After Destin, we spent a day driving through Florida until we got to our destination of Miami. Why Miami? Well, for a couple reasons: 1) it was in the right time zone with 2) the right climate (remember we didn't bring winter gear), and 3) it was near the Everglades. We visited the Everglades eight years ago and had such fond memories we thought it was high-time we checked it out again. But more about the Everglades later. Picking out an Airbnb in a city we'd never been was a little nerve-wracking because we already knew the neighborhood could make or break our experience--especially when the majority of our time is spent doing work and school from home. But the place we ended up picking was near Little Havana and we loved it! There was a Brazilian brigadeiro place down the street, an Argentinian café around the corner, a Greek restaurant across the street, and we discovered a favorite Cuban place a few blocks away (we had never had Cuban food before, but ate from there three times!) The Russian tailor spoke better Spanish than English, we could walk to the park, discovered two Little Libraries within a few blocks of us, and loved our eclectic neighborhood.
We had Thanksgiving while we were in Miami, which was just another day of work and school except for watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and being able to eat some favorite Thanksgiving dishes we haven't had in a few years. We watched Princess Bride afterwards and I think that it should become a new tradition.
CJ drew a Thanksgiving card
Gotta love AirBnb decor
In our family December 1st officially begins the Christmas season, which means we needed to buy some decorations for ourselves. The stockings (or long Christmas socks, in this case) were especially important because we traditionally put notes to each other's stockings all month long to be read on Christmas Eve. We found a one-foot tall tree, a light up Christmas necklace, and ribbon to decorate with. The girls made a star out of paper and we were set. It may not have been much, but it felt festive.
We also went to get Brandon's finger checked by a doctor again (read here about how he broke it). It had been a long six weeks wearing his splint, so we were hopeful that Brandon could finally get the go-ahead to take it off. The answer was more complicated than that: technically, his finger was healed, but if he didn't want it to perpetually droop at the knuckle, then he should continue to wear a different splint for another six weeks. It was disappointing news. The new splint, although allowing more airflow, was even less comfortable than the last. Brandon resolved to wear the new splint for a while longer, but six weeks was a big ask. However, only a few days later we were driving to the Everglades when his finger started to hurt. A lot. When we stopped at a light, Brandon asked for my help to take the splint off and got immediate relief! And that was the end of wearing his splint. His finger still isn't quite straight and, although it was droopy before, it is definitely even more so now, but c'est la vie.
Aside from the Everglades (I'll get there! I'll get there!), we did do some other things on the weekends. We went to Bill Baggs State Park; we checked out the lighthouse and rented a four-person bike to ride.
The chain on the bike kept coming off and CJ accidentally got whacked in the head, so although it was beautiful, it was a short-lived ride. Since we still had much of the day left, we went up to Sunny Isle Beach, also known as Little Moscow. We perused a grocery store (Тархун! Облепиха! Алёнка!), got plenty of treats for ourselves, and then had a delicious meal at a Georgian restaurant. We miss Russia!
And--yes! We went several times to the Everglades! We visited a different location of the Everglades nearly every weekend we were in Miami. We were disappointed to discover that our favorite spot from eight years ago was flooded due to the late hurricane season, but there was still much to see. (Although we continued to check everyday to see if our spot had opened up again, it never did.)
Our first weekend at the Everglades we did trails around the Coe Visitor's Center. Unfortunately, the very first trail we tried had masses of mosquitos, and we had forgotten our bug spray. E was swarmed just like I had been on the trail we tried in Chincoteague; that experience, plus our general paranoia about mosquitos from living in India, plus her overall bug phobia due to her fire ant allergy, created a quickly escalating situation. She and Brandon went back to the visitor's center to buy some bug spray while the rest of us tried a trail on the boardwalk. This one was a winner! No alligators, but we saw snakes and lots of fun birds. I don't think we had ever seen an anhinga swim before!
The parking lot provided tarp and bungee cords to cover our car
because the vultures like to tear off the rubber pieces on the cars.
We definitely did not have to do this the last time we came.
After a few more trails, we called it a day and got some smoothies on the way home from Robert is Here. As expected, they were delicious.
The next visit to the Everglades, we thought we'd stop by Shark Valley just to see how bad the flooding really was. IT was bad enough that we were wading in water up to the point where the road was blocked off, but we still saw a couple alligators!
Then we went to
Big Cypress and saw even more alligators! The ranger at the visitor's center told us about a little road to take where the gators like to hang out. We drove slowly and stopped when we spotted one in the water. Within a few minutes, we saw two more. One of them got right up next to us on the shore, which made us all back up a few feet.
Farther down the road, Brandon slowed because he saw what looked like a baby alligator crossing the road--it was! We pulled over to get a closer look, being careful to watch for mama. Overall, a very successful day at the Everglades!
Of course, we made one last stop at Shark Valley on the way home to see if our gator friends were still there!
For our last visit to the Everglades, we decided to do an airboat tour since it was something we had never done before.
Afterwards, there was an educational alligator show and the kids were able to hold a baby alligator. They loved it!
E was definitely cuddling with it
The rest of the day was spent at the
end of the Everglades so we could
hopefully see some crocodiles. When we went eight years ago, we only sort of saw one from far away; we were hoping for better luck this time. And we did! Almost immediately a park ranger pointed out a crocodile to us. To get a better look, we tried another first as a family: canoeing! It was the perfect way to wrap up our time at the Everglades.
We had a blast in Miami, but it was time to move on again. Don't worry--we weren't going too far!
