A February Currently Giveaway!

Happy February!! 

Joining in with this month's Currently edition for a little peek at my month! 

{Packing} I am technically still unpacking from our trip to Vegas, because I am HORRIBLE at unpacking from a trip (it was a month ago)! But I think I will just save some of those clothes and throw them in Flo for our trip out to Peace River next weekend!

{Jonesing} For a good cup of coffee!! I have been trying to cut back on my endless coffee consumption and I think I am doing well... at least until someone asks me what I want. "A cup of coffee! A very strong cup of coffee!!" If you are jonesing for a cup or two yourself there are a few days left to enter my 'Adventure Fuel' giveaway over on Instagram!

{Texting} There are typically about two people in my life that I am texting on a consistent basis; either the hubs or my bestie. So I am sure it's one of them. A lot of them lately have read "adulting is hard! Why didn't anyone tell us that adulting was for the birds?!"

{Reading} A couple different things; including The Mapmakers Apprentice for book club, which is the second book in the Glass and Steel series. I had never even heard of the series until the first book was picked for last month's read. We were all so enthralled with it that the second book was picked for this month! I am also halfway through Sketchy Tacos, a new YA travel novel by Meg D. Gonzalez. I have actually never really read a travel fiction novel before and am loving it! Having the scenes of a different culture set the backdrop, while the storyline of the main character, Mila, plays out is really neat! Check back in on the 8th for more about Sketchy Tacos and an interview with the author! In the meantime take a peek at the book trailer here.

{Hearting} Amazingly sweet friends who know my love for adventure well and the new double hammock they got us! Can't wait to try it out soon!! I am also hearting their gorgeous videos! Amanda and Dustin make up the Simple & Speraw team. They are a wonderful couple, with huge hearts and awesome videography skills! Any video needs in your future? Definitely plan to check them out! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

What is your February currently looking like?! 

Adventure Fun and A Giveaway!

Happy FriYAY Friends!! 

It has been quite a busy few weeks around these parts, so I figured I'd play a quick game of catch-up on some of my adventures with a little 5 on Friday fun! Here's a peek at my world recently!

Big Adventures! We just got back from our trip to Vegas and I can't wait to share all the awesome details! We had gotten a really great deal to head out to Vegas, but we had to stay on the Strip. I was honestly feeling only so-so about it; we had done The Strip before and really didn't feel the need to go again, but a getaway is a getaway. You guys?! Vegas can be an adventure-lovers paradise, as long as you plan right! We did some research and had a great time exploring all the outdoor fun that Vegas can offer! More to come later... 

Big Dreams! We hit up the Florida RV Supershow on Saturday and Oh. My. Goodness!! I have never seen so many RVs in all my life. I was in RV heaven! We were there over 6 hours and probably didn't even see half of the things we could have seen. Apparently this is the biggest RV show in the country and I believe it! We were exhausted by the end of the day, BUT we did settle on what we think we want for a full-time RV layout! Here's to hopefully making that dream a reality very soon... 

Big Kid Fun! On Tuesday I got to check out The Crayola Experience with a friend of mine and her two kiddos. They have annual passes and it was bring-a-friend month. I honestly thought, "oh this will be a cute little experience, something kind of cheesy, but fun for kids. She and I will hang out, the kids will play and we will color a picture or two." This was 90s-kid amazingness!! It was like a was reliving my childhood! I was sucked in from the moment I walked in and loved every minute! There were so many fun stations set up! I got to make some spin-art, my own seahorse crayon, create a crayon with my name on it and make my art come to life! I could have stayed all day!! If you live near one of the Crayola Experience locations (there's one in Minneapolis, Easton in Pennsylvania and Orlando) you should definitely check it out (kids or no kids)! It's $20 for a day ticket or $30 for an annual pass. 

Little {critter} Adventures!! On Thursday I took the kids I nanny for to Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge for the morning. I LOVE this place! It is such a great little Orlando gem. They are an animal rescue and rehab facility that has a wildlife walk open to the public, which allows you to see their resident animals (animals that can't be released back into the wild). We spent the morning chatting with the one-eyed owls, visiting the sneaky fox, and laughing with the lemurs! The people that work with and tend to the animals are also super sweet and answered little (and big) ones curious questions and told us each animals name. You could tell they really love being there (human and animal alike)! Because the land surrounding Back to Nature is also an Eagle Nesting Area, they are tucked back in the middle of protected land, so even tough you are just minutes away from civilization you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. The eagles were actually there nesting and that was a cool thing to get to see! There is a $5 donation fee (per person over 3) to see the animals, but if you just prefer to go out to see the eagles the trails around Back to Nature are open for free. There is a trail that takes you down to the lake and some that are tucked in the woods a little bit down the road. It would make for a good full day of exploring if you do it all (make sure to bring along a sandwich)! 

