Alligator Alley

Our first stop on our Southern Florida Vacation was a park in The Everglades. I personally wouldn't have gone here if I had been in charge of vacation, mostly because I've seen an alligator before and I would have just spent the entire vacation on Key West. But, I also like to appease my family who vacations under the notion of covering an entire state on one vacation.

Someone threw their cigarette butt on a lilly-pad. Gross.

I am a big fan of lilly-pads though. They are so fun.

We took a fan boat through the Everglades.

Here's an interesting fact: contrary to popular belief, the everglades are not a swamp - they are just a really really slow moving river.

The spots throughout the everglades that are actually land are called hammocks. Not Islands. This is a very important distinction. apparently. but not really. They basically just felt like calling them something special I think.

There are also a lot of pythons in the everglades, but these are not native of the everglades. They are actually just old pets that people let loose or got washed away in a hurricane and then reproduced. Now there are literally thousands of these pythons.

This alligator was sunbathing right at the beginning of the park. At first I thought it was fake, just to guarantee that the customer actually sees an alligator, but then I saw it move. So I guess it was real. Alligators are pretty lazy though, and they really don't move much.

There wasn't too many alligators out though, mostly because it was so cold and they like warm temperatures. I was really partial to this gator because he looked really happy. I spent too much time trying to convince my family that he was smiling. I still maintain that he is smiling.