Two Boat Trips in Biscayne Bay

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 that islands are volcanic and keys are ancient coral reefs. Jana told us about the Saltwater Railroad, which was an escape route for slaves. They would come to South Florida and escape by boat to the Caribbean. 

In the middle of Biscayne Bay, we came across Stiltsville. This is a bunch of homes built in the 1930s in the middle of the bay. They are on stilts, hence the name Stiltsville, and they look like camps. At one time there were 27 to 35 of them, but now only 6 remain due to hurricanes and disrepair. There was no running water or electricity in any of the homes. When it was low tide, you could walk from shack to shack. 

When Biscayne Bay became a national park in 1980, these remaining houses found themselves on national park land. This created a tension between the homeowners and the park. Public lands can't be used for private use, but the homes were there before the area became a national park. Residents received eviction notices and were told that if they didn't take their homes down, the Park Services would do it for them. The owners had lots of community support, and they banded together with previous homeowners and a local congresswoman to form a group called Save Old Stiltsville (SOS). They also got signatures from 75,000 south Florida residents, and testified before Congress five times. It was finally decided that the buildings would be incorporated into the park as historical landmarks, but could no longer be used as private homes.

Biscayne Bay is considered to be Miami's backyard, and yet parts of Biscayne Bay are only 45 minutes from the Bahamas. We were given a brief history of the city of Miami. It was founded by a woman, Julia Tuttle from Ohio, and claims to be the only city founded by a woman. Julia grew citrus fruit, and in order to get the fruit back up north, she was instrumental in bringing a railroad line here. Once the railroad line came to Miami, the city quickly grew up around it. 

Boca Chita is the most visited key in Biscayne Bay National Park. It was once a millionaires' playground and a place where the Committee of 100 would meet. This was a group of like-minded world leaders who would gather, the story goes, to play and make plans to rule the world. It is said that lots of business deals were cut here.

Once we arrived in Boca Chita, we had some free time to walk around and enjoy the scenery.  We first walked to a nearby lighthouse, which was made of oolites which is a type of limestone. 

Then we walked around the island and enjoyed the beauty of the area. Boca Chita is very isolated, with gorgeous scenery, a nice serene picnic area, a campground, and beautiful views of the water with Biscayne Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. 

When heading back to the mainland, we had some nice views of the marina.

After we returned, we went back to Bayside Center which we had seen from the Big Bus tour. We walked along the Bayside Boardwalk where there was much activity. 

We located a restaurant where we enjoyed a nice outdoor lunch right next to the marina. 

Restaurant where we ate

View of marina from our table

After lunch, we took another boat tour - the Miami Mansions Cruise. 

Our boat for the Mansions Cruise

Tiki Bar Boat

Our afternoon boat tour went out into Biscayne Bay again, but this time we saw the luxury homes of many well-known people who live in the Miami area. Some of the celebrities whose homes we saw were Sylvester Stallone, Julio Eglesias, Taylor Swift, Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Lopez, Will Smith, Nancy Sinatra, and Shaquille O'Neal. We also saw the mansion where The Addams Family was filmed. We saw Floyd Mayweather's home which cost $68 million, and has 11 rooms and 13 bathrooms. And we saw Jackie Chan's home which is available to rent for $7000 per night and sleeps 10. We passed by Fisher Island which has the highest per capita income of any place in the United States. There is a lot of money in the Miami area. Here are pictures of some of the homes.

Here is a picture of Miami's Hard Rock Cafe, located along the Biscayne Boardwalk, and which we saw from the boat.

And I couldn't resist yet one more picture of the fabulous Banyan tree.