A Boy's Birthday

Tyler can get such funny notions in his head.

For his birthday on April 4th, he wanted a real, Florida Day.

No, this did not mean trips to the beach or DWorld! What it meant was immersing ourselves deep into the true heart of Florda - where only rednecks fear to tread.

Tyler wanted to go to Gatorland.


Here's the ones we love (and the one we're coming to love!) in the jaws of the Gator, the cheesy signature landmark of Gatorland!




It was a beautiful day with a light breeze. It didn't feel hot until around 3:00, and by then we were ready to leave.




Tyler laughed when he saw this picture.
"Yep, there's the gator from Gatorland! We can all go home now!



Oh no.

If that were the gator, then they wouldn't need signs like this:




Here's the gators! And these were the medium-sized ones.










Got the heebie jeebies yet?


Believe it or not, there were parents who basically ignored this sign and let their kids sit on the rails surrounding the gators.




This was the real mood of the day. See how cautiously they're all standing, arms tucked in, ready to run?



For those of you who have the Disney image of a crane in your head, sweetly delivering Dumbo to his waiting mother, let me show you what they really look like:

This one stood on the fence and stared me down until I backed away, then kind of flapped at me. The Park Attendant told me they would back down if I showed I wasn't afraid, and I wouldn't have been.

If it had been on the ground.

At eye level, his nastiness won.


Here's a determined fella that we're convinced could have won, if it were given more time and traction!

This little turtle was determined to push the gator out of his way. The gator remained where it was, unblinking, with a silly smile on its face.

I could eat you, you know.

Sometimes, just knowing is enough to give confidence.



Tyler was hoping for cornball, and these guys delivered!

They would hang raw chicken from hooks and the gators would jump out to eat it. We noticed that as soon as the crowd started gathering for the appointed show, the gators began gathering as well. They knew what was coming!

I noticed a lot more parents kept their little darlings off the rails after watching this!



After the show, we went to the exhibit of the rare, albino gators.






They looked so strange! Each of them had a name.


"Bouya Blon - Cajun Creole meaning - White Fog"



"Chester - Florida Cracker meaning - Chester"

(For those who don't know, the term "Florida Cracker" originally came from the cattle ranchers who would gather cattle by cracking whips to drive them out of the brush. The term later came to mean a native-born Floridian.)



It was quite an eye opener to know we lived in a place where these creatures existed all around us. We would walk by a (thankfully) fenced area, only to be startled at the eyes peering at us, their owner making nary a sound.

(Not a log.)




There were parts of the park that looked like natural Florida, and that was quite pretty.

A pretty girl in a pretty place!



Quick, Ty! Grab the lower jaw and wrestle him!




Oh no! Save the Dad!




This little gal wasn't quite so lucky.




This one was lucky indeed! The blue-lip special!




We really had a fun time, and it was everything Tyler had hoped it would be - exaggerated environmentalism, corny jokes, large and cranky children with sticky ice cream hands, and a real yee-haw mentality everywhere we looked. We also learned several facts about gators that we hadn't known before!


On the way out, we had to walk past these.


If I ever hear a bull gator roar up close again, it will be too soon!