Inside Tour of the Perfect Temperature

Always wanted to see the inside of a 1974 Kenner Kittiwake 24 Sailboat?! Of course you did!! Even if you didn't, there are some pretty sweet bird noises in the background and the noises of our dog having a panic attack because he's a spaz....he even makes an appearance at the end from his favorite place in the world: the lap of any human.

Day/weekend trip from Jacksonville: Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios

This weekend Ryan and I made the trek to Orlando to join his mom and sisters at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We've all been to these parks before but Ryan and I haven't been back since they added the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which was pretty awesome).

If you live in Florida, chances are that you can obtain free or reduced price tickets to the theme parks. Florida resident tickets save you about $10-20 off admission. If you work just one day at Universal, you get a certain amount of free tickets to give to family and friends (Employees get in for free). Lucky for us, my sister in law is an employee of Universal Studios and so, between her free tickets and some from another family member, we all got in for free and enjoyed discounted prices in the stores and on food! Good thing too, because even with the discounted Florida Resident rate, tickets are $76.50 for one park and $106.50 to go from park to park. When you factor in $15 for parking, food, drinks and any souvenirs you might like to pick up (wizard wands anyone?) it can add up pretty quickly!

Universal offers a few options to save money such as all you can eat deals for $20.99/day/person for one park or $24.99 for both parks, and refillable soda for $8.99/day. Depending on how much you can eat, this could be a great deal for you. At the 3 Broomsticks in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where we had lunch, you can get a "Great Feast Platter" for around $50 which includes chicken, ribs, potatoes, vegetables, corn on the cob and a big salad (I didn't really eat the meat and I was pretty satisfied with the salad, corn and potatoes!) It says it feeds four but with 5of us eating, we still had a ton of food left over. Add in Butterbeers for everyone for about $3/person and you have a delicious lunch! When you realize that fish and chips at the same place cost about $13, for less food, you understand exactly how much money larger groups can save with this!

We were pretty lucky that we went on a day that was predicted to be full of severe thunderstorms (but they didn't materialize until we left, after 6 pm) because the park was not nearly as busy as it usually is. Instead of waiting 1-2 hours for a ride, most of the rides only had 15 minute waits. If you're not so lucky, you could always purchase the Express Plus Passes for $20-25 to skip the regular lines. On busy days, those passes are well worth the money! A fun day quickly turns to a super irritating day when you're waiting for 2 hours, in the heat, for a ride that last 2 minutes. Apparently, if you stay at one of the on-site hotels, you get these passes for free...nice!

A few observations:

-The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is pretty cool, even with the super commercialization of everything from plastic golden snitches and broomsticks to ceramic (?) wizarding wands.

-I think the next thing they could mass produce is Harry Potter transition lenses...think about it Universal.

-Butterbeer is super delicious. Very sweet but you must try it!

-The Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit rollercoaster is a lot of fun! You get to choose a song to listen to while you're on it. I chose "Can't Touch This" and was soothed by MC Hammer while I thought I was going to die.

-It's time for the ET ride to be put to rest....just like the Jaws ride. I love ET as much as the next 80's kid, but it's time.

Happy Earth Day!!

Want to help out Earth? You can recycle, pick up trash, turn off the lights or water faucet when you aren't using them, unplug unused appliances, etc, etc. How do you help out the planet? Let me know in the comments!

Moccasin Slough Park

There is a great little park in between Orange Park and Fleming Island on US 17 called Moccasin Slough Park. It's not a massive park/trail like The Theodore Roosevelt Area or Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens but it is still beautiful and the perfect place for a little visit with nature :) They also have a very nice playground area for children...we skipped this since we don't have children, unless you count a dachshund/beagle mix named Romeo and a black kitty named Tiny Paws of Fury...and I don't think they'd do very well in a playground setting...Ryan sometimes acts like a child but I can only imagine the stares and horrified gasps a 31 year old man would get as he approached a 2 foot slide and said "Hey kids, come play with me!"

We had our folding bikes in the car with us, so we took them out to bike around the paved trail, but it goes in a circle and only takes about 5-10 minutes to complete. I rode around the circle a few more times (Ryan thought I was crazy, he didn't see the point in doing laps around the little trail, he hates that) and I noticed all of the massive and beautiful magnolia trees, plus one tree that I thought would be my perfect Hunger Games tree...meaning: a tree that I could feasibly climb for survival. (Pictured below)

Just across US 17 from the park is the Black Creek Trail which parallels US 17 for about 8 miles. My bike seat was super uncomfortable, so we only made it like a half or quarter of a mile and then I had to turn around or risk butt death. Ryan was amused/annoyed by what a wuss I am and I had to remind him that he knew when he married me that I am no athlete. I can wander around in the woods, I can bike short distances and I can doggy paddle in a pool if I need to...that's about the extent of my physical prowess. It probably didn't help that I made us stop at the Burger King right by the park for a veggie burger before we started on the trail (Just because it's veggie doesn't mean it's not JUNK food, delicious junk food.)

