St. Pete Day Trip: Mazzaro's Italian Market

On Saturday Alex & I took a little day trip to St. Pete to visit Mazzaro's Italian Market and we were thoroughly impressed. The photo was epic, the selection of goods that had was incredible and the desserts were killer. The place was packed and everyone there sounded like my New Yorker mother.

Alex and I ate sandwiches on their patio and enjoyed some cold brewskies. I couldn't get over how packed the place was. Or how delicious (and cheap) our food was. Mazzaro's definitely a must if you live in central Florida. Plus, there's an awesome record store next door, which Alex and I spent a very long time in. It's called Bananas and it's absolutely huge with tons of records - most of which can be difficult to find. So, if you're into Italian food and records - this is an awesome trip to take.

As for the rest of our weekend, we relaxed at home, watched the Defenders and imbibed on some homemade margaritas. All in all a perfect weekend.

How was your weekend? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below! As for now, I'm still cooling down from the heat after a mini eclipse viewing party. I'll post all about that tomorrow - so be sure to come back for that.

Orlando + Winter Park Day Trip: Just the Girls

Last Saturday Megan & I had a much needed girls day. But our girls day is always a lot different than most girls. Ours was made up of finding plants for our back porches and exploring more of Winter Park. Especially the Mill District. Which means, I essentially took her to places that I knew she'd love and a pie place that I couldn't seem to convince Alex to go to with me. The boy detests sweets more than I do - but when there's pie involved - I'm game. Anyways, back to Megan & I Winter Park expedition.

Our first stop was Krungthep we're we indulged in tea (Thai tea for me - always) and killer chicken pesto sandwiches. Then we made our way to Apenberry's where we nearly took all of the plants home. There were seriously so many stunning plants and I fell in love with almost twenty. Luckily for Alex (and our bank account) the size of our porch is only so big. The only downside was that it was super hot and sunny out. I even managed to get a sunburn on my shoulders. Go figure!

Afterwards Megan & I went to another garden, left empty-handed, and then made our way to the Mills 50 District. I introduced her to Park Ave Compact Discs, The Lovely, Dear Prudence and P Is for Pie. Which she loved. If you haven't been to any of these places yet, I suggest you make it part of your next trip to Winter Park. Park Ave has a lot more than just CDs too. And The Lovely specializes in incredible mid-century finds. Which is a dream come true for me. Needless to say I left with an incredible mid-century red metal tray with a peacock on it. You can see it over on my Instagram...

All in all our little Saturday expedition added up to a perfect day. I even ended up with a list of places that we need to checkout next time. Especially because we're determined to explore more of Winter Park's districts.

If you have any suggestions of place that we should go, let me know in the comments below - I'd love to hear about them!

Gainesville Day Trip: Devil's Millhopper & Retirement Home for Horses

A few weekends ago Alex & I went to Gainesville. The main reason we went was because we wanted to checkout the Devil's Millhopper and the Retirement Home for Horses Inc. The weather was perfect and since Gainesville is only a little over 2 hours from where we live, it was a nice day trip.

 The Devil's Millhopper is a geological state park and nature preserve that consists of a sinkhole that is is over 120 feet deep. Within the sinkhole exists a miniature rain forest that people have been visiting since the early 1880's. There are over 200 steps that descend into the bowl shaped cavity. Needless to say it was pretty awesome! After we saw the sinkhole we traveled back up the steps and walked around the nature preserve that surrounds it.

After the Devil's Millhopper, we headed to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant and drove to the Retirement Home for Horses. We had a 5lb bag of carrots with us, which came in handy because not only is it 2 carrots for the admission fee, but we had the chance to feed the horses. Well, actually I fed the horses - Alex just watched. I think he realized I would get a lot more out of it than he would. Either way, spending time with those horses was pretty amazing and I look forward to going back there sometime in the future.