The drive from Naples was a short one, so after we got set up, we headed over to Everglades National Park. This time of year, there were plenty of open parking spaces! Here Gary gives some advice to Don before they go on the Pa-hay-okee trail. Maybe he's reminding him to put on mosquito repellent.
No sightings of alligators there. We only spotted a few egrets in the sawgrass, so we headed to the Royal Palm trail. We just had to see an alligator. That was another thing on Sandy's bucket list. Here is part of the extended trail. We all did have a "gator" sighting at this part of the park and Don got a decent picture on his cell phone. Maybe the others were residing in a "gatored" community (per Jerry).
The next day we were all "keyed” up as we drove down the Overseas Highway to the Florida Keys. We managed to accomplish another thing on our task list: finding the African Queen boat from the famous movie starring Humphrey Bogart. "Bogey" was kind enough to pose with Sandy and Jerry for a quick picture.
The adventurous African Queen was built in 1912 and has been around the world twice. You can actually rent this boat for a cruise. A closer look at the condition of the boat probably discourages most people from doing that.
It was time for us 3 goofy grannies to get our feet in the ocean. We managed to walk through the slippery shallow water without falling into it. Can you hear us saying "Yeah"?
Gary and Sherry took a few moments to enjoy the beauty of the ocean. I think Sherry cheated and looked over Gary's shoulder as I took their picture.
Sandy just enjoyed sitting on the dock and being cooled by the ocean breeze.
Our 3rd day was interesting....err, frustrating to some extent. Trying to find diesel fuel by Miami Beach can be challenging, to say the least. There is no diesel fuel at many stations, so we started calling after striking out at the first station. Call 1: they only spoke Spanish, Call 2: the number listed was a fax number, Call 3: no answer at all, Call 4: Busy, busy, busy, Call 5: wrong number. Gary finally found a station. During that time, Don called Biscayne National park to reserve tickets for an afternoon tour boat. No go for that: the park service said there were too many mosquitoes for the Boca Chita tour, and the other boat was under repair! We finally found a park in the Art Deco district, got out our packed lunches and planted ourselves under some palm trees.
Right by the park was the beach. Thank goodness we didn’t have to drive to one and find another parking spot!
I think we were the only ones standing in the water without a swim suit on. Oh well, we still enjoyed putting our tootsies in the beautiful turquoise water. We discovered that this is a “top optional” beach, at least it was this day! We teased the guys about having strained eyes.
Last stop of the day was Coral Castle Museum, which took one man 20 years to build. He was only 5 ft tall, and weighed 100 lbs. but crafted this using only hand tools. His living quarter structure (shown below) weighs over 140 tons, and had no electricity or water. It was amazing to see what he accomplished.
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