Bucket List Item – Andrea M Jara

My Top 8 Tips for any First Time Wedding Dress Shoppers

Hi! As many of you all know, I’m ENGAGED! Which also means I SAID YES not only to my best friend but to THE DRESS!!!! I learned a lot from my experience of wedding dress shopping and wanted to share with you my Top 8 Tips for you and anyone who is dress shopping!

TIP 1- BE OPEN MINDED

This is Key! I know I know “Andrea, I already know I have to be open minded!” But like really you have to prepare yourself mentally before you walk into the bridal shop and say the dream dress I have in my mind may not be the dress I fall in love with in the store. Or prepare yourself with the dress may not even be in the store you are entering. My DREAM dress was always a long sleeve lace and every long sleeve dress was super hard to see on my self and I disliked them all! Which was so weird for me as I was set on that style for years but also knew that it might not be what was for me but didn’t know until I tried them on.

TIP 2- RESEARCH BRIDAL STYLES/SHOPS

Pinterest is a girls best friend! So use it to find your style of wedding dress. Is it boho? Is it ball gown? Maybe it’s a super unique dress that only certain stores may have! Once you know what style you are looking for looking for bridal shops to visit will become 100 times easier as some shops only carry certain designers and certain styles. A bridal shop I went to only carried one designer and one style so if I didn’t like the style of dress I might of wasted my time and the consultants time. Using the knot also helps you can type in “boho Bridal’s” and it will come up bridal shops with boho style dresses!

TIP 3- TAKE YOUR TIME BUT DO NOT WAIT

I did not know that wedding dresses take a LONG time to order and be altered. It can take 6-7 months for your dress to be shipped to the store from the time you order it and then it takes 1-2 months for alterations. That is 7-9 months of just dealing with a wedding dress!!! You don’t want to rush or stress finding your perfect dress so take your time and start as early as you can so the whole process will be relaxing and fun!

TIP 4- Less is MORE!

You always see on say Yes to the Dress and Bridal shows how Brides bring every person they know to their bridal fittings and each one of those persons has an opinion. I am super empathic and everything someone says I take to heart and will hold on to it, so it was super important to me to just have my parents. I did bring my mother in-law to the last appointment and my grandmas. However, the bridal consultants said it’s the best when you bring less because it speeds up the process and helps you as the bride know that you love the dress because you love the dress and not because everyone is telling you to the love dress but because you feel beautiful and happy and can care a flip about what anyone thinks. I would even recommend waiting till you found the dress and coming in another time with your party just to show them it on but no opinions as you don’t want to change your mind.

TIP 5- DO NOT GIVE UP!

You may not find the dress at the first shop, or the second shop, or the third shop… but hey do not give up!!! Your dress is out there in the universe just stay positive and believe. I went to 6 different shops. Each had their own experience and environment and I honestly recommend researching and going to as many shops as you can and getting to experience different personalities. Do not feel bad saying you weren’t happy with what you tried on and that you will keep the store in mind. These people do it for a living and want the bride to be happy so just do that BE HAPPY!

TIP 6- DO NOT TRY TOO MANY ON AT ONCE

You kind of get sucked in when you enter a bridal shop and just want to keep trying more and more but trust me it is EXHAUSTING!!! After dress 10 you forget what dress 2 felt like and that might of been the one you loved!!! Or you forget all the dresses and end up having to just look at your photos and videos. I would recommend breaking it up into visits maybe set a limit and really know what you want to try on so you can go in focus and ready to go!

TIP 7- IT WON’T BE THE FIRST DRESS

Most of the time bridal consultants try to not give you your favorite dress to try on first because they don’t want you to forget about it. So do not be discouraged when you try on the first dress and feel like you are failing because you are not! Trust and believe it will come!

TIP 8- YOU DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE TO LISTEN

Sometimes your bridal consultant may also have their own opinions to the dress you are wearing as they are professional and you should trust them but that doesn’t mean you have to listen to everything they may say to you about how it looks. You may LOVE the dress and they may say … ehhh… it actually looks like a prom dress on you but maybe that’s the look you are looking for so go with your heart! Your opinion is the only opinion that really matters it is your day! Live it up!

