Day 294 – Everglades National Park
Alligators and Air Boats
Today we managed to wake up early so we could enjoy the included breakfast at the Holiday Inn Miami. There was a nice spread of food for us to enjoy, in essentially a buffet style.
Holiday Inn rooms 
Sawgrass Recreation Park
After breakfast we booked some tickets online for Sawgrass Recreation Park, which is one of several visitor centres in the Everglades National Park. There is a $1.50 USD / $2.21 AUD discount per ticket for booking online. Once you include taxes, the general admission ticket costs $24.25 USD / $35.91 AUD. We also have to sign a digital liability waiver.
We had to drive 50km to the park from our hotel. It was mainly down a highway all the way to the park. Once at the park, we showed our tickets to the reception, located inside the gift shop and were given wristbands, and asked to wait for boat 7 to be called.
After a few minutes, we were called to an air boat. Right at the edge of the pier, we saw our first alligator in the water. Around 10 passengers in total got into the air boat, which could handle double that number.
Once we took off, the rush of the air was awesome. The air boat just glides over the water. The driver was also a tour guide, stopping in certain locations to show us alligators and give us information about the swamp and alligators. We only saw 2 other alligators that day. The guide, told us that we had arrived in breeding season, so the alligators are a lot more unpredictable.
After a 40 minute round trip, we were back at the dock. The ride was very cool and I would gladly do it again. We then walked to the Animal Exhibits. There are some animals behind smallish cages. I never knew an animal called a Caracal existed.
Caracal Fennec Fox Florida Panther Spur Thigh Tortoise
For a donation, you can actually hold a baby alligator. It was very cool. I didn’t expect the underside to be so soft.
We then had a small lunch at the park, which has a food van, with a limited menu.
Back to Miami
We then drove back down the highway to the Holiday Inn Hotel, where we spent the rest of the day doing our laundry.
For dinner we walked to a Pizza Hut and kilometre away. The food was nice and the pizza was big. We couldn’t finish it off, so we took it home in a takeaway box. However, along the way we saw an old homeless lady. We figured she could enjoy the pizza so we asked her if she would like it. Her face lit up and she was so grateful. It was an amazing feeling making someone else’s life even a little bit better.
By the time we came back to the hotel, there was lightning all around and maybe 50 meters from the door it started to rain.