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Dec. 17th, 2024 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfPicking back up on Monday. I was snorkeling. Because of being cautious about my toe I think I picked flippers that were a bit too big and using them was a little awkward but not too bad and I got used to it. I also wanted to remember my general notes about Miami. I overheard more speaking in Spanish than in English (not by a lot, still heard a lot of English, but Spanish did win out at least by a little bit). Now I'm forgetting but I'll probably remember. Okay, so driving back in we stopped off at a place further south (as Biscayne Park is down near Homestead, really it and the Everglades sandwich Homestead so spent a little bit of time down there with our adventures). Jeez my memory's going blank. I'll come back to that.
Tuesday:
We got up early again to do some outdoor adventures this time to go to the Everglades. For some reason right now I just can't remember which places we ate with which activities but I'll fill that in later. So I'll get straight to the Everglades! We started with a tram tour at "Shark Valley" which is the entrance to the north (technically it's named for the Shark River Valley Slough...nothing directly to do with sharks there in the Everglades...just indirectly named because of the river). Okay, so the Everglades! Completely not what I was really expecting! I guess like a rube I imagined a swamp. It's really not a swamp at all! Or what we think of when we think of a swamp. To look at it, mostly (there are different variations in different parts) it looks like prairies or grasslands (which technically it is) because of all the miles of sawgrass. But it's grass growing in a shallow plane of water. The water in the Everglades is generally very clean and clear. Mostly it's not muddy at all. It has this stuff whose name I can't for the life of me remember, I think of it as like algae but it's definitely not algae, it gets compared to wet bread. Anyway, it floats in the water and purifies it and stuff. And the whole thing is made up of these big sloughs that are like vast and slow rivers that slowly move all this water out the tip of Florida. And I'm going to be annoying with more badly remembered facts! It's the only place in North America with tropical and temperate wildlife. It's also the only place where the American alligator and the American crocodile coexist. On our tour, we saw a BUNCH of alligators. We saw a few crocodiles too but the alligators were just all over. They're the same species that are up in Louisiana and elsewhere but they're much smaller here because of the shallowness of the water and the relative lack of nutrients in the environment (it's a rich and diverse environment with lots of wildlife but it's a weird setup really mostly based around all that sawgrass that isn't very nutrient-rich). Anyway so it's like you're looking out at these grasslands but there are some scattered clusters of trees and such that are called "hammocks" (what we think of as hammocks get their name from them). And sometimes there are bits of cypress (more on that later!). Okay so the tour was nice and informative and we saw a lot of what I mentioned and lots of birds. We totally saw a heron gulp down a fish (much like we did earlier this year at Coastal Fish Co.). After that little tour we went down to the more southern entrance that has the main bulk of the park that can be accessed. We went to this boardwalk thing where we were able to see a bunch more wildlife and some turtles and stuff. Then we went and did one of the coolest things of the trip! Mary Beth had scheduled a wet walk. Where you walk around in the actual wet Everglades off any sort of track. So we were all ready for this. We went and met the guide who took us out. Well, we were really stupid (or I was anyway) and we got separated driving over there. So we met her at her car and she gave us the equipment we'd rented (overalls and shoes). And we went to put them on in our car and then we couldn't find her in the parking lot. She wasn't where I thought she was and Mary Beth remembered her having a different color of car than she apparently had. So we think she left without us 'cuz she told us about where she was going. So we went to catch up with her. Then we drive the twenty minutes or so and turn off at a place we thought she'd be but no sign of her. Mary Beth sees her phone (which she'd put away in preparation of getting wet) and there were messages from the park. Turns out she didn't leave first and we were confused and she came up behind us after she saw us leave and then passed us on the road and was in front of us and then saw us turn off on the wrong thing. But the park let us know she was waiting for us a little ahead and we caught back up with her. Felt like an idiot, but it worked out. So we get out and follow her into the thick of the Everglades! It was just the two of us on this tour. It was a tour of a cypress areas. The cypresses are the same as can be found elsewhere in the country but they generally grow much smaller, again because of the shallowness and lack of nutrients. So we walked among these little cypresses out in the open. It felt really cool walking through it. Of course I probably can't even describe it, but I recommend the experience if you're able to make it. I was a little nervous about it and was like what the fuck are we getting ourselves into but it was really incredible. And it wasn't as