When I was in Florida I learned 10 things:

1. Fires in the Everglades have huge amounts of smoke. We were told that this is because of all the water in the Everglades.

Photo – just east of Naples, Florida

2. Rain can obliterate visibility while driving.

Photo – Rainy Rolls 2010 homage to Salvador Dali’s Rainy Taxi, Dali Museum, St. Petersburg

3. When the dive shop tells you it’s too windy to go to the reef – believe them. When the day finally came after a week of waiting the waves were still about 3′ tall. I was fine until we stopped at the reef and I went to the back of the boat to get my stuff. Then I was extremely seasick.

 

4. The sun can burn skin very easily. I thought that a month in the desert meant that I’d be fine. Of course there’s not a lot of kayaking or swimming opportunities in a desert. Aloe Vera became my best friend.

5. Key deer are very small. They exist only in the Keys mostly on Big Pine Key.

6. Key Lime Pie is delicious.

7. In Key West chickens run wild and fly into trees.

8. Sometimes there are things in the water that you don’t want to know about. At some beaches you have to do the stingray foot shuffle.

9. Sometimes there are alligators where you go swimming. Like the small one sitting on the bank of Rainbow River that we only found out about when we were back on shore.

10. There are cool bugs with what looks like glowing eyes. This is a Pyrophorus (Fire Click Beetle). We saw it on Ramrod Key.

What have you discovered in Florida?