A day in Homestead, Fl

Hello explorers! I hope that you all are doing amazing! Let's get right into it! This is my first time going to Homestead, Fl and I have lived in Florida for almost 20 years! I know that is pretty crazy. It also is only an hour or so from where I live. This is what I mean when I tell you guys that there are beautiful, cheap, places for you to explore in your own backyard! Quick background: If you are headed to any of these places anytime aside from winter, wear light clothes! It can get hot! Everything I am about to show you in this blog was VERY cheap, in my opinion of course! And some of the places you don't even need to spend money to see! So lets enjoy this amazing outdoorsy day guys!

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Knaus Berry Farms: I have to give credit to this day to my boyfriend who planned the whole thing for me. We take every Friday out of the week to explore this world around us. We make plans to travel outside of the state of Florida, we are going to Colorado for the second time in May this year, but when we are here in Florida we don't sit home and wait for adventure. That being said, sometimes our Fridays take forever to plan because we have almost been everywhere in South Florida! A lot of the places we go take forever to find. Strawberry picking is something I have never done before. I have never had the chance to pick fruit ever before actually. Once in Tennessee I saw an apple orchid and my mom let me quickly run out of the car and snatch an apple from the floor and I took a bite of it and it was horrible! So, this was an amazing time for me. Plus, I love strawberries. When you get to the farm you just walk around the back of the building after you park and you can instantly start picking the fruit! It's really simple. If you plan on picking a good amount you just walk up to the back of the building/stand they have there and someone will be there to give you a little plastic Tupperware. When you're finished picking your strawberries or tomatoes (they have both) you just bring your container to the same place you got it and they will weigh it for you. I was anticipating the 8 strawberries to be overpriced, which was okay, I didn't care for the occasion, however they were only 1.50! It was a really beautiful experience for me, because I have never really taken the time out of my day to physically pick the food I want to eat out of the ground. Usually you can just go to a grocery store and everything is pre-made and ready to go for us here in the United States. A woman from the Bahamas was there with her sister and when I was in line to pay for my fruit (no one in front of me), she told me how spoiled we are as Americans. I laughed, but it really sunk in for me. We really are lucky to live in a world where we don't have to go out and forage for our food. Foraging/picking our food is a fun leisure activity for us, meanwhile this is the only way some people can eat. I honestly don't feel bad about it because this is how I have grown up, still I am definitely grateful and I was happy to have the opportunity to go out into the strawberry fields and sweat! It is a great place for pictures too! The vibrant red strawberries are everywhere!

When you are done, I read that you HAVE to either get a milkshake from the stand or a half dozen of their cinnamon buns. I got the cinnamon buns and let me tell you, they were AMAZING! I actually didn't want to get them because I was so hot, I could not imagine enjoying something melty and hot to eat. Worth it though! Oh and by the way, the same lady who told me I was spoiled, got the homemade coconut milkshake and half a dozen cinnabuns too, so I guess we were all spoiling ourselves that day. The cinnamon buns were around 4 dollars. Such a beautiful place, you definitely have to go. I only spent 6 bucks in total there. Amazing time and amazing experience.

Fruit and Spice Park: Sadly, I can't write a lot about this park because I did not pay to go in. It was only 8 dollars to go in the park, but I didn't want to spend the money because we had one more thing we were doing that day. We did, however, go inside the park's information building. The minute you pull up to the park you can tell that behind the fence, where I did not get to go, was beautiful inside. The building looks like a cute little cabin and on the inside is a little shop. The shop has German, Japanese and a few other countries variety of candies and fruits. So wonderful! The 8 dollars you would spend entails: you getting a guided tour throughout the park and ANY fruit you see on the ground, you are allowed to keep and eat! I don't know how much fruit is on the ground out there but inside the building they had some fruits sitting on display that the park rangers found earlier that day. They also had some samples on the table of fruit that you could try. I am not big on trying foods foreign to me. But I did it for you guys! I posted a picture of the 4 fruits I tried and they all four were SOUR! I do not like sour things, but I am happy I gave it a try. Oh, and there was some coconut too. Check it out guys! I think it should be a pretty cool place to try out. Go with your parents, your loved one or some friends. And like I always say, go by yourself if you want to. Especially if you like fruits and spices!

