Why Jackie loves Orlando, and you can too!

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday. This week is just going to fly by!

Today, our guest blogger comes to us from sunny ol’ Florida. I love having guest bloggers over here in the first place, but I always get so excited when I don’t know what they are going to post about. My favorite part of this series is seeing what people love and how they think we can as well. All of these things make us unique and is a fun way for us to learn about each other!

So without further ado…here is Jackie…

***********************************************************************

Hey everyone! I’m so excited to get the chance to guest blog here at Colors of Life. Molly was one of the first bloggers I ever started following and I love keeping up with her!

My name is Jackie and I blog over at My (Sort Of) Adult Life where I share memories with friends and family, my favorite recipes and anything else I love. I’m a proud dog mama, fiance, coffee lover and slight TV addict. I’m a Florida girl and I’ve lived in Orlando my whole life. Most people only think of Disney World or Universal Studios when they think of Orlando but there is so much more to do here! Today, I’m going to tell you about some of my favorite things our city has to offer.

Lake Eola

My very favorite part of the city is Lake Eola in the heart of downtown. It’s a great place to go for a walk, feed the ducks or you can try the paddle boats. They also have a huge Farmer’s Market every Sunday. The best part is it’s really dog friendly!

Sports

Our sports teams may not be the top dogs but the games are tons of fun. You can catch a Magic or Solar Bears game at the Amway Arena, which is huge and so nice! My personal favorite is the UCF Games, Go Knights! And we just added a soccer team and those games are incredible to be a part of.

Brunch

Orlando is a great place for foodies. You can seriously find any cuisine here and there is no shortage of amazing brunch spots! Some of my favorites are Dexter’s, KASA, Santiago’s Bodega & Soco. We also just got a Sugar Factory which I can’t wait to try!

Escape Rooms

We have a few different Escape Rooms around the area, which are perfect for a puzzle lover like me. If you’ve never been in one, it’s basically a themed room that you get locked in and have to solve a bunch of puzzles to get out of within a certain amount of time (usually an hour). It’s a great group activity!

Dinner Theaters

Another entertaining outing is our dinner theaters. We have a Pirate’s Dinner Adventure, Medieval Times Dinner Show and my personal favorite, Slueths Mystery Dinner Show. What can I say, I’m an amateur detective, I really like mysteries and puzzles!

So, next time your in town, even if you come to hang out with Mickey, I hope you’ll venture out and try some of these other activities! Follow along with me and all of my Orlando adventures!

My (Sort Of) Adult Life|Bloglovin’|Facebook|Twitter|Instagram|Pinterest

Thanks again Molly for hosting me!

***********************************************************************

Ahhhhh, thank you so much for sharing your city with us. I WANT WHATEVER THE FOOD IN THAT PICTURE IS! It looks like you have such a blast there!

Everyone go check out her blog and say hi! Thanks again for posting for me this week, Jackie! 🙂

To see more of this series check them out here:

Why I love Running, and you can too!
Why I love Yoga, and you can too!
Why Kylie loves Spinning, and you can too!
Why Jamie loves Celebrating, and you can too!
Why Christina loves Hosting, and you can too!
Why Julie loves Hiking, and you can too!
Why Randi loves Pittsburgh, and you can too!
Why Angie loves Self Care, and you can too!
Why Mattie loves Zumba, and you can too!
Why Katie loves Reading, and you can too!
Why Lindsay loves Hot Yoga, and you can too!
Why Emily loves Decorating, and you can too!
Why Tara loves Cooking, and you can too!
Why Erika loves Online Shopping, and you can too!
Why Lauren loves Traveling, and you can too!
Why Shelly loves Giving to Others, and you can too!
Why Alexandra loves Photography, and you can too!
Why Haley loves Thrifting, and you can too!
Why Jacquelyn loves Sewing, and you can too!

Orange Beach and New Orleans

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! Today I am going to share about our vacation last week. We spent a week in Orange Beach, Alabama. And we had so much fun. On Saturday morning we were all packed up and on the road by 6:30am. 6 people with our luggage on top of the car.

We were under the impression from dad that it would only be about an 8 or 9 hour drive. We ended up in the car for 13 hours. All I wanted to do was run and run and run after sitting for that long. But finally, we arrived!

