Coral Springs, where James and Alisa live, is on the edge of the Everglades. The Everglades are huge, with a variety of ecosystems, but near James and Alisa is the Sawgrass Recreational Area. Just a short twenty minute drive from their house, there is a place that offers air boat rides. I had told the children we would go on an air boat and see real live alligators, and that certainly appealed to them. Me, too, quite frankly.
This morning that was our activity. We went for an air boat ride and visited the reptile zoo that is at the park. We were fortunate enough to get the front row of the air boat, and as a result, a very close-up view of the alligator we saw in the wild. Can you see her in the midst of the sawgrass? The air boat captain had seen her earlier in the day and essentially drove us right to her. I'm glad he knew where she was because there are miles and miles of water that look like that first picture, and it seemed pretty lucky, from my perspective, to have found her. Brandt was on the edge, closest to the water, and he was nervous when we got close to the gator. She swam around the boat and could have chomped him if he had (foolishly) put his hand in the water.
On the boat getting ready for our ride.
We also saw this big fish.
It might be a black bass.
Truthfully, I have no idea.
I do know, however, that this is a soft-shell turtle of which there are lots in the Everglades.
Alligators eat them.
As we were walked up the pier away from the air boat, I saw a small alligator right next to the dock. While not nearly as large as the one we saw during the ride, this one was so close we could have given it a little scratch on the head. But who wants to mess around with an alligator, even a small one?
After the boat ride, we went into the zoo. The animals there are rescue animals, those that have either been injured or were exotic pets and were no longer wanted or were unable to be taken care of. There was an enormous gator that we were told had to be taken to the zoo because people were feeding it and it had become too habituated to humans. It was either go to the zoo or be euthanized. It really was huge. Why would someone feed an animal in the wild that could kill you? They also offer a "hold a baby alligator" experience, and we happened to be right by the pen at the exactly right time. We all held an alligator. It's mouth was taped up with electrical tape (sticky side out so as not to damage its skin), so we didn't need to worry about being nipped.
There was a large pond that had soft shelled turtles you could feed. They had weird mouths.
This is a different kind of turtle whose shell was all covered with moss.
These are plants growing in the water.
We had to walk past this to get to a part of the zoo.
There is a sign that essentially read,
"Watch out for alligators. This area is open to open water."
Good to know.
We were risking out lives to see a Florida panther.
James followed us out and met us at the park with his Sea-doo. He was going to take us out onto the water again, but sadly, the watercraft was not working. Though disappointed that we didn't go out, the children took comfort in riding back with James in his truck. Kent and I made a stop at the food truck for some gater bites. We saw the reptiles, and then we ate them. Tasted like chicken.
After a bit of lunch, there was some discussion about what we should do during the afternoon. James and Alisa had told us about an exotic fruit stand called Robert is Here, and a beach where we could look for shells, but the kids just wanted to swim in the pool. They got in and then proceeded to drench a fully dressed James who cannonballed in to join them. So we swam and swam, playing monkey in the middle and throwing the water frisbee, squirting each other with water jets, and bumping a beach ball. It was casual and relaxed and a good time. It was a good time for Brandt until James dunked him a bit too forcefully and scared him enough that he got out and didn't get back in. But a lovely way to spend time.
A funny clothed James tossing Brandt in the pool.
Somebody else got hold of the camera!
While Kent and I were very interested in going to the exotic fruit stand, we discovered that it was south of Miami which is already south of James and Alisa, and that it would take an hour and a half to get there. Three hours in the car for fruit was just too much, even without the kids, so we'll have to go there next time. Instead, we went and got dinner at a build-your-own-pizza place called Mod, and then drove to Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park, more affectionately known as Shell Beach, for the purpose of looking for cool shells. We went at low tide, after dinner, so we would have lots of beach to search along. We walked up and down and collected all sorts of fun stuff; bits of coral, spiral shells, cockle shells, even some tube worm shells. We found treasures to bring home and will have to sort through everything for the very best. The beach is near a stand of trees where wild monkeys live, and we had hoped to see them swinging through the trees. We stopped on our way home and scan the canopy, but alas, saw no monkeys.
We had talked about watching Guardians of the Galaxy. I thought we got home too late to start a movie, but we're on vacation and don't have a schedule, so we made popcorn and watched. We were very late getting to bed, but hey! If you can't thrown the sleep schedule out the window when you're on vacation in the summer, when can you?
And speaking of vacation, may I just mention here that ours is going way too fast, we are loving being with James and Alisa, and we are having a stellar time? We are!
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