The Travelling Hershbergers: February 2015

Halloween- Late Post

Sorry this post is so late, but here are some pictures from my 2014 Halloween trip, as requested by my mom. Enjoy! :)

Miami

On the 20th of December, we flew into Miami. When we touched down, we went to the baggage claim and got our bags before heading outside.

Unfortunately, when we tried to call our father, who was picking us up, cellular reception was terrible and Doug had been delayed by a traffic.

An accident on the side of the road which consisted of a half-burnt bus and numerous police cars had caused traffic to come to a standstill, and, as such, Dad was unable to meet us at the airport with his Santa hat and chocolate truffles, like he had planned.

However, when we finally all piled into our father's white Grand Marquis, we were extremally happy to finally be together.

As we talked and drove through the city of Miami, we headed to Havana 1967, a restaurant that we had been to previously, albiet in Espanola Way, where we had dined the previous summer.

The food was delicious and the atmosphere was amazing! We sat outside, because the band inside was extremally loud, instead enjoying the perfect outdoor cool, Florida air.

After our dinner, we went to our hotel and, after our long and exhausting day, finally fell asleep.

However, our peace was short lived, as pretty soon we were dragging ourselves out of bed, scarfing down our breakfast, and getting into our car to go and explore the city.

First, we visited Windwood, a place in Miami famous for it's beautiful street art (aka commissioned graffiti) and murals.

Doug SMASH!!!

All the art was amazing. The different types of art we discovered were extremally interesting, ranging from large colorful, surreal murals to black and white paintings of monstrous whales, alligators, and hippos!

There were paintings with amazing impressionist and optical effects, like a tiger drawn with running paint that had to be viewed from a distance to look real.

We also saw a group of guys who were hosting a BMW car show and numerous people taking pictures of the art, as well as a shop featuring stark white sculptures made out of Legos, Bioncles, and a Stormtrooper bust. (Insert "aren't you a little short to be a Stormtrooper" joke here.)

Next, we visited Little Havana.

We parked on the street, and being me, the first thing that caught my attention was a delicious-looking ice cream place across the street.

But, unfortunately, we had to eat lunch first, so we started down the street in search of a crosswalk we could use to cross the street to get to the restaurant that we were going to.

However, as we walked down the street with no sign of a crosswalk, we were bombarded with the sights and sounds of the Little Havana.

There was a tiny shop with fresh fruit, more specifically with fresh pineapple and a sugar cane press to make sugar cane juice.

As we walked down the street we found a Bay of the Pigs memorial, and I was treated with a full dose of History (yes, capital H) detailing the invasion of Cuba and John F. Kennedy.

There were also plenty of Cuban cigar shops that, while Charlie couldn't stand the smell of them, had long, big cigars in front of them that mom and Charlie couldn't help posing with.

It was a beautiful day, and I was feeling good- well at least until I saw this artwork in the door of a car shop.

Terrifying Clown

In addition, running theme around Little Havana was rooster statues that lined the streets, so we couldn't help, of course, taking a few pictures.

Finally, after our long walk, we arrived at the restaurant, with delicious Cuban food (Anyone else noticing a pattern here?)

Finally, after that delicious meal we waddled back to our car and hit the road, without, it should be noted, stopping for the ice cream I had been promised at the beginning of the trip.

As we drove out of Miami and continued on our way to Fort Meyers, I obliviously sat in the car reading and waiting to see where we went next, completely ignoring the conversation around me, before finally glancing up and exclaiming at the lack of skyscrapers.

"Hey, we're not in Miami anymore!"

Shark Valley

As we drove away from Miami, we slowly approached the next place we were to visit, a park in the Everglades by the name of Shark Valley.

When we walked up to the visitor center desk to buy tickets for the park's two hour tram tour which we planned to attend, I went to ask the attendant why the park in the Everglades, which was known for its alligators, not its sharks, was called shark valley.

Apparently, however, I was not the first one to ask this question because I had scarcely asked, "Why is the pa-" before I was interrupted.

"Why is the park called Shark Valley?" The attendant finished, "I would tell you, but all the tram guides have a different way of telling the story, and get mad at me for telling the tourists."

With that we were forced to wait for the tour guide and for the next tram tour to start, so we visited the gift shop and museum.

In the museum, we found some samples of wildlife from the area, like feathers and fossils, and an exhibit on the history of hunters in the area slaughtering birds for their feathers, when rare and exotic feathers on hats and other garments were the fashion.

The exhibit was even complete with a children's book detailing the struggles of two women who founded a club that helped control the slaughter of the birds, by passing a law that forbid the hunting of them.

In the gift shop, we found a pair of alligator earring that we knew Jaime would love and I found a pair of turtle earrings that were cute, simple and silver.

But, by the time we purchased the earrings, the tram had arrived and the tour had started.

The Everglades were beautiful and our tour guide pointed out many types of wildlife.

We saw great gray herons, great white herons, tricolored egrets, blue herons, wood storks, grackles, cormorants, crows, a bird our guide called the "Jewel of the Everglades," and more.

We even saw two baby alligators and, by the end of the tour, twenty two adult alligators in total. (You can play a fun game of spot the alligator with these pictures!)

Halfway throught he tour, we visited an observation tower which had a great great view and was next to the a lily pond.

From the tower, we could see for miles, and the tower even overlooked a river, in which we spied many more alligators and a even pair of two turtles, swimming next to each other.

On the way back to the parking lot, our guide finally told us the story of how Shark Valley got its name. He said that in Shark Valley there was a river near the sea with brackish water that early explores had seen sharks giving birth in and named Shark river.

In addition, the park was the low point between two high points of land, only 6 feet above sea water compared to the two high points, with Miami being 15 feet above sea level and Fort Meyers a whopping 24 feet, making it a valley.

Also, our tour guide told us about the growing python population in the parks and how dangerous they were to the natural wildlife.

People abandoned their pet pythons in the Everglades, and a single python could lay thousands if eggs. Pythons had also caused the extinction of the marsh hare, he said, taken over the alligator's place as top predator of the Everglades, and could eat alligators whole (at this point he recommended we watch a video titled Pythin vs. Alligator in which a python wrestled and overtook a alligator).

Needless to say this topic scared mom half to death and as leaned forward to whisper that the pythons were coming to eat her, she let out a loud extremely humiliating scream.

He also told us the story of the only injury that they had in the park, that went like this:

A Brazilian family had been biking along the trail when thier boy was flung off his bike into the river- where an alligator lay waiting. The alligator dragged the boy under and would have drowned him if the mother hadn't taken a pair of binoculars she had on hand and bashed the alligator over the head until he let her son go. A helicopter picked the pair up, and though they were both gravely injured, they both survived.

Our guide even joked about the encounter, saying that the "Beware of Alligators" sign posted throughout the trail were inaccurate, and should be changed to read, "Beware of Brazilian Mothers!"

Just as our tour was coming to an end we passed one last magnificent sight- what seemed to be all the birds in the Everglades all nested in one place, in the trees that lines the road we rode on.