Kelsey Walters

We usually spend our summers trying to be outside as much as possible, camping, hiking, exploring trails, and pretending Florida isn’t actively trying to melt us by midafternoon. But when the recent heat waves rolled in with record-high temperatures, we decided it was time for an indoor adventure. That’s how we finally found ourselves at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! in downtown St. Augustine.

For Mother’s Day this year, we skipped the usual brunch scramble and decided on something a little different: a family day trip to Winter Park by train. It also doubled as a birthday celebration for Scott. As our resident train nerd, he got the Amtrak ride. As the mom of honor, I got to do whatever my heart desired.

For our family, blueberry season doesn’t start at the store… it starts in the fields at Ever After Farms.

Seeing a familiar place in a completely new way is always a treat, and this spring, Brevard Zoo offers exactly that with its limited-time Illumi-Nature Festival.

The Jacksonville Zoo is only about an hour and a half north of the Volusia County area, and while it is around the same size as the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford, it offers way more to see and experience, in my opinion.