April 2016: A WONDERful Vacation. Trip Report Day 2, Part 1

Day 2, Part 1: Tuesday 4/26/16

I was awake early. There were no blackout shades in our room, and with the double balconies, there was lots of sun streaming in. I was VERY ok with this. I really wanted to be on the road early.

Somehow Mr. We-need-black-out-shades-in-our-room-at-home-so-I-can-sleep-in-on-my-day-off managed to continue snoring for quite some time. Guess he’s not as light sensitive as he says. Eventually, I started getting ready for the day and just generally making lots of noise including slamming the balcony door (the wind caught it, I swear!) to check out the Celebrity ship that was in port that morning. Nick slowly woke up, and then quickly got ready when I told him we either needed to hit the road, or we’d be spending the day exploring South Beach.

Once we were ready, we headed downstairs for breakfast. One of my credit cards makes me an automatic gold level member with Hilton Honors. One of the many perks is free breakfast at hotels that normally charge for it. This hotel was set up a bit differently than most, in that it had multiple restaurants in a little attached “retail gallery” area. We had been given a voucher for either a free continental breakfast at one particular restaurant or up to $8 value per person towards food purchases for breakfast at 2 other restaurants. I left the decision making up to Nick as I’m not a big eater and would have been perfectly content with one of the breakfast bars in my backpack. Nick, however, needs a proper breakfast.

We ended up at the deli, where I got pancakes and he got pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Including bottles of juice, our grand total after the voucher? Less than $4. I love playing the rewards game.

We took our breakfast up to our room, where we promptly discovered that the pancakes were cold. Yuck. Eating was quick, and soon I was calling down to valet to get the car. I always feel so weird saying “I’d like to have my car brought out”. Miss Independent isn’t big on having drivers. But when in a city…

We headed downstairs and found the car waiting for us...in the exact location we had seen it the night before. Hmm… Those valets had to work hard for that tip!

The drive to main entrance to the Everglades in the Homestead area took awhile. I didn’t think to look into how many tolls are in southern FL until it was too late to order my own sunpass, and I wasn’t interested in paying a daily fee to Dollar for the privilege of paying tolls, so I chose to take route 1...through Miami...on a weekday morning. Next time the alarm is going off at 6! Or I’ll get the sunpass. I stand by my statement from day 1 though. Miami drivers are a breeze to deal with compared to Bostonians. They might use the car horn more than the Bostonians do though.

Eventually, we emerged from the traffic into farm lands. Nick snored and I marveled at the size of the irrigation arms. Pretty sure some were bigger than the ones I had seen in Nebraska in high school. As we turned onto the final highway we encountered some road construction...where the cops were parked side by side talking to each other, blocking the lane that was available for travel. HELLO, we have a national park to get to!

Eventually the cops moved on, the flagger applauded the cops’ decision, and we got moving again. Pretty soon after, we were entering the Everglades. 

First stop was the main visitor center for a peek around the gift store and displays, and a quick look at the view there.

Then we headed into the park. I had originally hoped to do several of the trails/walks in this region of the park, but we arrived a LOT later than I had hoped. So I focused my efforts on the Royal Palm Visitors Center area. 

First up was a stroll along the Anhinga Trail, a boardwalk trail.

Next up was the Gumbo Limbo Trail. Apparently there are trees called Gumbo Limbo Trees (the red ones) and that’s how this trail got its name. We liked the name because gumbo was our favorite food in New Orleans!

 

After walking the two trails (which took a couple hours), we decided it was time for some food, but neither one of us wanted a real meal. So it was off to Robert is Here, a fruit stand known for its milkshakes (on Trip Advisor at least) about 5 miles from the entrance to the park. 

Nick got a cherry key lime milkshake and I got a strawberry key lime milkshake. Both were awesome (and deserving of their reputation), and were perfect after a couple hours in bright sunshine and late April southern FL weather. We enjoyed them while perusing the fruit stand that is so much more than just a fruit stand. We ended up buying some meat seasonings to bring home and some banana bread for breakfast the next morning. The girl at the hotel had forgotten to give me a breakfast voucher for the second day and the breakfast wasn’t that good anyway.

Once done at Robert is Here, we decided it was time to head back toward Miami. It was a long drive, and that alligator sighting would be hard to beat. We will go back and explore the Everglades much further on a later trip.