Poppo's Taqueria

Poppo's Taqueria
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One of my best friend's Sarah, a junior editor for Lonny Magazine,  came home from New York for a few days and we got together one afternoon on  Anna Maria Island for a much needed catch-up lunch. We picked Poppo's Taqueria, as last time we tried to go they were closed. It's rather slow on the island this time of the year, so we lucked out that Poppo's was open all day. It's a similar ordering style to a Chipotle but the food is one hundred times better. We each had a burrito bowl, mine with honey lime red cabbage slaw, black beans, guacamole, brown rice, cilantro, pico de gallo, shredded jack cheese, and pickled red onions. Sarah had a similar bowl, but ordered ancho chicken on hers as well. Their chips were freshly made to order and were absolutely amazing. We sat outside and soaked up the sun, in between a few rain showers. The food was delicious but the company was the best part. I've missed you SJ!  

Mey Mey, aka Sarah or SJ, in all of her island glory. 

After lunch, we walked down Pine Avenue to one of our favorite island shops, Shiny Fish Emporium. It's an eclectic shop filled with trinkets for all ages. They have the most beautiful children's toys imported from France, lots of goodies from a favorite party company of mine called Tops Malibu, and decently sized selection of women's clothing. Our favorite thing to get at Shiny Fish is a Hawaiian ice cream bubble, which is really just a single mochi ice cream. They usually have several flavors to pick from, one of the best I've had yet is the mango. They were low on flavors this trip, so I went with the sakura, a cherry blossom and vanilla flavor, while Sarah had a blueberry bubble. Aside from all of the great products they sell, their store is decorated with bright pinks, blues and greens. They have some amazing pieces of furniture and lighting that I would scoop up in a heart beat with a little extra pocket change. It's a fun place to stop into if you're in the area! 

Lazy Sunday

Big Island Bowls
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Sundays, in my opinion, are one of my favorite days of the week. When I'm not working at the store, I love to sleep in and try out new breakfast spots. This past Sunday, I was in St. Augustine and remembered that I had been wanting to try out Big Island Bowls. We headed over to the island and ordered up some delicious acai bowls and ran to eat them in the car, just as it started to pour down rain. Ryan had the acai mixed with apple juice, granola, blueberries, bananas, and pineapple while I had the acai bowl mixed with almond milk, granola, chia seeds, blueberries, strawberries, and coconut flakes. I've been craving another one since then! 

After breakfast we ran several errands around town to pick up some art supplies and groceries to make for dinner that evening. After all of our running around, it was time for lunch. All week we have both been craving Back 40 and when brainstorming ideas for lunch, it was the first place on both of our minds. Ryan stuck with his traditional Cuban sandwich and I tried a new to me salad, the shrimp curry salad with coconut curry buttermilk dressing. I've been thinking about how to whip up my own version at home because I practically licked the bowl clean. The dressing was easily the star of the show, it was that amazing. 

We stopped into The Hyppo, per usual, to see some of our favorite workers and I picked up my own dragon fruit ginger pop. Not pictured* Ryan's lemon plum pop that he ate before I could catch a photo ;) 

We made a fried rice for dinner and went downstairs to pick up Cousteau's for dessert. A Belafonte with vanilla ice cream hit the spot to end the day on a sweet note. In my opinion, lazy Sundays filled with the best food are kind of the greatest. 

Back to Orlando We Go

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Back to Orlando we went last week for a quick day trip to Ikea! It was my second time there and although I'm not the biggest fan of the majority of things they sell, Ikea does have several little gems I really loved. We weaved our way through each department, both of us finding just a few new items to bring home with us. It took a couple of hours to get through the entire place, so we inevitably worked up an appetite.  Ryan and I loaded up the car and headed straight to Winter Park for none other than Shake Shack! Ryan had a double Shack Burger and I had the 'Shroom Burger, extra pickles, extra Shack Sauce (it's the best if you've never tried it!) Following dinner, I found The Soda Fountain on my Four Square and we stopped in for a trio of ice creams: chocolate peanut butter, salted caramel, and cinnamon roll. We both agreed that we preferred Kelly's Ice Cream, that we tried last time we were in Orlando. It was fun though to see the wall murals painted right outside of The Soda Fountain, flamingos and swans were definitely included. The eat more ice cream wall? I can get behind that.  

