Welcome to Gator Park! We started out the day just before 10am so we could get the buy one get one free airboat ride. We got there at 9:50. :)
Marc took some video of the ride, which currently won't upload. As you can see we got going pretty quick. Even though the water is only 8-20 inches, our guide said they could get up to almost 40 mph!
To see the airboat ride video you can follow the link:
The quite serene part of the trip. When he turned off the engine and we slowly floated around. We saw a couple baby alligators and an adult, but didn't get too clear of pictures of them.
Nope, we're not on that one, but it gives you a good visual. We sat in the back corner, where the guy in green is sitting.
Sunglasses helpful, earplugs mandatory. Except for the rebellious Marc, who lost his as we got up to speed. Hopefully he'll be able to hear again soon...
This guy gave us lots of insider information on gators, scorpions, frogs, birds, and more.
Look, we found a pet! But as you can see below, though Marc enjoyed our new friend, I was quickly ready to kick him out. :)
And so Marc quickly became friends with the natives.
After the airboat ride we drove on towards the Everglades National Park. On the way we stopped at a local fruit stand that some neighbors had recommended. "Robert is Here" had a crazy amount of fruit milkshakes from which to choose, as well as fruits and many other things. The picture on the right was just the milkshake specials. There was a sign next to it with dozens of individual choices. I got the Mango-Dragon-Strawberry, and Marc got the Strawberry-Banana-Peach. Both were pretty delicious and hit the spot. We also bought key lime honey (the sample was the best of the dozen types of honey), some peach butter jam, a mango (also with delicious samples), and a giant avocado (pictured below). It's sitting next to a Hershey's kiss.
Then we made it to the National Park of the:
As we entered the park these signs were everywhere. I guess the vultures like to attack the rubber around windows on cars...? Crazy vultures. Another sign instructed that they're endangered so you can't do anything to them, so it is recommended not parking under groups of vultures. Thanks for the advice! Luckily we made it through without an attack.
These pictures aren't great, but this alligator was just swimming around. He swam under the bridge we were walking on (pictured below). The picture on the left you can kind of see that he had a good sized turtle swimming underneath him. I'm not sure why the turtle liked to swim there. We took a video of that, which also won't upload. So you can follow this link to find it:
It was very pretty and calm inside the park. This is along the Anhinga Trail. It was really enjoyable, except we were both super sweaty by the end of our short walk, thanks to the humidity!
And then to dinner...
Yes, we stopped at a little diner called gator grill. No, I wasn't quite ready to eat the frog legs yet, but I did have me some 'gator!
Marc's gator in a basket.
My gator stir fry.
And the verdict is: It was actually pretty good. We ate it all up. It didn't really have a special taste, just regular tasting meat, something comparable to chicken. But we are moving further into becoming Floridians!
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