December 31, 2024

Lake Okeechobee (December 7 - 14)

Stayed a week at a pretty cool campground inland from the east coast. Nice indoor pool and indoor pickleball court we took advantage of. Lake Okeechobee is the 10th largest fresh water lake in the United States. It's 118 miles around the lake.  Strangely the lake averages only 9 feet deep. Estimates put the alligator population at 30,000 in this lake. We walked/ran on the paved levee wall surrounding the lake many mornings. Temps were warm all week (80 degrees).  

Our site was on one of the canals leading to the lake.  We had a deck overlooking the channel and our own private dock at our site. A few days in and we see an alligator about 15 feet away cruising by our dock.. YIKES!.  Needless to say our dog Gracie was banned from getting too close to the water. We drove down to Boca Raton one day to visit Dana's Godparents/ her parents' good friends Mary Alice and Tom Armstrong. 

Since our birthdays are two days apart, we celebrated this year by going to a nice seafood restaurant.  When in Rome ....... we decide to try some Cajun Alligator. 

We would not recommend nor are we going to revisit the Lake Okeechobee area.  The lake is not very scenic, the area is pretty economically depressed, and the rebel flags flying are disconcerting. 

Miami, FL (December 14 - 20th)

We stayed at the Encore Miami Everglades RV park in south Miami. It has all the amenities and we enjoyed our time there. Our son Declan joined us from Sacramento on the 18th and stayed with us through the 27th.  It was great to have him with us and we had a blast together. We went on an all day excursion with Captain Jack's tours including an airboat ride, pontoon tour to the Gulf through Everglades National Park and a wildlife refuge center. The airboat was pretty and fun while whipping through the Mangrove Tree's and spotting Alligators in the wild all around us. The Pontoon tour was educational and beautiful.  We saw multiple Dolphin pods on this tour.  Finally we went to an alligator and crocodile rescue refuge and held some smaller 5 foot gators.  It's surprising how smooth the alligator skin is when petting them. 

Marathon and Key West, FL (December 20 - 31)

Jolly Rogers RV Park was awesome. It was right on the Gulf of Mexico and we went down for amazing sunsets many nights with all the other folks from the park. Christmas eve was cool as they have a massive Tiki hut where everyone gathered to sing Christmas carols.

All 3 of us ran the "Running with the Elves" 5k race to support the reefs in Key West.  It is the most southern race in the continental US. Jim's ego was bruised a bit as Declan went on to place second overall and Jim came in 4th. 

We checked out a few beaches and took many walks with Gracie. Jim and Declan rented Jet Ski's for a testosterone filled afternoon. Christmas day was pretty chill as we spend time at the beach as well as outdoors on our porch playing games and laughing. The Florida Keys were pretty special and the weather was amazing, we would definitely do this again (perhaps next year?).