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After a small, global pandemic we are BACK to traveling! A lot has happened since our last travel blog post. The biggest being the fact that we GOT MARRIED!

After 3 months of being married, it was FINALLY time to travel to Costa Rica for our honeymoon! As the resident trip planner, I told Alan that I would really like to use a travel agent for our honeymoon, especially since so much planning went into the wedding. Alan described to the travel agent that we wanted our honeymoon to be “relaxation with a sprinkle of adventure mixed in”.

And that’s exactly what we got…

Days 1 & 2

Did you know that Costa Rica is only a 3.5-hour flight from Texas?! We started our trip at the Papagayo Peninsula located in the northwest province of Guanacaste (this is the Pacific side). When you imagine a beach, resort-style vacation this place is it. We pulled up to our resort, Hotel Andaz, and I was instantly in love.

Unlike our other vacations, we purposefully didn’t pack a lot of things into our schedule. The first couple of days in Costa Rica we could be found lounging at the pool, soaking up the sun at the beach, sipping margaritas (or Imperial beer), and eating fancy local food.

We have always been budget travelers so it was definitely a strange change of pace to have resort staff carrying our bags, giving us special perks like a free beer when we checked in, and being called Mr. and Mrs. Malazzo. Everyone was very friendly, and I would rank Costa Ricans #2 in friendliness (just behind Australians). We were already trying to figure out when we could come back in the future before we even left!

Day 3

Day 3 is when the dash of adventures starts. Our travel agent signed us up for ziplining. Now, Alan has been ziplining before, but I haven’t. I did repel down a castle wall once in Europe and have done a ropes course, so I figured that this would be ok. And it was, for the most part.

HOWEVER, there was a Superman option where you go head first for almost a mile at about 60 mph. See example below:

I apparently didn’t have the correct form on one of the ziplines and got a scrape on my leg from one of the instructors having to stop me at the end. It doesn’t look that bad in the photo, but it sure did hurt. I also got a pretty sick tan line from wearing a band-aid, so that’s cool for me.

All in all, I plan to keep both feet firmly planted on the ground moving forward.

Day 4

After our most adventurous day of the week, we spent our last day in Papagayo drinkin’ and beachin’.

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Day 5

In the second part of our trip, we got to live out our Hannah Montana dream and soak up the best of both worlds by taking a 3-hour road trip from the beach to the rainforest. We stayed at the Tabacon Thermal Resort & Spa. Basically, they’re known for their hot springs that are heated naturally by a volcano in Arenal.

Day 6

Our first excursion in Arenal was the sloth tour. If you’re keeping track of our travels, we saw koalas in Australia, and seeing sloths in Costa Rica was definitely on our bucket list. We also made about 500 references to the sloth in the movie Zootopia. But we got to see so many other cool animals like a toucan, howler monkey, snake, and termites! Our tour guide, Pepe, was the best! He took some of the best photos ever with my phone through his fancy binoculars. National Geographic, who?!?

Day 7

On our last full day in Costa Rica, we packed in 2 different excursions. First, we went chasing waterfalls! After descending 450 (steep) steps we reached the 150-foot waterfall in the middle of the rainforest. This was an impressive reminder that water is the most powerful force on earth.

Later this day, we got to visit a cacao plantation to learn how cacao beans are grown and used to make chocolate. While in their pods, cacao beans are covered in a fruity pulp that tasted like melon (to Alan) or yogurt (to Shelby). We got to see (& taste) the different stages of the cacao beans before they are turned into chocolate: fermentation, drying, & roasted. We also learned that cacao was served in liquid form (aka hot chocolate) before the chocolate bar was formed.

Once we ground down the cacao beans and added a little bit of sugar, chocolate was formed! From that point, we could add other ingredients to our chocolate. My favorite topping was sea salt! But I also tried adding chili, sea salt, & tequila with my chocolate. A little bit of everything! Alan’s favorite topping was sea salt, orange extract, and roasted marshmallows. AND we couldn’t leave without some goodies to take home.

Final Thoughts

• The sun rises promptly at 5:50 am and sets around 5:30 pm (which makes coming back to Texas post-daylight savings times quite challenging because it’s 6:30 pm and the sun is still shining bright).
• After taking 3 years of French in high school, 4 semesters of Spanish in college, and marrying an Italian you would think I would have a better grasp on another language but all that happens is my brain will think of a French response to a Spanish question.
  • Surprisingly, I remembered more Spanish than I thought I would. Even had a couple of people convinced I knew Spanish, but the only thing I remember are the introductory phrases when you first meet someone (i.e. “hello”, “how are you”, “I’m well”).

