Traveling to 3 destinations in 3 weeks!

Traveling is something that I love being able to do. Personally, if I could I would be traveling the world in a van right now, however, that is currently not possible for me at this point in my life. But not being able to travel in a van does not mean I can’t travel at all! This year one of my goals was to see as many places as I possibly could! I just finished up my college education, I work a job that offers me endless flexibility and before life takes over I want to be able to travel and see all the beautiful places the world has to offer. So during the end of May and the first few weeks of June, I planned 3 trips for my boyfriend and me.

First, for my graduation trip, we decided to fly down to Orlando, Florida for a 5-Day getaway to relax from the busyness of my last semester! We stayed at an adorable Airbnb in Haines City, we chose Haines City because it made everything we wanted to do accessible to us and within a 2-Hour drive. We also rented a convertible Ford Mustang, which was more for my boyfriend than for me but it still felt pretty badass driving around in a convertible (even if it caused my hair to tangle in ridiculous knots)! The first day we were there we just decided to relax after our extremely early morning, the day started with us waking up really early in the morning for our 7 AM flight out of Minneapolis. After hours of traveling, we arrived in Orlando in the afternoon we basically sprinted through the airport because I was about to pee my pants after having airplane bathroom anxiety! We rushed to baggage claim so that Mitchell (my boyfriend) could watch for our bags while I waiting in line just to pee. After getting our bags, we wandered the airport (we might’ve gotten a little lost for a minute) then we tracked down our rental car and headed out on the 1 hour drive out of Orlando to Haines City. We checked into our airbnb, went grocery shopping then spent the rest of the night relaxing and resting after our travel day. The rest of our trip was pretty busy and non-stop! On Day 1 we woke up early again so that we could drive an hour to Universal Studios in Orlando and explore the park! I had never been to any theme park like Universal before so it was quite the experience for me! I found that the virtual rides were super amazing and I could literally go on them all day long! We stayed there pretty much the entire day, my favorite was definitely going through Diagon Alley and seeing all of my Harry Potter dreams come true! I was so excited to try butter beer and see all the magical things in the shops! I am very thankful that my wallet still appreciates me after that! The following day we also headed back to Universal Studios however this time we explored the Islands of Adventure Park! Which let me tell you, was also just as mind blowing to me as the Hollywood Studios Park. Coming from Minnesota I had only been to Valleyfair before, which has rollercoasters and rides but nothing compared to what these parks had. Islands of Adventure was probably my favorite of the two parks, I loved going on all the rides. The Hulk and the new Jurassic Park rides that are in Island of Adventure offered a whole new level of a thrill ride for me! But once again the Wizarding World of Harry Potter took over my favorites list, I loved seeing Hogsmeade and being able to ride on a broom with Harry! And I made Mitchell ride the Hagrid ride with me twice because I loved it so much! I definitely cannot wait to go back to Universal in the future!

The next few days of our trip we decided to explore each of the coasts of Flordia. So day 3 we drove roughly and hour and a half to a AirBoat tour put on for us by Midway Airboat Tours and our tourguide was amazing, he told us all about the gators, a little bit about the area and even took us to find some baby gators at the end of our tour. We even got to hold a gator which was pretty cool as well! After the airboat ride we headed over to Daytona Beach to just relax and hangout by the ocean! It was very relaxing and much needed after our very busy first few days! We just rented and umbrella and kicked back in some beach chairs, it was great. Aroud 4pm (at the end of our umbrella rental lol) we headed to some of the tourist shops for look for souvenirs and then we just headed home to our airbnb to relax and sit in the air conditioning! We ordered doordash and started watching HGTV, it was quite the way to end the night. Our last full day of being in Florida we decided to go to the other coast and spend the day by the Gulf of Mexico. We started the morning looking around the Tampa Aquarium! It was a very enjoyable nice little activity so start our day off. After dealing with some impressive Tampa traffic we drove to Honeymoon Island State Park to do some more relaxing and hanging out by the water. Later that evening I had scheduled a photoshoot with another photographer I met on a facebook group and I took some images of her and her boyfriend as well as she took some of Mitchell and I. If you want to see more images from her session with me checkout my blog post all about it! That was really all we did in Florida for my graduation trip, some other fun highlights were trying funnel cake fries, which might be my new favorite treat and we definitely need someone in Minneota to sell them. We also had a little doordash incident where our driver got lost, was trying to get into a gated community that we were not in and we ended up having to drive to find her and meet her to get out food. It was quite the predicement with Mitchell and I (more me) being tired and hangry! So yeah that was it for Florida!