Adventure Giveaways!! Planning some adventures of your own?! I am hosting a little "Adventure Fuel Giveaway" over on Instagram. Go grab yourself some fuel to get those adventure plans flowing! No Instagram? No worries! Simply leave a blog post comment sharing somewhere fun you have been exploring (or somewhere you are hoping to explore soon) and you are entered! If you do have Insta you can enter there too and have double the entries! Good luck! Winner will be announced next Friday, Feb 3rd.

Hope your Friday is off to a beautiful start! 

Have a fabulous weekend!! 

10 Hours in St. Augustine, Florida

Happy Tuesday Adventurers!! 

Hope the first few weeks of your year have been filled with fun and excitement! 

Any travels of your own recently? Don't forget to join in this month's link up, which can be found in last week's post. Can't wait to see all your journeys! 

Right after Christmas Babe and I loaded up Flo and headed towards Faver-Dykes State Park, which is just 30 minutes from St. Augustine. While we spent most of our time at the state park (check out our YouTube video for all the fun), we headed into the city for a full day of history and exploration. Here is a peek at what we packed into our 10 hour window...

First stop was parking. We thankfully got there early enough (around 9/9:30, on the Tuesday after Christmas) to snag a spot in the parking lot that sits next to the old fort, right along the water. We weren't sure we were going to stay there, but we purchased the maximum time allowed (4 hrs for $6.00) and headed out. 

10 am: We started the morning with coffee, because I needed a place to plug in for a quick minute and send out an email for work. It was also a chilly, foggy morning and coffee was exactly what we needed to warm us up! Crucial Coffee was a cute little coffee hut that shared a courtyard with the Gourmet Hut (where you can get food). The coffee was yummy and reasonably priced. There isn't much seating inside, as you are supposed to sit out in the courtyard. However, due to a light rain we snagged the one little inside table and used the wifi for a second before beginning our day. 

10:45 am: We then strolled the streets for a minute and ultimately found or way into the Pirate & Treasure Museum. They offered a package which included that museum, as well as the Colonial Quarter Museum for $22.99 per adult if you review them on TripAdvisor (website says $27.99). We decided to give it a go and, since the pirate tour had already started, we headed over to explore the Colonial Quarter. We got there just in time to jump onto a tour that had just begun and sat down just as the guide was demonstrating with a rifle. Can't think of a truer definition of "starting off with a bang!" Our guide was wonderful and walked us through the history of the building of the city of St. Augustine. Babe loved learning all the facts of how the city ran, how they protected themselves and how they survived those early years of life. I loved getting to explore the old houses! After a little more exploring on our own, and a climb up to the lookout tower, we headed out in search of... 

11:40 am: Sangria!! The nice thing about your tour package is that it includes 10% off your food and drink bill at two of the restaurants connected to the Colonial Quarter. We headed into the Bull & Crown Publick House for a quick drink before the pirate tour. We shared one, since we didn't have much time and you can't beat a bill under $5 (don't forget to show your sticker for your discount)! It was super yummy sangria too (I like to consider myself a sangria connoisseur)!! There is also some cool history to the building, which was built on an original homesite. 

12 pm: The next guided pirate tour began at 12, with Captain Mayhem. What a fun tour!! Captain Mayhem was as pirate as they come and did a wonderful job of bringing history to life, as he walked us through each exhibit. While I would say that the Colonial Quarter is a better fit for an older demographic, this tour would interest even the littlest of adventurers! It was really interesting to separate fact from fiction when it came to piracy. There was a lot I didn't know, or had assumed was true, from movies. For example, did you know pirates didn't really make people walk the plank?! That became dramatized through the big screen. Babe was, of course, hanging on every word, but I loved that even while the guide was talking there were things that I could be doing if I felt myself zoning out. I listen a lot better with active hands (such a big kid), so while Captain Mayhem talked I explored the rooms and completed my treasure hunt. They had this super neat hunt, where you had to find skulls that would open drawers/ doors to reveal a treasure. You would then write down what you found and at the end you could turn in your paper to officially become a "pirate" and get a little "treasure". One more fun fact: pirates didn't actually bury treasure, they were pirates because they stole from ships and took mostly practical things that could then be traded for money, which they would then spend.

1:30 pm: We headed across the street to the fort. After putting a little more money in the meter, we paid our $10 admission (per person; good for an entire week) and entered the Castillo de San Marcos. We got there just in time to head up the stairs and watch the canon demonstration. The foggy morning just made it that much more exciting! It made me feel like a pirate ship might come sailing up at any minute.

