Trip to the Florida Keys

Thursday we got up - not too early and drove South to Florida City. We went to two places in the Everglades where we walked and listened to a Ranger named Karen give lectures on the habitats and pointed out different birds and animals that live in that area of the Everglades. One walk took us to a large wet area where I counted thirteen aligators. We also saw many other aligators and birds along the way. We also went to a mahogany hammock and walked through that thick and dense vegetation on a boardwalk. It was amazing to see. These areas are in the Everglades, but are about 18 feet or so above sea level. It is so amazing to see the Everglades because I had always pictured it as a swamp, but it is actually a very slow moving river that flows from Lake Okachobee to the Florida Gulf. We are here at the very end of the dry season. In about 3 weeks, the wet season will start and then it will rain almost every day.
We stayed in a motel in Florida City and then got up early today to drive to Key West. Again, the keys are so different than what I had pictured. Many islands connected by Route 1 - Now we can say that we have been to mile 0 of the Atlantic Coast Highway that goes from Key West to Maine. We had lunch on the pier in Key West and met a cute server from Poland that has been here for four years. We walked partway down Duval street and looked in shops and stores, listened to a guy singing in a bar and then walked back to the truck. It was a fun and interesting day. We drove all the way back to Fort Lauderdale and arrived here a little before 8:00 p.m.
It is great to see so many things in this different part of the world!