to rebuild might all be in vain in this hurricane-prone region.

The boys bopped and bounced along to dozens of street buskers and we visited the National Parks jazz museum in the downtown precinct to learn a little about jazz instruments.

We strolled through the flea market and farmers market and up and down the streets of downtown, including the famous/infamous Bourbon Street.

We all loved New Orleans!

The creation of a creole

The French-speaking Acadians we heard so much about during our travels through Canada's maritime provinces really got around.

When they were expelled by the British from those parts, one of the places where they found refuge was in the swampy marshlands of Louisiana.

Here they built new lives and when their children were born those American-born Acadians became known as 'creoles', a people distinctively different from those arriving fresh off the boats from Europe.

At the Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site we gained insights into the lifestyle and typical homes of those creoles.

A short video provided historical context before our docent provided the boys with costumes and took us on a guided walk through the homestead.

Marie very patiently answered all of our questions, with the boys' queries mainly focusing on the chamber pots and Matilda, the resident cat.

It made for a really informative afternoon spent with a very kind and patient lady - thanks Marie!

Home of Tabasco

Such is Nath's love for TABASCO that after 16 years together I am no longer offended when he adds it to EVERYTHING I cook.

Such love could only be satisfied by a visit to the very factory where this nectar of the spicy gods is mashed, fermented, mixed and bottled.

Avery Island, in the heart of Louisiana's Cajun country, was where the McIlhenny family first planted red peppers and began experimenting with different ways to produce a chilli sauce.

The factory still produces every bottle of Tabasco sold throughout the world, though its agricultural fields now extend beyond Avery Island itself to include chilli plantations in Central and South America.

The free factory tour was interesting - it's amazing to see bottling and labeling machines in action (they're so fast)!

But the taste test in the Country Store was everyone's favourite activity .

The boys tried Raspberry Chipotle icecream while Nath and I sampled a smorgasbord of spicy saucy delights.

I fear Nath's obsession has intensified rather than having been satisfied. And maybe I too am now under Tabasco's spell. Doh!

We seen us some gators

Meandering our way through Louisiana's Creole Nature Trail, we've certainly encountered the gators and birdlife this scenic drive promised.

We thought it was cool when we saw the first (single) alligator on the Wetland Walkway of the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge.

But the next day we saw the mother lode when about 20 showed themselves on the Pintail Drive section of the Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge.

Sunning themselves beside the brackish waters, these gators were far from threatening, and the larger ones (still small by Aussie salty standards) were fairly ambivalent to our presence.

The calls of thousands of birds who make these refuges home made for a refreshing soundscape after having spent a couple of days in Houston.

Perhaps the most startling aspect of driving through this part of Louisiana, fronting on the Gulf of Mexico, was the devastation left by Hurricane Rita in 2005, still evident in towns such as Holly Beach.

Homes, where they've been rebuilt at all, sit perched up high on pylons, themselves two storeys high.

Mostly though you see blocks of land with perhaps a caravan or two, where the original house footings are visible but there's no house to hold up any more.

Purely by chance we camped our first night in Louisiana beside the Intracoastal Waterway.

We now know it's a system of waterways 4,800 kilometres long stretching from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Texas.

The tugboats and barges passing directly behind Bessie made for an interesting night's viewing from the campfire.

NASA's Houston Space Center

When you watch the flight director and engineers at Mission Control grappling to save the lives of three American astronauts on Apollo 13 you feel palpable tension.

That same exhiliration is what we felt sitting in that room at NASA where the fateful mission was controlled and from where so many of humans' first great adventures into space have been orchestrated.

It's the same room where NASA staff received confirmation as Eagle touched down on the moon's surface in July 1969 and where Neil Armstrong's famous words first crackled through a speaker.

It's no wonder the room is now a National Historic Site, but far from the building being a relic, the floor just below this one houses NASA's new Mission Control, currently directing astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).

The tram tour that takes you from Houston Space Center (NASA's visitor centre) to this and other historic areas is perhaps the highlight for any adult visiting the Center.

We were in awe walking through the massive warehouse that houses a Saturn V rocket and all of its stages; just imagining the raw power it would have unleashed when launched steals your breath for a moment.

Add to this a tour of the very facility where yesterday's and today's astronauts train in life-size copies of space modules and where engineers experiment with equipment, trying to replicate frictionless (if not zero gravity) environments, and you've got a pretty powerful tour right there.

The kids however were in heaven at the Space Center itself where Angry Birds Space rule an entire quadrant.

