Big Cypress National Preserve - 12/30/2016

This will be the last blog post of 2016, which brings me to our last park of the National Park Service's Centennial year.  We ended our Florida trip by briefly returning to the Everglades for an airboat ride.  This has been a bucket list item for me, and it was fun!  Initially I was let down because I was expecting a narrated tour, which our company didn't do (although there are some that do that).  But after we went 40 miles an hour and did a couple 180-degree and 360-degree turns I stopped being let down and enjoyed the ride!  When our boat captain gunned it for the first time, it felt like we were flying and we were going into the wind so fast that I literally could not breathe or contain my laughter!  The bonus was, we actually did two airboat rides - one was through the mangrove trees (which we learned a lot about at Biscayne) and the second ride was through the sawgrass (which is what I think of when I think of airboats in the Everglades).  We didn't see much wildlife on the first ride because it was quite chilly (low 60's) and the gators don't really find that to be comfortable, being cold-blooded and all.  The second ride, we did see a few gators.  I highly recommend doing an airboat ride if you are ever in the Everglades, and there are companies all over the place there, so you can really take your pick.

Airboat Ride

On the first airboat ride through the mangroves (we were flying here!)

Parts of the airboat ride were through curvy parts of the water - they still went pretty fast while navigating all the twists and turns!

Gator while on the sawgrass airboat ride

We caught this gator eating breakfast on the sawgrass airboat ride

After the airboat ride, we headed over to Big Cypress National Preserve, which brings our total park count to 226.  This park is a lot like Congaree in South Carolina or Big Thicket in Texas - it's basically a swamp.  If you have never been to a swamp, you probably have the same assumption I did about swamps - they're brown, ugly, smelly, etc.  Well, the smelly part is sometimes true, but swamps really are pretty!  I was blown away by Congaree and we were there in the winter when the leaves had already fallen, so everything really was brown - but it's one of my favorite parks.  Big Cypress was just as pretty as Congaree and this time, there was a lot more green to look at since it's Florida in wintertime.  My only complaint about this park is that on the scenic drives, which are dirt roads, there aren't really any places to stop and see it.  If you're like us, you make spaces on the side of the road to stop occasionally, but I'm not sure how frowned upon that is.

Us at Big Cypress (see the gator in the background?)

While driving to a different part of the park, we stumbled upon the smallest post office in the US!

Another Purple Gallinule

See, swamps are pretty!  (Actually, the pictures don't really do it justice)

How many gators do you see?

And that's a wrap on 2016 parks for us!  I hope the first year of our blog has inspired you to find your park in 2017!  Happy New Year to our readers!

Dry Tortugas National Park

We had a lot of fun today exploring Dry Tortugas.  In order to get there, you need to board a ferry in Key West, FL and spend 2 and a half hours on this ferry going through the 70 miles of open water before arriving at Fort Jefferson.  Fort Jefferson was built on Garden Key between the 1840's and 1870's and was actually never completed.  What's amazing about this fort is that it is built with over 16 million bricks - which are not found on the island - they were brought there!

Fort Jefferson as we entered Dry Tortugas

Walking around the moat

Inside the fort

When we first got to the park, we walked the .6 mile moat walk loop.  This takes you around the perimeter of the fort, where the water is clear enough that you can see some of the plants and fish.  After the moat walk, we had a 20-minute intro to the fort and then we walked around it ourselves.  We found Dr. Mudd's cell, which was neat to see.  Dr. Mudd is the doctor who set John Wilkes Booth's leg after he broke it from jumping from the balcony at the theater where he assassinated President Lincoln.  He was sentenced to life in prison at Fort Jefferson, but because of his help with the yellow fever epidemic, Andrew Jackson pardoned him after four years.

Dr. Mudd's cell

After the fort, we grabbed lunch on the boat and then Steve snorkeled around the fort and I caught some rays on the beach, taking a dip in the water to cool off every once in a while.

Snorkeling

Of course he takes a snorkeling selfie (I asked Steve to add the pictures tonight, so of course this one is chosen)

Snorkeling

The way back to Key West turns into a booze cruise!

