If you are in Florida and you are near the Everglades, you really should take an airboat ride. It is a great way to see the Everglades. Cathy did some research and found that Everglades City Airboat Tours allow kids as young as eight months old. When we got to their office, there was a bit of a mix up so we had about an hour to kill before our tour. We ended up using the time to have lunch at Everglades Oar House Restaurant.
After lunch we went back to the dock and met Captain Justin who would be our guide today. The boats that Everglades City Airboat Tours only have six people which makes for a more intimate experience. The other thing that they have that the other boat operators do not have is two-way headphone communication. This allows you to communicate with each other and the boat operator. I think it is safe to say that the adults had so much fun listening to Michael and Liam. Whenever Captain Justin said something, both boys would say “Wow”.
The tour started out with a gentle ride through the mangrove jungles while Captain Justin gave us lots of facts about the various wildlife in the area. The jungles are like a huge city of highways and all of the boat operators stay in contact with each other. There were also times when we got to go fast and that was a lot of fun. We got to one spot in the mangroves where there was an alligator and raccoons. These raccoons are different than the ones at home in that these ones are out during the day. Apparently there are some airboat operators who feed the raccoons so they are pretty tame and will come pretty close to the boats looking for food. I couldn’t to believe how quickly the hour went. On our way back to the dock, Captain Justin told us about a couple of spots where we could see many more alligators in the wild.
We got back to the dock and headed over to H.P. Williams Roadside Park. The park has a few picnic tables and an observation boardwalk along the canal. We were able to see lots of fishes, a turtle and a few more alligators. Just a bit further down the road from the park, there are areas where you can pull over and see more alligators in the canal. We stopped and saw three or four more alligators really really close up.
We headed back to the house to enjoy an afternoon swim and dinner before heading out for the evening. Karen read online that you can fish off of the Naples Pier. Also the Pier is famous for its sunsets. We just missed the sunset but Dave was able to throw his line in a few times but unfortunately nothing was caught. We also wanted to check out Tin City which is a collection of shops and restaurants. We ran out of time to check out all of the stores but we were able to enjoy some ice cream before heading home.
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