...But first, coffee (with Jen)

We have traveled from Canada to Florida a few times now, and each trip has been a little different.  We have found what works for us, and we use this information when planning future trips. If you're looking to travel to Florida and you are on a budget, then these tips may work out well for you. Set a realistic budget. Travel is expensive. So, plan ahead - research where you want to go, what you can expect to pay to get there and how much you will need to do the activities that you want to do while on vacation.  Start putting away funds ahead of time to cover the costs of the trip. When planing for Florida we add the price that we anticipate for flights, park tickets, food and shopping. Choose your traveling time wisely. The price of flights fluctuate quite frequently. When planning we have seen flights pop up with hundreds of dollars in the difference.  So, do your research, fly during the low (or off) season when possible, and set up flight price monitoring...

Like most Harry Potter fans, I'm still waiting for my letter to Hogwarts to arrive via an owl.  But, until then, I've settled for visiting the Harry Potter sections of Universal Studios. Most of this post will be Harry Potter related because that is were I take most of my Universal park pic's, and, during this visit, we experienced rain while we were visiting.  So, the photo ops didn't happen because we were running from cover to cover in our neon ponchos. We visited the two sections over two days.  If you want to do both sections in the one day you do need a park hopper pass.  We didn't bother seeing it all in the one visit because we wanted to revisit the area on day two to spread out the fun.  If you do have a park hopper ticket, take the Hogwarts Express when traveling from side to side because it is a different experience each way. On one of these days in Universal we ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks. Why?  Because we haven't eaten he...

Back in May myself, my hubby and a friend took a trip to Florida to see the parks (again!).  I love going to the Disney and Universal Studios theme parks.  The combination of the warm sun, sights, thrill rides, food and shopping does it for me every time. There is a lot of planning that goes into a 10 day trip like this. First, we visit during off season.  So, we miss the intense heat and long ride wait lines.  I'll post all the details on how we plan our Florida trips a little later because this post is just going to be gushing about the amazing time we had. At Epcot we experienced the Flower and Garden Festival. This festival is filled with beautiful sprawling flower displays, amazing character topiary (see the Stitch topiary behind me?), and featured menu items throughout. We've been to Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival, and I'm allergic to certain plants, but I think that this is my favorite time of year to be at Epcot.  I loved walking around t...