Celebration in the Oaks

On December 20, 2020 By reneemarie31In Family Life, Louisiana, TravelLeave a comment

My personal Christmas tradition is going to Celebration in the Oaks in my hometown of New Orleans. I’ve been attending almost every year since I was a child. In elementary school, I performed at it one night each year with my school choir. It was always a fun time, because after the performance, I could run around with all my friends seeing lights and riding the rides.

Through high school and college, I usually attended with a large group of friends. Some years, I went with my family. I’ve been living in Baton Rouge now for 14 years, but I still go into New Orleans every year to attend Celebration in the Oaks in City Park. There is something awesome about experiencing the same lovely fun year after year.

This year, of course, was different. It is 2020 and nothing is the same. It was only open for a driving tour. We still drove down last week to see it.

It was a mixture of lights used each year with some new ones thrown in.

Many of the lights are NOLA themed.

One unique touch is that your family’s names showed up on the nice and naughty lists as your car reached them. My daughter showed up on the nice list and my husband on the naughty list.

There was a special tribute to our healthcare heroes this year during the global pandemic.

Here are a few pictures from the past years at Celebration in the Oaks. My absolute favorite ride in all of City Park is the carousel, also known as the flying horses. I love carousels, but this is my favorite carousel ever.

Another great part of our annual tradition is visiting Storyland. It was updated a couple years ago, but many of the classics remain, including the dragon slide and Cinderella pumpkin.

And then of course there is the annual picture in front of the poinsetta tree.

During a normal non-Covid year, I recommend visiting Celebration in the Oaks. It is full of fun experiences. From walking through the lights, seeing the decorated Christmas trees, riding the Ladybug roller coaster, roasting marshmallows, riding the train, and more, it is always a great time.

Universal Studios Florida Pt. 1 – Diagon Alley

On December 17, 2020December 17, 2020 By reneemarie31In Books, TravelLeave a comment

I’ve posted our pictures from Islands of Adventure. Now, I shall share some of my pictures from the other park, Universal Studios. We spent two days in this park also. This post will be focused on the Harry Potter themed section of the park.

You enter through a replica of Kings Cross Station in London.

The Knight Bus and it’s driver are available for a chat and photos. There is even a talking shrunken head.

Diagon Alley is just like in the books and movies. A place for witches and wizards to shop and get all the things they might need.

My daughter wanted her very own Crookshanks from the Magical Menagerie shop.

She was also able to keep using her interactive wand purchased at IOA to do spells. With a little assistance from a witch, we started to get better at them.

Escape from Gringotts is the big ride in this park. We went straight there on our first day and had no wait. We all sat down on the ride, but my daughter was freaking out and scared. We ended up taking her off and using the child swap room so that my husband and I could each ride individually. It is an adventurous ride through the bank just like in the book and film.

We saw two different shows during our time at Diagon Alley. The first was Tales of Beedle the Bard, which was a puppet style show telling some of the classic wizarding fairy tales.

We also saw Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees, a celebrated witch singer. They sang and danced to some unique holiday tunes, including “My Baby Gave Me a Hippogriff for Christmas.”

We had some delicious ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour. I had the clotted cream flavor. Delicious!

Like any good wizard visiting a shopping area during a global pandemic, we made sure to wash our hands!

Overall, we had a great time exploring this part of the park several times over our two days.

Islands of Adventure – Pt. 3

On December 9, 2020 By reneemarie31In TravelLeave a comment

I have already shared two blog posts with pictures from our recent trip to Islands of Adventure. Those included my pictures from Hogsmeade and Seuss Landing, where we spent the majority of our time. This last post shares a few more pictures from other parts of the park.

We visited Jurassic Park. I declined to go on the Jurassic Park water ride, but my daughter and I did do Pternadon Flyers which is only for children and one parent.

We did do the raptor encounter which is fun. I got a fun video out of it of me acting like a spaz.

We also spent a small amount of time in superhero island. Since I don’t ride the big roller coasters, our time here was limited to one ride on Spiderman, which is a 3-D ride.

We did a socially distanced meet and greet with Spiderman and Captain America. They sang a fun birthday song to the boy who went right before us.

Each store in different areas of the park had themed Christmas trees, which was quite fun. There was an official Christmas tree scavenger hunt that one could participate in, but I didn’t do that.

