Into the Glades

We got up and tried to find a drug store that was supposedly within walking distance and wandered around lost due to not reading the map legend correctly.  CIRCLES not SQUARES.  Finally asked and found out what we were doing wrong.  Drove over there and stoked up on water, sunscreen and insect repellent.  Then to a bakery coffee place that was right by the water in the ground floor of a tall hotel/ apartment.  The area was all new and upscale.  We got lost trying to follow the directions from my phone, but eventually got on track to get out to Shark Valley on the northern edge of Everglades National Park.  Neil discovered that he got a free pass to all National Parks just for being 62! He was especially happy because the ranger said he didn't look 62. 

European tourists outnumbered American tourists. We considered renting bikes to ride around the 15 mile track, but decided to take a guided tram tour instead.  We went for a short walk down the path before the tour started and were amazed to see alligators lying around on the little road.  They were quite large and impressive, and several people got quite close to them to take pictures.  We did not get close.  Someone did point out a baby alligator sitting on the back of his mother alligator, who was floating along in the little canal.  There were many Anhinga birds, and Egrets, including a blue egret, which I have never seen before.  

Gator by the Road

Anhinga

The Everglades themselves were very impressive.  The tour was about 2 hours along a little road built by the oil company that owned the land before it became a park.  At the half way point we got out and went up to an observation platform where you could see for miles and miles around. Most of the vegetation was Saw Grass, with little hammocks where trees grew up and together at different points.  Everything was wet still, though it does eventually dry out for a couple months. It seemed quite warm to us, but apparently the reason we saw so many alligators was because it was cool, and they come out to bask in the sun and warm up.

The Observatory Tower

The big view

It started raining pretty hard, but only lasted about 10 minutes.  Neil talked to the ranger at the visitors center who suggested a car ride to take,"Loop Road". We stopped and got an apple at Tippy's on our way to the start point.  We did not get on a fan boat ride, although there were many of them.  Loop Road was about 20 miles and a great deal of it was gravel and it went through the Big Cypress National Preserve.  The amazing thing about it was the number of birds.  There were hundreds and hundreds of different Egrets and Herons and Anhingas, and....  it was kind of dark and spooky and Neil especially loved a tree that was covered in Turkey Vultures.  We saw an alligator on the side of the road.  

Vulture Tree

We then retraced our path back to Crome Road and drove down to Highway One on that road.  It seemed a little endless, but it was interesting.  There were endless nurseries along the highway.  It was pretty much dark by the time we got to Homestead and through Florida City onto Highway One to go out to the keys. We had to do a little backtracking to find our hotel, Dove Creek Lodge.  It is very nice, with all the rooms up on the second floor and great pillars and parking underneath.  It is right on the water, with docks and kayaks for the guests to use, pretty grounds and a pool.  There is a lively restaurant/bar with live music called Snappers next door, but the music stops around 10.  The room is right next to the air conditioning unit, which is noisy.

We ate dinner at a place called the Fish House.   I had grouper Matacumbe , which was excellent.  Neil had shrimp and scallops and liked it.  We were stuffed.