School starts Monday.

That means you have Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then the alarm clock owns your house again until May.

Here is what is actually open and what it actually costs.

Total drive time for the whole plan is under half an hour, and the expensive part costs six dollars.

START — breakfast at First Watch, 8990 US-301 N, Parrish, in Creekside Commons.

Three minutes from the light at Moccasin Wallow, 166 seats, and a covered patio, which is the entire reason it goes first on this list.

Nobody waits forty minutes on the last Saturday before school.

THEN — the 10:30 mansion tour at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park, 3708 Patten Ave, Ellenton, about twelve minutes south.

The grounds are free and open 8 a.m. to sunset every day of the year.

The house itself you can only see on a guided tour, and those run at 9:30, 10:30, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00, Thursday through Monday.

Tour is $6 per adult and $4 per child ages 6 to 12.

It is the oldest surviving plantation house in southwest Florida, built in the 1840s on a sugar operation worked by enslaved people, and the guides tell that part straight.

Take the 10:30 so you are out before the visitor center closes for lunch at 11:45.

LUNCH — Detwiler's Farm Market, 1800 US-301, Palmetto, another eight minutes down the road.

Deli, sub shop, bakery, butcher counter, and a produce section that will remind you what a tomato is supposed to smell like.

Open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and closed Sunday, which is the detail that decides whether this is a Saturday plan or a Sunday plan.

TREAT — the ice cream counter, same building.

Hand-dipped, and you do not have to move the car, which after three stops with kids is worth more than the ice cream.

Get in the car, kids. Dad has a plan.

Gates at 5 p.m., first pitch 6:30 p.m., about 25 minutes from Parrish.

The Marauders and the School District of Manatee County are handing Manatee County students, staff and their families a free game ticket and a meal voucher, and students can get a backpack filled with school supplies while they last.

Fireworks after the game.

If you only do one thing off this list, do this one, and get there closer to 5 than to 6 because "while supplies last" means exactly what it says.

Brightwood Pavilion event lawn, 11510 Little River Way, Parrish, generally 5 to 8 p.m.

The truck lineup changes week to week, so check the North River Ranch events page before you commit the family to it.

It is the lowest-effort Friday night in Parrish and nobody has to cook.

The homestand against the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels runs through Sunday, with Golf Night on Friday and the finale Sunday afternoon.

Check the Marauders schedule for Friday and Sunday first-pitch times.

Single-A baseball is the cheapest live sport within thirty minutes of this town and the outfield berm is free rein for a six-year-old.

1704 99th St NW, Bradenton, with entrances at the west ends of 9th Ave NW and 17th Ave NW, about 35 minutes from Parrish.

Free to get in, and the parking is free too, which is not true of most places this close to the water.

682 acres of mangrove, tidal marsh, and old farm fields that the county turned back into coastal wetland.

There is a kayak launch near the entrance and better than three miles of paddling trail inside the preserve, connecting out to the Manatee River, Perico Bayou and Palma Sola Bay.

One paved trail runs the length of the property and the rest are packed shell, so a stroller works on exactly one of them.

Here is the honest part: it is coastal, flat and wide open, so there is almost no shade.

Go early or go after five, and bring more water than you think you need.

One more thing worth knowing: the hours change with the season and the county's own posted table is years out of date, so call (941) 742-5923 before you load the car.

Trail map and details from Manatee County.

11255 US-301 N, Suite 101, Parrish, about five minutes from most of this town.

Sicilian owner, open since 2012, which around here makes it practically a founding institution.

Here is the real opinion, and it is the useful kind: order the pizza, not the dinner.

The crust is the thing people who moved down from New York keep bringing up unprompted, and the sit-down Italian entrees do not get the same reviews.

Slices on a Sunday night before the first day of school is a perfectly respectable parenting decision.

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Lay the shoes out Sunday night, not Monday morning.

Until next week — stay gritty, stay healthy, and keep Parrish strong. — Greg