We saw these characters in front of where the Poseidon’s Fury show would normally be. It is currently closed due to Covid.

Overall, we had a really fun two days in the Islands of Adventure park at Universal Studios.

Islands of Adventure – pt. 2 – Seuss Landing

On December 4, 2020 By reneemarie31In Books, TravelLeave a comment

I got kind of busy after my first post from our recent Universal Studios trip. I’m finally getting around to sharing my next post with pictures from Seuss Landing at Islands of Adventure.

Of course, this was one of my daughter’s favorite parts of the park as it has rides designed for children (and Dr. Seuss fans of all ages). We spent a lot of time here over our two days in this park and were able to ride each attraction several times.

My daughter’s favorite ride was definitely One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. It is basically a Dumbo style ride, except that you can steer your fish up or down in order to get your parents soaking wet. Any seven year old’s dream.

There were socially distanced character meet and greets.

We had to make a reservation for the meet and greet with the Grinch, I suppose because it is more popular. It was fun, because he acts extra Grinchy, but of course, they are really trying to sell you on a photo package, which is why I only got a random picture that I took myself at the end.

There were also several cute shows telling Dr. Seuss stories or singing Christmas songs.

Our second day at IOA, we wore cute social distancing Grinch shirts that I had made for our trip. I wouldn’t touch you with a 39 1/2 foot pole.

Cute photo ops, but many of the stores and food establishments were closed, I suppose due to Covid?

We did order some pizza one day from Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous and enjoy it outside.

We enjoyed the theming of Seuss Landing a lot. We even watched The Lorax movie one night during our trip.

Islands of Adventure Pt. 1 – Hogsmeade Village

On November 27, 2020 By reneemarie31In Books, TravelLeave a comment

We decided to take a last minute trip to Universal Studios in Orlando right before Thanksgiving. We haven’t traveled anywhere since Covid-19 started, and I was feeling an itch to go. Tickets were discounted, so we just decided to go. It was a controversial decision, but I think we did the best we could to stay safe and had a lot of fun in the process.

This post will share some of our pictures from Islands of Adventure. We spent two days in this park. The first day of our trip was the least crowded. Our second IOA day was a few days later on the weekend, so crowds had picked up a bit. On that day, we went to the park at opening, left around lunchtime, and came back at night to avoid the most crowded part of the day.

The part of Universal Studios that I was most excited to visit were the two Harry Potter themed lands. I have not been to Universal since these were built several years ago. In Islands of Adventure, you get to visit both Hogsmeade and Hogwarts!

Hogsmeade was a wintry wonderland covered in snow and Christmas decor.

My family represents three different Hogwarts houses, so we wore masks to represent. My husband is a Slytherin, my daughter is a Gryffindor, and I am a proud Hufflepuff. We just need a Ravenclaw to round out our group.

We visited stores all themed down to the details according to the book’s descriptions.

My daughter got an interactive Hermione Granger wand that allowed her to do spells around both of the parks. Completing the spells was a bit trickier than I expected and did require some practice to get right.

We had a lunch of fish and chips at The Three Broomsticks, which were quite tasty. I also sampled some Butterbeer.

The Hogwarts castle was a sight to behold and even more fun to see lit up at night.

The castle is home to the Forbidden Journey ride, which I quite enjoyed, but my daughter was a bit frightened of. It is an adventure as you fly around Hogwarts with Harry.

My daughter’s favorite ride was Flight of the Hippogriff which is a family friendly roller coaster. She could have ridden that one all day if we let her. Kiddie roller coasters are as far as I go in the roller coaster world, so we didn’t even attempt the popular Hagrid’s Magical Creatures ride.

We saw two shows during our time in Hogsmeade. The first was the Triwizard Spirit Rally, which showcased perfomances by students from the other two magical schools, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons.

We also saw the Hogwarts Frog Choir which performed some great Christmas tunes.

We did not get a chance to ride the Hogwarts Express, as we did not buy park to park tickets. Maybe one day!

My One Year Blogiversary

On April 27, 2020 By reneemarie31In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today marks one year since I launched my blog. I’m not really an interesting or creative writer, but I’ve still enjoyed sharing my thoughts with those interested enough to read them. Today, I went back and read my first blog post where I laid out the goals for what I wanted to accomplish. I am continuing to meet those goals by sharing my positive thoughts and writing about experiences of things that make me happy. I hope that at some point over the past year, I’ve helped someone to “look on the bright side.”