Our favorite part of the trip: lounging at the beach and drinking margaritas!

Where in the world will you find us next???

Last week, Alan and I embarked on our farthest journey yet to Sydney, Australia. We left on Monday at 3:00 pm and had a layover in LA for 7 hours (!). Rather than staying in the airport for that long we met up with Alan’s longtime friend, Armel for dinner in Manhattan Beach.

Despite both of us going to LA multiple times we still have yet to get a fridge magnet. I guess that just means we have to go back (again).

After getting dinner we left LA at 11 pm to begin our 15 hour (!) flight to Sydney. Thankfully, we were both able to get some sleep but every flight after this will be a piece of cake. When we landed in Sydney it was 8 am… on Monday. Time is weird, y’all.

MONDAY & TUESDAY

For the first two days in Sydney, we used the hop on/hop off bus to get a good overview of the city and use as transportation around the city.

Some highlights include:

• seeing the Sydney Bridge and Opera House
• drinking a beer at the oldest pub in Sydney
• visiting Hyde Park
• walking through the Royal Botanic Gardens
• wondering through the Chinese Friendship Gardens

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WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY

On Wednesday, we flew to Brisbane (pronounced Bris-BEEN, not Bris-BANE) mainly to go to a Shawn Mendes concert. Did we fly halway across the world to see a concert we could have seen in the U.S.? Yes. Weird flex, I know.

Australia isn’t really known for their food but my favorite place that we ate at was in Brisbane. The Two Donkeys is a cute bistro that was located really close to our hotel. We ate there not once, but twice in the day and a half that we were in Brisbane.

FRIDAY

We flew back to Sydney on Thursday to Bondi Beach (more on this later) but we spent Friday taking a guided tour of the Blue Mountains located just outside of Sydney.

While at the Blue Mountains we got to go to different lookouts, learn about the coal mines, ride on the steepest passenger railway in the world, and glide across mountains in a cable car almost 900 feet in the air!

The rock formation you see below is one of the Three Sisters. An aboriginal legend about how three sisters fell in love with three men from a neighboring tribe but could not marry them. A battle was fought and an elder turned the sisters into rock to protect them but the elder died in battle and no one could turn them back.

Other things that were part of the tour included going to the wildlife park where we got to pet a koala, feed kangeroos, see Australia’s blue penguins and the most venomous snake in the world! At the end of the day, we took a ferry back into the city.

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SATURDAY & SUNDAY

For the rest of our trip, we spent our time at Bondi Beach (pronounced Bon-DIE, not Bond-E). Bondi is an aboriginal word for “water breaking across the rocks”. While I was hoping Bondi would be a small, quiet beach time I was proven very wrong. There were tons of people partying it up. But we enjoyed walking around the beach and not doing much of anything.

We got to watch the surfers catch some gnarly waves, dude! The Aussie sun is nothing to be played with. It was just the beginning of their summer and it got HOT. The water was cold, but not as cold as you think it would be. Think Galveston during spring break. Alan actually swam in it but it wasn’t quite warm enough for me.

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MONDAY

Our flight left Monday at 11 am. We arrived back in Texas at 3 pm… on Monday. After traveling for about 19 hours (including our layover in LA) it was still the same day as when we left Australia. Flying is time travel and you can’t change my mind.

Overall we had a great time and are adjusting fairly well to the time change. However, having to leave the warmth of Australia for a cold, windy, dark (ya know because of daylight savings time) Texas made it appealing to want to stay. Oh well… until next time Australia!

If you’re wanting more Australia content, you can find more photos and videos here!

Got to live out my Lizzie McGuire dreams (again) by traveling to Italy with Alan for the past two weeks! Unfortunately, I did not become a fake international popstar while there but we did travel to Cinque Terre, Florence, Rome, and Venice.

Here are the some highlights of the trip…

Most helpful piece of advice before leaving

Alan: Pack light. Laundry mats are accessible so pack clothes that are versatile that can mix and match because the weather can change. Keep your wardrobe simple!

Shelby: Rick Steves has a ton of helpful advice in his book and his app has audiotours that we used to learn more about the places we traveled to! Great free resource.

