Leah and I have made a point of traveling to warm places during the winter in order to escape the bitter Minnesota cold and to explore locations that are more pleasant destinations in the winter. This year we picked a trip that coincided with a work training that Leah was doing in the Orlando area. I flew down to meet her and then spent a day working remotely from various locations.
Day 1 – Orlando
Leah headed off to her training and I headed out to find Wi-Fi so that I could get some wok done. First, I stopped at a Starbucks where I got a free, tall, sugary, caffeinated drink (after purchasing my first one) because a new employee was in training. It definitely made me a little jittery for a few hours. Second, I headed to the branch of the Orange County (not just in California) library system that was closest to the airport—where I would be picking up Leah once she returned her rental car. I was actually able to get a decent amount of work done and flying out earlier saved cost and inconvenient travel times.
Once I picked up Leah from the airport we headed straight to our hotel. It was a Baymont just off a main highway in some crappy part of greater Orlando. It was also cheap. Leah and I sometimes make a habit of traveling frugally. Upon inspecting the quality of the room and the surrounding property, we made a pact to never stay at a Baymont again.
We made peace with our current situation and headed to a brewery in Orlando. We went to Broken Strings Brewery, a low-key brewery in an industrial part of town with a modest taproom and okay beer. Leah made me finish hers.
Afterwards we headed to Brick & Fire Pizza for dinner. It’s a pizza place that we have been to before and enjoyed the last time so we decided to go back. It was February 13th and they were having a Galentine’s Day special—free wine for women with the purchase of a pizza. Nothing for the dudes. Leah did get her free wine, though. We got a different pizza from the last time and Leah didn’t like it as much. That’s what I get for suggesting something new.
We headed back to the Baymont and went to bed. We were only staying there for 1 night so it wasn’t a huge commitment. In hindsight I realized that maybe we should have just started our drive to Miami that night and stayed at a hotel along the way since we didn’t really have any specific reason to be in Orlando that night.
Day 2 – Miami
We got up and treated ourselves to the free breakfast. Nothing quite like a hotel waffle machine. They tried to double charge us for the room when we checked out—an issue we’ve had with Baymont hotels in the past. We got that taken care of and hit the road for Miami. It’s about a 3.5 hour drive from Orlando to Miami. Neither of us are huge Disney fans, and although I like amusement park rides, Leah does not and we both hate big crowds and waiting in lines. That’s why (in part) we decided to spend the vast majority of the trip in southeast Florida, a place that neither of us had been to before.
Our first stop in Miami was Versailles which is, according to its website, “THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS CUBAN RESTAURANT”. The guide books also considered the restaurant a must-see and one of the staples of Little Havana. Once we arrived it became clear that even though the restaurant was world famous, it definitely catered to locals. Almost everybody there, both working and dining, was speaking Spanish. There was a take-a-number system for counter ordering and we watched as our number was inexplicably jumped on the screen. It’s a classic trick to play on tourists. Confused, we walked up and just asked to order.
I got a medianoche (similar to a Cuban with the exception being soft and sweet bread instead of crustier Cuban bread) and a tarta de Santiago to share for dessert. Leah got spinach and cheese puff pastries and empanadas. Leah also made me order everything because she gets very nervous pronouncing words in foreign languages. The food and environment was great, the service… so-so.
Our next stop was Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering built on Biscayne Bay in Miami. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we do love a historic home tour. Here are a couple photos of rooms inside the mansion. It was intentionally built in the renaissance style, which seemed a little out of place at times.
The center of the mansion had what used to be an open air atrium but has since been closed in due to the effects of weather (rain, wind, salt, seawater, etc.) which they clearly didn’t account for in the original design.
On the garden tour we checked out the grotto which is no longer in use but had some intricate designs on the roof.
There was also an interesting concrete ship built in the bay behind the house that was used as both a breakwater and a party destination. Pretty cool spot to hang out if you ask me. Unfortunately, the elements had also damaged this part of the property.
Here’s Leah chilling next to a massive mangrove tree which, ironically, are being reintroduced now that we’ve realized how vital they are in protecting the shorelines of Florida from wind, sea level rise, and hurricanes.
Here’s a photo overlooking the gardens.
