I’m back from an awesome 5 day vacation in Florida with my Mom and sister, and back to regular training. I did a lot of running in Florida and some swimming, but it was mostly a chance to enjoy the last bit of the spring break! We packed a ton into the 5 days we were there, and I have some fun pictures to share.
Vacation started with a day at the beach. We went surfing in the morning, and although the waves were pretty small there were a lot of them, and after a few hours both Mackenzie and I were standing up and riding them! I absolutely loved it.
Kenzie and I heading out
In the afternoon we rented stand up paddleboards, which was fun but challenging as the wind picked up and the water got choppy. I won’t pretend to be good at surfing on either a board or stand up paddleboard, but wow I sure love learning!
Itty-bitty waves!
Ok, before I write any more, I’m going to begin by first calling myself a dork. Now that I’ve said it before you can think it, I can continue writing about the rest of my vacation. 🙂 Because the next place we went was Universal Studios, and my absolute favorite thing was….Harry Potter World. I loved how they got all the details from the book just right, and the rollercoasters were pretty awesome since half the ride was upside down. That night, we went to Cirque de Soleil, la Nouba. It was an incredible performance!
The "Hogwarts Castle"
I think we totally lucked out with the weather, because it was sunny and warm the whole time except the one hour it rained. And by “rained”, I mean a crazy downpour where the water came down in sheets. But that afternoon we were at the waterpark anyways, so we were already wet and didn’t care! However, when the rain became classified as a thunderstorm, the park managers DID care and shut down the park, so we spent the evening at Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
I dug up this old picture from 13 years ago…when my little sister met Cinderella for the first time and was so happy she became speechless!
My cute little sister getting a hug
This time around, we wandered around going on rides and marveling at whoever designed the park, because they sure got every last detail right, from the towers on the castles down to the cobblestones.
Kenzie and I in front of the castle
The next day we spent at Epcot, which was so neat for me to walk around the lake where they have a little piece of different countries from around the world set up. Having been to a bunch of them over the winter, it was cool to be able to step right back in. Italy was probably the easiest – it felt and looked like I was back in Predazzo, where we spent about a month over January/February.
Lady and the Tramp...one of the topiaries in "Italy"
They also had the flower festival going, and it fun running around seeing all the character topiaries, and the flowers blooming all over the park.
Butterflies hatching! cool!
Mom and Kenzie at Epcot
Before we left, we spent some time hanging out at the hotel pool. We were staying at these condos that were on the edge of a lake, with a beautiful boardwalk and a nice big pool.
The boardwalk
Although we had a kitchen and did a lot of cooking for ourselves, there was also great dining in the area. My favorite was a café called Tu Tu Tango, where they only served appetizers so you could order a bunch for the table to share, and there were surprise performances by artists. There were people painting throughout the café and dancers would randomly start to salsa dance to the music.
Dancers at cafe Tu Tu Tango
So now I’m back home! But not for long – this Sunday, I’m leaving for Bend, Oregon, for our first US Ski Team camp. I’m so excited to see everyone again, although there have been some changes to the team roster, both on the US team and my club team, SMST2. While it’ll be a bummer not to see Kris, Skyler and Tad at the US camp, I’m sure the guys will still get to train with them some. However, I’m so excited that Sophie, my SMS teammate, is now also on the USST! And we got some fresh faces added to SMST2 this year – Annie Pokorny, Simi Hamilton, and Ben Saxton (he’ll be PG’ing, I believe). I can’t wait to train with them!
