During our annual trip to Florida for the Thanksgiving Holiday, we took most of Friday to do some local sightseeing.  The biggest park in the area is Everglades National Park.  I remember it mainly for the destination of numerous grade school field trips.  It had been years since I visited and L’ had never been so we went down Friday afternoon for a visit in the Shark Valley area.

everglades31As visitors to South Florida know, the terrain is flat.  Space Mountain is indeed a mountain.  So why is a place named Shark Valley?  Are there imaginary sharks swimming between the imaginary mountains?  It turns out that it is a valley- only barely.  It’s about ten feet lower than on either side.  And the shark part is shortened from Shark River, where sharks were seen at end of the river in the Gulf of Mexico.   So it does make sense.

We saw plenty of alligators and birds and enjoyed our tram ride and guided tour.  Photos are here:

http://sanjoseabrams.com/photos/EvergladesNov2010/