Florida Recap: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

After spending time traveling with my family in South Florida and staying in the Fort Lauderdale condo, I drove up to Orlando and stayed with one of my oldest FL friends, KMT.  She and I have been wanting to go to the new Harry Potter section of Islands of Adventure since we first heard rumors of its development in the Orlando Sentinel years ago.

I LOVED the inside of Honeydukes.  Pink and green everywhere.  

Yes, I did indeed try Butterbeer!  It was basically a slushy form of cream soda with a pump of soft-serve icecream on top to create "foam".  Yummy, but soooo sweet.  I'd recommend splitting it with a friend.

I normally avoid the theme parks in Orlando unless I have a friend with free tickets, but I HAD to go see the new Harry Potter area.  It was totally worth the $87 I spent.  They built a special ride for the new area, which was pretty spooky for a theme park ride.  It's housed within the mountainscape and Hogwarts and takes you through spiders, dementors, and Voldemort.  They also adopted a previous roller coaster into the Harry Potter world and dubbed it the Dragon Challenge.  It's unbelievably though how detailed the park was!  I felt like I had hopped on the train and landed in the books!

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a definite must for any Harry Potter fan!

xoxo,

Psalm 86:13

Florida Recap- Key West

Alas, I'm back in Canada, back into the cold, already missing Florida and my friends!  I had a great two weeks, visited Miami, Key West, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando; saw my brother and his wife and many old friends; and had loads of fun at the beach and Universal.

I had an amazing time at Key West, despite the super long drive.  We sadly only stayed for one night, but we made the best of our time there.  We had some super yummy food at Duffy's when we arrived.  I had shrimp, drenched in the most amazingly tasty white wine sauce I have ever had! Wish I could recreate it!

 The next day we took a Conch Train Tour around the island.  There are so many beautiful homes!  I started daydreaming about owning a pretty pink home and a Lilly electric car to drive around the island, wearing pretty Lilly dresses, and enjoying frozen Margaritas.

We also visited Hemingway's home (thanks for the tip Suburban Princess!), saw the six-toed cats, and learned about his strange obsessions.  

We also indulged a little

Key lime pie on a stick, covered in chocolate.  DELISH!!!

And shopped at LILLY!  The sales were amazing!  My parents gave me money for Christmas, so I spent most of it here.  My favorite purchase:

So comfy, and it never wrinkles! I think it's my new favorite Lilly dress.  I picked it up in two patterns and will pounce the next time I find this dress for a mere $79 again. It's a curvy girl's best friend!  

I want to go back to Key West soon!  It was so much fun, and such a beautiful place.  It's a must see!

xoxo,

Proverbs 31:10

John 8:12

Soundtrack Sunday: Carrie Underwood

I'll admit that I wasn't her biggest fan during her American Idol year, but now I LOVE her music. For the past week it's been on repeat keeping me happy during my trip (until someone stole my ipod  two days ago, that is).







xoxo,

Psalm 103:15-17

Photo Credit : Julia