Last week, we took off to Orlando, Florida to celebrate our first wedding anniversary! I seriously can’t believe that it has already been a year. We decided on a new to us adventure for this trip and we were really excited to experience Universal Studios Orlando. We made the decision to fly into Tampa and rent a car for one day to drive to Orlando. This arrangement was actually cheaper than flying into Orlando and getting an Uber to our resort. This added a little bit of travel to our day, but flying into Tampa was less stressful and busy. We took a 6AM flight out of Dallas LoveField, and landed around 9:30AM in Tampa.
Flying in this early meant that we had quite some time before we could check into our Universal resort, so once we had our luggage + rental car we headed to Disney Springs, because we can’t visit Orlando without a little dose of Disney! As can be imagined, it was an incredible busy day, but we killed some time by perusing some shops and getting our favorite sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich.
We picked up groceries for the week at a nearby Target and couldn’t resist a sweet treat at Rita’s Ice!
We decided to arrive at our resort early to see if they could possible check us in early. We booked 5 nights at Universal’s Endless Summer Resort – Dockside Inn & Suites. This is one of their budget-friendly hotels and is adjacent to the Surfside Inn & Suites across the street. We were pleasantly surprised when they said they had a room ready for us at 2PM! We checked in, picked up our park tickets, and headed to our room. Despite this being one of their lower-tier resorts we were very impressed by the room and the resort as a whole. The room was spacious with basic amenities — perfect for a stay where we really just needed somewhere to sleep!
We had been up incredible late the night before, woke up too early, and were running on about 3 hours of sleep. This seemed like a great time for a nap as we got ready for a busy next day at the parks! I had no problem napping and Aaron woke me up around 5M thinking that I wasn’t going to sleep later that night! We headed down to the resort pool for some sun and to wake up our bodies. The pool was a great size, and it was one of two at the resort.
We ate the extra sandwiches we got at Earl of Sandwich for dinner and went to bed early despite our long afternoon naps. We were ready for a fun day at Universal Studios, and I’ll be sharing all about that tomorrow!
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When they say adventure, they mean adventure! After spending a day at the main Disneyland Park we hopped over to DCA the following morning for more Disney fun! This was probably the Disneyland park I was most excited for due to the immersive Cars Land I had seen in photographs! We rope dropped, because is there really any other way to do it? We had the intention of rope dropping the new(ish) Web Slingers ride after watching some YouTube videos about it. It is also one of the Individual Lightning Lane passes, meaning we would have had to pay an additional fee outside of what we had already paid for Genie+. We definitely didn’t want to do that so rope dropping was the answer. While waiting at rope drop we were told that it wasn’t working, and then that it was working, and once we were waiting very close to the front of the ride line we were told again that it wasn’t working. Thankfully we only waiting about 20 minutes before they were able to get the ride up and running and we were loaded on pretty quickly.
This has to be one of my top “shooting rides” because you simply use your arms like you are shooting spider webs. It was very cool, very innovative, and was honestly an arm workout. I couldn’t stop laughing because my arms were getting so tired!
DCA is really set up in three main sections: Marvel Campus, Cars Land, and Pixar Pier. We wondered around a little bit before figuring out where to go next. Be prepared to do a lot of walking at this park, as it felt everything was pretty spread out. We ended up at one of the photo spots in front of cars Land where we took some cute pictures together before the sun would be in our eyes too much. There didn’t seem to be many Photo Spots at DCA, and this was probably the most popular.
We explored Pixar Pier quite a bit while getting in our first ride of three on the Incredicoaster! What a ride and so perfectly themed to the Incredibles movie! We had to experience the Pixar Pal-a-Round since it seems so iconic to the park despite the fact that I am not a fan of Ferris wheels, but this one was cute. I just wouldn’t recommend the swinging cars if you get motion sick. Trust me 🙂
We explored Cars Land during our lunch break at Flo’s V8 Diner. They have good burgers and sandwiches that we enjoyed outside while watching some of the Cars characters go down the street. It was hard to get a picture of those as they gathered quite the following of park guests.
Cars Land was probably one of the most immersive theme parks areas outside of Pandora at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I truly felt like I was in the animated movie as we walked the streets of Radiator Springs.
We rode some of the rides in Cars Land, explored the area and decided we needed an afternoon treat to cool down as the day had become pretty warm. The Pixar Parfait at the Adorable Snowman Frosted Treats was and is a MUST! Not only is it super Instagrammable, but we loved the flavors! It’s a non-dairy lemon soft serve with a blue raspberry slush swirl and topped with a red cherry. It perfectly represents Pixar and we enjoyed it while looking out among the pier.
