Travel

This October, Brevard Zoo is giving families two very different ways to celebrate Halloween. The longtime favorite Boo at the Zoo is back for another season of daytime trick-or-treating, while the all-new Beware the Night turns the familiar zoo pathways into something much spookier after dark.

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.

It had been more than 40 years since I’d been on an airboat. I was in my early teens the last time, somewhere around the Lone Cabbage area, and for whatever reason, I have been dying to do it again. Finally, the day came. Tiffany and I were going airboating, and I was like a kid again.

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.

It’s summer, which means we try to plan a couple of day trips each week with the kids to get everyone out of the house and do something together. Bailey found The Dinosaur Store in Cocoa Beach and wanted to visit because it had a mosasaur exhibit, and mosasaurs are her favorite.

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.

West Volusia Tourism is inviting visitors and residents to step outside their usual routine this May with the Museum Month Bingo Passport. Museums across the region - from the Museum of Art DeLand to DeBary Hall, Enterprise Museum, and Gillespie Museum - are opening their doors for participants to explore and complete a bingo challenge.