The Brevard Zoo

As if we don't have enough animal encounters, we went to the zoo. Sometimes I feel like I live in a zoo with as much as Ivan and Charlotte growl, roar, cheep, moo, bark, meow, etc. These kids love animals. I'm sure Michael and I had nothing to do with that...

I went to the Brevard Zoo with my friend Mary a couple weeks ago. She has a pass that got me and Charlotte in for free so we only had to pay the $12 for Ivan to get in. By the way, I think it's ridiculous to have to pay for a 2 year old. Seriously? And not only is it silly to pay for a 2 year old, but I feel like I was charged a lot. Not just me in particular, but that the price for a 2-12 year old was $12? That seems overboard for me. Anyway, since the kids and I had already been to the zoo, we knew Michael would like it. And we got 2 free tickets from a friend and again only had to pay for Ivan. Not bad, except for the fact that he's 2.

I'm pretty sure this is a Cheetah. Those spotted big cats are hard to identify sometimes. He was pacing all over his yard and walked right in front of us several times. 

In all reality, I've been to much better zoos. The Brevard Zoo does not get my vote for best zoo ever or best price for what you get, but hey, there's a splash pad/ swimming pool in the zoo. Knowing it was going to be a million degrees outside, we didn't plan on staying all day or even seeing all the exhibits. This was a first for me. We didn't see everything when we went with Mary, but I didn't have any help with the kids and I expected to leave early because of that. But when I do things with Michael, I expect to go all the way. This time, I realized my limits, both physically and mentally, and we settled to see what we wanted and split before we went crazy or roasted. That was a good decision.

I'm not sure if she just really liked the emus or if biting the bars felt good on her gums. Either way she was very happy right here. 

This emu was thumping at us. They make this really deep sound in their throat that sounds like thumping on a hollow log. The kids thought it was neat. 

This zoo really just has a bunch of cool birds. There is a room that you can go in and it's all fenced in and there are tons of these little green parrot looking birds that fly around freely. You can buy little fruit cups and the birds will land on you, fight each other for the food, and eat right out of the cup. The kids thought this was really cool but Ivan wasn't quite brave enough to try it out, he just watched mom and dad do it. Charlotte kept trying to catch the birds, which was funny, but the birds weren't the nicest and weren't afraid to bite you. That is what I paid $12 for each time we went. Definitely my favorite part of the zoo.

They took dad by surprise!

Ivan loved seeing the bird eat out of dad's hand!

He even got brave enough to hold the cup! We made sure it was mostly empty so the birds wouldn't actually land on him. 

Charlotte is trying her hardest to catch these little cockateels. 

We ate lunch right next to the Flamingo pond. That's where we got to feed a scarlet ibis and a roseate spoonbill. Really it was just fish food, but instead of throwing it into the water for the giant coy to eat, we fed it piece by piece to the birds. They would take it right out of your fingers! And the spoonbill's bill felt like two plastic plates fumbling over your hand. Pretty neat experience. And I got pooped on.

Michael thought feeding the birds was really cool too. The one eating from his hand is the spoonbill and the red on is the scarlet ibis. Can you see the flamingos in the background?

One reason why we chose this spot to eat lunch at was for the shade. Shade means birds and birds mean poop. I kept saying they were gonna poop on me and we should move, but we weren't enough. 

It didn't take long after that for us to just be done. We went by the splash pad little pool thing and let the kids cool off then headed out. Somehow I don't have a single picture of the kids playing in the water. Dang, that place is pretty cool, too. They have a shallow pool with a manatee statue in it and a deeper pool that has more water park type things. The big pool has a bucket that fills and you pull the cord and it dumps it on you and it meets up with a giant fish tank with fish the size of Ivan in it. And there's the whale's mouth that is a slide that mimics a whale tongue and you can push a button and water comes out the blow hole.

The giraffe exhibit they have is incredible! They had a couple baby giraffes and 3 or 4 adults. The giraffes could reach their heads right up to this platform where everyone was walking. 

We even paid 2 dollars for a quarter stick of carrot to get the feed the giraffe. Ivan thought it was neat but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it more!

Look at his purple tongue!

