We decided to escape the Pittsburgh winter for a week (below freezing with 3 inches of snow forecast for tonight), and take a trip down to Florida. Our friend Mateusz studies law in Naples, FL, which seems to be perpetually sunny and 26 degrees (C, of course).

Naples is just an hour outside of the Everglades National Park, so one of the first things we did was drive down to join a ranger-led canoe/kayak exploring trip.




We spent a few hours floating through Mangrove forests, checking out all sorts of different wildlife (more on that in upcoming posts). As far as plant life goes, aside from the mangroves themselves, we came across this Strangler Fig encasing itself around a palm tree.




Mat thought it would be a good idea to give it a taste of its own medicine and encase the fig for a change, with a couple pairs of tree-hugging arms no less.