Day 29 Day tour to Everglades and Miami. 4 weeks down and and 1 week left to go till we return home. Wow the time has flown by, I have already taken over 350 video clips and 2500 photos, well actually probably over 3000 but dumped the poor ones.

Great to know that things were in order back home as Suzanne had found when she returned. Tom self assigned him self to look after the lawn mowing (many thanks Tom) and both himself and his partner Sam gave the house a good clean prior to Suzanne returning. I had bad visions of returning to lawns around a foot high with the spring growth! A lot of neighbours and friends were rostered to look after the many animals and take the dogs for a walk. Thank you Mark, Shirley, Kristie and also Gail. Thanks also to the McDougall's for keeping an overall eye in general as they have always done so many times for us over the past 24 years and of course Simon for being the "anchor man" back home tending to all the animal feeding etc.

...........Back to the blog. 0515 and the iPhone alarm chirped in to life. A real rude awakening as I got to bed around 2330 last night. We had to meet the tour bus at 0615 the same pick up place as yesterday, so it was a quick breakfast and out the door pronto. I am currently composing this blog as we head south to the Everglades on the bus which is wi-fi enabled. So great to keep up with the world via email and Facebook to newsfeed our trip updates.

1000. Had a rest stop en route at West Palm Beach. Don't know how it got that name when it's on the East Coast. Sunny and a warm, humid 23 degs here. Bought a 12 piece wing pack from KFC as we were both getting quite hungry by then.

Arrived at the Everglades and boarded an airboat. We were all given earplugs to use as the 458 cu in V8 had straight exhaust pipes, i.e. no mufflers. The airboat had a capacity for 30 people and we had around 25 on ours. Headed out from the jetty and into the Everglades stopping occasionally to spot the alligators sunning them selves to raise their body temperature. Several turtles were also seen. Carried on gliding over the grassy flora with the driver drifting the craft to enable it to turn at speeds of around 40 mph. Stopped in water around a foot deep and Tony hopped off the craft to check it out. No alligators were out this far he was reassured ! The bottom was surprisingly not too squishy. In the dry season the water drys up in the Everglades sufficiently to allow 4WD's to drive around.

Returned back to land and watched an alligator handling show followed by the opportunity to hold an alligator ourselves which both Nikita and my self promptly seized the opportunity - costing $3.00 each for photo shots. The Americans certainly know how to get a buck or two out of the tourists! I will up load some videos when time and wi-fi allow.

Headed back to Miami and enjoyed lunch at a Cuban cafe overlooking the waterfront, followed by a 1-1/2 hr. boat launch cruise around Miami harbour. Many exclusive water craft spotted along with several luxurious mansions, many valued at in excess of US$ 30 million! Tony enjoyed a Miami Vice cocktail which went down well in the hot sunny day. Returned to the bus and headed over to the very popular Miami South Beach around 6:00 pm. Lots of people enjoying the last of the days sun. Both Nikita and myself enjoyed a quick dip in the briny which was around 28 degs C, very pleasant indeed.

Currently heading back to Orlando around an hour away and will need to do a big pack up for for our flight to LA in the morning.