When I was in graduate school, I had scheduled a visit to Everglades National Park. I didn't make the trip for complications (too long to travel, too many deadlines at the moment). I've always wanted to explore the park, and so this winter break instead of skiing, we headed down to the park. We did a eight day canoe trip through the heart of the park and then saw the grasslands region on another trip. It was wonderful (we canoed down the Wilderness Waterway over a half of the course and then wound up going around out to the Gulf Coast where we camped on key islands). I post some pictures here. We saw dolphins, marlin jumping out of the sea, tons of alligators, and multiple birds. We slept on our boat one evening, because we had traveled eighteen and a half miles and couldn't find our camp. This is how we got the nicknames from friends -- the "Crazy Mattsons."
