Wednesday was to be our hiking day. But we had two problems, which turned out to be complimentary. The first problem was that hiking in the Everglades is extremely difficult -- given that it is a sea of grass. The second problem was that Elisabeth still had sun burns on her shins that made walking extremely painful. So it was with a stiff upper lip we made the drive back to the Everglades with the hope of making the best of our vacation.
Our first stop was at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center. This was definitely the main stop, unlike the Flamingo Visitor Center which was no more than a trailer in a parking lot. Here you could find a large series of displays on the Everglades, learn about trails, and general information. It was the right place to start, and from it we were able to plan out or day. We decided to start by going to the Royal Palm Visitor Center. The Royal Palm Visitor Center was the first constructed and served as the original Everglades destination.This is where two short trails start featuring very different aspects of the Everglades. We took both trails. The first was the Gumbo Limbo trail. This 1/2 mile trail wanders through one of the parks many hammocks (a section of ground that never floods) where dense foliage grows and a sub-tropical jungle forms. Inside the hammock, the canopy is so dense you can barely see the sky which makes the temperature significantly cooler than outside of it. It was a great if very short hike.
The second trail was the Anhinga Trail which is much more representative of the Everglades as a whole. This 0.8 mile trail is on a boardwalk and guides you over a marsh filled with alligators, turtles,anhingas, and many other birds. This trail was very crowded as everybody stopped every 5 steps to point at another alligator, take a picture of a turtle, or watch the birds snap up the fish.
Once we had seen all the animals on the Anhinga Trail, it was time to take a stop at the Nike Missile Site. This site was set up in 1964 to intercept potential missiles launched from Cuba. This was in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was operational for about 15 years. There was an opportunity to have a guided ranger tour, but we would have had to wait for about an hour for that. Which would have been too short to do anything in the mean time, but seemed too long to wait otherwise. It turned out for the best though, as there was a ranger there to give us a private tour of the place. He said we made it just in time, as this was the last week before they shut down for the summer. Apparently, the Everglades gets hotter and nobody wants to be there all summer. Given that it was in the upper 80s all week, I wouldn't want to be there in the summer (or even spring). But the guide was pleasant and very knowledgeable. He talked about the history of the site, and took us our to the control room. He said we couldn't go in, but we were able to see where the soldiers sat ready for Cuba (and by extension the Soviet Union) to launch missiles at the United States.
After that was over, we went on one more hike. This one was much farther into the Park, the Mahogany Hammock Trail. This was a short 0.4 miles on a raised boardwalk through another incredible dense jungle. Elisabeth was complaining about her sun burn and not wanting to walk, while Matthew was complaining that it was a pitiful 0.4 miles. So most of us went through it once, while Matthew and Julia took the loop twice just to try and make it a little less pathetic. Once the rest of us finished, we only had to wait a few minutes before the two of them emerged from the jungle and we were on our way.
Homestead has several tourist traps, but interestingly, one of the most well known is a fruit stand. Robert Is Here Fruit Stand is the largest collection of exotic tropical fruit that you can find. We bought a bunch of oranges, which were absolutely amazing. They were significantly sweeter, juicier and more full of flavor than any orange I have ever had before. There is nothing that compares to a fresh picked Florida orange. We also bought a Guanabana or Sour Sop. This was about the sweetest fruit you could possibly have, they said it tasted like cotton candy. I am not sure about that, as it is a lot stronger a taste than cotton candy implies. It was really good, however the kids didn't like it because it had a lot of seeds to eat around and it was quite slimy. They also had fruit milkshakes where you could mix in 3 of almost any type of fruit. We each got one, they were expensive at $10 a piece, but well worth it. The back also had a petting/feeding zoo for the kids.
After that, we went home for a dinner of leftovers, mostly from Havana Spice. The we went to Church at Victory Baptist Church. This confused us a bit, as they met in a Church of the Nazarene. But that Church didn't meet on Wednesday nights, so it mostly empty. It was a very small Church with only a few families there on Wednesday. They had a young pianist who had obviously just started playing for the Church. They sang one song, but then the song leader threw her for a loop when we wanted to sing a second hymn. After a couple of minutes of the two of them debating, I offered to play for them. She was obviously relieved at the offer, so we did two more hymns before Pastor Rich Barnett started preaching. He was a good speaker with a great testimony. He also was so excited to see us, that he threw away his sermon notes and preached directly at our kids on the importance of living for the Lord and the blessing of growing up in a Christian home.
After the service, we went to Walmart to stock up on water and snacks. Tomorrow we would leave Homestead and head over to Punta Gorda, to visit Grandpa Stinson.
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