Tiny Tourists

Castillo De San Marcos
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The last, and only time, I've ever toured the fort in St. Augustine was when I was 14 years old and in 8th grade. Our class took a trip up to St. Augustine for the day and the only thing I could remember was trying to squeeze as many classmates as possible into those tiny tower out coves for a picture that is probably still kept away somewhere amongst my teenage possessions. It's been a place I've been wanting to revisit, so Ryan and I decided to play tourist and make a morning of it. At that age, I didn't realize how special of a place St. Augustine truly is, and while walking through the fort, I was only reminded just how amazing the city really is. I couldn't begin to imagine what life was like during times when the fort was in use. I found myself shaking my head in disbelief during multiple parts of the tour. Imagine building that entire fort with your barehands, during Florida's excruciatingly hot and humid summers, while probably wearing week old clothes, AND probably without sufficient food and water supply....aka no Hyppo pops to cool them off from a working day. When visiting St. Augustine so often, I get caught up in forgetting to stop and appreciate all of the history the city has to offer. I'm glad we took the time to tour the fort that day, the morning is one of my favorite St. Augustine memories thus far. 

^^^ post fort I insisted we stop for pops to cool off from the heat. I had my favorite key lime and Ryan picked out the dragon fruit ginger. I'm telling you, I'm on a mission to try them all ;) 

A Day Exploring Gainesville

florida museum of natural history
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While visiting Ryan in St. Augustine, we had a free day with zero plans. We decided to fill up the day with a mini trip to Gainesville. Neither of us have spent much time in Gainesville in the past, and while it's a small town, there were definitely a few places that caught our interest to check out.  We hopped in the car and took our time making the hour and a half drive west. We stopped at Finders, Keepers in Palatka to see if they had any new items since we last visited in March. Parked right out front was the coolest VW bus, elaborately covered in dozens of stickers. Unfortunately, it wasn't for sale :'( it just belonged to another shopper. The only items that we purchased were a couple of letterpresses matchbooks that were hidden in a fishbowl in the back of the store.  

Stopping into Satchel's for lunch was a given, and we were sure glad we did. We braved the heat to once again sit outside in the VW bus. We ordered a small, yes that's a small, Satchel salad and a large cheese pie. We were completely stuffed at the end of our meal, but I made Ryan ask for a dessert menu anyways. They bring it out in the form of a viewfinder....ah-mazing. So then, of course, we ordered chocolate chip and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies to-go as snack for the drive back later that afternoon. 

After lunch, we decided to spend a few hours roaming the Florida Museum of Natural History. Although the Florida museum doesn't compare to the history museum in New York, my personal favorite, it was absolutely worth the trip to visit. The museum always has a permanent exhibit, which is free to the public, and they currently have two featured exhibits that you pay for separately. One exhibit is of Sue the T-Rex and the second is the butterfly garden. In 1990, paleontologist Sue Hendrickson discovered the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton found to date. The fossil was eventually auctioned off to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where the fossil is still kept on display today. The fossil displayed at the Florida Museum of Natural History is just a replica, however the entire exhibit was really interesting and taught Ryan and I some fun facts we didn't previously know. My favorite were the displays that showed how dinosaurs have been depicted throughout pop culture over the last several decades. While scientists have a pretty thorough understanding as to how dinosaurs lived and survived, there's still so much left to speculation. The exhibit itself was educational and truly amazing when you think of all the possibilities and what imagine what life would be like if dinosaurs still roamed the earth today. If I ever had the chance, I would love to see the real fossil in Chicago. 

Ps- they had an entire wall in the exhibit dedicated to post-it notes listing what people thought about Sue. It was thoroughly entertaining to read through them all, especially ones written by children 5 and under. Ryan and I couldn't leave without posting our own jokes, seen below. 