Favorite city

A: Monterosso – the beaches were lovely. The town was outside of the bigger cities so it felt like a vacation within a vacation.

S: I also liked the Cinque Terre because it was one of the new cities that I had not been to before, but there’s something about Venice that is always so captivating.

Favorite activity 

A: Hiking in Monterosso to Vernazza & people watching in the various cities.

S: My favorite activity had to be either the pizza and gelato cooking class we took or finding the island where Alan’s family originates from on a 1500 year old map at the Vatican.

My other favorite activity that Alan and I did to help pass the time was to try to guess if people were British or Australian. Sometimes it could be really tricky!

Favorite method of transportation

A: Gondola because it provided a traditional Italian experience.

 S: I really enjoyed the trains we took to get to all the other cities. We were able to see a lot of the countryside. My second favorite may be the waterbus in Venice. It was really relaxing to be able to ride on a boat around Venice.

One thing that you learned from the trip

A: I learned that even though we were in Italy there were still a lot of people from different countries. It was interesting trying to navigate and experience.

S: Romans killed a BUNCH of people, but were great engineers.

City with the best food/Favorite meal 

A: Florence had the best food overall, but the best meal was in Rome.

S: I have to concur – I enjoyed the food in Florence the best.

City with the best dessert 

A: Florence had a Hazelwood Cannoli that was to die for!!

S: For someone who isn’t a big chocolate lover, my favorite dessert was a Tartufo from the iconic Tre Scalini in the Piazza Navona in Rome.

What were the locals like? 

A: Typical Italians. With their fashion, lounging in cafes conversing with each other, the smoking…

S: All of the hoteliers and waiters were very nice and helpful! As for the everyday local, they did not move out of the way for tourists. I think they would have really run into me if I didn’t move.

One thing you wish we did that we didn’t end up doing 

A: Pompeii would have been cool.

S: If I ever go back to Italy I want to spend some time in the Tuscan countryside or the Amalfi Coast.

What was the biggest challenge of the trip?

A: Picking where to eat. We just picked random places to try, and we got lucky that most of the places we ate at were good.

S: Planning logistics. There’s a lot that goes into planning an 11-day day trip with multiple cities. There was definitely some hiccups we had to navigate through.

What usual, little thing did you miss most from your normal routine?

A: Being in our own space – knowing where everything is at, having A/C at night, not having to wait to use the shower at the hostels, being able to cook our own meals

S: It took me a while to get used to not hearing English everywhere I went. In fact, by the end of the trip whenever I did hear someone speaking English it was weird.

 

In all of the spring breaks that I have had in my life rarely did I do anything interesting or fun. Since this was my last spring break as a student I decided that I was going to fly from one coast of the United States to the other.

First Stop: Los Angeles, CA 

The NASPA annual conference for higher education professionals was held in LA this year. At the conference I wrapped up the end of my volunteer position that I had this past year. I was able to serve on NASPA’s Region III board as the graduate student representative representing all of the grad students in the southeastern area of the U.S., spanning from Texas to Virginia. In this volunteer position I attended board meetings, traveled to conferences, and planned a breakfast at the annual conference for graduate students and senior level student affairs officers (I didn’t get a photo of this as I was busy!).

Getting to work with the board has been such a great experience and I got to meet a bunch of great folks along the way!

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I also found out that I received a scholarship at last minute that helped me cover some of the expenses of traveling to the conference based on a video I created about the Hazlewood Act (the thing that allowed me to get two degrees with no debt… thanks again, Dad for going into the Air Force!).

Next Stop: Boston

Since moving from College Station last summer, Alan and I greatly wanted to go visit our best friend, Steve, in his natural habitat of Boston, Massachusetts (yes, I had to Google how to spell that). However, while this week was my spring break Steve still had school and work so there were times Alan and I had to make our own plans.

Day one – Wednesday

After flying for 6+ hours, I was tired so Alan and I just grabbed dinner and called it an early night.

Day two – Thursday 

I surprised Alan by spontaneously taking a road trip to Portland, Maine (based on a friend’s recommendation) to see the Portland Head lighthouse. Since I turned 25 this year, I reserved the rental car so we could get that old driver discount. Getting out of downtown Boston was interesting since I HATE crazy drivers and traffic, which Boston has no shortage of either. Also, like what are roundabouts?!?!

