Florida Vacation and Food

We just got back from Florida on Thursday with an overnight at my in-laws and drove back home yesterday, which means I have done very little grocery shopping and have not baked in almost two weeks.  Therefore, I will share some of the food we ate during our vacation.

Our first day in Orlando, we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure, mostly because we wanted to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  It was awesome! 

 

There are only a few food items that are truly Harry Potter sold at the Wizarding World.  First is Butterbeer.  Butterbeer is pretty much cream soda with butterscotch foam on top.  It's super sweet and it seems like people are split pretty evenly between those who think its delicious and those who think it's much too sweet to drink. 

Next, pumpkin juice.  And pumpkin juice was really tasty!  It's a combination of apricot, apple, and pumpkin juice with a few other ingredients.  Between my husband and I, it was gone within a few minutes.  Yum.

And the trip wouldn't be complete without a chocolate frog!  I only bought one though and am going to use it as a gift, so no ideas here as to the taste.  Now that I am back, I think maybe I should have bought one for myself!

The next day, we headed over to Kennedy Space Center to check out the visitors center.  We had/still have tickets to the launch of the shuttle, which has been postponed until the end of the month.  But because we had plans to see the launch that day, which didn't happen, we added on a few extras to the day.  We did an extended tour of KSC as well as lunch with an astronaut.  The lunch was really great.  There were about 100 people, lots of food, and a question and answer period with our astronaut.  His name was James Reilly and he has been on three shuttle missions--STS 89, 104 and 117.  It was really awesome to hear about his experiences and views on things.  Plus, the food was pretty good.  I was expecting a sack lunch and what we had was far from it.

If you ever get a chance to go to KSC, I would highly recommend the lunch with an astronaut.  And if that doesn't sound appealing to you, there are plenty of other awesome things at Kennedy to fill your time with. 

The next day, we headed over to Downtown Disney to browse through the shops.  And I found these:

I didn't buy any of Minnie's baking products, but that cupcake mix and those sprinkles were SO CUTE.  I had some serious restraint with all the cuteness.  And check out these rice crispy cakes:

So cute. 

The only thing we bought at Downtown Disney was from Ghirardelli.  And it was perfect timing because it started to pour right when we sat down under the umbrella to enjoy our goodies.  I got a white chocolate mocha and my husband got a chocolate milk shake.  Honestly, I wanted coffee AND a milkshake so I had my husband order the milkshake so I wouldn't look like a complete pig.  I hadn't had a Ghirardelli milkshake since I was in San Francisco when I was 15 or 16 and OH MY GOSH..... sooo good.  If you have never had one, Google your nearest Ghirardelli location and drive there right now.  Seriously.  It will change your life. 

The next day, we packed up our stuff and headed to Cocoa Beach for our last night in Florida.  We played in the ocean, (or I should say, I laid on the beach while my husband played in the ocean), swam in the pool, lounged in the hot tub, and ate some good food.  We went to Taco City for a late lunch.  I got chicken soft tacos and my husband got beef hard tacos, then we traded so we had one of each.  The tacos were excellent while the rice and beans weren't anything special.  What I loved about Cocoa Beach, besides everyone being super friendly, was how aware and involved they were with NASA news and the shuttle launches.  There were signs on businesses and churches that said things like 'Godspeed Discovery' or 'We love shuttle noise!  Go NASA'.  It was awesome to see people so aware when pretty much anyone outside of that general area of Florida was completely unaware that there was even going to be a shuttle launch. 

Look, even our table at Taco City had a picture of a shuttle launch on it!

Overall, our trip was super fun!  We had a blast at Universal, were thrilled to be at Kennedy Space Center, and enjoyed finding other adventures to go on while in Florida.  It was a pretty big bummer that the shuttle didn't actually launch, but I am hoping to either make it the launch at the end of the month or to the next, and last, launch in February.  In the meantime, it's time to get back into my kitchen!