The first trip we took was to Watkins Glen State Park in NY state. It's about 2 hours from my home, according to Google Maps. Surprisingly, it actually only took 2 hours to get there. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, my entire family gained admission to this beautiful park, with cascading waterfalls...
....caves, a beautiful hiking trail lined with stone steps and stone walkways....
an olympic-sized swimming pool (16 feet deep in the deep end!) - no pics of the pool because water and cameras don't mix well in my experience...
....and one of the most incredible children's playgrounds I've ever seen, with some, shall we say, interesting designs....
The park is 91 miles from Coudersport each way, a total of 182 miles. Assuming approximately 25 mpg, that's 7.28 gallons, and at the current gas price of $3.50/gal, that's a little less than $25.50 in gas. So adding the $8 admission fee, it's $33.50 for a whole day of fun and exercise. If you want to buy souveniers, or pay for lunch (instead of packing a picnic, for example), it's much more expensive. A bottle of water in the park is $2. We stopped at Dollar General on the way, bought some granola bars and bottled water, and saved money that way. If you stick to the basics, this is cheaper than taking the kids to the movies, and it lasts all day.
And just in case you wanted to save money on something local, here's a few of my weekly "treasure finds":
This week at Jubilee, Armor corn dogs are on sale for $1 a pack. Granted, they only come 2 in a pack, but kids love corn dogs.
And this week at Best Buys, Reese's Cups are 2 packs for $1
(so actually, you get 4 individual cups for $1.)
But if you wanted something healthier, this week at Costas,
Corn on the cob is on sale for a quarter an ear.
How awesome is that?
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