National Parks and Recreation

Okay, it is really time to get back into this. We have now been to six more national parks since my last national park post and I’m only falling more and more behind. You can only use the dead mom excuse for so long. Kidding.

But really, I am ready to get back into it. So let me update you on the last year!

As I alluded to in my previous post, James and I finally got married!

Yes, it poured blustery, freezing rain the entire day. But we still had the MOST fun. It was perfect.

And while we intend to spend the rest of our lives going on honeymoons, we began this journey with a trip down to Florida for Christmas break with the intention of banging out the three national parks down there. We only ended up making it to two of them, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

As usual, we left for this trip early Christmas morning and were in the park by early afternoon. I was really worried about potential closures because of the holiday, but the park was as packed as ever!

We started our time in the park with an airboat tour, obviously. We went with Everglades Safari Tour and booked the $47 original tour. We were not disappointed.

Each boat held about 40 people or so and, as had apparently become a theme in our lives at the time, the skies opened up right as we were about to take off on our tour. Luckily, I planned ahead and we had ponchos ready to go.

But I was surprised to learn they were selling ponchos in the gift shop for $3. What a bargain!

It started as a very calm ride through the swamp, but then as we reached the clearing and picked up speed, all hell broke loose. I cannot properly express how hard I was laughing. There were several other families on the boat who had opted out of the ponchos (despite being STRONGLY encouraged to do so) and they were missssserable.

Look, I’m never going to yuck anybody’s yum, but there’s a reason I tend to forego makeup in the national parks. And being pelted by stinging rain on an airboat going 35 mph is a good example of why. It was quite comical.

Finally, the boat began to slow down and we were able to start some wildlife peeping. And it didn’t take long!

We didn’t see a ton of wildlife because of the weather, but we still got in a few gators and cool birds.

And again, I cannot exaggerate enough how much fun this boat ride was. Even if we hadn’t see a single thing, I still would’ve recommended it. It’s just one of those things you need to do once!

From there, we made our way to the Southern part of the park to drive the main park road all the way down to Flamingo. As far as scenic park roads go, this one certainly left a lot to the imagination, but I’ve never turned down a good drive, so off we went.

The Flamingo Marina and visitor center were pretty deserted by the time we got there. I was really hoping to see some manatees, but I think the weather and the late hour kept them away. Still, it was cool to stand at the Southernmost point of Mainland Florida. In a couple days we’d be at the Southernmost Point, period.

The next morning we decided to head back into the park now that the weather was nice and hit up some hiking along the main park road. We landed on the much-recommended Anhinga Trail.

We immediately started seeing gators. Apparently during peak season you can hear them moving underneath the boardwalk as you walk, but unfortunately we didn’t quite experience that. But we were able to get up close and personal with several cool little guys.

I was obsessed with the egrets. They just wandered the trail wiggling their entire bodies as they sauntered along, not a care in the world. I think they were my favorite.

Then we came around the corner and saw this guy just chilling on the side of the trail.

We didn’t see any crocodiles on our trip, that I noticed. I think our best chance would’ve been down at Flamingo the night before, but the cold weather kept them hiding. Crocodiles can live in salt and freshwater, whereas alligators can only live in freshwater. The Everglades are the only place on Earth where alligators and crocodiles live side by side. Pretty cool!

Above is a great example of what NOT to do. Don’t be like that tourist. First, he is way too close to a wild animal and then he put his back to it?? Just crazy. I told James he was safe to take this picture because at least he wouldn’t be the closest idiot with his back to an alligator.

He was chill though. Just lied there and watched everyone walk on by. So please don’t tell him that our last stop on the way out of the park was to get some gator for lunch.

We got the gator nuggets and some gator tacos. It was okay! It kind of just tasted like pork schnitzel to me, just a little chewier.

And that was a wrap on the Everglades! We bid the alligators and egrets goodbye and headed east toward Biscayne.