BONUS TIP- BUDGETING

When you go to a bridal shop and they ask you what your budget is do not forget about alterations and the cost of that. You can always ask the bridal shops and they can give you a rough estimate of how much alterations would cost and you want to make sure you state that the price of dress isn’t over your budget after alterations. Sometimes alterations can be anywhere from $300-700 depending on how much work needs to be done.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!!!

HOW I TRAVEL THE WORLD WITH NO MONEY

Hey!!!! I know you are reading this because you are thinking “I want to travel but my bank account says stay home.” When ever I see someone after a trip I also get asked “How do you travel so much?” or “omg you must be rich because you travel a lot” or “do you even work?” and the answers are always, “really because I feel like I haven’t seen enough of this beautiful world” and “no I am also a broke college student like you” and “yes Ryan and I work normal jobs like you.”

Honestly HATE when people say “ugh you are so lucky you get to travel” or “I wish I had money to travel like you do.” BUT IN ALL REALITY YOU CAN!!!!

But let’s skip the BS thoughts some people have and get into what I do and my tips and tricks.

BE FLEXIBLE!!!!!

Now when I say be flexible I mean with your travel dates and travel locations. You may really want to go on a weekend but in reality it may be cheaper to leave on a Wednesday or a week later than when you wanted to travel.

SIGN UP FOR ALL THE AIRLINES MILES PROGRAMS!!!

FIRST OFF WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOT SIGNING UP FOR THESE!!! THEY ARE FREE!!! You get free miles every time you travel with that airline!!! If you travel with that airline often you may be able to get free upgrades, food or even better FREE FLIGHTS!!! I traveled to LA for free because I saved up my miles and got a free round trip ticket!!!! It is so SIMPLE!!!

IF OVER 18!!! GET A TRAVEL CARD!!!

If you are over the age 18 and is responsible and have cash! Get your self a travel credit card because this way you are able to get more discounts on hotels and flights, along with perks like priority boarding but you get DOUBLE MILES sometimes MORE!!! After you spend $1,000-2000 you get 40,000 miles- 60,000 miles!!!! That is multiple roundtrip flights for free. Again only use if you have cash to pay it off and be responsible!

MAKE TRAVEL TICKET HUNTING A PART TIME HOBBY

A lot of the time I travel is because I just so happened to run into a $50 dollar plane ticket to a place or city I have never traveled to and want to go. I literally make it a hobby to constantly check airplane tickets and studying the best times to travel. I use the skyscanner app to see what airlines travel to what cities and when the best times are to travel to certain areas. This allows me to say okay Delta travels to LAX and then you can go directly to Delta’s website and purchase the ticket from the. This app also this cool feature where you click “EXPLORE” and you put “ANYWHERE” at “ANYTIME” from a specific departing airport and it tells you THE CHEAPEST PLACES TO TRAVEL ANYWHERE WITHIN A 6 MONTH PERIOD. This is how I found my families $230 roundtrip ticket to Iceland and back!!! Just from exploring my options. (ps wish this was sponsored but it’s not I just REALLY LOVE THIS APP)

TIP 3: GO TO THE AIRPORT TO BUY YOUR TICKET!!!!!

When you go directly to the airport you do not have to pay all the crazy service charge fees!!!!! Ryan and I saved $70 for going to the airport to buy our ticket for our latest NYC trip we paid $29 for a one way ticket and $42 dollars back!!! IT IS SO CRAZY BUT IT WORKS!!!!

DO NOT BE SEAT PICKY!!!

If you are traveling alone or with a buddy as long as you booked your tickets at the same time you will be seated next to or very close to that person. I say skip the expensive “seat selection” that for some reason always changes… and get your seat for free!!!!

TRAVEL LIGHT!!!

I KNOW! I KNOW! I can hear you all screaming at me! How can you pack light when you have to take a pic in all 20 outfits sitting in your closet right now!!! My tip for this is TRY ON ALL THE CLOTHES and make outfits that can be reused in different ways. Sometimes you think an outfit may be cute as well and it might not actually be cute… it happens to me all the time and then you think that could of been space I could of saved. Try to pack as much in a backpack or carry on so you do not have o pay for the luggage space on the airplane.

