On Tuesday morning we drove to BWI airport. Paul dropped the kids and I off and then took our van to the long-term parking. The kids and I waited for him so that we could go through security together. There was zero wait to go through security, which meant we had arrived earlier at the airport than necessary, but better safe than sorry! I had packed lunches for the kids and I the previous day, and we ate those before we boarded the plane. Because the time in the air to Charlotte was only one hour and they knew the ride was going to be a bit bumpy, we were told the flight attendants were going to stay seated the whole time, which meant no snacks or drinks. The landing was anything but smooth. The kids had flown to California in 2018, but they don't remember that much or at all. Our flights in August/September 2023 are the first they really recall. We flew on Southwest for our northwest trip, so the kids were comparing the similarities and differences with American Airlines. Unlike Southwest we had assigned seats, and there were places to plug in our devices to charge them. On our flight from BWI to CLT we needed to use our own devices to watch anything, just as it was on Southwest, but on our flight from CLT to MIA, there was a screen and headphones were provided. The kids liked the snacks better on Southwest, but Paul liked that on American (on the second leg of our journey) they gave him a full can of Coke rather than just a cup of it.
The flight I had selected many months ago didn't include a long layover in Charlotte, but in the intervening time American Airlines changed our flight times and lengthened our layover by two hours. Originally, we planned to have dinner in Miami, but in light of the delay, we had dinner in the Charlotte airport instead. Paul got a sub from Jersey Mike's (they didn't accept our gift card, bah humbug), and the kids and I got food from Panera (they accepted the gift card). Oliver had cheddar broccoli soup which was a first for him, and he loved it. Since they were out of the yogurt tubes the boys ordered with their kids' meals, they let them have a dessert of their choice instead. When we landed at the Miami airport, there was another airplane at the gate where we were supposed to go, so we had to sit on the tarmac for almost another hour waiting for that gate to open up. By the time we trekked out to the rental car area, waited for a shuttle to the off-site rental location, and got our minivan, it was much later than we had anticipated.
We knew we had to drive about 40 minutes to our hotel, and we planned to stop at a Walmart near our hotel to get some groceries, bug spray, and sunscreen. We hadn't checked any bags, which meant we couldn't bring those items with us. We spent the first night at a Holiday Inn. Not counting when we are on the Florida Keys, I booked rooms that included either two double or queen beds plus one sofa bed. Nadia just sleeps on the sofa without opening it up. She likes it best when there is a door separating the bedroom (or bedrooms) from the living room. Our first night in Florida this wasn't the case. The second night we stayed at a TownPlace Suites which had two bedrooms and a living room/kitchen. The third night was at a Best Western, and there was a door in between the bedroom (where the other four of us slept) and the living room (where Nadia slept). The first night the pool was closed for repairs, which was irrelevant for us since we went to bed as soon as possible after we checked in. The second night there was an outdoor pool, but the kids decided not to use it although we checked in much earlier than we had the first night. The third night the kids and Paul did go swimming, partially because there was also a jacuzzi. Ian is a big fan of jacuzzi tubs. Although I also like jacuzzis, I opted to work on editing photos on my computer. The breakfast at the hotel in Maryland was certainly the best one so far, but all of the hotels have served hot breakfasts so far, which are greatly preferred to continental ones since we only eat snacks for our "lunch." The worst breakfasts were the "grab and go" variety during COVID.
On Wednesday morning our first stop was one of the visitor centers of the Everglades National Park, which is the third largest National Park if you exclude the ones located in Alaska. We bought a magnet, stamped our passports, watched a film, and the kids started working on their Junior Ranger books. Our second stop was Royal Palm. We took a hike with a park ranger along the Ahinga trail, and then we took the Gumbo Limbo trail on our own after that. Our third stop was to see a Nike missile that was placed there in the 1960's during the Cuban missile crisis. After that we drove to three other locations where we hiked a trail. Since the park is so large, we were unable to visit all of it. We ended our day by driving to the Shark Valley region of the park where we rode an airboat through the everglades and also saw a nature program that featured alligators and pythons. The airboat ride was the highlight of our day. We had dinner at Chili's and then checked into our hotel for the night.
On Thursday morning our first two stops were visitor centers in Big Cypress National Preserve. The kids had started working on their Junior Ranger pages for this site the previous day, so they received their badges after we watched a film in the first visitor center. There were MANY alligators very close to the first visitor center. At the second visitor center many manatees had been spotted the previous couple of days, but none were there while we walked the short boardwalk. We stopped at two other locations for brief hikes before beginning our drive on Loop Road, which is a dirt road. This was the highlight of my first two days as we saw SO many alligators so close to us when we drove on that road. After Loop Road we reentered Everglades National Park at the Shark Valley Visitor Center. The kids received their Everglades Junior Ranger badges at this point. They've now been in 132 National Park sites in person. Nadia has earned 202 badges, Ian has earned 204, and Oliver has earned 188, We had to wait in a line and pray for another car to exit so that another car could be allowed in the area, similar to what we experienced in the rainforest section of Olympic National Park in Washington. Thankfully, Paul was able to park in time for us to all participate in the 2:00 tram tour for which I had already booked our tickets. The tour lasted a little over two hours, and a park ranger spoke a lot about the park in general, birds, alligators, etc. I would say we saw over 100 alligators over the course of the day - from babies to adults. We didn't see any panthers, manatees, or crocodiles although all three live there. The birds we saw the most frequently were great blue herons, white egrets, purple gallinules, and anhingas. We also saw a couple of pink spoonbills. We ended our day by driving farther north as we had dinner at Bahama Breeze and then spent the night in Deerfield Beach. It was the first time any of us ate at a Bahama Breeze. As appetizers were half-price while we were there, Nadia had yucca cheese sticks and a side salad as her meal, and Oliver had crab and cheese dip with tortilla chips as his meal. Oliver had never had crab before, and he loved it. Ian had his usual chicken tenders. I had a delicious Caribbean salad. Today we're looking forward to seeing a wide variety of animals, and then tomorrow we will begin our time in the keys.
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