Fun in the Sunshine State

Florida boasts 3 National Parks: Biscayne, Everglades and the Dry Tortugas. Despite the crazy hot weather (we’re from Iowa OK?) and the start of hurricane season, we were still able to enjoy a good taste of all of them.

We stayed at a Harvest Host location on the way down from South Carolina, our first experience with one of them as a member and it was awesome. We boon-docked at Summer Crush Vineyard and Winery in Fort Pierce. When we arrived, we set up camp then went in for a wine-tasting. Very sweet and yummy muscatine wine. We ended up buying 2 bottles.

My husband found a beautiful beach called Pepper Park Beach where we enjoyed a picnic dinner with one of the bottles of wine. The beach is right next to a Navy Seal museum and was apparently a military training site during WWII. There was a warning sign at the beach entry that said there could be unexploded ordinances! Needless to say, we made it out alive after we dipped in the Atlantic for a cool-off. The breeze was a welcome relief from the stagnant still air of the Carolinas.

We unlocked the gate back to the winery and took a stroll with our pooch down to the alligator pond where one of the workers there told me there lurked a “friendly” 3-foot alligator that they have been trying to get removed. He swam over to us to check us out and see what we brought him for an evening snack. He also was getting a little too close for comfort so we turned back and retired for the night. If you squint you can see him in the center of the pond in front of the buoy.

The next day we drove down to Homestead, Florida and stayed at a questionable RV “resort” called the Boardwalk. I didn’t realize they allowed long-term parking there and our neighbors on all sides had been there awhile. One neighboring unleashed chihuahua mix came to terrorize our little pup and we politely asked the owners to restrain their dog. The campsites were really close together, bathrooms/showers were not air conditioned, sites were dumpy, and the neighbors with neck-tattoos were a little intimidating. Even though it gave us good access to both the Everglades and Biscayne, I do not recommend staying here.

This is us in 40 years…

Biscayne:

95% underwater and home to the 3rd longest coral reef system in the world, Biscayne is a pretty unique park. We ended up taking a snorkel tour about 11 miles off the coast with Biscayne National Park Institute boat tours after hearing a brief presentation by a park ranger. The waters of the park average about 8 ft deep and the jet boat ride from the mangrove-lined shore was fun. There were about 15 others on the tour so it was a nice small group. The naturalist was cocky yet informative and overall we enjoyed some nice snorkeling despite the choppy waters that provided mouthfuls of saltwater.

The flow of the coral with the waves was mesmerizing and I liked to relax and let the waves take me too.

This little blue-headed wrasse fishy can interestingly change from female to male.

Loved the variety of coral and fish. We saw parrotfish, wrasse, angelfish, pipefish and damselfish.

It was a nice reef to explore all-in-all. We of course can’t compare it to the incredible Great Barrier Reef diving experience we had on our honeymoon which is on my list of top 3 most amazing things I have ever seen in my entire life.

Next time we’d like to check out the Maritime trail tour which is an underwater trail of shipwrecks that met their fate in the shallow waters of Biscayne. The boat that operated that preferred tour was under maintenance during our visit.

Everglades:

We put over 100 miles on our scooters on the day we explored this park. Seeing all the gators and an American crocodile (the only place in the world that crocs and gators coexist!) were a definite highlight.

We drove our scooters out to the Earnest F. Coe visitor center and a friendly volunteer told us which were the best trails to visit on our 38 mi ride across the park to the Flamingo visitor center. We purchased an “America the Beautiful” national park pass since this was the first park we had to pay an entrance fee for and scooted on down to the Flamingo visitor center. It took us a little over an hour since we can only get up to about 35 mph and the sun was hot so we stopped a couple times for a water break. Crazy to see “Watch out for alligators” signs on the road since it was nesting season for them.

We made it to the Flamingo visitor center in time for the 1 pm Backwater boat tour with Flamingo Adventures. “Captain Ron” and naturalist Emma gave us an informative 90 min boat tour into the dense mangrove-lined Everglades. The biting flies were bad and the bug spray wasn’t able to ward them away. We did see some neat birds of which my favorite was the swallow-tailed kite.

This is “Timmy the Tern” who is out perched here every day per our captain. Hard to see here but he had a beautiful orange bill.

We didn’t see any crocs or gators during the whole boat ride, but as soon as we docked, the captain pointed out an impressive lime-green American Crocodile.

After the boat ride, we grabbed an ice cream treat from the convenience store and walked around the bay to try and spot a manatee, but no such luck.

Back to our scooters we went. We stopped first at the Mahogany Hammock and zipped around a quick 0.4 mile boardwalk. The giant airplants were awesome and I was tempted to take one but I refrained and followed the advice of my shirt that day, “Preserve our National Parks.”