Biscayne National Park - 12/28/2016

We spent all day today in Biscayne National Park.  I had high hopes that we would see a manatee here, but we didn’t.  We got to the Visitor Center just before 9:00 when they opened.  There is a ¼-mile trail that walks along the marina and the bay that we strolled along before the VC opened.  We spent a little bit of time in the VC and then boarded a boat through Island Dreamer to head over to Adams Key.  Biscayne is a unique park in that when you get to the VC on the mainland, that’s really all you can do on the mainland.  In order to see the park, you need to go across the bay to the islands, which are really the start to the Florida Keys.  We did the boat ride that takes you out all day.  Once we docked at Adams Key, we had a little bit of time to eat lunch and then the group of us from the boat either got in a kayak (us) or on a paddle board.  Captain Hans took us through a loop of the bay through the mangroves to a lagoon and then a small place to snorkel.  Steve snorkeled, but there was so much dirt kicked up from the other people swimming that he really didn’t see anything.  At one point while I was alone in the kayak, I crashed into a mangrove and found a land crab which was neat to see.  Neither of us got a picture of it though, oops.  While heading back into the boat, we just missed sightings of a sea turtle and a 3-foot shark.

Kayak selfie!

Kayaking through mangroves

Baby mangrove tree

Even though our water adventures didn’t give us a good showing of wildlife, we did find something interesting at Adams Key.  As we were docking, Captain Hans pointed out two rafts of Cuban refugees.  They were only about half a football field away from where we docked, so we went to check them out.  Steve and I agreed this had a creepy vibe to it, because these refugees made these rafts out of whatever material they could find.  The more interesting of the two was made out of newspaper and resin.  We asked how long they have been there and I was fully expecting him to tell me these were from decades ago, but one was from October and the other one was from two weeks ago!  He said people are still attempting to come over from Cuba in record numbers!

After our boat ride, we worked our way down to Key West.  Along the way we stopped at Florida Keys Brewing Company (recommended by Captain Hans) and we were very impressed with their beers!

Everglades National Park

Today was our first day in Florida and we spent it in Everglades National Park.  We got to the Shark Valley area around 11:00 am and the soonest tram tour we could get on was the noon tour.  While waiting for the tour to start, we did the quick .2 mile boardwalk loop near the Visitor Center.  When we first started out, we spotted several juvenile alligators.  Juveniles are about 3 or more years old and that's when the mother separates from them so that they don't eat her new hatchlings each year.  Fun fact that I learned today - the sex of alligators are determined by the temperature of the eggs while in the nest.  If the eggs are 90 degrees or warmer, they will be males.  If the eggs are less than 90 degrees, then they will be females.

Juvenile alligators

The Tram Tour is a two-hour tour that goes through a 15-mile loop through the Shark Valley area of the Everglades.  This tour was awesome!  It was a great introduction to the park, the ecosystem, and the abundant wildlife.  The Everglades isn't exactly what I would call a scenic park, unless you enjoy looking at sawgrass for miles, but what makes this park awesome are all the birds and gators!  I'm not even a bird person, but the birds here are much more interesting than what you can find in Maryland and we even had a few rare sightings today.

Sleepy gator

Great Blue Heron

I think this is a Tri-Colored Heron

Wood Stork - these were close to extinction in the early 2000's, but they've made a significant comeback.  They've been downgraded to a threatened species.

Rare sighting, because these guys are usually only seen at night (Black-Crowned Night Heron)

 

Anhinga

Super tiny baby gators - not pictured was the mother next to them

Another rare sighting - a Purple Gallinule - these are nicknamed the "Jewel of the Everglades."

Fresh kill!

After the tour, we drove to two other Visitor Centers in the park so we could get our stamps.  At the Flamingo Visitor Center, we stopped to walk around the marina where there usually are manatee sightings, however we were not so lucky.  I keep telling Steve I'm not leaving Florida until I see a manatee.  Hopefully we have some luck tomorrow while we are in Biscayne National Park.

We ended the night with dinner at Titanic Brewing.  Both the food and the beer were mediocre, with their Nut Brown being their best beer.

Titanic Brewing Company Sampler

Birthday Stamp - Hampton National Historic Site - 10/22/2016

When we drove across the country in 2012, it worked out that we were at the Jefferson Expansion National Monument (aka the St. Louis Arch) on July 12, which is Steve’s birthday.  Steve felt the need to gloat to me the entire drive home (which lasted 2 more days) about how he had a birthday stamp and I didn’t.  If you know me, you know that my competitive instincts kicked right in.  If you don’t know me, just know that this was killing me inside and Steve darn well knew it too.

