Everglades National Park

When we arrived at Everglades NP it was shortly before midnight and raining quite hard.  Scott got out of the van to attempt to put up the tent, but when he remembered the top of our tent is open screen (which we then put a cover over after set up) he realized it would be futile as the entire inside of the tent would be  soaked before we even set it up.

 

 

 

So, we opted to spend the night in the van.

Both of us can honestly say we were surprised that it wasn’t as horrible as we thought it would be.  We were quite crammed in there, but we made it work.  My oldest son slept in his car seat, our oldest daughter crammed in on the floor behind the suitcase, the next daughter slept on the back seat, Scott and I slept up front and the baby stayed in his car seat within reach of us incase he should need to eat in the middle of the night.

The next morning we woke to a break in the rain and decided to hit the Anhinga trail as soon as possible before the next string of showers blew though.  This hike was by far our favorite part of Everglades and up there as one of the top fav events of our entire trip.  It was that beautiful.  We saw alligators swimming in their natural habitat and so many beautiful birds I couldn’t even begin to count them.  Literally, everywhere we looked we’d find a bird.  Scott had a great time photographing them. 

The poncho’s were a huge hit with the kids, particularly the girls.  They were SO excited about wearing them!

 

We took another short walk as well as a canoe ride later in the day.  We saw crocodiles and even watched an Osprey enjoy his fish lunch! 

While we did encounter some rain at times during the day, they were passing showers and over all we had a fantastic day in the Everglades.  Thankfully, we were able to set up camp that night when it wasn’t raining and enjoy a good night of sleep.