Birthday Taco Crawl!

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This week in every sense ended up going in the complete opposite direction of the way in which it was planned. I was supposed to head home for a weekend with my family, but as fate would have it, we ended up staying in St. Augustine and my family will be driving up tomorrow afternoon for a little cake celebration. I was bummed not to be able to go home and spend time with them, but Ryan and a few of our friends turned my entire week around with a little impromptu, pre-birthday taco crawl.

We mapped out six different taco places between Jacksonville and St. Augustine. Ryan made us a taco score card which labeled all of our stops and five taco icons for us to rate each stop; five tacos being amazing and one taco being not our exact cup of tea (luckily no one gave any place one star!) 

We hopped in the car late morning and drove up to Jacksonville for our first stop: Flying Iguana. I've heard from multiple people around town that Flying Iguana has the best tacos and I at some point had to go. Now was the time! I ordered a fried green tomato taco with black eyed peas and pimento cheese sauce and a chipotle shrimp taco with a mango salsa. Ryan had a fried chicken, gravy, pickled okra and slaw taco and a pork belly taco with pickled onions and watermelon. Kyle tried the steak taco and the same fried chicken taco that Ryan had. Lastly, Katie had the fried green tomato taco, the pork belly and an achiote chicken. We all really loved the tacos and I'm fairly certain we all gave it a 4 star review. 

Next stop on our list was Corner Taco in Jacksonville! I love the atmosphere in the little shop, the flowers on all of the tables in recycled Coca Cola bottles, and the tacos are pretty good. Ryan and I have been several times but this was Katie and Kyle's first time eating there. I tried the daily special, a fried shrimp taco with habanero sauce. Ryan had the dijon buttermilk fried chicken taco, which is his usual go to whenever we make a stop in. Katie had the homemade chorizo taco while Kyle had a homemade chorizo taco and a fried catfish taco. Kyle and I gave Corner Taco three stars, Ryan gave them five and Katie gave them four. 

The third stop we made was at Pepe's Hacienda. Ryan had been once before, but it had been quite some time since he'd be back for lunch or dinner. It had been on our list for months to try and now this was the perfect opportunity! We tried the chips and salsa, the chips were pretty nice and crunchy, you could tell they were fresh, but they weren't my absolute favorite. We each ordered one taco which was called the Taco Pepe. It had your choice of meat, avocado, cilantro, onion and sour cream. I ordered mine with just the veggies, Katie had pork, Kyle had steak, and Ryan had chicken. This place was easily our favorite out of all the stops. It was authentic, the service was great, and the tacos were amazing. Not to mention, the entire store is covered in colorful bunting and next door is a grocery store filled with rows of produce, cheeses, tortillas, sodas, candies and other imported items you cannot really find at most other places. We all gave Pepe's a five out of five taco stars. 

Stop number four was Nalu's Tropical Take Out in St. Augustine! Ryan and I had each been here once before, but again, it was Katie and Kyle's first time eating here as well. Ryan, Katie and I each had a baja fish taco while Kyle tried the lower trestles taco which was a seasoned chicken taco with lettuce, beans, cheddar jack cheese and baja sauce. Katie, Ryan and I really loved our fish taco, but Kyle wasn't wow'd by his taco, he said he wished it had more sauce and it was bit dry. Kyle gave Nalu's a two star review, Ryan and I gave it four stars and Katie stuck with 3.5 stars.

We decided we would make Mojo's, our fifth stop, our last stop of the evening; at this point, we had been eating tacos on and off for almost six hours. Per the suggestion of the cashier, Katie and I both ordered the avocado taco, Ryan had a chicken taco and Kyle ordered the mahi mahi taco. All of Mojo's tacos come with on a flour tortilla that is layered with a crunchy tortilla and held together by melted cheese. The tacos are simple, but in my option still really delicious! 

