10 Seasonal Things to Do on Florida’s One Day of Fall.

This week was amazing for several reasons. The biggest and most important being that Florida experienced two whole days of Fall weather. By that I mean the temperature went down to 71 degrees. And just as expected, Floridians everywhere embraced the first (and probably last) cool spell of the season. For two whole days everyone wore boots, tights, scarves, and coats. We drank hot pumpkin spice lattes and Instagrammed pictures of pumpkins and cozy outfits and colorful leaves and scented candles. I actually rolled the windows down while driving to work yesterday. Imagine that!

This heavenly weather is supposed to make one final comeback on Sunday, so in preparation for that, here is a list of 10 kinda stereotypical, very cute, seasonal things to do on Florida’s one day of Fall.

1. Go to a corn maze. I used to do this every fall with my youth group. Of course, it’s considerably more fun when the weather isn’t unbearably hot. There’s a really fun one in Zellwood called Scott’s Maze Adventures that I’ve done a couple times. They also do hay rides and other fun activities sometimes.
2. Go to Starbucks and order a pumpkin spice latte. Did you know that as much as I love coffee, I’ve only had the psl once, years ago, and I hated it? I’m thinking that I might have to give it another shot this weekend though–if only for the Instagram likes. If Starbucks isn’t your thing, go to a local coffeeshop and ask them to make you their equivalent. Nearly every coffeeshop offers some pumpkin-spice flavored drink. 
3. This one might be a little more difficult, but try to find a pumpkin patch near you. A lot of local churches do them as fundraisers. It’s stereotypical, yes, but there’s just something about pumpkins that makes me feel all happy and warm. If you can’t locate a pumpkin patch near you in tropical Florida, do the next best thing and go to Trader Joe’s, Publix, or any other grocery store and pick up a pumpkin there. Once it’s sitting on your front porch, nobody will know that you didn’t wander through acres and acres of orange-dotted grass to find the perfect gourde.
4. Take a walk and search for fall leaves. Get outside and enjoy this beautiful weather. Come Monday it will most likely be hot out again, so you might as well take advantage of it. Bonus points if you can find that one odd tree that actually realizes it’s fall and has started shedding its leaves.
5. Do you have that one perfect, fall outfit that you just can’t wait to wear? Put it on! You probably won’t get another chance for some time, so go all out. Break out the boots and tights and coats and scarves. Go all out with the fall attire, because this is it! This is the one week of cool weather we’ve been waiting for all year!
6. Have a bonfire. My little brother loves building fires in our fire pit. He lives for the days when it’s cool enough to sit outside for hours watching the flames and roasting marshmallows. Conversations held around a bonfire are always some of the best of the year, so grab fire log, a few lawn chairs, and enjoy!
7. Try your hand at baking a fall-inspired treat. Find a good recipe for pumpkin bread, apple pie, cranberry cake, or whatever you want on Pinterest and do your best to make it. Some of my favorites: savory pumpkin and sage muffins, low calorie crustless pumpkin pie, and a good old fashioned apple pie.
8. Make apple cider and drink it outside while reading a book. All it takes is a little syrup and warm apple juice. I follow this recipe and use the milk foamer on my coffee maker to make it extra special. I’m super excited to read John Green’s latest book, Turtles All the Way Down soon. A book, a good drink, and some cool weather… Sounds like the perfect weekend to me.
9. Go to a haunted house. (No, don’t break into that creepy boarded up place in your town. Stick to the places that are actually open to the public. I’m not promoting breaking and entering, here.) A lot of towns put on big events this time of year. I’ve been driving by this old (possibly abandoned) home that the city of Windermere has converted into an ultra-creepy haunted house on my commute to work this week. I’m not one to seek out a scare, but it looks pretty cool. Also, I have a strong feeling that my sister will drag me along to some kind of spooky activity sooner or later, so it may be inevitable that I visit this place.
10. Remember that pumpkin you may or may not have adventured to some crazy place to find? Carve it up. Make it cute, make it scary, make it super-weird and crazy. It doesn’t really matter what the finished product looks like as long as you actually had a good time attempting to carve something.

If you decided to do any of these activities, please let me know how they turned out in the comments. Planning some other cool-weather activity? I wanna hear about that too! Enjoy your one day of fall weather, Florida friends!