Day 3: Fort Lauderdale - The everglades

Yah! I am so late in posting this. Partly due to my camera breaking. Meaning these picts were taken with a disposable point and shoot camera. I was pretty good about getting them developed when we got back from Florida. So my excuse is with moving and my computer being in a box and I not having internet. So here it is.....finally. (oh and the pictures are shaped weird since I had to cut my finger out of almost every single one.)

To the dismay of our plans, we started out our day rather slowly. The drive to the everglades from Fort Lauderdale is about and hour and a half. And an early start was necessary in avoiding the daily rain storm that would predictably come in the afternoon. We had heard that these storms were starting in the everglades and then travel east to where we were in Ft Lauderdale. Making our time to play in the everglades even shorter. Because of our laziness in the morning and these constraints we decided that we would go to a park that was closer to where we were.

Self described as a place to witness "natures wonders" the Everglades Holiday Park, did not disappoint. We arrived in the late morning. The sun beat down. The humidity was high. We sweated. Nate, Casi, and Tanner found shade and a peacock while I stood in the sun, just off of the gravel parking lot to observe a pair of Red shouldered Hawks and their nest. I was a bit wary of the grass filled swamp I stood next too. I mean there are supposed to be gators here.

After a short wait it was time for the air boat ride. The whole reason to visit the Everglades, right? The boat was large and could fit 25 people. I was worried of feeling like cattle.

Luckily it was not a full tour. Our guide was very educated on the animals and plants in the everglades. He said he had eaten almost everything in it. I was impressed. He also taught us how to make bandaids out of cat tails. A talent I plan to use one day to impress people at parties.

It was beautiful at the park but, we did not see any alligators or many birds. The two reasons (at least for me) in going there. Its nesting season for the birds and the park has rules to not disturb the gators. So when we heard a booming male gator, we quietly listened and hoped he would make an appearance. He didn't. This was a bit different than the wild show of chasing a gator down and maybe some gator wrestling I was hoping to see. I guess its better for the gators.

After the airboat ride was over, we went to see the little zoo also in the park. Well the kids and Nate went to the zoo. I went to look at the Red-shouldered Hawks again. I didn't enjoy them as much the second time though. After my education on the airboat ride, I recognized the loud booming sound as a male gator. I could not seem to focus on the birds since I was constantly jumping at any movement.

At the zoo they had baby gators, lizards, and birds. Tanner held a baby gator after Nate paid a man five bicks. No pictures though. sad. Also, while we were there looking at the caged birds. I saw a white winged dove behind one of the cages. I walked behind the cages to see it better. I was surprised to see a gator swimming in the swamp behind the bird cages. I called the kids over and we watched it slowly swim by. Finally we saw our first gator.

Nate spoke with our airboat guide about where to eat and where we would go to see a gator. For lunch he suggested a small outdoor restaurant by a truck stop. He said it wasn't much to look at but the food was good and cheap! He was right.

As we ate our lunch we could see the storm moving in. The sky turned dark with grey heavy clouds and the wind picked up. By the time we finished eating we were in a down poor.

We continued along the highway where we saw many gators. One even walked across the road.

There was one gator in a canal and we stopped to get a better look at it. All four of us put on our rain jackets (its still poring rain) and walking out onto the dock. As we sat on the dock, this gator started swimming closer and closer and we started seeing more and more gators in the water around us (I think about 10 gators total). We all silently sat on the dock watching the gators watch us, when Tanner (who was standing in front of us all) jumped to the back of the group. I think he realized that he was the most palatable in the group for the size of gators we were seeing.

We also saw a few birds species that dared go out in the rain, my favorite was an Anhinga sitting drippy wet in a tree.

After we got back to the hotel, we picked up Brandon and Kate and went on a inter coastal cruise, or water taxi. We wanted to try a less touristy restaurant and the water taxi was a fun way to see a new area. On the way we saw the sun set over the inter coastal highway and rich peoples stuff; their homes and huge ass boats.

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Casi's Take

we went to the everglades!!!!! first we went to the car rental place in a shuttle got our car and drove to the everglades, we went on a airboat tour they are soooo loud!!! we heard a male alligator saying "your over there and im over here lets keep it that way, but other than that we didnt see any alligators or crocs. then we went down 'alligator alley' a long strip of highway that has water on the sids, to see alligators, we say.... an alligator cross the road right in front of our car!!! then my mom saw a bird so ofcourse we had to pull over but then my dad saw an alligator! we went over and stood on a little dock, the alligator was coming closer! i dont know what everyone else was thinking but this is what i was... dun dun dun dun dunna dunna dunna pow! :) lol but thankfully thats not what happened, we were getting in the car and driving away when we kept seeing more alligators! then i relized, yup were in florida :) after that we went home and it was about dinner time so we decided to get on the water taxi (the water taxi is a boat, but it acts like a taxi.) so then we went to eat and it was great blah blah days over! (i want to get this over with cause we are going to the beach when im done.) so ya more tomarrow on what we did today.