Road Trip to a Few Bucket-List Places (and a handful of July happenings)
Strap in for some more fun pictures! Our big trip this year was a road trip out to Florida. We stopped in Louisiana to do a swamp tour (ten out of ten recommend doing this if you have a chance) and then headed to Florida to go to Disney World and Universal Studios. We added a bonus of Sea World because we found out that Paul could get free tickets (yay for military veteran status). I’m also tacking on 4th of July as well as welcoming a new someone to the Darr household (simmer down, y’all…it’s an animal, not a human)!
Texas rest areas are awesome!This one had an entire historical area (it also had a playground outside that we had to convince Abigail to only spend a little time at).The first of many, many Buc-ee’s visits. I had no idea there were so many between San Antonio and Orlando.Inaugural Waffle House visit for everyone except Paul, who has eaten at them before. They gave Abigail a hat and she was ecstatic. We managed to leave Buc-ee’s without another stuffed animal for Abigail…she ended up with a onesie, though.I think they were playing Pokemon Go.Swamp Tour fun: this was off the dock where we were waiting for our tour boat. Peek-a-boo!She loves her daddy!This kid is pretty awesome!So is this one!I sure love this man!Another peek-a-boo shot off the dock.This was some type of predatory water bird. They come back to the same nest every year.Seeing the house boats out in the swamp was pretty cool.Spanish moss growing out of cyprus trees in the swamp. It was a pretty and peaceful boat ride.Our tour guide (who was born and raised in the area) feeding his “swamp puppy” (his words, not mine).It was fascinating to see all the plant life in the swamp.“Well, hello there…”“Do you have any fish?”It was crazy being so close to them.Yet we felt perfectly safe (mainly because we know for a fact that these guys are well-fed, haha).I don’t think I’d ever want to go near the water if not in a boat, though.Seeing all the water birds was cool, too.If you’re ever driving through Louisiana to get to Florida, look up McGee’s Swamp Tours (yes , Abigail ended up with an opossum plushie).Driving to our hotel after the swamp tour.We had a balcony off our room that had SUCH a pretty view!They had chairs out there and I sat out there for a while, just watching the swamp life. I was even rewarded with seeing a blue heron fly off (no pics of that, sorry!)Sunset was amazing!!Another Buc-ee’s stop. We stayed at Shades of Green (a hotel that only current or former military can stay at) while we did Disney World.For the first part of our theme park experiences, I had to be wanded and have my bag searched EVERY time I went through the metal detectors. It wasn’t until our second day at Disney (or maybe it was the third day? I can’t remember) that a security guy told me it was because of my glasses case…and if I took out my glasses case and held it out in front of me as I went through the metal detector, I wouldn’t need to have the extra search. I guess they do the same for folded-up umbrellas. Weird, but okay. I wish the first guy had told me that.Entering Magic Kingdom!We made a beeline for Tomorrow Land.Joseph and I went on Space Mountain.This is what Paul and Abigail did…I can’t remember the name of the ride, but this picture makes me think this might be what it’s like when he teaches her to drive, haha.We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, which Abigail loved.We had early entry, so it was nice to get a castle picture before there were 5 billion people milling around.We ran into this guy and Abigail absolutely wanted a picture with him.We walked out of the restaurant after lunch RIGHT into a parade that was going past. Abigail was so excited!In the line for Peter Pan’s Flight (the boys went to Big Thunder Mountain).In line for something…maybe Big Thunder?She found this little nook that was decorated like the place in Tangled. I do have to hand it to Disney…every square inch is covered.Little Mermaid ride. That’s one patient 14YO on the left. 😉Country Bear Jamboree. She loved it!I think this was the Swiss Family Robinson tree house…or maybe waiting for Jungle Cruise? It’s hard to tell.She convinced him to go on a magic carpet ride with her.Thanks be to the stranger who was willing to take our picture…and to the magic eraser tool on my phone that can remove other things (ahem…people) in the background, we got a castle picture. We even managed to get right where you can see the statue of Walt and Mickey if you look in between my head and Paul’s.After Magic Kingdom, we headed over to Epcot.Family photo in front of the big golf ball!She found Te Fiti!I can’t remember where the aquarium was, but we found sea dragons!Epcot at night.We took advantage of extended hours and hit up the Tron Lightcycles ride when there wasn’t an insanely long line.Day Two at Disney meant Star Wars!So many cool places to take pictures!Rise of the Resistance.Family Selfie!!Another cool backdrop.And yet another!Abigail had just gotten an ewok right before we discovered she could meet Chewbacca. He was hugging her ewok in this picture.Coming in for a hug.Telling Chewbacca that she wasn’t sure if he would like her ewok since she knew that ewoks HAD captured him before.I’m 90% sure the cast member could not hear everything she said (that is one hefty costume), but he was SO good with her!One more picture before moving on!It was fun to look up and see this guy on patrol. Again…Disney and their attention to detail!Day 3 at Disney was Animal Kingdom. We saw giraffes…I thought this was a fun picture that Paul got of Joseph taking a picture of an……elephant!We also saw lions!The main reason we went over to Animal Kingdom was for the Bluey playtime. I think that smile explains it all.Giving Bingo a high five. You can’t see her feet in this picture, but she was