Key West for REAL, part 3

Friday - Leaving Key West
Rob picked up the rental van and we spent the next few hours clearing out Key West Friend's house and packing the van.  Tank said, "Is this our new van?"  I told him it was ours for the weekend and then asked him if he remembered what happened to our old van.  He thought for a minute and then said, "It got broke-ed."  Yep.

Before we left Miciah tried out her shoebox boat on the ocean.  She made this boat at home and then insisted on bringing it down to Florida with us.  She's cute like that.

Do you love how she painted it?  Awesome, right?  ...  It floated pretty well, too.  Rob kept calling it a "seaworthy vessel."

Then we left.  While driving back up the Keys we stopped at the Seven Mile Bridge to walk on the old scary bridge and take pictures.  It was very bright, but the ocean was gorgeous.

If you're ever going to the Keys, I highly recommend stopping to walk on the Seven Mile Bridge.  It'll give you an appreciation for the new, wider bridge.  You'll walk on that old bridge and think, "Why would anyone in their right mind drive on this bridge?"

We also saw a bunch of blue jellyfish in the water, and that was fascinating because there were so many of them!  I couldn't get a good picture of them.  But here's a picture of Elijah instead:

Better than a jellyfish any day.

We drove to the Everglades with Key West Friend leading the way.  We arrived after dark, so we set up our tent and ate dinner by flashlight and car headlights.  It was awesome.  Then we covered ourselves with 100% deet, talked late into the night, and then went to sleep.

Saturday in the Everglades
Some time around 2 a.m. the deet wore off and the mosquitoes and no-see-ums found us.  We woke up covered in bites.  Which made us suddenly appreciative of our after-dark arrival the night before.

NOTE TO ALL OF YOU:  If you ever go to the Everglades (and I recommend it.  Don't go every year, but do go once in your lifetime), go in the winter months and bring lots of 100% deet.  We re-sprayed ourselves every hour or so.

We attempted to see manatees, but they weren't cooperating.  So instead we saw lots and lots and lots of alligators.  (Plus cool birds and fish and stuff.)

That second alligator was inches from us, and that's not an exaggeration.  You're supposed to stay 15 feet away from the alligators, and we were happy to stay away from them, thank you very much.  But this one crossed the foot path moments before we did and its tail was even over the path for a while.  Check it out:

Really neat, but probably not the safest.  He looked so docile.  It was very tempting to try to touch him.  But then you remember that he's a wild animal, he has lots of sharp teeth, and that you'd like to keep all of your limbs in tact.

On our way out of the Everglades we stopped and ate gator sandwiches.  Alligator is actually pretty good.  I'd eat it again.

Then we said bye to Key West Friend and made our way to Orlando, which was only about a 5 hour drive.  And that was good, cause we were exhausted from a long week and not sleeping the night before.  Rob and I took turns passing out in the passenger seat.  He slept and I woke him up when I thought that trying to stay awake for another 5 minutes would result in me crashing the car.  It was a long day.

It ended at my uncle's house, eating leftover Thanksgiving food (hurray!), watching Alice in Wonderland, and then sleeping wonderfully in a soft bed that wasn't the ground.

The kids, ready for bed.

Sunday and Monday - Home We Come!
Our no-talking-about-the-van rule was over now that our trip was over, so the whole way home we talked about cars.  We discussed which new car we would get if we could get anything we wanted.  And then we discussed what we would need to do with our finances to be able to afford another car.  It was a fun time.

After a stop in Atlanta and another much needed good night's sleep, we arrived home on Monday night.  Our original plan was to let most of our crap sit in our van and we'd slowly unpack it over the next several days (I'm a slacker like that).  No such luck.  The rental car had to be back at the airport by 9:30 the next morning.  We unpacked it, cleaned it out, and returned it, all in about 2 hours turn around time.  I was impressed with us.

THEN we went home and crashed.  I think the whole next day I was basically asleep standing up.  It was a long trip.  But it was fun!  Thank you, Miciah, Elijah, and Teancom, for saving up your money for a year so we could enjoy our time in Key West.  And thank you, Key West Friend, for letting us come. 

The End