The first few full days in Florida we caught up on some sleep from the drive, did some shopping, and some exploring before we started our days at Universal Studios. I always like to find a local donut place to check out because we have NO donut shops where I live. We have grocery stores that make fresh donuts but it just doesn’t give me the same vibe as a place that specializes in donuts and has the ability to get more creative with them. I found Valkyrie Donuts online and they looked amazing. Their square donuts are the size of 2-3 regular donuts so they are HUGE and absolutely phenomenal. They had that perfect mix of density while still being a fluffy donut so it was amazing. I had to go with the cookies and cream one to keep it simple for now, too much stuff on it and I feel like you lose the flavor and quality of the actual donut.
While the menu was small(only about 8-10 flavors that day) it was good to see that they knew what their focus was and what they could specialize in. Flavors change as well so different days have different flavors. This was the only day we went however because it was about a 45 minute drive from our rental and I couldn’t really justify the time spent just for a donut no matter how good plus we had a lot of fun food adventures coming up once inside Universal Studios and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Our rental house had a pool which was awesome because we got to swim and relax each day we were there. If you are ever looking for a house to rent in Florida definitely check out disneypoolvillas.com their customer service was AMAZING and their prices are way lower than a hotel PLUS they have dog friendly places like the one we stayed at! Elsa seemed to love walking the perimeter of the pool and apparently I see where she got it from as my husband felt the need to join in. She wasn’t as much of a fan after she slipped and fell into the pool though. Luckily her fur dad was there to save her right away.
Every time we travel to a larger area(which honestly is pretty much every trip we take) we like to check out some dog friendly places too so Elsa can get out of the rental and stretch her little legs. Woof Gang Bakery was super easy to find and while it is a chain it was the first time we had been to one. There were tons of fun options from cake mixes to specialty treats and even dehydrated fruits and vegetables for your fur baby. If you have one in your area I would definitely recommend checking it out. The only thing with this one was the cashier was surprised people even lived in North Dakota so of course we had to give some sass back and let her know we were the only two in the entire state 🙂
One of the days leading up to the parks we ventured out to try some new food places. Again this one was a chain but we have zero of them in North Dakota so we had to give it a try. Burgerfi was amazing and as an added bonus the patio was dog friendly. Honestly, one of my favorite parts of being out of town is the fact that so many places are dog friendly. It’s hard to find patios that even allow dogs in ND and the weather is only warm enough for patio season about 5 months of the year so the rest is indoors all the time and having a dog friendly facility inside is basically unheard of.
Sometimes these burger places can be really hit or miss but this one was definitely a hit. I got the breakfast all day burger that had cheese, bacon, fried egg, maple syrup and hash browns as some of the main components and it was so damn good. If it wouldn’t have been so filling I would have ordered another.
There was this cute cake place near by so after Burgerfi we decided to check it out. Nothing Bundt Cakes is another chain but again it was new for me since ND doesn’t have a single one of them. The mini bundt cakes were just the cutest! They had a sample of Red Velvet out and normally I am NOT a fan of Red Velvet but decided to give it a try and it was amazing. I left with 2 mini bundt cakes, 1 carrot cake and 1 red velvet.
After a busy couple of days it was time to just relax on the couch for the evening. Elsa had had lots of time exploring at Burgerfi as well as walks around the neighborhood where our rental was. The beginning of this 2 week trip was already jam packed and we still had Universal Studios to explore!
