Something in the Water

Yes- this was a long day, we went to the Everglades, checked in at the hotel, and then to finish off the day we went snorkeling at John Pennekamp. 

Yea!  We made it!

setting up camp

All right kids, time to practice snorkeling!

These kids were amazing! Makayla and Emma were just like fish in the water.

Emma getting the hang of it.

Kyle

Mark and Makayla

Derek had no interest in snorkeling, he was perfectly happy just hanging out in the water!

The group

What you go there Darren?

Fun!

Can you see that fish?

Emma

There is an achor and some really cool cannons that are about 100 feet off shore.  It was fun to snorkel around them.

Ellie swimming down!- I can hardly even do that!

Here is one of the cannon's

Hello me!

This picture doesn't do it justice- this fish was so pretty, it had these cool blue stripes on it.

Can you spot the baby sting ray that we saw?

 So, as we were finishing up snorkeling and the sun was setting we were looking at the water,  I was about knee deep when all of a sudden something very large surfaced and went back down.  It was huge- at least 6 feet long, and it was where I had been snorkeling moments before!  I yelled at everyone and we looked- and it came up again.  I jumped in and started swimming after it- I figured it was a manatee and wanted to see it up close! But then the water started to get murky and I started to think, "what the heck am I doing following a large sea creature that I THINK is a manatee?  What if it's not?"  So I stopped following and we watched the mysterious thing swim away. It was cruising!    I asked a ranger who happened to be there and he confirmed what we thought.  He said there is a trench there where the manatees sleep and then they swim out of the area around dusk.  I got a good adrenalin rush out the whole incident!   As we stood there watching the water the Tarpon started biting too.  They are a big fish-2-6 feet  and come up and twist in the water so you see a bunch of fins above the water.  It is pretty cool to watch.  It was an incredible evening!

Ocean Pointe in Key Largo!

After the Everglades we continued our drive down the keys.  I love that drive! 

Look at that water!!

They use forklifts to get the boats onto these storage units

Thumbs up to arriving at the Ocean Pointe! 

Loved this sign. 

While we were checking in we saw this cool iguana on the boardwalk.  He was big!!  and cool!!

Stray cats hanging out.  There seems to be lots of them there.

This cool crab was eating a shrimp!

Hanging on the beach while the guys checked us in.

Almost there!

We made it!  The place was really cool for families!  It was a great price for the rooms.  It actually wasn't even a hotel- it was privatly owned condos.  So each place had a master bedroom and bath.  Another bedroom and bathroom, A kitchen, living room and balcony!  I could have stayed there a week!

This is the life!

Me and my seriously awesome brother Mark!  I love you so much Mark!!!

The Everglades Day 5

Monday we had planned to go shark tooth hunting at the beach, but everyone was burnt and burnt out.  So we took a break.  We went shopping, went to the pool and let the kids practice with their snorkeling gear, and got ready for our big trip to Key Largo.  On Tuesday we got up and headed down to the Keys.  On the way we stopped in the Everglades to go on an airboat ride and check out the gators.  There weren't nearly as many gators out as there are during the winter, but we still saw a few.

This guy was just chilling.

SCARY!!

Paul and Makayla getting ready for the airboat ride.

Here we go!

Yea, don't ever take a baby on an airboat ride.  It's not a good idea. It was really loud and windy and poor Gabe didn't like the ride or the earplugs he had to wear.

Mark looking cool when it was like 100 degrees outside.

Fun things growing in the trees.

After the ride we went to this gator show.  This guy was great.

Talking about gators- I guess they just lay around more than 90% of the time.

The show was a lot of fun.  A couple of weeks ago one of the tour boat captains got his hand bit off by a gator!  He was splashing the water and feeding the gator.   I guess that's not a good idea.

Emma

Ellie

Makayla

Jared

Derek

Paul

Kyle

Malinda

Me and Gabe

Mark

Me and Gabe again

After the show we walked around and saw more gators. There was a crocodile that was trying to attack us and kept hitting the fence, it was kinda scary!

Alligator in Child's Pose

After the everglades we stopped at a fun fruit stand and bought a bunch of fruit.