Kelsey Walters

Tucked away on Stetson’s picturesque campus, this little museum is a literal hidden gem, housing one of the oldest and largest geologic collections in the Southeast.

When Avery was around four, we took her on her first trip to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island. Scott and I had visited before she was born, and it remains a family favorite.

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.