SUNNY FLORIDA

Disclaimer: 

Butter beer is one of the finer beauties of life. 

Also, my awesome nerdy side comes out like something fierce in this post. 

It's no surprise that I wanted to go on a new wonderment. 

I have never been to Florida before and we kept hearing things about

 SIESTA KEY BEACH and 

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, 

namely HOGWARTS 

and HOGSMEADE.... 

ya know, if you are Harry Potter lovers.... ( I am). 

Hey, hey. We boarded the plane and we headed to Houston. 

After some fun layover time, of which I found every girls' dream:

Johnny Depp I found a makeup vending machine! 

Thanks Texas for making my plain, unready, fresh canvased face feel love.

Can I first say that Florida is home to some of the
 nicest, friendliest folk?! 

The trip was so much
more enjoyable because everyone was lovely.

 (just look at those cotton clouds!)

We rented a car at a sweet Holiday Inn Express hotel, and then jetted

to our Resort. Say what you will about timeshares,

but Westgate Resorts was such a fun place to stay. We got a

STEAL of a deal... Steal. Like stealing candy from a baby. We participated

in a quick presentation, as they tried to sell their timeshare business... blah blah.

Just say NO and go about your merry vacation. Best decision we ever made.

I was able to attend the ORLANDO TEMPLE!

Beautiful. I was the only visitor at such an early time of morning.

I arrived at 8. I was greeted by the Temple President, how lucky am I?

After feeling blessed beyond measure

we decided to head Southwest... to SARASOTA.
Home to SIESTA KEY BEACH.

White sands, turquoise water.... heaven.

Adam Richman, from the Travel Channel's MAN VS. FOOD highlighted

this homemade treat of a restaurant called YODERS.

It's located in the very quaint Amish part of town

in Sarasota. Everything is Amish owned, 

and might I add, they do a FANTASTIC job. It was fun

to see all of the families dressed in conservative, traditional attire

covering their arms and legs and a bonnet or hat of some sort.

Well, we were taken with the cute town, so we had to 

stop by for famous pressure cooked fried chicken

(oh boy!)

and their Peanut Butter Cream Pie

  (insert drools and licking of lips here).

If in Sarasota, please, PLEASE stop by Yoders.

There he is, Mr. Adam Richman

the cute lady behind the homemade goodness

The next morning, we had to see what
all the fuss was about as we entered the wizarding world of
DIAGON ALLEY at
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS.

Home to Sirius Black...

Its safe to say, I drank my weight a lot of butter beer

 Weasly Wizard Wheezes

Ollivander's Wand Shop

Beautiful boxes of wands... 

He Who Must Not Be Named

After our excitement here, 
we decided to venture further.

ooooooooooooooh boy.

Rip Ride Rocket

 I guess I am getting old, because I was SUPER drained after
today's events..... I just walked around, but I felt I
had ran a 20 K or something...

The next morning, we took the hour drive Southwest to TAMPA.

On our way back to Orlando, we stopped through
LAKELAND
It's a spot on the map, not a big town, but the
night we stopped by the whole town was having a festival religious revival
of sorts, and we passed through right in time to party see what was going on!
But really, despite all the chaos, we did happen to smell
some delicious Authentic Italian.
It reminded me of the pizza I ate by native Italians in New Jersey.
Soooooooooo Gooooooooooood.

(Palace Pizza)

ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE
HOGSMEADE / HOGWARTS
I have read all the Harry Potter Books and watched all the movies
(p.s. the books are better, but whatevs)
So anyway, seeing all of this in person made me really
feel like I had just stepped into the life of H.P.
(Harry Potter)
Total dream come true.

Don't worry, I totally introduced myself using 
an English accent. Aaaaand, he believed me.
SCORE.

 Three Broomsticks

Hagrid's humble abode...no sign of Fluffy here!

Um, I love this ride. There are two roller coasters (blue and red)

goblet of fire 

triwizard cup 

dragon egg

The flying weasly car

great view of Hogsmeade while on the hippogriff ride

HOGWARTS!!

I feel like such a nerd. I feel awesome.

cross the bridge...
to find some dinos.

long live Jurassic Park

Grinch steps

TOON TOWN / MARVEL

Long wait. LOOOVED the ride.

photo bombed... shot #1

photo bombed... shot #2

i need a beach 

COCOA BEACH

Story time: I skipped walked down the beach

and something black washed up against my feet.

It looked like a big stick or a piece of garbage of some sort.

I looked at it closely, picked it up and realized 

that it was, indeed a GoPro!

There was absolutely NO ONE in the water or near me

on the beach. I didn't know what to do. I waited and

waited, slowly walking back to my towel. I held it high for

people to see, in case someone recognized it. Nothing.

I went to the lifeguards station reporting a missing GoPro..

no one claimed it. 

Soooooooo, I am now the owner of a GoPro!!!

#wanderlust