FLORIDA
Everglades Day 3
Our final day in the Everglades we planned to go all the way out to Flamingo Visitor Center. This is all the way at the southern tip of Florida and the Everglades. The road out there is out and back so you can stop at a few things on the way out, a few things on the way back in.
We started with the Anhinga Trail, a 0.8 mile boardwalk through a swamp with plenty of birds and alligators to look at. It was surprisingly hot here, even in December. We saw tons of birds, turtles in the water, fish and exactly 1 anhinga.
These are not anhingas, I think they’re some kind of egret or heron that were chilling right by the path.
The second stop was the Nike Missile Battery. I think originally we wanted to do the walking tour but I’m really glad we didn’t because of the heat. There’s a solitary building with a rocket inside and lots of information about what was going on here during the Cold War.
We walked along the Mahogany Hammock Trail next. I thought this was a bit underwhelming since we’d seen so much of the sawgrass prairie and hammock trees already.
Then there was Flamingo. They’re building a big complex here so you can stay out in the Everglades. One hot tip is there’s a food truck here. But you need to arrive before 4 PM which we totally missed. We did, however, get to see a manatee and a crocodile! That means I saw both alligators AND crocodiles on this trip. I also saw a sign that you can rarely find actual flamingos here.
It looks a bit like a log but that’s definitely a crocodile. The crazy thing is you can rent kayaks here and kayak in the water nearby it!
On our way out, we popped over to the Pa-Hay-Okee Lookout. I think my parents were amused by the 3 ft elevation pass.
From there we headed to dinner at ODeeny’s Caribbean Restaurant. We were famished! The fried pork was amazing, but everything else was excellent too. I got the curried chicken and it was super tender. The milkshakes were also quite tasty.
We had one more night in our hotel in Homestead before heading up to Fort Lauderdale. On our way out, we stopped by Robert Is Here Fruit Stand. This place comes up on ALL the blogs and sites for things to do in the Everglades. It is a big market with fruits, jams, honey, smoothies, milkshakes and other goods.
Plus a petting zoo in the back with a ton of animals! They have goats, cows, chickens, ducks, and more. It was pretty awesome sipping our soursop milkshake and seeing a goat riding a tortoise.
We had a ton of fun in Florida and are back home now. Happy New Year and stay safe out there!