Everglades National Park

Since the day we found out Michael got the job here in Florida we have been looking forward to our first (and probably only) trip to the everglades. I think what we didn't realize is that we should have gone like the day we got here and not waited til the end of May. It was hot. And humid. And people say there's a difference in dry heat and humid heat, and there is, there definitely is. But to all you people complaining about how hot it is in the dry heat, at least you can breathe! I think humid heat is way way worse than dry heat. And I feel like I can say that with a pretty unbiased, albeit pregnant, opinion since I've visited Arizona in August, Utah all through the summer, and been pregnant in Idaho in the summer. Humidity sucks! Literally. It's sucking the life right out of me. I don't know how I'm gonna last the rest of the summer like this. And it really hasn't reached the super hot months yet either. Oh boy. I'm in for it.

Anyway. I got everything packed for everybody, which is quite a task all by itself, then you add in pregnancy brain. I think I made 2 or 3 lists of things I needed to pack and compared my lists to see what I forgot each time. And I would ask Michael what else we needed, but he usually just says underwear so he's not much help sometimes. Hey, at least we'll never forget underwear! Once we got there I realized the only thing I had forgotten was an undershirt for me. And undershirts are essential in my outfit selections. Thank goodness for Walmart being close by. Once I got the car loaded up all we had to do was wait for Michael to get home. After he got off work we left and started our 4 hour drive south. I had Ivan sitting in the very back so I could sit next to Charlotte and try to keep the two of them entertained for the most easy going drive we could experience. Little did I know Charlotte was just going to cry for 2 hours of the drive. Nothing I did could appease her. Nothing made her happy and nothing made her stop crying. At least not until we got to the hotel. Once we got there we figured out why she was so upset. I had thrown her dinosaur stuffed animal into her seat so she could have her luvvie close by to keep her company. This is her toy that stays in her bed and she uses it to calm herself when she sleeps at night or naptime. I did the same with Ivan's Nemo toy. I strapped Ivan in his car seat and was careful to remove the toy before he sat on it, then handed it back so he could hold it. Michael strapped Charlotte in her seat and we left. I didn't think twice about whether she had her toy with her or not because I knew I put it in her seat before we left. I didn't think at all about the fact that it was probably still in her seat with her on top of it. Poor thing. That had to be pretty uncomfortable. 

Ivan thought this was a fun bed!
No, he didn't actually sleep there. 

The hotel we stayed at was the Floridian in Homestead, FL. It was actually a really nice hotel. We still had an active Marriott friends and family discount paper and had looked at staying in a Marriott but even with the discount it was twice the price of the Floridian. It looked a little sketchy on the outside and I was nervous when we pulled in, but our room was really clean and it was awesome to have 2 beds in there. There was a pool, a playground, and a full continental breakfast. Friday we opted to actually use our hotel room and once we got there, we watched TV (a huge luxury to us), and had a good night's sleep. The kids were up pretty early on Saturday, which was really good cuz then we could have an earlier start on our day. We loaded up on breakfast and grabbed a few things to take with us for snacks. Then we piled in the car and got going. The park was about a half hour away from our hotel, but of course we had to stop at Walmart first and get me a new undershirt. After that excursion, we made our way to the middle of nowhere. 

SATURDAY

It was already starting to heat up outside when we began our first hike. I was definitely glad we had started out early that day. I had done a bit of research online for the best places to visit in the park and I'm really glad I did. We opened our experience with the Anhinga Trail. It was a short walk from the parking lot to a swamp away from the world. I seriously felt like once you were on the trail you were transported to the untamed, unexplored wild swamp land that this whole region had once been. It blew my mind. 

double crested cormorant

And we saw tons of wild life. There's a little pond by the gift shop and it had a couple alligators swimming around in it, as well as turtles, all sorts of fish, and birds everywhere. I know I've talked about the anhinga before, but it is turning out to be one of my favorite birds. It has this super long neck that it likes to curve up like a snake and this spear-like, razor sharp beak it uses to impale fish. The anhinga will dive into and under the water and swim after its prey which it then spears with its beak and swallows whole. Then they surface and sun bath to dry off. These are the birds the trail is named after, and rightfully so. They were all over the place! 