If you're familiar with Angry Birds Space you'll know that the game links to videos featuring NASA astronauts explaining concepts such as gravity and trajectory. 

This kids' play area tries to bring space science to life and includes a robotic docking control unit and two mars rovers that kids can remotely control from a level above.

There are a lot of exhibits to take in and so we ended up spending an entire day at the Center.

I was lucky enough to sit in on a presentation from a former astronaut, a payload specialist from a shuttle mission in the 80s, who was a guest presenter on the day.

We watched movies galore, touched a moon rock, admired mission patches, climbed through parts of a space shuttle and learnt how astronauts go to the toilet in space and why they prefer spicy food.

Learning about the International Space Station was particularly cool. It orbits the Earth 16 times a day and is the size of two football fields. 

At any one time it's home to six astronauts from its partner countries, but a staff changeover was happening during our visit and so at that moment it was home to nine (along with the Olympic torch which was visiting space for the first time before being carried home again after the three-day 'shift change'). 

Visit NASA's Spot the Station website to find out when to look up (it's the third brightest thing in the sky!)

The Orion Project, which is focusing on Mars and all that the red planet might offer science, is where the American space program is now headed.

It was captivating to learn more about where humans hope to venture next.

All very exciting stuff!

Battle of the Texan BBQ

After some relaxation in Texas hill country we headed for Lockhart, a small township between San Antonio and Austin that sports a very big reputation.

Here, we were told, we would find the best BBQ in Texas (and thereby, if you're a Texan, the best in the world).

This was a promise well worth several hundred miles of detour, but as luck would have it, Lockhart happened to fall nicely on our path eastwards.

Spreading our tasting over nearly two days, we ordered fatty brisket and hot sausage from all of Lockhart's four BBQ joints.

Our verdict...

• Best Brisket - Black's
• Best Sausage - Black's
• Best Value - Chisholm Trail
• Best Fire Pit and Serve-Up Style - Kreuz

Chisholm Trail

(Highway 183, heading south)

The first joint we tried looked like an oversized mobile home sitting close to the highway.

It was 6pm on a week night and already there was a line-up of five cars waiting to use the drive-through order window.

At about $8 per pound of brisket, this was by far the best value in town and the variety of fixin's (sides) to choose from was huge.

The brisket and sausage were tasty too but only our second favourite for taste.

Black's

(Corner of Pecan and Church Streets)

If TASTE is king, then Black's was the winner. The brisket just melted in our mouths and the sausage was the perfect degree of spicy and bursting with flavour without oozing oil.

We 'dined in' at about 11am and the atmosphere, even at this time in the morning was grittily authentic.

The place is soaked through with the oil and dirt of eighty years of operation. The red and white picnic table style plastic linings on each of the tables evidently don't often get a wipe down.

History lines every wall. The framed photograph behind my head was of the local high school football team from 1921.

A stand-out feature of the decor was the collection of deer heads mounted on every wall.

The alfresco area is a wooden picnic table sitting on the grass between the restaurant and the neighbour's yard.

At about $13 per pound, this brisket was the priciest, but it was definitely worth it.

The only thing Black's lacked (which you might miss if you went to this joint only) was a view of its fire pit in action.

Kreuz 

(Highway 183, heading north)

The motto here is "no sauce, no forks" and they're serious. There is no sauce here.

The smokiness and heat of the meat ordering room is testament to the wood-fueled cooking pit directly behind the servery.

With your brisket and sausage served up butcher style on to your paper, it's only when you emerge out of the smokey haze into the clean, modern cafeteria-style eating area that you realise that's where the cream of the experience lies.

The price here was $12 per pound of brisket.

Smitty's

(Highway 183, centre of town)

Though Smitty's also had an authentic wood-fired smoking pit, the brisket and sausage here weren't our favourites.

I don't think it was because we were "barbecued out". In fact, we turned to each other later that day and commented we could each 'go' another bit of brisket.

The value was about the same as Kreuz', at $12 per pound of brisket.

General Observations

All brisket comes wrapped up in layers of paper and by the time you get it to the table, the oil will have soaked its way completely through.

For this reason, all eat-in options have a roll of paper towel on the table. If you're getting your brisket 'to go', don't let it sit on your lap!

It's also worth mentioning that though we talk about the best 'value' even the most expensive option still made for a cheap meal!

My recommendation would be to head to Kreuz to see the BBQ pit working its smokey magic and buy a small serve there. Then head over to Black's and buy a big serve and sit in that gritty old dining room and let the meat melt in your mouth, the oil drip through your fingers and the atmosphere seep into your skin.