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Today is my last day of work before going on vacation until next Monday! Eric and I are off to Orlando, Florida for the weekend. It’s the first getaway for just the two of us in over a year! It is a super quick trip with only three full days in Orlando but we have lots planned.

Our vacay starts tomorrow afternoon when we make the 6-hour drive to Seattle for the night. We are only there for about 15 hours (most of it spent sleeping) before we catch our flight but I’m hoping to squeeze in showing Eric the space needle at the very least and maybe Pike Place Market too.

We arrive in Orlando around 11:00 PM local time on Thursday night so we will be going straight to the hotel and to bed.

Friday morning the fun starts! We got the 2-day, park-to-park pass for Universal and Islands of Adventure. Our big focus for the weekend is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Eric and I are both HUGE Harry Potter fans so all day Friday and Saturday will be spent at Universal and the Islands of Adventure.

Saturday night we are going for dinner with Stephany. We’ve been blog friends for a long time and I am so excited to meet her!

Sunday will be a bit more of a relaxed day. Maybe lounging by the pool at our hotel or wandering around and exploring Orlando. Sunday night we have tickets to go to the Medieval Times dinner and show. I went in 2006 when I was in California and it was pretty cool, this time it’s more for Eric as his 25th birthday is on Monday!

And then Monday we will have the longest day of travel ever when we fly out of Orlando at 7:50 AM (4:50 AM PST) and arrive back in Seattle around 1:00 PM to make the 6-hour drive home. And then go back to work and school on Tuesday morning. I figure we’re young so now is the time to do whirlwind trips like these!

I’m SO excited! I am bringing my laptop to get some work done during our flights/layovers so I will probably be blogging daily recaps!

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Questions of the day to help with the trip: If you’ve ever been to Orlando, any recommendations on things to do and see (especially on our ‘free’ day, Sunday)? What kind of bag should I take to Universal to carry our stuff in? I was thinking a backpack maybe? What ride/sight can we NOT miss at Universal or Islands of Adventure?

Random questions of the day: Where was your last vacation? When and where is your next vacation?

Another great day full of great food and great conversation is done. Tomorrow is race day!

This morning there were no alarms set in our hotel room. We all started waking up and rolling out of bed around 7:30 – 8:00 AM and we were ready to head out the door by 9:30 AM. Not bad for four girls in a hotel room with one bathroom.

First stop of the day was John’s Place for breakfast.

Lauren’s friends recommended this restaurant to us and I’m so glad they did. It was one of those hole in the wall type of places that we never would have stumbled upon but ended up being so, so good. I had citrus pancakes (lemon and orange zest) with cream cheese maple syrup, and yes, it was as decadent and delicious as it sounds!

After breakfast we spent some time wandering around Victoria and window shopping as we slowly made our way towards the race expo.

Victoria is SUCH a beautiful city!!

Oh, and here is a photo of ALL of us to prove there actually is four of us on this trip

There was a cool orca whale in the grass by the Empress!

After a bit of walking around downtown we headed to the race expo to get our packages!

Then we went back to our hotel for a couple of hours to rest our feet after all the walking we’d been doing. It’s nice that our hotel is so central so we could do that! After a bit of a rest we sought out some gluten-free baking and our carb-loading dinner!

I had a lemon macaroon at Bliss Bakery and it was delicious!

Then we headed to Pagliacci’s for dinner. We arrived at 5:00 PM and there was already a line around the block.

But we persisted because it was one of the only Italian restaurants in the city that also had gluten free pasta and we’d heard really good things. We waited in line for 1 hour and 40 minutes before we were seated! I have never waited in line that long for a restaurant.

We passed the time on our iPhones and chatting. It went by fairly fast but I was definitely hungry by the end of our wait.

It was well worth the wait! My pesto pasta was super amazing and I completely cleaned my plate.

Now we are all wrapping up and getting ready to head to bed! Leigh just finished french braiding mine and Lisa’s hair for the race.

Leigh, Lisa and I start our half-marathon at 7:30 AM and Lauren starts her marathon at 8:45 AM (no idea why they did that but at least we will get to see Lauren finish!)

See you tomorrow with a day three report of Victoria. Sub-2 or bust!!!

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Question of the day: What is the longest you’ve ever waited in line at a restaurant?

Hello friends. It’s late here so this will be a really quick post This morning Leigh got dropped off at my house and we made the 3-hour trek south to Vancouver. We hit some weird weather that included insane fog where we couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of us.

We made it safely and met Lisa and Lauren at the lululemon factory outlet in Burnaby where I proceeded to spend way too much money. Then we grabbed a quick lunch and headed for the ferry.

We pulled up at around 3:45 PM for the 4:00 PM ferry and proceeded to sprint to make it on time! So I guess I don’t have to worry about missing my run this morning

The ferry ride was gorgeous and went by pretty fast!

After taking a bus into downtown Victoria we arrived at our hotel about 3 hours after leaving Vancouver! I booked our hotel a few months ago and while it looked a little sketch from the outside it actually ended up being quite nice and apartment-like on the inside!

After settling in to our hotel we headed out for dinner – one of my favourites – thai food! I was starving and dinner was so, so, so good! I had the vegetarian pad thai.

After dinner we sought out a grocery store and picked up some banana’s, bagels, peanut butter and a few other snacky things for the weekend and then wandered through downtown Victoria as we made our way to the Empress for some dessert and jazz music.

Victoria is a really pretty city. I’m excited to run through it on Sunday!

We wrapped up our great night in the Bengal Lounge at The Empress where we ate some delicious dessert, listened to jazz music and chatted!

It was a great first night in Victoria! I’m yet to get a photo of all four of us girls together so I’m making that my mission for tomorrow.

Hope everyone’s weekend is off to a great start. See you tomorrow evening for a recap of our second day in Victoria