Ryan and I will both agree when we say our favorite part of the museum was the butterfly exhibit. As we wrapped around the museum, from the Florida history section and into the butterfly exhibit, there were several museum employees working delicately to pin a variety of butterflies and beetles into shadow boxes. I've never had the opportunity to watch people pin the different butterfly varieties before, and it was beautiful and slightly gross all at the same time. I'm really not a fan of bugs in general, butterflies included, but they way they were displayed was an art form in and of itself. Some of the bugs were beautiful shades of blues and greens, while others were a bit terrifying and I am glad I've never come across the living versions. The museum had several shadow boxes on display; however, behind the workers in the laboratory were rows and rows of several hundred shadow boxes. If only we had the opportunity to look through them all, I am sure that's where the keep the most rare and delicate species. Following the butterflies and beetles on display, came the best part: the butterfly garden. You enter the garden and walk through a pathway that leads you through beautiful, lush plants and tropical flowers. As soon as you look up, you realize there are hundreds of butterflies, all shapes, colors and sizes, flying above you. Some land right next to you, but as soon as you blink, they are in flight and on to find the next plant to feed from. There were butterflies I had never seen before, neon green, red, and vibrant blues. In one summed up word, it was magical. Every time I looked in a different direction I would point out and exclaim a new butterfly that would flutter by, and how each one was "my favorite." They were all just too beautiful!  They had benches set up throughout the garden so viewers could sit and spend a fair amount of time observing. It was overwhelmingly peaceful in there and I instantly began to plot how to recreate the scene in my backyard. If you go to the museum, pay the extra seven or eight dollars to go into the garden, I promise you it's absolutely worth it. 

Before going back to St. Augustine we made a special trip over to one of the two Gainesville Hyppo locations. This one is my favorite Hyppo location out of all the shops they currently have. I mean, how could it not be your favorite with that amazing fruit wall?  This trip, I had the guava hibiscus pop and Ryan had the classic papaya pineapple pop. 

S'mores Day

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Yesterday we had a mini celebration in honor of national s'mores day. My mom and I went to Chocolate Pi to treat ourselves to their daily special, a graham cracker ice cream sundae with chocolate ganache and toasted marshmallows. To say it was heavenly would be an understatement. They have the tastiest desserts in town; I'm especially fond of their macarons and caramelia cookies. Their storefront is located at the Epicurean Hotel, just outside facing Howard Avenue. It's often overlooked as you drive by, but it's certainly worth a trip every few weeks, or days ;) They are always whipping up something new and it's difficult to leave without one of everything. If you stop in, try one of their homemade sodas too! They change them out each season, but they keep some regular staples on the menu. My favorite is the fizzy monsieur, an espresso soda. I'm such a sucker for national food holidays, so celebrating this one was no exception! Plus, it's on my summer bucket list to eat as many s'mores as possible ;) 

St. Augustine

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About two weeks ago, I headed back to St. Augustine for a couple of days to visit. Below are a few of the photos of some things we were up to while I was there. One day, we took a trip up to Jacksonville for the morning to eat at a few new restaurants and to shop at the town center. My favorite place we stopped into was Community Loaves. Disclaimer: their ice cream sandwiches and egg and cheese bagels were out of this world delicious. 

The rest of the trip we just spent time relaxing and printing a few new pieces of stationery for myself a la M.C. Pressure. I'll post a photo of the completed projects as soon as I'm done lining all of my new envelopes! We had breakfast at our usual, Blue Hen, and spotted the cutest mint VW bus on our drive home. Later that evening, we whipped up a dinner that included fresh pasta tossed with tomatoes, fresh basil, and olive oil. For dessert, Ryan and I bought a miniature (six inch) cast iron skillet and filled the bottom with chocolate chips. Next, Ryan chopped the marshmallows in half and placed them on top and put it into the oven at 350 degrees. We baked it just until the marshmallows were golden brown and served it with graham cracker pieces for dipping. It was the simple, delicious, and I was left wanting s'more ;) Another summer bucket list item completed! 

