Florida & Everglades, Part 1: Shark Valley

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! 

Golden State Warriors at Golden 1 Center

We started off Spring Break week strong with a NBA basketball game-- with our Golden State Warriors team playing the Sacramento Kings (in Sacramento).  Niall has become quite the Steph Curry fan, and both boys (and we also) enjoy watching basketball. Kelvin found some tickets and added this little detour to our planned Florida week, leaving home midday to head south.

We stayed at the downtown Holiday Inn, a few minutes' walk from the Golden 1 Center where the Kings play. We happened to see some Humboldt natives, Niall's soccer coach, Mo, in line waiting to get in, too! 

The night celebrated the Sixth Man, and we were gifted Kings jerseys with #6 at our seats. 

Steph Curry has been out injured for several games and even sat out last night's game against the Lakers, but we were thrilled to see him warming up! (K and I watched a Warriors-Lakers game in LA in 2016, but the kids had never seen Curry [pink shoes] live!).

The Kings' star, DeMar DeRozan, was not playing due to injury, nor was Russell Westbrook, but they had a strong crew, including guard Devin Carter, who had a career-high 29 points with many demoralizing threes.

The crowd was mixed, but we were in a Warriors-heavy (nosebleed but on the half-court line) section, where we even heard "Let's Go, Warriors, Let's go!" a lot. 

The Kings dominated the first half, up by twelve at half-time, but the Warriors made a comeback, even taking the lead in the third quarter, but eventually lost by six (118-124). The game included several technical fouls from the bench (Curry, and Gary Payton, who was ejected; but not notorious Draymond Green, who was booed), and was poorly officiated in my opinion (many fouls called on the Warriors), but was quite exciting, despite the loss. Steph had an off game, but did make a couple of big free throws before he left the game sometime in the fourth quarter. The Warriors team was carried by De'Anthony Melton and Brandin Podziemski, but it was not enough.

The Kings beam lights up the sky with a home win! 

We were entertained by the sports, but also the time-out entertainment, and a half-time bowl-juggler on a unicycle. The tickets weren't cheap, but it was an experience the kids will remember for a long time! 

Eggs and More- Easter 2026!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, where the temperature approached 70 degrees and sunny, which is just about as summery as it gets in these parts!

Niall helped Kelvin stuff some eggs on Saturday for St. Mary's Easter Egg hunt on Sunday. Iver got some pickleball in while I attended a pediatric psychiatry conference in Eureka.

The kids got some treats, books, pickleball stickers galore (Iver), and Niall got an Easter bunny felting kit in his basket on Sunday morning. 

St. Mary's church was packed, and it was a lovely day for a post-mass potluck and egg hunt. 

Shannon had us over in the afternoon for some really fun egg-related games, including a difficult (for golden eggs, which had $!) hunt, including some older teen boys, a word game, a scavenger hunt, and egg relays.

The kids had a great time at the spring events!

Flat Niall in Dakar

The Flat Stanley book series, with which I wasn't familiar until kids brought home various books from the series, follows the adventures of Stanley Lambchop, a boy flattened by a bulletin board, and who travels (via envelope) around the world.

A couple of months ago (I think!) Niall's classroom mailed "flat" versions of themselves to friends/family around the world, who were instructed to photograph "Flat" versions of our kids in fun places.  "Flat Niall" took forever to get to my sister Vanessa in Dakar, Senegal (West Africa), but he finally got to have some adventures! Vanessa sent us these delightful photos of her (for now) home! Niall has been really interested in world maps lately, and definitely knows where Senegal is on a map (I'm not sure his classmates do, though!).

To be honest, the delay in mail getting to Africa may have missed some school-imposed deadline, but it was still a fun exercise and we appreciate Vanessa taking Flat Niall on some special adventures in a unique place. I have to guess that Dakar was one of the most interesting destinations for flat members of the second grade class!

Sprint all the Way!

The kids have had three track meets so far this season (one for K-4, which may be the only, and two for 5-8th).

Cal Poly's Redwood Bowl was a great place to enjoy the spring sunshine and sprinters.

Niall rocked his sprints-- winning his 50m heat and almost decided he didn't want to enter any other races....

    

... but he's glad he did! 

Although there was a little baton hiccup between the second and third legs, his ~2nd grade team came in second in the 4 x 100m relay, with Niall as anchor!

With buds Razmik and Finn (check out the unplanned matching shoes!)

He tried out the long jump.

with bud, Ivan

His race day concluded with the 100m sprint, where he took another first!

Check out his bounty!

Iver raced in the Thursday meet at Cal Poly, featuring fifth graders through middle schoolers. He entered the 4x100 m relay, the 400m, the 100m, and the 200m.

Relay teammates Joah, Jeteo, Maya.

Iver ran the anchor leg but one dropped baton on leg 1--> 2 cost them the race. So is track life!

He crushed the 100m sprint, finishing in a personal best 14.94 but in second place to a super fast kid, Reece, from Ferndale (14.26!)! 

He was third in his grade for both the 400m race (1:21.4) and in the 200m (33.34) for a strong first meet of the season! We enjoyed seeing cheering on many other friends and families we know from the community, including Olivia, who ran a 6:06 1500m! 

The second 5-8th meet of the season was this Tuesday at Fortuna High School.  It was very "race official," with live timing by Athletic.net.  He did "race up" last year, as a fourth grader.  so we were familiar with the flow of the meet (which, again, was LONG with many hours of sitting and a few minutes of racing). We weren't prepared for rain, but it sure rained (not that heavily, though). 

Iver & Silas, shorts-lovers, trying not to freeze their butts off in the stands.

Iver entered the same events as in the previous meet. The relay was uncomplicated, and the FN boys finished in second place for 5th grade boys (1:07).

Iver finished the 400m race in 1:21.67, good for fourth. 

His 100m was fast (15:69) but not as fast as at Cal Poly, with another second place finish.

His last event was the 200m, which I think is his best distance. He got a "PB" (personal best) of 33.83,  faster than last year (34.30) and ended on a high note, with his time earning first place!

As I mentioned, there may not be a second K-4 meet this season, but Niall had fun. Iver's gearing up for the Championships on the twenty-first. We'll see how fast he can go!