Happy 2016! This year, our family was fortunate to join our friends at their ‘summer’ home outside of West Palm Beach, Florida to close out the end of 2015 and welcome the new year. (Thank you, Dan and Rosa!) Despite having been to Florida before, December had been such a whirlwind with last-minute proposals at work that I didn’t have time to plan, or even anticipate!, anything for the trip beyond hanging out by a pool.

We only went to the pool once… and the hot tub was broken.

As it turns out, I was much happier to spend hours and hours at parks representing many of Florida’s natural climates: wetlands, mangroves, rivers, beaches, and a dry climate that Palm Beach County informs me is called scrub and scrubby flatwoods. I learned that the county utilities department teamed up with the parks and recreation department to build constructed wetland nature preserves, which serve many purposes including: (1) filtering the county’s wastewater (as nature intended!) to replenish groundwater supply, (2) providing habitat and food for native and endangered species, and (3) creating this great open park that locals and visitors can explore, play in, and learn from. We saw dozens of birds, lizards, turtles, butterflies, cypress, even a few alligators and manatees! I’ll definitely return, hopefully with better camera equipment and some binoculars.

A summary of spots we visited this trip:

• Green Cay Wetlands
• Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (Everglades)
• Seacrest Scrub Natural Park
• Riverbend Park – fun river for canoeing/ kayaking, also bike trails
• Ocean Ridge Beach (Boynton Beach and Inlet)
• Mangrove Park – wear long sleeves and pants!
• Wakodahatchee Wetlands

-pl

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