DO NOT ALWAYS TRAVEL BUT AIRPLANE OR UBER EVERYWHERE!!!

ALWAYS!!! Look for what the city’s or states public transportation options are because you may be able to say HUNDREDS of dollars. For example, Last year Ryan and I flew into San Francisco and we wanted to visit family in Sacramento. An airplane was $211 for a one way ticket for ONE PERSON!!! Instead we found a Gray hound that cost $11!!!! The Greyhound has plugs, wifi, and comfy seats!!! We paid $11 and got more than what most airplanes provide for $100s! Yes Greyhounds may seem scary to some and I would recommend you do your research for certain bus stop areas but I just brought my neck pillow and closed my eyes and feel asleep for 3 hours and we arrived! Also Trains!!! Trains may cost you $3-10 dollars and can get you anywhere from city to city to state to state!!! Just do your research before you jump into a $50 uber. Who knows you may get lost and find somewhere beautiful!!!!!

DO NOT STAY IN THE BUSY CITIES

I feel like this is a common tip because it’s like common sense, sometimes looking for a place to stay 5 mins away from the main cities may be more peaceful and a hella lot cheaper!!!

AIRBNB OR STALK BOOKING.COM

So I have not personally been able to use Airbnb because people take too long to respond or cancel… but I hear good things and the prices look cheap! but I use booking.com because you can find apartment and hotels and it tells you straight forward how much it is going to cost for the amount of days you are staying. You also get $20 credit when you refer people!!!

Hotels.com

If you use Hotels.com every 10th stay is free!!!

TRAVEL WITH FRIENDS

Who doesn’t love travel buddies!!!! You get to travel with friends and you can split cost of rooming, transportation and what ever else you do!!!

MEET PEOPLE WHERE YOU ARE TRAVELING

I am saying this for two things… one if you meet someone who knows the area they will tell you all the secrets of what to do or where to go for cheap or just for fun! and TWO so you can stay somewhere for FREEEEEE!!!! I know some people may think it is weird but I promise this may be the best thing you decide to do and may lead to long time friendships! Ryan and I’s friend from High school who we didn’t speak too regularly opened her house to us when we went to Vegas and now we consider them to be one of our best friends and love them so much!!! So do not feel scared to step out of your comfort zone and you may friend a life long friend!!!

USE AAA IF YOU HAVE IT!!!!

IF YOU HAVE AAA YOU SOMETIMES GET CRAZY TRAVEL DEALS THAT ARE AMAZING SO USE IT!!!!!

Also keep the option of Renting a car

This again depends where you are traveling to because if you do not have to pay for parking everywhere and there is not crazy traffic and the rates for renting a car is cheaper for a longer travel period then do it!!! (AAA can be used for this as well!) Also if you are under 25 but older than 21 you can rent a car with AAA or the app called Turo!

SAY NO LESS AND SAY YES MORE!!!

Hope all these tips are useful and help you travel more!!! The key to traveling is in your hands it is up to you to save the few dollars of coffee or video games and travel! There is nothing better than exploring and seeing the world!

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR FIRST TIMERS: ICELAND

PHOTO TAKEN AT SKOGAFOSS

I Just got back from the most amazing unforgettable trip of my life!!! My family and I went to the BEAUTIFUL country of ICELAND for a week! On my trip I learned so much and I wish I would of know some stuff before my trip as well! In this blog I will talk about what I have learned and how we saved money on our trip!

TIPS:

FLY CHEAP!!!

To begin we flew on the Airline WOW air and honestly it was a smooth and comfort ride! The seats recline, there was a decent amount of leg room and it only cost $230 ROUNDTRIP!!! YES THAT IS RIGHT $230!!! However, you do have to pay for everything on this flight!!! You have to pay for your checked in bag, carry on, beverages, meals etc. so after we paid for everything that we needed to purchase on WOW air it cost about $300 per person with bags and meals as we share one bag per couple. I would suggest researching for a cheap flight to Iceland as Iceland is SUPER expensive and if you can start saving money starting with the flight do it!

RENT A CAR!!!