We have the rule that we can’t go to a new park (or get the stamp) without the other one of us there as well.  So Steve’s gloating sort of backfired.  There is one National Historic Site about a half hour away from our house – it’s the closest park site to us.  For a few years now, we have had all sites in the mid-Atlantic region done, except for just this one in our home state.  I was never going to agree to go until we could go on my birthday.  This created a problem because with Steve being a teacher, we couldn’t go on October 22^nd until it was on a Saturday, which finally happened this year!  I had to endure four years of Steve’s gloating about this stamp, but it is worth it to finally have a birthday stamp (#222 on 10/22!), and I get the last laugh because it was in the National Park Service’s centennial year, which made it extra special for me!

That story aside – Hampton National Historic Site is a beautiful house dating back to the early generations of the Ridgley family.  They were filthy rich through the iron industry, and their wealth was prominently displayed throughout the home.  I should have written this blog sooner than I am now because I’m forgetting some of the facts already, but I think it took 7 years to build this massive house.  Hampton also has a bit of a dark history to it, although unconfirmed, about the mistreatment of their slaves.  We did a volunteer-led tour which was very interesting and the lady knew her stuff about the large Ridgely family.  It was hard to keep them all straight, but it helped that we would end up in the main hall with the pictures of the family members when she was switching gears to another branch of their tree!  All told, this was another interesting park site with a great tour!

St. Louis - 9/15 - 9/18

We had a whirlwind weekend trip to St. Louis!  I was headed there for a conference for work, and Steve decided to join me so we could hit a couple of parks (shocker, I know!).  I flew into St. Louis on Thursday, with my co-worker Irina.  Our conference was held at the Hyatt that is conveniently right next to the St. Louis Arch (also known as Jefferson Expansion National Memorial). Steve and I have already been up the arch when we drove across the country in 2012.  I knew Irina and I would have time to kill before the conference started on Thursday so I asked if she wanted to go up the arch, so we did.  For those who haven't gone up yet, you do get shoved in a very small tram car with four other strangers (or maybe people you are traveling with instead).  There are warnings that if you are claustrophobic you shouldn't ride it, but I promise you it isn't at all scary and the ride is only about a minute long to get to the top.  We lucked out with good weather that day, so we had some nice views at the top of the arch.  When we were done, Irina suggested watching the movie about how it was built.  I have no idea why, but Steve and I didn't watch this in 2012 (probably because we were short on time), but this was fascinating!  The footage they had of the arch being built and the engineering involved was crazy!  Surprisingly, no one died while the arch was built!  We also learned that the steel on the arch is only 1/4-inch thick - for some reason this was so shocking to me, and when we went back outside I checked one of the legs and sure enough, it's pretty thin!

Irina and I at the arch

The view from my room

For all intents and purposes of this blog, that evening and the next day were pretty boring because I was doing conference stuff.  But, Steve flew into St. Louis Friday evening, where he met me and my fellow insurance friends (notably Craig and Susan) for drinks at the bar.  We had a great time catching up!

After conference on Saturday, Steve and I were able to fit a whole bunch of stuff in the rest of the afternoon/evening!  Part of the Jefferson Expansion National Memorial is the Old Courthouse, about a block away from the arch.  Again, I don't know why Steve and I didn't go here in 2012, but we made time to do a ranger-led tour this time.  This courthouse is famous because many cases involving Dred Scott were held here and was eventually where he and his wife were freed.  Another famous case held here was about Virginia Miner and her lawyer-husband; they had attempted to win the right to vote for women.  Unfortunately, they were not successful in the many cases they had, but it at least got the conversation going!  I wouldn't quite put this tour in the "National Park Moment" status, but I will highly recommend talking to rangers when you go to parks - the tours are always so good.  With these two stories the ranger told, I felt like I jumped back in time to learn about these cases in much more detail than I did in school - in fact, with the Virginia Miner case, I don't think I ever learned about in school!  Sadly, the courtroom where the Dred Scott cases happened are no longer in the building, but they did have what they believed was the courtroom where he was freed.

