Ice Cream Special

Did you know that today is National Ice Cream Day? Mason and I decided to try a brand new ice cream shop in Naples called SubZero.



Wait a minute! That young lady taking Mason's order sure looks familiar.



SubZero has a different take on preparing ice cream. The liquid cream is poured directly into a clean bowl and your chosen flavors and mix-ins are added.



Then -321 degrees liquid nitrogen is poured on to your mixture and your ice cream is flash frozen at that moment - right in front of you.





By mixing each serving by hand, SubZero's ice cream is extremely creamy.



SubZero has been quite a summer experience for Mackenzie. She was one of the first three employees hired and then trained by the corporate office.  What does the SubZero future hold for Mackenzie?  I guess time will tell. She has enjoyed the chance to earn spending money but she does have a very busy fall with school and band. Hopefully, SubZero can be flexible with her hours until marching season is over.  

Down The River

For over a year a very generous coworker/friend has been offering our family to stay on her 10 acre property in Fort White (40 miles north of Gainesville,) and last weekend we finally decided to take her up on the offer. Fort White's motto is "Home of the Itchtucknee River," so guess what we did on Day 1? We floated down the Itchtucknee on tubes. There are roadside vendors who rent any and every type of tube that your heart could desire. I just assumed that we would take our tubes on a tram to the entrance of the river. 

Nope, I was wrong. The employees strap the tubes onto your car with twine and send you on your merry way to the north entrance of Itchtucknee Springs State Park.  Be forewarned that the park only allows 750 guests per day to tube the entire length of river. Luckily, we were able to enter the park before it closed to capacity. 

We entered the river at the north entrance and floated for 2 hours. We exited at the midpoint launch and had to wait out a rainstorm (thank goodness for concession stands). We finished the river with a 45 minute float to the final exit. 

After spending almost the entire day at the park we were ready to get dressed and head out for dinner. We ended up at The Great Outdoors Restaurant in historic High Springs. Darin said he had the best Shrimp and Grits of his life. The kids and I were partial to the awesome desserts.

On Day 2 we decided to go tubing at Ginnie Springs. We were warned by a Itchtucknee park ranger that Ginnie Springs is privately owned and attracts a much young and rowdier crowd. That ranger was on point about Ginnie Springs and we loved it. We arrived early in the morning hoping that the crowd would still be sleeping after a late night of fireworks. The rowdy crowd was slowly waking up and still shooting off an occasional leftover firework. At Ginnie Springs you carry your tubes to the north entrance of the Santa Fe river and float south stopping at four different springs.

We rented a mask and snorkel just for Mason but ending up taking turns using them. The water was cold but the underwater caves at each spring were too amzing to skip. Most people just snorkel over the caves and a few attempt to free dive. The caves are very popular with SCUBA divers and sadly a few have lost their lives in these caves.

We exited the last spring just as another nasty afternoon thunderstorm was approaching. We decided to head to Gainesville to visit our very first sink-hole called Millshopper. It was 232 steps to the bottom of the sink but the view was totally worth it.

We had to hit the road bright and early on Day 3 to attend an official University of Florida campus tour for Mackenzie. Will she become a Gator? Seminole? Or possibly something else? I guess we will know in less than a year.