Everglades In The Rain

In Florida, rain is usually sporadic. It rains for five minutes and then the sun comes out. So when our son who had never seen the Everglades came to visit, we decided to take him there. The forecast was for a chance of rain. Okay, we thought, probably a chance here and there, we can do that.

We set off and as we got closer to the park, dark clouds were visible. As we neared the information center, a heavy misty rain all but drenched us on our way in. We decided to explore the center and watch the introductory movie until the shower passed.

When it was obvious the shower had stopped, we hustled out and drove to the Royal Palms nature center where there is a neat boardwalk that has always provided lots of entertainment from the wildlife. Well, the sun was usually shining on the other visits.

We started down the walk and found very few birds where they usually abounded and put on quite a show as they fished in the water. At one end of the walkway where there's a little shelter and we always find at least a half dozen alligators, one lone alligator was in the tall grass not moving a muscle.

As we started around the loop of the boardwalk trail, the rain started again. There hadn't been quite as much of a dry stretch between rain clouds as we'd hoped. We saw a few birds but no more gators. The rain would ease up but only to a mist and then get heavier again. Not really a downpour but enough that we were pretty wet through and through. On the plus side, it was a warm rain as long as there was no breeze.

On a chance that we might have missed some and as the rain let up a bit, we retraced our steps to the little shelter area again. Nope. Still only one in the grass but as we walked back toward the car, A couple stopped us and pointed to the little channel of water that runs alongside the walkway.

An alligator was swimming slowly along and pushing the lily pads aside as he went. My son got his video of a gator in action and we hustled back to the car as the misty rain got heavier again. I guess the inhabitants of the glades hunker down when it rains.