The courthouse from the top of the arch (my hotel is to the right)

The atrium in the courthouse - so pretty

Where Dred Scott and his wife were freed

On the steps of the courthouse

After the courthouse tour, we headed to the free tour at Anheuser-Busch.  Back in 2012, we did the Coors tour in Colorado, and while that was really cool, this one was...prettier.  It is obvious AB has serious coin and that is reflected in what felt like their own small city where they brewed beer (and this was one of 6 locations that offer tours).  The tour starts off with a visit with the Clydesdales where I learned that they even have their own breeding program there.  After that, we went to see where the beer lives while brewing, and the beer was in enormous tanks!  So big, that if you wanted to drink one, you'd have to drink a beer every hour for 137 years, and there are over 200 tanks on that property!

One of the tanks that would take 137 years to drink.

Our first free sample - don't get too excited, it was just Budweiser.

The brewhouse

Our other free sample - both were Spaten beers (Optimator and Oktoberfest)

After the AB tour, we had a pretty late lunch at Schlafly Brewing and of course had a sampler.

Schlafly sampler

We got to Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site with enough time for a house tour.  You can only go into the house with a ranger present, and before getting into the house, the ranger gives a brief talk about how Ulysses came to live here.  The house was actually his wife's childhood home and when Ulysses and Julia marry, they end up living there.  Family dinners were interesting because Grant and his father-in-law didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on political issues, especially slavery.  The house was neat, but they don't have anything in the house, so you end up looking at empty rooms.  When we were getting ready to leave, the ranger asked where we were from and when we told him Maryland, he told us that Julia's mom was from Cumberland, MD and loved seashells from the shore.  She actually had some shells in the house that Julia always wanted to play with but her mom wouldn't let her.  One day, one of the slaves stole the shells and gave them to Julia to play with.  Julia warned that her mom would be very upset, but still played with them anyway.  When she was done with them a few nights later, she tried to put them away without anyone noticing, and when she got done, her father was standing right behind her!  They decided it would be their little secret and Julia never even implicated the slave.  See - talk to rangers so that you hear cute stories like that!

President Grant's House

We ended the day with a long drive to Ozark National Scenic Riverways (or as our GPS called it, Senick Ryverways...silly GPS).  We stopped for a sampler along the way at Public House Brewing Company.  The beers there were okay, but nothing too exciting.  We didn't get into our hotel in the Ozarks until late, so we saved all the sightseeing for Sunday.

Public House Sampler

Ozark was totally awesome!  I think it now becomes the second on my hidden gem list!  This park has so much to do in the summer - canoeing/kayaking, hiking, springs, caves!  Sadly, most of it is only open Memorial Day to Labor Day, so we didn't get to do the caves.  But we did get to several of the must-see springs.  We started off checking out Alley Spring and Mill which was so cool.  This spring's water output is about 81 million gallons a day!  The mill is super cute situated right on the spring, and the spring itself is crystal clear and a beautiful shade of blue/turquoise.  After Alley Spring, we attempted to go to one of the two Blue Springs.  We were sort of misguided on directions and found the river, and possibly what was Blue Spring, but it wasn't that exciting to see. We moved on to Big Spring, which had a cool "old park" feeling to it, which makes sense because the CCC worked on a lot of stuff in this area.  Big Spring's water output is over 200 million gallons of water a day, and again super clear and pretty!  We finally found a visitor center that was open after that so we could get our stamp and magnet and found out that the Blue Spring we went to was one that people often mistake for the other Blue Spring that the ranger highly recommended we go to.  First we went to Rocky Falls, which was really cool to see, then we went over to the "real" Blue Spring.  Crater Lake is a beautiful shade of blue, mostly because of how deep it is, but this shade of blue seemed unreal!  We marveled at its beauty for a while and then went over to Round Spring, which was our last stop in the park.  If we had time, we would have gone to Devil's Well, which looks really neat, so try to make time for it if you go.  But, that was a wrap for us so we drove a few hours back to the airport and headed home.

Alley Spring

Alley Mill

Big Spring

Big Spring

Rocky Falls

Us at Blue Spring - see how clear that is?!

Blue Spring - I still can't get over how clear that water is!

Blue spring - the picture doesn't do it justice how pretty this was.

Round Spring - this was bigger than what the picture makes it seem

Round spring is actually above what is shown here and drains down to this