Everglades? What's that?

I spilled some orange juice this morning. The nearest things available to wipe it up included a roll of paper towels, a pile of napkins, a dry-vac, 3 dogs, a portable particle accelerator, and a map of Florida. Of course, I chose the map of Florida to wipe it up, and as I did so I accidentally took notice of the southern part of the state. I consulted Gina, and we were both surprised to learn that the state does extended further south than the fair city of Ft. Lauderdale. Oh sure. There's a lot more down there including a little thing called "the everglades".

We made a point of going to the everglades to explore this strange new land, and perhaps stake a flag to claim the land as our own. Unfortunately, some ohter civilization had found it before us, so territorial conquests are not forthcoming.

We went to a place called "The Shark Valley Loop". We didn't see any sharks, and "valley" is only accurate in the strictest definition of the term: lowland between two high lands. In this case, the highlands are still very low, but they are above sea level and they're above the lowland, so the term is technically appropriate... but barely.

Shark Valley consists of a 15 mile one lane road that you can travel on by foot, bike or tram. Gina's pregnant, and I'm lazy, so we went with the tram.

Unlike the "Diva Duck Non-Tour" that we participated in yesterday, this was actually educational. There weren't any duck puns, which was refreshing. The tour guide was named Jose. He spoke very good english, but with a strong accent. He kept pluralizing some words that are already pluralized. "Watch your childrens", etc. He had a bunch of jokes, most of which were mildly entertaining.

About 1/2 way through the loop, there's an observation tower. They say its 50 feet high, which didn't sound very impressive, but it actually is when you get there. Everything is so flat that 50 feet goes along way.

We saw a lot of alligators, all at a safe distance. On the ramp up to the observation tower, you can look down and see at least a dozen of them. Of all the alligators we saw, though, not a single one was moving. It was mid-day. They were all just chilling out. I wanted to poke them with a stick, but apparently that's ill-advised. Besides, I wouldn't have been able to pick up a stick without getting arrest for disrupting a national preserve or something. It wasn't worth the risk.

The weather was perfect for the outing. It was hot, but there was a great cool breeze.

Right outside the park, there's a restaraunt. God, it was awful. The next time we're in the neighborhood, I'm going to make a point of not going there again. In fact, I may plan a day trip back to the everglades that's built around not going to that restaraunt again. Just awful. I was afraid to get an iced-tree refill. The wetlands should definitely be allowed to reclaim that property.