See the baby alligator in the background? And by baby I mean maybe a 2 or 3 year old. 

The path goes farther away from the parking lot and follows a small creek from the pond by the gift shop back to more ponds deeper in the swamp. All along this creek were alligators just floating by. And this is literally just a few feet from the trail. No fence. Just a small railing that supposed to keep you from bothering the alligators. Ha! Like I need help staying away from those creepy things! We saw some soft shell turtles. Have you ever seen one? It's a freshwater turtle that has a soft shell, imagine that. It has this really long pointed head and is fast in the water. They eat fish, big fish. And they're mean! 

We didn't use the zoom to take this picture. 

That's a soft shell turtle under the rail. It's probably at least as big as Charlotte. 

Ivan LOVES using his binoculars. Although I'm pretty sure he didn't need them to see this giant grasshopper. Maybe he's using them backwards so the grasshopper seems smaller?

The trail splits into a boardwalk loop that takes you right over top of the swamp. You look down and just a few feet below you are alligators chilling in the water. And there were cichlids, gar, red slider turtles, and a slough of other kinds of fish and turtles. Ivan had a blast looking down between the boards and seeing all the fish. I think he had a hard time seeing the turtles because he kept asking where they were. 

Of course we saw tons of these little lizards. Michael learned a new trick at work, you can get the lizard to bite you and they'll just hang there, just like this. 

See what I mean? The boardwalk is right over top of the swamp. The kids both took turns pushing the stroller. Who knew that would be the highlight of the trip?

Sunbathing is all the fad these days. 

We saw quite a few great blue herons and great egrets as well as a few green herons. That has to be the highest concentration of green herons I've ever seen. All of the wading birds we saw were probably using the trees around the ponds to nest in. They are nesting now, either building or laying on eggs, and it was cool to see so many in the same area. 

I took this picture! This green heron is so cool! 

Another view of a green heron. Amazing how much they can shrink their necks. 

Here's a great egret. 

There was another trail called the Gumbo Limbo Trail that started back at the gift shop where the Anhinga Trail started. It was really getting hot outside by now and I was kinda looking forward to walking in the canopy of the trees. Nope. That was a bad idea. We made it about 50 feet into the trail and quickly turned around and ran away, with a swarm of hundreds of mosquitoes following behind us. That seemed to be a trend that would follow us throughout the day. The second you're out of the sun, the bugs attack! The cool thing about the Gumbo Limbo trees is that they were used to make all the carousel horses back in the day. 

The entrance to the Gumbo Limbo Trail. That's a GL tree there on the right. 

Later we would go to the Mahogany Hammock, after drenching ourselves with bug spray. That trail was cool just because the trees were so close together and the woods were so thick that I couldn't imagine any wildlife making it through there.  And it was loud in there. If the wind blew a tiny bit you thought for sure a hurricane was coming. Just try and be stealthy walking through there. And again the mosquitoes chased us away. 

Haha! I'm trying to smile for a picture and get all the bugs off me at the same time. We couldn't walk this trail fast
enough!

Look at that stud! I don't know how he carried Ivan in the backpack when it was so stinkin hot. And I don't know why Ivan wanted to be in the backpack when it was that hot. But they had a good time. 

We made it to the visitors center in Flamingo, at the southern tip of Florida. It had boat tours, a marina, the visitors center, and a cafe place to eat at. It was cool to see the ocean since we'd been looking at freshwater all day. And the visitors center was really neat. It had this huge wood cutout of a tree with water under it and all these wooden cutouts of fish and birds to go with it. The cutouts had velcro attached to them and you could peel them off the tree and stick them anywhere you wanted. Ivan and Charlotte played with that for a half hour! Inside the little museum they had shells, fish replicas, and a giant mosquito replica. They also had this chart for how bad the mosquitoes are (from enjoyable to unpleasant to hysterical) and for Saturday it was all the way up to hysterical. Oh goody. 

There are fish on the bottom and birds and leaves to go in the tree. And the turtle painting in the background has all the saltwater turtles painted one on top of another to compare size. 

