Author: Jess

Categories
Florida

Visiting Universal Orlando’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Our Christmas presents this last year to the kids were tickets to Universal Studio’s Harry Potter World and coupons for Butter Beer. They couldn’t have been more excited to open them on Christmas morning as we had talked about this for months beforehand. Unfortunately, for them, we wouldn’t be going until the end of January so they still had some more waiting to do!

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We were joined on this adventure by my younger sister who flew out from Utah for the week to hang with us in Orlando (see: We Have a Visitor in the Airstream). It was great having her along as she is a huge fan of all things Harry Potter.

When We Visited: January 25, 2016

Ages of Kids: 10, 8, 5

Where We Stayed: Bill Frederick Park at Turkey Lake

We did a bit of research to decide what exactly we wanted to see in the park. Our friends over at TakeThatExit.com gifted us the Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando and while I was skeptical at fist, it actually proved fairly helpful!

The book has a description of each ride and how scary it is, plus touring plans for the parks. They even have a 1 day, park hopper touring plan we used for our visit. We tweaked the plan a bit to fit in Seuss Landing and a stunt show, but otherwise we followed the outlined plan and everything went great!

Harry Potter Land (or The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, as an employee nicely corrected us) is split between the two parks: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  If you want to visit both parks (and you really do) you have to get a park hopper pass. We found this was totally worth it as we spent most of our time exploring just the Harry Potter themed areas, as the rest of both parks were either too intense for the ages of our kids or did not interest us.

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Start with Diagon Alley

We started our day at Universal Studios in Diagon Alley. They’ve recreated the brick wall which is the entryway from the Muggle world to the magical Wizarding world. I couldn’t believe the excitement on my kids’ faces as they stepped through! We explored the shops, visited Ollivander’s and the Wand Ceremony, and rode the Escape from Gringotts which had a super short line early in the morning. Cara rode it once and then promptly decided she never wanted to ride it again. Definitely a little too intense for our 5 year old, but the older two thought it was great!

There are also two different puppetry performances from of  tales of Beedle the Bard and we were able to watch “The Fountain of Fair Fortune” while munching on our snacks from the sweet shop.

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Speaking of sweets, one of our kids’ main reasons for visiting the park was to try Butterbeer. Not only do they sell straight up Butterbeer, but also sell it frozen, hot, as ice cream and also as fudge. Definitely need to try them all! Butterbeer is sold in both sides of the park, so don’t stress if you only make it to one. I really wanted to try a pumpkin pastie, but by the time I made my decision late in the day they were all sold out. Lesson learned – don’t wait to buy your snacks!

The kids received money for Christmas from Grandma & Grandpa to spend while at the park and they had a great time deciding which treats to buy. Both Rachel and Cara bought a Chocolate Frog, and Andrew was adventurous enough to buy Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. There were a few he threw away, but he dared Cara to try a dirt flavored bean. That didn’t end so well! We also tried Fizzing Whizbangs, salt water taffy, and Exploding Bon Bons, but I think the Butterbeer Fudge was definitely my favorite treat.

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Visit London & King’s Cross Station

After exploring Diagon Alley, we headed back to “London” and visited Stan and the Knightbus. Stan was pretty entertaining and we got a good look at a possibly Airstream upgrade. Just kidding.

Next, we entered Kings Cross Station and found our way to platform 9 and 3/4, where we boarded the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade Station, which is over in Islands of Adventure. This 5 minute ride saves a 20 minute walk, but was an unexpectedly awesome ‘ride’ all by itself! While sitting on comfy seats, you experience beautiful scenes out the magical window, and witness the shadows of shenanigans just outside your compartment. The return ride was different still, and made it an all around wonderful experience. 

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Explore Hogsmeade

Once off the train in Hogsmeade, we wandered through the shops on our way to Hogwarts and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We knew this ride would be too intense for Cara, so we took advantage of the child swap program. The line snakes its way through the castle (the dungeons, outside in the Herbology lab, past Dumbledore’s office, etc.) which Cara really enjoyed and then we hung out in a small room near the ride loading area where they were playing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on a video screen. Fairly fitting I thought.

