Today we headed out to get some more Florida State Park stamps.
About 20 miles south of Homestead on US-1 we visited John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park near Key Largo. The Park's Visitor Center has its own 30,000-gallon saltwater aquarium with park rangers feeding the fish daily at 11:00 am. Glass-bottom boat tours, snorkeling and scuba-diving are all options at the park. The iguana population of Southern Florida is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands. At nearby Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, we took a brief stroll and found the mosquito population to be in the hundreds of thousands today. For more pictures, click here .
Today we spent the afternoon in Miami's South Beach. We had a great Happy Hour bargain. Here's Marlon with his $19 drink. But it WAS BOGO. What a buy! NOT! Then Doug's wallet was stolen.
Today we headed to Homestead's 37-acre Fruit & Spice Park. This Miami-Dade County Park is a one-of-a-kind park featuring over 500 varieties of fruits, vegetables, spices, herbs and nuts.
Visitors will learn the most about the park and its plants by taking the 90-minute tram tour included in the $8 admission price. Before beginning the tour, the guide will familiarize guests with a wide variety of the herbs and spices grown throughout the park.
The green stuff is lemongrass, popular in Thai and Vietnamese cooking. The flower held here is edible, but not tasty. The jackfruit is the 2nd largest tree-born fruit and can weigh as much as 80 pounds. Visitors to the park are invited to pick up and eat any fruit which has fallen to the ground. This fallen fruit has reached the peak of ripeness. One word of warning: do not pick the fruit from the trees and do not eat anything until you are positive what it is. The park's rare tropical climate allows it to grow over 70 varieties of bananas. That is one good banana. That is one pretty blossom. Several varieties of freshly cut fruit grown in the park are available to sample for free in the gift shop daily.
Today's samples included mango, custard apple and chocolate sapote, which tastes just like chocolate pudding - NOT! After the tram tour, visitors can walk through the rest of the property's gardens seeking out whatever fruit or spice they are interested in. Two tips for visiting the Fruit & Spice Park: 1) take bowl, knife, fork and wet naps 2) BOGO with online Entertainment coupon.
Today we had a full day in the West Palm Beach area.
First thing, we took another drive through Lion Country Safari and watched the Nilgai eat their breakfast. The zookeepers let the herd of rhinoceros out right before we entered their territory, Hwange National Park. Most of the giraffes, the tallest one about 19 feet tall, were hard at work on this tree limb. One of the smaller giraffes wanted back in the herd's pen. Next we hopped onto the Peanut Island Water Taxi for a quick trip to Peanut Island which was formed from material dredged to create the Lake Worth Inlet. Today Peanut Island is a Palm Beach County Park with camping, boating and a few other unique destinations. One such destination is this old Coast Guard Station which can be toured as part of the Palm Beach Maritime Museum. Included in the tour is a visit to the historic John F. Kennedy Bunker which was built at the height of the Cold War. The bunker was a nuclear war contingency facility during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This emergency fallout shelter came equipped with its own red telephone. The paved path around the perimeter of Peanut Island measures about a mile and a half. We spotted a blimp on the way to Jupiter, Florida. In Jupiter, we found the Burt Reynolds and Friends Museum. The museum includes hundreds of memorabilia items belonging to one of the most recognizable actors in recent history, Burt Reynolds. Burt generously displays all his acting awards along with many movie props and gifts from his hundreds of friends in the entertainment, sports and political fields. The Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre, housed in the same building, provides educational opportunities for actors and filmmakers. They also host acting workshops open to the public for those who have the thought in the back of their minds...what if? On the way back to West Palm Beach, we visited John D. MacArthur Beach State Park for some sandcastle construction.
Marlon shows off his masterpiece. We also played in the surf. Then we waited for this bridge to go up and down. Here is a short video of some of today's highlights.
Our next stop was the KOA at Lion Country Safari near West Palm Beach, Florida. The park is full of nice pull-through spots. While staying at the KOA, we enjoyed free tickets to Lion Country Safari. Lion Country Safari opened in 1967 and is Florida's only drive-thru safari adventure.
Brazilian tapirs are excellent swimmers and their closest relatives are the horse and the rhinoceros. The Aldabra tortoise can live to be 150 years old and grow a shell up to five feet long. They enjoy hanging out with the birds. Kudus are a variety of antelope who live on leaves and shoots from a variety of plants, as well as whatever goodies the safari keepers bring their way. The park is divided into several different regions with electronic gates providing extra protection in lion country. The lions' Gorongosa Preserve provide them with ample room to exercise and play, as well as lounge. KOA visitors will be able to go to sleep and wake up to the roars of the lions. You don't want to get between this guy's horns and his grass! Same goes for the white rhinoceros which in actuality are stone-gray. Like fingerprints, the stripes of each zebra are unique. After driving through the park, visitors can take a walk through Safari World. This additional feature of the park includes more animal exhibits, boat rides, amusement rides and animal shows. You can also feed the budgies... and the giraffes who are only too eager to chow down on lettuce, broccoli and carrots. Watch some budgie feeding and Arnold, the trained parrot, in this short video.
To see more pictures and videos, click HERE and HERE
