Soaking up the Sun Like a Sponge

On Wednesday, we went to Ash Wednesday Mass at Sacred Heart Church.  Sacred Heart Church Today is the day that we start heading back to Louisiana. So normally you would think that after Mass, we would start driving north, right? But that is not how we roll. We headed south! What is south of Miami besides Key West, which we've already been to? Why, the Everglades, of course! And that's where we headed. We had visited the Everglades many years ago on a previous trip to Florida, but now we wanted to go to the Visitors Center. So we headed to the Everglades Visitor Center just south of Homestead, Fl. Map of Everglades National Park Everglades National Park We viewed the many exhibits at the Visitors' Center and learned a lot about the Everglades and south Florida. The Everglades are unlike any other place in the country. Known as the River of Grass, the Everglades are home to much wildlife including many different kinds of birds; snakes, including some of the world's larges...

On Tuesday, we went to Coconut Grove near Coral Gables, just south of Miami, a very affluent area. There we were booked on a National Park Boat Tour, called the Heritage Tour, to Stiltsville and to Boca Chita Key.  As soon as we arrived, we noticed some familiar people. The five people from St. Mary, Pennsylvania that were with us on the seaplane adventure to the Dry Tortugas were there, also booked on the same boat tour - an amazing coincidence! So we got to visit with these people again, who now felt like neighbors. Our boat captain was Stephon, his assistant was Jana, and our boat's name was Lloyd Miller.  Stephon Jana Lloyd Miller boat As we traveled across Biscayne Bay, we learned that this huge bay is very shallow, about 8 feet mostly except where they had dredged channels. As we headed out, we got more nice views of the harbor area of Miami, and the skyline.  Miami skyline Our destination is Boca Chita Key. The difference between keys and islands, we were told is t...