Heading Further South

My bucket list for "things to do in FL without a dog" ;o( included Disney World and The Keys.  After researching how much three days in Disney would cost...nearly $1600!!! coupled with the fact that neither of us enjoys being around a bunch of kids, fighting our way through large crowds or waiting in long lines, we chose The Keys.  

It was damn cold this morning...30*. WTH?!  I set an alarm but we didn't get up till nearly 8:00.  We ate breakfast at home and were on the road to Marathon Key by 10:30.  It had warmed up to 48*.  We stopped at McDonalds for coffees (Mercer's is closed on Sunday) and decided the cinnamon rolls looked good, so we each got one.  

They were warm and gooey but kind of dry.  We drove the short distance to Bayshore Park and ate them in the truck, along the harbor.  

Back on the road at 11:00.

We stopped at 12:35 to use the bathroom at a gas station located at the intersection of Rt 41 and Rt 29; not a cloud in the sky, 57*.  At 1:02 we stopped at the Oasis Visitor's Center in Everglades National Park to see the alligators.  We took waaaay too many pictures of alligators, so I won't bore you with all of them.

Literally "just hanging out"

There's a nice boardwalk overlooking the end of a canal, filled with all kinds of fish, big and small.  There's plenty for these guys to eat.  We stayed for about 30 minutes, then continued south.

We were back on the road at 1:37 (a whole 59*).  Traveling rhrough the outskirts of Miami was interesting, with an abundance of farms and nurseries.  

We stopped in a McDonalds inTavernier at 3:36 to get iced coffees, a snack and use the bathroom, which only took us 20 minutes.  

Our destination was the Coconut Cay Resort & Marina on Marathon Key, where we arrived at 4:49, room #41.  It was surprisingly larger than we expected! 

Although our room was located in the front, facing the Overseas Highway, it was quiet.  We brought in our things and headed back out at 5:15 in search of Sunset Park, which was only 10 minutes away.  We had no trouble finding parking and got a front row seat to watch the sunset. 

As you can see for yourself...there weren't any clouds, which means there was no "after show".  We were back in the truck by 6:11 and both a bit chilly.  The temp was only 57* and it was breezy.  Delightful never-the-less.

We drove up and down the main drag looking for a place to have dinner, finally deciding on Triton Seafood.  Not because we wanted seafood but because it was the only place we found that was open.  It was quite pricey but we ordered pizza, which was reasonable, and we had leftovers.  

We got back to our motel at 7:50 and spent the rest of the evening watching football.

Day one of our Keys visit was in the books.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

Everglades National Park

This park has been on my bucket list for as long as we've been coming to Florida.  I told Bill a couple of years ago, when we don't have a dog (thinking it would be a lot more years ;o(, I wanted to do some sightseeing.  I really wanted to go to the FL Keys, but it's a long way from where we are and it would be quite expensive to stay for a few days.  So, that's off the list but the Everglades was do-able.  

Unfortunately, most of the park is located in the Southern part of the state and to the East of us, so we had to concentrate on the Northern section.  We drove for about two hours before reaching the Kirby Storter Roadside Park, our first stop.  "Kirby Storter, a member of the pioneering Storter family of Everglades City, was an engineer who oversaw the construction of portions of the Tamiami Trail",  which runs between Tampa and Miami. There were picnic tables and a .3 mile boardwalk.  The weather was picture perfect, not a cloud in the sky, temperature in the low 70's and a light breeze, which kept the bugs away.  In the short walk, we moved from a field type area, into a marshy area with slow moving water and cypress trees.

Remember, it's winter in Florida and many of the trees drop their leaves, including these cypress trees, which is why they are called Bald Cypress.

This pano shows the difference in the landscape from right to left.  The trees on the right have no leaves but as you move left, some of the trees are green.  It only takes a few feet of elevation to change the trees and shrubs that can grow there.

This is typical cypress swamp.  It's very pretty in a creepy kind of way.  Always makes me think of the movie "Deliverance".

This is a blooming air plant that attaches itself to the trees.

I actually got a decent picture of this wood stork perched high up in the tree.

These are large wading birds that weigh around 5.5 pounds.  The only reason we saw this one is because we heard two birds calling back and forth and we were trying to see them, but we never did.  We still have no idea what bird was making the noise we heard.

We left there and drove a few miles to Monroe Station, where we picked up the Loop Road, a 24 mile, mostly dirt road, through the park.  Monroe Station is an historic site, built in 1928, "located halfway between Miami and Naples, and was one of six way stations established by Barron Collier to serve motorists traveling the newly constructed 107-mile section of the Tamiami Trail between Naples and Miami."  Sadly, it burned to the ground in 2016.  If interested, you can read more about it here.

The Loop Road

There is water within a couple of feet on both sides of the road, so we had to drive slowly in order to look into the brush.  This was our first alligator sighting, along with what I think is a snowy egret.

Look closely...it's there.

When we crossed over the bridges, we got a better look into the forest.  I loved the way there was a pool of water and then it just sort of disappeared into the woods.  

This gator was just sitting there along the side of the road.

We backed the truck into a small turn around and ate our lunch, while listening to the sounds of the Everglades.

Our view at lunch.

Crossing another bridge...

This was the biggest one we saw.  He was just hanging out there but keeping an eye on those of us keeping an eye on him.

The last seven miles was paved and actually had occupied residences.  I can't imagine living out in the middle of nowhere!

This was a view as we came near the end of the Loop Road.  It was very pretty, lots of grass and stands of trees.  Again, there is water within feet of the road and in some areas, there was water on the road because the water table is so high.

We didn't have a map for a couple of reasons.  One, there's a damn pandemic and where you could usually go pick up information about nearby sights, you can't do that any more!  Two, I tried to print a map before we left but the printer didn't have enough ink!  GRRRRRR.  So I was going by memory, which is kind of a joke, and I thought we were going to come off the Loop Road in a different location.  When that's not where we were, neither of us had any idea where in the heck we were, or which direction we needed to travel.  

I had a couple of other short trails/boardwalks I wanted to explore but from what we could tell from the internet information, that would have taken us farther from home and it was already nearly 3:00.  We aren't too fond of driving in the dark, especially in this neck of the woods, where it would be pitch black, so we headed home instead.

Admittedly, the park was not what I expected but it was beautiful in an otherworldly sort of way and we enjoyed a delightful day.  Plus, I checked something off my bucket list. 

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)