Another day in the marsh. Our first stop was the park visitors center at Shark Valley. We first went on a short hike while waiting to board the tram for a 1.5 hour guided roundtrip to the observation tower. There were many small alligators near the edge of the road. Of course, where there are baby gators, there are mama gators…. so getting out of the tram is not allowed. We saw several species of birds until we arrived at the observation tower at the halfway point. We saw green turtles here and the short walkway there was blocked by a large alligator.
After getting back to the parking lot we continued to Everglades City where we took the boattrip into the Everglades national park. We were lucky enough to see several manatee, unfortunately they only pop up their nose above the surface seconds at the time so I only got pictures of water 
. Again there were a lot of birds around and just before we got back to the dock we saw a few dolphins.
Driving back to Miami we had some heavy rainfall. By the time we got to the hotel the skies started to clear again.
We drove to Bayside Marketplace on Biscayne Blvd. where we boarded a boat for an harbour tour. After getting a good view of the city the boat brought us close to the homes of the rich and famous. We saw the homes of Gloria Estefan, P. Diddy, Julio Iglesias and many more. After getting back to the dock we walked a short distance to the Metromover, a free elevated tramway that drives a 3 mile loop with very frequent stops. After getting yhe car we drove to Little Havana where a large Cuban community lives. Almost all signs are in Spanish and shops and restaurants cater for Cuban demand. Maximo Gomez Park is a small area with tables where mostly elderly people play domino and chess.
The final stop for today was Miami Beach. South Beach is well known for the Art Deco district with it’s colorful buildings of the 1920-30’s. Almost all buildings are hotels and/or restaurants.
After visiting the Everglades I switched on the GPS and took a look at nearby caches. Almost There is located very close to the edge of the National Park and it was the first choice to try and find it. At the exact coordinates I found nothing but looking at the other side of the fence I soon noticed the ammo box. I had the travelbug I took from the Central Park cache with me and dropped it here. I also took one of the travelbugs from the box so I once again have something to drop in the next cache.
Driving to Florida City from Kendall where our hotel is, only takes 40 minutes. The first time we visited, in 1987, Everglades Alligator Farm was just a little operation where you got a bit of cotton to protect your ears from the air-boat engine noise instead of entry tickets. Now, there’s a paved parking lot, shop, toilets and several air-boats. The highlight of a visit here is of course the air-boat ride. First slow, while viewing alligators and turtles, then full throttle through the marsh making a few 360 degree circles. There’s also a snakeshow with info about the snakes that are native to the area and a chance to hold a live python or smaller snake. Half an hour later we saw the alligatorshow. Again info is given about these animals and the difference with crocodiles.
We then drove into the Everglades National Park and walked a few trails that took us into the marsh on boardwalks. We saw wild alligators, several species of birds and a lot of mosquitos. Despite the insect repellent we used these critters would still attack us with dozens at the time.
Today was a driving day. We drove about 400 Km from Orlando to Kendall, Miami. We checked in to our hotel and then went to Coral Gables. We passed by the Biltmore hotel and then the Venetian pool. The latter was just closing as we arrived but we could get pictures before the gate closed. We just had some time to go to Coconut Grove and have dinner at Hooters to finish the day.
We went to Kennedy Space Center a little over an hour’s drive from our hotel. We had booked a “NASA up close” tour that went beyond the normal bus ride and brought us a lot closer to the 2 Space Shuttle launch pads than the regular tours. We also had stops at 2 other extra locations, one was a viewing area for shuttle launches, the other next to the Vehicle Assembly Building. One of the exhibits is an Atlas V rocket, the largest space rocket in the world. From this exhibit we were taken to a building with ISS module replicas and a hangar where parts are tested before launch. This was the last stop before we went back to the visitor center. Apart from the “rocket garden” there’s the memorial wall with the names of astronauts who died like the crew of the 2 Space Shuttles that exploded.
A real “must do” is the Space Shuttle launch simulator that gives an idea of what a launch must feel like (except for the G-force of course.
All to soon it was 19:00 and we had to leave the complex and drive back to Orlando.
Next to our hotel was an IHOP so that’s where we went for breakfast. Nothing like a stack of pancakes to start the day… Then it was on to Universal Studios. The first thing we did was Universal’s newest attraction, The Simpson’s ride. This is a simulator ride with 180° screens. Next to this ride is Apu’s Kwik-E-Mart (without the expired food). The rest of the rides and attractions we knew from the previous visits. Only the MIB (Men In Black) was one we hadn’t done before.
One thing that we noticed was that unlike previous times the waiting times were very reasonable. 10-35 minutes max. Last time some attraction had waiting times of over one hour. The park was also less crowded than it was in 1999 and 1993. Is this the ailing economy or something else? We’ll soon see when we visit other attractions in Florida.
Again time for sleeping in. We did everything we wanted to do in New York and today we had to leave. We stayed in our room until check-out time and then took a cab to JFK. Traffic was rather light and we made good time. By 1 o’clock we were at the Delta check-in counter dropping off our luggage. Our flight on a Delta MD-88 was scheduled to take off at 16:18 but while we were in the plane we were told that we would have to wait for about 20 people from an incoming flight. Once they arrived we already missed our slot and we had about an hour of waiting time to be pushed back from the gate. We then had to wait in line for take off. The pilot informed us that he didn’t even know how many planes were before us. By the time we finally left New York behind the delay was about 2.5 hours. Fortunately the flight went smoothly as did the pick-up of our rental car. The car we booked was not available so they gave us a van. At least there was enough space for our luggage. When we finally made it to the hotel and got settled in it was close to midnight.
We walked through a part of Central Park and choose our route to pass Down the Rabbit Hole - NYC . This is an easy to get to cache where you have to be very careful not to attract attention. The container was found very quickly and checked for contents. The log was signed at 14:00 and I removed a travelbug before putting the container back in it’s hiding place. The travelbug wil go to Florida with us and I’ll try to find a nice place for it.
During the holidays we don’t have a lot of “free” time so for geocaching we try to find the occasional cache without losing to much time. On tuesday we were up the Empire State Building, the spot of one of New York’s virtual caches. This was an easy to do cache and we could log it in seconds. Number one in the USA.
« Previous Entries