The rest of Florida

We would have loved to spend more time at Big Cypress National Preserve but we just plain ran out of time. We spent one night and were the only ones at the campsite so it was nice and quiet. Truthfully, things have been a little tough. I recently found out that I am not returning to Alaska for work this winter. It is not by my choice, there are reasons I am still not clear of but the bottom line is my schedule won't work this winter. It put a bit of a damper on the trip because we thought we had everything figured out, probably too well. Such is life. I have applied to observing jobs in Hawaii, Florida and in Alaska with different companies. All seem promising but if worse comes to worst, I can spend the winter in sunny Florida hanging with my friends and family. Just breathe.

We did really enjoy the last part of our trip. We drove back up north to St. Petersburg to visit my family. We had a great little family reunion with my aunt and uncle, cousin and his wife and their amazing little girl. Florida weather is just awesome this time of year. We also scooted over to Bradenton to visit Brian's grandmother. Brian and Mary Lou got a round of golf in before the cold weather barged in. We also visited Siesta Key to see the sand sculptures.

Before flying out of Tampa, we brought the camper to Camping World and left the truck in longterm parking at the airport. We'll be back in Mass for the next couple weeks bouncing around. My sister and her fiancee are flying in from San Diego this weekend. We're looking forward to spending time with everyone and getting our fix of cold weather.

It was a great first leg and we can't wait to get back to it next spring. To be continued..

Everglades National Park, FL

Welcome to the Everglades, where everything wants to eat you. There are poisonous snakes, crocodiles, alligators, deadly trees, swarms of mosquitos and spiders you hope to never cross paths with. This is only the beginning of the list. Luckily, we survived our Everglades experience. For an extra charge, the park provides boat tours daily to either the Florida Bay or a backcountry ride into the Red Mangrove forest. Brian and I opted for the backcountry. We skimmed through a man-made canal and up river into Coot Bay. We saw all kinds of animals, including baby crocs! I'd say it was a combination of a wildlife enthusiast's dream and birder's paradise. This area of the park is home to both crocodiles and alligators, the only place in the world in which they co-exist. It was a very interesting, informative and fun experience.

We camped at the Flamingo campground in the park, though we did not see any flamingos. Brian tried his hand at fishing from the shore and I enjoyed viewing things from behind my camera and on my bike. This may be the last National Park we visit on this trip. Biscayne is closed to diving and snorkeling and we just don't have time to get down to Key West and visit the Dry Tortugas. We're hoping to try and hit them next time. We are going to the Big Cypress National Preserve, which is apart of the NPS, for one night before heading up to Tampa. 

Alligator

Gull

American Crocodile

Baby crocodile

Red Mangrove

Pelican flying V

Osprey

Blue Heron

Anhinga

Brown Pelican

Pompano Beach, FL

We finally found endless summer. Down in sunny Florida, people keep their boats in the water for more than one season, can go to the beach anytime and can wear flip flops and shorts year round without ever getting a second look. We spent the past few days visiting with another co-worker of Brian's. Rich is the Chief engineer on the O/S Texas City. A fun fact about Rich is that he is an unbelievable cook. His hobby is creating mouth watering dishes of all kinds. He completely spoiled Brian and I with gourmet meals for the past few days while we stayed in his castle that he built himself on the inter-coastal canal. Rich also took us out fishing on his Dusky, a center console named Rhiz. I hate to admit that we got skunked fishing but we did, we're going to blame it on the full moon. 

We've been really busy in Florida, which we knew it was going to be like this. Florida seems to be a magnet for maritimers. We met up with our friend Jen, who lives in Miami and our friends Sully and Colby who were down in Boca Raton for a wedding. We even had wings and buckets of beer with Brian's current captain on the O/S New York, Bernie, and his long time girlfriend, Cheryl. 

Though we've had a blast, we are headed off the grid again for a few days to the Everglades National Park. From here, we'll be ending our trip with visiting Grandma Mary Lou in Bradenton and The Frederick family in St. Petersburg. 

Orlando, FL

For the past two days, from open 'til close, we visited Universal's theme parks, Universal Studios and Universal's Island of Adventure. The first day some of my friends joined us at Island of Adventure. Emily, Candace, Caitlin, Brian and I ran around the park like 13 year olds going from one roller coaster to the next. The main attraction of course being The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. For any Harry Potter fans out there, I won't ruin anything for you but I will say it was brilliant! Universal divides Harry Potter world between the two parks. On the Island there is Hogsmeade and the school of Hogwarts and on the other side is Diagon Alley. Both were awesome. The second day, Brian and I did Universal Studios, which was a bit older by means of technology and age of the rides. E.T., Men in Black, Twister and Terminator were some of the oldies. All in all both parks were amazing and we can successfully say that we did everything we wanted to. I still haven't made it to Disney World but Brian and I are thinking we will try to spend a day or two there when we return to our life on the road next March. 

I did not bring my camera to the park so I could enjoy the rides and not worry about it. The photos below were taken from my cell phone.