2:15 pm: Homegirl got a little hangry, so before we could finish exploring the fort Babe realized I needed to eat (once I pass hunger, it takes him pointing it out to me that we need to grab a bite). So we took a break from exploring and went in search of food. There were tons of options, but we decided to go to the other restaurant associated with the tours so that we could use our 10% off. Apparently 2 o'clock, on a holiday week, is not a great time to stop for food, as the line for a table was HUGE! Thankfully we got super lucky by checking the bar. There was a table tucked into the corner that counted as bar seating and so we got  cozy to enjoy our lunch at Taberna Del Caballo. It was SUPER yummy!! I got the Cuban (and of course another Sangria) and it was almost perfection! It did take a little while for the food to come out, but it was definitely worth the wait.

3:30 pm: It was back to the Castillo de San Marcos for a few more minutes of poking around the fort and getting to go in all the old rooms.

4:00 pm: We took some time to stroll through town and decided to walk towards the winery and distillery that are located near each other at the edge of town. It was a good little stroll (maybe 15/20 minutes), but we got to see a lot of the little corners of the city.

4:20 pm: Winery tour and tasting fun at San Sebastian Winery! Due to the crowds, because of the holiday, things were set up a little differently. Instead of a wine tasting with scheduled times they had a walk through tasting set up. There were stations on both floors of the winery, with a different wine sample at each station. I really liked the ability to go at your own pace without feeling like you were holding up others, or feeling rushed to finish, depending on the pace of the group. San Sebastian is actually the sister winery of Lakeridge Winery where we have been on occassion, so it was actually the same wines with a different label, but it was cool to see the difference in presentation.

Cost: Free + price of bottles of wine we purchased

5:15 pm: St. Augustine Distillery tour! We actually started here originally (figured start with the hard stuff and work down to the vino), but they were so crowded that the first time available for the tour wasn't until 5:15 (we got there around 4:15). You could opt to do the tasting room, but we wanted to see the process and the distillery. With the winery being so close it was easy to change up plans and head there while we waited for our distillery tour time. We still got back to the distillery a bit early, but their waiting area is a really neat little museum with history of the old ice plant that the distillery is housed in, as well as the distilling process of bourbon, gin and vodka. The tour itself was really neat!! The guys that run it are very passionate about their booze and make the tour a lot of fun. Note: the warehouse is not temperature controlled; since we were there in December it wasn't too warm, but just make sure if you go in the summer you take water with you, because it is known to get really hot! After being walked through the distilling process and getting to see all the machinery, it's off to a special tasting room for those that took the tour. I was nervous, because I am not really a liquor drinker, so the thought of sipping straight vodka had my stomach turning. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they actually give you little mini cocktails!! We started with a Florida mule (yum), then moved onto a rum punch. You only get to try those if you do the tour. From there they move you into the main tasting room to try the Old Fashioned (Babe very much approved) and a Gin & Tonic. Babe liked the bourbon so much he grabbed a bottle to take home. We really loved the tour and would definitely do the whole thing again!!
Cost: Free, + price of bourbon

6:15 pm: We were planning to eat dinner at the Ice Plant that is actually attached to the distillery, but our car was back at the original lot we had parked in near the fort (we weren't sure what parking situation would be at distillery; they have plenty and it's free). Our walk back to get it was really nice. They light up St. Augustine for Christmas and it was beautiful!! We look a slow walk back, stopping to enjoy the lights and also take a peek around Flagler College. The school is stunning!! It is housed in the old Ponce de Leon Hotel and makes you literally feel like you are in a scene from some old movie that takes place in a boarding school (major points to anyone who has seen The Trouble with Angels). Being decorated for Christmas just made it that much more beautiful!!
Cost: Free 

7:00 pm: Dinner at the Ice Plant! Can you say, Oh. My. Yum?! One, this place has a super cool history! You are actually eating in what use to be the old ice factory, dating back from 1927. They keep with the 20s feel and it makes the atmosphere really cool (pun intended)! The bar makes amazing craft cocktails, each using a specific kind of ice depending on what you order. And then comes the amazingness that is the food!! My parents actually headed to St. Augustine that night to celebrate their anniversary and joined us for dinner, so we all got different meals in order to enjoy a little bit of everything. We started it off with the beef carpaccio and fried oyster appetizer, which I then actually ordered a second time as my meal, because happiness!! We also got the soft baked pretzel and loved that too. Our meals consisted of the pork belly, the fish of the day, and the butternut squash and mushroom lasagna, which were all amazing. This should definitely be on your list if you head to St. Augustine. You may be in for a longer wait as they do not take reservations, however, they have a one-of-a-kind bar to enjoy a drink at while you wait. Plus we were originally told over an hour wait time and were seated within 30-40 minutes.
Cost: Between drinks and food this was the most expensive part of the day, but so worth every penny. Meals average to about $20-25 per person and drinks about $10.

