Biscayne National Park

Those that have been with us since the beginning will recall that we failed in our first attempt to hit two of Florida's three national parks. Biscayne National Park was one of those two, and the failure was a direct result of the park being mostly in the water, us not owning a boat, and a failure to plan ahead.

Two years later, the park is still mostly in the water, we still do not own a boat, but we did plan ahead this time!

About a year ago I started talking to my sister about doing a joint family vacation to Florida. We knew we had to return to pick up the two parks we missed, and we figured it would be fun to get the cousins together for a trip. We set plans in motion to do a spring break trip, driving down in the RV to give them a taste of our lives.

We made two stops on the way down to the Everglades, which was home base for the RV during our visits to the parks.

Our plan was to visit the Biscayne Visitors Center upon our arrival in the evening and then spend the entire second day out on the water.

Because we planned this trip so far in advance (a rarity for us), I was able to book a boat rental early, which would help us avoid the situation we ran into last time. That strategy worked great until the owner of the boat cancelled my rental 36 hours before we were supposed to pick up the boat (the boat was in the shop).

Fortunately, I was able to quickly find another rental that would suit us and book that... and then the owner cancelled (the boat was not actually available, despite the app showing it as such).

With a little more searching, I found one more that would work, which I booked. And... the owner cancelled (the boat was in the shop). The moral of the story is, don't book your rental boat through an app. Talk to the owner. That's exactly what my brother-in-law Marc did.

He called around as I drove, and he was able to locate a couple that had a pontoon boat and was free to take us out. We were targeting a boat with a head (due to the the 5 year old on board), but a pontoon would have to do. To my knowledge, There are no laws about using a national park as a bathroom anyway.

The boat Marc found had two advantages over the original boat: First, it was crewed, so we could focus on enjoying the water instead of driving. Second, it left out of the marina next to the visitors center instead of Miami Beach. That meant we'd have less driving time in the boat.

Captain Arnoldo and his wife Lola were new to the business, but they were fantastic. We had a fruit, cheese, and sparkling wine spread waiting for us upon arrival. The boat was almost brand new, so it was in excellent condition.

Arnoldo put on some Cuban music (by my request, to honor his heritage and the fact that we were near Miami), and we set out into the bay.

Biscayne Bay is a shallow bay about 220 square miles just south of Miami. The outer rim of the bay is made up of the northernmost keys in the chain of Florida keys. Given that keys are chunks of coral, there are a number of reefs and shipwrecks in the bay. Unfortunately, most of those are on the ocean side of the keys, and Arnoldo's boat was not set up to go out there.

That meant we'd be sticking to the bay side of the keys, but that was fine with us.

Arnoldo first took us to Boca Chita Key, which is one of the larger keys in the park. It used to be a rich man's playground (the Honeywell family) before becoming part of the national park. Due to that history, there are structures (including a lighthouse) and trails on the island. Camping is also available.

After driving past the lighthouse, the kids voted to stay in the boat rather than dock. They were excited about swimming, and given the gorgeous weather and blue water, I don't blame them!

Arnoldo took us to a shallow area, put down anchor, and we spent the next few hours enjoying our little corner of the park. The water was a perfect temperature and ranged from inches deep to a few feet deep in the area we anchored.

Each child got a chance to captain the vessel

Captain Arnoldo parked us on a large sandbar

It was a non-traditional national park experience for us, but I can't complain. After all, this one was more of a vacation, and we had a wonderful day out on the water.