Here we are again, two trips down and still no blog post. Geez. I have been quite the slacker lately. I guess this will be another ‘hit the highlights’ post and I’ll try to do better next time. 🤞🏻

In January, the fam and I returned to Disney for the International Festival of the Arts at Epcot. The daughter had two days scheduled to work during the festival as a chalk artist on the bridge between World Celebration and World Showcase. This year, she was tasked with working on a reproduction of a Master with a Disney twist each day. She chose two August Macke paintings, Promenade and Walking in the Park, with some color brightening and the addition of Hidden Mickeys. Each piece takes about three hours to complete and are about 3 feet by 4 feet in size. She works so hard on these pieces, as do all of the chalk artists, with hours of prep time and work on the ground to make these pieces come to life for park guests. Kudos to the entire chalk team! 🏆

Our weather this year was wacky with a capital ‘W’! It was so very cold initially with gloves, heavy coats, and hats each day. Then we were quickly approaching shorts weather not three days later. January is definitely a bizarre month for Orlando weather, each year stranger than the one before. We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort for a couple of nights and then moved over to the Boardwalk Inn resort for the rest of the trip. The HVAC system in our room at Caribbean Beach didn’t know what to do with the cold weather… it was super hot in the room when we got there and we had to have maintenance come in to get it down to something tolerable. Then, of course, it was too cold in the room. I’m not sure which I liked less but being cold is just no bueno! The Boardwalk room didn’t have any issues like that, it was lovely and a nice, spacious corner room! 😍

Oh yeah, the temperatures! Guess who got lucky with a Lightning Lane MultiPass for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom on the first trip day? Yep, me! Well… not all lucky because that day might have hit 50 degrees for a high and we all had our winter coats on. When we rode the ride, of course we got completely soaked and were freezing for a good while afterward. I’m not sure that the hubs has forgiven me for that yet. You had to laugh though! I’ve never gotten that wet on the ride but we ended up in the front of the log and it was like the water was just coming straight for us every time. Yep, that’s me in the front! 😂

Other than the weather, it was a great trip! Fast forward to March… the fam plus a niece headed to Hilton Head for a few days at Disney’s Hilton Head Island resort. We’ve been there many times before and it is a great place for a spring break getaway. The weather here was much more cooperative, after a major storm the day we arrived. We had a great couple of days looking for shark teeth on the beach, trying out some local restaurants, and relaxing at the resort. Al’s Aloha Kitchen and their incredible acai bowls never disappoints!

I always feel like I could stay longer there but this year I was a little bit grateful that we didn’t have a longer trip. The pollen was atrocious for some reason! I guess all of the beautiful Live Oak trees decided it was time to spread their neon yellow cheer all over the island because, holy cow, was it everywhere! I had a runny nose and super itchy, red and goopy eyes the whole time we were gone. Not my idea of a fun time! At first I thought it was the sand that blew in my eyes when I might or might not have been crawling around on the beach looking for shark teeth. 🫣🤭But nope, pollen. So.much.pollen! You know who didn’t care about the pollen? This guy. He was eating the little flowery bits causing the pollen! 🤧

Our next journey will be back to Florida this summer to enjoy more time at Disney and stop over at Universal for a day at Epic Universe! I cannot wait to see this new theme park and live out my How to Train Your Dragon dreams!

xoxo, Amber

PS- This post is dedicated to the Oleman. We lost a beloved member of our family in February and will forever miss taking him along on our journeys and spending our days surrounded by his love. 💔