Florida Vacation

Mark and I decided to reward ourselves with a trip for finishing our 100 miler, and use the trip as our Christmas gift. We wanted to leave our cold winter and relax in the sunshine for a while. One of our Airbnb guests from Miami told us that January was an awesome time to visit Florida, and we wanted to visit the three national parks there, so it seemed like the perfect place.

We flew out of Boise, so that meant we got to spend a little time with our Nora Rae before we left. We told Bailey and Mason to go on a date while we were there, since they would have very willing babysitters. While they were out, we took Nora on a date of our own. We took her out to dinner and ice cream, and got her a set of legos to work on until her mom and dad got home.

We brought her Valentine over with us, in case we didn't see her again before Valentine's Day.

Ding Dong anyone? 😂

We figured this would last them a while.

Cutest Valentine EVER!

When we were out to dinner, they gave us a drawing pad. Nora wanted Pops to draw her.

Then she drew him. Looks just like him! 😁

She makes my whole life!

We played legos with her, and then it was off to Florida early the next morning.

Biscayne Bay National Park 

Our first day in Florida was awesome! Biscayne Bay National Park is 95% water, and the only way to see it is by boat. We took a boat tour around the bay that included a snorkel stop off Elliot Key. The snorkeling was fun, because there were only 4 people on our tour, so we had the whole place to ourselves. We stopped at Elliot Key to look around and have lunch. As we were leaving that key, we saw an iguana, and then a sea turtle! So cool!

Next we stopped at Boca Chita Key. It is the prettiest Island! We walked the whole perimeter.

On our way back, we stopped to see what is left of Stiltsville. There are only about 6 houses remaining in the bay.

It amazed me how shallow and clear the water was in most of the bay. We could see right through to the bottom a lot of the time.

Our boat tour left from Coconut Grove. The marina is so pretty!

Off to see the park!

This is the part of Elliot Key where we snorkeled.

Getting ready to go find some fish!

We mostly stayed on the shore of Elliot Key. They said the mosquitos were really bad in the middle of the island.

The color of the water was amazing!

Our tour guide was amazed by how long the turtle hung around the boat before he swam off. 

Enjoying the boat ride.

Look at that water!

The boat docked at Boca Chita Key and we had about an hour to explore the island on our own.

We walked the whole perimeter in just a few minutes. It was so cute and tiny!

I found a washed up jelly fish.

😍😍😍

It was like our own little paradise.

I found a coconut!

We told Nora we would send her a picture every day of our adventure. This was the picture we took for her of the first day.

I loved all the different birds in Florida.

The Boca Chita Lighthouse.

One of the Stiltsville houses.

Another house in the bay.

Once we finished Biscayne Bay, We had to drive down the keys, because our tour the next day was leaving early from Key West. We stopped at the Blonde Giraffe for our first piece of key lime pie. So good!

The Blonde Giraffe had the cutest lit up garden where you could eat your pie. All the chain fences were filled with these cute heart locks.

Dry Tortugas National Park

Our second day was so so good! We visited Dry Tortugas National Park, which is an island 70 miles off the coast of Key West. The only way to get to the island is by boat or sea plane. We boarded the Yankee Freedom Ferry, and set off for the 2.5 hour boat ride to the park. They fed us breakfast, and then we relaxed and enjoyed our ride. When we were almost there, we went to the bow of the ship, and saw a sea turtle! I have never seen such blue water in my life! It was amazing!

Fort Jefferson is a big part of the island. It is a former U.S. military coastal fortress. It is the largest brick masonry structure in the United States, covering 16 acres. The fort was also used as a prison during the civil war. We signed up for the guided tour, but a few minutes in, we got too antsy to get in the water, so we gave ourselves a much quicker tour. After we toured the fort, we got lunch from the ferry, and then went snorkeling. We started out on one beach, and then moved to another one that was so good! We saw so many cool, colorful fish! I could have done that all day! After we snorkeled, we wanted to walk the rest of the beaches on the island. It was beyond gorgeous. If you ever have a chance to visit this park, do it! It's probably the most unique park we've done so far. The whole day was amazing! On the ride back, Mark and I stood at the bow of the boat almost the entire way back. We saw a shark, and a few more sea turtles.

We ended our day with a sunset at Mallory Square in Key West.

On our way to Dry Tortugas National Park.

Arriving to the island!

The fort was huge, and had a mote around it.

The fort entrance.

We were looking out the windows on the third floor of the fort. That blue water was calling to us!

Standing on the top of the fort.

We were on the top of the fort looking down at the beaches on the island. I couldn't wait to get down there! History lesson over!

The fort had a cute little lighthouse.

This was the first beach we snorkeled from. 

We snorkeled over to the wall of the fort, because that's where a lot of the fish were.

This was our daily picture for Nora. 😂

Once we moved to the next beach, the fun really got started. We could go out so far, and could see the bottom no matter how deep it got. There were so many cool, colorful fish! We loved this spot. We could talk to each other underwater through our snorkels. We had to try to decipher what the other person was saying, and we were pretty good at it, but a few times I had to come up really fast because I would start cracking up.

