Everglades City part 1

It's nice to take a break from winter, even if winter is strangely sunny and dry - so we made an overdue visit to Florida for a week with Ganghi and Grandpa Marshall. Poor Daddy had to stay home and didn't get to join in the fun. Instead he had to go out to eat with friends, sleep in on the weekend, and spend unlimited time noodling on the internet.
Our adventure began at SFO Terminal 2, which as far as I'm concerned, is argument for flying Virgin America whenever possible. We bought a very reasonably priced $3 drink box of organic chocolate milk and admired the breakfast pizzas and artisan cheese selection at the Napa Farms Market. Mommy also gazed longingly at the Vino Volo wine bar, but reminded herself that a) it was 7 am; b) she had 4+ hours in charge of 2 children on an airplane ahead of her.
Ready for take-off!

We made it to Ft. Lauderdale relatively unscathed, and probably only hated by the people directly in front and behind us. The trip from the airport was probably more eventful. We had a scary dinner at the Rainforest Cafe - Brennan was scared of the noisy animatronic animals, and Mommy was scared by the portion sizes and the evidence that it was "special event" dining for some of the other patrons. Then a big thunderstorm rolled in on our drive through Big Cypress National Preserve. It rained so hard Grandpa had to stop the car once! We talked about the storm in the back seat, which went like this:

"What's that, Mommy?"

"That's lightning, Brennan."

"Lightning McQueen?"

"No, this is real lightning. It's electricity from the sky during a thunderstorm." "Lightning McQueen is in the sky?"

"No, baby, it's not a car. It's part of the storm."

"Oh." (brief silence)...(lightning flashes)... "What's that, Mommy?"

...and repeat.

There were plenty of activities to enjoy once we reached the island - swimming on sunny afternoons -
- learning to pedal -
- and just lounging on the porch, watching the fishing boats come in.

We went on an alligator hunt one day-

Found one!

Then we found another one that was better for petting:

Lucie got to join in on the swimming, too! She gets very excited about kicking, splashing, and climbing on and off lounge chairs.
But then she's tired and needs to get cozy -
Next up, boats & the beach!