Tamu and I woke on Christmas morning in a hotel in Homestead where I had a big holiday breakfast before heading to Everglades National Park. I would have loved to take Tamu, but it was too hot to leave him in the car, and the National Park Service advises that alligators can gobble up dogs pretty quickly, so they are best left behind. So I found him a Forrest Gump marathon on the television and left him with holiday treats. He seemed happy. I’m sure he was glad to have the day off.
I headed to the Everglades for my first canoe trip. Rather than start slowly, I signed on for a 3.5 hour ranger-guided paddle. I was combined into a family from Fairfax who needed a second canoe, so Mom and I chatted of life in northern Virginia and moved ourselves around the park while Dad managed the kids in his vessel. Canoeing was a lot of fun, even as a novice, and inspired me to take kayaking lessons in the summer that followed.
After the water trip, I headed up to the lodge for a small lunch and then joined a ranger-led hike. I saw my first alligators, more gorgeous flora and fauna, and then wandered the park on my own.
What can I say about the Everglades? It is on a latitude that is largely made of savannahs and deserts, but because of the water surrounding it and the Florida canopy, the park is a vast pond. Most of the canoe trip was in shallow water, but a bit of it went through mangroves and a deeper pond. There is a range of plant and animal life, and I did my best to capture it, but my photos and film do not do justice to the experience of being there.
Once evening fell, I headed back into Homestead and realized I was starving. Fortunately, Denny’s was open, so I had a big Christmas dinner with an assortment of other folks and returned to Tamu at the hotel. It had been a glorious Christmas Day.