Everglades

Another thing on my bucket list was visiting the everglades.  I'd like to do a more comprehensive trip but this little adventure was certainly entertaining.

Upon entering the Everglades National park we immediately began to see large birds over head.  When we saw them start to circle we knew they were vultures.  After driving for a bit we saw more and more-there were easily hundreds in the sky.  But still we weren't prepared for this.

They were all over the cars at the trail head we were visiting.

Cars were covered with tarps in a vain attempt to protect them from the Vultures.  But protect them from what I wondered.

We were worried, we had a really nice rental car and we didn't want to be responsible for damage. The vultures were working together to pull tarps off the cars.

We walked over to this car to see exactly what the vultures were doing.  

Some flew away when we walked over but these two weren't deterred.  They kept pecking at the seals and gaskets.  They had complexly destroyed the gasket around this car's windshield.  Almost like they were eating the rubber.

We realized that the cars parked furthest from the bathrooms were taking the most damage so we moved our car as close to the buildings as possible.  

Then we borrowed a tarp and crossed our fingers.

There were some helpful signs in the park.  I mean before seeing this I thought the goal was to get closer to the  alligators.  But when you know better, you do better.

It was a perfect day.  Warm but not too hot.  If you go to the Everglades you are pretty much guaranteed to see birds, fish, and turtles. 

All the birds

Finally we saw a few alligators.  

 We really loved this little bird who walked and hopped from lily-pad to lily-pad.

 Luckily he didn't hop over to these....

I was happy to see a few alligators and considered the day a success but then as we were leaving we saw this guy swimming along.

This park ranger was very excited.  She was so energetic and upbeat and loud.  I don't think I would have wanted to do the trail with her as my guide.

But as we were listening to the park ranger talk about the alligator, another alligator swam up and suddenly there were two.  They were checking each other out. And they began to swim together.

 The ranger was just giddy.  Apparently she had never witnessed this behavior.  The two alligators swan around nudging and touching each other for about 15 minutes.

The bigger alligator put its hand (do alligators have hands) on the other alligator's back- several times.

They eventually separated and went their separate ways.  I learned that alligators tend to return to the same mate but aren't exactly paired for life.  While crocodiles have no fidelity to their partners. 

We were pleased to see that our rental was untouched when we returned.

Now it was time for Milkshakes from Robert Is Here
Here is an article telling about the market and its history.

https://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/things-to-do/outdoors-nature/robert-is-here-at-the-florida-everglades.html

A lovely little hen joined us for milkshakes.  I had key lime and it was tasty.  We bought a few jellies but didn't try to bring fresh fruit back on the plane.