I’m not an amphibian or reptile expert so I’m not sure what all of these are, but the Vizcaya property, and southern Florida in general, had these little guys all over.
Here’s a photo of Leah next to one of the structures at the far end of the garden.
Here’s a photo of the property with some coral rock features visible. Coral rock is limestone mined in the southern tip of Florida that has a wide variety of fossilized shell and coral embedded in it.
Here’s a photo of the mansion looking back from the far end of the gardens.
Next we headed into the heart of tourist Miami—Miami Beach. The drive there was a little annoying and traffic in Miami seemed terrible. We found a place to park near the beach and took a stroll. It wasn’t a perfect day and some rain clouds were rolling in, so it was hard to tell if the beach gets more crowded on a typical day. As it was, we found it not very peaceful. We prefer a little less people and a little more scenery. Here’s Leah’s photo of me walking along the beach. The water was cold, but not unbearable.
Miami Beach is known for its interesting lifeguard stands. Here’s one of my favorite ones. It kind of reminded me of Sonic the Hedgehog.
We walked all the way to the south end of the beach and out onto the pier. Here’s a photo of the city, looking back the way we had just walked.
We also saw multiple cruise ships leave port while we were walking along the beach. They were all docked along the same strip of land that we drove past on our way to South Beach. It was kind of cool to see the massive ships up close. It was a Friday night and they all seemed to be leaving on the same schedule.
On our walk back to the car we took a different route along Ocean Drive in order to see the impressive collection of art deco buildings which help make this part of the city vibrant. Here is a collection of my favorite buildings that I took photos of, including a classic car that makes the one photo look like it could be out of the 1950s.
Next we headed to the Wolfsonian–FIU. It is a museum, library, and research center that uses its collection to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design (taken from Wikipedia). The museum has free admission and tours on Friday nights. The tour was interesting and based on design and globalization elements in the collection. The piece pictured below was featured in the lobby.
After the tour we found a Mexican restaurant and had delicious burritos and beer. The server spilled salsa on my shorts but other than that it was great. We got back on the road and encountered some terrible traffic leaving Miami Beach which turned out to be due to a bicycle accident. It didn’t look great…
Once on the highway I made some wrong turns trying to follow the GPS which lead us to somehow go through the arrivals section of Miami International Airport. It cost us some time, and a few extra tolls, but we eventually made our way to Homestead—where we would be staying for the next 3 nights. Homestead is one of the last cities before you hit the Florida Keys and the Everglades, a perfect jumping off point for adventures. We stopped at a Publix to stock up on breakfast food and snacks for the rest of the trip.
Our hotel was an extended stay that looked new and was decorated like a generic IKEA-furnished college dorm room. The bed was a Murphy bed that laid on top of a couch. It wasn’t particularly comfortable and creaked a lot when we moved. Also, for being an extended stay hotel with a kitchenette in the room, it oddly didn’t have any kitchen supplies. No plates, glasses, silverware, or cooking utensils. Nothing. Just empty cupboards. Oops, were we supposed to bring our own kitchen supplies? All-in-all, it was much better than the Baymont and perfectly adequate for the rest of the trip.
We went to sleep with the plan to head to Everglades National Park bright and early in order to try to get on a ranger led bike tour.
Day 3 – Everglades National Park
We left early to drive to the visitor center at Everglades NP. We talked to the ranger about different things to do and found out that there were still openings on the ranger led bike tour so we signed up for that. We did a quick tour of the visitor center (the gift shop was not open yet) and then headed out to the meetup spot for the bike tour. There were about 10 of us in total and we used rental bikes and helmets from the park service.
The bike ride was fairly casual and went through a more off-road section of the park. The ranger talked about how in the Everglades, an elevation change of a few inches makes a big deal in the type of landscape and vegetation that grows. We biked through sections of prairie-like fields similar to the picture below.
And also more densely forested areas like the picture below (with Leah for reference). And the only difference between these sections is mere inches of elevation.
We also stopped at a sinkhole that had vegetation growing out of it.
The ranger told us that a snake usually hangs around there. So naturally I was the first one to spot it. It was a cottonmouth, a venomous semi-aquatic snake. Here’s the best photo I could get of it.
