Instead of going to Orlando for Christmas this year we decided it would be good to visit Miami instead. And since Christmas falls in the middle of the week this year, why not make a stop in the Everglades over the weekend before. I mean we've been on a roll this year with National Parks, so why not stop at one of the most famous ones in Florida right?
We left on Friday the 20th on a flight that was supposed to leave at 830, but for some reason our flight didn't leave until 930 which had us landing at 1am. Of course we didn't fly directly into Miami because flying into Fort Lauderdale was cheaper. This got us into our hotel at 2am and to sleep shortly there after.
Since a late arrival happened, there was definitely going to be a bit of sleeping and that is what happened. But the morning did come and the plan for the day was to visit the park with Aimel and Rafi, Rebe's aunt and uncle who happen to live in Miami. Apparently Aimel loves National Parks as much as we do and is always dying for someone to go with her to parks and especially the Everglades since she lives so close.
They picked us up around 9 and the journey began. We first stopped at 'Robert is Here' a unique little fruit stand which had a diverse selection of fruits and even a few animals out back. We had a Passionfruit shake to go, sampled the honeys in the store and Rebe even had a chat with Robert himself.
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| Yep, Robert was there. |
From the fruit stand we continued our journey into the park, with our first stop being Ernest E. Coe Visitor's Center. We picked up our maps, let Rebe have her scheduled chat with the rangers of the park and the further formulate a game plan for the park. Rebe established a plan of doing a boat tour first out of the Flamingo Marina (next to the Flamingo Visitor Center) which is the deepest part of this section of the park and afterwards we could hit up a few short hikes/trails on our way back out of the park.
We got to the Vistor's Center, parked, and then headed over to the marina to get tickets to the boat tour which started at 11 but before we got tickets we spotted a few people on the docks looking at something in the water. The entire way down to Flamingo Rebe was screaming "I wanna see a manatee, I wanna see a manatee." Well lo and behold, there was a manatee in the marina, actually I take that back there were like 10 bobbing around in the water. So we spent a few minutes checking them out before getting tickets to the boat tour.
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| MANATEE |
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| MANATEE |
Boat tour was a bit different than I was expecting, I was expecting more of a swamp tour but it was through a man made canal that was created long before humans understood what was being done to the Everglades. The tour went from the Flamingo Marina, up Flamingo Canal and into Coot Bay. After cutting across Coot Bay we took Tarpon Creek into the large Whitewater Bay which I think we were told is the 2nd largest lake in Florida after Lake Okeechobee. Along the way we saw many crocodiles, and native birds of the area and then circled back to the marina.
When the boat tour was over we hopped over to Echo Pond just for viewing, we didn't want to spend time walking around the pond. Aimel and Rafi examined the new permanent tents that were built after the last hurricane, seems like they might venture down for a night under the stars.
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| Bird at Echo Pond |
On the way back to civilization we stopped off at a few trails to walk around, none of the trails were overly long so they were always quick jaunts in and out of the car. First stop was the Mahogony Hammock Trail.
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| Pic from the Pahayokee Overlook |
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| Pahayokee Overlook cont. |
Then the Pahayokee Overlook.
Next was the Pinelands Trail.
Finally the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail, where there were signs in the parking lot warning us that the vultures were likely to damage vehicles. We arrived and of course there were no vultures, go out on the trail and come back and there were 50 circling the area. The park even provides tarps to protect cars which is crazy!
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| Gators on the Anhinga Trail |
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| Field/Marsh/Wetland off the Anhinga Trail |
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| Lake of lilypads |
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| Anhingas on the Anhinga Trail |
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| The CREW on the trail together |
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Close up of Anhingas
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| Vulture attack over the parking lot |
By this time it was getting dark so we headed back to civilization and Rafi and Aimel dropped us off at our hotel in Kendall. Since we were in the Miami area Rebe had told me we were going to eat Cuban morning, noon and night so of course that's what we did for the first night. Found a small spot just down the road from our hotel called Rinconcito Latino, and we had ALL the food. Enough food that we took a full to-go box home with us.
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| Mariquitas from dinner |
Sunday December 22
Woke up late because we were still recovering from our late arrival into the area on Friday. Once we were up, we ate breakfast which of course was our left over Cuban food.
Day 2 of the Everglades was to be spent at the Shark Valley area of the park. The full name of the area is the Shark River Valley area but since "Shark Valley" sounds so much cooler they just stuck with it. Of course, there are no sharks in the areas but mostly alligators and plenty of them. From the visitor's center we did the tram tour which goes around a path in the area, you can walk the path or rent a bike. It's a nice path with plenty of alligators and birds to look at, the Everglades do not really have many large mammals left due to the fact that so many non-native Burmese Pythons are in the park and decimating the mammal populations. Regardless the bird life and alligators are still impressive in the park.
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| Bird... lol (American purple gallinule) |
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| Blue Heron |
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| Baby Gators |
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| Shark Valley Overlook |
During our tram tour, our tour guide from yesterday (Aimel) called us and told us that she was on her way to Shark Valley and was going to join us for the rest of the day. We got off the tram and Aimel walked up! Let the party continue. While at Shark Valley we did two more trails, the Bobcat Boardwalk trail which took all of 3 minutes and then the Otter Cave Hammock trail which took at best 8 minutes. Both nice short walks with not much too look at, most of the action was found along the manmade canal that was dredged to make the park road.
