The Flowers Explore - Miami Everglades RV Resort - 2022/03/15-22

It's time to take the RV on a long journey again! It's been quite a while! It's been around the Orlando area since early November, but now it's time to move. I'm sure our Disney Annual Passes being blocked out for this week had nothing to do with this decision to get out of Orlando...

We're heading down south to Miami to spend the week! And of course as we were driving down the highway, we were playing the "Welcome to Miami" song by Will Smith. 

It's been a while since we've had a long car ride. It was a 5 hour drive in the RV, including stops until we reached the Miami Everglades RV Resort. 

That's... a little creepy. 

But here we are! Theresa went and got us checked in, but heard the dreaded words "We'll lead you in to your RV site." That usually means there's going to be something difficult about getting into the spot. 

And sure enough, there were a couple things that made this spot a little tricky. First there was a tree on one side to deal with. 

Then on the other side, the concrete pad is 5 inches off the ground. It's as bad as trying to run over a curb with the RV. That, combined with not a lot of space in front to maneuver made even this pull-through site a little tricky. 

But we're parked and all set up! And there's palm trees! The kids are liking this spot so far!

Though there is one place that we hate. Right by the main office, they must have their sewage treatment going on. It smells very unpleasant any time we go by, whether on foot or in the car. I'm really glad our site is not close by the office. 

As you exit the RV park, there's a sign with directions to lots of different locations nearby. There's Key Largo, South Beach, the Everglades, lots of good places. But I think we should head instead to the Miami Airport. Even after 5 hours in the car, the kids wanted to join me for the 1 hour trip. 

Because we were going to pick up Grandpa and Grammy! They're going to be hanging out with us in Miami for the next few days!

It didn't take long for a round of Uno to break out. 

We made sure to have tasty food while they were hanging out with us. Taco nights are always delicious. 

Despite the couple things I mentioned above, it really is a nice RV park. 

The kids enjoyed the playground and other amenities. 

There was a big field where we burned off some energy playing soccer. 

There was even a shuffleboard court. When we mentioned shuffleboard to Grammy, she was expecting the game you play on the long table with small pucks. 

Grandpa used to bowl a lot, and said that gave him an advantage here. 

The kids had so much fun, they wanted to play again the next day. 

It's nice that all the equipment is included. It's a nice day today!

For lunch, oh boy. The kids are spoiled by Grammy's Chicken Nuggets. 

There's just something special about them. Everyone loves them, especially all the grandkids. 

One other thing I wanted to check out at the campsite was this really nice mini-golf course. Ian had a great start with a hole-in-one on the very first hole!

And Grammy followed it up with a hole-in-one on hole 2! 

There was even one hole with a water feature. You could stay safe and keep it on the green, or putt it harder into the flowing water, let it get carried along, then go over this grate as it went to the hole!

Later there was a ramp to jump your ball over the waterway. 

This was a very well maintained course with lots of interesting features!

In the end, I seized the win by 5 strokes! 

We were able to get a few other adventures in, which I'll be writing up separately.

Too soon it was time to head back to the airport to drop off the grandparents. 

Thanks for coming to see us!

I tried to get a group picture, but only realized afterwards that Ian was sneezing in the middle of it. The kids got a kick out of me flipping back and forth between these pictures on my phone. 

The pool here is interesting. It's a circle, with the deepest part in the center. Theresa has been swimming laps lately, and swimming laps in this pool was very different. 

Iguanas just hanging out in the trees nearby. 

Why she'd want to be in the hot tub on a hot day like today, I don't know. 

We've visited a few beaches in our time here, which brought into focus the amount of trash that ends up in the ocean. Ian and Alli have a renewed interest in helping clean up, and decided to make a fundraiser for #teamseas. TeamSeas.org (a follow-on to TeamTrees.org) will remove 1 pound of trash from the ocean for every dollar that is donated. So far 32.5 million dollars have been donated!

Ian has created Coloring Books, Crayon Drawings, and Paper People to sell to raise money. 

Even this adorable mini shuffleboard court. 

Unfortunately the only person he has to sell them to right now is me and Theresa.

I bought a few of his best things, and he immediately turned to Alli and said they needed to go make more stock for their store. 

Surrounding the campsite was a 1 mile loop. Our biking miles have been easy to get in and get ahead on, but walking miles are a lot more difficult to get in. They take 3 times as long compare to riding on a bike. But that doesn't mean we won't get them in. We made a deal where every lap we do, they get a few minutes to run around on the playground. 

There was even some interesting things to see. Like a giant jackfruit tree! We only see these in the grocery stores!

And one of the neighbors even had a farm with lots of animals, including a turkey!

We had quite a few other fun adventures while we were in Miami too, which I'll be writing up separately. This 1 week trip was really just to figure out what we want to do next year when we're in Florida again, and where we want to spend our time.