The day seemed to disappear from this point. We knocked out a lot of the smaller, family friendly rides, rode Incredicoaster two more times because we couldn’t get enough of it, and explored Cars Land at night when it was all lit up!
DCA may be one of my favorite Disney Parks I have been to and we highly recommend spending a day here when you have the chance!
Oh, Disney, what would my life be without you? A company that was started by a man and a mouse has changed so many lives (and vacations) for the better! As you may have seen from previous posts, work brought me to Southern California for a couple of weeks, and rather fly home for the weekend only to return to LAX on Monday, I decided to stay through the weekend with Aaron meeting me out there. When we saw my travel schedule for these two weeks we knew it was the perfect opportunity to finally visit Disney on the opposite coast than we were used to. We had been wanting to experience Walt Disney’s original park for a long time, but Disney World in Orlando, FL always won out.
As some of you may know, Disney recently changed their FastPass system at both parks in the United States and changed over to a new system called Genie+. While FastPasses used to be free, Genie+ is now $20/day per person. This is an additional cost on top of your park admission ticket. We truly went back and forth about our decision to add on this new system. There are so many differences and seemed to be of lower value than the free system, but I’ll explain that in a little bit. We ultimately decided to give in and purchased knowing it may help us experience more of the parks in the two days we had tickets for. This post is my own review and opinion, and I have received nothing in return from Disney or any other entity for the thoughts in the post.
Okay, now that we’ve have that out of the way, let’s dive-in!
Rope Drop
I will always recommend Rope Drop when visiting any amusement park, but especially at Disney. Aaron and I spent a couple of hours before our trip researching the best way to rope drop at Disneyland. The first step to any successful rope drop is picking the ride you want to get to first, and then mapping out the most efficient path to get there. In our case, we chose the most popular ride at Disneyland — The Rise of the Resistance. This is an 18 minute Star Wars experience and trackless dark ride. We arrived at the gates of Disneyland around 6:15AM and stood in the cold for what seemed like forever, but it payed off because we ended up at the FRONT of the rope drop with a great view of Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
We did not purchase the Individual Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance, but instead planned on getting our one ride on it before the rest of the crowds arrived. We were successful and only waited around 20 minutes to get on the ride once we were there. The best rope drop path is through Frontierland as you wind around into Galaxy’s Edge. Be prepared to speed walk, but please don’t run and respect others around you!
After a successful rope drop we were able too hit up other popular rides before the park hit peak crowds, such as Millennium Falcon and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. While the rides in Galaxy’s Edge are identical to what you would find at Walt Disney World in Florida, many of the other duplicate rides have distinct differences between the two coasts. We enjoyed comparing the differences and determining which was are favorite between the comparisons.
Using Genie+
Around 11AM we made the decision to book our first Lightning Lane. Keep in mind that you can boom your first as early as 7AM, but you must be scanned into the park. Since this new system only allows you one Lightning Lane per ride, per day we decided to hold off until the crowds got a little heavier. We booked the first one for Indiana Jones and were quite surprised to still have a bit of a wait before boarding the ride. At this point I was really curious to see if this would be a common theme throughout our two days using this system.
Once you use your existing Lightning Lane, you can then book a new one. At this point, we were unable to get another until close to 2PM so we figured this was a great time to break for lunch. We placed a mobile order at Galactic Grill on the other side of the park. On the way over we stopped by a PhotoPass photographer to have some pictures taken in front of the castle while we waited for our pick-up time. One benefit go Genie+ in Disneyland is that it includes PhotoPass. Anytime you see a photo spot and a photographer you can have you app scanned and download the pictures for later. Please note that this is only included at Disneyland, but is a separate cost at Disney World.
We ate a quick lunch at Galactic Grill before continuing our use of Lightning Lanes and waiting Stand-by for the rides that were not included in Genie+. We were able to complete every ride and attraction on our list of must-do’s despite the park being sold out that day. Personally, I don’t think we would have been able to do that without the use of the Lightning Lane system. I will be writing up a full How-To and Pros/Cons post about the use of Genie+ at Disneyland.
I’m still unhappy about the loss of the old FastPass system, but this wasn’t;t terrible. The cost of it does add up quick for a family, especially when you factor in all the other costs of visiting a Disney park, so you definitely have to determine if it would be worth it to you,
We had a busy day, walked close to 10 miles, and were able to catch some fireworks on our way out of the park. I am so thrilled I got Disneyland checked off my bucket list, and I can’t wait to share our experience at Disney California Adventure with you tomorrow!