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Also in Hogsmeade is a fairly tame roller coaster themed after Hagrid’s Hippogriff (Cara loved this one), The Dragon Challenge (a set of “dueling” dragon roller coasters themed after the Tri-Wizard Tournament), performances by the Frog Choir and students from both Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks, which was pretty good, and the bathroom haunted by Moaning Murtle was also a really fun surprise!
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Seuss Land for Little Kids

Many of the rides we enjoyed were really too wild for little Cara. She was an incredible sport as we used the child-swap system of those rides. During the afternoon, we took a break from Hogsmeade and headed over to Seuss Landing for something more her speed. She loved every minute, and her joy was rewarding for all of us.

We also watched the Eight Voyage of Sinbad Stunt Show since we were in the area at the right time. Lots of flames, sword fights, and plenty of ridiculous banter to keep us entertained.

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While not quite to Disney levels, Universal has done a great job with the details of the magical Wizarding World. We loved catching a glimpse of Hagrid’s “Monster Book of Monsters”, and even found ourselves a Howler.

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With her money, Cara decided to solve all our mail problems with the purchase of an owl she’s dubbed “Hedwig” (never mind that Hedwig is white – we don’t pay that much attention to detail).

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We had a fabulous time! We did take the train back over to Diagon Alley to finish up with one more ride on Gringott’s and some Butterbeer ice cream. We thought we’d stay for the fireworks in the main area of the park, but they were such a disappointment (and frankly rather boring) that we left early.

Overall, the kids (and adults) were super happy, and we were impressed that we were able to cover both sections of the park in one day!

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Categories
Fitness & Recipes

Airstream Kitchen: Cast Iron Skillet Vegan Cornbread

We recently acquired a 10″ cast iron skillet, and are convinced that everything tastes better in it. I had been making this recipe in our 9×13 glass pan, but the first time we tried it in the skillet we were blown away by the deliciousness. Super soft, moist, and full of flavor, this cornbread recipe is sure to be a hit at parties and get-togethers. Plus, it doesn’t have a lot of butter (something many recipes do) so I like to think its a little bit healthy.

Cast Iron Vegan Cornbread

adapted from livinlightly.com
serves: 10″ skillet – how many people depends on how big you cut it up!
Ingredients for Cornbread
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 cup water
2 cups non dairy milk (we use Lactaid)
1/2 cup canola oil (melted coconut oil works too)
2 cups flour (we usually just use white)
8 tsp baking powder
2 cups whole grain cornmeal
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray skillet with non-stick cooking spray (probably not needed, I do usually do it anyway just in case).
2. Heat water in a small sauce pan on stove. Once it is boiling, add the flaxseed. Reduce heat and whisk until you get a gel-like consistency.
3. Combine milk & oil in a large bowl. Add sugar and mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture (Sift flour if you want – I’m always too lazy!) and mix well.
5. Stir in flaxseed mixture.
6. Spread cornbread mixture into a cast iron skillet. It’s pretty thick, but don’t worry.
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Drizzle with honey  & enjoy!
Airstream Kitchen -Cast Iron Vegan Cornbread Recipe

Categories
Fitness & Recipes

Airstream Kitchen: Italian Turkey Meatballs Over Zoodles

I usually make the meatballs one day and we’ll eat half of them over zucchini noodles (or zoodles),  and then freeze the other half of them to make Italian Wedding Soup later in the week. The ingredients for both meals are very similar, but they are totally different meals. Works great when you have very little fridge space. Usually I will serve this with french bread or whole wheat biscuits, and then cooked carrots or broccoli.