Over the course of this year, I’ve written something like 65 blog posts, which I’m pretty proud of. I’ve written about products I like, faith, and books I’ve read. I don’t blog about all the books I read, because I’m not that great at writing reviews. But over the past year, I did blog about four different self-help/memoir style books.

I wrote a lot about travel, which is one of my favorite things in the world. Over the past year, I was fortunate enough to visit and write about Jamaica, Biloxi, Montreal, Hot Springs, Walt Disney World, and even my hometown of New Orleans.

I wrote about music, movies, and plays that I loved and had the pleasure of experiencing this past year, including Disney movies, Broadway plays, and awesome concerts. I am fortunate to have been able to enjoy so many of these things that bring me joy.

I’ve written about food, family life, and positive thinking. I’ve reflected on quotes or sayings. I’ve shared my thoughts on many different topics.

I hope you have enjoyed following along in my journey of positivity. I wonder what will happen in year two? It is already starting off very different since we’ve been social distancing for over a month now. The adventures and fun this year may look different. But I shall continue to find the joy in whatever God sends my way!

My Christmas Tree

On December 2, 2019 By reneemarie31In Family Life1 Comment

Tonight, my daughter and I decorated our Christmas tree. We are not the kind of family with super posh and coordinated holiday decorations. But I loooove my Christmas tree.

My husband pulls the fake tree out of the closet. I turn on the Hanson Christmas albums. And we start decorating.

As I place each ornament on the tree, I smile and reflect on a special memory. You see, while my ornaments may not all match, each and every one is part of my story. I love to travel. On every trip I take, I carefully select an ornament to add to my collection. Each year, as I decorate the tree, I get to think about all of the places I have been.

These are the ornaments that I collected just this past year in 2019!

I have so many favorite ornaments that I cannot share them all. Here are a few.

Of course, we also have lots of Disney ornaments, so I get something different each visit.

Not all of our Christmas ornaments are from travel. Many are special because they were handmade by my grandmother. She has given me many homemade ornaments over the years. These are just a couple.

She made these elephants for my baby shower.

These even have a special tag on the back to show that she made them.

Some ornaments don’t represent my travels, but rather my home!

St. Charles streetcar and a Mignon Faget oyster shell.

Other ornaments represent important life events. The church plaque pictured below is where my husband and I got married. The long thin Santa shell was bought on our honeymoon. The angel shell is from my daughter’s baptism.

And of course, like any good tree, there are the Christmas ornaments made by the hands of a small child at school or elsewhere.

My tree is eclectic. But I wouldn’t have it any other way!

New Orleans Pharmacy Museum

On October 2, 2019 By reneemarie31In Louisiana, Travel1 Comment

I spent the past three days in New Orleans attending a conference. Yesterday, I had some extra time between sessions during my lunch break and decided to walk into the French Quarter to visit the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, since I had never been there.

It is the perfect size museum for a short, lunch break visit. It is located on two floors, so not accessible to those who can’t climb a big flight of stairs. There are lots of interesting exhibits and plenty of fascinating information.

There were many tools used by both pharmacists and doctors, illustrating the evolution of medicine.

It was interesting to read about the use of certain substances for medicinal purposes that are now considered illicit or still being studied, such as marijuana and heroin. It was especially interesting reading about the problems with prescription opiod addiction in the 19th century, in light of the current crisis our nation is facing.

There was an even an exhibit on alcohol and spirits used medicinally. Pictured below is a prescription for alcohol written during prohibition.

The shelves were filled with all different sorts of medicines, arranged by the type of ailments they treated.

Here is a leech jar. Thankfully, there were no leeches in the museum. I have always had quite the irrational fear of leeches.

Pharmacies also used to be soda fountains.

The museum is full of interesting facts and history.

There was even a section on voodoo medicine, which of course has a strong history in New Orleans.

The topics covered in the small museum are quite thorough.

I feel like I learned a lot with all of the exhibits.

There is even a nice little courtyard located at the back of the museum.

If you are visiting the French Quarter, I definitely think it is an interesting place to spend an hour or so, if you like museums. It costs only $5 for general admission, which is worth it for all the cool things you get to see.

Hot Springs, Arkansas

On July 27, 2019 By reneemarie31In TravelLeave a comment

I was fortunate enough to spend a week recently in Hot Springs, Arkansas. My aunt and uncle rented a house on the lake and were kind enough to invite me along. We had a great family trip and my daughter got to hang out with some of her cousins.