Work brought me to Palmdale, California for a week and I truly thought I had found some great things to do while visiting. But you know what they say about the best laid plans….I had planned to visit the Poppy Reserve to talk a walk and take pictures of what I was sure would be fields of beautiful flowers. What I didn’t think about was the fact that it was still February, cold and flowers were not yet bloomed. So that plan went out the window. With that no longer an option, I turned to the locals to find out what I should do. Several people recommended Vasquez Rocks Nature Center to me and it sounded like it would be a foolproof plan as long as the weather stayed nice. Thankfully it did!
This Nature Center is located just outside of Santa Clarita, California, about 20 miles from Palmdale. It is free to enter and hike through. My understanding was that they also had a building where you could see bugs and reptiles local to the area, but it was closed when we visited. I’m sure it would be a cool thing to experience if visiting with your family.
I would honestly compare this to a smaller version of Garden of the gods in Colorado Springs. There were beautiful rock structures surrounding the area. Some were low enough that you could climb atop to explore, getter a better view of the area and we had fun taking pictures together.
There were a few hiking trails that we spent our time exploring. Throughout the trails you can also see signs identifying different types of foliage that are native to the area. This could also be an educational place to visit with your children when visiting this area of California.
Keep in mind that this is considered the “high desert” and it does get cold and very windy here so plan accordingly. We lucked out with beautiful sunshine and warm weather, but it can really depend on the time of day you visit. We were so thankful to those who recommended this place as it gave a great way to go exploring together, especially since Aaron had the chance to join me for several days on my work trip.
We wrapped up the night at a Chili’s in Palmdale with some fajitas, and went to bed early because the next morning we are getting up at 4AM to head to Disneyland! Stay tuned for those adventures!
Middle-of-nowhere was my immediate thought when I arrived in Miami County, Kansas. There were fields for miles and miles and I thought there was surely going to be nothing to do for the entire week. Thankfully, I was wrong and I had some very enjoyable experiences here. It may not have been the most exciting location, but I found some hidden gems that I would love to share with you!
Paolo, Kansas
I had been stuck inside for the past week due to the blizzard I was caught in while working in Indiana, so I was thrilled when my clients told me that there was a nearby town square that I could walk around with cute shops and restaurants to explore. I decided to check it out one day after work to get some fresh air and exercise. I will start by saying that this looked like your quintessential town square straight out of a Hallmark movie. It was quaint and quiet, and I enjoyed being outside and exploring the streets a but. I will follow that by saying that many of the businesses were boarded up and unoccupied. It left with me little to do, but walk around and explore the two boutiques that did happen to be open.
I was able to pick up a small gift for my mom and some handmade wax melts for my Scentsy! But after about an hour of looking around I had pretty much covered the entire area, and there wasn’t much else to do. With that being said, I highly recommend checking this area out if you have time and are passing through Paola. It would be a great place to stretch your legs and get a bite to eat.
El Potro came highly recommended by every local I spoke to. I am a but hesitant with getting Mexican food outside of Texas, but this place really was fantastic! I was pleasantly surprised. I had a long drive back and did not want to sit at the bar, so I placed a to-go order through their online ordering service. I thought I would eat on my drive back to the hotel in Ottowa, KS, so I ordered a bean burrito thinking this would be a great handheld option. To my surprise, it looked more like an enchilada on a plate with rice and black beans. I definitely was not going to risk eating that while driving so I enjoyed it upon returning to my hotel. It encapsulated the Tex-Mex flavors I was hoping for and paired greatly with chips and queso. I have actually thought about how good this place was since leaving Kansas if that say anything!
Paola, KS is not a destination to go out of your way to see, but if you find yourself in this area, definitely spend some time exploring and walking around.
Louisburg Cider Mill
Now I really found a hidden gem when I decided to checkout the Louisburg Cider Mill. I am so glad I didn’t listen to the locals about not going because it wasn’t Fall. It was still a great place to visit even in the Winter/Spring. I decided to stop by on my way to the Kansas City Airport before heading home to Dallas. If you didn’t know it was there you would definitely drive right past it without looking back. It a simple Cider Mill and Store located right off a country road.
I did not have long to spend here before I needed to get back on the road, but I spent some time looking around the store. They had a wide selection of homemade candies and treats, and I couldn’t resist the small bag of mini buckeyes that I found.
I also couldn’t stop at an Cider Mill without getting a cup of hot apple cider for the road. They also serve freshly baked cider donuts. I am not a huge donut fan, but these were so tasty. It was warm, fluffy and not to sweet! I definitely recommend pairing one (or a dozen!) with your apple cider. There is some outdoor seating that you can lounge at to enjoy your treats or take it with you to go. There is also a beautiful vintage barn that is great for a picture spot!