Italian Meatballs Over Zoodles

adapted from beachbody.com
Serves 10

1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/4 cup reduced fat milk (any kind)
2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed (the more the better in our family!)
2 lbs raw ground 93% lean turkey breast
2 large eggs
1/4 cup fresh parsley, or about 1 tbsp dried
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

4 medium zucchini
Hot water
2 tbsp finely shredded fresh basil
2 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese
Your favorite Tomato Sauce (I’m lazy, and usually just do Ragu)

    1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and spray a large baking sheet with non-stick spray. (Most recently I cooked these in our cast iron pan and that worked great too.)
    2. Place bread crumbs and milk in a large bowl and soak for 10 minutes.
    3. Meanwhile, heat oil in medium skillet and add onions. Saute 5 or 6 minutes or until translucent.
    4. Add garlic and cook stirring frequently for about a minute.
    5. Add onion mixture, turkey, eggs, parsley, cheese, oregano salt, pepper to the bread crumbs. Mix well with a spoon, or clean hands (my preferred method). It’ll be a little stick at this point, so cover and refrigerate for an hour.
    6. Form turkey mixutre into 1-inch balls and arrange on cookie sheet or pan. You can use your hands, but I’ve found those awesome cookie scoops work really well for this. They aren’t perfectly round, but I just finish them off with my hands. Its so much faster and less messy.
    7. Bake for 13-18 minutes or until browned and cooked through.
    8. While your meatballs are cooking, boil a large pot of water.
    9. Using a cheese slicer (not the wire kind), a vegetable peeler (this never worked as well for me), or a spiralizer (if you are being super fancy) cut each zucchini into lengthwise strips about 1/8″ thick. Turn zuchinni slightly after each cut, so you are working evenly around the outside. Stop when you get to the seeds.
    10. Ideally you’d steam these, but I just throw them in the boiling water for 2-3 minutes until tender.
    11. Once your meatballs are done, pull out half to save for soup later, and add tomato sauce to the rest. Heat through.
    12. Top zucchini noodles with meatballs & sauce, basil, and cheese.

Italian Turkey Meatballs Over Zoodles

Categories
Florida

Our Dolphin Encounter at Marineland, Florida

Our Dolphin Encounter at Marineland in St Augustine Florida

Rachel has an intense love of dolphins, so when I told her we had the opportunity to visit Marineland near St. Augustine, Florida and participate in one of their dolphin encounters I’m pretty sure everyone in the campground heard her squeals of delight!

When We Visited: February 23, 2016

Ages of Kids: 10, 8, 5

Location: Marineland Dolphin Adventure – just 30 minutes south of St. Augustine on the eastern Florida coast.

Marineland offers a variety of dolphin encounters to fit different needs, and we chose to go with The Immersion which is a 30 minute encounter including time both in shallow water as well as swimming in deep water with a dolphin.

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Upon arrival, we were greeted warmly by all the staff. Before our actual dolphin experience began, we were treated to a tour of the grounds and facility by Terran who manages education for the facility. We loved her enthusiasm, experience, her patience and interaction with my kids, and her  knowledge of both the marine life and the history of Marineland.

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We learned that Marineland originally opened in 1938 as Marine Studios – a facility for Hollywood filmmakers to shoot underwater footage! How cool is that? Instead of filming out in the ocean, the founders wanted a place where they could simulate the ocean environment but still have great lighting for filming. They built the large tanks with plenty of windows to let in natural light. They were unprepared for the general public appeal, however, and since then they’ve opened their doors for millions of guests to observe marine life up close and personal.

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Although the facility has evolved over the years, Marineland is dedicated to conservation, science, and education. They figure if we can love and respect dolphins and other ocean life we will be more inclined to help protect them.

After our tour, Terran dropped us off near the dolphin habitat where we waited for our experience to begin. We were given some background on the dolphins, their typical day, and talked a bit about dolphin anatomy before changing into our swimming suits and donning our life jackets.

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Our dolphin friend for the day was named Zac, and he was great! We were able to pet him, give him kisses, feed him fish and Jello-O (for reals!) and spend time playing in the water.

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I was also very impressed with the trainer assigned to work with us. She was fun, obviously loved her job, and was great with my kids.

Although our experience was overall incredibly positive, there were two frustrations I feel the need to mention.

One frustration was that we just had a larger group. There was a smaller group of two in the water at the same time, and they were able to move more quickly through various interactions that just took our group of 5 (with 3 kids!) longer. I’m so grateful for the photos we have, but it also just took a long time to get each of posed with Zac and I think my kids would have preferred to be interacting or playing with him instead. Plus it was just bright outside and being a photographer I knew we’d all be squinting anyway!

