We started today out by going to Biscayne National Park. 

Once we arrived at the visitor center, we were immediately drawn to the trail beside the water.  After walking beside the water and admiring some of the coral and birds that we were able to see along the edge, we went into the visitor center to learn about what we were seeing.  In there, we watched some of the movie and learned a great deal about the coral and fish that live in the area. 

I’ve seen a lot in the news over the years about coral “bleaching”, and I finally understand what is going on.  There is an algae that lives inside the coral that is beneficial to the coral and gives it its color.  When the temperature of the water around the coral gets too warm, the algae abandons the coral to find a more comfortable home.  If algae does not return to the coral quickly, the coral dies and turns white in color. 

After seeing the movie, we joined a volunteer-led tour up the jetty walk and learned about the three different types of mangroves: red, black, and white.  Biscayne is at least one of the few, if not the only, national park that allows people to fish and bring their fish home.  We saw lots of people fishing and catching things like Gray (Mangrove) Snapper.

We heard a lot about the necessity to embrace the local culture that plays loud music and learn to just enjoy the music because it will drive you crazy otherwise.  Fortunately, no one was playing loud music, and we had a very enjoyable walk along the jetty.  I went back into the visitor center to request other hikes, only to find out that without a boat, we had already taken the only hike.  I asked about the remaining area along the shoreline that is highlighted in green on the map as being part of the park hoping that maybe we could walk through there but was told that it is all overgrown with mangroves. 

Biscayne NP is 95% water.  Several Keys also make up the park, but a boat is necessary to get out to the Keys.  We may or may not do something along those lines some time while we are here.  There are so many opportunities for fun excursions; we have to decide which ones are the most important to us. 

After finishing our walk, we decided we needed some sunscreen and some lunch.  We fixed our picnic, and I went to get the sunscreen, only to determine that we left the bag with the sunscreen, bugspray, snacks, hiking shoes, etc at the RV.  Needless to say, we stopped to get some sunscreen and determined that most of us fair-skinned people already had some damage done, but it wasn’t too bad. 

Lots of demands were being made to go to the beach (we thought we would have beach at Biscayne, but no luck.)  A ranger recommended that we could find some swimming areas in a state park in Key Largo, so we headed out that way (after getting the sunscreen). 

On our drive to Key Largo, I was disappointed that we weren’t able to see more of the water.  We finally made it to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and headed to the visitor center to find out what we wanted to see and do.  They have lots of boating excursions out to the coral reef as well as kayak/canoe excursions into the canals lined with mangroves.  We took a hike on a boardwalk through the mangroves but saw very little wildlife. 

Next we went down to the water and discovered, again, that there wasn’t really much beach.  The “beach” was covered in old coral pieces and not comfortable to walk on, even for my kids who go barefoot constantly.  They waded into the water with shoes a bit, but in the end we decided not to do any swimming there.  I think I’m just going to have to suck it up and go to Miami Beach one day so that the kids can actually get some “beach” time. 

We drove further up into the keys and spotted a large nest that we watched for while because we thought it may be an eagle nest.  We can see a large bird in it but couldn’t tell if it was an eagle.  After a little more driving, we decided to stop at a Starbucks for a treat.  After going into the store and seeing that a small latte was going to run us $9.75, we left. 

We headed back to the RV thinking that we will have to go back to the Keys with more time (not just late in the afternoon one day) and contemplate a snorkeling trip around John Pennekamp State Park.  We were all tired of being in the car with each other!

Rebecca