Another early start for us (I think there is a very high likelihood these kids will start the school year off more tired than when they finished last year ?). Another day in the car but this time not quite so far … we headed to the Everglades, one of the National Parks in Florida, and the third largest National Park in the US. We went to Shark Valley, at the top of the Everglades, and arrived about 15 minutes before the gates opened but it didn’t take long and we were checked in and waiting for our trolley tour.
We spent the next 2 hours on a trolley headed around the loop road with our guide, Amanda and driver, Mike. Amanda was very knowledgeable and passionate about the area and wildlife. Half way around there is an Observation Tower where you can look out over the Everglades.
Despite it being the dry season, the Everglades were actually still full with a lot of water. While it looks like it is stagnant, when you look closely you can see it is actually moving and they call it the River of Grass. They said if you put a kayak in at the visitor center and let it drift it would take about 28 days to reach the bottom.
We saw lots of alligators including mums with their babies. The babies have yellow stripes to camouflage themselves. Alligators keep their young with them until they are 3 years old, but these ones were very young.
There was a lot of bird life – we saw vultures, white ibis, great blue herons and even an owl.
We saw a turtle at the observation tower and there was an Everglades rat snake right by the toilets.
We learnt all about the problems with Burmese Pythons in the Everglades and how they are trying to cull the population as they are decimating the regions small and medium sized mammals. If you are interested, you can read more about this here:
https://www.history.com/.amp/news/burmese-python-invasion-florida-everglades
When we returned to the Visitor Centre, the kids went and got a Junior Ranger book each and completed the activities before answering all the Rangers questions (and he did grill them), swearing their oath and getting another badge.
It was then time for home. We got back to Miami about 1:30pm and walked down to Lincoln Mall – not far from the hotel. We got a late lunch at the Time Out Market, a collection of the best restaurants from the city’s top chefs under one roof. We all chose what we wanted and ordered it. The food was really good and well presented.
After, we wandered up to get an ice-cream before heading up to South Beach, checked out the sights (some very interesting, others we really didn’t want to see!), strolled along the beach before walking home back along Lincoln Mall.
Once home, Mark and the kids watched Avatar as we have a down day tomorrow and so are heading to to the movies to watch the second Avatar movie.