After we finished snorkeling, we walked the perimeter of one side of the island. The beaches and water were just crazy! We practically had the whole place to ourselves. 

We found a giant conch shell in the water, with the thing still living in it! It was like a giant snail.

Living the dream.

This is how happy I was to be there!

The sunset from Key West to end the day.

Everglades National Park

Day 1:

Our first day in the everglades was the southern section. This is what I referred to as the self guided day. There was a road through the lower section of the park with viewpoints and short trails all along the way.

Anhinga & Gumbo Limbo Trails:

Our very first trails is where we saw our very first alligators!

I'm not sure what this bird is, but it was so pretty. 

We saw a lot of anhinga birds, which are the namesake of this trail.

Florida has so many great blue herons.

The Gumbo Limbo Trail.

Three in One Trail:

This was a quick loop, so we tried to run some of it.

Pinelands Trail:

This was a short one, with no pictures.

We had to pull over for a picture, because we thought this sign was funny! 😆

We made a quick stop in the middle of the road, because this huge alligator was just hanging out right on the side of the road!

Mahogany Hammock Trail:

This trail was a good one to show how very different the vegetation is in Florida compared to Idaho.

There were tons of ponds along the drive that ended up being a lot prettier and bigger than I was expecting.

West Lake Boardwalk:

Snake Bite Trail:

This was our longest hike at almost 4 miles, and my favorite. It was like we were going through a tree tunnel most of the way. And we saw a snake, so the name was fitting.

Towards the end of the road, we stopped at the Guy Bradly Visitor's Center, and this ended up being my favorite part of the whole day. They had a huge window that took up the whole wall, and when the ranger told us it was a manatee viewing area, I got so excited!

We saw the shadows of a couple of them under the water. Then a lady told us to walk over to the marina, because there were manatees in there, and a couple big crocodiles sunning the boat ramp. 

Manatee shadows!

You can hear in my voice how excited I was even to see them from kind of far away. I had no idea the up close and personal encounters we were about to have!

We walked around to the other side of the marina, and we hit the jackpot! I literally could have reached down and pet it! I was tempted too, but Mark wouldn't let me; something about a $5000 fine, psh. 🙄

We left the manatees for a minute to make sure we saw the big crocodiles before they went back in the water.

This guy was HUGE! His name is Fred, and rumor has it that he has lived there since the 70s.

Then back to the manatees we went!

This whole experience was the highlight of my day!

Guy Bradly Trail:

This was a little trail from the visitor's center that walked along the water line.

Echo Pond Trail:

This one was different because the water was rust colored.

On our way out of the park, we stopped one more time at the first trail we did, to see if we could see anymore alligators. We found one, and were also treated to an awesome sunset.

Everglades National Park

Day 2:

Our second day in the everglades was the northern section. It was so fun! The first thing we did was take the Manatee & Mangrove Tunnel Kayak Tour. This was so cool! It was a 3 hour tour in a kayak. We started out by going through the prairie grass, and then made it to the mangrove tunnels. We went through some really tight spots. I was just grateful I didn't look up and see a giant snake in the trees. We saw a couple alligators, and one huge American crocodile. We ended up in an area with lots of manatees. They would pop their heads up all around us. It was hard to see them good, because we were on the same level as they were. I'm glad I got a really good look at some the day before so I had a feel for how big they were. If it wasn't for all the alligators and crocodiles in the water I would have been tempted to 'accidentally' fall out of my kayak. 😂

Starting our tour.

Going through the prairie grass.

Every once in a while we'd come to these spots that opened up.

Then it was back to the mangrove tunnels.

American crocodile.

It was a little unnerving to see these things knowing they are all around you in the water when we're just in a small kayak.

After our tour, we had just enough time to eat lunch and then head to our next adventure.

We took an hour long air boat ride, and it went by so fast! Right when we got off, I said I wanted to do it again. It was so fun!

Mark by our airboat.

All ready for our ride. 😆

I was positive we weren't gonna make some of the tight fits, or the corners, but the driver always managed.

We saw a couple alligators while on the ride.

Our guide told us a couple good places to go if we wanted to see more alligators in the wild, so we headed to HP Williams Roadside Park. He was right, we saw tons of them. There is a scenic drive along the park that we did as well, and there were so many alligators and cool birds. We had been counting how many we saw, but once we got there, we lost count because there were so many.

This is an anhinga bird. It's a water bird, but its feathers aren't water proof. So every time it dives down into the water, it has to flap it's wings to dry them out.

Florida Keys

Day 1:

We spent our last two days in Florida touring the Florida Keys. We drove the Overseas Highway, which is 113 miles and connects the whole chain of islands. We stopped and did all the touristy things along the way.

We stopped at Keys Chocolates & Ice Cream in Key Largo because I had read about the frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick. We tried a lot of key lime pie while we were there, and this was our favorite one.

Next we stopped at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center. They rehabilitate injured birds and release them if they can survive in the wild, otherwise they live out their lives at the center.

This little guy liked me! 😆

Betsy the Giant Lobster.

There is a really cool hurricane monument, and it was so sobering to read the information.

