We took a week break from ECC to take a Road trip to South Florida. We had a family wedding to attend and decided to make it into an adventure. The week before we left the kids began to work on the Junior Ranger Packets from the South Florida National Parks which includes Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, and Big Cypress National Preserve. It took the whole week to adequately cover the material in the entire packet and watch a few videos. After driving the entire distance of Atlanta to Miami in one day, we crashed at the hotel after working off some energy at the pool. The next day we headed off to the Everglades. We attended a walk along the Anahinga trail with a Park Ranger who pointed out various species of of plants and animals. The kids enjoyed and kept a running tally of the Alligators the saw (28 that day..lol). After the walk, we turned in the kids packets at the visitor center. The rangers asked them a few questions about what they had learned which the kids answered easily and they were sworn. It made their day when the Rangers announced their inductions over the PA system.
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| Ying in front of an impressive Strangler Fig tree. |
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| Can you find the Gator? |
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| A few Cormac hanging out with the kids |
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| American Alligator |
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| Newest Junior Rangers at the Royal Palms Visitor Center. Everglades National Park. |
Later in the afternoon, We visited Biscayne National Park which is just about 30 min from the Everglades. Most of Biscayne National Park is underwater. there is a small area with trails and a jetty but most of the park is the water around the coral reefs off shore and is only accessible by boat. Currently the park is not running boat tours, but hope to start them up soon. We were able to go on a hike with a Ranger and a representative from the the Audubon society along the canals just outside the park in search of the West Indian Manatee. We are able to spot two hanging out near the lock doors at the end of the Brevard canal. The kids were very impressed with these gentle giants and ad to see that the bigger of the two had had at least one run in with a propeller blade based on an old scar on the tail.
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| Western Manatee |
After our hike we headed back to the visitors center to turn in our packets and answer some questions unquie to Biscayne National Park. The Rangers were very impressed by how much the kids really knew about the parks from the packets. It was a great day.
The next day we headed out to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo. We had hoped to go on a snorkeling tour that day but the weather did not cooperate. The winds were too high and the seas rough, so the kids played around with there snorkel in the protected back beach of the park. We only took this one pic because Mom and Dad had to get in on the snorkeling fun. The rest of the trip was family fun and wedding events, which included a tour of the farm the wedding was on.
