Everglades

Waking up from a nap, I looked out the window I was sitting next to and could have thought I was thousands of feet above the planet Mars. In reality I was thousands of feet above the Florida Everglades—for the first time in my life.

When recently returning by plane from Tampa to New York via Miami, as we approached Miami we flew over the Everglades. If it were not for mid afternoon sunlight reflecting off the water I would have found it difficult to distinguish water from marsh and ground. The occasional canals, perhaps some natural and some dredged, could have led me to think I was above a Martian plain. The predominance of browns rather than greens and blues added to the illusion.

This was not only the first time I had flown over the Evergaldes but the first time I had seen them from any location or angle, my first encounter of them.

I almost slept through the experience and awoke just minutes before the view transitioned to roads, highways and developments. The next time I experience the evergalds I hope it is from the cockpit of a kayak rather than the cabin of a commercial jetliner.