In lieu of going to Taco Shop, we've all been before, we walked next door to the Circle K and were lucky enough to find four choco tacos waiting just for us. It was the perfect way to end the day and I believe we all agreed, five out of five stars would choco taco again! 

Here are our final score cards! 

Taco 'bout a pretty wonderful day! 

St. Augustine Christmas

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Right before the holidays I lucked out and had a few days off back to back, so it was off to St. Augustine I went to celebrate Christmas with Ryan. Before I arrived, he went and picked up a mini tree for us (we got the last mini tree on the lot!) and I arrived with so many boxes of Christmas lights, Ryan's apartment ceilings are now practically all covered. 

^^Our little tree all decorated and awaiting Christmas morning. The next morning we woke up really early and opened up gifts and stockings followed by a decadent Christmas cinnamon roll breakfast. I had gifted Ryan with several new pour over coffee accessories, so he whipped us up a couple of pour overs to start the day. 

Back when I visited my friend Katherine in Germany, she gave me a couple Kinder Happy Hippos to try out. I had intended to save them until I got home from Europe, however, I ended up eating one on the plane ride home. I was so upset when I did because they were so delicious and I could not find them anywhere stateside. A few months ago, while visiting my favorite Polish restaurant in town, I noticed that they sold them in packs of 5 in their food market. I was so excited that I snatched up their last two boxes, yet I refused to eat any of them because I knew I would be craving them as soon as I ate the last bite. I had mentioned it to Ryan once about how I had been hoarding Happy Hippos and low and behold, for Christmas he ordered me a box of 50 so I could finally enjoy them and not have to worry about running out immediately. Next time you see anything Kinder related at a European market, buy it! Just don't wait to eat them like I do!

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with a few of Ryan's friends, eating pizza, and riding the carousel on San Marco. We used to ride it sometimes when I would visit my friends Britni and Bobby at Flagler, but it's been a few years since I've been back on it. Ryan and I walked down to the carousel and paid our well worth it $1 for the 3 minute ride. The park wasn't very busy, so Ryan and I had the carousel to ourselves. We took advantage and paid a few extra dollars to keep it going. 

Later that evening we just spent a bit of time walking around downtown for Nights of Lights. It's my favorite time of the year in St. Augustine and I wish that they would leave the lights up year round. I suppose then it wouldn't be as special, so I'll soak it all up while I can until it's time for them to take the lights down. 

Each year, for the last five years, Ryan has made a "staching through the snow" letterpress Christmas card. This year, in celebration of his new press and the five year mark, Ryan designed a five color letterpress card. Each year, he sends them out to friends and family, and in return, they must post a photo of themselves holding up the card as if the mustache were their own. It has seemingly become a fun tradition for Ryan's friends and it's one I know I enjoying doing as well. Below are two of the photos we took. 

Pumpkin Heads

Sykes and Cooper Farms
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Last weekend I had a day and a half off of work with 0 plans, so it was off to St. Augustine I went. We had lunch at Blue Hen before we ventured into Palatka to check out Sykes and Cooper Farms. They had a large corn maze, farm animals, pumpkins for purchase, hayrides, and a beautiful sunflower field. It wasn't hours of entertainment, but it made for a fun hour and a half walking through the mazes, taking a hayride and picking out pumpkin to decorate later that evening. My favorite might have been the cute piggies eating all of their pumpkin snacks. Another favorite, that massive pig sleeping- Ryan said we could not keep him. Le sigh, maybe next year. 

The next morning we went to Theo's per my request for dippy eggs and toast. Theo's makes THE BEST bread rolls that they use on all of their sandwiches and as toast. When I used to visit Brit and Bobby at Flagler I would always leave with a half dozen to bring back with me to Tallahassee. This trip there was no different, I was eating toast at home for days. Other than their toast, they make massive cinnamon rolls that are the size of your head, quite literally. They sell out of the cinnamon rolls early, so it's an extra incentive to avoid sleeping in. After breakfast we headed back to paint our pumpkins and eat more pumpkin cheesecake pops. I'm still laughing over those pumpkins we painted. Classic pumpkin heads. 

