Miami Trip Day 2: Everglades

I got a groupon to go on a boat ride in the Everglades. So basically it was 2 for the price of 1 ($27 each is what we paid). I have always wanted to go to the everglades, but I must say this was sort of disappointing. I could see how this would be exciting and really cool for someone who is not a Florida native and grew up going to Gatorland yearly, but for me it was kind of like being at Gatorland again. Maybe all the everglades look like this, I guess I really don't know. But this seemed more like a tourist spot than a real experience. We still had a good time though.

 We were picked up in South Beach and taken by bus. Our first stop was the dolphin mall (first sign of tourist trap that we dropped off people at a mall and picked people back up after our tour) and then we headed to the South Everglades. There is a long canal on the road and you could see a lot of gator. There was even a dead gator on the side of the road.

We arrived at Gator Park Trading Post and one of the last thing our bus driver mentioned was that the mosquitoes have been really bad here in the Everglades, but they sell bug spray. We left the bug spray in the car accidentally and I didn't want to buy more bug spray. We figured we could handle it. Everyone was buying bug spray like crazy, if we stayed close enough to them no bugs would bite us right? Right! I must say I don't think we even saw a mosquito while we were there. They totally were just trying to get us all to buy their overpriced bug repellent - I am so glad we didn't fall for it.

We saw gators and some birds on the air boat tour. The air boat was of course fun when it started going fast. There was definitely a specific area they were supposed to stay within and it I think due to the drought they were hindered in going out to far due to the potential of getting stuck.

One thing that the air boat guide mentioned was about the grasshopper, and just how they eat crops and all this stuff. People were freaking out on the boat that the grasshopper might hurt them. It is pretty sad how the grasshopper was kind of one of the items most discussed in the everglades.

After the boat ride we were herded over to this viewing area for a gator wrestling show as well as they showed us a few other animals like a skunk and baby gators, etc. It reminded me a little of Gatorland again. After the show we could pay to hold and take a picture with a real 3 foot gator. It seemed like the bus would never come. This was a long trip for really a very short tour.

Later that night we went back to South Beach for dinner. We were going to go to Joes Stone Crab restaurant but it was crowded and we didn't feel like spending that kind of money. It was nice because we were able to meet up with Jason Cisneros, Omar's cousin. I haven't seen him since high school. He seems to be doing well. For some reason I didn't take any pictures while were were out. I think I was really not feeling too well. We ate at this restaurant on Oceanway that had a little of everything. The food was really good too. I got a pesto pasta, I tried to find whatever would be the easiest to swallow. I hadn't really been eating/drinking much. Omar got this fish that was amazing and Jason got a steak.