Sunny Florida

We delayed our trip to Jupiter, FL due to the high number of covid cases over Christmas. But were able to reschedule over Presidents Day break with 2 days off school and skipping a day.

We left Thurs and stayed in Jacksonville to break up the 10hr drive. Thank you Neville's for the hotel!! We brought bikes and explored Jonathan Dickinson State Park on the way into town.

Next stop Blowing Rocks Preserve!!

This was our 2nd visit but we were able to stay longer and see more of the beach.

The preserve is crazy beautiful! The water was so clear we saw a sea turtle. The sand is soft and sinks a few inches in some areas.

Waves crash into the rocks at high tide and make for a unique show. This is Benny being helped up through a hole in the rocks.

The rock cliffs, formations and water color make this beach one of the coolest I've seen.

Even the access trail is pretty.

The best lizard we found. Not as cool as Key Largo iguanas but better than the ones at home.

Everyone's favorite meal for dinner.

Another day we went to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary because it was free. We were pleasantly surprised and saw so many animals. Our favs were the FL panther, bear, bobcat and fox.

Biking some great trails at Riverbend Park.

A relaxing morning on the dock at our Airbnb. It was a nice place but I didn't like staying on the same property as the owners. And it was a little too far from town.

Addy and Josh loved the outdoor cats.

Banyan tree just outside the front door.

We spend another morning at DuBois Park. This inlet was one of my favorite areas.

The water was snorkel clear but too chilly for some of us. I rode my tube around but only the little boys snorkeled.

Jackson found this amazing whelk and we brought it home as a souvenir.

The highlight was seeing a manatee!!! Benny swam along beside and even got to touch him. So proud! The rest of us were too slow and out of the water because people told us it was a shark. So bummed we missed it. 2 sting rays swam by as well.

In the evening, we visited John D MacArthur Beach State Park. It was unique in that you had to walk across a bridge and inlet to get to the beach.

The kids enjoyed playing in the sand.

And making this impressive creation. My people have skills!

On our last day we debated but ended up driving 2 hours south to Everglades National Park to bike the 15 mile Shark Valley Trail.

And I'm so glad we did! This was without a doubt my FAVORITE part of the trip. Baby gator!!

Some of the 1st allligators we saw were babies!! A dozen of them. This one is the smallest.

The gators were RIGHT next to the bike path!

Kissing gators! We watched these two slowly approach each other and wondered what would happen when they got close.

We stopped frequently to see gators of all sizes and big beautiful birds.

The halfway point was an observation tower. Similar to Clingman's Dome in the Smokeys.

Except that there were gators down below. We counted and were up to 60 for the day!!

I liked this part so much and what a perfect weather day.

This park volunteer told us interesting information and gave the kids souvenir stickers.

The best part was he pointed out this rarely seen crocodile and even he took a picture of it!

Instead of a loop we took the same path back because there was so much to see.

A beautiful heron posing for me on the way back.

Thank you Florida for another fun stay.