The staff was incredibly friendly, and I was told that they have events throughout the year, especially in the Fall. I would love a chance to go back and visit during that cozy time of year! I am still snacking on my mini buckeyes; savoring them before they are gone!
I hope you have found some interesting places to see if traveling through the open fields of Kansas!
Hello there! I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing weekend! We had a busy weekend full of lots of fun, which took us to the Dallas World Aquarium for a date morning! We try to avoid going out on Valentine’s Day because it is always so crowded so a couple days before Aaron took me to the Dallas World Aquarium for a pre-Valentine’s outing. In my opinion, this is one of the best aquariums in the country and today I’m sharing my top tips for the best visit to this indoor, tropical adventure.
Planning Your Visit
We believe that it is always important to arrive right when they open for the best experience! I highly suggest purchasing your tickets online and saving them to your mobile device. This will save time once you get there and and get you through the entrance quickly. The pricing is $26.95 for adults and $18.95 for children (ages 3-12). They also offer discounts for seniors and military personnel. When you order your tickets online there is no processing fee, which we always appreciate! You will also need to make a reservation for your arrival by selecting the day you are going to visit, as well as an arrival window. Book early so you can ensure you get that first time slot when they open! As you go through the ticket purchasing process they will also offer for you to pre-pay for parking right outside the aquarium for $10. This can be a great idea, especially if you are visiting with small children. If it’s just you or other adults in your party you can find cheaper by-the-hour parking a bit further from the aquarium that will save you a few dollars if you don’t mind also getting a short walk in!
Arrival
When you arrive there is a winding walking path up to the aquariums entrance. At this time, the aquarium is requiring all guests to wear a mask throughout the experience and they will provide you with one upon arrival. As you wait in line to have your tickets scanned there are several bird enclosures to keep your entertained. We love spending a little time out in this area before going into the main exhibit area.
The Aquarium
There are several different sections of the aquarium representing various parts of the world and the wildlife associated with them. All of these sections will occur along the same walking path that will wind you through the aquarium. The prefer you to follow the walking path in one direction to help with the flow of traffic, but feel free to take your time looking at the exhibits! You can start off by seeing the sloth that hangs out freely for the quests to see! There are also plenty of frogs and reptiles in this section to see, as well.
You will the wind through a path that takes you past snakes, bats and giant river otters! They also house some incredible crocodiles. I am always so impressed with the condition of the exhibits here and the how happy the animals seem to be. This is not the case at every aquarium or zoo, but the Dallas World Aquarium does everything so well.
One of my favorite areas of the aquarium takes you to an overlook of a beautiful waterfall where you will see more birds, another sloth in it’s on enclosure, turtles and stingrays. It’s a great place for a photo-op with the family and there is usually an employee there to snap a photo for you.
The most impressive thing about this aquarium is the manatee rehabilitation they are doing. This is one of the few places that you can see a manatee outside of Florida, and we just happened to arrive at the mantle enclosure at the perfect time. These are my favorite animals, so much so, that when I was 12 my parents “adopted” a manatee for me that I was ent pictures of monthly and got to follow along with, It’s safe to say that I spent a good amount of time hanging out here when we went.
You will see a few more incredible exhibits as you wrap up your time here. They have an outdoor penguin exhibit that it too cute to pass, and everyone loves the shark tunnel where you can see plenty of sharks swimming around and above you. It’s another great place for a family picture when it’s not too crowded.
From here you will wind around through a few more exhibits, see the brightly colored flamingoes and end at the standard gift shop where you can pick up a souvenir to take home. This is such a great place to have a family day, go on a date, or spend some alone time! Let us know when you think if you visit!
Question of the Day
What is your favorite aquarium that you have visited?
Hello travelers! We are off to San Antonio for a few days! No work, all play this trip. We woke up early on Thursday morning to make our way down to San Antonio with a goal of arriving before lunch. We decided to eat breakfast at home before heading our so I made a quick piece of toast topped with eggs, kale, and shredded cheese. And just like that we were on the road!
We made a stop at my all time favorite Texas stable – Buc-ee’s! I love just popping in even if we don’t buy anything. I got a cup of coffee to sip on as we continued our little road trip. We tried to check into the hotel early when we arrived around 11:00AM, but they didn’t have a room ready for us yet, so we decided that we would go walk around the riverwalk In search of lunch.
Unfortunately, the riverwalk was PACKED and not many restaurants were open for lunch. We went to the Iron Cactus and the line was all the way stretched down the riverwalk and there was going to be almost an hour long wait for two. I was honestly getting hangry at this point and made the call that we were not waiting that long. We headed back to the car to figure out a new plan and decided on heading over to our favorite Mexican food restaurant….Chuy’s!
