Last month, I escaped Indiana’s winter for 2 weeks and didn’t post a word about it on social media! I went to a few super awesome places during my trip, but this post will be all about my week in Florida! The entire reason for my vacation was to visit 3 of my best friends who had all moved across the country. Taylor moved to Florida, Scott moved to Louisiana, and Kyle moved to Colorado. We used to see each other every single day, so when they all moved, we decided we’d have an annual reunion! It just so happened that Mardi Gras was coming up in a couple of months and Scott lived an hour from New Orleans!

Perfect! But the flights to Louisiana were super expensive, and I definitely didn’t want to drive 14 hours to New Orleans by myself. So I thought, maybe I’ll look into flights to Orlando, Florida. I could see Taylor a few days before hand and then we could drive to Louisiana together. And then I found a flight for almost nothing! But the catch was that I had to be in Florida for an extra week. My decision? Yes please! Sign me up! I booked my flight and headed down to Orlando!

Every day I was with Taylor in Florida, she took me to do something fun and beautiful (because of course I’d be taking photos)! She’s such a great friend. First up, Taylor is a photographer for Disney World, so guess who got free passes into the parks?! We did! I hadn’t been to Disney since I was a senior in high school, and this was the first time I wasn’t with my family! Walking into Epcot, is immediately started to drizzle. No big deal. I could still take a few photos here and there. And then it started to pour, so we went on a few indoor rides, and when we came out, the park was almost EMPTY! It was a photographers DREAM! I started shooting my heart out while everyone was still hiding from the rain.

The next day, Taylor drove us an hour and a half to visit Bok Tower Gardens. This was definitely one of the highlights of my vacation (other than getting to see my friends, of course)! Driving into the park, you had to go what seemed like miles up the road, through fields and fields of orange trees that had just started blooming! We hadn’t been able to see Bok Tower yet because of all the tree coverage, so we parked and just started exploring. About 2 minutes into walking, we take a turn and out of nowhere we just see this MASSIVE tower standing 205 feet above us! It. Was. Incredible!

Every direction we walked, every direction we looked, we were surrounded by the most amazing landscaping I’ve ever seen! As we were walking away from the Pinewood Estate (the gorgeous mansion in the middle of the gardens), all of a sudden the heavens let loose and we had to sprint for cover! After a few minutes of running our butts off, we ended up back at the tower and the rain had calmed down. Unfortunately, it was a little too late for us. We. Were. Soaked. But that definitely didn’t put a damper on my day. I was still in awe of where I was!

On my last day in Florida, we went to Indian Rocks Beach! It was super long drive and when we finally got there, it was FREEZING! I didn’t take into account that while yes, we were in Florida, it was still winter! My bad! We hung around just long enough to watch the sunset, and it was definitely worth it! I LOVE sunsets no matter where I am, but getting to see it set over the ocean horizon is always a treat.

The next day we picked up our friend, Rachel, from the airport. We packed our bags, and we hit the road for our Mardi Gras Reunion trip!