The Darrah's

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Universal Studios and Disney World!

We're in Florida!!!! Destin, FL was our first pit-stop to see Hope's military widow friend Michelle. Stayed there for a few hours then headed off to Clearwater Beach :) The sad was super white and FULL of shells. I went to chose one to take home with me and had like major issues choosing just one. I'm used to Oregon beaches where if you find a whole shell, it's a miracle haha.

It was super bright, that's why Tayler's face is all scrunched up haha

There were a ton of decorated Dolphins along the road on the way out

Next stop: Orlando Disney Resorts! So we're staying in the Caribbean Beach: Aruba resort and it's pretty cool :) Inside our room it's a Finding Nemo theme (don't know why I haven't taken a picture? lol) and we kinda quote it a lot :)

Welcome to Aruba :)

The next day we were off to Universal Studios. We were pretty darn excited, especially for the new Harry Potter ride (which was mind blowing ;) ).

I love how they go all out in the building decor

Green eggs and ham anyone?? I used to think that sounded so gross until I was
old enough to think that maybe it's just food coloring haha :)

Hogsmeade

Hogwarts Express

Hogwarts castle!!! The line for the ride that goes through the castle was like 90 minutes long
but so worth it :)

Hope getting some Henna

Finished product :) btw: notice the tan difference from her hand to her leg?? :P

I Love Lucy

Yeah I realize this should have been the first picture for Universal Studios...

Today we went to Disney World: Magic Kingdom. Apparently there are 4 different parks within Disney World and Magic Kingdom is a lot like Disneyland... so we went to that one first.

Our shirts we got from Universal Studios! (we also got a "Father of All Things" for my dad)

Disney Castle :)

Pirates of the Caribbean was pretty cool :)

I totally love Buzz Lightyear!!

Towards the end of the day it started raining big time! I think it rained like two inches at least for like 1 1/2 or 2 hours. We seriously had to wade through mid-calf deep water in some places! Once again... the Oregon weather is following me haha. At least we got awesome lightning and thunder :) I wish Oregon had lightning and thunder storms like these, instead the thunder in OR just sounds like someone rolling their garbage can out to the curb.. :/

Cute little duck enjoying the flooding gutter thing

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Texas and Louisiana

Day 6 (yes I know I skipped some days, but on those days nothing fun happened so I'm just going to spare you the boring stuff :)) we went to Six Flags! It was super super hot, like 107 and a lot of the rides were breaking down, but it was still a lot of fun!! We went on the tallest roller coaster in Texas, it was like 25 stories high and I swear I almost blacked out. As it turns out I wasn't the only one, so that made me feel a little better, I had seriously thought there was something wrong with me haha. Didn't get any pictures :(

Yesterday (Day 7) we arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana!!!! :))) We got here at like 6 on a Saturday night, and things were already starting to get rowdy (our hotel is on the road that turns into Bourbon). Our valet told us that we definitely needed to be in by like 10, so we hurried and found something to eat, but what an adventure. I kinda wish I had never seen the things I saw on Bourbon... lol scarred for life? Yeah, you could say that. There were strip clubs ALL over that street... and yeah I'll spare you the details. After seeing that we made sure we were in our hotel at 8 haha. I totally LOVE Jambalaya :) Po-Boys are really good too and so is Gumbo. Collard Greens are disgusting though. I just wanted to try them because I hear "collard greens" in a lot of southern movies.. but they are gross. Just so you know, that's the one thing I would NOT recommend to anyone. That night I slept like a baby though, and didn't really here the "party" going on outside. Now onto the interesting day: Day 8! At the beginning of the day we went on a tour to see all the cool houses, and the Lafayette Cemetery.

It was pretty darn cool to see the graves above ground like this.
Would you call them tombs or catacombs??

A tomb especially for people who worked for the fire department

Fancy house! I would totally live in a house like this one, I absolutely loved it

The fence around the house though, is ugly (yes, that is corn...) And it cost more than the house itself!!
Explain that one to me... it doesn't make any sense to me.

amazing!!

This house is the type of house that Hope dreams of owning. The Plantation House :)

After our tour we met up with Hope's friend Tricia and her friend Danielle. We went all over the French Quarter with them and had a lot of fun :)

I love balconies! :))

Cool castle lookin' building

Mardi Gras masks!!! :) I kept singing "Masquerade" from the Phantom of the Opera in my head
when I was trying on these masks :)

Don't we look fabulous??

totally should have bought one... but it would have gotten ruined on the rest of our journey

no words ;)

Beignets!! like in Princess and the Frog! :D lol when I found out that we were going to
New Orleans, I told Hope that we had to eat "those donuts looking things like in
Princess and the Frog!"

This market was super cool! It had a ton of stuff in it, jewelry, food, clothes. We tried Alligator :D

Mardi Gras Indian! (I think he was a little drunk..) Oh and those things we're eating are called Snow
Balls.. Kinda like a snow cone but better :)

All of us in front of a statue of Louis Armstrong

Loved the music :)

there were these statue people ALL over the place. They would hold super still and have
a tip jar placed in front of them.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde

Okay so in this post I'm covering Day 2 and Day 3 of our trip :) So after the Hoover Dam, we drove for like forever to get to the Grand Canyon at midnight. We stayed at the Yavapai Lodge and it was pretty nice! That morning we shuttled around to the view points. I think the first thing we all said when we saw the Grand Canyon was "Wow!" haha :) It is seriously amazing!!

See? Beautiful!

I'm seriously at a loss of what to say right now..there's just no words to describe it :)

See those dark clouds? Yeah.. they rained on us.. and I thought
we had left the Oregon weather behind

Hope, Tayler and I :)

Apparently I was "breaking the rules" when I went out on this ledge, but
I wanted a better view of how high up we were! :)

Day 3! So in between the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde, Hope's car over heated so we had to pull over and let it cool off. While we were pulled over, two guys tried to pick my mom and my sister up! It was extremely creepy... they came over to "help out" and see if we needed any "assistance"... luckily they just went away eventually. New experiences every day right? haha. We were also gonna go and see the 4 Corner's but we got there too late :( I guess that helped us get to our hotel in Cortez, Colorado before midnight!
The next morning we headed over to Mesa Verde. Super cool! They are called "cliff dwellings" and they were built by Indians (a.k.a Ancestral Puebloans). We went to the Balcony House and Cliff Palace.

Ladder up to the Balcony House

Going through the narrow crack to get to the house.

Balcony House :)

Kiva, this is like a church to the Puebloans. This is where they go
to do their rain dances and stuff

Climbing through a super narrow tunnel!

I found a lizard!! :))

Cliff Palace: Amazing!

Tayler, Hope and I at Cliff Palace

Super cool ring I got at the gift store :)

We're going to a Cultural Center tonight to see some Indian dances, so I'll update this post with those pictures later :)

Nat-Soo-Pah and Hoover Dam

For all of you who don't know, I am on a two month cross country trip with my sister Hope, my mom, and my brother Tayler. So far we have all had a blast! We started off at Nat-Soo-Pah Hot-spring in Idaho for a family reunion. Not to brag or anything, but I pretty much have the best family ever! We all get along super amazing together and we always have a lot of fun :) At Nat-Soo-Pah they had a big pool, a hot tub and a hot soak pool. The pool was warm and felt really amazing, the hot tub was just like a regular hot tub but the hot soak pool was like burn your flesh off hot! Especially in the 100 degree weather! I think I stayed in it for like 2 seconds lol.