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smittenbyu) wrote2010-01-13 10:59 pm
smittenbyu) wrote2010-01-13 10:59 pm
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Everglades National Park - Day 2
December 26, 2009
We got up leisurely, had breakfast, enjoyed the surprisingly chilly morning, wondering if we were actually in Florida! I drove us to the Everglades National Park. We stopped at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center and signed up for some of activities coming up in the following days. I had read that this was their busiest season and the Ranger was also very happy that we were there for five days!! He is always taken aback at visitors who come in wonder what they can fit into a day or even a few hours!! The National park only has about 1.4 million acres to explore!!
We headed onto our next stop, the Anhinga Trail. We joined a Park Ranger guided tour. We really enjoyed the tour. I think if we hadn't gone for the tour we would have just looked and thought, "ah pretty tree, pretty flower, pretty bird" and gotten bored in a day. Ranger Cindy was awesome. She shared a lot about the ecosystem, the birds that are local to the place, the river of grass and of course about its infamous dweller - the alligator.
I knew what these lily-pod looking things are called two weeks ago. But these flower buds (hard to see) never really blossom the way we expect them to. It was just a beautiful place. I was familiar with swamps, but a wetland is such a stark contrast to our images of swamps. The water looked so clear and clean. The grass and the ecosystem surely acts as a great filtration system!
Of course, we saw many birds! And again, I remembered their names up until a week ago! But thanks to the Ranger we learned to at least spot the difference while we were there! And learnt a great deal about the behaviour of the birds - how they feed, etc.
The anhinga (bottom right in collage) is a diving bird - it's what you see wading in the water (right column center) and it actually dives and swims under water for quite some time!! Its feathers are not waterproof and so it sits under the sun with its wings expanded to get its water temperature up to normal. It can fly even with wet feathers apparently - especially when the alligator is giving chase!
And of course the alligators. They were everywhere! In the water, on the trail where we were walking on. We saw a few move a bit here and there, we saw a handful swim about. As the ranger said, they are creatures that have perfected the art of doing nothing!
We then found a picnic area and had our lunch undisturbed. We joined an afternoon Ranger guided tour through a different type of habitat in the Wetlands - the Mahogany Hammock. As the name implies that patch of hardwood trees - yes, trees, has some mahogany trees in it and we didn't find hammocks anywhere to lay up in but it's a name given by the Native Americans who found shade under the trees in the open spaces of the wetlands. It was such a contrast to the image we have of Everglades.
On our way back to the motel, we stopped at the famous Fruit stand - Robert is Here.Oh my goodness, they had the best fruit milkshake I have had!! No sugars, fresh fruit in their milkshakes!
Robert is still there! And he takes his time talking to all the customers, answering any questions you might have about fruits or life!
And the variety of fruits!! oh yum! We even got some fruits and brought it back to the motel to consume over the next few days!
And the milkshake is a meal in itself!!! And each of us got one each! Boy was it filling!! Next time we decided to get one and share amongst the three!!
We ended the night again with food from home and a round or two of scrabble and had a blissful slumber!
We got up leisurely, had breakfast, enjoyed the surprisingly chilly morning, wondering if we were actually in Florida! I drove us to the Everglades National Park. We stopped at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center and signed up for some of activities coming up in the following days. I had read that this was their busiest season and the Ranger was also very happy that we were there for five days!! He is always taken aback at visitors who come in wonder what they can fit into a day or even a few hours!! The National park only has about 1.4 million acres to explore!!
We headed onto our next stop, the Anhinga Trail. We joined a Park Ranger guided tour. We really enjoyed the tour. I think if we hadn't gone for the tour we would have just looked and thought, "ah pretty tree, pretty flower, pretty bird" and gotten bored in a day. Ranger Cindy was awesome. She shared a lot about the ecosystem, the birds that are local to the place, the river of grass and of course about its infamous dweller - the alligator.
I knew what these lily-pod looking things are called two weeks ago. But these flower buds (hard to see) never really blossom the way we expect them to. It was just a beautiful place. I was familiar with swamps, but a wetland is such a stark contrast to our images of swamps. The water looked so clear and clean. The grass and the ecosystem surely acts as a great filtration system!
Of course, we saw many birds! And again, I remembered their names up until a week ago! But thanks to the Ranger we learned to at least spot the difference while we were there! And learnt a great deal about the behaviour of the birds - how they feed, etc.
The anhinga (bottom right in collage) is a diving bird - it's what you see wading in the water (right column center) and it actually dives and swims under water for quite some time!! Its feathers are not waterproof and so it sits under the sun with its wings expanded to get its water temperature up to normal. It can fly even with wet feathers apparently - especially when the alligator is giving chase!
And of course the alligators. They were everywhere! In the water, on the trail where we were walking on. We saw a few move a bit here and there, we saw a handful swim about. As the ranger said, they are creatures that have perfected the art of doing nothing!
We then found a picnic area and had our lunch undisturbed. We joined an afternoon Ranger guided tour through a different type of habitat in the Wetlands - the Mahogany Hammock. As the name implies that patch of hardwood trees - yes, trees, has some mahogany trees in it and we didn't find hammocks anywhere to lay up in but it's a name given by the Native Americans who found shade under the trees in the open spaces of the wetlands. It was such a contrast to the image we have of Everglades.
On our way back to the motel, we stopped at the famous Fruit stand - Robert is Here.Oh my goodness, they had the best fruit milkshake I have had!! No sugars, fresh fruit in their milkshakes!
Robert is still there! And he takes his time talking to all the customers, answering any questions you might have about fruits or life!
And the variety of fruits!! oh yum! We even got some fruits and brought it back to the motel to consume over the next few days!
And the milkshake is a meal in itself!!! And each of us got one each! Boy was it filling!! Next time we decided to get one and share amongst the three!!
We ended the night again with food from home and a round or two of scrabble and had a blissful slumber!