450th

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Last weekend marked St. Augustine's 450th birthday! We kicked off the tail end of the weekend with a walk uptown to Magnolia Avenue. Out of all my years visiting St. Augustine, Magnolia Avenue was something I still hadn't been to and it's just as beautiful as the pictures I've seen. After our walk, we met up with a few friends for a drink before heading home to make dinner. Ryan and I whipped up homemade veggie pizzas and climbed up onto the roof to people watch. I was pretty disappointed that I had missed the big firework show earlier in the weekend and Ryan just so happened to have a recorded version of it for us to watch as well.  We even celebrated the city's birthday with sparkler candles :)

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The next morning we had breakfast at The Hyppo Cafe and more excitingly, had one of their amazing cookies for dessert. All of their cookies are delicious, but their chocolate chip is my absolute favorite. Earlier in the year they removed the cookies from their menu and after several months of a cookie hiatus, they decided to bring them back and I couldn't have been happier. One cookie paired with an ice cortadito was the best way to start the morning, in my opinion. 

That afternoon the city was a hosting a cake cutting in the square. It was scheduled to start at noon but was pushed back to later begin at 2pm. We ended up walking home after staying for a while to listen to the band entertain the crowd. 

Tuesday, the 8th, was the final day of celebrations for the city. I walked down to The Mission to see the reenactment of Don Pedro Menendez's landing in St. Augustine. "He" came in by boat and shortly after, all of the actors paraded through the crowd and made their way downtown to the Cathedral Basilica for a ceremonial mass. I followed the parade along downtown and watched as several dozen priests and city leaders led their way into the church. The mass was by invitation only so I made my way back to Ryan's after the parade. I couldn't go back without picking up a Hyppo pop; the 90 degree weather called for 5 Hyppo pops, but I refrained and just picked one. Spumoni with a white chocolate cap was the specialty flavor for the weekend. It was just as delicious as it looks and I picked up several more to bring home with me :)

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Lazy Sunday

Big Island Bowls
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Sundays, in my opinion, are one of my favorite days of the week. When I'm not working at the store, I love to sleep in and try out new breakfast spots. This past Sunday, I was in St. Augustine and remembered that I had been wanting to try out Big Island Bowls. We headed over to the island and ordered up some delicious acai bowls and ran to eat them in the car, just as it started to pour down rain. Ryan had the acai mixed with apple juice, granola, blueberries, bananas, and pineapple while I had the acai bowl mixed with almond milk, granola, chia seeds, blueberries, strawberries, and coconut flakes. I've been craving another one since then! 

After breakfast we ran several errands around town to pick up some art supplies and groceries to make for dinner that evening. After all of our running around, it was time for lunch. All week we have both been craving Back 40 and when brainstorming ideas for lunch, it was the first place on both of our minds. Ryan stuck with his traditional Cuban sandwich and I tried a new to me salad, the shrimp curry salad with coconut curry buttermilk dressing. I've been thinking about how to whip up my own version at home because I practically licked the bowl clean. The dressing was easily the star of the show, it was that amazing. 

We stopped into The Hyppo, per usual, to see some of our favorite workers and I picked up my own dragon fruit ginger pop. Not pictured* Ryan's lemon plum pop that he ate before I could catch a photo ;) 

We made a fried rice for dinner and went downstairs to pick up Cousteau's for dessert. A Belafonte with vanilla ice cream hit the spot to end the day on a sweet note. In my opinion, lazy Sundays filled with the best food are kind of the greatest. 

