Key Largo & Everglades National Park

Our original plan was to begin our Florida visit with a one-month stay in the Keys, but when Dan needed to have neck surgery in December, our plans were set back by a month, so we arrived in Florida mid February instead of mid-January. Following our Capitol Tour of Tallahassee, we visited briefly with friends from Canada who were staying in Zephyrhills, then moved on to Ft. Lauderdale for a week while awaiting a cruise that sailed out on February 27th. During that week we did some touring, picking up a trip to Key Largo and a visit to The Everglades National Park.

Key Largo is the first, or northern most, of the keys most people are aware of, although there are actually 4500 islands in this archipelago that begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula. Key Largo is a popular tourist destination and calls itself the "Diving Capital of the World" because the living coral reef a few miles offshore. We visited the John Pennekamp state park while there to see the coral reef and the marine life that it supports.

The Everglades visit allowed us close-up views of alligators, nesting birds, and marine life, all living in a fragile ecosystem protected under the National Park system. The Everglades are wetlands created by a slow-moving river originating in Lake Okeechobee, fed by the Kissimmee River, and flowing southwest at about .25 miles per day into Florida Bay. The park protects an interconnected network of marshland and forest ecosystems that are maintained by natural forces. Thirty-six species designated as threatened or protected live in the park, including the Florida panther, the American crocodile, and the West Indian manatee. The park protects the largest U.S. wilderness area east of the Mississippi River, is the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America, and contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere. More than 350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish, 40 species of mammals, and 50 species of reptiles live within Everglades National Park. All of South Florida's fresh water, which is stored in the Biscayne Aquifer, is recharged in the park.