A Day in the Everglades

Day 6: Saturday, February 27

Today was a day of high adventure.  After a great breakfast of pancakes and bacon, we gathered the family and headed out for Everglade City where we joined Captain Tony for a rousting air boat ride through the mangrove swamp.  We spent an hour flying through narrow passageways on this extremely noisy air boat.  The skill of these operators is truly amazing.  With no keel of any kind on these flat bottom boats, the drivers steer the skidding boats by directing the wind off the propeller.  Surprising to me, we saw almost no wild life during our adventure.  We stopped by a resting alligator that appeared to be

prepositioned for the tourists and then at another site, we parked next to a family of raccoons who were obviously waiting to be fed.  They came to within inches of the boat looking longingly for food.  The skipper told us that the birds were back in the mangrove feasting on small black crabs.  We did get a fleeting glimpse of what he called a white ibis.

Back on shore, we headed into the town of Everglade City.  It is an interesting town with a somewhat crazy history.  In the middle 1980’s, many of the 600 residents were actively involved in the illegal marijuana trade when 200 federal agents and

local law raided.  The first night, they arrested 12 folks and by the end of the round up, over 200 people were charged.  One historic feature is the Rod and Gun Club which was established in 1864.  The old facility appears to have been frozen in time in the 1920’s.  Janine and I tied up at their seawall and dined there the last time we came through that area. I was really intrigued by the building but felt that the two meals were near the top of the list of the two worst of my

existence.  However, I felt that my family should experience the interesting facility.  And much to my surprise, they decided that it would be worth a try to eat there.  It turned out that although it was expensive, the blue crab salad sandwich was really good.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the patio at Claire’s parents’ home.  It is nice to sit in the warm sun

with interesting people.

For our evening dinner, we traveled to Marco Island to Joey’s Pizza and Pasta House where we had huge meals of fine authentic Italian food.  We all took home boxes of left overs.