There is honestly NO OTHER WAY to see Iceland than by renting a car! If you do not rent a car you will be spending $1000s of dollars for each Icelandic excursion you take with your travel buddies. You also will be able to take Iceland in all on your time rather than being on the tours time. To be honest, the best part of Iceland was the drive!!! You will see the most beautiful scenes that you can not see anywhere else and you will be able to stop your car and get out and see it when you are driving yourself!

GROCERY SHOPPING!!!

Unless you have been to Iceland you do not realize how expensive eating out actually is in Iceland. It cost about $30+ per person per meal to eat out at a restaurant. Not to mention if you are not staying in the downtown Reykjavik and you are camping, I would recommend shopping for food as there is nothing once you pass the city to eat, or restaurants to go out and eat. Now when you do go shopping go to a BONUS!!! BONUS is an Icelandic discounted grocery store, and they literally have everything like a normal grocery store would have but for a cheaper price, or what we would think normal priced, from produce, dairy, ready-to-go sandwiches, meat, everything!!! BONUS is commonly found around Iceland!

AIRBNB OR BOOK AN APARTMENT!!!

If you are not traveling to Iceland to camp, I would recommend Airbnb or booking an apartment!!! First, I would recommend because you will want more space as hotels are small and when traveling with families it is easier and cheaper than a hotel! Also, because if you are grocery shopping you want a place to be able to cook and store you food! We stayed in an Apartment in Downtown, Reykjavik and it was absolutely beautiful and in the perfect location! So much to do in walking distance and we had the view of the beautiful ocean on one side and the beautiful view of the downtown and the Church Hallgrimskirkja!

Here the Vlog I filmed with a tour of our apartment-

IS FLYING A DRONE ALLOWED IN ICELAND?

A lot of known, tourist sights in Iceland you are not allowed to fly a drone!!! So no drones at Skogafoss or Gullfoss. I believe this is because it is illegal to fly over people in Iceland and because the wind and the temperatures make drones freak out. Every time I would try to fly my DJI Spark, it would fail or go crazy, due to the wind and below 15 celsius, this sucked as I was looking forward to having so many more drone shots that what I was able to capture.

BLUE LAGOON!!!

Blue Lagoon is SOOOOO worth your money!!! The basic package is $100 it comes with a towel, a ticket, a face sulfur face mask and one drink at the bar which can also be a non alcoholic beverage as well. I would recommend buying your ticket to blue lagoon when you buy your plane tickets because they do sell out fast!!! Unfortunately but fortunately we waited and had to go at 8:00pm but it was so beautiful swimming and relaxing under the stars.

OUR TRIP TO VIK

Our trip to VIK and back was 5 hours roundtrip! We made a few stops on our way to Black sand Beach as well. Our first stop was to the beautiful waterfall Seljalandsfoss!!!

(Photo Taken: Seljalandsfoss)

At Seljalandsfoss you DO have to pay for parking!!! They were handing out parking tickets left and right! There is a public bathroom and a small cafe! You can walk up super close to the waterfall and usually you can walk behind the waterfall but unfortunately for us it was iced out and we were not allowed to walk behind it. I rate this waterfall a 10/10!!!

Our next stop was SKOGAFOSS!!!

SKOGAFOSS IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND HUGE!!! IT IS ALSO WHERE I GOT PROPOSED TO!!! This is where Ryan got down on one knee and asked me if I would marry him!!! So Skogafoss will always have a special place in my heart!!! (Of course I said YES!!!)

On the side of Skogafoss there is a stair case of around 500 steps that you can walk up to see an “ariel” view of the waterfall. Again no drone allowed, Free parking and no bathrooms.

Our Next stop was Black Sand Beach,

The wind here was so rough walking onto the beach but it is still a beautiful view that I would recommend seeing. This beach also a great story where the three stones coming out of the water, are pirates/sailors who turned into stone and that treasure was found by locals that disappeared. Black Sand Beach also has an indoor cafe with a lot of food selections to choose from and a bathroom!

Our next stop was to the crashed airplane site!

WARNING!!! If you decide to go on this journey please note it is a 5 mile walk roundtrip from the parking lot to the airplane and back!!! The view and the airplane is worth it however, I would recommend going during the day as at night the temperature drops and the wind picks up so much that the walk becomes extreme hard!

THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

We did the golden circle all in one day and the first stop we made was at GULLFOSS!!!

Again, free parking and no drones!!! The wind is super strong at this location but the waterfall is extremely beautiful and YES it does look like a slice of pie!!!

We then moved onto the Geyser! IT WAS SO COOL!!! It is just so beautiful and amazing how cool nature is! You sit there and wait and once you hear a little rumble get ready because it is going to blow!!! The Geyser also has free parking and a HUGE rest stop, with a cafe and HUGE gift shop with actual reasonable prices stuff in my opinion.

After the Geyser we went and visited the thingvillere where the two continent tecnonic plates met! Everything was frozen but we were still able to park our car and walk into the snow and enjoy the view!

Downtown Reykjavik

Again downtown Reykjavik is beautiful! I would suggest to eat at Elders Cafe! They have delicious crepes, Nutella hot cocoa, ice cream!!! I would 10/10 would recommend, they also have super cool art work all around the cafe!

I would also recommend Joe & the Juice and Lebowski Bar, This bar also has themed gamed nights!

Downtown is also filled with souvenir shops!!!

Seeing the Northern Lights

When we traveled to Iceland, my family and I thought it was going to be super easy to see the northern lights, that we would just look up in the sky and see it. We were wrong. You actually have to track the northern lights and see where they will be visible and make sure it is not a cloudy day. If you can not see the stars you are in the wrong place. We were in Iceland for a week and we finally saw the Aurora Baralis on the last day of our trip!!! We were so happy! However, It does not look like all these Instagrammers make it seem. The lights in the sky look super faded with the human eye and kind of look like a white stripe in the sky but when a take picture with a camera you are able to see the green and purple lights. It truly is amazing to experience and hope everyone will also be able to experience it as well.

More photos from our trip!!!

MY FIRST TIME WALKING THE RED CARPET IN CALIFORNIA

I just got back from my trip to Los Angles, California and I want to mention that our flights were free and this is because of Miles! It is so important to sign up for the free miles clubs on every airline because they do rack up! I also have a United Credit Card so I get double Miles but it is still amazing to make that 2 second and save up for free flights!

The main reason for our trip to Los Angles is to walk the Red Carpet and watch Funko’s Documentary called “Making Fun” in the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre! We met so many amazing people from the Funko world to Famous people like the Actor of Freddy Kruger, WWE fighter Zac and Tony Hawk! If you did not know I am a film student and being able to go watch something as a big production like this deff inspired me to keep working hard on my film goals! We also vlogged our whole experience so keep a look out for that too!!!

On our first night at California we, and by we I mean Ryan (My boyfriend) and I did nothing but grab dinner and go to sleep after traveling all day and the time change from Florida. The next morning, we spent 3-4 hours exploring and filming Santa Monica Pier. I honestly keep thinking to myself how lucky I am to have Ryan who also enjoys and has patience to film and take photos. We keep competing and seeing who could get the most creative and better shots of the pier. This was also my first time flying my drone in public! At the Santa Monica Pier they had on the right side, facing the ocean, had every flag for all the 50 states in the USA and every Country in the World! In the middle of the USA States flags (that were in a circle), Was a heart with a Peace sign. It was super cool and powerful art to have! Santa Monica is also know for the rides and food! If you have kids or want a cute date place I deff recommend!At night we went to the Grove to walk around and if you do not like name branded stores that are expensive I do not recommend but do recommend to go if you have time to waste because it is a super cute walk and they have a cute farmers Market. From the Grove we walked to the LACMA Lights and took photos before going bowling with friends! The next day, which was a Monday was the Day Minnie Mouse got her Star on Hollywood Blvd!!! We went around 11:00am and their was about 100 people all around a small stage and Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney and Katy Perry came up on the stage. We sat and watched for a little before we made one of the best stops of the trip! IN N OUT BURGER!!! I LOVE THIS PLACE! Every time I go to the West coast I have to go to IN N OUT!!! I always get a cheese burger and a Neapolitan Milk shake with Fries!!! TRUST ME IT IS SO GOOD!!!! This was also the same day as the Movie Premier. The next day Ryan and I along with a bunch of his Funko Friends headed off to DISNEYLAND AND CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE!!! If you do not already know I am a huge Disney girl and Stitch Lover!!! I also want to give a huge shout out to David who got us into both parks for Free!!! We had so much fun in both parks! We ate so much food, rode all the rides! A HUGE RECOMMENDATION is get the DisneyLand App on your phone and use the Max pass it is $10 per person but if you are planning on spending a whole day in both parks it is so beyond worth the 10 dollars. You get unlimited passes unlike Disney World and you can add a new fast pass an hour before your next pass starts which is super cool and you never not have a fast pass to look forward too!