We ate lunch at the Snow Squall and stopped by a bakery on the way back for dessert! We also decided to swing by Salem, but many of the stores were still on winter hours and closed early so there wasn’t a ton to see but now we can say we’ve been!

I have a goal of trying to go to all 50 states by the time I’m 50 and Massachusetts and Maine bump me up to 23 states so far!!

Day three – Friday 

Being in Boston we ~had~ to make a stop at Dunkin Donuts. Once we got our breakfast and coffee, we walked around the Boston Common in the morning and took the train to Harvard. As a higher ed major I definitely geeked out when I got to see one of the first universities in the country. It started raining so we took shelter in a bookstore across the street and ended up browsing for quite a while.

After that we stopped at a local brewery, Lamplighter Brewing, to take a break from walking and shared a flight. Later that night, we met Steve for dinner and bar hopped near Fenway. Fun times were had by all.

Day four – Saturday 

Because we stayed out pretty late we slept in on Saturday. Once we got ready for the day, we grabbed some sushi at a place near our hostel and headed to the Samuel Adams Brewery. Probably one of the better brewery tours we’ve been on and the place where we heard the strongest accents. A great place to go with a group of friends!

After that, we headed to the JFK presidential library because I always like to learn something new whenever I travel. We chatted to the front desk attendant about the differences between the presidential library and the 6th floor museum in Dallas since I used my student ID to get that discounted ticket price. His museum has the best view of the harbor too.

Fun fact: JFK was the one who established the Peace Corps!

From the museum, we invited Steve to join us for our nine year anniversary dinner at L’Osteria in the North End for some Italian food. We wanted to get dessert at Mike’s Pastry but the line was too long so we stopped at a different place down the street. Alan made us all friendship bracelets out of the string tied around the pastry box, but our Aggie rings make us family.

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Final Stop: Texas

Alan and I grabbed the first few flights out of Boston because it was cheaper, but honestly it was probably a good idea we left early because Sunday was St. Patrick’s Day and things were starting to get a little weird…

I slept for 5 hours once I got home and honestly I think I’m still tired two weeks later but I wouldn’t trade it for anything!!

 

Part of being in grad school I hold a graduate assistantship (GA), a part-time job specifically for grad students to gain relevant job experience in their field. Since July, I have been with the Center for Leadership and Service helping advise the Alternative Service Break (ASB) program.

This year, we offer 18 ASB trips during both winter and spring breaks. This low-cost, alcohol and substance free trip allows students to engage in a productive activity on their break (rather than partying at Padre or sitting at home doing nothing). Students are immersed in a community where they learn about a specific social issue and serve organization(s) in that city.

As the GA and program advisor, I help advise all 18 trips, however, I got the opportunity to be a trip advisor, meaning I traveled with a group of 11 students to Nashville, TN. Our trip social issue was focused surrounding public health (shout out to my SPH fam!)

We served with Project CURE almost every morning. Project CURE is the largest provider of donated medical supplies and equipment to developing countries around the world. We did multiple jobs around their warehouse including: building hospital beds, repairing wheelchairs, sorting pallets of medical supplies, and packaging medical supplies to be shipped out to Ethiopia! I learned how to use a pallet jack and how useful power tools can be.

We even helped donate supplies that Project CURE was going to get rid of to a different community partner in Nashville!

Outside of Project CURE we served a variety of different community organizations throughout the week.

• People Loving Nashville- provides a meal and clothes to those in need every Monday night. They also partner with other organizations to offer free showers and haircuts.
• Welcome Home- a structured alcohol and drug recovery program that houses men who have been incarcerated
• Trinity Community Ministry- we got to eat dinner with people from the East Nashville community
• Loaves and Fishes- we again got to have a meal with people from Nashville as well as we got to hear from several people who are addressing homelessness in various ways
• Second Harvest Food Bank- addresses food insecurity; we sorted frozen foods (yes, it was very cold)
• Family Affairs Ministry- serves the people in East Nashville; we worked at their location outside of Nashville in the country

In addition to these community partners, we also had time to learn more about Nashville through a driving tour and a walking scavengar hunt. Some of us accidentally met a freedom rider from Nashville, Ernest Patton, and got to hear his story about how the civil rights movement took place in Nashville and the role that he played.

We also got to eat a different ethnic food each night! We ate Thai, Soul Food (Swett’s fried chicken), Vietnamese, and Indian. Everything was super yummy!!

We also had an AWESOME guide, Jenn (far right), who coordinated our whole week’s schedule of service, education, and food!

