We hope you had a wonderful Christmas time with family and friends and that you got all the gifts you wanted. We had a very relaxed Christmas with some gifts we collected along the way from family. It was very nice to celebrate the holiday in 75 degree temps instead of the the usual Oregon weather. We could get used to this!

On Christmas we took a 4.5 mile bike trail through the Florida scrub lands in the backcountry of the park. Very interesting to see what early settlers had to travel through and we saw two Alligators in a hole next to the trail. We also took a boardwalk at Fakahatchee Strand Preserve on December 21. This walk goes deep into a Cyprus forest and we saw many birds - including a breeding pair of Bald Eagles, alligators and turtles. As in many other places in Florida the Cyprus forests were heavily cut and animal habitat was lost causing decline or extinction of the animal population so these small preserves are very critical to bringing back native plants and animals.

 That evening we had some of the worst weather of the trip as a strong cold front moved through. We were under tornado, thunderstorms, and flood warnings. It produced a lot of wind and rain but the worst weather stayed to our north. We were debating if our little trailer had much of a chance in a high-wind situation and decided the truck might fair better… 

On December 22 we explored Collier-Seminole State park where we are camping. They have preserved a ‘Walking Dredge’ that was used to build the road though the swamp between Tampa and Miami. It was steam powered and unique in that could pickup and move its ‘feet’ to pull itself through the swamp. We also took the Royal Palm Hammock nature walk. A hammock is a raised dry area in the swamp that has hardwood trees and dry land for the animals, and early native people, to live on and get dry.

 We then visited Marco Island where Mark’s parents lived for many years. We did a lot of shelling. Due to the storm the day before you could not pick up all the shells waiting on the beach. We went past Mark’s parents old house, saw lots of the island, and had dinner at a local restaurant we used to go to a lot.

 On the 23rd we went to Everglades City wanting to take a boat ride called the Thousand Island Boat tour. But thanks to the wonderful government shutdown we found the whole area had been locked up and no-one was around. After some investigation we found the ticket office across the street and had a wonderful ride through the mangrove islands and hammocks that make up the thousand islands in southwest Florida. The high point of the trip was seeing dolphins swimming around our boat and lots of White Pelicans that winter here.

We heard about a small restaurant in Chokoloskee and had a great dinner of Carlos Garlic Shrimp … delicious!!

 On December 26 we moved to Midway Campground in Big Cypress National Preserve just west of Everglades National Park. We were unsure if our reservations were good because of the government shutdown. It appears that no one is running the campground and the bathrooms are closed, but we have our spot and it is nice. We explored the Preserve on Wednesday. Yesterday bright and early, we drove east to the Shark Valley area of Everglades National Park and rode our bikes 15 miles on the hike/bike/tram loop. The weather was lovely, but very windy. We saw lots of gators and beautiful birds! It was a great ride.

 Today, Friday, we are heading to the main area of Everglades National Park where we will be staying at Flamingo Campground in the extreme southern part of the park. We hope to see many more birds and wildlife down there!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!