Also, 10/10 recommend an Oreo churro it has filling in the middle and is SUPER delicious. They have a Churro Cart inside California Adventure and in Downtown Disney like literally a few steps from the right, facing California Adventure is a Churro Stand with 6 different Churro Flavors like Strawberry lemonade flavored Churros!!! If you have a trip planned make sure you go to the churro stand!!! You wont regret it and think about it too you kill off all the Calories walking around the magical place of Disney!!!

Sadly, Our trip flew by but I can not wait to be back in California!

VLOG COMING SOON!

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MORE PHOTOS FROM THE TRIP (:

trolly — AT THE GROVE, IN FRONT OF A SUPER CUTE TROLLEY

Ryan with pop — Ryan in front of Freddy Funko

Ryan with Group — All the Funko Fanatics that also went to Disneyland the same day!

Ryan at pier — Ryan at Santa Monica Pier

Ryan and friends — They were recreating a meme from Jurassic Park called Golden statue

Beach photo — AT SANTA MONICA PIER I can not tell if I like this photo or not haha

Andrea Route 66 — CARS LAND IN CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE

Thanks again for reading!

HOW I ALMOST DIED IN SAN FRANCISCO

Here’s a story of one of my most crazy Travel Adventures ever… So my boyfriend Ryan and I were traveling the West coast this past summer and made a quick stop in San Francisco before we took a Grey Hound to Sacramento to visit Ryan’s Grandma’s Sister, so keep in mind we had all our bags with us exploring San Francisco.

FULL HOUSE.jpg — In front of the Full House!

So we get off the plane and went to visit the Seven Paint Ladies and the Full House because Full house was a big part of my childhood!

Anyways so Ryan and I had been traveling for a while and we are a couple so we do get into arguments and I really wanted to go to this Swing that I found on Pinterest!!! But Ryan wanted to go to the normal view so we got into a little argument and both got into cranky moods… but we got to Kobey Cove which is on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge.

This photo was taken when we got to Kobe Cove and WE WERE ON THE TRAIL!!! Okay so I say that we were on the trail in this photo because literally like not kidding 3 minutes later were off trail and lost! We were walking and saw two girls coming up a little cliff and I thought to myself, “OH! They must be coming from the swing!” So Ryan and I went down the cliff. I fell in the clay for the first time and we ran into an abandoned building with Graffiti walls… Honestly would of been really cool for some Instagram photos. I immediately was like okay I think we are lost but the article I was read had a photo of this Graffiti abandon house.

Screen Shot 2018-01-20 at 11.55.57 AM.png — A clip from my vlog!

Ryan and I asked each other “Should we keep going” and we kept saying “we did not come this far for nothing”…. SO WE KEPT ON WALKING THROUGH THIS FOREST!!!

THIS IS WHERE WE REALLY NOTICED WE WERE LOST!

We kept walking down step inclines to when we reach a Cliff and a dead end.

At this point I was about to cry and I pretty much was crying and thought we were never going to go back home. We were about to call 911 and say please find us but of course we knew we would figure it out.

We then heard noises and then cheers of girls so we kept walking around to find out where they were it was a sign of relief but at the same we were like how the heck are we going to get down from this Cliff so we literally slide down our luggages down and then we slide/ rock climbed our way down and finally made it to the highland beach!!!

It was so awkward to look at the people’s face who were on the beach just watching us struggle… I could imagine them thinking “where the hell did they just come from?” lol

So in total we were lost from about an hour in the middle of the woods cliff thing with no signal, water or food… only left with a few cuts and an amazing view.