Girl’s Room

Boy’s Room

Stocked up Kitchen

Family Room

When we got to our condo and unpacked after dinner it was about 9:30/10:00. First thing we wanted to do was get out to the water! So that’s just what we did…a night stroll along the beach.

After we woke up on Sunday we went to Pensacola, Florida to meet my dad’s friends for brunch. We then stopped at this place:

Joe Patti’s is a popular seafood market down in Florida. This is where we got our seafood that we made for the week. As soon as we thought we were leaving my dad saw something else he wanted. Shrimp, shrimp, scallops, sea bass, crab claws, peaches, tomatoes (at an outside stand), gumbo, clam chowder…he went to town! The rest of Sunday was spent hanging out. We didn’t plan any activities because we didn’t know what the weather was going to do. So the majority of the night we strolled through gulf shores and orange beach. And spent the majority of our night out here:

We were able to go out to the beach Sunday, but Monday was our main beach day.

 

and it was so much fun! We started planning our activities Monday when the weather looked as though it would be okay but nobody had availabilities until Tuesday, so Monday night we went to the local “Adventure Island” to ride go-karts, paddle-boat, and we even got into a hurricane simulator machine.

Tuesday was our ziplining day in the afternoon. Morgan, Ryan, Myself, Rick, Mom and Dad. A picture of our whole motley crew is at the end.

This was definitely the boys’ favorite activity that we did. After this we had a little downtime before our sunset dolphin cruise in the evening. All aboard!

Morgan claimed this was her favorite activity. I bet I know why…we both held a LIVE CRAB! My brothers were way too scared. Chickens!

This crab’s name was Georgette and she lost a claw before I got to hold her. One of the little girls was holding her she squirmed and dropped the crab. The deckhand had to step on her claw to get her, but let me tell you. I laughed for a good 10 minutes afterwards.

Tuesday went by pretty quickly. We had a reservation to Parasail on Wednesday, but it stormed during our time so we had to improvise after they cancelled our flight. Wednesday we just hung out along the beach in the morning during the good weather. Whenever it started to rain we decided to drive around, stop for lottery tickets, and get our t-shirts/souvenirs. Wednesday night we drove across the gulf into Florida to a quiet little beach to take our own pictures with our camera, and tripod.

We got some pretty good shots with the camera that we have. Even this was some quality time together and the boys didn’t get that cranky. Morgan also took some senior pictures while we were there.

My little sis is a beaut. We went to the condo to make seafood after this. We were leaving the next morning, but we were able to sneak in an 8:00am Parasailing Flight. It. Was. Worth. It. My dad did not want to go and the first thing he said when he came down was “That was really fun”. It was so much fun and so relaxing being up there. We went doubles. So it was mom and dad first, then Morgan and Rick, then Ryan and I.

See how excited and happy we all look? Because it was exciting and happy! If you haven’t parasailed, do it once in your life! I promise you won’t regret it. After our Parasailing flight we had to go pack up to. We drove to New Orleans for the night. We just walked around New Orleans because my dad and I were the only ones who had been there. For dinner that night we went to the restaurant of the guy who created “blackened” as a seasoning. It. Was. Delicious. and we got to sit at the Chef’s table.

After, I took everyone for the famous beignets

We walked the streets of NOLA

We wanted to get in before dark though. So we hung out in the hotel room for a while. Friday morning we woke up and traveled to Morgan’s college that she’s playing soccer at.

After a trip to a local hole-in-the-wall diner for lunch. We were sad to say goodbye to vacation.

I’d tell you what we ate the whole, but really all it was is…

Scallops

Seabass & crab claws

Shrimp & Gumbo

And more shrimp!

Foodie Heaven. With some kids’ chicken tenders and fries with a dinner of BBQ thrown in.

This truly was a vacation of a lifetime. And so much fun to hang out with the family. I’ll never forget this trip. If you are planning vacation to Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area, or even New Orleans and need phone numbers of the places we went to for activities, or food. E-mail me! colorsoflifeblog@gmail.com

Everywhere we went, we enjoyed and I would be happy to share names!

Happy Monday, friends!