Flashback - Christmas in Utah recap

Although it's nearly February, I figure it's never too late to share the last highlights of 2012. So here it is!

 Ryan and I flew to Salt Lake City just before Christmas to see my parents' new home and enjoy the holidays together. I knew we'd be in for a treat or two, but I didn't expect to have as much fun as we did.

The next two pictures sum up how much fun we had :)

Look at Dad go!

He cruises down mountains in style!

Honestly, I never thought I'd see Dad ski after his bunny slope fiasco in WV 15 years ago, but this hard working outdoor enthusiast decided he'd give it another whirl. Looking good, Dad!

When we got to Utah we, like most tourists, were awestruck by the ranges surrounding the SLC valley. Just check out the view from my parents' front yard.

The snow also drew our attention which is why we decided to build the Hungry Caterpillar on Christmas :)

We took a day trip to Antelope Island. Since it wasn't too cold in the valley (~ 40 degrees F) Dad, Ry and I decided to bike across the Great Salt Lake to the island. What a great way to stretch our legs and inhale some fresh air.

Plus the views were spectacular.

 

When we got to the island we were greeted with the last standing wild herd of bison plus coyotes, mule deer and antelope! 

 After exploring Antelope Island a little, we decided to go look for elk up in the mountains. Luckily, Mom and Dad had read about Hardware Ranch, a favorite stopping place for elk in the winter. So we boogied over to the ranch and hopped on the last sleigh ride of the evening to see the elk.

 Hardware Ranch is run by the DWR. Part of their program is to feed the elk during the winter to keep the herd out of Hyrum, a quaint neighboring city. 

 Check out the rack on the male above! 

One of the themes from our trip was snow! Which came down nearly every day we were in Utah.

 In fact, the snow fell with great fury when we were skiing. You can see how it was sticking to us (look at Ryan's facial hair).

Yes, we wore bike helmets while skiing. FYI all you east coasters...helmets are normal out west on the slopes.

 Ryan and I had a fabulous time hanging out with Mom and Dad for a week. We look forward to exploring Utah more in the future with them. And we can't wait for them to come visit us again here in NH.

South Florida - Part II

The next stop in our eight day adventure was The Keys! We should have known that vacationing in the Keys in January is not a novel idea. The weather is impeccable at this time of the year. A warm 80 degrees with enough breeze to keep the mosquitoes and no-see-ums off your legs. Since all the cotton-heads and their RVs were flooding into the Keys we weren't able to snag a State Park campsite. So we opted for the next best thing, a marina/RV park campsite at Pelican May Marina.

A small RV park with four-five month residents + us in our cute red compact and tent.

 We threw up our tent, grabbed some lawn chairs and enjoyed the quiet boat yard (directly behind our tent).

 This is the common area for the Marina. They have three retired pontoon boats that you can fish off + canoes/kayaks to borrow and explore the bay.

To be honest, this campground was great for our needs. It reminded me of one of my stops in Australia where I stayed in a 1970's creeper RV with a painting of sand dunes and kangaroos throughout the camper. The host of PMM also reminded me of Esmerelda in AU. She is a straight speaking woman with lots of stories, insight, and grit. The campground fit our needs because Ry was yearning to fish while in Florida. So every evening Ry spent hours on the pontoon casting. He caught quite a few of these...

 Blue Crabs! Which we boiled and ate...yum!

Early morning fishing

While sitting right here, Ry and I spotted two manatees passing through the channel! We were stoked to see two during our eight day trip. What a treasure!

Other than hanging out at the marina, we explored Key West (if you don't drink there's not much to do here), swam at Bahia Honda (worth the stop!), and drank our first Cuban coffee (oh so sweet). We also booked a snorkeling tour trip from John Pennekamp State Park. Although a little pricey (~$34/person) we were in the Keys to snorkel so we had to go. We went on the 2 1/2 hour long trip which was plenty of time on this particular day because the current was swift and the waves were between 1-2 feet (not ideal for snorkeling). Plus the visibility was around 10 feet. Check out what we saw!