Tips
Parking: We ended up paying $12 to park (full 4 hours/ paid twice), but there is a garage as you enter the city that has $10 all day parking. It would have only saved us $2, but we also wouldn't have had to worry about heading back to pick up our car before dinner. also, if you are willing to walk/ plan to head to winery anyways, there is side street parking nearby that is free if you get there early enough to snag it.

We had an absolutely wonderful time and couldn't recommend a visit more!

Have you ever been to St. Augustine? 

Where have you been traveling lately? 

30 Places to See in my 30s Bucket List

Hey Fellow Adventure Lovers! 

It's time for another #TravelTuesday Linkup and I am so excited to kick the year off "traveling" together! 

I am wrapping up a week of 30th birthday posting (you can read the first two here and here), so I figured I would keep with the theme by sharing the top 30 places I want to see in my 30s.

There is still so much of the world I want to see, but as my biggest bucket list item for my 30s would be to become full-time RVers I figured I would share the 30 places within the US and Canada that I could get to by road, since (if that were to happen) those places would be more attainable goals. While I could just go through the list of all the states I haven't been to and call it a day, that wouldn't be near as much fun! However, I will start my list off with the 5 states I most want to get to. And by get to I mean, spend a good chunk of time in to truly see all they have to offer (I'm thinking like a month or so in each would suffice). Anyways, here we go... 

30 Places to visit in my 30s

#1 Colorado (To quote Will Ferrell "there's so much room for activities") 

#2 Alaska 

#3 Maine 

#4 Oregon

#5 Washington 

Photo Credit: National Parks Site

#6 White Sands National Monument (Sand that looks like snow?! Sand sledding?! Yes, please!)

#7 Everglades National Park (because, despite living in Florida all my life, I have never been yet!) 

#8 Red Rock Canyon (I can't lie, this had originally said Seven Magic Mountains, which is also here in Vegas, but we actually started this morning at Red Rock Canyon and it now MUST be on everyone's list. So I got on here to edit this before it goes live, because I am still in awe at how amazing it is. Plus, now I have one checked off and will hopefully be able to check off Seven Magic Mountains in the next few days. All the pictures in the three strip at the top of this post were taken at Red Rock)

#9 Route 66 (I would LOVE to drive the entirety of Route 66, my old, road-trip-loving soul finds the thought just simply magical)

#10 Cadillac Ranch (If you couldn't tell from the last few, I love a good roadside attraction and have not seen nearly enough) 

Photo Credit: National Parks Site

#11 The Grand Canyon ("She needs wide open spaces...") 

#12 The Minister's Treehouse (it's a treehouse and church all-in-one and looks something like the Weasley's Burrow! I will take any chance I can get to go to Tennessee... and feel like I am in a Harry Potter book)

#13 Sea to Sky Gondola near Squamish, British Columbia 

#14 Goat Canyon Trestle (the world's longest wooden trestle, 6 mile round trip hike) 

#15 Johnston Canyon in Alberta, Canada 

#16 Vance Creek Bridge (it may be cliche, but I really want to walk an old, wooden trestle bridge apparently) 

#17 Bitty and Beau's Coffee Shop (I know, just a coffee shop made the list? But Bitty and Beau's is so much more than that. I saw their story come across FB and knew I had to visit. One, because who doesn't love an excuse for a trip to NC?! But more importantly, I would love to see their shop and meet the wonderful team of people they employ. We need more places-and people- like that in this world) 

#18 Jacob's Well in Wimberley, Texas (because I'm all about finding good cliff diving locations these days!!) 

Photo Credit: National Parks Site

#19 Joshua Tree National Park (because who wouldn't want to feel like they were in a Dr. Seuss Wonderland?) 

#20 Ski in the Canadian Rockies (definitely be a change from our East Coast ski experiences) 

#21 The Biltmore at Christmas in Asheville, NC  

#22 Mooney Falls at Havasu 

#23 Hike the Big Sur WaterFall Trail 

#24 Cathedral Gorge State Park in Neveda 

#25 See Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon in Arizona

#26 D.C. during Cherry Blossom Season (though I prefer the open outdoors to city streets, and I did spend one day there as a teen, I would really love to actually explore D.C. Babe is itching to see all the history museums and, given that I have never really gotten to visit anything other than the zoo, I figure we should give it a go!)