And when we got down Ryan and I literally sat on a log and hugged each other as this literally tested our relationship to the max. We have never been in a situation like that before and we think it was God testing us after getting into a little fight and reminding us to appreciate things and each other more!!!

My advice is research trails before you decide to make your own haha and if you want to go to this swing the trail is long but an easy trail and an amazing beach is at the end!

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed!!! Watch the Vlog here to visually see our trip to San Francisco!

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MIAMI Museum of Ice Cream

January 10th, 2018 My brothers, Ryan and I all traveled to Miami to visit the famous Museum of Ice cream! Okay so let’s first start with what I did not like about this place! We first encountered a rude employee who told us to go walk 4 blocks away to a Starbucks until our time came which was in 30 minutes and she did not even let Ryan use the bathroom even though we had tickets to this event and the bathrooms were right behind her. The lighting sucked in all the rooms. It was not worth the $45 for the experience. DO NOT GET ME WRONG I HAD A BLAST but if I am going to be honest I wiSh there were more rooms, more ice cream and a more upbeat friendly environment throughout the whole museum.

In some rooms they served Ice cream!!! WHO DOESN’T LOVE ICE CREAM!!! In this room they had Chocolate ice cream with Pink whip cream and a PINK cherry!!! I kinda question if a pink cherry is good or not for you but YOLO! Deff my favorite Free ice cream in the whole place!

In another room, they had a room filled with Ice cream windmills! In this room the employee was very entertaining and dancing the “Ice cream” Dance!!!

We of course had to take a pic on the Banana swing! This room also had a cherry swing which kinda reminded me of Miley Cyrus!

“I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL!!!!”

In other rooms we got Melted Ice cream which LITERALLY brought back childhood memories of the ice cream machines you would get at like Toys R Us to make at home ice cream! YUM! Frozen Chocolate bananas, and Key Lime Pie ice cream were also served for free!

We can not forget the famous sprinkle pool! I did not know the city was actually fined for getting the plastic sprinkles into the city water and potentially harming animals until I got home from the event or else I would of not had gone in as the Sprinkles really do follow you home! You get like 3 minutes in the sprinkle pool to take as many photos as you possible can and are timed by an employee who is literally counted out loud and not to mention was sweeping behind the pool too so like you could not get the perfect picture during the anxious count down! Thankfully, I was able to capture this photo as soon as we jumped in!!!

Over all I am just always happy to spend time with my family!

If you are looking to go to this Museum, I say if you have the money deff go and have fun! However, we were a little disappointed with the cast members, lighting and the limited amount of ice cream for the money we paid!

MY TATTOO STORIES

I FACED MY FEAR AND WENT SKYDIVING

I faced my fears to inspire others! Read my blog to find out how my experience with SKYDIVING went!!!!

If you asked me a year ago if I would go skydiving I probably would’ve said Heck no! But Let’s go back in time. When I was around 14 years old, my Dad brought up the idea of going skydiving for my 16th birthday and his 40th birthday. At the time I was like YES, YOLO! LET’S GO! Then I thought to myself “shit, what if I die?” Then I began to think stuff like “What if the plane falls from the sky, what if I die from natural causes on a plane, what if the plane crashes”, and way more other stuff. I then took a flight to NYC and that flight was my first time EVER! Having an anxiety attack on an airplane… it was so weird… Like I knew it was anxiety because I have had attacks before, but I lost feeling in my body, I could not breath, I went numb in my lips and hands/feet and I could not concentrate or think. I was panicking. I thought I was going to DIE!!! I remember my dad telling me to breath in a bag. After that flight I told myself I WOULD NEVER EVER EVER GET ON ANOTHER AIRPLANE EVER AGAIN!!! My parents knew this was serious that I became fearful of something I used to do.. Like this was not my first flight why did I panic??? So I went to a therapist! In Therapy, I learned how to stay calm, control my breathing and to distract myself. My lady would put calming music on and read out step by step the experience of getting on an airplane and being on airplane… for example, “You are entering the airplane, the door has closed, seatbelt sign on, takeoff.” This helped me a lot to realize that the only way to really get over my “fear” is to do it. So June 2016, I took my first flight in years… Ryan and I went to Maine with his family!!! I did it!!! After that I went to California, then Europe and so many other places!!! LIKE WHAT HOW! Anyways back to skydiving… the day that we finally decided to go skydiving was September 12th, 2017.

