Everglades Trip on a Nice Florida Winter Day

Our weather recently has been absolutely gorgeous with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s(sorry to those of you experiencing freezing cold!). This is why I love living in Florida! So, we figured on Tuesday last week that we'd take advantage of Matt's day off and the beautiful weather and head down to the Everglades to try to see some wildlife.

We drove down and went on one of our favorite trails, the Anhinga Trail. In the drier months later in the winter, you can see tons of alligators. I wasn't thinking of this being early in the dry season for us, so the water levels were still pretty high and the alligators were more spread out, so we didn't see very many. We still had a great time, and James still got some great exercise walking on the trails. And, it was an absolutely beautiful day!

Here are some pictures from the day:

An alligator right near the beginning of the trail, sunning himself at the edge of the water. We kept our distance, but were glad we saw it because it was one of the only ones we saw that day (and the only one James could really get a good look at).

Daddy and James on the boardwalk. James kept exclaiming and pointing out, "The water! The water!" We tried to get him interested in some of the birds we saw, but he just really loved the water!

Mommy and James on the trail with the tall sawgrass in the background. We also saw some beautiful monarch butterflies and pretty flowers along this part of the path, but they definitely didn't compare with the snake.

James (and Daddy) enjoyed watching this black snake go in and out of the grass along the path at the end of the trail. Matt got a little closer with the camera than I would!

After we were done in the Everglades, we drove out of the park to get lunch before we started to head home. We ate lunch at a pretty lame Mexican restaurant that we'll never eat at again, and then we went over to a place I've mentioned before called Robert is Here. I know, weird name, but they have the BEST fruit milkshakes I've ever had! James loved looking at the animals they have there (goats, chickens, geese, ostriches, tortoises, turtles, and probably more I'm forgetting) but he really loved sitting on the tractor and pretending to drive. It made me think of his second cousin, Garrett, who also shares a love (borderline obsession!) for the big machines! =o) Needless to say, he didn't want to leave after this!

He slept the entire way home, so he didn't get as good a nap as usual, but I'm sure he had fun that day and some special family memories were made so it was all worth it!