Adventures in the Everglades and Florida Keys






Hi!
Our arrival to Miami was smooth Sunday afternoon as we collected Falk & Svenni and headed to Homestead, FL (Gateway to the Keys).  

Monday we got our covid tests for the cruise (all negative thankfully!) and then headed West to Big Cypress Nature Preserve for a kayak outing.  Here are some of the sights:

Grasshoppers all around the picnic area where we had lunch - they were all brightly colored and large - felt like something from A Bugs Life (weren't the grasshoppers the bad guys?)  Kind of creepy honestly.  There was a guide and one other participant in the tour - of course he was a German!  LOL



Of course, there were alligators - we got pretty close to some of them but they were very calm about the intrusion.

Here you can see the Cypress trees and the beautiful reflection in the calm waters.  We went through "tunnels" where the vegetation created beautiful waterways!

The guide missed this guy hanging out on a limb along the water - I certainly saw him!  Eventually identified as a Brown Water Snake.  Non-poisonous but not terribly friendly.


This Green Heron was super graceful on this limb near the shore.


This is a baby alligator - there were 2 of them hanging out in the shallow area.  He was about about 12 inches long.


Today (Tuesday) we went for a long drive down the Florida Keys.  Our first stop was Robbie's (thanks for the recommendation Linda Miller!) where these tarpon hang out.  For a few bucks you can buy bait fish to dangle in the water for the tarpon.  When they come up for the bait you have to be careful not to feed them your fingers as well!  There are many pelicans hanging out trying to steal the bait as well - they will definitely try to pick your pocket!  Some of these tarpon are over 5 ft long! 

A nice stroll along the boardwalk at Anne's Beach followed - I had to get my feet wet of course!


After a nice lunch with a view of 7-mile bridge, the next stop was Hemingway house in Key West. We were just in time for a guided tour - that made the visit much more informative!  I never realized how young he was when he wrote his most famous books.  
 

This is the "room where it happened" - the study where Ernest Hemingway wrote each day.
We walked a lot today - one of the stops was the "southernmost" point in the continental US.  Obligatory picture ---

Finally headed back North to the mainland - we had to stop for the beautiful sunset -


Tomorrow we board the ship and start our 9 day cruise.  We will jump on as we can - have a great week!

Sheri & Carsten














Comments

  1. JayniceMay 3, 2022 at 8:11 PM

    Lovely pictures! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Albers AdventuresMay 4, 2022 at 4:51 PM

    Awesome trip so far. Stay safe and have fun. Loved our stop at Robbies, Hemingway house and southernmost point when we were in the keys.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Christmas Letter

Image
Hi!  I have developed an allergy to stamps and licking envelopes but wanted a way to reach out to our family and friends far and near ... then I realized that the blog might be just the ticket! Carsten and I have had a wonderful 2024! If you follow the blog you know that we have literally been around the world! In addition we are blessed to have spent many hours making and delivering beds to kids in North Houston. We did our first Swing Event in San Antonio, joining with hundreds of volunteers to make almost 800 beds in four crazy hours! Our final delivery of the year will be on Christmas Eve. Sleep in Heavenly Peace (Houston North) will deliver 2,000 beds in 2024. With a backlog of more than 800 we will be busy for a while!  If you are interested in helping by building and/or delivering beds, please check out https://shpbeds.org/chapter/tx-houston-n/ to sign up.  It is a lot of fun. Austin and Jamie had plenty of visitors to keep them company their first year in Detroit....
Read more

Iceland in Winter

Image
Hello from Reykjavik! We are here with my (Sheri) cousins, Christie & Chester, primarily to see the Northern Lights! Leaving Houston a day early to make sure we did not miss our flight due to the big winter storm, we had a little time in Virginia (near Dulles airport) to see the Air & Space museum. This was an unexpected pleasure. Among the 250+ aircraft was the Enola Gay, a Concorde Jet and the Space Shuttle Discovery. As Marieke informed us, there were many cancelled flights out of Dulles and delays were pretty standard. Our 7:40 pm overnight flight to Reykjavik finally took off at about 11:00. Apparently there were only two baggage handlers to unload and load AND shovel the snow that had accumulated. Once loaded, the de-icing took a minute as well.  We arrived at 10:00 am, got our car and headed to our walking food tour. Our guide's name was Burgersagdjckeuegvcn (sic) but we were to call him "burger". We stopped at five different places and enjoyed an appetizer...
Read more

More of Iceland

Image
On Friday we had a free day to walk around and explore Reykjavik. We started, as one must, with Hallgrimskirkja . Daytime Night time  Views of inside and from the top: Not sure what the hurry is but worshipers here get their praying done quickly! The streets are lovely this time of year with the lights ... and surprises like this one Santa's washing!. The Sun Voyager is lovely looking over he harbor. The stores have lovely things to offer, we bought a lovely Icelandic Wool blanket. Not sure how useful it will be in Houston?! There were some more useful items (for someone): We walked (trugged) through a sculpture garden. This one, entitled "Grief" was particularly moving. We had some fish for lunch and went back for a little rest. Dinner was pizza, followed by gelato. Early bedtime because we have to be up early for our next adventure! Ok. Next adventure is a trip to an Ice Cave. In general when I see 8+ hours I am not inclined to go. However, my cousin Christie had her he...
Read more