After the bike tour we headed back towards the visitor center, stopping at a few hikes along the way. Here are a couple photos from those hikes.
At the visitor center we got postcards and my passport stickers (I actually got both Everglades and Biscayne at the same time since we were planning to go to Biscayne the next day and didn’t want another fiasco where I couldn’t find the sticker). We also took our National Park entrance sign photos. Since nobody was there to take them for us, here are our individual ones.
Next we headed to the HM69 Nike Missile Base to take a tour of the Cold War era military base that was positioned is southern Florida (inside of Everglades National Park) because of its proximity to Cuba. We learned a lot of information about what it was like to live on the base and what kind of ballistics were kept there. The tour was something that I was definitely more interested in at first since Leah wasn’t sure if she’d like the military history aspect of it. But I think we both really enjoyed the tour and learned a lot. Here’s one of the hangars with a replica missile inside. Somewhat pictured are the Boy Scouts who got to open the hangar doors.
On our tour were two veterans; one that was stationed at an Italian base in the 1990s that was equipped with Nike missiles, the other a service member that participated in the naval blockade of Cuba in 1962 (and was wearing a St. Paul Saints hat!). Our tour guide was very excited to have them with us and asked if they’d do a Q&A. It was a little awkward, but they did share some cool anecdotes and personal stories about being involved in Cold War era military activities with tie-ins to the missile site that we were touring.
Next we headed over to one of the more popular trails called the Anhinga Trail. As we learned from talking to rangers at the park, the only way to build roads, parking lots, and structures in the Everglades (or even most of southern Florida, to an extent) is by adding fill. And most of the fill is dredged from right next to where it end ups. That’s why the campgrounds have big ponds next to them and why all of the roads have drainage ditches or canals running alongside them.
The Anhinga Trail was no different. The trail left from a visitor center, and that visitor center was created by blasting out and digging a big hole next to it. That hole eventually filled with water because the water table is so close to the surface. Then all they had to do was pave a path around the man-made pond and add a boardwalk and now there’s a trail rich with wildlife due to the availability of water. Now, I’m not trying to pass any judgement about how this trail was created and how all of this human intervention has altered the park. These disturbances to the natural state are the only way that I would ever be able to witness all of the beauty that exists in the Everglades.
Birdwatching is one of the main draws of Everglades National Park, and below are some photos from the above mentioned Anhinga Trail (which we ended up visiting again later in this trip). From top-left then clockwise; a blurry close-up of a red-shouldered hawk (or at least that’s what a ranger told us), a great egret, two male anhingas drying their wings next to the trail (notice the shit stains covering the path, must be a popular spot), and a female anhinga perched on the railing.
Next we hiked a few more of the trails off the main park road on our way to the Flamingo Visitor Center which sits on the southern coast of mainland Florida. Here’s Leah posing next to a very old mahogany tree.
Here’s a photo of a boardwalk trail that got washed out, likely during a hurricane. I bet Leah that I could swim it but she wasn’t taking that bet. I’d obviously win.
Here’s Leah posing next to a gnarly looking mangrove tree. There are 3 main types of mangrove trees in the Everglades and I was trying to learn the differences so that I could identify them. I believe this is a red mangrove.
We finally made it to the Flamingo Visitor Center with the hopes of finding a nice place to watch the sunset. We wandered around one of the campground areas near the water until we found a spot to sit. Here’s a black mangrove tree.
The sunset ended up being pretty underwhelming and the bugs really started to come out like crazy at dusk, so we decided to call it a night. On the walk back to the car I spotted an osprey nest with two ospreys perched nearby. They were making a lot of noise. Probably didn’t like all of the people hanging around nearby. Leah thinks I should submit this photo to a contest or something because she likes it so much.
We got back in the car and made the long drive out of the park. We stopped at a Thai and sushi restaurant in Florida City. Their menu was what you’d expect; about a dozen pages long just about any type of Asian inspired dish that an American could imagine. I ended up getting the volcano chicken (which one of our servers said was his favorite and he eats it every day). It was fine. I don’t think Florida City is known for its foodie scene.
We took some leftovers for lunch the next day and headed back to the hotel. We had decided to go to Biscayne National Park the next day because there were spots left on a boat cruise that we were able to book last minute.
