EXPLORE- Our 2019 Family Goal

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I am not exactly sure how it happened, but it is officially 2019!! Where did 2018 go? Did it go by in a flash for anyone else?? Anyway, despite my disbelief, 2019 is here and along with it are so many goals and plans for the coming year! Are you a resolution maker? A goal setter? Someone who just takes the year as it comes?

This year we have decided to change things up a bit and set a goal for our family. I LOVE the idea of choosing a word to focus on in the coming year. So we decided to choose a word to focus on as a family. Our 2019 word is: EXPLORE!

WHY EXPLORE?

We chose the word “explore” out of a huge desire to spend more time traveling and seeing new sights! We are a family that absolutely loves to pack up and go on adventures. We love to see new things, visit new places, and discover things we have never seen before. We are a very curious crew…and we love to learn new things. While the main focus of our word “explore” will be travel oriented…I also realized there are so many other things we want to explore. We want to explore new foods, a new language, and new books…so stay tuned for more on those avenues as well. But, for now, the focus will be on our plan to travel as much as possible!

EXPLORE THE WORLD…OR MAYBE JUST FLORIDA

Oh, how I would love to be a world traveler! Sadly, that is just not in the cards for 2019! Work schedules and finances just won’t allow for that right now, but that is OK because our Florida Bucket List is LONG…like CVS receipt long!

When we first packed up and moved to Florida 2 years ago, one of our major goals was to see as much of our new home state as possible. We have definitely seen a bit, but somewhere along the way, we stopped making it a priority. Life got in the way…as it tends to do…and we never got back on track with our explorations! That is all going to change this year, because like I mentioned, our list is LONG!

The 5 of us got together and came up with our top 20 things we want to see and do in Florida this year! I also turned to Instagram and asked for some top places to visit…and boy did ya’ll deliver!

FLORIDA BUCKET LIST

Florida is ginormous…like, really, really, really BIG…with a TON to see and do. There are so many beaches, museums, state parks, nature preserves..ahh…just so much! So, I want to share with you some of our family travel goals that we came up with for 2019! In no particular order, here they are:

1. Spend the weekend at Sanibel Island
2. Spend the weekend in St.Augustine
3. Legoland!
4. Take a citrus tour
5. Spend a week driving through the Florida Keys
6. Visit Bok Tower Gardens
7. Visit Dinosaur World
8. Ringling Museum
9. Visit the Emerald Coast
10. Rent a pontoon boat for the day
11. Visit the Kennedy Space Center
12. Visit Anna Maria Island
13. Kayak Weeki Wachi
14. Dali Museum
15. Visit Lion Country Safari
16. Kayak to Caladesi Island
17. Visit Gainesville and go to Florida Museum of Natural History
18. Tampa Riverwalk
19. Rent a camper and stay by the ocean
20. Visit Butterfly World

There are SO many more that could easily be added to this list…and I totally know this list will change as different opportunities arise this year…so stay tuned!

MAKE IT HAPPEN CAP’N

So, now comes the hard part…making this all happen! The plan is to sit down with a calendar and just block out time. If we don’t schedule things and make exploring a priority, it will get pushed to the back burner again! So, we are going to dedicate a couple weekends every month to seeing something new. Some of the items on our list are just small day trips, like visiting Bok Tower or going to the Tampa Riverwalk. Other items we are going to have to dedicate full weekends to, so that will require a little more in-depth planning!

So now to decide on where our first adventure should be…Any suggestions????

To read about some of our favorite explorations from last year you can check out my posts on the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive, Sweetwater Wetlands Park, or the Naples Botanical Gardens!