When we decided to go to Florida on vacation, I knew I wanted to take the boys to the Everglades National Park. The best way to see the Everglades is by Airboat. I did a quick internet search and decided to go with Capt. Mitch Airboat Tours (there are a lot of air boat tour companies called Captain "first name"!). We arrived there early in the morning and got on the tour right away. It was a little chilly for Florida weather (low 60's) but perfect weather to visit the Everglades!
I think the highlight for me was driving... flying, riding, boating... hmmm.... through the Mangrove "pathways". We did see a few alligators but lots and lots of birds!
After the airboat tour the boys got to hold a little baby alligator.
Jake was really upset with me because I forgot his go pro memory card :/ so I took the below video for him with my DSLR camera. He wasn't impressed with me!
We decided to drive into Everglade City and have seafood there. We have heard great things about this particular restaurant but were not terribly impressed especially when we saw all the frozen fish packages at the dumpster... oh well!
We then headed over to the Everglades National Park for our stamps (more on than in a separate blog post coming soon) and then Cypress National Preserve for another stamp, a Junior Ranger program and a Ranger program on Manatees.
On the way to Cypress National Preserve we saw many more alligators then we saw on the airboat tour! Oh well...
We came home late that day! And ended the day with take out and some Netflix!
The next day was our 10 year wedding anniversary and New Year's Eve! We left around 8:30am for a stroll on the beach and ended up staying until after sunset! I don't have many pictures from that day (I left my camera at home and we only used the go pro) but it was hands down my favorite day of all of 2016! The weather was perfect! The kids played all day. The food was amazing we had at a small concession... mahi mahi tacos and a frozen pina colada for me! We found some amazing shells and I even found a perfect sand dollar. The sun set was spectactular... I could go on and on! It was just perfect!
The next day we left Florida for a very long drive home to a very cold Ohio. We will be back next Christmas!