Miami, FL - Everglades & Biscayne NP

MIAMI: EVERGLADES & BISCAYNE NP

#175 (January 22, 2023): We have had a blast during this first week in Orlando, and we look forward to returning soon for more Orlando adventures. In the meantime, to spread out our theme-park fun, we headed 5-hours south to Florida City, FL (near Miami), and parked at Southern Comfort RV Resort, where it was tight, tight, tight! Holy cow! At this campground, EVERY INCH counts, literally! Trees and parked vehicles (everywhere!) made parking a nightmare, and our exit will be even trickier! We are not looking forward to that!

Once we were safely parked, we drove through the southern portion of Everglades National Park down to Flamingo Point, stopping first at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center for maps, info, film, and exhibits. We saw a manatee and crocodile near the marina in Florida Bay at Flamingo Point. Cool! (Note for next time: the national park offers ranger-led boat tours from here, which we are too late for today and ideally should be booked in advance during the busy season. Good to know!)

At night, we watched Harry Potter (#7) and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, while Neil listened to #2.

#176 (January 23, 2023): Today we enjoyed the northern portion of Everglades National Park. First, we took a fantastic and informative 2-hour tram tour from the Shark Valley Visitor Center on the park’s 15-mile trail, seeing 30-40 alligators (some right by the road, just a few feet from the tram!) and identifying numerous birds: great egret, great blue heron, great white heron, killdeer, anhinga, green heron, and cormorant. We climbed up the observation tower to look out over the Everglades’ vast sawgrass prairies and tree islands. We learned that the Everglades is not a swamp, but rather a fresh-water marsh, also known as a slow-moving “river of grass.” The entire experience was fabulous except for our arrival in which we almost missed our tram tour because of the parking lot’s very limited parking capacity! Extra early arrival should be recommended for this attraction.

Since South Florida is the only place in the world in which alligators and crocodiles share habitats, a park ranger at the visitor center explained to us the differences between alligators and crocodiles. She also shared the many problems that the park (and state) faces because of illegally released pythons that are destroying the area’s ecosystem. The efforts of bounty hunters are much appreciated even though it seems very much like an uphill battle!

Afterward, we drove up the road just a few minutes to Coopertown’s Original Airboat Tour, where we boarded an airboat for a 35-minute tour of the Everglades seeing 4 more alligators and a few more birds. The best part, of course, was simply the airboat ride! Very loud but fun! Back on its property, Coopertown has a huge captive alligator, an albino python named “Sunshine,” and a young 2-year-old alligator that some of us touched (it’s very leathery).

On our drive home, we stopped by Martha U-Pick and picked a handful (literally!) of strawberries (unfortunately, most weren’t ripe yet) and bought some fresh veggies from their fruit stand to take home to make fresh guacamole for supper. Yum!

#177 (January 24, 2023): While Chris worked in the RV and wild peacocks roamed the campground (seriously?), Emily and the kids spent the day on schoolwork, virtual music lessons, shuffleboard, riding bikes, and a grocery run. They ate dinner at Sonny’s Barbeque (a Webster family favorite), where Neil’s eyes lit up with delight as though he had just hit the jackpot when we found out tonight was all-you-can-eat ribs night. For a growing 13-year-old seemingly bottomless pit, Neil thought he died and ate in Heaven!

At night, the girls finished the series by watching Harry Potter (#8) and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, while Neil continued to listen to #2 on audiobook. We can’t wait for him to finish reading the entire series, so we don’t have to worry about spilling any beans or dropping any spoilers!

#178 (January 25, 2023): Unlike most national parks, Biscayne National Park is 95% underwater, making it the largest marine sanctuary in the national park system. Therefore, in order to best see and experience Biscayne, visitors must get wet! Thankfully, today is a warmish day (84 degrees). We took a private snorkel trip with Biscayne National Park Institute to see more of the national park offshore. We rented wetsuits for additional warmth which made the water temperature not bad at all. While snorkeling, we saw many kinds of fish, a lobster, and a stingray! And an unexpected bonus, we spotted a dolphin on our ride back to shore!

Biscayne has one of our favorite welcome signs. It is so artistic and creative with a 3-D red-brick fish and coral reef scene camouflaged on a red-brick backdrop (think of a relief sculpture made from red bricks). Quite impressive really! From a distance, the sign is not that attractive (rather dull and boring actually; I mean, it’s all red brick for a tropical water wonderland!), but as you get closer, it impresses you all the more when you realize what you didn’t see at first. It was a pleasant surprise!

Earlier this morning, we stopped at the Tropical Everglades Visitor Association just around the corner from our campground, and they highly recommended we go to a local must-stop, Robert Is Here fruit stand, before we leave town. So, on our way home, we stopped at Robert Is Here for smoothies and milkshakes. While some of us stuck to familiar flavors such as Oreo or chocolate, others tried other highly recommended flavors that were unknown to us. Their most popular flavor, Canistel, was said to taste like vanilla custard; most of us didn’t care for it, but Chris enjoyed it. We were told black sapote was like chocolate pudding, but none of us cared for it. It didn’t taste enough like chocolate pudding to convince us to finish it (even when later frozen in popsicle form as “fudge pops”; ha!). The black sapote shake was a dud for us, but that’s okay; it was still a fun cultural experience! We also loaded up on boiled peanuts, fresh guacamole, and fresh salsa (which made for a yummy snack-y supper), along with fresh veggies and lots of exotic fruits from all over the world to take home and sample later (takes a few days to ripen). Unfortunately, we arrived 15 minutes before closing so we didn’t have time to dawdle and enjoy their petting zoo and play area, but that’s ok. We were just thankful to have made it before closing! Robert Is Here was a great recommendation and a fun stop for sure!