The Girl Who Cried Gator

I'm glad to report that our discoveries in Florida were not limited to just manatee nostrils.  In fact, we saw some entire animals. 

Our first night in Florida was spent tossing and turning at possibly the cruddiest (and smelliest) (and loudest) (and most uncomfortable) (and, well . . . you get the picture)  roadside motel in Ft. Lauderdale.  Sometimes patronizing the local establishments doesn't turn out as well as hoped and we daring adventurers just have to suck it up and try to sleep off our mistakes. 

When morning finally came, we headed toward Naples on the road that is called Alligator Alley.  Now, friends, call me naive but it never occurred to me that the name Alligator Alley was meant to be taken literally.  So, as we were speeding along at about 70 mph and Julie suddenly shouted "I SAW AN ALLIGATOR!", I thought that she was either (a) a little bit addled from lack of sleep due to the cruddy motel, (b) mistaking something like a big, black log for an alligator, or (c) joking.  I gave her one of those patented patronizing mommy lines like "oh really, sweetie? that's nice."

Which was just barely past my lips when Gary shouted "There's another one!" and sure enough, we then saw alligator after alligator, all lazing right next to the fence alongside the road.  HUNDREDS of them just basking in the sun along miles of highway.   Although I laugh in the face of death on a regular basis, I have to confess that it made me glad to live in Arizona where if you happen to be lucky enough to find a body of water, you don't have to worry about something lunging out and eating you.

Since I was driving I couldn't get pictures of those gators, but on our manatee-nostril-viewing-excursion, we did see this guy hanging out in a lagoon.  

  

He was about 6 feet long but I'm pretty sure I could take him, what with that left arm missing and all.  Lucky for him, he didn't threaten the children, so I let him alone.  We saw some less threatening wildlife too.

 

 

We also discovered that Floridians have a strange penchant for taxidermy.  Here is "Big Joe", a gargantuan American Crocodile at the Everglades Wonder Gardens.  I'm pretty sure I could take him, what with him being preserved and stuffed and all.
 

And some of the many, many stuffed inhabitants of the Shell Factory in Ft Meyers -- a place that bravely goes well beyond Tourist Trap and into the realm of Tourist Black Hole.   Because nothing attracts eco-tourists like stuffed bears fighting over a shellacked salmon while supervised by a beheaded, wall-mounted moose.

So, while the manatees were elusive, we did see a lot of animals on our trip.  And, next time my daughter cries "gator!" I promise to believe her.  Although since we're back in Arizona, I'm hoping not to hear that any time soon.

Comments

[amy]

yah way too many gators around those parts... and the pythons seem to be about the only thing that will help with them. both scary.

[Jennifer (Jennilyn)]

I have never seen a gator in real life seeing as I've never been out of the neighboring provinces in eastern Canada. LOL Great photos! Love the one of the birds sitting on the dock.

[Jessica]

The gators really dont bother you. The pictures of the gators on my blog were taken from about ten feet away and pretty much every river/lake/pond here in Florida have gators in them so if you swim in fresh water you are swimming with the gators. To see manatees if you ever do make it back to Florida you should go to Haulover Canal. Almost always a handful of manatees there sometimes dozens of them at a time. Hope you had a good time while here though. There are still some parts of Florida that are nice...just not so much Orlando LOL

[Roanna]

Awesome pictures! :)