Tiny Tourists

Castillo De San Marcos
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The last, and only time, I've ever toured the fort in St. Augustine was when I was 14 years old and in 8th grade. Our class took a trip up to St. Augustine for the day and the only thing I could remember was trying to squeeze as many classmates as possible into those tiny tower out coves for a picture that is probably still kept away somewhere amongst my teenage possessions. It's been a place I've been wanting to revisit, so Ryan and I decided to play tourist and make a morning of it. At that age, I didn't realize how special of a place St. Augustine truly is, and while walking through the fort, I was only reminded just how amazing the city really is. I couldn't begin to imagine what life was like during times when the fort was in use. I found myself shaking my head in disbelief during multiple parts of the tour. Imagine building that entire fort with your barehands, during Florida's excruciatingly hot and humid summers, while probably wearing week old clothes, AND probably without sufficient food and water supply....aka no Hyppo pops to cool them off from a working day. When visiting St. Augustine so often, I get caught up in forgetting to stop and appreciate all of the history the city has to offer. I'm glad we took the time to tour the fort that day, the morning is one of my favorite St. Augustine memories thus far. 

^^^ post fort I insisted we stop for pops to cool off from the heat. I had my favorite key lime and Ryan picked out the dragon fruit ginger. I'm telling you, I'm on a mission to try them all ;) 

St. Augustine

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About two weeks ago, I headed back to St. Augustine for a couple of days to visit. Below are a few of the photos of some things we were up to while I was there. One day, we took a trip up to Jacksonville for the morning to eat at a few new restaurants and to shop at the town center. My favorite place we stopped into was Community Loaves. Disclaimer: their ice cream sandwiches and egg and cheese bagels were out of this world delicious. 

The rest of the trip we just spent time relaxing and printing a few new pieces of stationery for myself a la M.C. Pressure. I'll post a photo of the completed projects as soon as I'm done lining all of my new envelopes! We had breakfast at our usual, Blue Hen, and spotted the cutest mint VW bus on our drive home. Later that evening, we whipped up a dinner that included fresh pasta tossed with tomatoes, fresh basil, and olive oil. For dessert, Ryan and I bought a miniature (six inch) cast iron skillet and filled the bottom with chocolate chips. Next, Ryan chopped the marshmallows in half and placed them on top and put it into the oven at 350 degrees. We baked it just until the marshmallows were golden brown and served it with graham cracker pieces for dipping. It was the simple, delicious, and I was left wanting s'more ;) Another summer bucket list item completed! 

Summer Bucket List // Week Two Recap

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Between starting two new jobs in the past couple of weeks, things have been extra busy these days. I had the day off on Sunday, so Saturday evening after work I drove straight up to St. Augustine. I had to be at work early Monday morning and could only spend a little less than 24 hours in town, but it was so worth it.

Upon my arrival, we jetted into downtown to pick up a to-go order of shrimp tacos from Catch 27. We took them back to Ryan's so we could have a taco picnic in the fort tent he made for us. A few of the pictures may be blurry, but I still love them. Summer bucket list activity number eight: check!  

Sunday morning, we decided to walk over the Bridge of Lions into downtown for coffee and breakfast. We first made a coffee run into The Kookaburra for two iced cortados. Afterwards, we strolled to breakfast at The Blue Hen. One two egg special and chicken biscuits galore. It's been forever since I've picked up a copy of the Sunday funnies. I'll always love the Peanuts strip, and you can't go wrong with the few cheesy jokes at the end of the section. This week's joke was, "Why should you knock before opening the fridge?" Why you ask? "In case there's AnItalian dressing!" So cheesy, so silly, I love it and I hope it makes you laugh as well :)

The Hyppo celebrated it's fifth birthday this weekend! Happy Birthday Hyppo, I'm so glad you were born!! We joined in on the festivities with a cucumber lemon mint pop and a pineapple ginger pop. 

Once we walked back home we watched a little Netflix and then headed out to adventure on the bikes. We cruised through the neighborhood and out to A1A in search of an afternoon snack. We ended up down the street to test out Nalu's Tropical Take-Out and Miss Mary's shaved ice. Ryan had a baja shrimp taco and I chose the St. Augustine pier right fish taco. They were both absolutely delicious and you could tell the fish and shrimp were freshly caught. I loved my fish taco, but I think Ryan's shrimp taco won for the better of the two. 

