Sunday: Miami is certainly a bit of culture shock from my last 2 months in Alabama and Georgia! So many sky scapers and its just an urban sprawl. Found a city trail which was really a fitness loop around a ritzy country club. But it was listed on all trails so its kind of a hike? Either way it was a nice morning workout. After that I stocked up on groceries from Trader Joes which I hadnt been to for several months. This months airbnb has no kitchen (Miami is expensive lol) so trader joes ready meals are definitely an essential when all you have is a microwave. Sunday afternoon I went to Little Havana and I really did feel like my passport should have been inspected to go there- definitely felt like I was in another country except with less poverty and more money. So many murals and music everywhere. Had a delicious Mojito and some chicken, rice and beans with a side of plantains for dinner. yum!
Monday: Found a really awesome board game group that met at a board game brewery in Ft. Lauderdale. Super awesome crowd and a good selection of games hit the table
over the evening- Azul, Photosynthesis and I learned a new game called Space Base. Will definitely try to return to play some more games while Im in town with the group.
Also started getting really fascinated by all the different types of trees around. Some just look so foreign and so tropical. Not like anything Ive seen before
Tuesday: Walked to the neighborhood park and found the perfect hammock trees. Copper has turned into quite the hammock dog. Laying out in the hammock in the evening when its in the upper 70s in South Florida is truly relaxing
Thursday: Definitely got profiled as not speaking Spanish at the laundromat but once I said the dryer was broken in Spanish I got assistance... sigh laundromats are a huge downside of this lifestyle!
Saturday: Everglades National Park!!! Park #13 since I started counting last year 😊 As a ranger put it- Everglades isnt a national park for its immediate beauty or something that will wow you immediately but it was the first park to be preserved because of its biodiversity. Its
also the largest national park by area east of the Mississippi covering a huge chunk of South Florida. I feel like its also the flattest national park too (or maybe one of the other Florida water parks is technically that) because did you see that Florida mountain pass I had to cross over pictured below? I got up to 3 feet above sea level! I saw a sign later that said 4 feet too. Not sure I ever hit 5 feet but where my airbnb is at Im at 12 feet!!! So now that you understand how flat South Florida really is... Everglades still change quite drastically from the slightest elevation change. One sign said a 2 inch difference in elevation changes it from grassland to a tropical hammock- where trees grow. 2 inches changes the biodiversity that much! The weather there for most of the day was in the low 90s temperature wise and humidity wise. Not and very warm for the middle of March. But then there was a 15 minute downpour around 4pm and suddenly the temperature dropped down to about 75* and it was quite nice out. Lots of flat land hiking, spotted some
wildlife with the help of a ranger guided tour, an aligator crossed the road in front of me. I did get down to the very southern tip of Florida - Flamingo and found a deserted awesome trail down a 2.5 mile dirt road- those are always the best trails 😊 Overall a very unique park.
Photo ordering and uploading is a bit wonky this week. Not sure what happened so enjoy the mismash that is roughly reordered correctly at least by days?
