Camping in Everglades

We have enjoyed many nights camping with the family. We all enjoy back country back packing, carrying everything we need in backpacks and walking or canoeing to each camp site.

This trip, we went “car camping” instead. Everything we needed for our trip fit into our van. We did run to Walmart the first day to get some gas and some fresh vegetables. However, we kept things very simple. Oatmeal for breakfast, gorp and granola bars for lunch and simple meals for dinner.

The sites we stayed at in “Lone Pine Key” were very nice. Since our family is “large” we needed to have two sites. The boys slept across the street from us, so we had a lot of space. The view outside our windows was always relaxing.

It was also amazingly quiet most of the time! During the day children would be on bikes or scooters, or you would see people walking. But, unlike many campgrounds, there was very little noise or music.

Once the sun went down, the mosquitoes came out, so it was a great time to head inside to get ready for a busy tomorrow!

Florida Welcome Center

Allan asked what we wanted to do for vacation and we could not come up with ideas. Wanting warmth and the chance to visit someplace new, Allan decided we should go to the Everglades. Just for fun, Allan planned it all as a secret. I found out where we were going, but still kept it a secret from the kids. They figured it out before we left though.

The trip down was good and we got into Florida early on Monday morning. Then we hit Florida Traffic. It took us all day to get to the Everglades only stopping a few times after the welcome center.

It was light when we arrived, but by time the tents were set up, it was dark. So we learned about Florida mosquitoes.

Ice

Yesterday we took a walk and was amazed by all the neat ice patterns we were finding. My favorites were the ones that looked like mazes with marbles.

Megan tried breaking the ice to see if we could figure out what was causing the unique patterns. Most of the ice was still to thick for her to break, but we did discover some neat patterns under some.

Cold Day, Boiling Water

I am not sure what the temperature was this morning, but it was cold! I know that is is -8 right now with a wind chill of -17, but this morning was even colder.

Yesterday, we were supposed to beat the cold weather recorded for the city, but I forgot to check. I know with the wind chill it was supposed to get to -51, but I do not know the actual temperature for the day.