 I believe that it is safe to say that we may have found one of our new favorite places in St. Augustine. Miss Mary's shaved ice, I love you. Not only was Miss Mary incredibly entertaining, her snow cones were just as delicious as I could have imagined. With hundreds of different flavor and topping combinations, it was so difficult to choose! I tried the mango and Ryan had a pineapple shaved ice; we each tried the marshmallow fluff on top. Once again, Ryan's was probably the better of the two, but they definitely hit the spot. The start of crossing off summer bucket list activity number six: check! 

And another St. Augustine trip in the books! Here's to many more summer days filled with bike rides, fort tents, tacos, and snow cones a plenty! 

The Weekend // 5.15.15

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I had a weekend free of dogsitting and babysitting this past weekend, so I hopped into the car and headed up to St. Augustine for a couple of days. I arrived late Thursday evening, so come Friday morning, Ryan and I woke up early to head out and cross some activities off of our "favorites" list. First up, we drove down U.S. 1 to Out There Antiques and Graybeards Antiques. It took a while to sift through everything, and we ended up leaving with a few treasures. I found a few little antique glass bottles for little bouquets of flowers and a vintage Tampa postcard. Ryan found a variety of items from comic books to letterpress drawers and printing blocks. He ended up purchasing an old safety razor, so we each had a successful trip!

It's been several months since we have eaten at The Floridian. Our go-to is the fried green tomato hoagie...I'm getting hungry just thinking about it now. We've made our own version at home before, which was delicious, but there's just something you can't quite duplicate about The Floridan's. I've tried a few other menu items before, such as the veggie burger, and everything I have had is just as delectable. 

Post hoagies, we learned that it was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. I have a bit of a sweet tooth and could easily eat an entire tray, or seven, of chocolate chip cookies. They are my absolute favorites, as are most cookies, and I've kept note of the best ones I've ever had. Note to self- Levain Bakery in NYC still has the best chocolate chip cookie, hands down. One of my top favorites was the cookie that they used to bake and serve at The Hyppo Cafe. They recently did away with them a few months ago (why Hyppo, why?!?!) and St. Augustine will never be the same without them...RIP.  Since The Hyppo no longer makes them, I figured the next best thing would be a cookie dough milkshake from Cousteau's. 

Later that evening, we stopped by the opening reception for the Flagler Art & Design Alumni Exhibit.  Ryan had a piece of work that was chosen for the exhibit and it was so exciting to see his work on display. I'm proud of you Ryan! Now if only I could draw a decent stick figure...

Saturday was another early morning as we wanted to beat the breakfast crowd at The Blue Hen. Corned beef hash and scrambled eggs for Ryan, two eggs and sweet potato home fries for myself. Let me just stop and make a special note about their biscuits as well. I have no clue what they do to make them so addicting, but I am convinced it's magic. Plus, I need the recipe for their peach butter asap. I find myself craving it in Tampa all. the. time. 

The cute little guy below is one of my favorite houses in St. Augustine. He reminds me of the house from UP. Just add a few thousand balloons and I'll be sailing away to Paradise Falls. I'll send you a postcard when I get there! 

We strolled around downtown a bit more stopping into some of the antique shops and galleries at The Lightner Museum. Of course, we had more popsicles at The Hyppo, raspberry and blueberry rose, before heading home to whip up some frozen pierogies we had picked up at Gaufre's and Goods. 

I had planned to stay until Tuesday morning, but Saturday night I was in a fender bender on the way to pick up dinner. It ended up cutting the trip short, and I had to bring my car back to Tampa Sunday afternoon. My little bug and I are okay; he's at the shop being fixed as we speak. Although the weekend ended abruptly, and not on the best of notes, we made the most of the weekend and the situation at hand! 

Thanks for having me and for more little fun adventures, Ryan! 