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My only other frustration was the snorkel masks. At first I thought it was a fabulous idea, but that quickly changed. We were able to go out into the deeper water and watch Zac swimming underwater. Unfortunately, even though we tested Cara’s snorkel before getting out there, she still had problems with it not sitting right or letting in some water (hello! She’s 5!).  Then she’d get frustrated because she’d miss what was going on and even threw a small tantrum that frustrated me.

We were also able to watch Zac jump pretty high and going from under the water to out was kind of cool, but mostly hard to see out of the snorkel when your face isn’t under water.

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With kids its always to hard to gauge their abilities, so I totally understand why they have their program set up the way it was, but I think I could have skipped the deep water part and been just fine.

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After Zac towed us back to the shallow area, we played for a few minutes and then said good-bye! My kids were surprised how fast the time went by and were sad to leave.

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We did have a fabulous time, and if you ask Cara what her favorite thing in Florida was she’ll tell you “swimming with dolphins!”

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Being up close to such an amazing creature was fabulous, and I’ve always been impressed with the intelligence and friendliness of these aquatic animals. The staff at Marineland were very accommodating and friendly and we had a wonderful afternoon!

Sponsored post :: We were provided with a complimentary immersion experience at Marineland in exchange for us sharing our honest opinion and experience with you. As always, all opinions are our own. 

Categories
Faith Florida Road Stories

Funny How Things Work Out Sometimes – Long Key State Park

2016-01-04 17.23.41We weren’t even supposed to be at Long Key State Park. After the Dry Tortugas, we originally had planned to stay at Bahia Honda for another five days to decompress. We knew we’d need to catch up on work and school and little to no driving sounded great. However, we found an open spot at Long Key State Park that fit our dates, wasn’t that much farther of a drive, and we had heard good things from other traveling friends so we switched up our plans because we like new places.

I’m so glad we did.

Sam was grilling outside at the picnic table our first night, and as a woman was walking up and down the beach she eventually approached him with a question. She had seen our website on the back of the Airstream, looked up the blog and realized that we were also a traveling family and desperately needed advice.

After that first meeting we hit it off. The Siminoff family have two kids that are right around our kids’ ages, had been on the road in their truck camper only a few months into their year long sabbatical and were really struggling with schedules, motivating their kids, and finding a balance. Ellen fired off question after question after question while the kids happily played in the bedroom due to the pouring rain outside.

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We loved talking with them. I can’t say we got a whole lot of school or work done those two days, but we definitely made some life long friends. We invited them over for a Family Home Evening where Sam gave a lesson on the prophet Noah and Ellen taught us how to make Key Lime Pie. Afterward the kids played Castle Panic, and the adults sat in the bedroom alternating discussions between theology (we are LDS, they are Jewish) and full-time family travel until far too late into the night.

You know when you meet someone and you just click? It was like that. Our time together was far too short, but we made the most of it.

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The spin-off from this meeting happened a few weeks later when Ellen and I were texting about their upcoming plans to fly overseas and tour New Zealand and Australia before finishing the United States. Back in college Sam and I participated in a New Zealand study abroad with the Recreation Management program and we were hosted by the most amazing elderly couple whom we’ve kept in close contact with over the last twelve years. Just recently the wife died, and Dave, our host dad, has been a bit lonely. He loves to travel, having taking us touring the South Island during our studies, and we knew he’d have great advice for the Siminoffs.

Before I knew it, Dave had offered to pick them up at the airport, and TOUR them around in his eight passenger van! I was so happy for all of them! If we couldn’t visit New Zealand and hang out with Dave, at least our friends could. Their meeting came a great time for both parties and from what I’ve heard everything is going swimmingly.

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Everyone once in awhile we receive affirmation that we are where God intends us to be. Its no secret we feel led to travel. I’m sure there are many reasons including personal growth, education, and opportunities to spend time together as a family. Most importantly the people we meet. When life and events come together so perfectly, I can’t help but be amazed at the love and understanding God has for our lives.

We love all the friends we’ve met along our journey and continue to be inspired and encouraged by everyone we meet!