We were planning on stopping at Robbie's of Islamorada to feed the tarpon, but the lady at the visitor's center said it is just crazy busy there. She told us to stop at Bud and Mary's instead, and it ended up being awesome! We had the fish (and sharks) all to ourselves!

I loved these guys!

There were tons of sharks where we were feeding the tarpon. We later found out they are nurse sharks.

There fish were huge! Some of them were as long as me!

We still stopped at Robbie's to check it out, and while we were there we saw a manatee! It was hard to see him because the water was murky, but it was about 5 feet in front of us!

I got one picture of his face when he popped up for a breath.

I had read that Anne's Beach had really shallow water so you could walk out really far. We stopped there but didn't like it. It was more mud than sand, so we sank with every step. 

Anne's Beach

One of our favorite things to do on the keys was walk the bridges. We liked watching the fisherman, and looking down at the water to see what we could find. On this walk we thought we saw dolphins jumping. We got all excited and then realized they were HUGE tarpon! It was nuts!

It was Mark's birthday while we were there! We had his birthday dinner at Porky's Bayside Restaurant. 😂 It was a fun, and yummy place. We went back the next morning for breakfast.

Birthday dinner!

He had a deep fried cheesecake for dessert. 

We ended the day by finding our favorite beach in the keys! Sombrero Beach was amazing! We were so bummed we didn't find it until it was almost dark. We thought we would be able to come back the next day when we were driving off the keys, but we did things until dark on that day too, so we never made it back. We were so bummed! If you ever go to the keys, this is by far the best beach we found. We walked it before the sun went down. Perfect way to end our day.

The beautiful Sombrero Beach.

Florida Keys 

Day 2:

We started our second day on the keys with a 90 minute tour of the Sea Turtle Hospital. We learned why the turtles end up there, and what a shocker that it's mostly due to people. 😞 A lot of it is from impaction from what they eat. They showed us a picture of what they removed from one turtle and it was crazy! The amount of garbage that was blocking its digestive system was nuts! Another common reason is from boat strikes. It can hit them with enough force that air gets trapped under their shell and can never be released. They get what's called bubble butt, and become off balance and can flip over and drown, or they can't swim to the bottom anymore so they are unable to get food on their own. It was really sad to see them trying to swim with that.

It rained all the way through our tour. People were all bundled up in jackets and ponchos, and Mark and I were in shorts and swim suits. 😆

The first turtle in this video is a good example of 'bubble butt.' You can see that they've put weights on his shell to help balance him out, but he still can't swim down to the bottom. The turtles have to be able to pass a swim test before they can be released back into the wild. Lots of the ones here will never be able to be released.

Some turtles also get FP tumors that end up needing to be removed. They can only remove one a month, so if the turtle has a lot, they can end up being in the hospital for a very long time. Most of the turtles with FP tumors end up being released back into the wild. The turtle in the next video has those.

This guy had just got there a couple days earlier. It was a boat strike that got some of his soft tissue through his shell.

I don't remember why this one was there, but she was stinking cute!

We got to feed the turtles, and you can see another good example of 'bubble butt' in the video. You can also see the weights on the shell.

There was a little tiny baby one!

These young ones were so cute! They will be released back into the wild pretty soon. A big group of them didn't migrate in time, and were in water that was too cold for them. They were rescued up by Maine, but will be released in the keys.

After the Sea Turtle Hospital, we visited the Crane Point Hammock. We walked the trails, got fish pedicures, went through the wild bird center, saw the first settlement houses, etc.

The trails were so pretty!

Crane Point.

We sat and did fish pedicures for a long time.

We walked as much as we could of the seven mile bridge. We saw big starfish, eagle rays, and a big nurse shark.

We went to Veteran's Memorial Beach, and we really liked that one too.

It seemed like you could walk out forever at this beach, but it was right by where we saw the big nurse shark, so I didn't go out too far. 😅

We stopped at a place called The Blue Hole. It's an old rock quarry with a platform for wildlife viewing.

On the way to the Blue Hole we saw the key deer. They are so cute and tiny!

We finally made it to Key West in a crazy downpour. It flooded all the streets. We stopped at the southern most point in the continental US, walked past Hemingway's house, and found mile marker zero. We ended our day with one last piece of key lime pie from Kermits before heading off the keys.

The southern most point!
Don't mind us looking like total drowned rats. It rained a lot of the day.

One last piece of pie from Kermit's. I think this was my second favorite.

We loved Florida! The three parks were amazing, and touring the Florida Keys was so fun! It was just what we needed to be able to handle the rest of the Idaho winter.

Back to Idaho:

Bailey picked us up from the airport, and they had a birthday celebration all ready for Mark. They made his favorite birthday dinner, pigs in a blanket and Mac n cheese, with german chocolate cake for dessert.

Birthday dinner!

They took Nora to the store and she picked out Pop's present all by herself. A basketball and some toothpaste. 😂 She was so dang proud of herself!

Nora practiced the happy birthday song while we were gone, and sang it to Pops all by herself. I wish we would have filmed the whole thing, but we just caught the tail end of it. So cute!