More Disney World :)

Ready for some more of Disney World adventures? That's what i thought ;) So today and yesterday we went to the other 3 parks: Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and the Epcot Center. Yesterday we started the day off with an amazing safari. I seriously felt like I was in Africa :)

some cool orange deer looking thing.. lol can't remember the name of it

Rhino!!! (in the back laying down, being lazy)

I know it's hard to tell but that right there, is a row of Hippos!  I think there was like
7 or 8 of them right in a row

Alligator :) (or maybe crocodile?? ...)

Termite Mound 

Giraffe right up next to the road!

Mamma and daddy elephant with their baby :) 

Silver back Gorilla! (haha i kept thinking about Tarzan while i was looking at him)

cool statue..

It's funny cuz right after Tayler was talking about how lame the Yeti was, we saw
this sign :)

When it started to get super super hot we decided to go cool off and watch a bird show. I thought it was gonna be kinda lame but I actually really liked it!

Bald Eagle named Hope

At dinner, there were these weird "Environmentally Safe" paper straws. I have found out
 that I really don't like paper straws.. after a while they start to get soft and the whole time
your drinking, you taste paper... 

I totally love this ride!!! For this ride, your in an elevator and you shoot up to the top and they open a window
so you can see out around the rest of the park, and then you drop down, and back up, and then fall ect.

Mayan looking temple :)
(Hope, Tayler and I are on the steps going up to the temple. Hope is in a blue shirt,
Tayler's in orange and I am in yellow and gray.)

I think this was in France

Germany :) or maybe this was the France one?? lol I'm so tired.. and it's hard to keep track
of all the different places and things you see

One more day of Disney World, then we're going to Sea World, and then up to North Carolina :)

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 

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

:D

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.