Before we left for this trip, we gave the boys a choice: spend one day in Orlando, say, at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, or spend one day in Everglades National Park. Because we are not made of money or time, we told them, it would be impossible to do both. Then we asked them to close their eyes and do a show of hands for each. And it turns out that when they can't see how people are voting and then argue with them just for fun (which obviously is NOT fun for us), they actually agree with each other. We were a little surprised (because they are HP fans) but mostly proud that they unanimously chose a trip to the Everglades over the wonders of Harry Potter.
The next problem was figuring out where to go. The Everglades is a BIG place, and the park headquarters is near Miami, so all the way on the other side of the state, more than 5 hours' drive from Sarasota. Yikes! I have been super-busy with work (I know, I always say that, but it's been really overwhelming lately) so Mike took over the research on this one, and he came up with a couple of different plans, but the winner was to go to the Shark Valley Visitor Center and take a tram tour. Still a little more than 3 hours away, but much more doable.
We made reservations for the tram, mapped everything out online, left Sarasota with plenty of time to spare ... and still somehow ended up running 10 minutes late. Being the conscientious and apologetic type, I called to let them know that we were going to be late so they could release our seats to other people if they needed to. But luck was on our side! It turns out we were the ONLY ones who had reservations for the 9 a.m. tram ride, and they were more than willing to wait for us. They even gave us time to use the slippery-floored bathroom and douse ourselves in bug spray (apparently today was the day they mowed the whole place, so the mosquitoes got stirred up and realized how hungry they were) before we all jumped on the tram and headed out.
The added bonus of being the only ones to sign up for the early morning tram tour in the off season was that we had two tour guides all to ourselves. They were so friendly and knowledgeable! They pointed out all the wildlife, talked to us about the different ecosystems, described the threat of invasive snake species (yikes!), and just generally made the whole place come alive. I'm not sure I've ever seen the boys so attentive for such a long time!
At the halfway point, we stopped and walked a short path to get to the observation tower, which gave us endless views of the vast landscape. It was hot and beautiful and buggy. Really, really buggy. We looked our fill from the observation tower, and as we headed down the path back to the tram, we passed some men doing more mowing and weed whacking, and of course that stirred up even more bugs, so we all dashed back to the tram, where we found our guides in a hurry to take off so the wind could blow some of the bugs away. They said they very rarely have trouble with bugs, and that this is the worst they've seen. The story of our lives.
The back half of the ride went a lot faster because there were fewer places near the path where there were alligators and birds, but we did get the classic Everglades experience: a giant alligator sunning itself in the road, then spotting us and getting up in a very leisurely manner to stroll back into the tall grasses.
Overall, Mike estimates that we saw at least 20 alligators (I was telling people we saw a dozen, but he was actually counting them). We saw tons of birds too, including egrets, herons (including a tri-color heron!), hawks, kingfishers, and ibis. The one bird I really wanted to see on this trip was the roseate spoonbill, but it turns out they don't migrate here until winter. Guess that gives us a reason to come back!
No comments:
Post a Comment