The Everglades

 Whenever we travel we try to go to the local National Parks if at all possible.  Who knows when we would be near the Everglades National Park again? We wanted to do the boat tour so we drove 40 miles into the park.  We saw a manatee while we were on the dock.  I did not get a good picture but it was a cool experience- a first for all of us.  When he pulled his head out of the water, Red Fish was especially shocked by his experience and took a few steps back.  She ended up buying herself a little toy manatee from the store because she liked him so much.

 The boat ride ended up being lame.  We saw one tiny American crocodile (I didn't know we had crocodiles) and the mangroves but it was a fairly uneventful ride.  If you are planning on visiting the Everglades I would skip the boat tour and save your money.

Mangroves

 We collected junior ranger packets from the Flamingo visitor center and started to think that the Everglades just wasn't our favorite park.  We decided to stop at the Anhinga board walk trail and it completely changed our minds.  Every few feet down the trail there would be an alligator, an anhinga, or a giant neon grasshopper. We saw turtles and wildlife at every turn.  This trail alone was worth the trip. We spent several hours looking at all of the animals.