Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Florida Holiday - Day 1 - Everglades National Park

For our vacation, we chose to fly red eye to Miami so that we didn't have to deal with whiny kids on the plane for 6 hrs. And from Miami, we chose to take the slower but more scenic route to Sanibel Island and i think it was a great decision! :)

As soon as we started into the park, i couldn't believe my eyes when i saw an alligator swimming in the creek(ok, it's probably not a creek but the actual swamp, but it looks like a creek) by the road. And then i saw another and another.. this is better than a safari! And the swamp was so quiet and serene..

And at one point, Cody threw up in the car and we pull over to clean him up and i saw a few men fishing in the creek. The ever curious me, of course, had to check it out. Apparently they were crabbing(catching crabs) and with alligators watching!!! Seriously, there were like 5 alligators just swimming distance waiting. At one point, one of them said, "I think the gator got the bait". I was like "WHAT???" So, the guy tried pulling his bait and he said, "ooh.. it's heavy, i think it is a gator.." and he pulled and pulled and sure enough, there was a gator at the end of the line! And if it were me, i would have let go of the line and went running and screaming. But no, he just had a little tug of war with the alligator, the gator thrashed around and finally gave up the chicken.. yeah, they were catching crabs with chickens!! ha!! (by the way, i don't remember why i didn't video the scene, probably too busy freaking out that i'm 5 ft away from a thrashing alligator!!)

this is the crazy guy who was fishing alligators

That is no crab! That's an alligator!!!!

So, after the little adventure, i got back in the car to get back on the road because as exciting as it was, i was getting devoured alive by mosquitoes. Tyler was sleeping in the car unfortunately, otherwise, he would have enjoyed that little show!

The next little stop we made was at an airboat establishment. We thought it'd be fun for the kids and for us! We bought some ear plugs and suited the kids up and we were ready to go! I have to say, this airboat this was A LOT of fun! The kids were initially a little nervous of the speed but they got used to it and were soon settling down and enjoying it as the boat skidded and slid across the marsh. We flew over water and mud and grass.. even made me scream!! haha! I got a little video that i'll try to load.

And what did we see, guess.. alligators of course. Big, small, fat, skinny.. we saw it all..

Baby alligators at the office 

the kids in suits


We're ready!!

Cody holding to his sunglasses! Check out their hair!!

Tyler and I enjoying the speed

Some 10-ft gator by our boat

Enjoying the crazy driving

Beautiful reflections on the calm marshlands(but filled with gators, i guarantee!!)

Anyways, when we got back to the office, the captain had a surprise for us. The kids must have gotten used to seeing the 10 footers and this itty bitty thing was not as scary anymore!! Cody was particularly happy to pose with it and was even willing to hold it!!!!

Posing with alligator

cute little baby!!

I want to hold it, said Cody!!

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