Day 4 – Biscayne National Park
We woke up with less of a time constraint due to the morning boat cruise we signed up for not leaving until 10 AM. We made the short drive to Biscayne National Park and took our park sign photos, again with nobody there to help.
Biscayne National Park isn’t one of the national parks that people talk about very often. It’s located just south of Miami and mostly protects the waters of Biscayne Bay. The park is ninety-five percent water. Biscayne National Park contains Elliot Key, the northernmost of the true Florida Keys—which are formed from fossilized coral reef. The offshore portion of the park includes the northernmost region of the Florida Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world.
We headed to the visitor center to confirm our boat cruise departure and took a quick spin around the exhibits on display. I did verify that the gift shop had the passport stamp that I purchased the other day at the Everglades NP gift shop so there wasn’t any need for me to worry.
We boarded the tour boat after a quick safety demonstration. One of the crew members told us stories and shared information about the national park while the other drove the boat across about 12 miles of open bay to our destination at Boca Chita Key (which is Spanish for cheetah mouth key). The boat created a ton of spray on the way out and Leah and I got soaked. It was hard to enjoy the ride while constantly getting splashed.
The good news, however, was that once we got off the boat at Boca Chita the sun was shining and we almost immediately dried off. We had about one hour to enjoy the key before the boat departed on its return trip to the visitor center. The main attraction was a lighthouse that was built by a previous owner of the key (Mark Honeywell) in the 1930s. The lighthouse was purely ornamental which caused issues over the years with some people mistakenly thinking it was intended to be used for navigation. Here’s the lighthouse.
There were also some cannons stationed alongside the lighthouse (no word on whether or not they were ornamental).
As part of our boat cruise, one of the crew members unlocked the lighthouse so that we could climb it and get spectacular views from the 65 foot observation deck. Here’s a photo looking out over the crystal clear (and shallow—about 4 to 10 feet deep throughout the entire bay) water.
And here’s a photo looking back at the marina where the boats were docked. Our tour guide said that Boca Chita Key only gets busy on weekends and holidays. And because it was President’s Day weekend there were more boats docked there than normal.
After climbing the lighthouse we took a brief stroll around part of the key and stopped at the beach. The sand was full of shells and coral and was not comfortable to walk on, but the scenery was beautiful. And we finally found someone to take our photo!
We did a little more walking and eventually got into a mangrove section of the key that was very buggy and Leah started to get bitten. I snapped one photo before we had to get back to the boat, both to avoid bugs and to make it back on time. Here’s another black mangrove.
The boat ride back had nearly no spray at all so I got to enjoy the scenery. I tried to spot a dolphin or manatee but didn’t see any. Once back at the visitor center we ate lunch and went on a walk along the short trail that left from the visitor center. After seeing all that we could in the park (without chartering another cruise or renting a boat) we headed out in search of a beach to lounge on for the rest of the afternoon. We asked the ranger at the information desk about seeing crocodiles. We had heard that they congregate by the thousands in the cooling canals of the Turkey Point nuclear facility. Unfortunately, the ranger told us that that area is off limits to the public.
We ended up at Homestead Bayfront Park mostly because it was next to the national park and we didn’t want to drive very far. The beach was on a lagoon in a man-made atoll. It wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but we had already paid to park and decided to stay. We found a spot on the beach in partial sun and spent the afternoon relaxing—Leah read a book and I toyed with the idea of swimming but ended up just sitting there and people watching.
There was a group of 3 women who looked very young and also had 3 toddlers in tow. It was unclear which of the 3 women, if any, were the mothers. They seemed much more interested in posing for and taking Instagram photos of each other than tending to the needs of the children. We quickly learned that one of the kids was named Zion because we kept hearing that name yelled every time he ran off (which he did a lot). Apparently Zion didn’t like standing still while he waited for someone else to arch their back, puff out their chest, position their skinny arm, toss their hair, suck in their stomach, and catch that sweet golden hour sunshine. We also got to witness one of the women solidly smack Zion across the face. Some great parenting (I think she was his mother?) on display.