Pictures from Florida

The following weekend after we returned to Minnesota it was memorial weekend so Mitchell and I decided to head up to Duluth, Minnesota to do some camping at Spirit Moutain and explore some of Minnesota’s beauty. This was a short and sweet little weekend adventure but that doesn't mean we didn’t have everything go so sweetly. Our first night the temperature dropped to a whole 27 degrees over night… and we were staying in a tent on an air mattress, that popped that night. So we were very cold a little cranky and our airmattress bedframe thing basically made us feel like we were sleeping on the metal legs of a folding chair! But on the bright side, we got our tent up with no issues, probably only took us 2 minutes which was amazing! I am definitely very impressed with this amazon find so I’ll link our tent because set up is so easy and painless! The following days of camping trip were spend hiking in Jay Cooke State Park, Gooseberry Falls, Palisade Head, and Black Beach in Silver Bay. We had lots of laughs and just really enjoyed the nature and apprecaiting what Minnesota has to offer! Our supposed to be last night was cut short because there were thunderstorms in the area and we figured camping in a tent in a storm was not going to be ideal, so we headed back to Fergus Falls a day early and started preparing for our next and final trip of this 3 week adventure to Rapid City, South Dakota.

Pictures from Duluth

Alright, I know this blog post is getting really long but these three weeks were so much fun and I want to share every little detail! But here is the summary of the final destination! We decided to road trip to South Dakota for a fun family vacation for my boyfriend, his son, and me! We decided to split the drive on the way to Rapid City and spent the first night of our vacation in Mitchell South Dakota at the DaysInn with a big waterslide! We swam for a few hours and ordered pizza then headed to sleep because we had an early morning the next day to complete our final 4 hours to Rapid City where we stayed at the Whispering Pines Campground. This was a very nice home base for us and the owners were so sweet and helpful and even gave us ideas for some great places to checkout! Now remember when I mentioned how we camped in 27 degrees in Duluth, yeah now we were camping in 97-degree weather not even a week later, and sleeping in the heat was a challenge! We were very thankful that the mountains allowed for the temp to cool off at night and eventually our little cabin would air out and not be so hot on the inside! Also, this campground had some of the nicest showers and bathrooms I had ever been too and that was such a bonus! A basic rundown of our South Dakota trip the first day we decided to explore Mount Rushmore and then head down the Alpine Side at Rushmore Tramway Adventures. The next day we headed over to Cosmos Mystery Area which was pretty mind-blowing to me and I definitely recommend checking that place out! We then decided to beat the heat and spent the rest of the day at WaTiki Indoor Waterpark we really enjoyed the waterslides and I definitely enjoyed the lazy river. This trip also wasn’t as long and on our last full day, we headed to drive through Bear Country and see some animals! We then headed towards Custer State Park to drive Needles Highway and take in all the gorgeous scenery. This was probably a highlight of my trip simply because I love nature and seeing all the crazy landscape we do not get to see here in Minnesota! The following day we woke up and headed out on our 8-hour journey back home!

Taking 3 weeks at the beginning of summer to travel and explore some new places was definitely a lot of fun and I will forever cherish these memories we made! I hope you all enjoyed this blog post and maybe it gave you some idea about what to do on your next travel adventure!

Pictures from South Dakota