florida

Everglades

We had 6 hours to spare on our last day at Miami before we were to go to the airport. This was more of a scouting trip to get a sneak peak of what to do and what not to do if we go back to Florida for a many day vacation centered around Miami instead of driving back and forth to Orlando.

Got up early and went to the Visitor center of the Everglades National Park. The rangers were nice and came to the point quickly..

"Let's see. You are here in the wrong season. You should come here during the dry season which is November to January, instead you are here.. smack dab in the middle of the wet season"

Me : So?

Ranger : With very old people and little kids in your party, it might be a stretch to see anything. Not many birds around in this season and not many alligators close enough. Also way too many mosquitos. That will be a problem for the elderly and the children. I can meet you at a point 20 miles from here and take you for a one hour walk. You will see things and I can point to them"

Me : We have only till 1PM

Ranger : Your best bet is to visit one of the farms around this area and go on a airboat ride!

So we thanked the ranger and drove to the Everglades Alligator Farm. They had just opened for the morning and had a 3 hour agenda with a snake show, an alligator show, a walk around the tanks where they sort the gators (and Nile crocs) by size ...

Here are some pictures from the shows which show the young and old having fun.

We did get to hold the alligators (with the mouth taped shut as a precaution) and the snakes that were not poisonous..

and the grand finale.. an airboat ride into the everglades for almost 20 minutes where we got to see the turtles, birds and alligators up close and personal. 

What is a post on everglades without a video of the airboat ride. It was water sprays everywhere and this is the sum total of all the videos that I was able to take with both the iPhone and the 5D Mark II. No points for guessing which parts of the video were taken with which camera!

We had a great time given the time constraint. It was scary for the oldest adult at places but we made it!

Simply put, awesome entertainment and money's worth!

Islamorada

We were done with Orlando visiting the theme parks and had two days before flying back.

Two half days is more like it because on the first day we drove from Orlando to Miami in rain and by the time we were at the Gateway to the keys area it was almost 1 in the afternoon.

The original plan was to go all the way to Key West and back but with three old people and two kids cooped up in a Van all morning it was going to be a tough sell. 

So we stopped at the visitor center in Key Largo. 

Note: There are multiple boards that say "Visitor Center" as soon as you enter Key Largo, but only the one with the Chamber of Commerce board is the official Visitor center. The rest of them are boards which lure you in and some guy representing some other activity in Key West tells you "there is nothing here really. your only option is to go all the way to Key West". Fortunately we stopped at the real visitor center also and there was a nice lady who asked us all the right questions "how many in your party?", "how much time do you have?", "what are your preferences for activities?" etc. etc., gave us free maps and pretty much planned our afternoon for us!

So off we went to Islamorada, which was 35 minutes away and visited "The Theater of the Sea"

We spent a good three hours there doing the nature walk where we got to see their conservation effort and how they save creatures deemed unfit to release back into the wild, including a turtle that was wearing a life jacket. Seriously, not kidding. This turtle has a buoyancy defect and needs a life jacket so it can float and come up for air. 

The place is apparently family owned for 65 years. So I ask the girl who is feeding the crocs, turtles and sting rays "Are you like the Sea version of We Bought a Zoo?" and she goes "Something like that!"

Here are some pictures from the walk.

 

After the walk we were treated to a Parrot show. The kids and my camera enjoyed the show.

 

This was followed by a Dolphin Show and a Sea Lion show. They really did a great job of teaching the kids about the animals, their behaviors, even asked us to sigh a petition to protect whales from being deafened by the US Navy because of some experiments they were doing on the West Coast!

 

Did I mention how Jr. got to pet the dolphins? Odds of her being picked in Sea World were 1:1000 and here it was 1:5. There were 20 kids in the audience and they picked 4 volunteers. This is my kind of place!

The people in the park were truly sincere about conservation and cared about the creatures deeply. 

Finally we went on a small boat with an open bottom (ring boat?) where the dolphins swam within the boat, rang a bell and did some tricks for us while we went for a 10 minute ride along the mangrove forest.

It was three hours well spent and off we went to a limestone beach at John Pennekamp State park.. More on that in a couple of days!

If you visit the keys in the wrong season, this place is guaranteed to be a hit with young and old...

New pictures of Fauna

Florida has enough native plant and animal vegetation to fill albums..

We got a glimpse of some local and imported animals thanks to the Disney conservation effort at the Animal Kingdom.

Even got to go on a safari through their jungles and plains. It was amazing!

Here are some pictures. 

and my favorite so far..

 

More to come..