I don’t know what I expected from this week but I found inspriation from this group of 11 girls and 1 guy. They worked incredibly hard to exceed everyone’s expectations of them every. single. day. because we were not given easy tasks at all. Everyone was eager to do more and did everything with an open heart, curiosity to learn, and never complained even when it would be so easy to give up.

 

 

Between living in two different cities, crazy work/school schedules, and essentially not having a free weekend since Labor Day Alan and I have gotten creative with how we manage our long distance relationship.

We combined our love of travel and each other to rendezvous in Colorado this past weekend. Colorado was everything I didn’t know I needed.

FRIDAY

We flew into Denver early Friday morning and decided to venture to the Coors Brewery. However, seeing as we both had been up since before the sun we decided to stop for some breakfast. It could have been that I hadn’t eaten in 6 hours but the pancakes at The Golden Diner were LIFE CHANGING.

Fun Fact: Golden, CO (where the Coors Brewery is located) is home to the School of Mines, an engineering and science college. In the distance, you can see the “M” on top of the mountain behind the diner. Such a lovely small city.

After the brewery tour, we made the drive to Boulder where we stayed for the rest of the weekend. After dinner, we ran into CU – Boulder’s homecoming parade in downtown. Seeing as I have missed UNT’s homecoming for the second year in a row it was fun to celebrate someone’s homecoming. #GoBuffs?

SATURDAY

Saturday morning we woke up early to go on a hike. Alan googled “easy hiking trails” seeing as neither of us has hiked a mountain before. Now, let me tell ya this may have been a Flatiron mountain but it was neither easy nor flat. Despite my constant complaining and frequent stops, it was SO MUCH FUN.

Coloradans are all walking advertisements for REI and everyone has calves for dayssss. For example, there was this one lady who was literally carrying her child on her back up the mountain.

After our almost 2 hour hike, burning 1,100 calories, walking 75 flights of stairs according to my FitBit we decided to grab some pizza. Cosmo’s pizza is the Antonio’s of Colorado and the slices were larger than my face. However, Alan and I had no problem finishing 2 slices each.

We finished out Saturday with watching the sun set behind the mountains at Legion Park. Incredible views. 10/10 would definitely recommend. Pictures just don’t do it justice.

SUNDAY 

I have no photos from this day because it only consisted of sleeping in and flying home. Alan and I have both been so busy that it was really nice to sleep in and not have to be go-go-go right away.

Be on the lookout for some other fun videos from our trip. Other than that, stay tuned to see where we go next…

 

Last week, Alan and I traveled to the City of Brotherly Love. I was attending NASPA, a professional development conference for student affairs/higher education and Alan got to tag along.

This is my second year attending NASPA and it was wonderful to network with new people, learn best practices for the work that I do, and listen to speakers who come from far and wide. Our first keynote speaker, Jason Dorsey, founder of the Center for Generational Kinetics spoke about the relationship between Millenials and Generation Z. Understanding Generation Z is important for me as those are the students entering college today.

“Don’t measure me based on how the doors opened for me, but rather what I do once I cross the threshold” – Justice Sonia Sotomayor

While I might have been there more for work, we still managed to fit in some touristy spots. We had to make a stop at the liberty bell (and peep that Independence Hall in the background).

 

 

(Left) We also visited the rocky steps with one of my classmates, Sean.  (Right) Here we are at the top of the stairs with Philly behind us.

We also ate many meals at the Reading Terminal (pronounced “red-ing, not read-ing) and made a trip to Geno’s to eat Philly cheesesteaks but I hate pictures of me eating so you’ll have to use your imagination there.

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Hey, Alan here.

To me, D.C is one of those trips that is a must do. With only six hours to spend, this trip consisted of the highlights. It was certainly patriotic to finally see some iconic buildings like the Capitol, White House, the Washington and Lincoln memorials. The most memorable part of the trip was sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I also made sure to take a cheesy artistic picture with my fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring.

For most of our trip, the weather wasn’t too bad… until it was time for us to come home. The night before we were supposed to leave a Nor’easter blew in bringing snow! and wind, which forced the majority of flights to be cancelled. 😦

After staying at the airport for 24 hours, we finally made it back home to the great state of Texas. Now, I’m ready to take a vacation somewhere warm with a beach.

Just like any knightly quest one is faced with many obstacles before obtaining the grand prize found at the end of the journey.

