*New Travel Linkup* Wanderlust Wednesdays

Hi everyone! 

Kate, Kerri and I are excited to get our new travel linkup started today. Wanderlust Wednesdays will occur only once a month on the second Wednesday of every month so we hope you will join us in sharing your travel adventures and the destinations on your bucket list. Anything travel related can be linked up, really!

Today, I'm sharing a short trip I took to St, Augustine in north Florida back in 2012. The purpose of this trip was for a good friend's wedding which I was a bridesmaid in but we had an extra day to explore this historic and charming city. I've actually been dying to return this year because it's only a two hour drive so don't be surprised if I do another recap in the near future. 

As soon as we arrived in St. Augustine, we headed to the historic district with a couple friends to explore and find a place to grab lunch. We window shopped and stopped in a few antique and souvenir stores to browse.

My favorite shop was the Pepper Place which sells hot sauces from all around the world and I was even able to find one from Trinidad so I snagged that to add to our collection.

We then stopped in Sangria's Wine & Tapas Bistro to have a glass of sangria and listen to some live music on the upstairs patio overlooking a cute park area (didn't catch the name).

We stopped off at the oldest wood school house in the USA built over 200 years ago.

And then settled at the famous Columbia Restaurant for lunch which didn't disappoint. I can't remember the name of this spanish-style chicken dish we shared but I do remember the Columbia "1905" salad and mojitos were excellent.

After lunch we checked out this public burying ground that was used in 1821 during the yellow fever epidemic. 

We then headed to the Castillo de San Marcos Fort & National Park. The fort was built by a Spanish engineer in 1695. 

We had an amazing day exploring the history, sites and scenes in St Augustine and I highly recommend this city for a quick (or long) getaway. St. Augustine is also known for their Bed & Breakfast accommodations which you kind find located close to all the main monuments and attractions.

There's so much we didn't get to see on this trip which why I would love to return to cover some more ground and also check out St. Augustine beach. 

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Link-up Rules:
1. Follow Kerri, Kate and myself on Bloglovin
2. Link up your favorite travel recaps or travel related posts
3. Grad our Wanderlust Wednesdays button and link back to our blogs
4. Be sure to visit other blogs and build your travel bucket list!

Orlando City + New Travel Linkup

Hope everyone had a fun and relaxing weekend! Mine was the perfect mixture of both. 

On Friday night Kerri and I went to the Orlando City vs New England soccer game at the Citrus Bowl which was the first game for the both of us since Orlando City Soccer Club is fairly new. Thousands of people came out that night and it was a cool experience although neither one of us are huge soccer fans.

After the game we headed downtown to meet up with some friends and have a few beverages before heading home. 

Saturday was a relaxing day at home catching up on some blogging, food prepping and stuff around the house. 

On Sunday, K and I headed out to the east coast to finally get our first beach day of the year. The weather was perfect and it was a great day of lounging in the sun.

**Announcement**

Kate, Kerri and I are starting a new travel linkup this week which will run the second Wednesday of every month so get your travel posts ready for our new Wanderlust Wednesdays!! Feel free to link up new and old travel recaps or places on your destination wish list. Looking forward to sharing and reading your wanderlust adventures!

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Busch Gardens Tampa

I did a quick recap of our trip to Busch Gardens in Tampa over the weekend and our experience at their Food & Wine Festival which was excellent! Today I wanted to share some more details about the park itself and some of the rides and attractions that stood out to me.

I didn't explore every single inch of the park but, being there for a full eight hours, I think we saw most of the main attractions and covered good ground.

The Rides:
The Cheetah Hunt and Skyride Cable Cars.
We really wanted to go on the Skyride to get a bird's eye view of the park but it was closed due to weather conditions (too windy). 

Falcon's Fury

The Phoenix

Congo River Rapids

Sheikra

The Animals:
We saw an elephant, large alligator, a gorilla, tortoises, flamingos and penguins.

Garden Sightings:
Beautiful garden displays all throughout the park. 

Live fountain statue singing in the garden at the Food & Wine Festival. 

Games:
There were several options for games and arcade games where you can win prizes such as the Flamingo Farm below.

Shows:
There were several shows to pick from and we decided on Iceploration which is a 30-minute ice skating show with professional skaters and acrobats. Flash photography was not allowed so I didn't capture the best photos with my iPhone. 

Food & Drinks:
We had lunch at Zambia Smokehouse which serves fast-food barbecue and it was fairly good.

Later in the evening and after several drinks at the Food & Wine Festival, we tried several small plates at the festival which were all excellent. 

Menu:
Pan-Seared Shrimp with Roasted Red Pepper Grits & Grilled Corn
Bacon-Wrapped Prawns
Deconstructed Duck Confit
Bacon Mac & Cheese

We had a great time exploring Busch Gardens and i was really impressed with all that they had to offer even though I'm not big into the scary rides but there's so much more to entertain people with all types of interests as I pointed out above. 

Pig Floyd's & Blog Direction

 Photo Credit

Earlier this week, a friend and I went for lunch at a fairly new restaurant in town called Pig Floyd's. We wanted to check out the menu and see what the hype was all about. We sat down and were chit chatting when the owner stopped by offering us Cuban-style tacos he had just created in the kitchen. Have you ever seen tacos with black beans, rice, pulled pork, plantains and a fancy avocado sauce? They were amazing!! He said he's thinking of calling them The Fidel. (aka Fidel Castro = perfect name based on the ingredients)

We chatted with him a bit and convinced him these tacos needed to be on the menu asap. Not before long, he was back with with a plate of BBQ ribs for us to taste test. Amazing once again! We had such a great time on our lunch break away from work. Thanks cool dude who is the owner of Pig Floyd's for making our experience so enjoyable. We'll be back to try more of your menu options. P.S. sorry I thought you were Canadian when in fact your accent is that of Puerto Rico. #blondemoment 

He posted the #Fidel tacos photo on their Facebook page and we even got some love.

Lucky for him, he was sharing his creations and chats with a blogger and had no clue I would share my experience online.  The Big Floyd sandwich is amazing btw! Tough to finish as the menu says but worth a shot.

So about my blog direction...

I've been thinking for a while now about where I want to take my blog and different avenues I want to explore. Experiences like this at Pig Floyd's solidify what I've actually been leaning towards the whole time. Outside of blogging, I love to write restaurant reviews on Yelp & UrbanSpoon as well as reviews for retail websites and stores. 

I want to create a section specific to Orlando or at least Florida life in general. I love the city in which I live. There's lots to do and I want to be able to share that on my blog. It's part of my lifestyle and what I enjoy. While I know most of my readers and blog friends don't live in the Orlando area, it is a popular vacation spot and I think my reviews will eventually be helpful to both locals and visitors looking for recommendations for different types of restaurants, entertainment, shows, festivals and so on. This won't be the focus of my blog but I plan to do a review here and there based on my experiences and what I think is worth mentioning.

I travel quite a bit and I already have a section for that where I can do my travel recaps and restaurant reviews. I think it's time to create a section for the city I live in and love ~ Orlando. 

What do you think?