The sun started to get lower in the sky and the temps were cooling off so we decided to leave the beach. I convinced Leah that we needed a little treat and could use that as an excuse to visit another tourist attraction that was closed the previous day when we drove past it. We were heading to a place called “Robert Is Here” which is a family-owned and operated fruit stand in Homestead. On the way there we passed the Homestead-Miami Speedway so I got to impress Leah with my very limited knowledge of NASCAR.
Robert Is Here is known for their selection of exotic fruits and vegetables, many of which are grown on site. Here’s me holding a massive Monroe avocado—definitely not your standard avocados from Mexico.
Another popular item from Robert Is Here is their selection of smoothies and milkshakes. And this is what piqued my interest in going there for a treat. You could mix up to 3 flavors from a long list of locally grown items. We got a banana and papaya milkshake. It wasn’t cheap ($7.25 for a pint-sized amount of milkshake) but it was good. I think it’d be fun to play around with the local flavor options. But Leah and I decided that it was a little more expensive than we wanted it to be. I think, understandably, that you end up paying partially for the novelty of it and partially for the local ingredients. It made for a nice treat on a hot day.
Next we headed back to the hotel so that we could shower and clean the sand and salt water off our skin before dinner. Then we drove to a guide book recommended Mexican restaurant in Homestead. They seemed understaffed and there were a few tables of disgruntled customers. Our food came out pretty quick but it took a really long time to get the bill. The food was okay. I was a little disappointed in the experience.
After that we headed back to the hotel and planned out our last day of the trip. We were going back to Everglades National Park to rent a canoe or kayak so that we could head out on the water. There was a ranger led canoe tour that was free, but when we called earlier in the day to try to reserve a spot on the trip all of the spots were full. We decided the next best thing was to head back to the Flamingo Visitor Center and rent our own watercraft. Plus, we hadn’t seen any alligators or crocodiles and I didn’t want to leave the Everglades without at least seeing some crocs and gators.
Day 5 – Everglades National Park and coming home
We got another early start in order to maximize our day at Everglades National Park. We drove all the way through the park to the Flamingo Visitor Center. We did stop along the way at a roadside pond that was full of birds. The photo doesn’t do it justice, but it was really cool to see in person. We saw storks, egrets, anhingas, herons, hawks, and a (sometimes confused with a flamingo due to its pink coloration) roseate spoonbill.
Once at the visitor center we asked a ranger about canoe and kayak options. The ranger told us that she had led the official guided canoe tour recently and that the route had to be altered due to a large bull alligator that was charging the canoes. Apparently alligators are usually pretty docile expect for some males who protect their mating territory. I was a little glad that we didn’t end up on that tour. Later in the day we also overheard another ranger complaining about how one of the people on his canoe paddle tour was too old and out of shape to actually paddle. They ended up tying him up to another canoe and towing him for a good portion of the trip which just slowed everyone down. Again, glad we weren’t on that trip.
The ranger we were talking to gave us suggestions of places to paddle to. There was a canal that was a popular place to see crocodiles and manatees. There was also a bay called snake bite that was a popular bird gathering spot. Even though the name of the visitor center was Flamingo, flamingos themselves are a rare sight in the Everglades. The last recorded sighting was about 4 months ago. According to the ranger, snake bite was our best bet to see one.
Another piece of information that turned out to matter a lot was that it was almost high tide. The ranger noted that we might actually be able to paddle out to snake bite because of this. The bay itself is only about 1 to 2 feet deep at high tide and becomes a mud flat during low tide. Paddling to snake bite was supposed to be challenging and would take about 4 hours round trip. This all intimidated us a little, but we decided to try it out anyways.
We decided to rent a kayak because that was our only option (they wouldn’t let canoes out into the bay, probably because they sat too low below the surface of the water). We also opted for the tandem kayak because it was cheaper and because we make such a good team.
We headed out towards snake bite, following the shore. There were so many birds feeding and nesting in the trees. Here’s a stork in a tree.
We made decent time and eventually saw the mass of birds at snake bite. It’s hard to tell, but they’re the thin line of white along the shoreline off in the distance.
The ranger also told us that the water would be clear and maybe we’d see some manatees out in the bay. If you look at the above photo, you can see that the water clearly was not clear. I don’t know how something so murky would ever be clear, but oh well.