Webster

webster flea market
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No. 19 on my summer bucket list was to go to an antique fair or flea market. Last Monday, we set our alarms for 5:30am, picked up a dozen donuts and coffee, and headed north on 75 to visit Webster Flea Market. Open each Monday throughout the year, rain or shine, my mom used to bring me here every few months growing up. She would give me a few dollars each trip so that I could purchase "treasure" of my own...and by treasures it was probably some old McDonald's Disney toy. My mom and I went a few months back when the weather was cooler and the fields were packed with vendors. Unfortunately, this time, there weren't too many vendors there to look through. We spent a couple of hours sifting through every booth along each aisle. We each found a few trinkets to bring home, of course I found the most; no surprise there. It was a fun day spent with my mom and Ryan. We've already marked it on our calendars to head back in the fall when it's much cooler and the vendors are aplenty. 

Santa Rosa Beach Part II

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A few more photos as I headed out to the beach for an hour or so on my last day on 30A. Dark clouds were beginning to roll in so I shopped around my favorite book and record stores, Sundog Books and Central Square Records. A trip over to the airstream food trucks was also mandatory. I had a grilled cheese from Meltdown on 30A and a pineapple shaved ice with condensed milk on top from Frost Bites. Just as I got my shaved ice it began to rain so I headed to the car to get back on the road. The 30A area will forever be one of my favorite places to visit and I hope it's not too long before I get another chance to visit! 

Santa Rosa Beach Part I

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After stopping in Tallahassee for an evening, I continued my road trip up to Santa Rosa Beach to see Kelsey. After a few long hours of driving through terrible rain, I had finally made it! Hip Hip Hooray! We celebrated Kelsey's last day at work with dinner and drinks at La Playa. That's Kelsey there with the salad she ordered + my asian shrimp tacos. 

The next morning we woke up to run to The Donut Hole, but the line was out the door and into the parking lot (cries silent tears.) We treaded on in search of a new breakfast venue and ended up at one of my old favorites, Another Broken Egg. After filling our bellies up with eggs and pancakes, we went home to hangout for a bit before going to lunch and to the beach. Lunch that day was at Pizza by the Sea. Kelsey and I shared a pineapple pizza and split a chocolate chip cookie while Sara had a salad and a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. I had never tried their cookies before and they were to die for. Soft and tasted like they were fresh out of the oven. Dear Pizza by the Sea, can you ship me some ASAP? 

Post pizza, we packed up our beach chairs and coolers and set out for the beach. Thankfully, it rained as soon as we left the beach for the afternoon. The good news was as we walked into dinner, we spotted a rainbow just as the rain clouds started to disappear for the evening.

Tallahassee Part I

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Last weekend I decided to take a little road trip up to visit my friend Kelsey in Santa Rosa Beach. She's moving home to Tampa this weekend (YAY!) and I wanted to take a few days to visit one last time before she moved. The drive from Tampa to Santa Rosa is just over six hours long. To break up the trip, I always stop in Tallahassee to visit with my friend Aaren before continuing the rest of the drive the next day. It turns out Aaren is moving this weekend as well, to Atlanta, so it worked out perfectly that I got to spend some extra time with her before leaving. 

As soon as I arrived into town, we headed to have sushi followed by ice cream for dinner from Lofty Pursuits. I tried a scoop of the elephant ears ice cream, huge chunks of peanut butter and chocolate with vanilla ice cream, and I added the banana. Aaren had the English toffee with hot chocolate ganache on top. One of my favorite things about Aaren is that she has also been my go-to foodie when we were in college. We used to live together and we probably embraced our love for sweets a little too often. Like there really is such a thing ;) 

The next morning Aaren headed off to work and I went to make a quick round about some of my favorite places in Tallahassee before leaving town. I had breakfast and coffee at Craig's Killer Coffee, a new to me coffee shop. My favorite coffee shop recently closed so I figured it could be good to try a new place. I had an Americano and a blueberry muffin that was probably the size of a football (the picture certainly does not do it justice.) 

After breakfast, I wanted to shop around a few of the local vintage and antique stores to see if they would have anything that caught my eye. I found several items that I loved; including, a jewelry case, handkerchief, a dress, a scarf for my mom, a pair of replica staffordshire dogs, and a Girl Scout's sash from the '50's that had the coolest patches on it. Some of the best vintage and antique stores I've found have been Avant Garb,  Curio, The Other Side Vintage, Good Finds, and Killearn Antiques. If you're in the area and into those types of places, check them out to see what you can find. I love a good treasure hunt and each place specializes in carrying different items from home decor to clothing and jewelry. 