We walked around there for a while and tried to spot some of the endangered saltwater crocodiles but to no avail. Then we headed out of the park. Ivan fell asleep in the car, so we decided to just let him nap and head back to the hotel. The park didn't really have a whole lot that you could see by driving. It is a swamp after all so some of the places are pretty inaccessible other than by boat. Yea, you're not getting me in a canoe in alligator infested waters. Not happening. I felt like we'd done a fair viewing and we decided we could always come back in the evening if we wanted. 

The reason Ivan fell asleep in the car. It was his turn to ride in the stroller, which he really wanted, til he got in the stroller. Then he realize he couldn't push it if he was riding in it! 

Back at the hotel we went swimming, even though the water was really cold. Michael is a little water bug and while swimming down at the bottom, he ran his hands against the bottom of the pool and scraped his knuckles really bad. It took the skin right off all his knuckles on both hands. Who knew a swimming pool could have such an abrasive bottom! I guess that helps people keep better traction while walking, but it sure hurt Michael's hands. Then we went to play at the playground for a bit, but there was a guy smoking at the tables over there and it was really making me sick. Most of the time I don't mind cigarette smoke. My parents smoke and I think it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. But man that smoke was killing me. I could feel myself turning green, like on cartoons, and I had to get out of there! That made me jump in the pool and try and breath a little pool water so I could smell chlorine instead. I love the smell of pools! Man, I'm weird. It was getting to be dinner time so we headed up to our room, changed and set out to find something to eat. I wanted to eat somewhere that they didn't have anywhere else and couldn't make up my mind, so I though Ruby Tuesdays sounded good. We pulled into the parking lot and Charlotte was asleep. Dang it. The kids are not going to be good a sit down restaurant when they've been cooped up in the car all day, but then you add in waking up a toddler from her nap?! So not happening. We drove around a bit more and I thought it would be cool to go back to the gator place we saw on the way to Everglades NP (that's National Park for those who aren't as cool as me:) 

The Gator Grill offered actual alligator for a meal. So Michael tried that, I got a giant hamburger, and Ivan got chicken fingers. They had a few hammocks set up and an alligator replica. It was a pretty fun little place. Charlotte managed to nap through all of dinner. We rolled the windows down and sat close to the car so we could hear her if she cried. Not a peep out of her. And I did sit in the car to see how it felt to her and it wasn't any hotter there than out on the picnic table where we ate. 

My burger was huge! And amazing. Really really fresh and totally made in the south. Gator actually wasn't that bad. The way they cooked it, it had the texture of chicken and tasted fine. 

Relaxing in a hammock. Ivan thought this was really fun. 

After that delicious meal, we headed back into the park. We wanted one more look at the Anhinga Trail to see what the wildlife would be doing at dusk. That was not the best idea we've ever had. The bugs were out and the alligators weren't. We saw on up close, a little too close, when it jumped out of the woods to our right and walked right across the trail we were on. Just to get to the other side. It was a big one too! The rest of the time I'm freaking out thinking, what if an alligator sees Ivan or Charlotte and thinks, "mmm, dinner," then jumps out of the woods and snatches them?! Scary. I was on edge the rest of the time and we did not stay long. We must have seen over 20 alligators in the big pond at the end of the trail when we hiked it in the morning. But this time? Maybe 4. It creeps me out to no end that alligators can hide just below the surface of the water with stealth like no other animal. 

The monster that crossed the trail. Those people are all much too close!

Freaking me out!

Just a turtle trying to eat what looks like an unripe mango. 

Ivan watching the turtle eat the fruit. He kept saying "Oh cool!" and "Wow!" Remember that group of people taking pictures of the alligator crossing the trail? The group to the left kept taking pictures of Ivan and Charlotte! I guess I have cute kids? And we do look really American, might as well take pictures of all forms of wildlife while visiting another country!

SUNDAY

On Sunday we took the opportunity to explore the Florida Keys. Well, on Key, just Key Largo. It was beautiful, but really, it just looked like the rest of Florida. We stopped at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park which has the only coral reef in America. Michael did some snorkeling as saw some really cool fish. The "beach" that lead up to the water was not a good beach. It was probably the worst beach I've ever seen on the east coast. It was made of guess what? Coral! Which is not comfy for your feet or your bum. And the water got deep fast. That meant the kids and I found something else to do while Dad snorkeled. We threw rocks into the water, always a fun past time, got a double chocolate brownie Edy's ice cream cone, and terrorized innocent sunbathing bystanders with creepy toddler stares and glares. We also had some healthier snacks and good old fashioned running around. It was really fun, even if we didn't do much and I didn't take a single picture except for the sign on the way out. 