bad or messy as I'd expected. The water ranged in depth of a few feet where we were. Maybe between my shins and after a bit to my thighs. The ground is limestone with a thin layer of soil from sawgrass (or I guess maybe cypress needles in this part where there wasn't sawgrass, that's supposed to be a bit more of a pain, hence its name). Oh yeah, and they give you a pole too to keep your balance and check for deeper holes that could make you stumble. Anyway, the cypress needles are apparently acidic and can break down the limestone so in places where there have been cypresses, the water can get deeper and as this happens the cypresses get taller. So you get these "domes" that are like mini forests. We walked through the smaller cypresses and went into a dome. Here the water does start to feel more like what one would think of when they think "swamp," mostly because of all the cypresses. The water's still not quite so muddy or sludgy but you have the darker cover. Once again, a really cool sensation being in it all. Oh! And one of the keys about this is to remind you to look at the current date. The month of December! The Everglades can apparently be pretty hellacious in the summer! But we got what is probably the absolute ideal time of the year. The mosquitoes are notorious but I forgot the repellent even for the wet walk and I was fine! Actually got a few mosquitoes bothering me towards the end but that was all that I saw in the whole thing and it was very mild. Also we avoided the heat too. Still it's southern Florida and even though last week was (we were constantly told) an especially cold spell, it was much warmer than it's been in Memphis! (It was still short sleeve weather the whole time.) And yeah, for the most part the Everglades have little shade, just open flatland where they have elevation signs for places that are up 3 feet! So sun hats were pretty essential. Our guide was super nice in spite of us almost messing everything (actually all the guides we had for ever tour were super nice). And on the way out we stopped off at another boardwalk kind of thing, this one has a platform that goes up high so you can get a good view of the surrounding area and we kinda watched the sunset up there. It was really nice. Then we headed back into the city. Oh, the restaurant we ate at coming back in, I'm getting the days mixed up. I'll fill that blank in later. I guess I'll have a "mostly food" post. But I think I'll remember better the further along we go, although it is taking a long long time to get all this stuff out and down into my journal! But after that, we stopped at a Books & Books bookstore (duh). Mary Beth had heard of them. It's a well curated chain. Its building was laid out weird with different wings. And there was some kind of presentation happening in the section with "literature" and it was blocked off and the lights were off for a projection and everything. But we looked around in the other wing with the "new & noteworthy" stuff. I picked up a couple of books: On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle and On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle. Okay, I should stop here for now then!
Tuesday:
We got up early again to do some outdoor adventures this time to go to the Everglades. For some reason right now I just can't remember which places we ate with which activities but I'll fill that in later. So I'll get straight to the Everglades! We started with a tram tour at "Shark Valley" which is the entrance to the north (technically it's named for the Shark River Valley Slough...nothing directly to do with sharks there in the Everglades...just indirectly named because of the river). Okay, so the Everglades! Completely not what I was really expecting! I guess like a rube I imagined a swamp. It's really not a swamp at all! Or what we think of when we think of a swamp. To look at it, mostly (there are different variations in different parts) it looks like prairies or grasslands (which technically it is) because of all the miles of sawgrass. But it's grass growing in a shallow plane of water. The water in the Everglades is generally very clean and clear. Mostly it's not muddy at all. It has this stuff whose name I can't for the life of me remember, I think of it as like algae but it's definitely not algae, it gets compared to wet bread. Anyway, it floats in the water and purifies it and stuff. And the whole thing is made up of these big sloughs that are like vast and slow rivers that slowly move all this water out the tip of Florida. And I'm going to be annoying with more badly remembered facts! It's the only place in North America with tropical and temperate wildlife. It's also the only place where the American alligator and the American crocodile coexist. On our tour, we saw a BUNCH of alligators. We saw a few crocodiles too but the alligators were just all over. They're the same species that are up in Louisiana and elsewhere but they're much smaller here because of the shallowness of the water and the relative lack of nutrients in the environment (it's a rich and diverse environment with lots of wildlife but it's a weird setup really mostly based around all that sawgrass that isn't very nutrient-rich). Anyway so it's like you're looking out at these grasslands but there are some scattered clusters of trees and such that are called "hammocks" (what we think of as hammocks get their name from them). And sometimes there are bits of cypress (more on that later!). Okay so the tour was