A couple of weekends ago, Rachel and I headed down to Florida for a few days. We spent the first day with my brother, Warren,and his family, before heading down to Disney for another quick visit. We typically like to get down to Disney at least once before the summer crowds/heat take over.

My nephew, Trey (Warren’s oldest), is graduating from high school at the end of this month, and we aren’t able to make the actual ceremony. But I knew I wanted to have some time to celebrate with him, so we decided to head down to Tallahassee to visit with them for the day/night. When we got there, we ended up getting to watch our niece, Ansley, ride horses and play polo for a little while. For not knowing very much about polo, I thought she was excellent! I was super impressed for sure!

 

We had a wonderful time hanging with my brother’s family, and as an added bonus, my dad and Suzanne came down for the day as well! I’ve said it before, I’m so blessed to have a wonderful and loving family who genuinely likes to be together.

After spending the night in Tallahassee, we headed out and made our way down to Disney for the next 3 days. We were excited for several reasons…

• Copper Creek (Wilderness Lodge) We ended up staying at our favorite resort, Wilderness Lodge, for the nights we were down there. In fact, our friend,Nick (who works for Disney Corporate), got us a great deal in the new section, Copper Creek. It was absolutely amazing! The rooms were so nice and updated. We ended up with a corner room that overlooked the private DVC pool and was within shouting distance of Geyser Point and Grill, one of our favorite new restaurants at the resorts. I told Rachel, once we’ve had a chance to stay at all the Disney resorts, Wilderness Lodge will more than likely be our go to from then on. While a little pricier than the moderate resorts, it’s worth it for the overall experience!

• Flower and Garden Festival Epcot has become one of our favorite parks at Disney. I think one of the main reasons is the festivals (including Food and Wine, Flower and Garden, and Festival of Arts) they have throughout the year. We love exploring the different food and drink offerings throughout the World Showcase. Plus, this year, Annual Passholders received special Flower and Garden Festival-themed magnets!

• Friends We ended up having some solid quality time with our friends, Nick and Ciara, who live literally right behind the Magic Kingdom. We love having time with them. They have truly become some of our closest friends.

• Disney Parks And, of course, being in the parks! We ended up spending time in the Animal Kingdom (especially Pandora!), Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. We always have a great time just being in the parks. It’s become one of our true happy places! No wonder they call it “The Most Magical Place On Earth!”

All in all, we had a wonderful trip to visit family and the Walt Disney World Resort! Until next time…

 

My sweet wife turns 33 today! She is such a blessing in my life and I’m so grateful to share in this life with her!

I hope she has a wonderful birthday. Love you babe! Here are a few of my favorite pictures of her/us over the past few months…

Rachel and I love to travel. And yes, while Disney is our top destination…we love to get out of town, even for just a few days. We decided years ago that we value experiences more than just accumulating a lot of stuff.

Now, of course, we buy the necessities and even treat ourselves to material possessions…but experiences are always going to be of great importance.

Inevitably, whenever we are getting ready to head out of town for a quick trip, someone always comments, “Didn’t you just go out of town?” I always smile and say YEP! It makes me happy to know that we are known as a couple who enjoys traveling and being together.

I will say, we are incredibly fortunate that we are able to get away several times a year. Both of us have great jobs with a lot of flexibility. Plus, we are financially able to make it work, while still being able to live and save money. Also, it doesn’t hurt that we are able to make a lot of our trips cheaper by using points, staying with friends, buying annual passes, and not going overboard with food and drinks.

All in all, I love experiencing new (and familiar) places with Rachel. I believe it allows us to get away from the craziness of life from time to time and just be together. And I figure as long as we can make these trips work out with our schedules and finances, we will continue to place a high priority on them.

Continuing with Part Three of our New York City Trip Recap…check out Parts One and Two here and here.

After two pretty busy days, our third (and final full day) in NYC was going to be a little more laidback. The only thing on the agenda was the New York Yankees baseball game at 1:00pm. We figured after the game, we would just grab dinner and walk around that evening for our last night. 

But after waking up and grabbing some breakfast, we decided to see if we could find tickets to another Broadway show for the evening. We had several options, although quite a few were pretty expensive. We ended up scoring some tickets to the new Frozen show that opened about a month ago. We had heard good things about it, plus, it’s Disney…so we figured it was a good bet.

Back to the first thing on our agenda for the day…the Yankees game. Now I’ve been to the old Yankees stadium, but haven’t gotten out to the new stadium, so I was excited to see it. We jumped on the subway a few hours before the game and made the trek up to the Bronx. The subway was absolutely packed with people going to the game. And it’s not a short ride. I was definitely ready to be off the train when we finally arrived.

The stadium was a short walk from the subway and very easy to navigate. We ended up with absolutely wonderful seats in the outfield right behind the bullpen. Plus, with the weather still a little chilly, it was great to be in the sun (especially for Rachel).

We had a great time at the game. The fans were all super nice and super into the game. It’s definitely a different environment than going to a Braves game. Plus, the Yankees won, so everyone was in a good mood.

Around the 8th inning, we decided to cut out and head back towards the hotel. Once we got back down to the hotel area, we walked around for a bit and even found another Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes!

After resting up for a little bit, we headed over to the Times Square area to grab dinner. We ended up at this great burger place (The Counter) literally in the middle of Times Square. It was excellent!