We went to the Florida Keys. I wanted to go somewhere in the continental US so that I could drive. I hate flying. But I was surprised to find that my mom and brother wanted to drive with me. My brother because he wanted to stop at climbing areas along the way, and my mom because we had talked about taking a bonding roadtrip together (and, I learned, flying isn't her favorite activity either). We left my dad, sister, aunt, and uncle to make the 3ish hour flight by themselves, and set off 5 days earlier. Our first stop was Chattanooga, so we could fufill Joe's wish for the drive: climbing. Here we are at LRC (Little Rock City), bouldering. My mom even climbed with us!
Our next stop was Tampa, FL, where our old neighbor Kathy now lives. She had to work during the day, but gave us suggestions as to where to go and what to see while we were visiting. Here we were on the coast in a manatee sanctuary. It was a canal that was warmed by the nearby electrical plant. Overall "beautiful" scenery. We didn't see a single manatee! (but we stopped again on the way back and were rewarded by glimpses of hundreds of them. And the camera died.) But we did see this egret (or heron... I just called all the white ones snowy egrets, and all the blue ones great blue herons). It was our first wildlife sighting.
Our final stop on the way to the Keys was the Everglades. It's the only place in the world like it, so we HAD to see it, so we stopped in and went on a couple hikes. Here's a purple gallawrignalkrg... something. You might have to blow up the picture to see it, but it's a beautiful bright purple bird with huge yellow feet. And it walks along lilypads. How these birds haven't all been eaten by alligators, I don't know.
This bird is called an anhinga.
Here's an anhinga drying out it's wings. They dive down under the water to catch fish to eat, but can't fly with wet wings, so they have to sit, air drying their wings all the time
our first alligator sighting! We were on a boardwalk, leaning over, looking into the swamp for at least a minute before we noticed him, right in front of us.
At some point on our drive south, palm trees started popping up. Just growing wild. I thought they were all planted. I didn't realize they grew wild (you may have seen an earlier post where I was at a desert oasis, hugging a wild palm tree. I had forgotten about that...). This one, however, was at a visitor center, and was most likely planted.
a great blue heron!
The tree my mom is touching is called a gumbo limbo tree. It has tissuepaper thin red bark that peels like a birch tree. Some people call it the tourist tree. For it's peeling red skin. Get it?
The Keys! Driving between islands, you're rewarded with breathtaking views like this: shallow blue-green water on both sides, with mangrove islands dotting the horizon.
One of the Key's only natural beaches. All the brown stuff is sea grass, deposited on the shore with the tides. While growing, it is a favorite food for sea turtles
This is our hotel's beach. See how there are actually rocks next to the water? A fake beach, but the biggest one in Islamorada (the key we stayed on). It was pretty nice.
a teeny crab!
When I read that our hotel had bikes that rode ON TOP of the water, I got SO excited. Seriously, I was excited about this for months. I somehow wasn't picturing the wheels to be half submerged and it just being a paddleboat. It wasn't nearly as fun as I expected. Here's Hanna and Joe trying to enjoy themselves (don't get me wrong, it wasn't THAT bad...)
This picture has everyone but me in it! Hanna and Joe on the bike, my mom and Aunt Paula looking for the crab as I shout directions from behind the camera, and in the backgroung, my dad and Uncle Jay on the beach.
We also rented a standup paddleboard. They conveniently had some to rent at our hotel. Here's Hanna taking my mom for a ride on Christmas day. I was un-beaching them so they could get started.
This summer I learned how to do a headstand on one. Headstands are actually easier on a paddleboard than the ground. Handstands, however, are WAY harder.
Joe (of all people) got up before sunrise on our last day to take sunrise pictures. He had no idea how to use the camera and finally another lady doing the same thing told him he still had the lens cap on. Ha! Anyway, he did a great job once he figured that out.
We stopped by the Everglades on the drive back too. This time we saw gators everywhere. Literally, for miles, there was a creek following the road, and if we looked at it, within 15 seconds, someone would say "there's one!". Here we stopped at an observation platform. There were about 30 alligators there. They must feed them or something!
Well, I'm waiting to get the pictures (I will post them later), but the very best thing about the Keys was the snorkeling. There's a reef off the coast, and we went out twice. Once just me, my mom, and Joe, and the next time everyone. But wow. Reefs are amazing! Even though everything is blue, there's still so much color! The coral, the fish, even the water itself was neon green! We saw angelfish, fish that looked lie Dory, puffer fish, hundreds of other fish I couldn't identify, barracudas, my sister even saw a shark!, and the best - sea turtles!!! I can't' really express how amazing it was. At first it was scary and uncomfortable to breathe through your mouth with a weird tube in it, but the more you see, the less that matters. And here's some random knowledge that helped me have a great time. There's such a thing as a DRY snorkel. It means that no water can get in from the top of the snorkel. So, next time you go snorkeling, do yourself a favor and pay extra for a dry snorkel.
-Stella
1 comment:
Thanks Stella
From Mom
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