So this day was a complete “audible”. We didn’t decide to do this until
Thursday. This morning the four of us
got up and left before 7am, stopping at a Dunkin Donuts/gas station in Marathon
for breakfast. Then we drove all the way
up the keys to the Everglades National Park. As is our tradition, upon seeing the park
entrance sign, we pulled over to take a ridiculous number of pictures of us in
front of the sign. Well this time when
we pulled over, our rental car died. And I
mean died. Plus the key was stuck in the
ignition. And I mean completely
stuck. I said we needed to go ahead and
take the picture and as soon as we did, Nick got on the phone with Thrify and I
got bug spray out of the car – the mosquitos were horrible. I went back to Grant, who was still standing
on the NP sign and told him to get down.
So he jumped, fell on his arm, and started screaming. I think there’s a good chance that he broke
his arm. All of this shit went down in a
matter of about 15 minutes – it was scary.
We were setting up a little spot on the other side of the road when I
got back into the car for something and realized the door dinged. We started the car back up just fine and were
on our way – there is a defect with the anti-theft system of the car.
Grant however, was not okay. We stopped at the Everglades visitors center,
got our magnets, etc. then drove a short ways to the Anhinga Trail trailhead
and took a short hike.
But oh my gosh –
we saw 7 or 8 alligators – some sleeping, some on the move, some eating… it was
spectacular – and holy cow was it hot and buggy. There were giant grasshoppers everywhere
which were benign but gnarly!! We also
came across a tiny tree frog.
After our short walk we got back in the car and drove the
short 20ish miles to Biscayne National Park, 95% of which is in water. So we just stopped at the Visitors Center, got
what we needed, rocked in some rocking chairs on the porch of the Visitors
Center then left.
We were to a
restaurant on the beach which is on an adjacent county beach – not in the
national park. We had a nice view from
La Playa then we started back towards the house.
Grant’s arm was still hurting so we stopped in Marathon at
Burdines, a cool restaurant overlooking the water, a mangrove orchard and a gas
station. We just got dessert there (and
an Advil for Grant). He and I shared a
fried key lime pie, which was delicious.
Nick got a regular key lime and Ryan a chocolate covered frozen
banana.
We got back to the house around 5:30 and the four kids watch
Spy Kids for the millionth time while the adults just relaxed.
As I’m writing this, the kids are asleep but Grant’s arm is
still hurting. We leave tomorrow to go
back to Dallas and school starts a week from today. It’s been
and is going to be hectic when we return but this past week was
great. My kids have now been to 16
national parks in nine states and they are 7 and 9 years old. NOT BAD!!
P.S - written several weeks later - Grant went to the doctor and his arm was not broken - just badly sprained.
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