The house we stayed in had a pool, hot tub, kayaks, and a canoe.

Hot Springs National Park is unique because it includes downtown and Bathhouse Row. The old bathhouses all still stand, although most have been transformed into something else. Across from Bathhouse Row are shops and restaurants and such. The green spaces of the park are located directly behind Bathhouse Row.

Buckstaff Baths is the only traditional bathhouse still in operation. My aunt and I went and had the traditional experience, including a soak in the tub that was filled with mineral water straight from the springs. After that we were covered in hot towels, which was a bit intense. Then I sat in a steam closet, had a sitz bath, and a needle shower. It was an interesting experience.

The Fordyce Bathhouse has been turned into a museum about the history of the bathhouses in Hot Springs.

needle shower
steam closet
stained glass ceiling
elevator

One day, we took the children to the Mid-America Science Museum, which I highly recommend. There was lots of hands-on fun inside and a dinosaur trail and skywalk outside.

Another day we visited Garvan Woodland Gardens, which was fun and pretty, but very hot! There were free strollers available, and my five year old had me pushing her uphill through the gravel! The botanical gardens are part of the University of Arkansas. There was a tree house and lots of other places to hang out and play.

Hot Springs was a nice, laid back little place. It was a fun place for a family visit.

Dining in Montreal

On July 24, 2019 By reneemarie31In Food, TravelLeave a comment

My final post about Montreal concerns my favorite topic, food! I love to eat. When I travel, I love to try different restaurants and different types of food. Montreal is an international city with lots of different types of food. We didn’t get to try it all, but here are the restaurants that we did get to visit.

Our first meal of the trip was at Brit and Chips. We ordered some fish and chips, specifically the maple battered haddock. I figured since we’re in Montreal, I should order anything with maple syrup! We also ordered our first poutine of the trip. Poutine is the most famous Quebecois dish, consisting of french fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy. The restaurant was casual, quick, affordable, and tasty!

At Maison Christian Faure Patisserie, we stopped in and got three different fancy desserts. They were delicious!

Occasionally, when traveling with a 5 year old, one is required to stop at McDonald’s for some poulet mccroquettes.

One of our dinners was at La Maison du Magret, a restaurant completely devoted to duck! As a complimentary appetizer, we were given some duck rillettes and bread. We ordered duck confit and duck poutine. It was all tasty.

It’s always important to get ice cream while on vacation.

One of the mornings, we got breakfast at Allo! Mon Coco, a chain in Quebec. The food was good although service was slow. I had a strawberry flambee on crepes bretonne!

After the first big crepe of the trip, we went to two more creperies! My daughter had spaghetti and meat sauce and garlic bread at both. First, we went to Chez Suzette in Old Montreal. All of the crepes were delicious! We had dinner crepes and a dessert crepe.

Crepe Florentine
Crepe Parisienne – brie and apples
S’mores crepe

We ended up at our second creperie the next day after our intended destination ended up being too crowded. It was a family restaurant in the Mont Royal area of town, called Creperie Bretonne Ty-Breiz. I ordered a smoked salmon crepe.

I also ordered escargot and took a picture of my daughter’s face when I told her that I was eating snails. Yum!

Our hotel was connected to the World Trade Center, so a few mornings I grabbed a quick breakfast at La Fabrique de Bagel. Montreal is famous for their bagels, which are thinner and crunchier than the New York bagels you may be used to. There is nothing better than smoked salmon on a bagel!

One night, we went to C’Chocolat for dinner. A chocolate restaurant for a well-rounded dinner. They actually have sandwiches and salads and such, but we just ordered dessert. We had hot chocolate with marshmallows, a liege waffle, and their signature dessert – the c’wow. It was a chocolate dome which was melted tableside by hot caramel revealing the yummy stuff inside, which included waffle, brownie, gelato, crumble, berries, and pecans.

before the hot caramel
after the hot caramel

One of our lunches was at Reuben’s Deli and Steakhouse, downtown. They are famous for their smoked meat sandwiches. The coleslaw was particularly tasty.

For our last meal of the trip, we decided to walk to Chinatown. We ate at Chez Chili, and it was very tasty. We had some pork ribs, dumplings, fried rice, and fried bananas!