Last week I traveled to Florida to visit Mom, and birds. When not photographing people I enjoy wandering around observing and photographing wildlife and nature. It’s peaceful, and quite beautiful. When I go to Florida to visit mom, who lives in the Keys, I make it a point to fly into Ft Lauderdale, or Miami International, the latter is a crazy large airport but in recent years has made it more simpler to navigate. So if you haven’t been there in a while, it’s gotten better, even I was able to go from Rental Car drop off to gate in under an hour. Also did you know if you’re a big guy like me, you can order a seat belt extender from Amazon.com so you can save embarrassment asking a flight attendant when you board.

One of my favorite National Parks in the Florida Everglades, it’s about an hour from Miami. If you’re renting a car, take their option for the “Sun Pass” as Easy Pass doesn’t work on their highways and there are not toll booths. It’s not that expensive about $4 a day, with tolls, which seem to be only $.80 cents every 10 miles or so. If you’re in a hurry you can go to the first nature stop in the Everyglades, Royal Palm. They have a boardwalk that travels around a body of water and you’re guaranteed to see alligators in nature, birds, turtles and get plenty of enjoyment, especially making memories with the kids.

This Anhinga, sometimes called snakebird, darter, American darter, or water turkey successfully swallowed this whole fish.

The sunset in the keys is a happening. Everyone stops what they’re doing, and they go to a clearing to watch it, even on cloudy days. Then they cheer at the conclusion of a day well spent.