Pizza, Pierogies, and Preacher Lawson

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I spent a few more days last week cruising around St. Augustine with Ryan. We spent time  stopping into our favorite local spots and adventured out to a few new places as well. On my first day in town, we hopped on Ryan's new (but vintage) bikes and rode up to one of the antique shops, Anastasia Antique Center.  After, we headed into downtown for dinner and dessert before the monthly comedy night at the Corazon Cinema. All of the comedians were really funny and it made for such an entertaining night. My favorite was Preacher Lawson, definitely check out his YouTube videos!  It's been one week since we saw his act and I am still laughing over his jokes. 

On our bike ride home we ran into this little guy. I really have a love for all types of VWs, especially buses...as you can see here. 

Ryan and I have been attempting to go to Gaufre's and Goods for about a month and a half now. Each time we try and go it's always closed. This trip, we made sure it was on our "must" list and we headed there for lunch one afternoon. They have a variety of Greek and Polish dishes that all looked, and smelled, amazing. We ordered three of each type of pierogi: spinach, potato and cheese, sauerkraut and mushroom, and meat...extra sautéed onions too, of course. Ryan had never tried pierogis before and I think it's now safe to say he loves them almost as much as I do. 

 We ventured up to  the Jacksonville Farmer's Market to pick up a few different fruits and vegetables for dinner that evening. Everything looked amazing and if you know the vendors, they will make you a great deal if you are purchasing a few different items. 

We tried the cocos frios, which I had never had before! 

After drinking all of the coconut water, they split the coconut open and sprinkle chili powder on top to scoop and eat. 

My pineapple before. 

My pineapple after. 

Raspberry lemonade & rosy pear pops from The Hyppo before heading into the studio so Ryan could work on printing business cards all afternoon. 

My last night in town happened to fall on a Thursday, so bingo at the Elk's Lodge was a must. Ryan's friends Nick and Mary Kate joined us. It was both of their first times playing in St. Augustine and Mary Kate was definitely struck with beginners luck; she won the $250 coverall game! Right before Mary Kate won the coverall game, I won one of the $50 games! I couldn't believe we had both won back to back. We all were in shock and couldn't stop laughing. Needless to say, I think they'll come play bingo with us more often! I ended up "donating" the $50 dollars to our "little fun adventure" jar that we just started. Maybe if we play and win enough bingo games, it'll eventually pay for a trip to Europe :) 

St. Augustine Days

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I took a few days last week to head back to St. Augustine and wanted to share a few photos of some things Ryan and I were up to. On my first night in town, we drove up to Jacksonville to have dinner at Whataburger. Ryan had been telling me about a secret menu item called the, "brown burger," that replaces a regular burger patty with hash browns. Funny enough, when I ordered so called, "brown burger," the manager looked horrified because had no clue what I was talking about. After explaining it a bit more, he graciously said he would try making it for me anyways. I was beginning to believe this was a trick Ryan had played on me to order an item that has never existed, however, according to the internet (my incredibly valuable resource) the brown burger does exist! The very sweet manager did a wonderful job making it for me and I will definitely be back to order another one next time we drive up there. 

The next day, Ryan and I spent the morning running a few errands before meeting up to hang out with our new friend, Calli. We ate waffles at Cousteau's, popsicles at Hyppo, shopped around Uptown and stopped into Ice Plant for pretzels and cocktails before calling it an early evening. Calli snapped a few photos of Ryan and I at Cousteau's; we're pretty silly. 

We stopped into Jenna Alexander's shop to check out some of her work. I am so in love with her Stripes and Buns collection (on the right) and wanted to take the entire gallery wall home with me. 

Declaration also recently reopened their new space called Declaration & Co: The Market Place. My best friend, Britni, used to intern for them when we were in college. It's been a lot of fun to see just how much they have grown over the past five years. On one side of the shop they sell a variety of home goods, gifts, clothing and their own line of stationery and textiles. On the other side of the shop is Mr. George's Candy Corner which pays homage to the building's original use as a candy and tobacco shop. 

