Florida Food Bucket List

A while back someone linked a Florida bucket list from a website called onlyinyourstate.com . I started checking out the site and as the name might point out, it has a lot of articles of cool things for every state! I saw a couple of food based articles and decided to combine the lists to one that includes places that I would be most likely to go (basically ones in Central Florida from Tampa to Port Canaveral). 

I've already tried two of these!
-4 Rivers-basically amazing!!! The one I go to is in Winter Garden and has my mouth watering as I type. Definitely recommend!

-Pub Sub at Publix- Only actually tried this this week. I tried a chicken fingers sub (I was told this is what I should get) and I wasn't overly impressed by all of the hype. I mean, it is a decent sub for a decent price so I am not opposed to getting one again, but I am not rushing back either.

nom nom nom. 4 Rivers!!!

Two more were on a list from some friends.
-Keke's Breakfast Cafe- My roommates swear by this place. We were going to go once together but the wait was long and Sam had to work that day so we passed. I will get there one day...

-Old Spanish Sugar Mill De Leon Springs- This one's been on an imaginary list since my first PI. If you weren't already aware, Manatees come and winter in the wonderful springs of Florida. Some friends told us about how they went at saw the manatees and got to make delicious pancakes from their table! My roommate and I tried to find our way here, but ended up at a different springs. We may not have gotten to have pancakes, but we did get to see a lot of manatees! Next winter for sure.

A couple more I recognized the name of.

-Yellow Dog Eats in Gotha- Some people at work have mentioned this place before. I can't remember any specifics, but when I came across the name I made a mental note
-Frenchy's in Clearwater-When I saw this name I remembered passing it when I went to Clearwater with Nick 2 years ago. We almost went here but went for a delicious pizza place instead. Supposedly the Group Sandwich is the thing to get here!

-Columbia Restaurant (Ybor, Clearwater, Orlando)- This one I recognize from my trip with my family to St. Augustine 2 weeks ago. We almost went to a Columbia Restaurant there (and we actually parked at it!) but went for a more local, hole-in-the-wall, authentic Cuban (and also cheaper) restaurant down the street. I'm glad we tried that one there since Columbia has a few in my neck of the woods

And then there were some that I hadn't ever heard of (which really means nothing since there is still so much in Florida I have yet to explore). Maybe I'll try and visit a handful of these in the future!
-The Beach Shanty Cafe in Clearwater
-Three Coins Diner in Tampa
-Aguila Sandwich shop in Tampa
-Wright's Gourment House in Tampa
-Brocato's in Tampa
-Pinky's Tampa
-Mediterranean Deli in Orlando
-Teak Neighborhood Grill in Orlando

Hopefully I can make it to a some of these places in the future, but I bet I'll come across a ton of other places to eat as well

Updates and new Bucket List

Hello everyone! Once again I have disappeared from the world. I have been at my Full Time job for 7 and a half months so far! It's been crazy at times, but most of that is a good crazy. I still love my position and think that it is an amazing fit for me. My team continues to challenge me and keeps me wanting to continually improve. Through my position and covering another position while we were going through the hiring process to backfill the position, I have learned so much more about how Disney works and have worked with an incredible number of people from around the company. We have hired the new person for our team who has been with us for about a month and as I am transitioning some of the tasks I was covering I have realized that I will miss many of the things I was doing in that position and the wide range of people I was lucky enough of work with every week. However, since I will be going back to only having one position I am excited to see what new projects I will be working on!

While I have had a pretty amazing work life, I haven't been to the parks nearly as often as I did when I was an intern. I think it has been partly due to my foot limiting me so much when I first came back since I was still pretty limited after my surgery in June, partly since I have been spending a decent amount of time at Universal with my roommates, and partly since I know that I am not going anywhere soon so I don't feel pressured to go all of the time anymore. That being said, Disney has a lot of exciting things coming up in 2016 that I am sooooo excited for (in addition to some things leaving us. I'm looking at you, Hollywood Studios). Therefore, I decided it was time to update my bucket list! I figured that while I don't have a time constraint to do things anymore, there are still many things I never got around to and many new things that I want to do and I think that having them listed in one place will make it more likely to happen! So if you would like to see what is on my 2016 Bucket List, head over to that page to see what I have planned! 

Trying to be a Good Blogger

So I started this blog as all people do, with the best intentions. While it may appear abandoned, like I previously said, I actually have been good about trying to update my bucket list and ride count pages. I have also done a decent job at keeping a record of what I have been doing as well. It is more of a bullet point style that I have kept as drafts all of this time. Therefore, since I was home sick today (stupid fever/flu I have been dealing with since Saturday evening), I decided to be a good blogger and try to actually make those notes readable and post date them. So starting today I have a few "new" posts for June and am going to try and keep updating like this so I have a better record for myself. If others ever find this blog and actually read it, it will also hopefully be more helpful for them as well. Right now I will continue with catching up on some early days stuff, but I might transition to real time posts as well. 

After my fever broke after hours of sleeping, I got bored.
Hence, I channeled my inner 5 year old and took a selfie with my stuffed animals. 

Going back and writing this stuff in complete sentences and adding pictures is helping add to the realization that I only have 2 and a half months left down here and have been here over 4 and a half months. Dana and I were having a conversation about it today and how there are so many things we have left to do while we are here since we possibly could never be back. She leaves in exactly 2 months. I have 3 more weeks than her, but it doesn't seem like a lot at this point. I haven't been going to the parks as much recently and have gotten into a routine with work and coming home and watching Netflix (granted the last month or so was pretty crazy for a few reason out of my control that prevented me from doing much at one point). So we were making a list of some of the things we have yet to do. Luckily we have the same days off now and can hopefully conquer some of these things together.

Here is the list of some of the things we talked about:
-seeing the manatees as they head this way for the winter
-going to the beach before it gets any colder
-exploring the rest of Islands of Adventure (since I have only been to Hogsmead)
-deciding about getting tickets for Very Merry Christmas party (I am definitely going but Dana wants to make sure it is worth it)
-Seeing the Candlelight processional (maybe one that we know people singing in the choir!)

I'm going to end with a picture. I never got a good picture of our apartments massive Halloween decorations (thanks to Amber), but in true Disney spirit I put up our first Christmas decoration this evening (thanks to my mom).

Leah said she wanted to see it everyday.
So she decided it should be prominently hung from the fan chord!