We arrived in Miami around 8 a.m. after a (slightly delayed) red-eye flight from SFO. We sped through baggage claim and the car rental to head to the Shark Valley entrance to Florida's Everglades National Park.
We did a short ranger walk and learned a bit about the flora and fauna and then rode the Shark Valley Tram through a section of the park for alligator-spotting!
Dressed appropriately in an Alligator shirt!
There are about 60,000 gators in this area of the park and we saw dozens!
Baby gators (low on the food chain, only about 5% survive to adulthood).
Gators grow about a foot per year in the first four years of life. They can live upwards of 60 years in the wild and decades more than that in captivity.
We also saw many native birds, including the (male) anhinga, blue heron, and egrets.
Anhinga
Blue heron
A rare (not posed) brotherly moment.
We then headed to Coopertown Airboats, the original Airboat company (1946).
Kelvin actually tried gator bites.
Baby gators that wandered onto the property from the nearby wetlands.
The airboat was LOUD and we wore headphones when the boat was in motion.
More gators spotted (more camouflaged)!
We had a great intro to this part of Florida before heading to the beach!
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