We had all our stuff packed up and they release passengers by floor, so we went and hung out in the library waiting for them to call deck 1. We had time to play a whole game of Scotch Bridge, and Bethany won! I’m so happy for her. She had a great score, and to beat the very competitive boys is fantastic. Scotch Bridge went to the girls this cruise! Not long after that, they called our deck. It still was a bit of a line to get through, but I think it was faster than Royal Caribbean. With that one, we stood on the deck for so long waiting.
Out the doors and through the buildings and then on the curb and texting Lynn. It took her maybe 15 minutes to arrive. Not bad at all. Matt had driven his car but we all fit in Lynn’s. She also had the bikes on the back because we were going to go straight to Shark Valley. I chatted with Lynn and helped with navigation some, but I’m not the best with the iphone. But we made it just fine. All the people in back dozed a bit. I don’t blame them.
We arrived at Shark Valley and picked up Matt and squished in one vehicle because they only have one car pass. But it worked fine. It was a nice hot day, but there was a lovely breeze now and then. We went to rent bikes. My stomach was feeling a little bizarre, but it wasn’t too bad. The toilets were fun because they were just a hole and that made them very breezy. In fact there was a low open window behind mine which made it even more breezy. :) Sometimes your hot tush can do with a nice breeze, especially in Florida.
The bikes were old school with no gears, but that wasn’t a problem. It was really fun to ride. I haven’t been on a good bike ride in ages. Shark valley used to be flooded and sharks would swim in. Now that doesn’t happen, but you can usually see tons of gators. But it has to be the right season. We came...at the wrong season. Completely. We started biking and didn’t see squat. Well, we saw dragonflies and Tyler said there were some really large grasshoppers. Jonny saw a gecko like lizard. There were lots of really large snail shells on the ground and I finally stopped to pick one up. There were so many. Here is a video of what we saw most of the trip...
My legs started to get tired. Like I said, I haven’t biked in a long time. My legs are short, so I felt like I had to pedal harder to keep up. Plus my 'seat' was starting to hurt too. Tyler told me to sit back on the saddle, but then my feet didn’t reach the pedals as well. Catch 22. About halfway out, 7 miles, there was a large tower. We parked the bikes, thank goodness, and went to climb the tower. My legs were actually shaking just a bit. At this point, the gator count was zero. Not a single one. Anywhere.
The tower was beautiful. You could see really far. It was also over a lagoon. Lynn said that usually you would see lots of turtles and other cool things, but we got nothing. Note to self...don’t visit the Everglades in September. We did see some herons here and there and they were beautiful, but we were definitely missing the majority of everything.
Did you notice our fun matching shirts??
Coming down from the tower, we started the second half of the loop, which happened to be into the wind. The breeze was helpful for cooling down, but it was killer to ride against it. My legs started to turn to lead. But no one wanted to seem weak, so we just kept going. Another mile and another. Around mile 11, we finally saw a gator. By then it was just so nice to have an excuse to stop. I was a little underwhelmed since I was so tired. But the gator was cool. He was big. I still might have missed him if Lynn hadn’t pointed him out. Tyler joked, “If you’ve seen one gator, you’ve seen them all.” Let’s hope that is true, since we only saw one the whole time. No one took a picture of the gator? We did get a video.
Back on the bike, my legs protested but I told them the only way to stop was to reach the end. There was much grumbling but eventual acceptance. Tyler had all the water way up in the front of the pack. Blessed day, he stopped to take a picture and it probably saved my life. I sure wasn’t going to catch him by going faster. But with more water in me, I made it to the end. I went back to the bathroom and this time I sat and enjoyed the breeze on my bottom for a little longer. My whole body felt sweaty and sore and it was nice to sit on something that wasn’t so thin. Ah, here is the dragonfly that Tyler stopped to photograph. Bless you little dragonfly. You probably only lived a day, but it was a blessed day.
Wow, they sure worked us hard. And only for one gator. But the Warner’s are the best and it was worth it. By the way, here is a picture when their son Ryan visited in March. Look at all the gators behind him. I think they counted over 75 on that trip.
We headed over to lunch from there. Lynn wanted to drive with Matt, so she let Jonny drive her car. Fine by me. I slept in the back. Glorious day. When we arrived at the La Bamba, I was ready to eat. (Oh, Lynn gave me a snack on the trail. They were these Jif peanut butter granola bites. I have to find those. They were amazing.) The food was really great at the Mexican restaurant. The chips and salsa was gone in minutes. I got an enchilada and loved it, but I didn’t finish the whole thing. Too much food people.
Tyler found an age app where you can see how you look old. Tyler and Jonny look pretty good. You can do yourself old or cool old. Cool old automatically adds a beard to the guys. Jonny looked like Jeff Bridges. Tyler didn't look too shabby either. I looked scary beyond all reason. I looked like a sad wrinkled navajo woman on the side of the road. Even the cool old version wasn’t that great. Beth didn’t look too bad. Oh well. I probably will age the least gracefully, but that is life.
After lunch we went back to Lynn’s. We were going to go to the temple, but it was closed early that day. Bummer. Instead, we all napped and showered. That was close to heaven in its own way. The original plan was to have Lynn take us to the airport and we would stay up all night since our flight left at five. No one wanted to get up at 3 in the morning to drive there. Lynn protested but we insisted, until Beth realized that was Utah time and our flight actually left at seven. We were all convinced in an instant to get up at five. That was easy.
So then we just hung out and played games. We did a bit more Monopoly Deal. By that time, everyone had won but me. (And we had played a LOT.) I finally had a good hand, but it meant being ruthless. I took 5 million from Beth and then played Rent on her right after for 16 million. I basically took every property she had. It was awful. Beth could not believe I would do something like that. But it wasn’t mean spirited. It was just my turn to win. :) Lynn and Matt were out at a mutual activity so we didn’t see them much. Eventually, we decided it was time to sleep again. Even after a week of vacation, we were still tired. Lynn and Matt were so great to let us stay there with them!
In the morning, we were up and to the airport with no problems. If you don't mind waiting in an airport, it is great. And when I have good company, I surely don't mind.
Five hours later, we were back on familiar soil. What an adventure we had. So many great memories and so many blog posts. What can I say...I enjoy cruising. Luckily, these guys were not the pilots.
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