fun times

Although we worked hard while the family was here, we also enjoyed doing some fun outings together. On Sunday (after church of course), we went on a drive to Key Biscayne to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State park. Key Biscayne is really beautiful, but the view from the 95-ft lighthouse is amazing. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed !! Apparently they only do 2 tours a day, which is weird because that was not the case the first time Kevin and I went, but we still enjoyed walking around the grounds. The Cape Florida lighthouse (built in 1825 and repaired in 1846) is the oldest standing structure in Miami-Dade County.

In case you care about the history, the island served as a secret meeting place and port for runaway slaves and Black Seminoles waiting to rendezvous with sea captains or board dugouts for a passage to safety in the British Bahamas. In 2004, Cape Florida was designated a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site and is still lit every night.
On Monday, we headed over to the Miami International Boat Show. I am pretty sure Kevin was waiting for like 7 months for this event. I don't think it was quite as amazing as he had planned because they were lacking in the ski/wakeboard boat category, but we did board a 3.9 million dollar yacht and some fancy fishing and cruising boats.
Kimberly and I inside the cabin of one of the large ships. They were actually more spacious than I had imagined, but I still wouldn't want to stay on one for an extended amount of time.
We took a water taxi back to Bayside, which is kind of like an outdoor marketplace with shops (with a lot of tourist garbage), restaurants, live music, and boat tours. We just snapped a few pictures, then headed off to dinner.
Tuesday, the boys stayed home to commence work on the floors, and us girls went out for an adventure. Kimberly determined that she wanted to go to the Everglades since it was possibly her favorite National Park. We had all already done the airboat tours to see the gators, but I had heard about going bike riding in Shark Valley, so we decided to give it a shot. I was not really sure why it was called Shark Valley because supposedly there are gators everywhere, but I have since done my research online and apparently it is called that because it is a very shallow valley that flows into Shark Lake.

We had a great time and the weather was perfect. It got really hot a few times, but then the clouds would cover the sun and it was perfect. It was amazing how much wildlife we were able to see. I still do not know how it was safe because we literally were a few feet from the alligators. My mom was really paranoid that we were going to get eaten, so when the gators were really close to the bike path, we made sure we kept pedaling, haha. Isn't my mom cute?
I mean seriously, this is a bit ridiculous. Can you see that gator in the water? Some of them were on the grass like where my bike tire was. I obviously didn't stop for pictures when they were that close. My favorite one was swimming in the water with a baby on it's back. If I had to guess, I would say we saw at least 80 gators in the 2 hours we were on the trail. And about a million birds, turtles, butterflies, etc. We are just lucky we had Kimberly and her "National Geographic eyes" with us, hahaha.
We stopped to drink water and eat cheetohs, and Kimberly stated that we needed a glamour shot. We were sweaty, so it was kind of a joke. So, we took our picture, then Kimberly told mom to go get her glamour shot.
My mom is hilarious, I am pretty sure she is getting funnier every time I see her. She walked right over to the bench, laid down, and just started cracking up. I am laughing just thinking about it. Every time I see this picture I am going to laugh and remember our hilarious afternoon together.

I was so sad to see them go, but I will look forward to when I see them again in June for Jeffrey's homecoming. I can't wait!!!