Bickford's Tin Can Tour: Pembroke Pines, FL

We spent a week in Pembroke Pines at CB Smith Park. Great park with all kinds of stuff to do there. It's located between Ft Lauderdale and Miami in the middle of the craziest drivers we've seen (even worse than NY & MA) however the park was peaceful and quiet. There were miles of bike trails, lakes to fish, ski & tube in, tennis courts, driving range and way too many parks and areas for kids to play - we recommend!

One day here we drove to Oletta State Park (near Hollywood Beach) and checked out the 15+ miles of bike trails there. We learned that mountain bike trails come in green, blue and black diamond (trails were actually labeled that way). We did 1 green and gave up before the end. The green trails required too much attention to the trail to not dump:

so after exploring all of the wider, flat, dirt roads we headed to the waterfront and hung out/fished for a while. Fed the fish all the shrimp I had before we packed up and headed to Hollywood Beach. This was a little more our speed - great beach to bike from one end to the other:

Another day we drove down to John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo (about an hour and a half away). Our plan was to kayak out to the reefs but that turned out to be too far out. We spent a couple hours winding our way through the mangroves. We saw rays, tons of fish and birds like this egret along the way . . .

Another day we drove down to the Everglades National Park via Homestead, FL. Our first stop there was at Royal Palm/Anhinga Trail. There was no need to go further to see all the wildlife you want to see in the Everglades. The vultures were everywhere:

It was amazing how close all the birds (great blue heron here) hung out by all the gators:

Here is an anhinga, a turtle and a gator all hanging out together:

We think this cute little duck might be a grebe - they spend 90% of their time under water feeding:

This American Bittern was right next to us but we almost missed as it blends into the surroundings

The most colorful bird we saw was this purple gallinule on spatterdock:

Check out this anhinga just after spearing a fish:

there's no shortage of gators here - one of the many gator piles laying out only a few feet from the walkway:

We checked out a few other spots but never made it all the way down to Flamingo. Nothing compared to Royal Palm for animals to see. We hit the Long Pine Key campground and biked an 8 mile trail - decided to take the 7 mile roadway back. Good workout but very little wildlife to see.

Another day we drove up to Boyton Beach to visit with our NH camping buddy Tim Littlefield who has a condo nearby the beach. It was a little cool that day so we didn't hang on the beach but it looked nice:

Tim showed us around his place, the pool, the beach and then we checked out some of his local hangout spots . . . we may of had a beer or two while there:

Earlier in the week we spent a night at our camper with our good friend Johnny Maya catching up and reminiscing about the old times. No pictures but plenty of martinis! Later in the week we went over to the Maya's house to hang out for the day. Alex who is now 7 has a arm and a glove of a 15 yr old - we played catch until he wore me out. Kristina who is 5 now is a little princess. Check out the princess going for a ride on Dad's fatboy:

We had a great day and evening hanging out with Johnny, Blanca, the kids, some neighbors, their kids & dogs - a typical Saturday at the Maya house. Thanks for having us - we had a great time! Sunday the Maya's stopped by our campsite:

Earlier in the week Roger stopped by to point out all the places to go and things to see. Later in the week Roger and Patrice treated us to a nice dinner at their place. Before we left the 4 of us headed into Miami for Cuban on South Beach but we took a nice cruise of the bay before going out for dinner: