We’ve managed to escape the clutches of tropical storm Lee, although it was fairly close. The rain was so heavy as we left New Orleans that I couldn’t even see the white lines on the road in front of the car and that was just on the outskirts of a storm that was at least 100 miles away. Parts of the gulf coast have had up to 20 inches of rain in the 2 days since we left so it sounds like we got out in time. It sounds like New Orleans has weathered the storm well though, to be honest the locals were barely batting an eyelid at the prospect of a storm that size.
Anyway, on to happier things, after a night in Tampa 
on Friday and Key Largo last night we’re in Key West now, the most southerly point in the US, and today we took a trip to the Theatre of the Sea 
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The main attraction at Theatre of the Sea is the chance to swim with dolphins. However, we’re doing that again in Orlando next week so we opted to take a swim with a sealion called Mimi. Once again we were lucky enough to be the only two people in our group so got to spend more time than normal swimming and posing with Mimi. We were both surprised how much she felt and behaved just like a labrador! Unlike dolphins, Sealions have short hair and they’re more playful. We both had a great time, especially Jen who’s been grinning ever since.
Despite it being a national holiday here and all the hotels being booked up we keep being told how dead the tourism industry in the US is this season. The economy here is in a terrible state and most of their tourism is internal so wherever we go it feels like we’re the only ones here and we’re getting good deals and no queues everywhere, which is nice for us at least.