My partner-in-crime and co-pilot was one of my besties, Rachel, and we were headed to the big easy, New Orleans.

Here’s a short recap of what our adventures consisted of over the past couple days.

Keeping Costs Down

I’ve never stayed at a hostel before so that was something new. Basically it felt like summer camp in a house. We met some of the coolest people. Two of our bunk mates were from Australia and got excited when we said we were from Texas.

Off the Beaten Path

The fact that the weather was so cold, rainy, and windy we ended up bypassing some of the more famous spots in NOLA and finding equivalent experiences.

Felix’s Sea Food came as a recommendation from our Lyft driver as an alternative to ACME Oyster Bar. There are a few reasons why this place was great. 1) the wait was waaayyyyyyy shorter, 2) the jambalaya was perfectly spicy and 3) it was across the street from ACME.

Shrimp po’boy and jambalaya

Drinking & Eating Through NOLA

Thursday we managed to fit everything in pretty well. We started the day off by taking the St. Charles Streetcar to brunch. After two tries, we finally got on the right streetcar to take us the French Quarter but with our detour we got to see many of the fancy houses in the Garden District.

Excited to not be walking in the cold

We ate brunch at the Ruby Slipper Cafe where we split a pancake flight (Cinnamon Swirl is where it’s at), candied bacon (a must have), and a Ruby Mimosa (Pomegrante + OJ).

Pro Tip: use the NoWait app to minimize your wait.

After we were nice and full, we trekked to the Monteleone Hotel to take a spin on the Carousel Bar.

This place gets really busy so get there early.

After the Carousel Bar, we continued our drinking tour to Pat O’Brien’s, a NOLA classic. I got a mint julep because Rachel ruined fruity drinks for me on my 21st birthday (looking at you fish bowls). She ordered the hurricane for tourist-y sakes. We sat on the patio (with heaters) and bonded with our bartender, Keifer.

We took a break from drinking to check out the voodoo museum. We bought a friendship voodoo candle and lit it since it was Thursday. But our 18-year old friendship doesn’t need a voodoo candle to last.

Just around the corner is the oldest bar in America.

Lafitte’s probably has seen quite a few bar fights in its day. Also, Rachel got quite a few people to Dilly, Dilly with her. (We were a few drinks in and there’s a GoPro video to prove it).

From there we made it to Jackson Square and once we saw the line for Cafe du Monde we hopped into Monty’s on the Square (with no wait) across the street and grabbed some beignet fries to satisfy that craving.

For dinner, we took a trip out to the St. Roch Market. We split a gumbo empanada and crab mac and cheese.

Later that night, Rachel’s old college friend showed us the dive-y side of NOLA. We ended the night with a $5 pint & slice of pizza deal.

Abita Amber is a great end of the night beer.

Hotel Hoppin

Since it was so cold (I’m convinced that Canal Street is just a wind tunnel) we ended up dropping into the different hotels to escape the cold. My favorites were the Roosevelt and the Saint’s hotel.

The Holy Grail

The entire trip Rachel really wanted to find Boudin balls, but we never came across any in NOLA. On our way back to the great state of Texas, we drove through Scott, LA (ever heard of it? Yeah, me neither) which is known as the Boudin capital. It was here that Rachel finally completed her quest.

I made the mistake of reading what was in Boudin. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.

Hello!

Recently, Alan graduated from Texas A&M (Whoop!) and decided to take a trip with a friend of his to Vancouver, Canada and Seattle, Washington. This trip was literally planned four days before take off! Alan was looking forward to simply exploring new cities and cultures.

 

Shelby, here. 

Before we get started with this story, you’re going to need a little background information. 

This right here is one of my best friends, Paige. Some of you may know her. We’ve been friends since before we could walk. What you might not know is that every year she managed to never be in town for my birthday. Then, there’s that one time where she was in town but completely spoiled the secret of my surprise birthday party in the fourth grade. 

Anyways, Paige likes to run half marathons, and this year the Disney Princess Half Marathon luckily fell on my birthday weekend. So, we’re on our way to the sunshine state as a way to make up 20+ years of birthdays. 

Side story: I actually got to go to Disneyworld with my other best friend, Rachel for our high school graduation. Paige was supposed to complete the trio that trip, but ended up not being able to go. So this feels like everything is coming full circle. Enjoy this nice throwback. 

That’s all for now because not much happens at 5:30 in the morning.