Florida

Our first stop in Florida was Daytona beach on the Atlantic Ocean. We had to drive about a half-hour to the beach on the island. The beach was a small strip with hotels behind it. The water was 64° degrees when we went and there wasn’t really anyone there. It was nice and relaxing and we just sat on the beach and did our school.

After staying a couple of days at Daytona we went to a small place called Sebastian inlet which was some sort of attempt to make a bay. We did not go swimming there but the water was cold and there was a steep slope down to the water. Our campsite was on a very small island with a Bay Area right outside our door. A few of us took the raft out in the water and it turned out to be very shallow. There was manittes in the water but sadly we did not see any, we did see swarms of small jellyfish though.

On the day we left we stopped at the beach and watch some not too impressive surfers before our long drive to the Everglades. While we were there I found a coconut on the beach and so I peeled it and brought it home. At home I cracked it open and the water was much different than the store bought stuff it was much sweeter. Also I removed the “meat” and flaked it and toasted them, they were so delicious.

Miami.

We went to Miami next and it was packed. We spent like half an hour trying to find parking. Not to mention that there was people everywhere and the beach itself was packed. The water was nice though and it was so pretty, we went swimming and there was a shelf about one hundred feet out that we could stand on. Anyways we only spent one day there before heading to the Everglades.

Everglades

We then stopped in the Everglades and stayed there for a few days. There were “midges” there which are miniscual bitting flys that were awful. Because of the midges we did not really do much, but one of the days we went on a walk. We saw lots of fish and like six alligators. There also were these birds called cormarans that would dive out of the trees into the water and swim like fish! On the drive out to Pensacola, Abigail counted around two hundred alligators.

Navarre Beach (Pensacola)

We just left Navarre today to take the long drive to Texas. Navarre was cloudy when we arrived and the next day it poured. The town itself was very small but there was a massive air base nearby and you could here the occasional “whumps” of their war games. Yesterday it wasn’t raining and we went to the beach. We found tons of shells on the beach but we only got to go once. Now we are driving to Texas (sorry I think my order is a little messed up).