Fishing Fun

Michael likes to go fishing. I've been fishing... I'm not sure if I've ever used a pole. Or if I've been fishing since the age of single digits. And there's fishing here at the ranch, so we all went as a family and with some friends. Ivan thinks it's pretty dang fun to fish. He even understands how to reel it in and when he gets stuck he usually asks for help. I let Michael fish, since he's doing it to catch one and eat it, and I helped Ivan. I would cast for him and let him reel. He got bored after a little while and walked around with Charlotte. Then I got to fish. A couple casts in, and I caught a bass! Woohoo! It was really fun. And weird. Once you catch the fish, what do you do with it? It's too small to keep so you have to put it back. And I've been reading Montana Outdoors, cuz it has amazing pictures in it :) and you should be gentle with the fish to ensure it will survive the catch and release process. And since we could see an alligator hanging out in the far corner of the pond, I thought I should give this guy his best chance. By the way, the name of the pond we're fishing at is Square Hole. Real clever. And the road that the pond is on, it's named Gator Branch, but what do the locals call it? Three House. Did you know there are 4 houses on this road? Who would have guessed.

Charlotte's a natural.

Michael showing Ivan how it's done.

Michael's first fish. I think he caught a couple that night, and more after we went for our walk.

I caught one! Ivan thought it was so cool!

After I got the fish out of the water, I had to hold it. Ew... Ew. But then I could take a picture with it and try to get Ivan to touch it. He was pretty excited to see the result of fishing and was suddenly all interested in it again. By this time Charlotte was pretty upset, probably because no one was paying attention to her. Then I found out the real reason. She had fallen and gotten her hands all dirty in ashes from an old fire and then wiped her eyes with said dirty hands. Silly head. Now her face is all dirty. Then I had the idea to use the pond water to clean her off. What a great idea that was! Now she knew where the water was and mom said it was ok to play in it. Ugh. She got so wet. Then it was Ivan's turn.

Before

After. I don't know how that girl manages to get so dang dirty all the time!

Wil helping Ivan fish. Charlotte just playing in the water. And me, well I'm just standing there looking pregnant. 

The kids were obviously done fishing and getting pretty unruly, so I let Michael and his friend Wil fish a while longer and went for a walk with Wil's wife Jess. I really like Jess. We just think alike. So we took the kids and walked down the road a ways. Charlotte wasn't super interested in walking so Jess and Ivan got much farther than we did before I realized just how far behind we were. By the time we caught up, they disappeared! I did find them, they were visiting with one of the people living on the road there. Well, in a house on the road. They would be in the fourth house on Three House road. Tiffany, who lives there, has a little boy that's Ivan's age and they love each other. They are in the same class at church so Ivan just walked right up and started playing with him no problem. Tiffany has a bunch of chickens and some dogs and rabbits and my kids thought it was so awesome! We stayed and talked and hung out for a while so the guys could fish. They have a slide and a trampoline and Tiffany gave us juice boxes. Ivan was in heaven. Charlotte too! It was really nice to meet more people in the area. I've seen Tiffany and her family around church but we hadn't ever had the chance to meet and talk before. Hopefully this means some play dates in the future!

An alligator just waiting for us to slip and fall into the water. 

Ivan thinking that scaring all the little tiny fish away is great fun.

Isn't it pretty? This is just right across the street from the pond we fished at. 

DolFUN Tours

I have an iphone. I love it! I don't know how I lived for so long without a smart phone. It's especially nice with the kids because I can do a quick check of something without fighting off tiny hands from the computer. And I've been dabbling in the endless world that is the app store. I downloaded (is that the right term?) Groupon and I like looking through it for good deals. Most of the time, well actually all of the time, it's for stuff that I wouldn't normally spend money on, but I'm losing my cool in this tiny house and I need an outlet.... or maybe an outing?

