The big event today was going on an airboat tour of the Everglades. Since we’ve done the tour, I’ve done some google-ing and found that we never made it into the actual park, no airboats are allowed there.
Oh well, it was a blast anyway!
Have more than a few landscape pictures…I have some on the other camera I have to rescue as well. Really, there are only four types of multi-media on this tour; #1 is landscapes
You can click on the picture above for the first of the GoPro videos from the trip, a 2 minute airboat journey through the grasses. I don’t think I was taping during the highlight of the trip; we ran over a crocodile! (by accident, no harm to the guy…he just got pushed down a little into the muck). We sat higher on the boat then the boys….they ended up later on taking their fair share of little pieces of grass into their faces as we went deeper and deeper into the grasses.
#2 are animals. And most of them are gators. We saw a lot of them…this one was the first and is a female (no yellow or white markings bon back)
Where there are canals the pictures are best, but, the canals were an all-advised attempt to try and drain portions of the Everglades…these are apple trees, again, planted in an attempt to dewater and drain
I forget the names of these birds…they are really pretty. Have to give the guide full kudos, he knew the right calls to coax these birds out of the brush to come check us out and the right calls to get the gators to swim very close!
Click above for the second of the GoPro videos….the guide made this alligator-distress-call and this ‘little’ gator came over to see if there was an easy snack around…..and the guide reaches over, taps the top of his head to get his mouth open and is holding the GoPro camera in another hand…..pretty cool!
More GoPro video if you click above….same spot, the distress call attracted another alligator to the other side of the boat. This ‘big’ gator, he was 2 or 3 feet bigger than the other one, was also looking for a snack and instead was just teased by the guide, who, I think on this video, says the most master-of-the-obvious statement ever “You have to be careful with your hands around the alligator’s mouth….”.
More animals……
Went to a different spot for the last of the GoPro Video…..this time there was a baby and two young alligators who came out to check things out. And get a surprisingly tasty snack..
Hey, an educational trip too!
Ended the tour by visiting one of the islands; there is a raised pathway built for some scientific observation station that everyone uses to come check out the island.
Boy. Tree. At least until the guide mentioned that a girl climbed that same tree about a week back and put her hand in a knothole and came out with a snake hanging onto her. Matthew jumped down pretty quickly at that point.
The island was very different; a lot of tree canopy and different vegetations
We had to go help the other airboat get un-stuck. This driver really nailed it; I think it takes some doing to get this far off the beaten path.
Went over to South Beach again in the afternoon. The boys and I rented some bikes and tooled around for about an hour before dinner….
Watched the cruise ships leave from South Point park….the highlight was this Disney ship; the ships horn plays “When You Wish Upon A Star”….
After the cruise ships went by the boys and I rented bikes and rode up and down South Beach/Miami Beach for an hour. We met up with Mom at Fogo de Chao for our pricy dinner of the trip. Meat, meat, and more meat….it was a pretty awesome experience topped off by Christopher’s first adventurous ‘eat’ of the trip!
Sadly, the ‘chicken’ emoji didn’t show up here….but the very last thing that showed up at the table was a pile of chicken hearts…..and Cpher took the plunge and tried one! Said…it tasted like chicken! Okay, not really, but he said it wasn’t bad!
