Judy and I were lucky enough to escape the New England winter for a week in January and spend a little time down in sunny Florida. We split our time visiting with her grandmother in Century Village, Deerfield Beach (the mecca for New York/New Jersey snowbirds and a recent influx of Canadians) and roadtripping down through the Everglades. Now I've been around the country and visited many of our National Parks and I've been to the Everglades before, but it truly is an amazing place. As far as "bang for you buck" wildlife viewing this place has to be at the top of the list. Within 10 minutes of being in the park you can be on a trail surrounded by alligators (for some reason, not as scary as it sounds), turtles, and amazingly beautiful birds. Its truly a sight to be seen.
Century Village and the reflection off of our beautiful Dodge Caliber rental:
A few of the sleeping giants:
We even got one guy to smile for the camera - I think he's just happy to be living in Florida:
A tri-colored heron scanning for some lunch:
A few scenes from our overnight canoe adventure into the heart of the Everglades. It may look beautiful (and it was) but when you have to paddle for 5 hours straight with no food, drink, or bathroom break its hard to think about the views. The problem is really a lack of solid ground - its just mangrove swamp as far as the eye can see so you have no where to pull over, get out, and take care of you business. We were suffering at certain points. And on top of that nobody was able to provide us with a solid map so we weren't exactly sure of our destination. Did I say adventure? But we made it to our chickee (a basic platform built right in the middle of the 'Glades just big enough for a tent and room to prepare some dinner) and the sunset was stunning.
