Showing posts with label Universal Studios. Show all posts

The Weekend with Sunshine & St Patrick's Day


The weather has been all over the place lately but ended up warm and sunny during the day on Saturday and Sunday. I actually woke up on Sunday morning hustling to get ready for work thinking it was Monday, then to realize it's still the weekend so I crawled right back into bed and slept until 9:30. Bliss!

2017 Year Recap: September - December


Sharing the last part of my 2017 Adventures series.

Here's Part one and Part Two, which were both action packed with travel, celebrations, and fun with family/friends.

2017 Year Recap: January - April


I always love reflecting back on the year to remember all my adventures and whereabouts. 2017 was a great year filled with celebrations, travel, and fun with friends.

Happy Halloween


We started celebrating Halloween a little early with a trip to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios last week. Neither K nor I are one for getting spooked for fun but we got free tickets with our annual passes and wanted to make use of them before the event came to an end.

Long Weekend Celebrations


 
What an action-packed weekend! Thankfully we have a short work week ahead. A friend from Boston was in town visiting over the long weekend so we definitely kept busy showing him a good time around Orlando. It's always fun playing tourist in your own city as he did the same for us when we went to visit him in Boston back in June.

Best Weekend with The Bestie


Where do I begin? It was an awesome weekend with the Bestie. I picked her up from the airport on Friday afternoon and we got right down to shopping at the Florida Mall for maternity and baby things.
 
I was ecstatic to be asked to be Baby S's Godmother with this cute card and got to feel her wiggle around and kick all weekend long!


We celebrated C's birthday that night with some Thai food for dinner and cake for dessert!


On Saturday morning we got some more baby shopping out of the way and had a delicious lunch at Pom Pom's Cafe.


In the afternoon we headed over to Universal Studios to have some fun. Unfortunately most of the rides weren't fit for expecting moms but we did go on some baby rides, catch some shows, and enjoyed exploring Harry Potter's Diagon Alley. The weather was beautiful for a day at the park.










 
 

In the night we watched the Mardi Gras parade and caught tons of beads which was lots of fun.



 






After the parade we were starving so we went over to Antonijtos to have some delicious Mexican for dinner and enjoyed some table-side made guacamole and fajitas.



After dinner we were exhausted with a capital E so it was time to call it a night.



I slept in and relaxed a bit on Sunday morning before heading out to do some final shopping with C. We grabbed a yummy lunch at Marlow's Tavern and got a few errands done.


Today she heads back home and I'm off to work but my heart is happy after such a fun-filled weekend with lots of quality time together.

I'm now SO looking forward to meeting Baby S and traveling home for her Christening in December.


Joining the lovely Biana.

Weekend Happenings

  
The weekend was a good mix of relaxing and fun with friends. That small time change for daylight savings gets me every time especially when you lose an hour of sleep so here's hoping this Monday goes by smoothly!

On Friday night we started planning some upcoming trips this year. Unfortunately we came to the realization that the big Europe trip we had hoped to pull together this summer is just not in the books and will have to wait until next year. We did decide on something more feasible and affordable.


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Playa del Carmen here we come! I've never been to Mexico so this is just as exciting with a lot less time off of work and little planning involved since we'll be staying at an all-inclusive resort.

Most of Saturday was spent lounging around watching TV and catching up on some blogging. In the evening we headed out to Universal Studios to catch the Mardi Gras parade with friends and enjoy some Cajun food for dinner.









We met up with the birthday girl and and our awesome neighbors also happened to be at the park so so we all went over to see the UB40 concert after the parade.





Such a fun night out with the birthday girl and friends!


The time change had me all kinds of confused on Sunday morning because we had brunch reservations but that time came earlier than expected.


Brunching at a beautiful lakeside restaurant was the extent of our fun on Sunday. The bottomless mimosas and Eggs Benedict were wonderful but the service was horrendous and had me all kinds of hangry after waiting 20 minutes for a "bottomless" drink and almost an hour for our food since the waiter "lost our ticket". Anyways, after fueling up on some brunch and having a couple pineapple mimosas the frustration subsided and I was good again.


Joining the lovely birthday girl Biana.

Universal Studios' Mardi Gras


Happy Fat Tuesday everyone! 

I actually have some Mardi Gras fun to share today since Orlando's Universal Studios has had their annual Mardi Gras festival going on since the beginning of February. I've been able to visit twice so far and I have plans to go a few more times with friends to catch some of the concerts post-parade.


In the Spring, Universal Studios brings the food and festivities of Bourbon Street to their theme park. The French Quarter Courtyard is where you go to grab some "N'awlin's style food and spirits". 

There are several booths selling beads, masks & other Mardi Gras party favors but I would skip that and catch all the beads they sling at the crowd during the parade.



 


When the sun starts to set, the parade begins with street performers, stilt walkers, colorful dancers and festive floats with people tossing out countless amount of beads into the crowd.


I apologize in advance for the blurry pictures. You can blame that on fast movement of the performers + trying to catch beads and enjoy the parade all at the same time.





 

You can view a short clip of the floats going by throwing out beads:



What a FUN night!
Between K and I, we probably caught about 20 beads and both agreed as we were walking to the car that the parade was WAY more fun than we expected.


After the parade, (mainly on the weekends) you can head over to the Music Stage to catch some big-name musicians live in concert. This one we haven't done yet but that will be changing in the upcoming weeks.