The Everglades Outpost: The everglades outpost was the main reason we chose to go to Homestead for the day. I love animals more than anything and this was such an incredible place to go! PLEASE CHECK THIS PLACE OUT GUYS! Right when you pull up to this place and park, you look to your left and see a camel just walking around behind a fence that I could easily hop over. It was very shocking. Don't get me wrong, I have seen a camel and the zebra and random animals before in the zoo, but I was able to pet this animal right there and I hadn't even entered the park yet. Plus, there were no workers there. I felt like I had the place to myself already. My boyfriend found a Groupon for the admission of this place, and we only paid 12 dollars for both of us. But the original price is 12 dollars for adults or 8 dollars for students! So if you're in college, you're still good, just show your student ID. Walking in, the manager who I later met, was on top of an alligator with his friend. They were in their 20's, this was pretty awesome to me because this whole park was filled with exotic wild animals and two educated kids were taking care of the whole place, my age. The park consisted of wolves, snakes, alligators, crocodiles, two baby Bangle tigers and one of the coolest animals I have ever seen a Siberian Tiger. This guy was ENORMOUS. I have never seen a tiger this big in my entire life. And the manager just walked over to us, because there was no one there, and asked if we wanted him to wake Rocky up, the tiger. Um, yes?! The reason I was so amazed by this tiger is because usually at the zoos you see Bengal tigers, which are huge themselves. I have never seen a Siberian tiger before. He did not look real to me. This scary majestic creature stumbled out of his sleep and ate...bamboo sticks. Very beautiful animal. The wolves were amazing too. I actually had a very touching experience where I got them all to howl together with me. This was one of my favorite animal places I have been to and I have been to thousands. If you plan on checking out Homestead, Florida after this blog, check this place out. I appreciate the work these people are doing. Most of these animals are there because they were once pets of people who could not take care of these wild animals. Thank you guys at the Everglades Outpost, you were awesome!

Wat Buddharangsi Buddhist Temple: Earlier this year, I took the standard religion class that you take when you are in any college. A personal background on me; I was never a religious person growing up. My first paper in class was our view on religion and I wrote the paper in the most cynical tone ever. I was not close to any sort of spiritual anything at the time. A week later our first religion to go over was Buddhism. I had never learned about this religion or given it the chance, if I had I would have known sooner that there are religions out there that stand for everything I do. The Buddhist religion is one of the most beautiful and peaceful religions I have ever read about. The religion itself has actually changed my life. Anyway, even if you are not religious or you have a different religion, this place was very calming and peaceful and a definitely recommendation by me. The temple is obviously free to go to, so you do not have to worry about the money. When I went the temple was completely empty except for two monks walking around. Seeing a monk in person was very interesting to me. The whole temple is surrounded by lovely gardens and statues of elephants and Buddhas. I walked into the temple, after I removed my shoes (you have to). There was a monk inside just monitoring the temple, he was very nice. You immediately feel at peace and semi intimidated. The temple had many statues of Buddhas and whomever else they worship. It was delightful to sit and take a moment to meditate. I actually asked the monk what kind of temple this was and he said it was a Thai temple and that monks come here to pray and they occasionally have events and chants inside of the temple. I asked him if he did not mind if I took some pictures, which he didn't, so they are posted up above. If you are into Asian architecture and ways of life, take a chance to stop by here and inform and enjoy yourself.

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I did not go out to eat anywhere in the area. But homestead was such a different place to see if you live in Florida. I felt like I was in Texas or Oklahoma. Farms were everywhere, which was a nice change from the cities and beaches you associate Florida with. I hope you enjoyed this blog!

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