Chuy’s will always be our staple when traveling or when we are at home or really anytime we are craving fajitas. We enjoyed a lunch before picking up some groceries for the week.
We ended up booking a room at Waterwalk Apartments and Hotel. Half of the building are resident apartments while the other half house apartment like hotel rooms. Surprisingly, this needed up being less expensive that almost any other decent hotel in the area. They were so king and upgraded us to a two bed/two bath suite, so we had plenty of room for our few days there. Overall, we were pretty impressed. I wouldn’t say it was the cleanest as there was quite a bit of dust covering some of the apartment fixtures. They are also pet friendly and the hallways definitely smelled like dog while we were there and was very unpleasant at times. Thankfully the smell didn’t continue once we were inside our unit. It was a fine place to stay for a few nights, but wouldn’t be our top choice in San Antonio in the future.
We hung around the hotel room for a little while before venturing out for the evening. We swung by Chick-fil-A for dinner on our way to Sea World. I am in love with their chicken tortilla soup that is only available seasonally. I had a big bowl of that, while Aaron enjoyed the classic chicken sandwich and waffle fries.
Sea World was still decorated for Christmas so we enjoyed walking around the park for the evening and seeing all the lights. The park was extremely crowded and we decided to not spend too much time waiting in lines. We did end up seeing the Beluga Whale and Dolphin show, and did wait in line for about an hour at their newest rollercoaster, Texas Stingray. They had some beautiful light displays around the park and we enjoyed taking some pictures together before turning in for the evening!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I’ll have more of our San Antonio adventures up on the blog later this week!
Happy Monday, everyone! We spent a lazy weekend at home as I prepared to get back on the road for work for the first time in almost a month. I think the last few weeks have actually been the longest amount of time that Aaron and I have lived in the same space since getting married. I have to say that the realization and the enjoyment of the time at home is making it harder to be flying out this morning. I’m currently sitting at the airport awaiting my flight. There are only 4 sleeps until I’ll be home again, but it still feels so far away.
FRIDAY
Aaron worked from home on Friday so we were able to spend extra time together in between his scheduled meetings. We eagerly awaited the end if the work day so that we could start our weekend together. We ended ip grilling chicken and making macaroni and cheese for dinner while watching TV reruns. It was my turn to pick a movie and as I was scrolling through our options I realized that Aaron has never seen Tangled. It’s embarrassing that this movie ended a little after 8:00 and we were both already falling asleep.
SATURDAY
We both woke up early Saturday morning (probably because we went to bed so early the night before) and both ate bowls of cereal to kick off the day. I’m not a big cereal eater, but every once in awhile I get a craving for it.
I did a virtual check-in for our local CareNow since I had to be COVID tested before returning to work after the holidays. There is nothing I hate more than those swabs up the nose! I rewarded myself with some Panera coffee afterward and we spent the rest of the morning (really the rest of the day) relaxing at home.
We ran out to pick up Chick-fil-A for lunch where I enjoyed a Cobb Salas in the car while we caught up on some of our favorite YouTubers.
We spent the rest of the day going back and forth between TV shows and sport games. The Dallas Stars had an afternoon game on Saturday. We almost went to the actual game, but decided to stay in and sold our season tickets for the day.
We planned on making dinner with whatever we had in hand, but ended up devising that pizza sounded like the best option. We placed our orders, ran to the grocery store for a few items, and picked up our pizza pies.
My dad always ordered a pizza with pepperoni and jalapeño growing up and I copied that pizza with a thin crust from Pizza Hit for my dinner. Aaron sticks to his classic cheese hand-tossed pizza. We enjoyed our pizza night with a side of raw veggies while cheering on the start of the Cowboys Saturday night game.
That was pretty much our Saturday. As boring as it may seem it was needed after a busy holiday season and now going back to work full-speed this next week.
SUNDAY
I was really looking forward to this Sunday because we committed to finding a church this year! We were visiting a new one this Sunday and we really enjoyed our first visit, and we plan on going back a few times to devise if this is somewhere we want to get plugged in.
We arrived home right around lunch time, relaxed with some of our TV shows, and finishing off our pizza.
And really the rest of what we had of our weekend was spent with me packing for my work trip, Aaron watching more sports, and just spending time together.
This year I have made a commitment to myself to REST! That means that weekends don’t have to be filled with fun outings and I don’t have to go out every night when I’m on the road. Rest is not just okay, it is good.
Traveling by Nature 