Visiting the Everglades has been on my bucket list for a long time, and seeing wild alligators was Andy’s number one goal!
Earlier this month, Andy and I, accompanied by our good friends, Nic and Casey, took a few days off from our busy lives and flew down to Florida to soak in the sun. We spent two days in the Everglades, hiking the trails and boardwalks in search of alligators and lizards. With the government still shut down, the park was open but very quiet. We saw few people which was perfectly okay with me! It gave us the opportunities to enjoy the beauty of the park, see more wild life, and the chance to stop where ever I wanted to take a photograph. Thankfully, Casey and Nic were patient with me, my ADD and the need to photograph everything, even the little turtle trying to cross the road!
The pine trees were oddly tall, with only a few branches that held needles at the very top. The bark was scared from the latest forest fire, and with further research we learned that lightning strikes are common in the Everglades. To keep the park healthy, DNR leaves the fires to burn themselves out.
We saw an abundance of birds! A bird watchers heaven! As well as a bird photographers dream! We passed a few photographers that had massive lenses and not only was I struggling to contain my jealousy, I was also trying not to bother them by my curiosity of what they saw and how they were composing their photographs.
Where the fires and hurricanes had devastated the park, new life started to appear. It was beautiful to see the resilience of the plants and animals, especially during the dry time of the year.
As we reached where the map said FLAMINGO, the southern most tip of the park, we were greeted by open ocean and mud flats. We expected flamingos and maybe a nice beach, but we were greeted by a thick smelly muck, a noisy crow squawking angrily at a foreign tourist and the black vultures we were warned will attack your car if left unattended for too long.
After hiking all day and still no sighting of alligators, we decide to back track to a trail that was known to have alligators. It did not disappoint!
The more you looked, the more you realized you were surrounded by gators! Gliding by in the water below, sizing you up, or in the ditch next to your walkway, a bit too close for comfort. Casey and I had to restrain the boys from getting to close and wanting to touch the alligators!
Since the boys wanted to get closer to the gators, we found an alligator farm that had an abundance of gators for the boys to play with. They even had a few crocodiles as well!
And of course Emus, because why not have a pair of Emus in your park for entertainment! They were friendly, and constantly in search of a snack or handout. They were intriguing with their giant beaks, incredibly dense feathers, and toes the size of Bratwursts! I could have easily spent the afternoon befriending them!
On our way to the Keys, we stopped at Theater of the Sea, the oldest marine mammal facilities in the world. Having been built in the 40’s out of the rock quarries left behind from Henry Flagler’s railroad, it held lush lagoons and tropical gardens, homes to Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, California sea lions, sea turtles, tropical and game fish, sharks, stingrays, crocodiles, alligators, marine invertebrates, and many tropical birds! It was a mini Sea World, but after watching a few shows and seeing how the trainers and animals interacted, as an animal lover myself, I would say this was a much healthier and happier facility for both humans and animals!
Andy was even given the chance to formally meet a sea lion, complete with a flipper shake, but no fishy kiss! He was pretty stoked and had a cheesy grin on his face all afternoon!
As the sun started to drop, we finally made it to Key West. Andy was a champ driving and navigating through the nervously narrow, one way streets, past all of the eccentric natives, avoiding running over the unbelievable amount of free range chickens, and locating the smallest sand beach. We learned very quickly that Key West does not offer public beaches, and the beaches that were there, were man made and gated off, owned by private resorts or millionaires. Even when we asked the locals where the best beaches were, they replied with a confused expressions as if we had just asked them where we could see wild moose. So we enjoyed the little bit of coral sand we found and then headed back to our hotel.
The next day we were told about a great restaurant by a couple of friends and found it to be one of the highlights of our trip, so much so that we went back for a second lunch. The Islamorada Fish Company, located in the Keys was built out on the docks and floated above fish as long as I am tall, nerf sharks, sting rays, and even manatees. Several times we left our tables, mid way through our lunches, just to watch the sea life continuing on below us.
It was a successful trip, a fun trip! During the times I did not have my camera, we convinced Casey to hold a baby alligator, enjoyed an airboat ride into the swamps, (and at one point, accidentally used an alligator as a launching pad. Oops! He was not hurt, just a bit disgruntled!), we were able to see an endangered Key Deer, sporting a giant rack of antlers, and spent half of a day out snorkeling on the reefs with more fish and sharks that you could imagine!
We enjoyed the sun, the long drives and sightseeing, and being away from normality for a few short days.
Now, being home to the frigid single digit temperatures and the new snow, we have already started to plan our next adventures to the Redwood Forest! Another beautiful part of the world, and another adventure on my bucket list!
