Being the National Park enthusiasts we are, we visited 3 of them on our vacation in Florida. The second park we visited was Everglades National Park. We booked a tour with Wild Lime Adventures, http://Wildlimeadventures.com. The tour consisted of a 1.5 hour nature walk with a naturalist, at the Shark Valley visitor center and a one hour air boat ride on Miccosukee tribal land. Since we were heading to the keys from Coral Gables, we drove to the meet up spot at the Miccosukee General Store, parked our cars and took the van to the Shark Valley Visitor Center. To get to the Shark Valley Visitor Center take US 41 (Tamiami Trail) 30 miles west of the Florida Turnpike exit for SW 8th St. The Miccosukee General Store is on US 41 on the right side of the road, before you get to the visitor center. You do get a discount for meeting them at the store. Wild Lime does have transportation options from Miami, Hollywood and Ft. Lauderdale hotels, as well as from cruise ports and airports. They will store your luggage for the day if you are switching hotels or locations. Meet up time at the Miccosukee General Store was 8:30-8:40. The cost is $169 per adult age 13 and over and $139 for children ages 5-12.

The Everglades is a unique ecosystem and is actually a 40 mile wide slow moving river. Water flow is essential to the all the habitats in the Everglades. The Shark River Slough and the Taylor Slough (pronounce slew) are the main drainage areas for the freshwater flow. We were told by our guide Zac that it takes 1 gallon of water 1 month to move through Everglades National Park. There are 2 main seasons, wet and dry. The wet season is May-November.

There are 6 habitats in the everglades: Marine and Estuarine, Mangroves, Freshwater Marsh, Cypress, Pine Rockland and the Tropical Hardwood Hammocks. Marine and Estuarine is where the sea grass beds reside and provide food and shelter for marine life. In the Mangroves the fresh and salt water intermingle and provide bird nesting sites and nesting sites for fish. A Freshwater Marsh is a wide shallow slow- moving river typically full of grasses providing a diverse habitat for wildlife. Cypress trees can withstand flooding and flourish in the wetland conditions. They form patches of forests called cypress domes. Pine Rocklands grow on limestone outcroppings on higher ground, making it a dry habitat. Tropical hardwood hammocks are a closed canopy forest that grows on slightly elevated land and rarely flood.

The Everglades are teeming with wild life. We saw alligators, many species of birds, turtles and fish on our nature walk. The Burmese python is a problematic predator in the Everglades, it is not native to the area. They were either accidentally or intentionally introduced to the park and eat many different kinds of animals. Studies have shown that the python is probably the main reason that mammals in the park have severely declined. The Park has been investigating how to control the python and remove them.

After the nature walk, we took the van to the air boat departure site. We met our air boat captain Elvis and we headed out on our excursion. Airboats are not allowed in Everglades National Park so our boat trip was on Miccosukee tribal land. Elvis grew up in the Everglades and in his youth lived on Native Tree Island, which we visited on our tour. One of the alligators that inhabit Native Tree Island also grew up there and remembers Elvis and allows him to rub her back when he visits his old home. The island is uninhabited now, but ceremonies and demonstrations still happen on the island. We saw a great many alligators, herons and numerous other species of birds on our airboat ride.

If you have time after your visit to Everglades National Park, head on down to Robert Is Here fruit stand, http://Robertishere.com and grab a yummy milkshake and some exotic fruit to take back. The address is 19200 SW 344th St, Homestead, FL 33034.