#27 Niagara Falls (both sides) 

Photo Credit: National Park Site

#28 Glacier National Park (can you say gorgeous?!) 
#29 Zion National Park (maybe we should just saw all the national parks?)
#30 Nashville TN (There's a few cities on my list of places to visit and this would be at the top)

I could go on, but I will start with these 30 for now and see how far I get in the next 10 years! 

As I go along I will come back and cross through the places I've been and I am super excited for the challenge of trying to get all 30 done! 

What are some of the places on your bucket list?! 

Any you've checked off recently?!

Share your link below and let's travel together! 

~On the 2nd Tuesday of every month I will be sharing a new travel post and would love to see where you have been exploring!

~Any linked posts will be pinned under Travel Tuesday on my Pinterest. 

~Not many rules, as I am not a huge fan of those sorts of things! Just add any travel related link and I encourage you to peek around and see where everyone else has been. Please leave a little love on the post directly before yours and then anywhere else you like! That way we can all grow this community together :) 

~Feel free to grab the image from the sidebar and add it to your post so others know where to link up. 

~I will also be sharing my favorite post from the month before. Decembers's fave was from Momma To Go, because we are actually heading for Vegas as I type this and her food recommendations were super helpful to this food-lover! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Great Gift Ideas for a Book-Loving Adventurer!!

I wrapped up 2016 with a big mile stone and turned 3 decades old! My 30th birthday was full of wonderful moments with some of my favorite people. Babe and I kicked it off with a cruise and then I came home to a showering of love. One of my love languages is gifts; not because they are presents (though that's nice too), but because of the thought that goes into the gifts. When I can tell that someone really knows me, by getting a gift that has 'Melanie' written all over it, the happier my heart is. This birthday truly showed me how loved I am and how much "my people" truly know me. They know that I am a book-nerd, adventure-loving, full-time-RV-dreamer!! Between my birthday and Christmas, I was feeling all kinds of cared for!

Here's a little peek at some of the happiness...

HP and the Chamber of Secrets Illustrated / Alice in Wonderland Rifle Edition / A Little Princess Collectible / Happy Camper Frame /  RV Ornament / Adventure Fuel Mug / Survival Tips Playing Cards / Coleman Pocket Hand Saw / Campsuds / Off the Beaten Path / Guide to the National Parks

I got book upon book and I am not sad about it! Not one little bit!! Between my Rifle Paper print and book, it was an Alice in Wonderland kind of happiness! And oh, how happy my little heart was about the newest Harry Potter Illustrated book! If you too are a Harry fan and haven't gotten the illustrated books yet, you need them!!

Flo got quite a bit of goodies too! I can't wait to hang my Happy Camper frame up and fill it with pictures of all our trips. And while I didn't actually get an Adventure Fuel mug, I did gift a few to other people. Giving gifts gives me just as much joy as getting them and I love seeing people get excited about their mugs!

I also got two RV inspired ornaments- one that was made specifically for us- and my Christmas loving heart can't wait to add them to our tree next year (hopefully one that is sitting in an RV window).

Sweet Babe filled my stocking with so many little adventure knick-knacks, that will come in so handy!! We play cards every night when we are camping and our cards are getting a little worn! The cool thing about the Survival Tip Playing Cards is that they can easily go in the backpack for when we take a little hike break. I am SO excited about my pocket saw! I make it a mission to collect as many little sticks around our campsite as I can, so that we don't have to buy firewood, and this will help me get bigger ones! We also do a lot of our dishwashing outside, so that we don't fill up our gray water tank too quickly, so Campsuds were perfect so that we are being environmentally safe!!

Top Book: Guide to the National Parks // Bottom Book: Off the Beaten Path 

I absolutely LOVE our adventure books that my sister and her husband got us!! I am already adding tons of places to my bucket list (come back Tuesday for 30 places I want to see in my 30s). I think one of my top new additions might be Mesa Verde, because how awesome does that look?! It could also be a lot of fun to hit up the Jack Daniels Distillery!

My favorite gift though, would have to be our Inflatable Stand Ups! It was the biggest surprise of all and we absolutely love them!! They are super sturdy and, though we did each get one, one could easily hold both of us if we just want to go out for a quick ride without having to blow up two boards. They are Pulse iSUPS, but they don't seem to have a way to get them online yet. I found these on Amazon and they have pretty good ratings!

And that's a good little peek at some of the happies that made me feel loved this birthday/ Christmas!! I was quite the happy camper for sure!! 

What about you? What did you get this year? 

Any gift that screamed "yeah, they get me!"?