Disneybounding: I'm a Natural Blue

 (Dress: thrifted from Goodwill/ necklace: somewhere in Venice)

My life has been crazy busy for the last couple months, what with finals, traveling through Europe for a month, moving to D.C. for the summer, and starting my internship with the Smithsonian. I have had some really incredible experiences and moments that I am really excited to eventually share here with all my lovely readers. However, until I get through the thousands of photos I have taken, I wanted to put up a little post inspired by Finding Dory.

After realizing the movie was already out on Friday, my boyfriend and I decided to go after I got out of work. Of course, being the nerd that I am, I wanted to dress up in honor of my favorite little blue fish for the occasion. By happy accident I was already wearing a royal blue dress that day, so once I got home, I just added this orange necklace that makes me think of coral and anemones. Then I went and took dorky pictures in front of a yellow wall in the house I am subleasing and voilà: my inner Dory had been captured on camera.

The movie itself was really cute and had a lot of great messages about family, people with disabilities, and how we should treat the ocean, among other things. The messages really tied in well to our trip to the National Zoo on Saturday, where they had an exhibit called Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea. The exhibit consisted of sculptures of sea creatures made entirely of plastic pollution that had been taken out of the ocean. The sculptures of the specific animals were made out specific plastic pollution that tied into the problems those animals face in the ocean, and each sculpture had a sign of what we could each do in our daily life to help. Not only was it really educational, but I personally thought the sculptures were really well done, so I wanted to share some of the pictures I took of them here.

I hope you enjoyed looking at the sculptures, as sad as their message may be. We should all try to help the ocean become and stay clean, anyway we can. Just like Dory, the ocean is a natural blue, and should remain that way, free of trash and pollution.

To learn more about the exhibit, you can visit the National Zoo's page about it on their website here.

First Adventure of the New Year to the Happiest Place on Earth

This year one of my New Year's resolutions is to do as much traveling and adventuring as possible, so it felt really great to go on my first trip on the third day of this new year with my amazing boyfriend. Our destination? Disney World. Elijah and I are both Disney nerds and love the parks, but neither of us have been to them since 2014. I have been aching and pining to go back, and when I convinced Elijah to get an annual pass with me for this year, I was incredibly happy and excited.

We got the chance to stay at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, where my dad, uncle, and grandpa were staying for a work conference, all before going back up to school. Even though we had less than two days, we managed to go to all four parks and do almost everything we had wanted to. It was a wonderful way to begin the year and the semester. 

I hope you all enjoy the pictures! It was truly a magical time.

Hollywood Studios

(Turtleneck: vintage from Elyce Feliz on Etsy/ skirt: Forever 21/ shoes: Target/ ears: Disney World, obviously)

The first night was the last night ever for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, so of course we had to head over to Hollywood Studios. We didn't get to the park until eight though, so we went to see Fantasmic first, our favorite Disney nighttime show. It was a slightly rainy night in the fifties, so we were cold and wet through the entire show (and the rest of the night), but it was worth it, and the show was still magical.

Afterwards, we went on rides and went to see the Osborne Lights. We actually caught the very last showing of the lights ever. Christmas lights are one of my favorite things about my favorite holiday, so you can imagine how happy all of the lights made me. It was all so beautiful!

We ended our night meeting Chewie and seeing the new Star Wars fireworks show over the Chinese Theatre.

Epcot

  (Dress: vintage from Dusty Desert on Etsy/ shoes: Aliexpress.com/ ears and necklace: Disney World)

Oh, Epcot. It is always such a neat and calm park, even on super busy days. The first half of our first full day in Disney was spent very well in this beautiful park. What I love about Epcot is how you don't ever need to stand in any long lines to enjoy the park, you can just walk around the World Showcase instead. It is also a great park to randomly run into characters who you don't have to wait half an hour to meet.

I always love interacting with characters, and this time every character had something to say about my Mickey and Minnie shoes and/or my purple hair. Donald Duck was very upset by my shoes and necklace. He wanted to know why I wasn't wearing a necklace of him, poor thing. Mickey and Minnie loved my whole outfit though, and my shoes especially. My favorite character that I met was Tigger, who hugged me multiple times, loved my shoes, my hair, and the pen I had him sign my autograph book with (it was orange). I always have to meet "Epcot Tigger" whenever I go, because Epcot Tigger is the best Tigger. I always have such great interactions with him, and he is always very enthusiastic, just like Tigger should be!

Magic Kingdom

(Shirt: thrifted from my mother's closet/ skirt and cardigan: Forever 21/ shoes: Aliexpress.com)  

After half a day at Epcot, we headed over to Magic Kingdom, where it got dark very soon and we got to enjoy the Christmas lights on Cinderella's Castle. We ran around a lot trying to get on all the rides we wanted when the lines were the shortest, and as a result we actually ended up missing both the castle show and the Wishes fireworks show, but we did get a pretty nice alternative view from Fantasyland of the fireworks. The fireworks exploded all around us and the sky above us completely lit up.

The next and last day, we headed to Magic Kingdom again in the morning to try to do everything we had missed the day before. We got there ten minutes before the park opened so that we could get right onto the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train right away, only to find that the park was already open and the line was already an hour long. We decided to make the line anyways though, because it is one of our favorite rides. It was the longest line we had to wait through, but it was worth it.

We were finishing up with Magic Kingdom by lunch time, and since Elijah hadn't seen the inside of Belle's castle, we chose to eat there before heading to Animal Kingdom.

 Animal Kingdom

Our last and final stop was Animal Kingdom, which neither Elijah or I had been to since 2012. It was really nice to finally go back, and compared to the always busy Magic Kingdom, the atmosphere was so much more laid-back and relaxed.

The first thing we saw at Animal Kingdom, even before we got into the park, was their beautiful Christmas tree. It was my favorite tree out of all the trees at all the parks when I was a kid, and I was just as impressed with it this time. The tree is full of animals, Hidden Mickeys, and reminders of the season that all look beautiful!

We only had four hours in Animal Kingdom, but we managed to do everything we really wanted to do, including Everest. I am a scaredy-cat about rides, and I had never been on Everest before for that reason, but I decided to face my fears and be brave. It wasn't that bad in the end, and I felt proud of myself!

From Animal Kingdom we went to the hotel for our bags before heading to catch the bus back to Tallahassee. I am really glad we got to go to Disney right before starting our semester, and I can't wait for all the other adventures and Disney trips I have planned for this year!