 It's a porpoise! No, it's Ry :)

 Corals. It was a really shallow reef (<5 feet below the surface).

 Turtle!! See it?

 Turtle close-up :) We were the only ones on the boat that spotted it.

Pipe fish (bottom left)...the long skinny thing.

We spotted a horseshoe crab (below) on our last day in the Keys. These guys are prehistoric!

 Back at the Marina we met Matty. This brown pelican frequented our docks in hopes of nabbing a fish or two from the fishermen.

This is Matty flying across the channel.

A placid canoe/fishing trip in Pelican Bay near our campsite.

 Our last night in the keys. We had a lot of fun, but Miami was calling our names. 

We first explored South Beach. We can sum up this experience with four words - boobs, skin cancer, and wealth. Sorry South Beach...we're not fans. But I guess we're not really the glitz and glamour kind of people you cater to.

Little Havana, however, was more our speed. This community started when Castro was about to take control of Cuba. Cuban exiles fled to South Florida and re-created their home...Havana. Although this area has the word "Little" in its name it is quite large. We parked in the shopping district and walked 15 blocks to Versailles (the famous Cuban bakery) to enjoy a couple sweet treats, which were delicious! They weren't overly sugary and the torte Ry got was super dense...yum. The walk, however, wound up taking one hour each way! Oh my! I guess we earned our sweet treats.

After exploring Little Havana we decided it was time to lounge in a real bed. So we headed to the hotel. A hot shower, fresh sheets and AC never felt so good. Plus we were able to wash our clothes before flying home. Thanks, Priceline for the super cheap ($38/night) hotel room :)

Overall, Ry and I had a fabulous first adventure of 2013. I'm lucky to have a special man in my life that loves to explore, eat and play like I do. Now it's back to the grind for the next few months.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope to post about our Christmas trip to Salt Lake City soon.

Don't forget to enjoy the simple things.

South Florida Fun...mosquitoes, gators and manatees. Oh my!

South Florida greeted us with sunshine, high humidity and 80 degree weather. I was in hog heaven! After landing in Fort Lauderdale, Ry and I picked up our compact rental car (this thing was so tiny it didn't even have a trunk) and made our way to a shopping center to pick-up foods and essential camping items we weren't able to cram into our two bags. We were on our way to the Flamingo Campground at Everglades National Park...if you're not familiar with this campground it is 38 miles past the park entrance and there are no decent shopping venues in the park to shop at.

Being fruit and food lovers we decided to stop at the last fruit stand before entering the park named "Robert is Here". We learned later this fruit stand was started by Robert when he was six years old (1950's) and has turned it into his family business. The reason I'm mentioning Robert is Here is because they make some of the best fruit milkshakes you could ever dream of! Dad- I promise you would even drink these :) We went out on a limb and bought a shake that had a fruit we'd never heard of, black sapote, mixed with coconut. So what is black sapote? Well looks like a rotten tomato that tastes just like chocolate pudding! And as a chocolate lover I can vouch this fruit is the best chocolate substitute I've ever had. In fact these shakes were so good Ry and I had three shakes from Roberts while we were in the area. I highly recommend stopping in.

After getting a good night's rest in our tent, we decided to explore the Everglades via it's waterways so we rented a canoe. We expected the eight hour voyage to consist of small canals through dense mangroves as shown in the following two pictures.

We were, however, greeted with a large swift moving lake (Coot Bay) with whipping winds that nearly capsized our boat after one hour of paddling calm channels. Just so you know, I'm not a novice paddler and Ry is a decent paddler, but we still managed to get caught up in a rather bad situation. First of all, the park maps, the free ones that is, are rather misleading scale-wise. And the ranger failed to mention how rapid of a current Coot Bay has when it's windy. So Ry and I paddled out of the calm channel into a white capped lake and were swept across the ~ 2 mile lake in a matter of 15 minutes. We eventually found a mangrove to hold onto while we reassessed the map and our options for the return trip. 

