Flipper, Remember when?

We are in south Florida, spending the day with Paul’s sister Cindy and her granddaughters, Tommy and Ali who had just spent 5 days cruising the Carribean.  They had until 7 pm to get to the airport and return to Denver so we enjoyed the day together.

Key Biscayne Lighthouse

Key Biscayne Lighthouse – Photo Bomb!

Our first stop was Key Biscayne Island, which is know for its beaches.   We took a couple walks in the Bill Baggs State Park.  We took the steps to the top of the lighthouse for the view.  It is the oldest standing structure in the area.  The stairs we very steep and they were a bit wobbly!

Love this photo.

Love this photo.

This is from the other side of the lighthouse.  This old guy was just hanging out with his stuff.  I think he was fishing earlier but was just relaxing.  It was pretty windy at the time.

From the shores of the park you can see Stiltsville which is a bunch of homes built on stilts in the middle of the ocean.

Lots of privacy

Lots of privacy

Apparently these homes were built in the 1930’s and they were popular during prohibition as they are one mile offshore so booze was legal there.  The town was known as a get away and party place, but that all ended in 1965 when the government decided to charge $100 annually to lease their quarter acre campsite and if they were damaged they could not rebuild.  A hurricane took alot of them out.  Then in 1976 the government raised the fee to $300 and added an expiration date of  July 1, 1999.   So now they are in a trust and owned by the national parks and no one but the caretakers can visit.  Sounds like a fun place to hang out in the Old Days!

The weather wasn’t good for beach going so we decided to head inland and grab some Cuban food for lunch.  We found Little Havana but didn’t have much luck finding Cuban!  We did find Salvadorian and it was excellent.  I had a plate of meat that would have feed all 5 of us!  Lots of left overs for dinner.

The Everglades were calling us so we headed to Buffalo Tigers Everglades Airboat Tours  to take a ride.  We took off from the dock and headed into what looks like lots of weeds.

The Everglades

The Everglades

Remember the TV show, Flipper?  I loved that show and during the whole ride I remembered laying on the floor, watching Sandy and Bud cruise around the Everglades every week.  We didn’t see Flipper but we did see Aligators!

Hello!

Hello!

Older ones

Older ones

Younger ones

Younger ones- this guy according to the guide is probably about 1 1/2

Our guide would stop often when he saw an aligator and call it over to the boat!  He fed them bread and actually touched several of them.  It was pretty scary and I was definitely staying on the far side of the boat.

Airboating

What a day!

 

 

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