Orlando Vacation: Tampa Day Trip

Hey you guys! As promised I'm back with a bonus post for my trip to visit my friend in Orlando.  We packed a lot into Friday and we had such an amazing time. We decided to take a mini road trip to Tampa on Friday to check it out and I was able to see some really beautiful animals!

So where did we go that I've been hinting at? It's the Manatee Viewing Center by the Tampa Electric Company! I'm always weary of any type of "Viewing Center" for animals as I'm sure all of us are because contributing to animal exploitation is definitely not something I'm interested in. This "Viewing Center" is basically a platform for people to view a naturally occurring event. During the winter months when the weather is cold, the manatees seek warmer waters which they find in the canal by the Electric Company. The viewing center is essentially a platform so you can see these amazing animals in person. What I did appreciate was a clear effort made by the volunteers there to educate people to NOT interact with these animals which means no feeding, no touching or petting or anything else that would disrupt their lives. I felt comfortable with what it was and a little known fact is that manatees are my absolute favorite animals!! They are so freaking adorable, gentle and sweet and I was so excited to see them! Oh and another thing is if they are there you see them, if they aren't, you don't. This is a clear sign that to me that there is no captivity situation so it also helped ease my fears.

So in today's post I will be showing you some pictures that I got! I had to narrow down so not to post a million of the same thing but I hope you enjoy! I was so happy while I was there :)

This was the platform entrance! How cute are they?! I can't. And how beautiful was that day? We were so lucky.

There were a lot of these cuties in the area that day. We were lucky because it has been quite warm but we were catching the end of the season. I heard that as you head into April you don't get to see them much. You can see a ton of them under the water. There was a mama and her baby there too. I couldn't get a great shot but trust me when I say they were freaking adorable.

Here you seen one coming up for a breath. I just can't with the cuteness. I was really happy that we were able to get there and that they were around that day! We really lucked out!

Do you guys have painted animal statues around your town? I've seen horses around where I live and they had a cute painted manatee there. Too cute!

You could walk down the pier along the canal and I grabbed this picture of the view of where you get out more into the open water. Such a beautiful day.

Here we have the end of the pier. They had another trail that you could walk but we didn't get a chance to check it out.

So there you have it, our trip to see the manatees! I was so happy to see them and we had such a great time! 

Have a great weekend :)

Orlando Vacation: Part 1

Hey everyone! I'm back from my long weekend in Orlando and have a bunch of fun stuff to share with you! I typically wrap up in one post but I do have a bonus post for you which will most likely go up this weekend! I'll cover my food and some of my activities here but you'll get to see some really special stuff in the next post :)

I guess we'll just get started! Get a drink and a snack, this is going to be a long one ;)

My very first picture comes from my plane ride out there. I happened to catch the most beautiful sunset out of the window. I tend to end up right near the wing almost every time I fly but I managed to catch this shot and I love the way it looks.

I'm skipping pretty much all of Friday right now because that will be covered in my next post ;)

Saturday morning we went to Ethos Vegan Kitchen for brunch! I didn't stray and had my favorite breakfast burrito. It has tofu scramble, potatoes and faux sausage in it and it is covered in a creamy white gravy. I wish I could have these delivered to my house every day!

My friend got the tofu scramble with a side of fruit and toast (unpictured). I decided to photograph his because I get the same thing every time and thought you may want to see what else they have ;)

After brunch we walked over a few blocks to the Winter Park Farmer's Market. It was a great market (I've been there before but it's even better!) but it was so crowded I didn't take any pictures while we were there. I did photograph the mini haul when we got back. We got a watermelon (it was good but not summer good), a few honeycrisp apples for what I was planning for brunch on Sunday, asparagus to have with pasta that night (no picture but the asparagus was amazing!) and some cherries. They had a great selection of produce. I could do some major damage if I lived there.

On Sunday I made brunch for us and decided to make Apple Pie Baked Oatmeal! I didn't forget to photograph this meal!

This was my plate. We had it with watermelon and it was delicious!

On Sunday we went on a walk around Lake Baldwin. The weather the whole weekend was absolutely perfect: blue skies, mid 70s, nice breeze. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend! Here are the pics from Lake Baldwin:

Check out how blue it is!

Monday was my last day and I couldn't leave without visiting Loving Hut! I wanted to branch out from my usual Combo 1 so I went with the Combo 4 which is slightly different. It was good but not as good as my usual. 

And there you have it! My general recap for my spring trip. I had a great time and as always it went way too fast! I will be back later in the week or this weekend with a post about what we did on Friday. It was an amazing day and I can't wait to share it with you! 

Have a great week!