SOUTH FLORIDA NATIONAL PARKS & GRANDMA'S NEWS

Jules’ Journal:

By: Julianne Lillie

11/15/22 - Travel to Miami & Biscayne National Park:

We had a normal travel/school day today as we traveled from Orlando to Miami, FL. After the 4 hour drive we set up camp at Everglades RV Resort in Miami, FL. We then headed straight to Biscayne National Park Visitor’s Center and arrived by 3pm.

So we had 2 hours to do Jr. Ranger booklets, park video, and look at all the exhibits before they closed. We learned that the 3 South Florida Parks have teamed up together and created 1 Jr. Ranger booklet for all 3 parks. The kids needed to complete 3 pages for each park to earn their Jr Ranger badge for each park. And if the kids completed all 3, they would earn a special South Florida Park Junior Ranger patch! The kids were excited and quickly completed their 3 pages for Biscayne National Park when we also learned that Biscayne National Park had their very own Coral Reef Ranger booklet with an additional patch to earn. So the kids had about 1 hour left to complete that booklet which was much more challenging, but they did it! So one badge (#61) and the Coral Reef Ranger patch earned.

Once we closed down the visitor’s center, we walked along the boardwalk pathway to the Jetty and out to the tip.

Jaycie was a good Jr Ranger and picked up trash along the way!

We could see the skyline of Miami in the distance:

On our way back we experienced a beautiful magic hour with pink clouds!

We also saw a HUGE American Iguana which really surprised us. I had no idea they got that big here in the states!

We also learned very bad news about my Grandma Jeri. She had gone into the ER about a week and a half ago for what we thought was gallbladder symptoms only to find out she had a tumor in her colon. She had emergency surgery to remove the tumor and biopsies were taken. She had been recovering from surgery really well as we were all impressed by how quickly she was “bouncing back!” Then she had a follow up doctor appointment today with her Oncologist to get the results of her biopsies. Her doctor said that the colon cancer had spread too far (liver, omentum, & lymph nodes) to undergo treatment. So at this time he suggested palliative care and she has 6 months at most to live. As you can imagine, this was very shocking and difficult news to hear. We are all still trying to process it and figure out what this means for our future travel plans. We are praying fervently for Grandma’s strength, comfortability, and peace throughout these next months. We are all not ready for this. She is our Matriarch, our family cheerleader, and the life/party of all our family events! She is the heart and soul of our family and brings joy to everyone she meets! We are fully relying on God for our strength, hope, peace, and wisdom. At this time we have decided to continue with finishing our first half of the trip which only has about 3.5 weeks left until we arrive home for the Holidays. At that point we’ll reassess and make some decisions on what’s next. We know our Lord is in full control and will carry us through, guiding and directing our every step.

As I shared the news with the kids on our way back to the RV, the Lord provided us such a beautiful sunset - just reminding us of his awesome love.

11/16/22 - Everglades & Big Cypress:

Today was a VERY busy day trying to squeeze in 2 parks in 1 day! We all performed our early morning routine and packed a picnic lunch. We drove one hour to Everglades National Park Shark Valley Visitor’s Center.

We arrived at 10am and the kids got to work on their Jr Ranger pages for this park. They finished and earned their Jr Ranger badge (#62).

Then we took the 11am tram tour through the Everglades 9 mile loop trail which took about 2 hours.

Our selfie on the tram!

It was just breathtakingly beautiful! We saw SO much wildlife! We saw at least 8 American Alligators – 2 were babies! And we saw countless birds: Lots of Great White Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, Cormorants, Anhingas and Kill Deer. We also saw 2 little Blue Herons, 1 Red-Shouldered Hawk and 1 elusive Green Heron! We also saw a couple Red-bellied slider turtles, brown anoles, & green anoles (lizards).

Great White Egret:

We got to climb to the top of an Observation Tower halfway through our tram tour and we could see 360 views for miles and miles!

Cormorant drying out its wings after swimming:

We learned all about this delicate wetland ecosystem and how it is critically endangered. We learned how the ecosystem changes from the wet season (April – Oct) to the dry season (Nov – March). And were pleasantly surprised that there were hardly any mosquitos and we learned why! The water is NOT stagnant, but rather is moving extremely slow (0.25 mile/day) due to the ever so slight declining grade of the land. It was so interesting!

We also learned that the Everglades are the only place on earth where American Alligators and Crocodiles live together. Alligators live in mostly fresh water and live as far North from North Carolina and as far South as the southern tip of Florida. While Crocodiles mostly live in saltwater and they live as far north as the Everglades to as far south as South America. There were 2 Crocodiles that lived in the Shark Valley Everglades area (and had for the past 5 years) – sadly we did not see either of them. No one knows why these 2 crocodiles have decided to settle this far north in mostly freshwater. It’s quite unusual for sure! There are about 300ish crocodiles who live further south in the Everglades at the tip of Florida.

After the tram tour, we ate our picnic lunch on the road as we drove another 45 min. to Big Cypress National Preserve Visitor’s Center. On our way we saw SO many alligators just on the side of the road in the water. And outside the Visitor’s Center we saw 2 large gators just sunning themselves.

We literally lost count of how many gators we saw after 30! At the Visitor’s Center the kids earned their 63rd Jr Ranger badge! And since they now had completed all 3 South Florida Jr Ranger programs, they earned their special patch! Super fun!

On our way home we got fuel and groceries. And we stopped in Ochopee, FL at their post office to mail some post cards. It just so happened that this is the smallest Post Office in the US! Literally it was a one-person booth/shack! All he could do was turn around in it! It was so tiny! So crazy!

On our way home we called Grandma to check in on her. She was busy wrapping Christmas presents. She had a friend over and was running a “tight ship” to get them all wrapped! I told her I never knew Santa was such a slave driver! Ha!

Once we got home we ate dinner and tuned into Cedarpoint Students to hear a great message from one of our youth leaders. Great job, Seth Ketterling! Tomorrow we head south to the Florida Keys!

Jett’s Wild Flight: Biscayne National Park

By: Jett Lillie, 11/15/22

At Biscayne National Park we earned another Jr. Ranger badge and one special Coral Reef Ranger patch. I learned that Biscayne National Park has its own water snake, the Mangrove Water Snake. (I was sad that I didn’t get to see one.) We watched the park video and learned about the Mangrove trees and how they protect the shoreline from erosion. We also learned about the animals that live in Biscayne National Park: Manatees, Alligators, lizards, and lots of fish and birds! We walked the boardwalk looking for Alligators and Manatees, but no luck.

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: Everglades & Big Cypress

By: Jaycie Lillie, 11/16/22

Our trip started with the Visitor Center at Shark Valley. There we completed our Jr Ranger booklets and earned our Jr Ranger badge. We learned that Alligators are black and NOT green! And Crocodiles are olive green. So, the Florida Gators are actually Florida Crocs.

We went on a tram tour. Our Park Ranger guide’s name was Jeep [like the car].

Sadly, it was open air tour and the bugs found us. So, if you can imagine… I’m swatting bugs while everyone else doesn’t mind. [It was crazy!]

The Everglades is 9,000 square miles of wilderness. We saw 2 little Blue Herons and we saw lots of gators. When gators are hungry they will become active to hunt/eat and then will rest until they are hungry again [days later]. We saw many birds, too!

I took this photo through daddy's binoculars:

We also learned that the water is flowing very slowly to the South. Only a quarter mile a day!

Then, once the tour was over we headed to Big Cypress National Preserve. There we earned another badge and a master patch! There we watched the park film and then went on a very short walk. There were so many alligators there, too!

The End.