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Friday, September 02, 2011

A visit to the Alligator Park

On day 2 of our trip from FL to ID we were driving through LA when I saw a sign for the Alligator Park.  I have a habit of reading signs and billboards out loud for hings I find odd or interesting (my children start calling out ALL signs. For Everything. It is not a fun "game"!).  Mike: you wanna go don't you?  Me: yeah, kinda.  Mike (in an exasperated tone): where's the exit?  So after about 10 - 15 miles of twists and turns and following signs that are progressively starting to scare me into thinking it's some serial killer trick to get unsuspecting travelers out in the middle of no where we finally arrive.

There were a few other cars in the parking lot, and it was well groomed, so I was no longer scared.  Like any other tourist attraction there was a gift shop that you entered and exited through, and a cafe, and a place to have your picture taken with one of these little creatures.

Needless to say, we had seen enough little baby gators in Florida and didn't want our picture taken with them, we wanted to see the big ones!  So off we went to discover where they were hiding.  Can you see him?

There were 3 that we could find in this particular area.  It took a little convincing for me to believe that they were real and not statues, but when they kept disappearing and then popping up and chomping on stuff - I was a believer!
There were other animals there too,and this swampy area did NOT smell that good, so off we went.  Of course there were more picture opportunities along the way.





 Did I mention it was HOT and MJ was not standing up there on her own!
We fed turtles, deer, goats, and birds before getting down to the main attraction.  I had totally forgotten about the show the did at feeding time.  It was so hot though we had to make a fast detour back to the cafe for a few drinks before everyone became gator food after passing out from heat exhaustion.

So off to the show we went!
They told a cute little story about a plane wreck and the guys on the plane ran out of food so they started fishing (there were a ton of catfish in the pond).  Then they discovered that there were gators... so the started feeding the gators.  Man, some of those things were HUGE!!!  I had no idea they could jump so high out of the water either!  There were so many of them too!  Before the show we only saw about 5 or 6, but at feeding time they came out of every nook and cranny!

During the show MJ enjoyed getting her "swamp juice" all over the front of my white tank top, and she "Oh'd" and "Ah'd" at the huge gators jumping up for their food.  All in all it was a good show!
Then it was back to the cafe for refills.  On the way we stopped off to see the pissed off iguana that kept lunging at the glass so hard his nose was bleeding.  Back at the cafe we tried some alligator tail and fries and checked out the pictures on the wall of all the famous people that had visited.  There was barely a blank spot on the wall.
After lunch we had to get my mandatory souvenir shot glass and get back on the road.
Yup, this is how I ride!

2 comments:

an.Alaskan.mom said...

So Fun! I'm so glad you posted this!!!!

April said...

the feeding time looks a bit scary!

hope you are doing well at your new home, I know moving can be super stressful!