It had been a while since i had been over into Railroad Square, so I decided to drive down through the loop to check out any new stores. Not only did I find Curio, they had the best vintage clothing, I stumbled upon this letterpress studio and couldn't believe my eyes. The owner, Mika, was extremely generous and allowed me to take a look around his studio. We started chatting about odds and ends and he used to live in Tampa where he had a photography studio above the Italian club on 7th Avenue in Ybor City. Coincidentally, he also lived in St. Augustine for a substantial period of time and agrees with me on saying it's such a special place. Mika had been working with letterpresses in various capacities since the early 70's. He owned several presses in his studio, all which had their own unique and exciting stories to tell...one used to print parking tickets in New Port Richie, while another came from up north. I purchased a few of his products and he gave me a free print to send over to Ryan. He was excited I was familiar with the letterpress process and couldn't believe I knew someone in St. Augustine that had a letterpress business. I passed one of Ryan's business cards along to him and he loved the card and punny M.C. Pressure name so much he put Ryan's business card up on his inspiration board. 

By that time, I had worked up an appetite and knew only one place would satisfy my lunch cravings, Mr. Roboto. The smell upon walking into the restaurant made me nostalgic for freshman year where my roommate Laura and I would eat here at least once...maybe twice a week. I ordered the vegetable hibachi and fried rice and naturally picked up extra, extra, extra miso sauce. I don't understand why they don't sell it by the bottle yet! I was in such a food coma by the time I left, it was pure bliss. Mr. Roboto, I have missed you so! 

Because dessert is always a requirement after any meal, Lucy and Leo's was a must. This was another place I absolutely loved to go to when I was in college. I think I've tried all of their flavors and my favorite being the kitchen sink cupcake, hummingbird, or the classic red velvet.  I picked up a pack of four cupcakes to take to Kelsey's. Key lime, lemon blueberry, peanut butter chocolate, and cookies and cream were the four I picked. It was hard not to dive into them before I arrived at the beach! 

Beach Snoballs

Beach Snoballs
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Since putting "eat as many snow cones as possible" on my summer bucket list, I've managed to try several new snowcone/snoball stands over the past few weeks. It helps that my dad is borderline obsessed with the treats as well, so it's easy to convince him to tag along when trying out new places. This time around, we drove down to Treasure Island to test out Beach Snoballs. He had a cherry snoball and I went with the key lime flavor. They both were delicious and I loved the unexpected surprise of the spoons turning blue in reaction to the ice! It's the little things :) They had so many flavors and toppings to try, we'll probably be back soon for more. Considering the heat here has been almost unbearable on same days, I should make the most of it with another trip to the beach followed by a snoball or two! 

Summer Bucket List // Week Two Recap

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Between starting two new jobs in the past couple of weeks, things have been extra busy these days. I had the day off on Sunday, so Saturday evening after work I drove straight up to St. Augustine. I had to be at work early Monday morning and could only spend a little less than 24 hours in town, but it was so worth it.

Upon my arrival, we jetted into downtown to pick up a to-go order of shrimp tacos from Catch 27. We took them back to Ryan's so we could have a taco picnic in the fort tent he made for us. A few of the pictures may be blurry, but I still love them. Summer bucket list activity number eight: check!  

Sunday morning, we decided to walk over the Bridge of Lions into downtown for coffee and breakfast. We first made a coffee run into The Kookaburra for two iced cortados. Afterwards, we strolled to breakfast at The Blue Hen. One two egg special and chicken biscuits galore. It's been forever since I've picked up a copy of the Sunday funnies. I'll always love the Peanuts strip, and you can't go wrong with the few cheesy jokes at the end of the section. This week's joke was, "Why should you knock before opening the fridge?" Why you ask? "In case there's AnItalian dressing!" So cheesy, so silly, I love it and I hope it makes you laugh as well :)

The Hyppo celebrated it's fifth birthday this weekend! Happy Birthday Hyppo, I'm so glad you were born!! We joined in on the festivities with a cucumber lemon mint pop and a pineapple ginger pop. 