jumping up and down, soo excited.Saying hi to Bluey. They did songs and dances, played limbo and keepy-uppey (iykyk), and just had fun. It was probably her favorite part of that day.We also got to see kangaroos and wallabies up close!Joseph and I on Expedition Everest.While Joseph and I rode Expedition Everest, Paul took Abigail for stuff that was more her speed.We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.It was fitting because not long after, it began to pour. Luckily, we had our ponchos and we had already done pretty much everything we had on our list to do.As we were leaving Animal Kingdom, we got a good view of the Tree of Life.After Disney, we headed over to our hotel for our Universal days. We stayed at the Cabana Bay resort and it was so fun! The entire resort is designed like a beach resort from the 50s/60s. They even had a cafeteria-style dining area where we ate dinner every night (and breakfast one morning).The bulk of Universal was spent in the Harry Potter section. We went on the Forbidden Journey ride (which ended up being a bit crazier than any of us realized). In the queue for the ride I found the sorting hat!As luck would have it, Abigail got picked for the interactive wand experience at Ollivander’s wand shop (Joseph happened to get picked when he went to Universal in California with a friend). This meant she got to interact with the wand shop owner and do some “spells”. We let her get the wand in the end, so that was fun for her.Paul took Abigail to the Dr. Seuss area while Joseph and I rode on VelociCoaster.It was pretty cool to see this animatronic velociraptor while waiting in the queue.After VelociCoaster, we snuck back to Hogsmede for some……butter beer! I got mine frozen, which was perfect for the hot, humid Florida weather.Abigail and Paul checking out Dr. Seuss stuff.I speak for the trees!Family selfie! Do you see that roller coaster in the back? That’s the Velocicoaster. Yeeeeaaaah…it was fun, but crazy!Night time at our resort. I LOVED the vibe. We did night swimming two nights (Paul took Abigail on our last afternoon there, but they had to get out after not too long because a thunderstorm rolled in).They had s’more kits that you could buy and use at the fire pits.Fun family memories were made!This man planned so much to make our trip so memorable!Riding the Hogwarts Express on our way to Diagon Alley (as well as the OG Florida Universal stuff). Abigail scored this Miles Morales mask for being brave enough to go on a 3D Spiderman ride.The boys on the train. It was somewhat interactive as there were “windows” that looked over the countryside and you could see things happening in the outside area of the train cars (shadows of people walking by and dialogue).This is what I was looking forward to the most for Universal. We’ve been to the California one, so we’ve seen Hogsmede before. We haven’t seen Diagon Alley before, though! In Florida, there are three separate Universal parks, each with a different part of Harry Potter. We didn’t go to Epic Universe, which has the Ministry of Magic because it would have been a lot of extra money for something we weren’t that into.Joseph and I went to ride the Escape from Gringotts ride, so Paul took Abigail sight-seeing around Diagon Alley.The attention to detail at Universal is awesome, too!She loves to ride on stuff!and…in stuff, haha.Every once in a while, the dragon would breathe out fire.So many fun backdrops!We even found Knock Turn AlleyTaking a family Selfie in front of one of the spooky shops.Lunch at the Three Broomsticks.Probably the best food we had at any of the theme parks.The only “classic” ride we went on: ET.She was happy to meet the cat from Puss n’ Boots.Jumping on lily pads in Shrek’s Swamp.Getting ready to board at platform 9 and 3/4. So much fun!I had to get one last shot of the engine.Sea World!Abigail was NOT having it (it was already hot, haha), but when the person said for everyone to put their hands in the air, she was all about that!She loved getting to be with the fish.Underwater dolphin viewing.Since we didn’t have to buy tickets, we splurged and bought tickets for the dolphin encounter.We got to feed and pet a dolphin (Paul got to do that, too…he stepped back after a bit to get pictures).After a bit, those who didn’t want to get soaked stepped back a ways. Abigail wanted to get soaked, though, so she stayed up front. I think in this picture, the trainer was telling her to make a sign for the dolphin to do something.Then the trainer told the dolphin to let loose, haha.She was soaked, but happy.After the dolphin encounter, we went to see the penguins.We were expecting it to be like San Antonio where there is glass between the people and the penguins. There was not glass. It was cold.Like, really really cold. Especially for the little girl that was still covered in cold seawater. At the penguin viewing area where we could see them zipping around in the water.We caught the dolphin show……and then ended the day with seeing the sharks.If there’s a cut out, she has to take a picture.While driving home through Louisiana, there were times when the water was like, RIGHT there.We also saw a cool battleship.And went through a crazy-long tunnel.More water and swamp land.Spider…Buc-ee?When we got home, we discovered the jungle got more…jungle-like.We got home right in time to relax for a few days before 4th of July.She LOVES sparklers.In spite of an absence of a smile, he does, too.Paul teaching Joseph how to safely light fireworks. This is a good thing, right? 😉This was a cool one that basically popped off a bunch of Roman candles.Fountains are fun.She’s been asking for a pet practically since she learned to talk. For different reasons, we decided that furry pets are just not an option for us at this stage of life, but when she asked for a fish…well…Meet Bluey, the (male) blue veiltail Betta fish!