We quickly popped into the Yield shop and studio so Calli could take a look around and see where Ryan keeps his letterpress for M.C. Pressure. 

More Hyppo pops were consumed...I can't stop and won't stop until I try all 450 flavors. This time, we had pistachio coconut and papaya pineapple. 

Treasure hunting at its finest. 

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And of course, no trip to St. Augustine would be complete without an order of shrimp tacos from Catch 27. If given the chance, I'm fairly certain I would eat them every single day. 

See you again soon, St. Augustine! 

Birthday Happenings

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A few weeks ago I celebrated my 25th birthday with family, wonderful friends, little adventures, and lots of delicious food. On the morning of my birthday, I packed up the car and headed to meet Ryan in Gainesville to test out Satchel's Pizza. Neither of us had ever been before, but after discovering this eclectic pizza joint via social media, I knew we had to go. We arrived at lunch time and we were seated inside the restaurant's vintage blue VW bus (I think I died and went to Heaven.) We ordered a large cheese and pineapple pizza annnd it was so delicious I think we could have ordered another one!! Post pizza, we made our way downtown to visit one of Gainesville's Hyppo Pop locations. We met up with one of Ryan's friends and enjoyed our pops while walking through the downtown area.

Mid-afternoon, we headed back to St. Augustine and made a pit stop at a little antique store called Finders Keepers in Palatka. They had lots of unique little treasures such as old type writers, sewing machines, and eclectic kitchen accessories. The only thing that I purchased was a tiny binocular brooch that reminded me of Suzy from Moonrise Kingdom. It was a dollar and I would have been silly to not pick it up!

One of the activities on our St. Augustine bucket list has been to go play bingo at the Elks Lodge in town. Since my birthday fell on a Thursday, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to test it out. Little did we know just how intense bingo could actually be! We walked in and were a little overwhelmed at the site we saw: lots of cute elderly people, piles of good luck trinkets and too many bingo cards to even wrap my head around. Each game was color coded and played by a different set of rules. Thankfully, the two ladies next to us were gracious enough to explain all of the bingo terms such as small kite, X, T, four corners, stamps, and so many more. They filled us in on all of the "official and unofficial rules." Unofficial meaning that there were several social rules set in place by avid bingo goers. If you broke those rules, you instantly received dirty looks and silent head shakes of disapproval. Despite bringing my good luck penguin and miniature VW bus, neither of us won, Ryan was pretty close several times though! Although we walked away with empty holes in our pockets, we had the best time and will definitely be back! 

Later that weekend, I headed back to Tampa to partake in a few more festivities with my family. Saturday, Michael and I took our hot air balloon ride that I posted about earlier this week.  Sunday afternoon, my mom and I went to Oxford Exchange for a cup of tea before a matinee movie. Tampa Theatre is currently running a family fun series which plays a different movie each Sunday for the next month and a half. The opener for the family series was Matilda, one of my personal favorites! Tampa Theatre is one of the most special places in town and if you've never been, add it to your list immediately! The theatre is incredibly beautiful and has even been listed as one of the top fifteen most spectacular movie theaters in the world. If you go, make sure you arrive early to experience the pre-show organ concert. Also, if you attend one of the family fun movies, keep your ticket stub and take it to Duckweed Urban Market, post show, for a free Whatever Pop popsicle! That evening, we met up with my grandparents at Cappy's Pizza in Seminole Heights for dinner. In my opinion, they have the best pizza and greek salad in town. Plus, they have the sweetest workers you'll ever come across! 

We headed back to our house after dinner to cap off the weekend with several XL slices of birthday cake. The entire weekend was such a wonderful way to kick off the start of my 25th year. More so than all of the fun activities, I feel incredibly thankful to be surrounded by such magnificent people in my life. It's my family, friends, and the memories that we create together that make the passing of each year that much more special. I am the luckiest.