Park Ranger had told us that was all to be seen in Shark Valley and that we should head over to Big Cypress National Preserve for more hiking and viewing, so of course that's what we did. First stop was the Tree Snail Hammock Trail, where they had a big sign mentioning Florida Panthers... now I don't know about you but when I think of Florida nature trails I really don't think about panthers coming to get me. Any who we did this short trail and then continued on down the dirt road through Big Cypress and since it was raining Aimel's car was getting filthy and she was proud to be off-roading with her Houston family.
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| Aimel's filthy SUV |
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| Cypress Trees in the Big Cypress section of the park |
We has selected the Gator Hook Trail as our 2nd trail for the day, it had taken us a little bit of a time to get over to this trail while on the dirt road but we got there and of course not many other people were really venturing off down this trail. Just before we were going to head down the trail a mother-daughter combo came out of the woods told us it was muddy and there was 'deep' water. Please, that crap does scare us especially since we had our hiking boots on. LET'S DO THIS. The trail was 2.5 miles long and we had some time before it was going to get dark so let's see how far we could get. We made it 40 minutes before we were defeated by the trail, there was knee deep water fully across the way and it was getting closer to sunset so we decided to call it an evening and get on out of there.
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| 'End' of Gator Hook Trail, rain had flooded the trail but apparently it's like this a lot of the time |
There was one more stop that we could make before fully calling it a day, there was a short half mile boardwalk at Kirby Storter Park that we quickly knocked out before heading back our car and then back to our hotel.
Dinner was going to be Cuban again but I haggled with Rebe that I didn't think I could handle every meal being Cuban on this trip and that I needed some beer or at least a brewpub experience. So we decided to meet halfway, we would go over to the brewery see if they allowed outside food to be brought in (which a lot of them do allow if they do not serve food) and then we would run to get Cuban and bring it back to the brewery. We walk in to Spanish Marie brewery and the place has a decent size crowd for a Sunday night and looks like they have a menu too... jackpot. Of course the menu items had a Cuban flair so... two birds, one stone. We had the Ropa Vieja empanadas, a ham sandwich (read: Cuban) and a similarly made turkey sandwich. For desert we had a cupcake that was made with guava and creme cheese (another cuban-ish dessert).
Monday December 23
Since we were on the Southwest part of Miami, there was another spot in the area that we were recommended to visit and this was the Knaus Berry Farm. Apparently this place must be world famous and we were warned that there would be a line but when we got down there it looked like a line from an amusement park and there was no way any baked good is worth waiting an hour for.
With that debacle complete it was time to head back into town, this day was originally wide open with no plans but I knew that I at least wanted to spend some time in the actual city of Miami and of course wanted to see Miami Beach (South Beach, where all the cool kids hang out). Rebe found a food tour that hit up a couple of spots in South Beach, we coordinated with the family (Tony, Lilian, Terry, Yeli, Travis and Troy) and they met us at the meeting spot for our lunch food tour. Our tour guide Richie was from Panama but had been in Miami for a while and was very entertaining. Showing off his chops of his Miami knowledge and his pop culture, all in all a great tour but we do wish he would have gave us a bit more knowledge about the Art Deco building in which South Beach is famous for.
The evening was pretty uneventful, we made it to our rental house up in Hollywood and did a small bit of grocery shopping. The Goin family went to see the latest and final Star Wars, I decided to take a pass on this showing as I probably want to rewatch the previous ones before I see the finale.
Tuesday December 24
A lazy start to the day but Rebe awoke with back pain from some overly tight muscles. She was in such pain that she awoke at 4am researched some chiropractors and called them as soon as they were open. We went in for her to get an adjustment and it seems like she's going to be a tad better because of it.
Around 1130 we headed over to Hollywood Beach, just to walk up and down the 'boardwalk' and grab a little bite to eat. I sat down with the Goin's to enjoy a snack while Rebe and her parents continued their leisurely stroll down the boardwalk.
The rest of the afternoon was just us lounging around before finally heading over to her uncle and aunt's house (the same one's that we had gone to the Everglades with). They had cooked a pig leg, because that's what Cuban's do and plenty of other food. They had a house full of guests, probably around 30. It was a great night of food, friends, family and laughter.
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| Entire Party Crew |
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Going HAM
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Wednesday December 25
Christmas day was moving day, Rebe and I had a late flight out in the afternoon. Yeli and Terry had an early afternoon flight, Travis said bye right after breakfast which irked some people but he's grown and can do what he wants to do.
After breakfast we were all just lounging around when a stranger came and knocked on the door. Everyone was like "WHO DAT" but it was the owner of the house and he had expected us to be out by 10 though the paperwork had said 12. So, like good people we all started packing up to clear out and not make the owner wait outside for 2 hours.
With our flight not leaving until 5 or 6 to kill time before our flight, we (Rebe, myself and her parents) headed back over to the boardwalk to just stretch our legs but it was really HOT this time. And on the boardwalk there is little to no shade to hide from this heat, so after some convincing we told Rebe's parents we would just head to the airport so they could get on the road and make it home a bit earlier since they still had to drive to Orlando.
Great adventure in the Everglades, so glad we were able to spend Christmas eve and Christmas with you ,Lilian and Tony
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