The Everglades - Naomi

My parents decided that they wanted to take the family somewhere for spring break this year. They originally wanted us to do a service project in Haiti but with expense and logistics, it just didn't work out. Eventually the plan was modified to Florida. My family is in no way wealthy. I, like Louise, am one of four children. Unlike Louise, I am the eldest; I have a younger brother and two younger sisters. We could not afford to fly to Florida or to stay in hotels so my parents devised a "brilliant" travel itinerary for a seven day road-trip from New England to Florida, final destination: The Everglades.

Day One, March 1st - Drove from our house to DC. Arrived at 11 PM went to bed at a relative's house.
Day 2 - Spent the day in DC, visited the National Gallery
Day 3 - Our great capital, being somewhat in the south is not in the slightest equipped to handle snow. It snowed two inches over night and the entire city shut down. We had intended to leave that day and get all the way to Jacksonville FL, but the weather would not allow it. We tried in vain to find an open coffee shop or bookstore to spend the day in (our rugged Chevy Suburban had no trouble navigating two inches of snow). We watched Frozen as a family that evening. 
Day 4 - More driving, we did not make it to Jacksonville, it was raining so we chickened out on the campground and got one motel room (for all six of us to sleep in) in South Carolina. Every day as we drove the main activity was sibling bickering for 4 hours before we were allowed to watch movies, play video games etc.
Day 5 - SC to Georgia and then Florida! by the time we crossed the Georgia/Florida border, it had stopped raining and was 72ºF. That night in our campsite we saw an opossum in a tree, it looked kinda creepy. Did you know that the opossum is North America's only Marsupial?
Day 6 - We visited the Kennedy Space Center which was super cool. We went to the space center rather than Disney or SeaWorld because the space center is the cheapest, although it ended up being almost $300 for only our family to get in.
Day 7 - We drove to Lantana where we have friends who let us stay in their house for two nights.
I took this photo on the trip:
 
We drove from Port Canaveral to Flamingo FL, where we camped one night before setting out in 4 kayaks and a canoe carrying enough food and water for 3 to 4 days. We kayaked 5 miles the first day and put up our tents on a beach covered in crocodile tracks. The next day we kayaked 6 miles and arrived at the extremely remote East Cape Sable. We spent two nights 11 miles from civilization watching the glow of Key west appear on the horizon after the sun had set. The next day everyone including my 8 year old sister, paddled themselves 11 miles back to where we started in Flamingo. We then took a slightly different route up to DC. On the way back we stopped at this seriously cool farm stand called "Robert Is Here" they have the most awesome salsa/guacamole and exotic fruits ever; there is also a small zoo in the back with exotic birds and various other animals. I flew home alone from DC because my spring break was up but my parents and siblings took three more days to come back. In the meantime I stayed with Elizabeth.

Au revoir & Carpe Diem - Naomi