This picture doesn't accurately depict the waves or wind that was whipping across the bay. We were too busy paddling to snap another picture.

While we were looking over the map and eating lunch a stray dolphin swam ~15 feet from our canoe and headed up stream. It was nice to know another animal was making the trek upstream along with us :)

We found an alternative path back to the canoe docks which intersected with Coot Bay. To get there, however, required paddling halfway across Coot Bay, but it was our only option. As we set out we quickly realized how difficult our return paddle would be. For every one stroke Ry and I made in unison we moved forward less than 3 feet. And if we stopped paddling we would go backwards more than 20 feet. As soon as our canoe caught the wind we spun around and headed straight towards the mangroves. It was rather scary. Luckily, Ry and I were able to slowly make it across the lake (it took us about 2 hours). We were able to find safety in a small canal with dense brush that blocked both the wind and current. We were ecstatic! And exhausted. 

We finished our canoe trip out in the calm canals dodging tree limbs, spotting birds and swatting mosquitoes. We paddled for a total of 7 hours. Dinner and sleep were calling our names.

The next morning we decided to stick to the land. So we headed to the Snake Bight trail in hunt of a Burmese Python. The Python hunt was set to kick off one week after we left the Glades so we were hopeful to see one of these non-native 20 foot snakes. Luck would have it that we never saw one, but the thought of bumping into a giant strangler kept us both on our toes the entire hike. 

We wound up driving to all the ecotype stops in the park and decided to venture outside of the park to the second Glade entrance, Snake Valley. It's a rather long drive to Snake Valley, but we figured we should check out the slough (the irrigation system for the Glades) since we were in the area. We were pleasantly surprised by the park!

Before entering the park we already spotted five gators!

Ryan was in hog heaven! 

Once we entered Shark Valley we learned that they rent bicycles and have a 15 mile paved trail along a waterway that gators and birds love to hang out in. So of course we put on our sneakers rented bikes and started pedaling. 

The beach cruisers weren't exactly cut out for our fast pace, but we managed to complete the 15 mile route in under an hour and a half with lots of gator/bird stops.

Plus at the halfway point there was a giant look out tower where you could see the entire slough! 

 Wood stork in the brush.

Shark Valley should be better publicized. This place was awesome!

After dinner, we went on a night hike back in the Everglades. I told Ry about how we used to spot animals on our night hikes in Costa Rica...we would place the flashlight between our eyes and scan the trees. This way when the light bounced off an animals retinas we would see the yellow/green reflection and know there was an animals there. He thought my technique was silly at first, but he quickly realized how effective it is!

See the glowing eye above?

This guy swam right under the walkway we were standing on.

We wound up spotting ~ 10 gators on the Anhinga Trail right inside the Glades main entrance. It's a paved trail so night hikes make this accessible and well traversed trail a lot more interesting.

After three nights camping in the Glades, we packed up and headed to the Keys!

Bon Voyage

Growing up down south did not prepare me for heating oil bills and winterizing the windows with shrink wrap. Last night R and I worked for hours insulating our radiator pipes, shrink wrapping the windows and searching for the cheapest heating oil prices. New England is undoubtedly a charming area, but the infrastructures in the homes leaves much to be desired. Three cheers for quick thinking, fast work and a little hope that our house stays warmer over the next few months without breaking the bank!

As you can see the pups were really worried too :)

We're off to visit our friends in Boston before our flight tomorrow morning to FL.

Here and Now

We are currently in the process of packing for our upcoming adventure to Everglades National Park and the Keys. For the next week we'll be camping, snorkeling, reading, bird watching and relaxing. After one and a half years in graduate school, R and I are really looking forward to a fun adventure down south. If all goes as planned we'll catch a glimpse or two of alligators, eagles, sharks, coral and lots of stars.

Happy 2013 to you all! We're going to make this a good year; we hope you will do the same.