The Dad got up early and went running back in Everglades Park. We asked if he saw an alligator, and then teased him that that's WHY he was running. The rest of us slept in, showered, watched The Crocodile Hunter and the Gator Boys and then had a nice breakfast out on the patio of the hotel. And then on to Biscayne National Park. We watched a movie with underwater footage -- for 95% of this park is under water and we knew that we wouldn't be exploring it on this trip. It is home of some of the only living reef along U.S. shoreline. We walked along a boardwalk and saw a teensy hermit crab, some very cool lizards that jump around in the trees, and the mangrove tree roots. We are soaking up nature. The kids completed the entire Junior Ranger program. The ranger was cute and during the pledge added in that they should eat all their vegetables and keep their room clean.
So many interrelationships between plants, animals, water routes, water quantities… Hopefully the children are getting a sense of how they have an important place in all this. Knowing that your life can be meaningful is powerful.
While at the visitor's center we also found an interesting CD. We also found an answer to a question. We had found some of these tube things on the beach on Sunday and wondered what they are. They are egg sacks for the welks. The welks are in those shells that are kind of conch like. They are a carny-like animal, having a strong foot that comes out and pries open clams while its long tongue-thing snakes in and eats what's inside. It is fun and satisfying to find the answer to things without the help of Google.
Keys-bound. On the way there we had to pull over to check out this mutant lobster.
The causeways are awesome… to drive over the sea.
Delicious key lime pie after lunch.
To the Dolphin Research Center. This manifested because the grandparents all sent money this year for Christmas. The facility itself is charming -- you stand right over happy looking rolling dolphins. We stood and mused and chatted with three male dolphins for quite a while and when The Girl ceased to pay attention to one of them for a moment to watch instead the program going on across from us he turned on his side and waved a flipper at her.
There are cats and chickens that wander as well as enormous iguanas that live in some mangroves that pop out suddenly onto the boardwalk and stroll along fully confident with those long crazy toes. The place has a sweet history (a man decided to live on the ocean and train a dolphin, then a few more, then Hollywood heard about it and decided to make a movie -- film on location and use his trained dolphins. It was called... Flipper). And it feels sweet when you're there. Perhaps we were lucky, but there were no crowds, just a few families milling about, some families participating in the meet-the-dolphin programs. Judd the Red Chicken and The Girl's collective grandparent gift was more low-key, instead of getting in the water they kneeled on a dock and held out a t-shirt while a trainer signaled and whistled and the chosen dolphin spun around under the t-shirts with a paintbrush in her mouth. I'll admit that I was VERY cynical about this. Even said some snarky things about how spoiled-y and touristy this whole thing sounded, but somehow it was sweet. Their appointment was for 3:45 and we were pretty much the only visitors still there. In most of the areas trainers were kissing and chatting and supporting dolphins -- private little lessons that were backlit by the setting sun on the ocean. The Dad went down on the dock with the kids and the trainer, and I stood and watched and felt full. Seeing the excited looks on my kids' faces just felt good, not gluttonous. Obviously their interaction with the animals was not natural -- from an adult perspective (obviously wild animals do not take paint brushes and make t-shirts) -- but for my kids creating together is usually the natural way for friendships to begin, so I think for them it felt not just fun, but also right.
They sat on a dock on their knees with their bare feet tucked under them, poised on the edge, and made contact with a creature from their deepest dreams. They came back to me glowing and kept saying thankyouthankyouthankyou. Perhaps sometimes you're just lucky instead of spoiled.
Other than the sun-gilded moments of them on the dock, the other major take-away came from one of the trainers. She explained that as soon as the dolphin does what he/she is supposed to, and is feeling proud that's usually when they end the lesson. This is one reason why dolphin trainers are so successful. She said that more important than forcing them to learn specific tricks, is reinforcing their natural curiosity and desire to learn. You do that, and you sustain a healthy trusting relationship and the dolphin will keep participating and learning.
Over the Seven Mile Bridge.
Key West. Hmmmm. I need to create an addendum to what I wrote previously about my love for kitsch. I like the quirky kitsch. I don't like seedy kitsch. The unfortunate thing about Key West is that it has the potential to be enchanting -- if I may do a city mashup -- Charleston and Carmel. Instead, it seems to gone on a long, hard drinking binge and it's more like a mashup of the undesirable parts of Berkeley, New Orleans, and Venice Beach. We hustled to get to Mallory Square for sunset when they have street performers right there on the waterfront. Ehhh. Again, I think the disappointment comes not so much what it is (a lot of shops with raunchy t-shirts), but what it could be/once was. It certainly is a beautiful setting.
We checked into our hotel and did a bit of swimming before getting ready for bed. Swimming at night is a guaranteed forever-memory.
One last follow-up: in my inbox today was an email and several pictures from the couple that we met on the manatee tour. Wasn't that nice? Here's the fellow that rested right next to us -- the couple was standing a foot away from us when they took this (and yet The Girl never felt him... grrrr...).