Once we walked back home we watched a little Netflix and then headed out to adventure on the bikes. We cruised through the neighborhood and out to A1A in search of an afternoon snack. We ended up down the street to test out Nalu's Tropical Take-Out and Miss Mary's shaved ice. Ryan had a baja shrimp taco and I chose the St. Augustine pier right fish taco. They were both absolutely delicious and you could tell the fish and shrimp were freshly caught. I loved my fish taco, but I think Ryan's shrimp taco won for the better of the two. 

 I believe that it is safe to say that we may have found one of our new favorite places in St. Augustine. Miss Mary's shaved ice, I love you. Not only was Miss Mary incredibly entertaining, her snow cones were just as delicious as I could have imagined. With hundreds of different flavor and topping combinations, it was so difficult to choose! I tried the mango and Ryan had a pineapple shaved ice; we each tried the marshmallow fluff on top. Once again, Ryan's was probably the better of the two, but they definitely hit the spot. The start of crossing off summer bucket list activity number six: check! 

And another St. Augustine trip in the books! Here's to many more summer days filled with bike rides, fort tents, tacos, and snow cones a plenty! 

Summer Bucket List // Week One Recap

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Activity number 12 on my summer bucket list is to make breakfast for my grandparents each Sunday morning. This was the first Sunday I headed on over to their house to whip up something delicious before they were home from Church. I've been craving the two egg special I always order from Blue Hen when I'm visiting in St. Augustine. Low and behold, I attempted to recreate my own to hold me over until my next trip up there. I did scrambled eggs, sweet potato home fries, biscuits, fresh fruit and a side of avocado. The sweet potato home fries were incredibly simple. After peeling and dicing the potatoes, I drizzled them with a little olive oil and sprinkled on salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder for a little extra spice. I scattered them on a cookie sheet and popped them into the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. If you have the time and like crispier potatoes, I would bake them for a bit longer. The eggs were just scrambled and the biscuits were pillsbury honey butter biscuits that you obviously can't go wrong with. I couldn't even attempt to make my own biscuits comparable to those from Blue Hen. It's just impossible, I am convinced.

My grandparents loved every bit of it and I did too. I'm sure lots of people say this about their grandparents, but I truly have two of the best in the business. They are some of the most kind-hearted and generous people I have ever met, and I'm lucky that they have passed along those important values. They were both thankful to have someone cook for them and I was thankful to spend a few extra hours with them: chatting about life and it's craziness all over a cup of coffee. See you next Sunday! To the stars and back, Grandma and Grandpa!  

Summer Bucket List 2015

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Each season, I find myself making sporadic notes in my phone, on my laptop, and even in my planner of little activities I want to experience. Sometimes, when I don't collectively put them in one place, it's hard for me to actually accomplish all that I was looking forward to. I dogsit and babysit quite often, especially over the summer when kids are out of school and families are traveling themselves. It's easy to get caught up in day to day life and those activities end up getting pushed aside. Before you know it, summer is over and it's the middle of October. In order to get the most out of my summer, I really wanted to combine all of my lists together to create one on here, where I can document and share my activities as I do them. Some are silly, some are small, and others are a bit bigger...like road trips I am planning to the Seaside area and Fort Lauderdale to visit friends. So, here's to another fun summer spent with family and friends and lots of little fun adventures in between. 

  1. trips to the beach
  2. ride the carousel in St. Augustine
  3. make s'mores
  4. fly a kite 
  5. go to a fair 
  6. eat lots of snow cones
  7. see an outdoor movie
  8. camp indoors (fort tent!)
  9. camp outdoors
  10. paddle board or kayak
  11. go to a concert 
  12. make breakfast for my grandparents each Sunday morning 
  13. picnic as often as possible
  14. go to the zoo
  15. find a photo booth 
  16. ride bicycles 
  17. take a road trip
  18. mini vacation with my family
  19. go to an antique fair or flea market 
  20. ride the trolley in downtown tampa

Do you have any summer plans that you're looking forward to? I would love to know!