FTJ, Entry 35: Glading through Life

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  — Mark Twain

Before getting into our new locale, we wanted to share these photos of our Thanksgiving evening at Melbourne Beach.

OK, not the greatest photo, but what the heck, I took it by holding the camera out in front of us.

This heron visited us for quite a while, then roosted in a tree behind our RV.

And then he said goodbye, with the last of the sun.

After our delightful Thanksgiving, we spent Friday relaxing (we extended our stay at Melbourne Beach one day), and then moved on Saturday morning to Miami Everglades park, alongside -- what else? -- the Everglades. It's a nice RV park, but alas, not on the water (my, we are getting spoiled!).

On Sunday we splurged -- once again -- on a private airboat ride through the Everglades, where we saw egrets, great blue herons, turtles, and gators. 

Spider lily, which blooms for just a few days every 3-4 months

The Christmas Tree, where people scatter ashes of their loved ones.

One of the places we went in the Glades

Gator!

Lemur after the ride

A baby alligator on display

Al, our airboat captain, is originally from Long Island, but has lived in Florida more than 50 years. We wore our earplugs and took in the sea of grass around us whizzing by. Loved it when the boat did sliding turns!

Captain Al

On Monday, we drove the Boo (our Malibu)  through the Everglades National Park, stopping at a number of pulloffs along the way. I am still surprised that the Glades look more like an African savannah than a rain forest--vast, flat, grassy vistas as far as the eye can see. But at Mahogany Point, we walked through a hammock (which is a raised area of heavy vegetation) -- and it was more like what I had incorrectly imagined all of the Everglades to be. The giant mahogany trees, some toppled from hurricane winds, were awesome. And we heard owls hooting!

We drove as far as we could go on the road to the Everglades, ending at Flamingo, which has suffered a lot of damage from recent hurricanes. The weathered old Visitor's Center, with missing windows and blown out screens, is still being repaired  (from hurricanes including Katrina and Wilma back in 2005), but obviously slowly.

In fact, the motel that Beau and Mat stayed in on their "Dad 'n' Boy" trip 24 years ago had been destroyed to the point it had to be demolished and hasn't yet been re-built. You don't realize the power and scope of a hurricane until you've seen its aftermath. A sign we read explaining about them said "...after several summers of tropical downpours, Flamingo is finally becoming green again." It seems the damage went far beyond the man-made structures to include a lot of the vegetation in the area. There was a storm surge of up to 8 feet, which is a lot considering the highest elevation in the area is about 4 feet.

But we weren't there to visit buildings, anyway! I happily got my fill of fauna -- by the end of the day we had seen lots of anhinga (a type of blonde-plumed cormorant), turtles, and alligators, along with the requisite great blue herons, vultures, and egrets. Wonderful!

On to Key West, where we are going over budget by staying at the priciest resort there for the entire month (we canceled our reservation for a more reasonable place for the last 2 weeks of December). We are so BAD!!!

Tanks, Panky