a week of wear: vol 3

I've been doing a little more shopping lately and have been enjoying putting together bright fun outfits for this warmer weather that are still professional enough for grad school. Per usual, I live in university issued scrubs most days, but once a week I gain control over my wardrobe. So here's to a fun summer inspired week of wear...it only took me a month to wear all these outfits! 

the cost of visiting Florida's national parks

If you're a regular reader around here, then you may have noticed how much we love the national park system. And it's our goal to visit all 59 of America's national parks. This will probably take us a decade, but is a fun adventurous goal to have.

Lately, we've started visiting all the parks within a state at once, like hiking through Utah's Mighty Five in Seven Days or Wandering Washington. So it should come as no surprise that we visited all 3 of Florida's parks within as many days. One thing I noticed compared to other national park visits is that we had to do a ton of research with trying to sort out our options for each park. Florida's national parks are unique and don't have as much hiking emphasis as others, so it can get costly with paying for activities in each park. I thought I'd share our budget friendly cost breakdown for visiting each national park. 

a camper's guide to dry tortugas national park

With our trip through the sunshine state, we visited all 3 of Florida's national parks. We spotted alligators in the everglades and went boating in biscyane, but by far our favorite was our visit to Dry Tortugas National Park.

This national park is actually an island off the coast of Florida that just so happens to be surrounded by the world's 3rd largest coral barrier reef. Even though the island is closer to Cuba than it is to the US, it used to serve as a major line of defense in the 1800's so it's chalked full of history. 

Dry Tortugas is one of the least visited national parks. This isn't because it's not worth visiting. Trust me, it is. But the only way to access the park is by boat or by seaplane. Add in the fact that the island has no electricity, no internet, no fresh water---most people only visit as a day trip. But Tom and I pride ourselves on not being most people. And a night of dry camping on a secluded island sounded like paradise to us. We spent our time laying out on the beach and searching the fort for hidden treasures. So I thought it would be a fun idea to share what we learned. 

every point counts

I'm doing all the things this week with grad school. I have so many projects due (crown & bridge preps + denture set-ups) and an exam that I will definitely be cramming for tonight as I haven't even started studying. Yet, I'm taking the time to write this quick post because I wanted to acknowledge hitting a big milestone with dental school. 

a week of wear: florida edition

I'm normally stuck in scrubs all day every day. While I kind of hate it, one thing it's taught me is that clothes are meant to have a function, not just be pretty. So with packing for our recent trip to Florida, I made sure to not only consider the cuteness factor, but also what would function best.

I literally packed based around what activities we were doing each day. And I was much happier with the outcome, so I thought it'd be fun to share a vacation edition of a week of wear. 

day trip diaries: key west

The Florida Keys and Key West in particular have been on our radar for years, so I'm glad to say that we finally made it happen. 

Boston Broadway :: WICKED!

Boston Broadway Belated Birthday

Say that 5X fast

One of the best parts about Tom being in Boston is that, well it's Boston. And being so close to New York-"the home of broadway", means that we've gone from never having seen a broadway show to having seen 4 together (The Lion King, The Book of Mormon, Chicago, Aladdin) and now lucky #5 with Wicked!

a frantic fourth

I hope everyone had a fun and safe fourth of July. Ours was completely unexpected and totally frantic. We had a bit of a scare with our pup and ended up at the emergency vet until 3AM rolling into the 4th. Not the best way to kick things off. And we wound up going back to the vet during the day too. We're just so fortunate that we found someone to take care of our furbaby during the holiday.  But this definitely put a damper on our plans and we ended up cancelling things so that we could keep an eye on our PJ pup ( I think he's out of the woods now) and catch up on some much needed sleep for ourselves. So this fourth of july was more of a reminder that things can't and won't always work out the way you planned. But at the end of it all, we're just thankful things weren't worse. FYI the fireworks pic above is from last year's fireworks show in Boston that we caught right after spending the holiday weekend camping in Vermont. 

camping in the keys

We've been camping all over the country, but never on a beach. And I can't imagine a better place to have had our first experience with beach camping then in the Florida Keys. Even a resort hotel couldn't offer this beach front view! 

Snorkeling by day and sandy beach camping by night = PARADISE

spring clothing budget

It's been a couple of months since my last clothing budget update. I became so accustomed to not buying clothes during my spending freeze that it changed my perception of when and why I am buying. But when the warmer weather came, I had to stock my closet. So here's a combination of all of my spring purchases from May and June.