Everglades National Park

The night before we were planning on going to Everglades National Park, Sam informs us that going on an airboat ride is on his bucket list (I love that our love of travel has inspired our boys to create their own bucket lists … even if they arrive at the 11th hour!). So I hop on the internet and call around to many operators, and all are booked up for the day or operate out of Miami. I drilled down on my internet search to our location and dialed Speedy’s Airboat Tours … and they had only four spots available for the next day. Two spots at Noon and two at 12:30pm. I said yes, yes and yes and we were signed up!

Bo had never been on an airboat ride, so this was our collective first … and it was so much fun! The ride is super smooth and very loud (thank goodness for the headsets!). Our driver Lyle did four airboat cookies, which Sam loved. Then at the end of the ride, our boat ran out of gas. Another boat had to push us in back to the dock, so that was an additional fun adventure. Sam said it was his absolute favorite part of our Florida trip, so it was worth it in spades!

When the boys were young, in 2005, we drove the I-95 South in Florida from St. Augustine to Islamorada during Hurricane Rita. On our first attempt down, we got blown around quite a bit by the feeder bands and had to make a surprise detour to a friends house in Fort Lauderdale … after we got evacuated from our high-rise hotel in Bal Harbour. Once the storm passed, we headed South again and drove through the Everglades National Park. We finally landed at the Cheeca Lodge & Spa and were amongst only a handful of the brave souls who dared make the voyage. Mother Nature truly is a force!

Awesome poster art from The Landmark Project.