Sunday Jan 11, 2026
Hi All! We had a great first part of our day today! We got up early and did an excursion to Everglades National Park. It was about 30 minutes from the port of Miami and it’s the largest subtropical wilderness in the US. Established in 1947 as the first national park created for its biodiversity, Everglades protects 1.5 million acres of wetlands, forest and marine habitat.
It was so cool to fly thru the water on one of those airboats and just skim right along the surface. We saw alligators, turtles and lots of birds. After our 30 minute airboat ride we saw an outdoor show with live alligators, scorpions, frogs and cockatoos. This cute white cockatoo would take dollar tips in his mouth and walk along the railing and drop it in the tip jar. Hilarious!
After that we came back to the ship, had lunch and tackled the rest of our unpacking. It wasn’t too bad because we could watch the NFL playoff games in our room while we unpacked. It all actually fit! Whew…
I’ll do another update tonight after dinner. We sail away at 4 PM tonight and now “officially” start sailing around the world! Can’t wait!! Hope everyone’s having a great Sunday!
The Wandering Italian 