I have good news and bad news. Remember how I was starting a grocery project that involved me planning and shopping for meals, not for one week at a time, but for a whole month? I was going to try doing two weeks, then three, until eventually I could plan and shop for a whole month at a time. It sounded great, right?
Well, after two weeks, I’m officially done with it. I know, it’s terrible but let me tell you why. By the end of this week we didn’t have any food in the house so we ended up eating out three times. Eeek. So what does that mean? I obviously wasn’t very good at planning for enough food. And because we had to eat out three times, we spent more money than if I was to shop for one week at a time. Not to mention the stress of shopping for two weeks created a bunch of unwanted anxiety and I clearly failed. I think this project is great for people who have children or with larger family’s. I’m disappointed because I thought we could have saved more money in the end. *sigh* Oh well. I guess at this point it is unnecessary seeing as how $50 a week for groceries isn’t bad, but I will be willing to try it again after Kevin and I have a kid or two.
Now, ready for the good news?!
Kevin and I were talking this weekend about how we can’t wait until the day we can go to Europe and travel to new places. It was the major topic of our weekend. Since we can’t just hop on a plane and go, we have to be patient. While we’re saving and planning for that day, we were also talking about some of the affordable travel options that we can do within the state of Florida. Since summer is coming up, we figured we would want to go someplace where there is a LOT of cool water. Beaches are fun but they can get really hot and usually the water will warm up to what feels like bath water. There is however, a body of water that stays cool all year round….SPRING WATER!
Kevin came up with this fun little project for us to do during the weekends. We have decided during this summer we will try to visit most of the springs here in Florida. He would like to hit ALL OF THEM and I think it’s great that he’s ambitious. However; I think 43 springs is a lot to do within one summer. Especially since life has a tendency to get in the way. (As you can see we have a little bet going on. haha)
We figured this plan won’t cost us too much, it’ll be a new adventure, we will have the opportunity to learn more about our state (Maybe I’ll even find a way to appreciate Florida cause we all know how much I hate it.), and Kevin’s favorite way of relaxing involves the great outdoors. It’s perfect!
This plan calls for a lot of research. I discovered there are over 900 springs located in Florida. WOW. We had no idea. From what I can find, only 43 are open to the public. Some of them are dedicated to divers only and since neither one of us has our divers license, we will most likely avoid those particular ones.
This is a picture of Blue Springs. One of our go-to favorite springs.
(More pictures to come.)
Kevin can’t wait to take me canoeing and I’ll admit I’m a little nervous. Florida’s natural wildlife isn’t exactly my favorite to be immersed in. Snakes, fish, alligators, bugs…yep, nope, not my favorite but I’m willing to give it a try. I plan to update ya’ll every Monday to describe which spring we went to, the pros and cons of each “park,” how we kept our adventure frugal, and a list of all the “must sees!” We plan on hitting more than one per weekend if we can, especially since some springs are more than two hours away. Yikes. We might even have to get a hotel during some weekends.
To see a list of all the springs that are publicly accessible and the exact list we plan to stick to, click here! This upcoming weekend we plan to venture to the springs closer to Orlando so hopefully we’ll be able to get two in over the course of Saturday and Sunday. We are SO excited! Stay tuned!
Have you been to a Florida Spring that you absolutely loved? Are there parks you recommend? Let me know! 🙂
