I was awake fairly early. There was no denying I had a sore throat, even if I wanted to blame it on the fact that the air conditioner was directly aimed at the foot of the bed. After lots of social media time, I got up, got ready, and ate a muffin. Publix makes good muffins!
Shortly before departure, I filled up Ziploc bags with ice from the ice machine (pro-tip…ALWAYS have Ziploc bags on a vacation with you) and threw them in my cooler bag. A little before 8:30, Nick and I headed down to the car, where his parents met us. And then we drove across the street to Publix, where we picked out chips, sandwiches (and probably a salad for John, who still tries to embrace the Atkins diet), and then we headed back out to the car to load up coolers with our lunches for the day.
It was a pretty easy drive over to the Everglades, and by 9:15 we were posing for pictures with the entrance sign.
Then it was on to the Ernest Coe visitor center. We checked out the exhibits and the gift shop.
And then it was time to really head into the park! First stop? The Anhinga Trail. Nick and I had walked this boardwalk 9 years ago and loved it. This time? Still loved it, but really blown away by the drought. But for real, the Anhinga Trail is awesome. And it’s kinda like Jurassic Park: alligators and turtles and birds, oh my!
When we’d gotten our fill of the Anhinga Trail, we climbed back in the rental and moved on to the next stop: the Mahogany Hammock Trail. This was a trail through…the mahogany hammock…aka a boardwalk through a lot of trees. We heard owls calling to each other and got to see an owl! Plus we got some shade.
When we finished walking that boardwalk, we had a picnic in the car. Publix makes good subs.
Once we’d finished eating, we headed for our next (and final) trail stop. The West Lake trail was another boardwalk. The water here was…weird…but also kinda proved we were getting to the western side of the park. We saw lots of barnacles and some cool trees, but no actual critters here (other than probably some Florida lizards).
From the West Lake Trail we continued on to the Flamingo Visitor Center. Here, we checked out the visitor center, including the mosquito meter, and also wandered along the water. We saw some cool birds, and a couple of…crocodiles!!
Needless to say, our time in this part of the Everglades was pretty complete! Turtles, alligators, birds, and crocodiles. We did well! We made our way back towards Homestead, watching the wildfire fighting efforts along the drive. The road through the Everglades was open, but it was clear that brush had burned (and was still smoldering) very close to the road, and one stretch was pretty smoky.
When we got out of the Everglades, it was time for a snack! We stopped at Robert is Here for milkshakes and to wander through the store and see the animals. I had a key lime coconut milkshake. I’m sure Nick’s milkshake involved cherry, and John’s probably involved chocolate. We all enjoyed our milkshakes and Nick enjoyed talking to the parrots. This was a good stop, and we were all glad that Nick and I had found this stop 9 years ago!
Milkshakes finished, banana bread purchased, and parrots talked to, we headed for national park 2 of the day: Biscayne National Park. We got here about 4, so we had just enough time to visit the visitors center and walk the boardwalk path along the bay. The visitors center here was small but VERY well done, with VERY interactive and informative park rangers, and the path along the bay was pretty. We could just make out the Miami skyline in the distance which was cool too.
Once we’d had our fill of sun, we headed back to the hotel, which was only 15 or 20 minutes away. Along the drive, we actually drove right past the Homestead Speedway, which made Kim, our resident Nascar fan’s day.
Back at the hotel, Kim and John decided they weren’t hungry. I eventually went and got Chick-fil-A for Nick and me and brought it back to the hotel. That frosted lemonade was like magic for my sore throat.
Showers got taken, a departure time for the next morning was agreed upon, and we crashed hard. It had been another great vacation day!
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