If you're looking to challenge yourself and not be a wuss like me, here is my suggestion: start at the beginning of Black Creek Trail, when you see Moccasin Slough Park, stop by and admire how pretty it is, SKIP BURGER KING, and continue on the Black Creek Trail until it finishes. Then, turn around and enjoy the 8 mile bike ride back :)

Hardcore Survival: Living in your car to save money

Rich over at Live-Lean.com sent me a YouTube video he made about an experiment he did where he lived in his car to save $1500/month! He thought it might be useful to me in case of zombie apocalypse but all I could think was: Holy crap. While it's similar to what we plan to do one day, live aboard a sailboat, I just cannot imagine doing it even if we could save that much. (I bet there are plenty of people who would say the same thing about living on a sailboat) It's all about finding what works for you and making sure you're taking a balanced approach to any goal.

There is such a negative stigma attached to living in your car like: Chris Farley's infamous SNL skit. "You'll eat a steady diet of government cheese and live in a van DOWN BY THE RIVER" (David Spade and Christina Applegate look so young in this video!!) I do think it brings up an interesting point though...that you can live on much less than you think you need. We get so caught up in things that we "cannot live without"...clothes, shoes, iPhones, cable, internet, eating out all the time, etc. that we end up living beyond our means which is super stressful (credit card debt piling up, living paycheck to paycheck).

Everyone's situation is different: if you are taking online classes, you may decide that it's more cost effective/worth the money to pay $40/month for internet than to drive to Starbucks for free wifi OR you may need to dress a certain way for your job, which can be expensive but it's how you get your paycheck...etc. But, if we can all take a look at what we're spending our money on, we may realize that certain things are not a priority.

For us it was cancelling Showtime, HBO and our YMCA memberships and moving from a 3 bedroom house to a 1 bedroom condo. We're paying about half the rent as our old place plus we got a free boat slip! We can now spend that money on paying off our student loans (almost finished with our next smallest one!) or traveling, both of which are much more important to us than Dexter or running on a treadmill when we have time to get outside and hike a trail. Many people would say to cut the smartphones too, but for us, that is a luxury that we're willing to give up other things for. We realize that we do not "need" it but it's something that makes our current lives a little easier and makes the cuts we're making in other areas of our lives not seem so harsh.

As I said at the beginning of this post, it's about finding what works for you and taking a balanced approach towards reaching your goals whether they be related to your finances, weight loss, or getting better at a sport. What are some ways you use to save money and reach your finance goals?? Let me know in the comments!

I tricked Ryan

Ryan is a health nut. He's always trying new things that he reads in Men's Health like Forbidden Rice or cinnamon in his coffee because it's good for you somehow. It was fairly simple to trick him...which just means that he trusts me because he loves me and I've a terrible person for doing this...




***DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. If you inhale cinnamon it can irritate your throat and cause other problems***

We have a Facebook page!

Since everyone mostly comments on Facebook anyway instead of on here, I figured I should make a page for us :) You can be a friend and click here to like us!

Welcome to our "Yacht", The Perfect Temperature

Here is a brief tour of our sailboat, complete with a horribly executed tribute to one of the funniest movies ever (That's for you Zeoff!) and just in time for Easter :) Ryan edited this video because I am just hopelessly lost when it comes to editing...the downside of this is that he controls what goes in the video. He thinks it's funny to show people how mentally unstable and goofy I am. So, now for your viewing pleasure, here is what Ryan and I do with our time....


Ps. If you want to subscribe to our channel, I think you have to be on the YouTube site to do so, I don't think you can do it from this embedded player.

Another Gem: Sailing on a Budget

In addition to The Perfect Temperature, Ryan has also been working on a more informative blog about sailing on a budget, fishing regulations, etc: Sailing On a Budget...and Other Useful Things

As we become more experienced sailors, he will add more tips and useful information that we pick up along the way. Since we're mostly hippies, there are also useful environmental tips like this one about Cheap and Safe Cleaning Supplies.

The funniest part about this blog is the amount of comments it gets from non-native English speakers. I'm thinking it's spam of some sort, but we haven't been able to figure that out yet! So far, they're mostly harmless comments and Ryan doesn't approve any comments that aren't...very strange comments though. Maybe there are some Russians who just LOVE this blog or, more likely, it's some fishy game that we're not on to yet. Anyway, check out the blog occasionally to see how it progresses!

The Perfect Temperature

Ryan has created a beautiful photo blog, The Perfect Temperature, and I may be a little biased, because I'm married to him and all, BUT I think it's very pretty and puts ya in a good mood :) Happy Monday everyone!