I was scared but SUPER EXCITED! Super excited because I knew how far I have come and no matter what I will always know that I did it! So the day of, we drove about 2 hours to Clewiston, Florida. It was my brothers, dad and I who were jumping. We arrived to Spaceland Skydive and I was like crap but at the same time I feel like I was completely numb from feeling any type of emotion. So when we got there, we had to sign contracts stating you would not sue for the 100 reasons they listed for you to sign off. You then had to watch a video that said something could go wrong and they were not liable. You then went outside and met the person who will be attached to you and will be jumping out of the plane with you.

My guy was super cool and nice, which gave me a sign of relief because I was super scared I would get a cocky jerk who would spark my anxiety. So i’m putting on my suit and I am thinking shit am I really doing this? And I was also thinking, WOW I look good in this suit, WE LOOKED LIKE POWER RANGERS!!!

I was the green ranger, Jovani was the red ranger and Julian was black!!! Haha I am a dork… I know. Anyways, so the Jumpers also have cameras that video taped us the whole time and so they were getting our reactions for before we got on the airplane and at the time, like I said, I WAS SO EXCITED!!! I was all like yayaya let’s go!!!! YOLO!!! Then the plane got here…

you can hear the propellers running super LOUD! It’s like errrrrrrrrrrr….. And you hear the Jumpers yell, ALRIGHT READY LET’S GO!!! So they also said because Julian paid to have a camera person jump he had to jump first, which I was like man I wanted to be first because It was less time for me to get nervous lol Instead I went second. So we loaded up the plane…

I remember getting in, the Jumper strap us up in the plane and clips you to the plane because they fly with the door open. Everyone including myself is wearing an altitude watch which measures how high you are in the sky, we were jumping 14,000 feet so the watch had to go around 2 times. So we are on this plane and it starts to FREAKING MOVE… of course I am like yayayayay and I am laughing and having fun.

The plane even had a “No farting sign” lol Then I look over and see Julian, he looked like he was going to poop his pants. He did not want to go first. At this time, The plane keep getting higher and higher and at one point, one of the jumpers opened the door that we jump out of and scared the hell out of Julian and I!!! Julian even grabbed the wall with fear, but we still had like 5,000 more feet to go… this is when I realize “OMG I AM JUMPING OUT OF THIS PLANE” I stopped breathing for a second caught my breath and showed no fear because it can kiss my ass.

Then it was time, Julian jumped first… it looked like a cartoon, you jump and become a little ant in the sky. After Julian, was me… My jumper picked me up, walked me to the door and IT WAS MY TIME TO SHINE. We stood sideways and we shook our hips side to side and said 1, 2… JUMP…!!! And I WAS IN THE SKY!!! I COULD HEAR MY DAD AND JOVANI SCREAMING… I WAS FLYING…

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset — WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WORLD

It felt so cold and it literally felt like you were floating… I was so like omg I can not stop smiling, but how do I breath with all this air blowing in my face.

I WAS SO OVER THE MOON HAPPY THOUGH, LIKE, I FLIPPING DID IT, I WAS SKYDIVING!!! I then felt so sick to my stomach, we pulled the parachute to open and we floated our way down… the world NEVER LOOKED MORE BEAUTIFUL!!! I still felt super sick and thought I was going to puke mid air, which is normal because of adrenaline… so my jumper took it smooth and we did some spins in the air and we were on the ground in minutes. I landed 3rd out of the 4 of us because I was so light haha but we landed and

I WAS NEVER MORE HAPPY!!! LIKE I WENT FROM BEING SCARED OF FLYING TO FLYING IN A SMALL AIRPLANE AND JUST JUMPING!!! OUT. OF. IT!!! LIKE WHAT??? I reunited with my family and could just hear Ryan and my mom screaming of joy that we made it and how proud they were. Like I was never more proud of myself… ever. You can LITERALLY DO ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MIND TOO!!!! When I realized that I started living… so live your life and do new things! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

TO WATCH MY VLOG OF THIS DAY CLICK THE LINK- ANDREA M JARA SKYDIVE VLOG

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