Day Four: Daytona Beach, FL - Cudjoe Key, FL - Monday, February 15th

Day #4 route

 Finally, today was our last day of travel (at least for a while).  Today we drove 400 miles from Daytona Beach, Florida to Cudjoe Key, Florida.  Cudjoe Key is one of the Florida Keys. The Florida Keys are a string of tropical islands that stretch off the southern tip of Florida, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

In the morning, as we left our hotel, I asked my mom to take a picture of me near the local grocery store.  I thought it was kind of neat to see a Winn Dixie store, since Mrs. Drinan just finished reading that book to our class.  Down south, there are actually a ton of Winn Dixie stores.

Winn Dixie grocery store!

Before we drove off the mainland of Florida, we passed by Miami.  Miami is the largest big city that is closest to the southern tip of Florida (before reaching the Florida Keys).  We plan on exploring a little of Miami after we leave the Keys.

Miami skyline

Next, south of Miami, but just before the bridges out to the Florida Keys, we passed through the outer edges of the Everglades National Park.  There, the land is extremely swampy and it is a natural habitat for Florida alligators.  We did not see any alligators, however, what my family and I found very interesting is the very large gates along the stretch of highway near the Florida Everglades.  When we saw the fences, my dad mentioned that it looked like the gates were intended to keep gators in, as opposed to keeping people out.  If you notice, the barbed wire at the top of fence is angled toward the swampy area.  Did you know that alligators can climb fences and can also, from a state of rest, gators can jump 6 feet in the air??? 

Gates keeping gators contained in the swamps of the Everglades

Finally, we crossed a bridge and entered the first of the Florida Keys, Key Largo.  The rest of our ride to get to our vacation rental, in Cudjoe Key, was made by crossing a series of bridges.  The bridges took us from Key to Key.  The view as we crossed these bridges was very beautiful.  The longest bridge ran between Knight's Key (part of the city of Marathon, Florida) and Little Duck Key.  This bridge was seven miles long!! In fact, that is actually the name of the bridge - "Seven Mile Bridge"
Me and my dad enjoying the view on the ride to the Keys

Seven Mile Bridge

At last, we reached our destination.  Although it was getting late in the day, we were able to enjoy an evening swim in the pool before some snacks on the screened in porch.  It felt so good to be in warmer weather and I was excited to begin our time in Florida.
Swimming with my sister

Enjoying some snacks at our vacation rental









 





Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 26, 2021 at 9:02 AM

    Jonathan,
    We loved seeing your pictures, especially the one of you outside Winn-Dixie. Did you go in? Your friends were hoping you saw a stray dog there. LOL
    Thank you for teaching us about the alligators and the fence. That was cool and scary. Teddy wants you to know that they can stand on their hind legs!
    We wish we were there, and want to go on a school field trip there sometime. :)
    Your friends in Mrs. Drinan's class

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AmyMarch 2, 2021 at 1:22 PM

      Although I saw many Winn-Dixie stores I, sadly, didn't go in. It is probably best that we didn't see a dog there because my sister and I would beg my mom to bring it home.
      Thank you, Teddy, for the interesting fact on alligators. I am glad we don't have them in Connecticut.
      I think a field trip to Florida would be AWESOME!!!

      Delete

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