I found a deal that was 75% off a boat tour where you could see dolphins. I realize the dolphins live in the Indiatlantic permanently and I could see them (and have seen them) just driving over the bridge on the way to the ocean. But it looked so fun and I thought the kids would really like it. And there is always this great toss up of who to believe with online reviews. Some people are so opinionated and that can go either direction! I can't tell who's giving an honest opinion without some bias that they were unintentionally personally offended by some off-hand comment. The good reviews outweighed the bad and the medium reviews seemed accurate so I figured it couldn't be that bad, right? So we got pumped up for a 2 hour long boat tour with 2 toddlers. (Sounds less fun when I say it like that.)

Here's the boat we were on.

We got there and the boat was average size for a tour boat. I was afraid it was going to be packed and there isn't assigned seating, so we got there a little early to grab a seat or four. That's when I got nervous. The boat is on the water and we needed to be in our seats to reserve them. And of course the kids are anxious. They wanted to run around and say hi and climb over the railing on the edge and look in the water. I was definitely starting to get stressed out. Thankfully we got THE BEST group of people ever. Most of the people on the boat were part of the same group. And they were old. They made conversation with us and learned our kids names and made our trip so much more fun. I don't know why there's this idea that you have to keep to yourself around strangers because it's the polite thing to do. Maybe everybody else is just as uncomfortable as you are around people they don't know and the thing that would make it all better is to get to know them and not be strangers anymore. Huh, what an idea.

Aw, we're so cute. We sat all the way in the back, hoping to be less of a bother to people.

The tour started out a little slow with the boat backing out of the super crowded marina, then we saw an anhinga! Those birds are so cool. They have a spear like bill that's really sharp and they dive down into the water to catch the fish they eat. And they have this crazy long neck that they keep all kinked up, it's very distinct of this species. (Man, when did I turn into such a bird enthusiast?!)  We got going further and the tour guide, a pretty funny guy, started telling us a bit of history of the area as well as some of the real estate information. I thought that was weird. He must have been a real estate agent or something because he knew the prices of the houses for sale along the drive. Maybe he'd just been asked enough so he looked it up. Who knows. Michael and I very quickly decided we would have much better ways to spend a million dollars than buy an oceanfront house. Silly. He and I think so alike. I sure do like that guy. Then the tour guide took us around the edge of the island and showed us some rich guys house. The guy that lived there was one of the first to inhabit the island and he built this giant green dragon. Then a hurricane came and blew it all down. Why do people live there?

This is the anhinga, look at that neck! And the spear like bill!

This is the wreckage of the giant dragon thing. Cool, huh? Huh? What is it?

We saw some brown pelicans and showed Ivan how they dive in the water. He got so excited! He would say "whoa! that's awesome!" I love how excited he is about everything. When we did start seeing the dolphins I thought Ivan was gonna go overboard trying to look at them. He kept yelling, "here they come!" and "I see the dolphins!" He was thoroughly entertained by searching for the dolphins. He still wandered around the boat a bit. At one point he was so excited to see the dolphins that he just stopped where he was in the aisle and darted straight to the side of the boat, right in front of somebody. The guy was really nice and helped Ivan see over the rail. I don't think Ivan's ever been that friendly before!

Watching the dolphins. I'm not sure how many Charlotte missed before she finally realized what we were all looking at. 

A dolphin! We saw about 5 or 6 and they would just swim around the boat and resurface somewhere else. Pretty entertaining really.

Ivan and his new buddy. He's just 2 rows in front of us, for anyone who was worried about him sitting with a strange old man. That guy was so nice. 

We saw a great blue heron, double crested cormorant, anhinga, a royal tern, and dolphins! I was hoping to see some manatees, but I think it's too late in the summer already.

I don't know what that heron is doing. That sure doesn't look comfortable.

This is a cormorant. You can tell the difference from the anhinga because of the neck and beak. Not near as long a neck on these guys as there is on the anhinga. And the cormorant beak as a hook or a curve at the end instead of being straight on the anhinga. 

Oh yea! We got Ivan some cheap binoculars and he loves them! I'm not sure if he can actually see through them the right way, but he sure wants to be just like his dad and use his binoculars to see better. 

Ha!