South Florida – July 6th to July 13th

Hollywood Beach

Hollywood Beach

After a week in Orlando we drove down to South Florida and we stayed a week in Weston, Florida a small town 25 miles west of Fort Lauderdale in a timeshare that had a view to the Everglades.

After a hectic time at the Disney Parks, it was time to relax, so one day, we went to Hollywood Beach and took a relaxing walk along the river of Fort Lauderdale. Another day we went to Miami Beach and hung out in the Mid-Beach area and drove through the South Beach Miami area with the Espanola way. On both of the beaches, the kids found tons of corals and shells, and Kiran was lucky to find a shark tooth.

Fort Lauderdale

On the way back from Miami Beach, Cherian visited the Dell Alienware office, where the kids got to see folks whose job it was to test computers by playing extreme computer games!

Espanola Way, South Beach, Miami

Miami-Mid-Beach

One day we spent in Everglades. We drove on the Alligator Highway to Everglades City where we got on a airboat. On the airboat, we saw a few alligators and even a manatee.

Everglades City

We also got out on Totch’s Island and saw a lot of Mangrove Trees. After the trip we got to hold some small alligators. On the way back we drove on the Tamiami Highway and stopped at Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk and saw a big alligator and a baby alligator in the wild, and got bitten by lots of mosquitos, even though we sprayed ourselves.

River Walk, Fort Lauderdale

Everglades, Loop Road

Then we stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center

in the Big Cypress National Preserve, watched a movie there and saw more alligators, fish eating off the back of the alligator, and even a turtle. 

Key Deer, Big Pine Key

The view when driving through the Keys

We drove on the Loop Road back where we met a raccoon, saw more alligators and looked at the beautiful scenery. We stopped by the Miccosukee Indian Village and saw an alligator show. Finally we stopped by the Shark Visitor Center for a short walk.

We spent two days on the Florida Keys. On the way there it was rainy, so the beaches were empty. We wanted to find some of the non-native invasive iguanas, so we stopped by the beaches at Islamorada and Marathon, but they were not out on a rainy day. But we did get to see a big stone crab and some small Key Deer on Big Pine Key.

Duval Street, Key West

It cleared up when we came to Key West and we took the hotel shuttle to get downtown.

Willie T´s, Key West

We passed by Hemingway’s house and his favorite bar Sloppy Joe's. We walked on the main tourist street, Duval Street where Kiran bought a conch shell with his name engraved. 

Mallory Square

We ate dinner at a restaurant with outdoor seating and a live band playing jam music. They had dollar notes all over the restaurant, had live music and we had a frozen key lime pie drink.

We made it to Mallory Square to see the street performers take their turn to maximize their earnings, but they were also really good!  Then, we forced the kids to sit and watch the sunset, which was really beautiful.  We promised Selina dessert, so we went on a mission to find key lime pie, and we ended up at Kermit's and had one slice of key lime pie, key lime pie ice cream, and even chocolate-dipped frozen key lime pie on a stick!

Sunset, Key West

The next day we went out on a snorkeling tour that took us just 6 miles away from Key West to one of the largest reefs in the world. It was definitely tricky to keep track of all of us while in the choppy water on the big ocean, but once the kids got the hang of it, and we got close to the reef, it was pretty amazing to see some decently big fish. On the way back from Key West, we stopped at Bahia Honda State Park and went snorkeling straight from the beach, where we were much closer to the action, and got to see a lot of fish in calm waters.

A really small fish!

A really big fish!

From Miami we flew to Boston to visit Cherians parents.