Fort Lauderdale, Miami, & Biscayne National Park

For the past two winters, we’ve explored the desert southwest. We love the grandeur and the wildness, but it was time to do something completely different. So I dragged Michael to southeast Florida, which was actually plan b after I wasn’t able to get any state park reservations in the Florida Keys.

There was so much to do…south Florida has three national parks and plenty of city spaces to explore. It’s the most urban area we’ve ever experienced for this amount of time in our lives. We’ve felt crowded and a little claustrophobic. The traffic is way worse than imagined. But the weather has been way better. It’s hard to argue that south Florida’s winter weather isn’t the best and it’s hard to be in a bad mood when you’re finding tropical lush spaces and beautiful beaches.

We started out at Easterlin Park, a Broward County (Fort Lauderdale) park, for the first 2 weeks of January. The sites were large, private, and had full hookups.

It was a good thing we liked the park itself because we learned very quickly that we weren’t going to be able to go anywhere during the week due to it taking an hour to drive 5 miles to the beach. We kept ourselves occupied by walking around the park and watching the resident iguanas do crazy things.

We finally escaped on Friday afternoon and walked around Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas Blvd (art and boutiques) and the Riverwalk where there were plenty of impressive yachts and catamarans to gawk at.

We ended the day having a picnic dinner at Lauderdale Beach, watching at least 5 huge cruise ships embark on their adventures.

On Saturday morning, we went to Biscayne National Park. You have to get out on the water to experience this national park because it’s 95% water. It exists to protect the Florida Reef, the largest coral reef in North America, which along with the mangroves, sustains a healthy fish population in Biscayne Bay.

We had signed up for a free canoe paddle clinic that was supposed to be followed by a 1.5-hour paddle in the mangroves. Well, we got what we paid for on this one. After we got out into Biscayne Bay, a couple of pairs decided they needed to change places in the canoes. We had to link up in a group so they could swap seats, which took forever. We only ended up only being in the mangroves for 15 minutes and then on the way back, one group managed to flip their canoe. While Michael and I weren’t that bad, we did decide that we much prefer our kayaks.

After eating a picnic and checking out the visitor center, we decided to leave. We will have to revisit Biscayne properly in the future, which is okay because we like having reasons to return to places. We will either kayak ourselves or take a snorkel boat trip out to one of the keys further out in the bay.

On the way back to Fort Lauderdale we detoured to spend the afternoon at Miami’s South Beach.

One side of the street adjacent to the beach is lined with pastel-colored art deco buildings, some hosting drag shows that were spilling out onto the sidewalk. The other side is a park with a walking path, volleyball courts, and outdoor gyms. It is the most entertaining and crowded beach we’ve ever visited.

On Sunday we went to Miami. We started in the Wynwood district to see the Wynwood Walls. Part of them have been fenced off and have an entrance fee, but there are plenty of free murals as well.

Next, we went to the Design District, for all the high-end fashion stores. They were the types of stores that wouldn’t have let us in the door….but it was still fun to walk around and look in the windows.

Our last stop in Miami was Little Havana neighborhood to have Cuban food. Versaille was a super touristy restaurant but while waiting in line, we also met a lot of locals who claim it was the best.

Next, we move to a Miami-Dade County park and visit the Florida Keys and Everglades National Park!