We saw so many different animals today - wow! Starting off in the morning we drove from Key Largo to Marathon Key, about 1.5 hours. In Marathon we visited the Turtle Hospital - they told us a lot of interesting information about the various kinds of sea turtles, and we got to see the operating room and one sea turtle that was getting ready to be operated on. Then we saw many water tanks outside that each held a sea turtle, and our guide explained the various reasons why the turtles were there (been hit by a boat, swallowed some debris, had tumors, etc.) and how the turtles were being rehabilitated. There was a nice gift shop with all the proceeds going back into the hospital, so we all shopped!
Next up was Curry State Park, where we ate lunch (sandwich wraps from Publix grocery store) next to the shore. A couple of guys were kite surfing next to us, which was very cool to watch. After lunch our guide Kim had a "dip net" activity for the students. Armed with nets and water shoes, everyone tried to find various living creatures in the water and then put them in smaller containers of water for identification and classification. They found crabs, a fish, some coral - not quite as much as we wanted to find, but still fun and scientific!
Onward to Robbies, a local marina where you can buy bait fish and feed the tarpon off the dock. There were many, many tarpon there - some were extremely large! There were also brown pelicans trying to intercept the fish that was being thrown to the tarpon. We also saw egrets.
Dinner was at "Rib Daddy's" and was delicious. In the restaurant they had 2 large colorful aquariums with coral and fish, etc. so it definitely fit the theme of our trip! Afterwards we left the Keys (boo hoo) and went to our next hotel in Homestead (just north of Florida City, and south of Miami).
After a little down time and swimming in the pool, we got the bug spray and headed to the Everglades! By this time it was dark, and we went around a walking trail in the pitch black (but we had some flashlights). We saw many alligators - it was really cool to find their shiny red eyes in the dark with the flashlight. We also saw some mating walking sticks, a snowy egret, and lots of mosquitos. Back to the hotel late, but well worth the trip!
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