my brother leif has been in town for the past few days. for his birthday on thursday we drove southwest to coopertown(miami, homestead area). we booked a 2 hour private airboat tour which my mom, my dad, my brother eruch, leif, and i went on. as soon as we got there, we were introduced to our tour guide, regis. i introduced myself as kelly. i sat at the top of the boat next to regis and off we went. it was pretty thrilling from the start. i immediately put my sweater on and got my camera out. being in the middle of the everglades far out west was pretty cool. it had been my first time on an airboat and i was starting to take back my feelings of "why the hell does leif want to do this for his 34th birthday?" he was right on. super glad i took off work for this day spent with my family...( although it wasn't exactly complete. mani and iam should've been there, but you can't always get what you want.)
i think the best part about this tour was that we were able to actually get off the boat and walk around on two different parts of the islands. i didn't expect that whatsoever. regis was incredibly knowledgeable. he spent a lot of time talking about the history of the everglades and we even got to take a tour of an old house that hunters used to live in. and he said eisenhower hid out in this house during his presidency. it was so gross. hornets were hovering over us and the smell was... muggy.
another stop we made was on this adorable little piece of dryland. we got to take our cooler off the boat and sit on a picnic table surrounded by gorgeous banyan trees with swings. regis said that people sometimes get married there. it was really beautiful. we got to fill up on snacks and listen to more stories from regis. he said he was in the army and when he finished serving, he moved from his hometown of chicago down here to south florida where he started working for coopertown airboats. he said that being out in the wildnerness away from civilization healed and helped him from his time in the service. he said he had many spiritual moments looking up at the stars and just being at peace out in the dark. we got lucky with this one. i'm pretty sure there couldn't have been a better guide.
we saw 4 gators during the trip.
and the guys got to hold a 2 year old gator
and we got a cheesy photo taken.
then after the airboat tour leif eruch and i went to south beach.
we walked around the town
ate some gelato
then went to the standard hotel and spa for dinner.
it was a really great day for leif's birthday!
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