Mojitos in Miami and Alligators in the Everglades

By now we had heard that Hurricane Irene was on her way and making a bee line for Florida.  She was not due to arrive til the end of the week so we thought we had just enough time to get down to Miami and possibly the Florida Keys depending on how things went.  We also learned that we had just missed the big earthquake that hit just outside of Washington, this was not far at all from where we had been staying when we were there.

Cocoa Beach

Before leaving though we took one last day to chill out and spent it at Cocoa Beach which was lovely.  The kids are absolutely loving the water.  We bowed under the pressure and bought them their own body board, probably should have bought two given the arguments that have ensued…oh well.

The drive south was nice, found  an absolutely wonderful beach to stop at for lunch.  Juno beach is just gorgeous and much what I imagine Hawaii to be like.  The water is some of the clearest I’ve seen for a long time.  There was a pier there so we went and had a walk to check what the fishermen were catching.  You could actually see the bigger fish chasing the smaller ones and coming in to bite at your line!  The fish to catch here is Snouk (pronounced Snook).

Juno Beach

We decided to stay in Fort Lauderdale which is about 30 minutes from Miami CBD.  The drive into Miami was just like you would expect, palm trees with lovely waterways and big mansions and boats on the side.  We headed straight for South Beach or “SoBe” as the locals call it and managed to park all the way at the North end so it was a long walk in the heat to get to where we wanted to go but Miami Beach has a beautiful boardwalk ALL the way along the beach.  The hotels back onto the boardwalk on one side and of course you have the beautiful palms, white sand and beach on the other side.

Miami Waterways

Miami Beach Boardwalk

South Beach (SoBe), Miami Beach

Spence in action

After a swim to cool off we hit the streets, the street that parallels the beach is Ocean Drive.  It has restaurants and a few boutique shops. It is so hot there that that restaurants literally have a marque over the sidewalk with tables underneath and fans that blow air (obviously) AND water out.  Walking that street on a hot day is very nice, apart from being invited into every restaurant you get a nice cool spray with cold air to follow.  We eventually gave in and let ourselves be talked into a pizza and mojito.  The mojitos here are strong!  With full bellies we set off again.  The street back off Miami Beach has some lovely art deco buildings and hotels with more shops.  It’s a bit like stepping into Miami Vice, we lost count of the guys wearing little shorts and floral shirts and the girls wearing fluro spandex.  Even the cars that were parked here and there were out of the 80’s or earlier.  Justin made me take a photo of a “Miami Vice car chase street”, tell me if you’ve seen it before!

Some of the art deco

Fan/water combo

Wright whanau eat pizza

Justin enjoys pizza and mojito

Check out how hot (Happy birthday Grace Simms!)

I’m a closet Kardashian fan (well not anymore I suppose now it’s on the web) and we passed Dash Miami so I couldn’t help but strike a pose outside and have a nosy inside.  None of the Kardashians were there but it was pretty cool to see inside the shop where so much happened on “Kourtney and Khloe hit Miami”.  All day we were arguing with Leo about whose “Ami” it was.  As soon as we said Miami in a sentence he never missed a beat “no Mummy, It’s MY Ami….”  OK Leo it’s Your Ami.

More art deco

Beach vista Miami

Taken 3 blocks from beach...togs..togs....undies!

Justin's Miami Vice car chase street

Dash Miami!

South Beach

Miami the City

We really loved Miami but it was HOT (95 F which is about 35 Celcius), the kids were a bit over being stuck in their pushchairs after a while so we hoofed it back up the board walk to Louie and headed home to the camp pool.  We really loved Miami, didn’t see much of the city itself but feel we got a real feel for the beach life there.  South Beach has it all really, beautiful beach and swimming, restaurants and pubs and shops.  There were a few interesting people there like the guy with two parrots on his shoulder walking around, the girl with leopard print spandex pants and top and I swear I saw the Captain off Love Boat taking a stroll.

Checking the news that night we heard that Irene was still on her way but looked like she might hit further up the coast although “there was a high degree of uncertainty” and talking to some locals they told us that hurricanes often change direction without much warning.  When we went to fill up with petrol and saw Americans filling as many jerry cans as they could carry we started to get the heebie jeebies.  So with heavy hearts we decided that we would miss the Florida Keys and head to the West coast of the Floridian peninsula to escape Irene.  Even if she hit further up the coast Florida was expecting high winds and storm surges so we would have been stuck in our camper with two kids trying to anchor her down in the wind.  No thanks.

We drove across the peninsula on the “Alligator Alley” highway which takes you through the Everglades and although we didn’t see any  ‘gators we certainly got a feel for the swampy Everglades.  As soon as we arrived in Naples we put the camper up, had lunch and a swim in the pool and headed for Ochopee which is further Sth and in the heart of the Everglades.  We found an Airboat tour guide (these are about every 200-300 metres as you drive) and booked our ride for about $20.  We had to wait a while for another boat to come back and noticed a few alligators watching us from the pier.  We retreated to a picnic area that backed onto another part of the park and it had a picket fence between us and the water.  As we were sitting there we suddenly noticed a HUGE ALLIGATOR had crept up on us and was about 1 metre away from us!  OK, there was that fence between us but this was a monster and I could easily see him getting through it if he wanted to.  There were quite big fish swimming around his head and as we watched, as quick as lightning his jaws snapped and he chewed on one.  Leo was fascinated and listened very carefully as we explained that this was the reason he shouldn’t walk to close to the water’s edge.  As time went on, we watched this guy and realised that he was quite interested in Spencer….he tracked her up and down as she waddled around and was only interested when she was around.  I suppose she is the size of his usual dinner but it was quite spooky.

Oooooer

Spencer's best fan

Ready for our ride in the Everglades!

The Airboat ride itself was a real hoot.  Leo had an absolute ball, we had to wear earmuffs because the fan was so loud and all I saw of Leo was his blonde hair flat on his head, his sunnies on and a massive smile, constantly yelling “yahoo!  Faster!” and giving us all the thumbs up, including our captain.  Spencer didn’t want to wear the ear muffs so my job was trying to protect her ears as much as I could.  When the boat was full throttle I had one of her ears up against the inside of my arm and my hand on the other, she sat absolutely still and just took it all in.  When the boat slowed down or stopped for us to look at something she wanted to sit on her own seat and be just like Leo.  There were quite a few alligators (over 2,000,000 in the Everglades) and lots of bird life like herons and pelicans.  Gorgeous scenery as usual and our Captain was born and bred in the Everglades so he had lots of stories to tell us.  It was a great afternoon and well worth it to make sure we experienced the Florida Everglades.

One of the 'gators

The need for speed!

Everglades, Miami

Holding on for dear life

I didn’t know this but there is a Florida Panther, a big cat.  There were signs everywhere in Naples warning to watch for panthers crossing the road.  We never saw one but as I was coming back from another night time loo run a cat (of the normal household variety) jumped out at my feet from a camper and I would have wet myself if I hadn’t already just been. 

The kids are loving their time in the pool.  I was alone with Leo and Spencer at one stage and giving Leo a bit of a swim when I turned around and only just saw Spencer going under, she had come down the steps of the pool.  What a fright I got, she was only 3 steps away from me but with Leo on my back it must have been at least 4 seconds before I got to her.  She was floating half way down, just looking up at me with those big blue eyes.  Lucky she is now quite good at holding her breath, there was barely a splutter when I pulled her up but man, those 4 seconds were the longest in my life.  Thank heavens I turned around at that moment, I shudder to think about missing seeing her wee head go under.

That won't be happening again.