We attempted to continue following the shore towards snake bite, but once in the bay the depth of the water became an issue. Our paddles were hitting mud with every stroke and the kayak was sliding over the bottom, getting hung up at points. The other interesting thing that was happening was that fish were jumping out of the water for what appeared to be no reason at all. Leah was afraid that one would jump into our kayak.
We also encountered what may have been the cause for the jumping fish. The ranger told us that we may find blacktip sharks in the bay, and boy did we. At first we just saw thrashing and surface water splashes whipping past our kayak. Then we finally saw the shark fins poking above the surface as they cut through the water. The bay was so murky that we couldn’t see anything below the surface of the water. So all we could see were these tiny fins and the wake behind them as they buzzed past the kayak, darting quickly back and forth in pursuit of a meal.
This started to freak Leah out, along with the possibility of running aground on a mud patch and needing to get out of the kayak (which was against the rules) in order to push it out. We returned the way we came and attempted another route across the bay. We ran into similar issues and decided to just call it on snake bite and head back towards the visitor center.
On the way back we stopped for a while and watched this osprey attempt to eat a fish it had just caught.
Here’s a photo of a heron (I think it’s a tricolored heron).
We still had time left on our rental and decided that we wanted to keep exploring. We got back to the visitor center and asked the staff if we could transfer to the canal. They said yes, so we unloaded our supplies at the dock and walked over to the dock in the canal and got on a different kayak to continue paddling.
Almost immediately we saw a crocodile. It was basking in the sun on the shore of the canal. I didn’t get a great photo of it. We were so exited to see a crocodile. Right after seeing the crocodile, while paddling up the canal, I spotted a manatee. There was a silver-ish blob moving below the surface of the water and at first I didn’t realize what it was. When I did I told Leah and we were both so excited to see one up so close. It was only a few feet from our kayak. The manatee breached the surface a couple times to breath, and then it slowly drifted beyond visible water depth and it was gone.
We were surveying the shore closely as we paddled, trying to see baby crocodiles (which the ranger told us about). Finally, I spotted one. The ranger described them as cat-like in the way that they draped themselves on the branches hanging over the water. If you follow the tip of the paddle straight up to the first branch, you’ll see a baby crocodile slouched there.
We paddled some more and saw other birds and crocodiles, but never another manatee. We felt really fortunate to see what we did. We eventually headed back to the visitor center and returned the kayak. We ate lunch and then started heading back out of the park.
Along the way we stopped again at the Anhinga Trail because we liked it so much the first time and our flight was late in the evening so we had time. This time on the trail (for no obvious reason at all) we saw multiple alligators. Here’s my favorite alligator photo from the trail.
We were glad we saw some alligators. It would have been weird to leave the Everglades without ever seeing an alligator. Here’s a great blue heron we saw on the trail as well.
Next we hit the road heading towards Miami. We were trying to think of quick things to do in the afternoon. We decided to drive to an iconic hotel called the Biltmore Hotel. It was in the guide books and was a free activity. Here’s a photo that some lady took of us. She also told us that she was a professional photographer, so judge the photo how you’d like.
Next we headed to the Wynwood Walls—a stretch of road in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami with huge and colorful street murals done by artists from around the world. The artwork was beautiful. I was driving so I didn’t take any photos, but a lot are available to view online.
Next we started looking for a place to have dinner. I thought it’d be cool to get an authentic Cuban sandwich from one of the restaurants in the guide books. Unfortunately, they were either closed, not conveniently located, or didn’t have vegetarian options. One place that was also on my list of destinations was Funky Buddha Brewery. We looked them up online and found that they had a pretty good selection of food. We decided to drive up to Oakland Park, Florida and check out Funky Buddha. It was also close to Fort Lauderdale which was where we were flying out of that night.
We ended up really enjoying the food and beers at Funky Buddha. Leah got wine for her second round which I said was okay since she got beer for her first round. After dinner we awkwardly changed in our car in the parking lot. We had to put on our cold weather clothes for the flight back to Minnesota. We got to the airport, boarded our flight, and headed back home. Another successful winter getaway to Florida.
Brian's Adventures 