After the short hike we jumped back on the scooters and saw an ominous rain storm ahead and pressed through. The rain drops were sharp pellets on my burned thighs (forgot that shorts ride up when you sit so I didn’t cover them with sunblock – won’t make that rookie mistake again) and we got a good soaking. Fortunately it stopped just as we reached the Anhinga trail and the sun came out again to dry us up nicely. It actually was refreshing to get caught in the storm.

The Anhinga trail was INCREDIBLE and full of wildlife. We saw about 10 alligators and one crocodile and I’m pretty sure we got closer than the recommended distance of 15 feet when one passed under a bridge we were on.

How creepy is this guy?

And how beautiful is this landscape with the various trees, turtles, fish and birds?

Check out the webbed feet on this one.

This trail was definitely a highlight for me and of all the little pull-off places and trails to hike in the park, you just have to walk this one which is less than a mile but teeming with so much to see.

We reluctantly left the park as we didn’t want to keep Rocky kenneled up too long without a potty break. We had to make a quick stop at the “Robert is Here” fruit stand and farm, a neat little place at the entrance of the Everglades which has been in operation since 1959. We both had a tasty milkshake, mine being the suggested key-lime made with fruit grown at the farm. We found out it started out as Robert trying to sell his dad’s cucumbers when he was a young boy but nobody stopped. His dad then made a sign for him the next day, “Robert is Here,” and the rest is history.

Bought these 2 incredibly flavorful mangoes at the stand and we enjoyed one for supper.

I forgot to mention these huge grasshoppers/locusts that dotted the highway. They were EVERYWHERE and my front scooter tire slaughtered a few.

My poor burned thighs.

Rocky was fine. I think he’s enjoying the camper life.

Dry Tortugas:

Spanish for “turtles,” this remote national park can only be reached by ferry or seaplane as it’s about 63 miles off the coast of Key West. As it’s the off season, we didn’t think we’d need to book too far in advance to get there. However, a week ago, we found out that the ferry was booked full for the day we planned to be down there so we reserved a couple spots on a a seaplane trip out instead. I’m so glad the ferry was full because, even though a bit more spendy, the seaplane was such an incredible experience! I highly recommend to put it on your bucket list if you have not done so already.

Our pilot, Marcus, had over 16,000 hours of flight time experience and Seaplane Adventures has a good safety record which was reassuring in light of the recent seaplane mishap that happened in Alaska last month. After being given some snorkel gear and a cooler with cold beverages, we boarded the DHC-3 DeHavilland Turbine Otter Amphibian and donned some headsets. We all had a window seat.

Kenny Chesney’s private jet.

Despite the heavy smell of fuel which was a little nauseating, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip as we cruised about 500 ft above the ocean and saw several dolphins and sharks (including hammerheads) and oodles of sea turtles!

A sunken navy ship that was used for target practice.

After about a 35 min flight (much faster than the ferry) we landed safely. Cool to see the island from the plane.

Very smooth landing!

We only chose the 1/2 day experience and we’re allowed 2 1/2 hours to explore the island. After visiting the visitor center (I bought a nice baby-blue rash guard in addition to the typical postcard and magnet we buy from each park) and getting a quick glimpse of Fort Jefferson from the inside, we decided to spend most of our time snorkeling since it was such a breezeless scorching-hot day. We would have baked if we tried to walk around the wall, plus part of it was closed for maintenance. The brickwork was beautiful though.

After a quick bite to eat of the lunch we packed, we hopped into the incredibly clear water and enjoyed the cool relief of the ocean. Definitely one of the best snorkel experiences I’ve had and we’ve snorkeled quite a few places now like Cozumel, Hawaii, Greece, St. Lucia and the Bahamas.

I was able to capture some extremely beautiful fish and even saw a barracuda! Some people who were walking along the moat wall told me that a large shark swam within 4 feet of me. I’m glad I was looking at the wall. It was likely a nurse shark but I think it still would’ve freaked me out! I’m not ready to knowingly swim with sharks just yet.

This is me trying to keep up with a parrot fish.

This just may be my favorite park that we’ve visited thus far given the remoteness of it, the gorgeous snorkeling and the method to get there. So glad we went!

Key West has been a fun little place too. We stayed at El Mar RV resort on the ocean front and enjoyed 2 evenings of beautiful views.

Coffee at the pier and a seafood dinner downtown at Pinchers we’re favorite memories. We liked to walk the nighttime streets and realize we can’t get too caught up in the shopping scene. “We don’t have room” is a nice excuse when some pushy sales guy won’t relent.

Our scooters have been proving to be so handy and we fit right in with all the scooterists here in The Keys. We’ve had a few close calls but fortunately we can stop fast and zip out of most dicey situations.

Another perk is that it’s nice not having to look too hard for parking spots.

Well, we’ll be taking a little break here shortly to travel back to Minnesota for a couple of weddings in the next week. We have 2 long travel days ahead of us before our flight out but our next park is Shenandoah and I’m sure we’ll find ourselves back on the road in no time.