At the end of August, Kenneth had a break in semesters so we decided to take a trip to south Florida and check off something on our bucket list! Even though it's really late, I'm trying to document our trips on my blog otherwise I know I'll forget about them. Plus, maybe it'll help someone plan out their own trip!
Kenneth and I drove down one evening to Miami and when we checked into our hotel the guy asked us if we were going to the Everglades. We said yes we are! He responded, "Oh well it's a good thing you're going tomorrow because there's a hurricane coming in a couple of days." Kenneth & I looked at each other like ummmmmmm... we are going to the Key's after tomorrow haha. Crap. We played it cool while talking to him and then got in our car and searched the news to double check haha. Turns out, there was a possible hurricane heading towards us. So I guess we get a pat on the back for keeping up with the news haha. We decided to go on with our trip and just keep up with the news and hope for the best. Long story short, we lucked out and the weather was great! The day after our trip ended, the Keys got a lot of rain but no hurricane.
So the next morning we woke up and headed out to the Everglades National Park.
We got really lucky because randomly the day we went to the park it was the National Park's 100th birthday and we got free admission!
The park has 3 main entrances. We went through the most common one through Florida City & Homestead. We first went to the Ernest Coe Visitor's Center, talked to a ranger and got a map. The park is really easy to navigate and there was one main road that we drove on with lots of little trails that you can stop at.
The first trail we stopped at was Anhinga Trail. This is the trail closest to the Visitor's Center and it's where you're most likely to see alligators. We were so bummed though because the boardwalk/trail was under construction and was closed. So we only got to walk to the trail start and didn't see anything. We were super bummed about it. There was a beautiful pond and we saw turtles and the biggest, brightest grasshoppers ever. But no alligators :(
So we went to the next trail.
The trails were all really beautiful... BUT.... there were flies.
OH MY GOODNESS SO MANY FLIES!!
Upon reading and preparing for the trip, I read other reviews that wrote about flies and bugs. But, I've grown up in the south and I can handle humidity the way people act like they're going to die from it because they're not used to it. So, I figured it was the same thing. NOPE. They were not exaggerating! Kenneth and I lathered on the bug spray because we were nervous about Zika and we didn't see a single mosquito. We would start to walk in these trails and the flies would attack you. They would just fly around your face and rest on your body and it was a nightmare. They would get stuck in my hair and fly into the car as we were running back. I'm talking hundreds of flies!
We started running through the trails to get back to the car because it was so awful. The other tourists that were there felt the same way. There was a little boy that started crying and boy did I feel his pain haha. I know this probably sounds dramatic but I wish I could explain how bad it was. These are the only photos I have and I took them while running because I didn't want to stop haha. I can't help but laugh as I write this because it was so ridiculous haha. Kenneth and I are just running as fast as we can and waving our arms around trying to smack the flies away and laughing and almost crying at the same time haha. It was quite the sight!
It was pretty disappointing that the fly situation was so bad because it made it tough to enjoy the beauty that was around us.
It wasn't so bad when we were out of the wooded area. But it was still really hot and we were tired from running haha.
All in all, we're really glad that we went & checked off another national park. But we were also really glad that we only spent a day there, got free admission, and we were heading to the Key's next haha.
We didn't see a single alligator in the Everglades! So sad!! So we decided to go to one of the alligator parks nearby. I can't remember which one we went to, but there are lots and we're so glad we went. We got to see tons of alligators, learned lots about them, and enjoyed being away from the flies haha.
We wanted to take an airboat ride in the everglades, but the actual park doesn't allow it so we had to go through the alligator park. This was the best thing we did there and I would recommend it to everyone!
We saw an alligator (pictured below) and a crocodile (which is super rare!). We felt like we finally got our fill of alligators so we were both really happy.
I have some fun video clips from our airboat ride so I'll have to see if I can get them up here at some point. It's SO fun! You are literally flying over the water and brush. We had a fun guide and he would spin us around in the water and make huge waves and splashes. It felt like we were on a ride at disneyland haha. It was an awesome way to see the everglades and we were so happy we got to do it!
We finished in the late afternoon and began our drive down to the beautiful Florida Keys. If you're coming to Florida, I would definitely recommend coming to the Everglades because I think it's something you need to check out when you're in Miami. But I would only recommend a day for it and spend the rest of your time in the Florida Keys!
xo
Lo
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