nice and informative and we saw a lot of what I mentioned and lots of birds. We totally saw a heron gulp down a fish (much like we did earlier this year at Coastal Fish Co.). After that little tour we went down to the more southern entrance that has the main bulk of the park that can be accessed. We went to this boardwalk thing where we were able to see a bunch more wildlife and some turtles and stuff. Then we went and did one of the coolest things of the trip! Mary Beth had scheduled a wet walk. Where you walk around in the actual wet Everglades off any sort of track. So we were all ready for this. We went and met the guide who took us out. Well, we were really stupid (or I was anyway) and we got separated driving over there. So we met her at her car and she gave us the equipment we'd rented (overalls and shoes). And we went to put them on in our car and then we couldn't find her in the parking lot. She wasn't where I thought she was and Mary Beth remembered her having a different color of car than she apparently had. So we think she left without us 'cuz she told us about where she was going. So we went to catch up with her. Then we drive the twenty minutes or so and turn off at a place we thought she'd be but no sign of her. Mary Beth sees her phone (which she'd put away in preparation of getting wet) and there were messages from the park. Turns out she didn't leave first and we were confused and she came up behind us after she saw us leave and then passed us on the road and was in front of us and then saw us turn off on the wrong thing. But the park let us know she was waiting for us a little ahead and we caught back up with her. Felt like an idiot, but it worked out. So we get out and follow her into the thick of the Everglades! It was just the two of us on this tour. It was a tour of a cypress areas. The cypresses are the same as can be found elsewhere in the country but they generally grow much smaller, again because of the shallowness and lack of nutrients. So we walked among these little cypresses out in the open. It felt really cool walking through it. Of course I probably can't even describe it, but I recommend the experience if you're able to make it. I was a little nervous about it and was like what the fuck are we getting ourselves into but it was really incredible. And it wasn't as bad or messy as I'd expected. The water ranged in depth of a few feet where we were. Maybe between my shins and after a bit to my thighs. The ground is limestone with a thin layer of soil from sawgrass (or I guess maybe cypress needles in this part where there wasn't sawgrass, that's supposed to be a bit more of a pain, hence its name). Oh yeah, and they give you a pole too to keep your balance and check for deeper holes that could make you stumble. Anyway, the cypress needles are apparently acidic and can break down the limestone so in places where there have been cypresses, the water can get deeper and as this happens the cypresses get taller. So you get these "domes" that are like mini forests. We walked through the smaller cypresses and went into a dome. Here the water does start to feel more like what one would think of when they think "swamp," mostly because of all the cypresses. The water's still not quite so muddy or sludgy but you have the darker cover. Once again, a really cool sensation being in it all. Oh! And one of the keys about this is to remind you to look at the current date. The month of December! The Everglades can apparently be pretty hellacious in the summer! But we got what is probably the absolute ideal time of the year. The mosquitoes are notorious but I forgot the repellent even for the wet walk and I was fine! Actually got a few mosquitoes bothering me towards the end but that was all that I saw in the whole thing and it was very mild. Also we avoided the heat too. Still it's southern Florida and even though last week was (we were constantly told) an especially cold spell, it was much warmer than it's been in Memphis! (It was still short sleeve weather the whole time.) And yeah, for the most part the Everglades have little shade, just open flatland where they have elevation signs for places that are up 3 feet! So sun hats were pretty essential. Our guide was super nice in spite of us almost messing everything (actually all the guides we had for ever tour were super nice). And on the way out we stopped off at another boardwalk kind of thing, this one has a platform that goes up high so you can get a good view of the surrounding area and we kinda watched the sunset up there. It was really nice. Then we headed back into the city. Oh, the restaurant we ate at coming back in, I'm getting the days mixed up. I'll fill that blank in later. I guess I'll have a "mostly food" post. But I think I'll remember better the further along we go, although it is taking a long long time to get all this stuff out and down into my journal! But after that, we stopped at a Books & Books bookstore (duh). Mary Beth had heard of them. It's a well curated chain. Its building was laid out weird with different wings. And there was some kind of presentation happening in the section with "literature" and it was blocked off and the lights were off for a projection and everything. But we looked around in the other wing with the "new & noteworthy" stuff. I picked up a couple of books: On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle and On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle. Okay, I should stop here for now then!
