Miami Day 1 & 2

March 1, 2016

Snow, snow, go away, come again another day! We had an evening flight out of Detroit Metro. Due to the weather, we barely made it to the airport in time. Lucky for us, the airport was really empty and the security line was pretty much non-existent. We boarded the plane at the scheduled time, but then sat in the plane for probably over an hour because the plane had some fuel related issue. Finally, we pushed off and de-iced. Then of course the runways were getting cleared. We finally took off about 1.5 hours later than planned. We were originally supposed to land at 11:20, but arrived at 1:40. Needless to say, getting a rental car was not going to work at that hour. $50 later we arrived to our hotel, The Penguin, in South Beach.

March 2, 2016

First things first, figuring out the rental car issue. We had booked thru Enterprise, since they were cheaper to use when it came to toll roads. Be sure to do your research when picking a rental car company. We opted to walk to the rental place that was about a mile or so from the hotel.

Bird along the Shark Valley Tram Ride

Alligator at the Everglades

The Everglades National Park ($20 for a week pass, or free if you have the NP annual pass) was our sightseeing destination for the day. We visited the Shark Valley portion of the Everglades (there are four different Visitor Center areas). The Shark Valley area offers two-hour long narrated tram rides and bicycle rentals. We opted to explore via the tram ride ($24/person with trams running hourly). The loop is fifteen miles long and the tour lasts about 2 hours. Our tour guide was Tammy from Miami – she was great – very enthusiastic and even jumped into the water to show us stuff. There was a ton of wildlife to view throughout the tour. There is also a short boardwalk near the visitor center that is worth checking out. There was a video at the visitor center, we watched some of it while waiting for the tour.

Near Shark Valley is the Big Cypress National Preserve – Oasis Visitor Center. Time was our friend and we were able to visit before the visitor center closed.  There is a boardwalk in front of the building that overlooks some water. There were quite a few alligators hanging out. Near the Oasis Visitor Center is a loop driving tour. The road was gravel and in okay condition, but in general we were not impressed. We did watch the video at the visitor center.

Shortys BBQ was our dinner choice for the evening. The portions were large and the food was tasty.